counter customizable free hit
About This Website

This blog is intended to showcase my pictures or those of other photographers who have moved beyond the pretty picture and for whom photography is more than entertainment - photography that aims at being true, not at being beautiful because what is true is most often beautiful..

>>>> Comments, commentary and lively discussions, re: my writings or any topic germane to the medium and its apparatus, are vigorously encouraged.

Search this site
Recent Topics
Journal Categories
Archives by Month
Subscribe
listed

Photography Directory by PhotoLinks

Powered by Squarespace
Login

BODIES OF WORK ~ PICTURE GALLERIES

  • my new GALLERIES WEBSITE
    ADK PLACES TO SIT / LIFE WITHOUT THE APA / RAIN / THE FORKS / EARLY WORK / TANGLES

BODIES OF WORK ~ BOOK LINKS

In Situ ~ la, la, how the life goes onLife without the APADoorsKitchen SinkRain2014 • Year in ReviewPlace To SitART ~ conveys / transports / reflectsDecay & DisgustSingle WomenPicture WindowsTangles ~ fields of visual energy (10 picture preview) • The Light + BW mini-galleryKitchen Life (gallery) • The Forks ~ there's no place like home (gallery)


Entries from June 1, 2011 - June 30, 2011

Wednesday
Jun012011

life without the APA # 1-4 ~ in my nightmares

1044757-12489041-thumbnail.jpg
Forever Wild Development Corp ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12489060-thumbnail.jpg
Villa Motel ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12489050-thumbnail.jpg
A Kodak Moment ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12489101-thumbnail.jpg
Free parking ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Late last night, 1:37AM to be precise, I crashed into bed. I crashed because I could barely see straight after spending the entire day - OK, OK, OK ... the wife will point out that I took a break to watch Gunsmoke - creating 3 more life without the APA pictures for the upcoming IMPACT Our Changing Environment exhibit (June 24th-July 14th, Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts / Blue Mt. Lake, NY - you're all invited). Even though the subtitle for the life without the APA picture is in my nightmares, I was able to sleep without a single nightmare because I had put the challenge of creating these pictures to bed (that is, until the next time, which may be today).

The challenge involved in creating these pictures is daunting and tedious. Daunting, because finding the right pictures from my picture inventory to mix and match is, in itself, a long and tiresome endeavor. Not only do the various POV perspectives of each picture have to be in close alignment, but so too does the quality of light - especially the direction of the light.

Once likely candidates are identified and assembled, the real tedious work of cutting and pasting begins. And, don't let anyone fool you, as many so-called "easy" selection tools as PS has - Magic Wand, Magnetic Lasso, Color Range, and the like - there is lots and lots and lots of handwork involved in making selections. Lots and lots and lots of 100% pixel level handwork that, I swear, will make you blind and/or brain dead.

Inasmuch as the life without the APA pictures are each assembled with elements from up to 7-8 different pictures*, the selection and blending of various elements is time consuming and very mentally tiring. Needless to state, the assembled pictures' visual success or failure - and hence their ultimate success or failure - is, in large part, dependent upon the assembly process. If the blending of elements looks in any way like it was done by a kindergarten kid with dull blunt-nosed scissors, the entire effect and affect is lost.

The challenge of successful blending of the elements is compounded by the fact that, as close as the elements might be in tone, color, and perspective, it is rare that a good amount of tone/color/perspective adjustments does not need to be applied to various elements. Some examples: the street scene in A Kodak Moment was nowhere near as warm as the Adirondack scene;
the Villa Office sign and the between the buildings debris in Villa Motel and the Woodlands sign in Forever Wild Development Corprequired a lot of perspective adjustment;
the skies in all the pictures are dramatically "enhanced" - tone/contrast/color, etc.

All in all, it is not an exact science and it requires of great deal of what the US Army calls "field expediency" - throw away the rulebook and make it up as you go along and as the situation requires.

BTW, just in case you can not read the "The Woodlands" sign in the Forever Wild Development Corp picture (it's a jpeg for the web), it states quite clearly and, apparently, with out a single hint of oxymoronic irony, "THE FOREVER WILD DEVELOPMENT CORP". FYI, I'm not making this up - it was a real sign, now gone (the FWDC part, not the entire sign).

*as an example, Forever Wild Development Corp: 1) the bridge (NYC), 2) the Adirondack scene (near Lake Placid), 3) hot dog guy and sign (Wilmington, NY), 4) the erratics (boulders) and excavator (Jay, NY), 5) the Woodlands sign (Jay, NY), 6) construction cones and barrel (Rochester, NY), 7) the tombstone (Au Sable Forks, NY).

Page 1 ... 2 3 4 5 6