Well, I know that that my HDR stuff (most which is quite surreal) hasn't been your favorite type of foto. I'm under the impression that you prefer "normal" photography without any distortion. I spose that could be open to interpretation. Some of the koolest photos I've seen have been distorted reflections...on water, glass, paint....whatever. Those may or may not be "off-putting" to you. I really like 'em...but surrealism has always appealed to me in art. One of my favorite painters is Joan Miró:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Mir%C3%B3 Another is Piet Mondrian:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian whose major works consisted of off-white canvases (and walls) mapped with black lines running horizontally and vertically. Some of the resultant squares and rectangles were filled with primary colors...not many of 'em...the rest were left in the off-white color. I was first attracted to his paintings when I was a "surly, wise-ass loner kid" of about 14 (the quote comes from a friend who described himself that way and I immediately saw that the label fit me to a tee.) I did several 24x36 compositions of this sort, none of which exist today.
Then I moved on to oils applied with a palette knife and did several semi-abstract paintings, one of which my sister still has hanging in her home. Then Uncle Sam decided that I'd look good in green baggy clothing and I ended up in the army. After basic training, I found that whatever it was that had driven me in the direction of painting had either been killed off or had transcended toward photography. I tried painting several times, but it just didn't click in my head any more. I blame it on the rather brutal nature of basic training at Ft. Polk Louisiana (called "Tigerland) which provided a few traumatic episodes....not so much to me, but seeing those who couldn't be molded into the shape of a soldier treated very cruelly was something I'd prefer not to dwell on...and I'm not even gonna go into the murder nor "accidental training casualties." But maybe that's just an excuse. In any case, I pursued the photography route.
I did another one last night that looks somewhat conventional in web format, but when I blew it up to 20x30, it looks like Van Gogh and Seurat tangled on the front straight and this was the result. The entire foto has a pointillist quality to it and while the Stohr in the foreground is relatively clear (although pretty much comprised of dots rather than what one would expect to see in a photo...and they're not jpg artifacts....they look more like grainy film), the rest of the pack is almost impressionist in its appearance. I may try to enhance this effect by using a few different layers and doing wide brush strokes on the background and enhancing the "pointillist-type" dots on the foreground, then blending them softly.
Speaking of that, I got my copy of Photoshop CS5 yesterday from my daughter-in-law who works at the UofU. But the damned thing wants student ID, major, anticipated date of graduation, etc. Nothing is ever easy. It always takes longer and costs more.
@Aleta: The tight composition is the result of telephoto foreshortening and cropping, although the subject is what it is. A 2nd one is attached...this may provide some fodder for the impressionist/surrealist creature inside me.
r Sent from my Dreadnought using that barely tolerable Thunderbird email program On 7/23/2010 7:35 AM, humminboid@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hmmmm...howcome?? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Buck" <rbuck@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 10:23:44 PM Subject: [ratpack] Re: This could be one of Aleta's paintingsThanks, Carl. I kinda thought you wouldn't like that one...just shows to go ya that there's a reason for the word "ass" in "assumption."r On 7/22/2010 9:27 PM, humminboid@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote: Outstanding! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Buck" <rbuck@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 7:21:55 PM Subject: [ratpack] This could be one of Aleta's paintings The start of the IMSA Lites (ok, they call 'em Prototype Lites now) race from turn 1 with an effective 900+mm of glass and distortion from a hot track. Surreal as hell. I'm printing an 9x10 of it just to see what it looks like on paper. r
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