Daybreak Commute • Florence, Italy

Firenze Fall 6:45am 10/09/07

That Autumn morning demanded a painting, right? I liked the way the ancient colors began to glow as they absorbed a new-day's energy.  

In a way, we're ashamed of epiphany. Instead we like to boast of a solid line of intention. Huh? Well, anyone remember Inspector Jacques  Clouseau from the Pink Panther? Probably not, that movie's from 1963! YIPES! Peter Sellers, once a comic genius, died at just 54 and his bumbling Clouseau made the otherwise bland 50s-like whodunnit flick a classic. 

"You are pro-bab-ly vundering vy ah deed dat, Eh?" he'd bark after a prat-fall or a wall-collision. And his absurd question reverberates each time I marvel at a processing opening. With my cameras, I hunt for conceptual metaphors. Sometimes there's a pre-conception that sets me stalking but during the safari there are unrelated shots which get dropped into a warehouse. Why'd they get flash-frozen into digital boxes? 

They leave me... "Vundering vy ah deed dat". And then, rooting through my boundlessly big bag O' tools, those images get poked and picked at like a boiled lobster. Did Michelangelo sense 'David' in his stone? Or was he hunting for a shapely madonna only to accidentally release Goliath's nemesis? Did he mutter, "What the hell's this?" as he chiseled away marble? 

How much of 'David' was concept, how much epiphany? Would anyone dare ask the maestro, and would he admit the amount of - found - art? When I write an article, I start with a concept, research it, then, as carefully as possible, frame the story I'm going to tell. Ordinarily that process massages the original concept so the story arc's at least minimally different from its origins. The act of writing causes yet further molding so that the final work usually surprises me. 

Was Michelangelo the genius who took an initial concept and rendered it in marble? Or did the process of rendering 'David' reveal epiphanies? Maybe bridge engineers create a final product that is indistinguishable from an architect's concept. Even in such cases, isn't it likely that construction will reveal opportunities? 

The lady-commuter in my image up there caught my attention as I attempted to find an ancient meaning in her street's structures and palettes. But instead what I found in the digital stone was a

sunrise moment quarried from a vein of glimmering jewels. 

Leaving me  muttering, "What the hell's this?" and smiling at a whispered echo... "You are pro-bab-ly vundering vy ah deed dat, Eh?"

Art asks questions... even to the artist. 

GEEK STUFF: Canon 40D, standard lens. Post in PS2019, assist with myriad tools particularly Alien Skin & Topaz, plus custom brushes and actions. 

How Many Tecks? Smell-Ography?

Juxtaposition... That's a terrible English word. It has the sound of someone coughing up some spiky mess. JuxT-A-PoSi-TION!!!!! Do the French have words like this? Even an angry Frenchman sounds like he's singing a love song... Oooops, I just checked and that's a French word! How can that be? Well, it's all in the pronunciation I suppose. In French that T's got to be muted. And the TION... ain't SHUN, it's more sensual as their tongues glide over the sition ... to a more graceful see-shown... In French it's a six syllable word while we English speakers compressed it to a harsher five.

Well anyway... As I crafted this Duomo bus stop something began to pique at me... How many technologies are obvious in the image? I count three... (1) the cathedral itself's a big lump of medieval tech, then (2) there's that electric light glowing in the lamp that's popped on until twilight turns to day. Finally (3) the big package of bus that's stopped to intake and outtake passengers. But do we count what's going on behind the screened trellises glommed onto the building? And while the sidewalks seem ancient, how about that road bed. Are the wafting banners woven on ancient looms? I doubt it.

How many "advances" have wandered into this plane over a millennia? Technologies are ideas made whole. They're imaginations we can touch, just as solidly as the Duomo of Florence's walls and windows. My fingers are dancing upon someone's thoughts. Is she or he - the designer of my keypad - still alive? The designers of my software? The imagineers of my typeface, pixels, colors, mice?

And did all of these wonderers ever eat... pizza? Was there a Dominos' parlor on each corner of downtown Firenze in 1296 as they broke ground for that astonishing building? If not Dominos... well were there pizzas then? Same recipe? Anyone there eat New York or Chicago slices? Did Pizza chefs in Old Tyme Rome compete with Pompeii's vacation parlors?

Did Marco Polo's import of pasta sweep the Italian boot by the time the Duomo went up? Imagine, this all might have happened before noodles arrived... Which makes me wonder... what lovely scents wafted through the air  at this bus stop place in 1296. Garlic? Tomatoes? Pizza?

We still have these lumps of tech, but those ancient scents and sounds? Nope. Lost to history. Smell-Ography's yet to be. We can only look at the early evening juxtaposition and wonder what's missing forever, huh?

By the way, is scent a dimension? Would it not bring an additional fullness to my bus stop up there? Hmmmmm....

Rome: An Arch Comment?

Ruins of the Roman Forum from Palantine Hill.

From the Palantine Hill most everyone scopes the ruins of the Roman Forum. The Arch of Septimius Severus (here center right) fascinated me. The thing went up in 203 AD in celebration of Rome's defeat of the Parthians. 

Why my interest? Well the Parthians were essentially the Persians and for some 400 years (247 BC to 224 AD) ruled in most directions from the center of what's now Iran beating up the Romans pretty badly until stopped by Rome's emperor Septimius Severus who pushed them back west of the Persian Gulf - hence the Arch.  

Pendulums swing and now Persian successors in Iran are once again rattling swords toward the West (and vice versa). But, what tickles my imagination is nations' desires to build grand arches. People stand around and photograph London's Wellington Arch, Paris's Triomphe, Germany's Brandenberg, Shimbashi's Victory Arch, St. Petersburg's Victory Arch... on and on.  

 Whyzatt? And why are they all so stereotypical? 

The one up above is far from the world's oldest but after almost two millennia it's a curious model for so many of the rest. It also stands as a reminder of the joint emperors, brothers Caracalla and Geta, who erected the thing and inscribed it with tributes to themselves. After Caracalla got Geta murdered he had ego stuff carved over all references to his brother. So, like most commemorative arches, this one too is all about blood. 

Blood arches are among the things that make me think that: Because you can do something is no reason to do it. Y'know? 
GEEK STUFF: Took this from the place everyone stands on Rome's most famous hill with my Canon 7oD through Old Faithful... my EF-S17-85mm. Pre-processing? Well a multi thousand mile trip plus a hired guide through the ancient city. Post-proccessing? In PSCC 2019 I wiped away the original colors and brushed back my own colored feelings then made a big bunch of trash and debris in the lower left-hand corner go away with artsy negative space.
             :-)

Good Morning Florence

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An oarsman snaps
His way along the
Mirrored Arno.

The light enwraps
Its coat over the
Ancient feeling.

Canon 40D, PS4: custom brushes, Topaz, AlienSkin: Exposure4: Color Slide: Agfa RSXII 100 <- My favorite film ever!

Cave Painting

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There is an urge
To deface space.
Like a dog’s need
To mark his place
With primal dung.

To boldly claim,
"This is my thing
See I’ve been here."
To scream aloud
“It’s about ME!”

The spray can is
Mightier than:
Maturity, or
Historical
Adhesive.

The spray can is
What happened when
The stone age child
Ran out of stone..

Via Dei Bonizzi
Florence, Italy
Cannon 20D; PP: PS4, Topaz, AlienSkin:SnapArt:Colored Pencil, Custom textures and brushes.

Roman Time

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Time exists so that
Everything doesn't
Seem to happen at
Once.

In Rome I noticed that different things seem to change by different clocks. Change needs time, but time is an oddly capricious engine. I wonder though if that big... big... window, unlike the nail-chewing lad, has figured out how to waste its time? Hmmm.... maybe that's what makes us different from everything else that exists?

••••

Took this in Rome with my Canon 20 at about 20mm and processed it with PS4, Topaz, Alien Skin's SnapArt: oil paint. The brushes and texture screens are customized for this image.

Andreas Does Duomo

Each moment
Caused by the last
Each tensioned
Without the last.

What moment
Far from the last
Is finally
Free from the first?

Once upon a very early morning Andreas Manessinger and I went to find art among great art that would be different from the art it was among. And it occurred to me that the artist is always a part of the art that is found, but too often not pictured there.

Or something like that? Enjoy.

Canon 20D, Florence/Firenze, Italy.

PS... I once posted something like this but the BAD APPLE - explained there in the right column - made it go away. The magical colors made me bring it back. Hope you'll agree that the effort's worthwhile?

Strange Mysterious Feeling

Click!

Florence, Italy

Street scene(s)

Assisi

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Hmmmm…. Do artists have a novel way of
seeing?
Or do they see novel
things?

Assisi, Italy
PS4: Custom brushes and textures

History's End

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There’s only one track now
Coming to or
Going from?
Castel Gandolpho.

Where once the Popes
Ruled the West
In summer heat
That hasn’t cooled.

Though history
Has…

I wonder if this track is there to fill the now tiny town or to empty it out? I wonder if the devil lies, as they say, in the details? That is to say that the devil dares to lie anywhere near a papal palace.

Geek Stuff
Cannon 20D, Post Processing in PS:CS4: Topaz, Alien Skin: SnapArt – Colored Pencils, custom textures and brushes.

SIZZZZZLE!

<- Borrowed my friend Chris's Bugatti last Sunday and took it to Musser Park nearby to my home here in Lancaster. Wanted to pop this beast out of the rich lighting. I'm not a MotorHead. But the art of design makes me twitch. And the Veyron ... well now this is one manly beast! And probably a chick magnet, huh?


GEEK STUFF Here's Chris's Bugatti Veyron shot with my Canon 70D through the Canon EFS 17-85mm (f4-5.6) in macro mode. Post processing happened with CS/PS4 • Topaz • AlienSkin Bokeh, AlienSkin SnapArt/Water Color • Custom Brushes • Custom Textures all upon a background captured one night in Intercourse, PA.

The Legate Abruptly Returned

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No one expected him so swiftly. No… the Pope imagined his envoy would require years to subtly study the curious beings on their exotic world.

Yet here he came to the Door of Time’s Tunnel. And curiously this legate who moved always midst a whirl of attendants returned… alone.

•••

Castel Gandolfo, Italy. Canon 40D. PS/CS4. Alien Skin:Bokeh. Custom brushes/textures.

A Jewelry Bridge

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They have made precious bauble art here for centuries.
All along the bridge, on each side are some of Italy's finest jewelers.
Now here's the question...
If you stand here at sunrise...
And squint your eyes way way down...
Wouldn't you swear that the bridge itself looks
Like the stuff that's made
Inside?

I'm just sayin'....

+++

The Geek Stuff

Ponte Veccio: Florence, Italy
Canon 20D EOS 10-22 mm @ 11mm, f7.1, 1/125sec, ISO 200 – 9:12am
PS3, Topaz and AlienSkin SnapArt Oil, custom brushes.

In Pompei There Lies A Gate

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I wanted mystery... A sinister foreshadowing. "Ahah!" I says to myself. "Self, you can get that with Bokeh2 and then use AlienSkin's SnapArt Oil Paint to hold all of the elements together.

And what you may wonder are all of those elements? Well here's another tiring picture of me seemingly lost in deep explanation.... You know, revealing the essence of an astonishing truth? And meantime there's this glow coming from within a room barred off to the public in the very heart of the ancient Roman city. Now how to meld them convincingly onto a story arc?

Meld, weld... whatever. The trick was to pull the two ancient images together seamlessly. And... and.... Well, what you think?

Andreas & Me

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Early one morning I met Andreas Manessinger outside of this place. I went clockwise, he went the other way. We met back at the front doors. Yeah, doors. There are a bunch of them.

I cannot imagine how many photographers have sucked pieces of the place onto their film or flash cards. And yet... yet... she seemed to be able to present herself to us as if those others had never been there. She made us both feel as if it were her first time. What a gift, huh?

=----


Hmmmm.... You know it is hard for an artist to decide that the work is done. Of course you know that. And you know that we run a risk of turning a perfectly competent work into bovine dung if we don't say to ourselves.... "Self, you have diddled with this enough. Put it out of its misery. And yet... yet... we wonder if another thought might tease yet more feeling out of the things. And.... well, that's what happened here. Wuddaya think? Should I have quit while I was ahead (or a foot, a leg or ... )????
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Canon 20D w/ Canon EF-S 10-22mm (f3.5-4.5) - Hand held and shot at 10mm, f4.0-1/8, ISO=800

This Sucks!

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Everyone runs into the great suck. And it seems that no matter what you do... Suck City!

Is there any thread that I could have pulled to find meaning in this mess?

I captured this image along the Arno river in Florence Italy a couple of years ago. Our apartment was in that first building to the left. The day was glorious, there was a photographer's sky. But... but... but... I failed to find the idea or feeling that pulled me through this frame. So I ladled on craft... and ladled... and ladled. And the thing wound up as a grotesquerie. Which is another way of saying.

This sucks!

And it drove me nuts. And I couldn't stop ladling. So I've revisited it over the years... and... and... AAAARGH!

Grumble!

Up There

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See? Holy Moley!

And what's up there? Anyone?

Florentine

Click Up There

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Seems to be some confusion here.
By popular demand, here's the virgin image from a shot taken in an open mart along the streets of Florence, Italy. What could be more Florentine, eh?

Farmacia - Rome

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I was walking one night through Rome just as a storm rolled past. Only a half block away the traffic wizzed and honked. Unlike New York, nearby to high intensity Roman streets nestle eddies of peace. It's as if the city closes up in spots yet continues to thrum only meters away.

What's up with that, huh?

Geek Stuff

Took this with my 20D. Processed it first in PS/CS4 where I cropped it, reset the dynamic range and applied parts of several different Topaz filters to restructure the texture. I also re-crafted the palette. Then after sharpening the picture I applied a Snap3 filter (oil). Then once again I applied a series of curve layers and masked in the new ranges to again redefine the dynamics and I used a series of PS brushes to mask in the various curve layers and to create new brush strokes.

Oh yeah... sorry... I also used the PS perspective tool early on to rearrange some of the vertical and horizontal angles to create a structural flow to direct everything toward the cross. Um, maybe some small additional iterations. Okay... okay... here's the original - see if you can spot them.


This is all about atmosphere and mood. I see it framed large on the wall of an elegant room to compliment an expensive modern European mood.

Frank Byrne

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Frank Byrne's my neighbor. Frank and his wife travel the world.

See Frank travel?

Are we related? Hmmmm.... probably.

Technical stuff? Well I took Frank's picture with my G10 in Musser Park last week. Took the image of St. Peter's at the Vatican last time I was in Italy (love writing that). I used my old Canon D20 with the Canon EFS 17-85mm (f4-5.6). And I abstracted all of those feelings using Bokeh and Snap Art. You know this'd probably be stunning blown up large over a fireplace inside of one of those great gilded and filagreed frames, huh?