Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.

The former estate of Robert E. Lee is now the final resting place for nearly half a million veterans, statesmen and their families. From the eternal flame at the grave of John F. Kennedy to the Tomb of the Unknowns, a history of the United States unfolds in the names and years on the headstones. A visit to Arlington is sure to be an emotional journey. Today’s 3D Thursday features a scene from the cemetery juxtaposed with a bugler blowing taps in honor of the fallen.

The bugler is not human. It is one of the most lifelike sculptures I have ever seen. The life sized statue is housed in the main administration building lobby in a plexiglas case. He stands forever with his lips to his bugle, unmoving and silently playing to everyone who passes by. This 3D photo is a departure from the norm in that I normally take one of the objects from within the image to enlarge and expand upon the borders of the photograph. Though the bugler is an interesting subject, the background in the administration lobby isn’t exactly photogenic. It made sense in this case to “move” the statue outside and place him in the midst of the heroes that he salutes. You can view my gallery of images taken at Arlington here.

All of my 3D popout images are created in Photoshop Elements. As it turned out, even though I had a lot of photos taken around the grounds at Arlington, it turned out that virtually all of them were shot with the light coming from the left. The bugler clearly is standing with his back to the light. I was almost done with processing my chosen image when I realized that the shadows on the gravestones were falling “the wrong way.” My first thought was to flip the background image horizontally, but realized that close inspection would show the writing on the gravestones to be backward. Similarly, flipping the bugler would have made him to be left handed. Fortunately, I had a single acceptable shot that was taken with light coming from the right, causing shadows to be cast in the correct direction. I hope you like my attempt at creating a scene at Arlington.

John Steiner