I've decided that trying to keep these posts in chronological order ain't gonna get it. I think it if I keep you guessing about what's coming up, it'll be more interesting for all of us. And, though I've lots of material to incorporate here, many of the transparency scans from my distant past need to be cleaned up.
There're not enough hours in the day to do it in a timely fashion. So, to keep the posts coming, I'll have to inject some randomness here. Meanwhile, if anyone knows a good method of restoring slides (dust and
mold? on some of them), let me know.
As much as I love Austin, I've spent so much of my life in and around the Smoky Mountains that I really miss them. When I lived in north Georgia I could grab my camera and make it to the North Carolina mountains in an hour and a half. Sometimes a picture cries out to be made into a poster. I took this shot from an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Balsam Gap one Sunday afternoon after a weekend in
Asheville. Views like this make me think, "What else could you call these mountains other than Blue Ridge?"
One of my favorite picture places in the mountains is the model homestead at the
Oconaluftee Visitors Center of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I could - and probably will at some point - create a post with my many pictures of just this one, beautiful building. I like to experiment with the "effects" available in my photo editing program. Sometimes it works for a particular picture and sometimes it doesn't. Often, it can enhance a mediocre shot and even, occasionally, "save" an otherwise unusable picture.
At the end of August 2002, my friend Patrick and I headed for North Carolina's Outer Banks, checking out Kittyhawk, Cape Hatteras, and Ocracoke Island. Many of the cars we passed sported black on white oval stickers with the letters OBX, identifying the owners as residents - or resident wannabes - of the Outer Banks. I could certainly understand that, but I thought they needed a better symbol for their boosterism. A license plate - yeah,
that's the ticket! This one incorporates the Cape Hatteras Light in the wild tangle of scrub brush found on the Banks.
I was thinking about the dearth of momentos I have of my "early years" and thought I might manufacture some after the fact. In the case of my military career, these new momentos took the form of bumper sticker shapes or "banners" for each of my main duty stations: NAS Kingsville, TX; NS Adak, AK; USS Roosevelt; and NAS Lemoore, CA. The one above, for my ship, is my favorite. CATCC stands for Carrier Air Traffic Control Center, and the 42 corresponds to the ship's hull number. The brass disk on the left is a
real momento of the ship that dates from her commissioning in 1945. I was thrilled to find the picture online after someone thoughtfully photographed it before the ship was decommissioned in 1977 and scrapped shortly thereafter. Note the 30+ years of wear.
This old fellow is my great-great grandfather, who died in Ohio in 1901. I had scanned his portrait, which was worn but in pretty good shape. I cleaned up the scan, knowing there were lots of other family photos that ought somehow to be restored. I might as well practice on this one. In the course of my experimentation I worked out an editing technique for creating a "virtual drawing" from a photograph. Some photos lend themselves to the technique, some don't. I really like the "look" and, as with all the editing effects, some of the various defects of an original can be masked or overpowered, thus "saving" the picture.
This is a case in point. The portrait of my daughter started out as a low resolution screen grab from some video I'd shot years ago. I gave it the "drawing technique" and it was okay. But it really needed something more. Gillian's birthday coincides with the peak of the Georgia dogwood season and I never think of one without thinking of the other. I took the dogwood photo against the deep blue sky and intended to use it as an integral frame or matt for the "drawing". By the time I had finished, the drawing was light blue and I had allowed the dogwood frame to bleed into the field of the picture, indicating clearly the link in my mind between Gillian and dogwood blossoms.
This last one is a collaboration. When she graduated from high school, Gillian went with her mother to Japan. I had given her a good camera and told her to take lots of pictures. She didn't disappoint. One of her pictures was of a pair of geisha on a Tokyo sidewalk. Their exquisite beauty stood out from the extreme clutter of the city background. I isolated the younger of the two ladies and gave her "the treatment". I continued to play with it and eventually, after several versions, had a
very simple background that contrasted so well with the elaborate kimono and fairly
screamed "Japan". Gillian's picture - my treatment.
As much as I love Austin, I've spent so much of my life in and around the Smoky Mountains that I really miss them. When I lived in north Georgia I could grab my camera and make it to the North Carolina mountains in an hour and a half. Sometimes a picture cries out to be made into a poster. I took this shot from an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Balsam Gap one Sunday afternoon after a weekend in Asheville. Views like this make me think, "What else could you call these mountains other than Blue Ridge?"
One of my favorite picture places in the mountains is the model homestead at the Oconaluftee Visitors Center of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I could - and probably will at some point - create a post with my many pictures of just this one, beautiful building. I like to experiment with the "effects" available in my photo editing program. Sometimes it works for a particular picture and sometimes it doesn't. Often, it can enhance a mediocre shot and even, occasionally, "save" an otherwise unusable picture.
At the end of August 2002, my friend Patrick and I headed for North Carolina's Outer Banks, checking out Kittyhawk, Cape Hatteras, and Ocracoke Island. Many of the cars we passed sported black on white oval stickers with the letters OBX, identifying the owners as residents - or resident wannabes - of the Outer Banks. I could certainly understand that, but I thought they needed a better symbol for their boosterism. A license plate - yeah, that's the ticket! This one incorporates the Cape Hatteras Light in the wild tangle of scrub brush found on the Banks.
I was thinking about the dearth of momentos I have of my "early years" and thought I might manufacture some after the fact. In the case of my military career, these new momentos took the form of bumper sticker shapes or "banners" for each of my main duty stations: NAS Kingsville, TX; NS Adak, AK; USS Roosevelt; and NAS Lemoore, CA. The one above, for my ship, is my favorite. CATCC stands for Carrier Air Traffic Control Center, and the 42 corresponds to the ship's hull number. The brass disk on the left is a real momento of the ship that dates from her commissioning in 1945. I was thrilled to find the picture online after someone thoughtfully photographed it before the ship was decommissioned in 1977 and scrapped shortly thereafter. Note the 30+ years of wear.
This old fellow is my great-great grandfather, who died in Ohio in 1901. I had scanned his portrait, which was worn but in pretty good shape. I cleaned up the scan, knowing there were lots of other family photos that ought somehow to be restored. I might as well practice on this one. In the course of my experimentation I worked out an editing technique for creating a "virtual drawing" from a photograph. Some photos lend themselves to the technique, some don't. I really like the "look" and, as with all the editing effects, some of the various defects of an original can be masked or overpowered, thus "saving" the picture.
This is a case in point. The portrait of my daughter started out as a low resolution screen grab from some video I'd shot years ago. I gave it the "drawing technique" and it was okay. But it really needed something more. Gillian's birthday coincides with the peak of the Georgia dogwood season and I never think of one without thinking of the other. I took the dogwood photo against the deep blue sky and intended to use it as an integral frame or matt for the "drawing". By the time I had finished, the drawing was light blue and I had allowed the dogwood frame to bleed into the field of the picture, indicating clearly the link in my mind between Gillian and dogwood blossoms.
This last one is a collaboration. When she graduated from high school, Gillian went with her mother to Japan. I had given her a good camera and told her to take lots of pictures. She didn't disappoint. One of her pictures was of a pair of geisha on a Tokyo sidewalk. Their exquisite beauty stood out from the extreme clutter of the city background. I isolated the younger of the two ladies and gave her "the treatment". I continued to play with it and eventually, after several versions, had a very simple background that contrasted so well with the elaborate kimono and fairly screamed "Japan". Gillian's picture - my treatment.
No comments:
Post a Comment