“The Fall of Icarus”: Photograph of a falling skydiver in front of the Sun

loloquwowndueo 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> The silhouette of Brown is neatly demarcated against the bubbling surface of the Sun. His downward trajectory is perfectly framed between sunspots, active regions on the surface of the Sun that are slightly cooler than their surrounding areas. This is not just a pretty picture; it is truly a masterpiece

Excuse me while I go wash off the stench of AI-generated descriptions. The picture is very nice, though.

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wincy 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It’s a very cool picture. Andrew McCarthy sells prints of these and other astrophotography on his website[0] although they’re always limited run prints. I bought the one of the sun with a SpaceX rocket for a friend who is into astronomy.

As a sales strategy, making his photos limited edition is a fantastic way to put the pressure on to actually buy instead of thinking about making a purchase indefinitely, even if from a convenience standpoint it’s a little annoying. Looks like right now the 16”x20” edition is sold out, but other sizes are still available for about two days.

[0] https://cosmicbackground.io/pages/the-fall-of-icarus

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mholt 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I get the whole scarcity thing -- and I've even asked Andrew about this -- because if I'm willing to give him my money after saving up for it, but it sells out first, wouldn't he make more money if he took mine then?

But, I guess we just have to have an art budget with some money already set aside if we want to jump on opportunities when artists do this. I respect it, but yes it's a bit inconvenient.

PS. The full, uncropped shot is even more incredible IMO: https://cosmicbackground.io/cdn/shop/files/Overhead_black_li...

	▲	pixl97 6 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		>wouldn't he make more money if he took mine then? Marketing is far more complex then you're giving it credit for. Take the Factorio game, they don't have sales ever so the best time to buy the game is now. This both keeps people that buy things on sale even if they don't like it from getting it, and keeps other people that may wait for a sale and forget about it from not buying it now. The same is true for limited numbers. Some people may want it and put it in the cart, but never actually buy it because there is no strong binary motivator. This motivator can actually increase sales quickly and ensure you dont hold inventory for long periods of time. Also things are commonly bought in batches to reduce price. Your one painting later could either be much more expensive or require the artist to buy 50/100 units at once that risk becoming stuck inventory.
	▲	pbalau 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> because if I'm willing to give him my money after saving up for it, but it sells out first, wouldn't he make more money if he took mine then? If the piece sold out, he made his money.

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dahart 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> making his photos limited edition is a fantastic weay to put the pressure on to actually buy

FWIW, limited edition printing is absolutely standard practice for working artists who use media that can be easily or mechanically replicated, including photographers, printers, and digital artists.

The feeling of FOMO that it instills is indeed one reason, that benefits the artist, but the main reason limited editions are used is to add value to the art through scarcity, and this reason benefits you the buyer. People don’t want to be the first to find and buy something unique only to have it get so popular that all your friends and neighbors go buy the same thing, right?

The story of uniqueness is important. There’s a very real perception that art that can be reproduced indefinitely and is always available is cheap and not really fine art. Limited editions prints are trying, even if half-heartedly, to compete with painters and sculptors who produce something unique every single time. I say half-heartedly as a digital artist who prints limited editions, not as an insult. There is a slight degree of having cake and eating too. Limited editions are usually sized near the estimated sales limit, or such that the artist can move on to selling other work without feeling like they lost a big opportunity.

Limited edition print runs do lower the price of a print, but not as low as the cost of printing. If an artist does editions of size 1, they need to make enough money to live, and $90/print won’t do it if you only sell one. You can spread the profit across a run and give a group of people something for a low price instead of giving one person a high price.

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dahart 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Is the full-sun photo edited to remove the paramotor? I just realized it was in the video shot - the head-down dive “tracking” position of the skydiver in the video happens only a few frames after jumping, only for a few frames, and after that he’s tumbling a bit against the sun, with the paramotor still visible. I’m guessing even if the video and still were two different cameras, they wouldn’t have been far enough apart to catch the skydiver without the paramotor?

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russdill 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Watching the video, the difference between the actual frame captured and the manipulated stacked image that's being presented is quite stark.

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jstanley 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Am I right in thinking he flew up there in a paramotor and then jumped off it? What happened to the paramotor? It just crashed in a random place you have no control over?

	▲	dahart 6 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		There’s a video of the jump in the article. You can kinda see the pilot in the paramotor flying away, as the jumper leaves.
	▲	raddan 8 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		According to the article there was a pilot in addition to a skydiver.

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yzydserd 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I sort of like it upside down, power of ra.

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ChrisArchitect 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45919692

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mistrial9 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

LOL - the deeper mythological meanings are quite applicable (!)

What meanings, a reader might ask? First to say, art and mythos can have layers of meanings..There is no "right answer" exactly. think for yourself a moment about "falling" "The Sun", "a son", endeavor, catastrophe, and add knowledge or fate as you see fit.