Twi Light Knight

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The carney's come to Buchanan Park. Each year it arrives during the first week of May. There used to be something called the Loyalty Day Parade. It got so expensive the committee brought a carnival to town to raise bucks. Still they didn't get enough, so the parade died. But the carney comes every year to raise funds for Buchanan Park. And as they set up tonight I saw this guy, protecting the children from the oncoming night.

BTW: My enhancements to this image were made in CS2. I contacted one of the filter makers today. I was told that upgrades won't be available until the Fall. So, while I've installed CS3 onto my PowerBook Pro, I still haven't installed it onto my G4. Frankly I don't expect a speed augmentation on that machine, and I don't want to lose the availability of the filters I mentioned in yesterday's post. Oddly, this image, which I think expresses exactly what I sought when I took it, did not involve the use of any of those filters. Still, it's good to know that they're there.

A WORD ABOUT FILTERS: I've found that filters are relatively useless as stand alones. They scream out that the artist has taken short cuts. They dominate the image... and when you start noticing the makeup, the actor is in trouble. Moreover, filters quickly become clichés as soon as everyone begins to slather them on. However... they allow an artist to work on pieces of an image, especially when applied multiple times with different settings to tease out the details. There is no filter that I own which creates an effect that I couldn't do without using it. BUT... why take all of that time (this image took just less than an hour from downloading into PhotoShop to the final uploading of this written blog posting)? I see them as tools to be used in combination with others... just as lenses, lights, lens filters, and the like are tools. If you are dependent upon a filter to affect your style... well.. I wonder if you have a style... or whether you've simply purchased it. And if you have... then anyone else can as well. Not the sort of vulnerability an artist should have, eh?