New post: Comparing LiDAR data from before and after the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles reveals the scale of devastation in ways satellite imagery can’t match.
www.beautifulpublicdata.com/how-lidar-me...
The Hand-Painted Storefront Signs of Detroit by Ron Miller. “He loves adding color to the neighborhood with his work. He has no website, no email and works all by word of mouth in Detroit.” [kottke.org]
A map of the best places to see the Northern Lights. “Kuril’s analysis culminated in a map highlighting the locations with the best potential to see the northern lights.” [maps.com]
Long overdue for a summer newsletter. Featured: Seattle maps, upcoming events, and a few thoughts on framing 48contours.com/blogs/news/s...
Wood framed topographic map of Seattle in various size options
Detail of a wood topographic map of seattle
Detail of a wood topographic map of seattle
New maps of Seattle in 10x8 and 20x15 framed options. Seattle was home for a big part of my life, so I really stressed the details on this one. Will debut this weekend. Then will be available on the site at 10am on Monday. Got a few ideas in the hopper - but what do you think I should make next?
I need to stop and visit that place next time I'm driving through. Have never been.
We'll be at the market on Saturday too. Gotta pick up some of that new Ogre Battle!
Wood topographic map of Mt. St. Helens in various form factors
Just dropped new maps of the San Juan Islands, Bellingham Bay, and updates to Crater Lake and Mt. St. Helens 48contours.com/blogs/news/n...
If it looks like it took forever to assemble…you’d be correct. Really happy with how my San Juan Islands map is turning out. This will be available on the shop and at my upcoming markets soon! #woodart #pnw #sanjuanislands
Realizing that 5pt font is about as small as I can legibly render on the laser. That limits the amount of labeling I can do, especially on the smaller topographic maps I make.
Laser cut wood map of Orcas Island
Here's how Orcas Island is looking - both at full size (8") and the smaller variant (~4"). Definitely need to ditch the roads in the latter - just too busy and small for it to work.. These will both have several layers of elevation, but just getting a sense of the engraving for now.
Wood topographic map of Crater Lake
For context - most of my finished maps thus far have had very few (if any) roads. For instance - here's Crater Lake - see the east rim drive on the bottom left. But some of the new locations I'm working on are a very different story.
GIS map view of Orcas Island in Washington State
Starting to model the San Juan Islands too for one of my 3D wood maps. But not sure if I like the look of the roads or not (Red lines). WDYT?
Screenshot of computer monitor with topographic map of Bellingham WA
Getting the GIS work for a Bellingham, WA map done today. Hope to have these produced for some spring markets soon!
Topographic map of crater lake
Spending a little time on GIS workflow & revisiting an early model of crater lake w/ both topo and bathymetric contours. Lot of steps to this process - and the more I do in GIS, the easier it is in Illustrator and the laser later.
The awe inspiring Grundtvigskirken towers 2 km above icebergs at its base. Sailing through East Greenland's O-fjord, we were blessed with one breathtaking view after another. A privilege to witness!
#bluesky #photography #landscape #travel #nature
#landscapephotography #naturephotography #greenland
Always wanted to get out there. Looks unreal. Someday!
Blue topo ultraventure 4 trail running shoes
New trail runners. Gonna break these in on the chuckanuts tomorrow. Thanks Bbay running!
A gobsmacking photo of Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) stretched out over the Paranal Observatory in Chile, just after sunset. This comet has since disintegrated after flying too close to the Sun (relatable tbh) and is now a “headless wonder”. [kottke.org]
3D topographic map of mount baker laser cut in wood
And assembled. About 16 layers in this one, each scaled to 600’ of vertical elevation.
screenshot of shopify social media footer options
Went to add Bluesky to my site footer. RIP. Guess it's going in twitter's slot temporarily until I can figure out how to add it manually.
Mt. Shuksan from Chain Lakes Loop Trail
Mt Baker from Chain Lakes loop trail
Chain lakes loop trail near Mt. Baker from a few months back. Relatively haze free views of Shuksan & Baker, a rarity in our lengthy summer wildfire season.
Explore an Incredibly Detailed Topographical Map of the Moon. “This is a visualization of the nearly six billion measurement points of the NASA LOLA mission. LOLA was launched to capture high fidelity topographic modeling of the moon’s surface…” [kottke.org]
Getting started on assembly of my first order of 2025- Mt Baker. My maps cut out flat and I puzzle piece them together. This one will be 20x15”
Wish the same could be said for my vector software. I started out just using Inkscape for cost reasons - but I eventually hit a wall there and had to jump to Illustrator. Maybe sometime I'll circle back and see if I get Inkscape working well for me again.
Planned to switch to ArcGIS Pro this year for my GIS software (was using QGIS which is powerful but a little buggy). But so far I've not been impressed. Super sluggish and UI constantly gets in the way I think I may just double down on QGIS. Bonus points for being open source!
Recent custom order I made of Lake Tahoe with 1000' contours and depth layers of the lake. This one is 8x10" in a cherry frame. Cheers to USGS for the bathymetric data - not always easy to find for lakes. #topographicmap #woodart
