Ultracold 'Polar' Molecules - Redux

So...... I decided to make new rendering of the Ultracold Polar Molecules. Nobody asked me to do it, but it has been something I wanted to do for a long a while. I made my first version rendering of the Ultracold Polar Molecules a while a back and it has since been used for a cover of "Science News" (check out my older posting) and NSF has adopted the image and made the image accessible to everyone (see posting). So the original image got a lot of attention, but I was never really really satisfied with the rendering. When I made the first version, I only had a day to do it. I originally wanted to do a multi-pass rendering using Maya and Mental Ray.

Then my chance came along and I secretly decided to redo this image the way I originally intended. Jun Ye, Debbie Jin, and John Bohn were continuing to make headway with their Ultracold Polar Molecules research and the JILA Light & Matter Spring 2010 did a major feature article of their current progress on this research. The image made it to the cover of the JILA Light & Matter issue (which will be my last issued that I will be designing and producing). Its a good issue with a lot of good content and articles, and I encourage you to check it out.

Clients: Jun Ye, Debbie Jin, and John Bohn

Related Links: JILA Research Highlight article, JILA Light & Matter Spring 2010 issue

Ultrafast Demagnetization Dynamics of Magnetic Elements

I worked with Chan La-o-vorakiate and Stefan Mathias from the Kapteyn-Murnane Group on this illustration. Chan originally made a version of this visual for PRL, and allowed me to redraw the visual for the JILA Light & Matter Spring 2010 issue. Chan and I discussed a few different variations of his original illustrator file, and we eventually decided that a isometric perspective rendering and a few different technical details would be the best way to structure the information in this visual. I used Illustrator to redraw this image

Clients: Henry Kapteyn, Margaret Murnane, Chan La-o-vorakiat, and Stefan Mathias

Related Links: JILA Research Highlight article

Cindy Regal photo shoots

I was asked to take several photos of JILA Fellow Cindy Regal and her group. Cindy Regal recently became a JILA Fellow in January 2010, and she has been quickly been setting up your lab and group to begin research a.s.a.p. The photos were used for the latest JILA Light & Matter Spring 2010 issue where there was an article introducing Cindy Regal and a photo essay docuementing the JILA staff's redesigning of her new lab space. Cindy was pretty busy and I was pretty busy, but I broke up the photo shoot into two different quick sessions. Essentially they were lightening round photo shoots where I would setup my lights and explore the newly built lab. I believe the pictures came out pretty well despite my lightening shooting style and I was able to get some great expressions from her. Check out the JILA Light & Matter articles about her and her group! Sadly this will probably be my last JILA Fellow portrait shoot : ( Setting and shooting pictures of the JILA and NIST Fellows always proved to be an intriguing task. I guess now I have to have find new subjects to shoot in NYC. I can't wait to hang out with my photography friends once again to absorb some new techniques and maybe get back into the groove of doing some fine art photography once again (I haven't done much personal photography while I have been in Colorado).

Client: Cindy Regal

Related Links: JILA Light & Matter Spring 2010 articles (pdf)