Category: Photoshop

The Birds

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The Birds

I’ve always wondered whether the two lovebirds, the only caged birds in Alfred Hitchcock‘s movie “The Birds“, were actually the evil ringleaders causing the bird attacks on people. Lovebirds do tend to be troublemakers…

In my original concept for this shot I’d planned to use fake birds, and spent a bit of time searching for places to buy them. The only birds I was able to find were fake crows and they were far too ugly and misshapen to pass for proper birds. I decided to pull all the bird photos from my archives and composite together in photoshop the shot I had in mind. It took about four or five hours of masking, manipulating, and layering to bring it all together.

It was created for a project called, “Scenes from a Movie” organized by Stephanie Vacher. The idea was for each participant to choose a director’s name from a hat and then create a shot to reference that person’s film work. I lucked out and chose Alfred Hitchcock.

Inspiration enters at the border between hard work and laziness

From Free Will Astrology:

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “It’s better to be clumsy than clever,” says an ancient Chinese book called *Poets’ Jade Splinters,* “better plain than affected, better crude than weak, better eccentric than vulgar.” That’s a good prescription for you to use in the way you live your life in the coming days, Leo. Here’s another observation from the same text that should also be helpful: “Inspiration enters at the border between hard work and laziness.” That suggests you’ve got to work hard and discipline yourself in order to earn the right to inspiration, but often the inspiration flows in when you’re goofing off or giving yourself some slack.

Act courageously in your own best interests

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Week 17 - Fresh flowers
Week 17 – Fresh Flowers, from the 52 weeks self portrait series.

From the Free Will Astrology newsletter…

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Resilience is a quality that allows you to rise above setbacks and find resources in unexpected places. It’s a willful instinct to seek the higher ground and a bigger vision. It’s intensely practical, because it shushes the nagging voices in your head that make negative interpretations of your experience, thereby allowing you to act courageously in your own best interests. This is Resilience Week for you, Leo. Call on your dormant reserves.

Sometimes there is more art than space

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Faith

This is the very first image composite I created when I was just learning how to use Photoshop. I still think it is one of my best.

On my trip home to visit my family in May, I went through most of the stuff I left behind when I moved to Vancouver, and as usual brought back a few things with me. Among everything I reclaimed two long lost giclée prints I did of this image in a workshop at Toronto Imageworks many years ago. They’ve been sandwiched carefully between paper and cardboard waiting for me to do “something” with them. It can be one of the downsides of being a creative person, to have more creations than one person usually has wall space for – and so some become gifts to appreciative friends (though not these.)

Swimming upstream

Swimming up stream

I put these three shots together a few days ago, and now that I am looking at them again I’m not sure I like it. These were taken at the Ballard Lochs in Seattle. The spirals are a series of ten metal sculptures installed near the fish ladder, and the fish were viewed through the underground windows just below. It was wonderful to be so close to these large fish, and watch how powerfully they swim.

Guardian and Serenity

Guardian II

Serenity

The last two images from my manipulate landscape series, created for the Utata summer project. It feels good to stretch my creative wings.

Guardian I

Guardian I

I am very happy because my family sent me the new Harry Potter book for my birthday. Too bad I will have to wait until next week before I can start reading it. I’m sure it must be a crime somewhere to not drop everything and immediately start reading the last Harry Potter book.

Surfacing

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Surfacing

I have just started reading the book Art Objects, a collection of essays written by Jeanette Winterson about art. I can tell already this book will stimulate my mind, and give me a fresh perspective on all things art. The first essay is about learning to see the art object before you, how it takes time to see things fully and how said object can open the heart of it’s viewer. It reminds me of how little time I spend visiting real live galleries these days, and instead take in most of my “art viewing” via the internet, where my viewing time for things is less than a minute. Shame on me.

A good smile starts in the eyes

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Fresh flowers make me happy

Poor neglected photo blog. I just don’t much feel like making use of you these days. Maybe some changes should be made so you’ll be more interesting to me.

There is a group self-portraiture project on flickr called 365 Days, and it is providing me with a bit of inspiration. The Challenge: to take 365 different self-portraits over the course of a year and upload one per day to Flickr. Though not interested in doing such a thing EVERY DAY, I would like to take selfportraits more often than I have been. I’ve always found them to be an interesting challenge to do creatively, and it helps me learn a little bit about myself. I’ve decided to set a goal of taking a selfportrait every week and a half because working on a small project is always a good way to stay inspired. The above shot is the first in the series.

Soul and the other

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The lovers
Five lovely moments from the week:
1) Walking alone through the deserted back streets of my neighbourhood as a light snow was falling. The silence and peace of the evening was stunningly beautiful.
2) A wonderfully productive day of working on my art.
3) Lying on the floor in front of a fire as conversations went on around me.
4) A delicious dinner with a friend at a restaurant I love, and the long varied conversation afterwards.
5) The anticipation of reading through the small pile of books I picked up at the library earlier this week.