[ratpack] Re: University of Mars
- From: "PAUL W WATSON" <TSWATSON78@xxxxxxx>
- To: <ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 21:39:23 -0600
Interesting pictures. Much better technique and skills that I have.
Are you coming out to Miller Tomorrow?
P.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ray Buck<mailto:rbuck@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 9:17 PM
Subject: [ratpack] University of Mars
Well, my plans to hit the salt today got rained out, more or
less. We had high winds and cloud cover...and even a little rain,
both in Taylorsville and Wendover/Salt Flats. The courses are set
up, tech is open and inspecting cars (got this from landracing.com )
but it'd be kinda hard to get the full moon shot with clouds in the
way. So I stayed home.
While sitting around, I expanded on the castle theme, using numerous
shots I'd taken in 1968-70. I spose I'll put 'em on raytherat.com
eventually. Mostly I did stuff like changing backgrounds, converting
from a photo image to a painting-like image with various techniques
(watercolor, oil, pointillism, pastels, etc) and generally creating
new images from old and current ones.
One of 'em that's attached is the another in the series of "groovy"
shots of a friend's wife in the Kohlenberg castle ruins. I took the
second image a bit further...I replaced the sky with a contemporary
stock photo of sky and clouds (clouds seem to be fascinating to me
lately...I dunno why but whenever I see an interesting cloud/sky and
have my camera with me, I get a coupla shots for stock usage like
what I did today), then made another layer with the image of Gina and
saturated the color a bit and placed it on the original shot which
had a much lower chroma and contrast level. I dunno if it's any
good, but I liked it, so I guess that's all that matters.
As I was digging thru these images that I'd shot 40 years ago, I
found one I'd shot in the ancient town of Moron de la Frontera in
Spain. As I looked at it, all I could think of was Mars. It just
reminded me of my conception of an abandoned structure on that
planet. So I replaced the sky again (my arms are gettin real tired
from doin this sky replacement...it's heavy!) but realized that the
sky on Mars probably wouldn't be blue (although there seems to be
some controversy about this) and I thought that a pink sky (what most
images seem to show) wouldn't have worked with the reddish stone. So
I invented a yellow sky. With white clouds, of course. Why? I
dunno. I spose I could have done a green sky like the one referenced
in an old Jefferson Airplane song, but yellow's what I ended up with.
Now. A little more stuff on this....which may be boring as hell to
most people but...whatever. In 1973, the group, Emerson Lake and
Palmer released an album called Brain Salad Surgery:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Salad_Surgery<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Salad_Surgery>
One of the tracks
is named Toccata and is Keith Emerson's interpretation of a classical
composition...well, here's what Wikipedia says about it: "The
instrumental "Toccata" is based on the Fourth Movement of Alberto
Ginastera's 1st Piano Concerto, arranged by Keith Emerson with
special synthesized effects."
The first time I heard this track, I was...let's say, "exploring
higher consciousness ala Carlos Casteneda" (ok, I was high on weed)
and an image was burned into my brain that still exists....I
visualize it every time I hear that piece. I suppose you could call
it a science-fiction music video in my head. I really wish I could
bring that to life via video. Anyway, it's a battle between
different factions on Mars with laser weapons and people running
through tunnels and...well, it's what ya might expect if you
visualized a battle in a stone structure on that planet.
When I saw the photo I'd taken in 69 in Moron, it instantly brought
that mental image to my mind. This was the stone structure in which
the battle had taken place. It was a building on the campus of the
University of Mars and the photo showed the ruins long after the
battle had taken place and laid it to waste. So with the yellow sky
and some watercolor effects, I have a start on that imagery.
What is it really? It's the remains of a Moorish castle...or
fortress called the Alcazaba that was abandoned sometime between 1212
and 1492. There's more info on the Moors and their occupation of the
Iberian peninsula here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors>
I have several photos of the ruins and I spose I can make a whole
series of images representing what ELP and Ginastera burned into my
brain in 1973.
Ok. Enough of that. But while I was doing some research on Moron, I
found a Wikipedia entry that referred to Diego del Gastor, the
best-known of the Gypsy Flamenco guitarists in Spain. There were no
photos on that entry. Well, since I'd been at a fiesta in a small
bodega where Diego and his nephew (also named Diego, but known as
Diego de Moron) and several others performed. At the time, I had no
idea that I was experiencing a part of musical history. But even
back then, I was shooting photos, and for several of both Diegos on
Tri-X Pan film (black and white for those who don't remember it.) So
I added 'em to the Wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_del_Gastor<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_del_Gastor>
Big deal, huh? Well, it's kept me from going nuts while waiting to
head out to the salt flats. And if ya made it this far thru the
post, thank you for nearing with me. I think I'll try to get a few
more of those photos converted to "Martian" so I can wither print 'em
and/or put 'em on my website.
I hope my next post will be from the salt flats. Later,
Ray
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