NYC: 5th Ave. At Central Park

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Consensus disciplines perception

Perception focuses judgment

Judgment triggers conviction

Conviction colors streets nasty.

Found on July 12th 2012 as I walked along 5th Avenue.

Canon 7D, Canon EFS 17-85mm (f4-5.6), PS4: Topaz Adjustment, Custom texture, AlienSkinExposure 4: Color Films – Polaroid/faded-darkened, Snap Art Blow Up 3 (300% enlargement). Custom spot-applied color shift adjustment layers, original created to be printed at 27" X 36".

Epiphany or Serendipity

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As you swirl your

Stew of meaning

With a spoon of craft...

Do you discover

That epiphany is

Serendipity?

Here's a runner preparing for Lancaster's Race Against Racism on a cool April morning. The thing about the Race Against Racism is that.... Nobody loses... Y'know what I'm saying'?

Canon 7D, Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens, PS4: Custom texture screen, Alien Skin: Exposure 4/Color Films - vintage/Autochrome

Aura °3

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Auras filter facts
Through the soapstone
Of feelings and myths
To become what
We understand even
When we don’t
Know… Answers.


The Aura Series…. °3

Lancaster, PA – Street portrait

Canon 7D, Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens, PS4: Custom texture/brushes, Toos: AlienSkin Bokeh 2, Topaz Adjust 5, AlienSkin Exposure 4

Auras °2

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Aura filters facts
Through the soapstone
Of feelings and myths
To become what
We understand even
When we don’t
Know… Answers.

Lancaster, PA – Street portrait
An exploration of aura °2
Canon 7D, Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens, PS4: Custom texture/brushes, Toos: AlienSkin Bokeh 2, Topaz Adjust 5, AlienSkin Exposure 4

Auras °1

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Aura filters facts
Through the soapstone
Of feelings and myths
To become what
We understand even
When we don’t
Know… Answers

Lancaster, PA… Tea Party
An exploration of aura °1

Canon 7D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm (f3.5-4.5), PS4: Custom texture/brushes, Toos: AlienSkin Bokeh 2, Topaz Adjust 5, AlienSkin Exposure 4

Burst Of Swagger

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Escape? Lemme tell ya’…
That’s what you paid for…

Trample the detonator to throttle
A screeching stench of tearing rubber…
Neck-snapping…
Fantasy rush.

Each one of these babies came
With a full charge of swagger.

Say every girl didn’t swoon
At this rocketing past…

Hell…
You believed it…
And perception… that’s a
Big-assed part of truth.
Right?

Were you mistaken?
Like, you gotta’ know,
If you don’t make mistakes…
You ain’t making nothin’.

After that reckless feeling that came with each of these cars… The guy-fantasy of pulling on a super-hero costume that made little-pimply you invisible inside it’s sleek exoskeleton. Every fourteen year old boy’s cloak of seduction. Within this beast you were the rocker who became a movie star with an explosive ball of light beneath your foot. Or at least you figured you’d be all of that if somehow.. you could only grow up to buy one.

Canon 40D, Table top art, PS4: custom filters, AlienSkin: SnapArt3: Water Color, Alien Skin Bokeh2: Custom settings, Exposure4 – custom effects.

Pepper Fears Children

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It’s seventy years since
A nasty kid
Broke off her Salt’s head
And left him dying
In a puddle of powder.

Now she peers wildly
Maddened by the nearest giggle
Hoping to hide from
Hands unable to tell
Play from cruelty.

Canon 7D, PS4: Topaz Adjust5, Alien Skin: Bokeh 2, Exposure 4: Kodachrome II (1962-1974), Custom pop-spot texturing.

Euro!

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Kübler-Ross model: Second stage of grief….
Canon 7D, PS4: Custom textures * brushes, Topaz: Adjust 5, SnapArt3: Stylize.

Hope Hardens

Angels pardon
Until they’re staid
Then hope hardens
Then dreams fade.

Have you noticed that regardless of its profundity, an idea clearly – unambiguously – rendered is likely to be dismissed as a banal cliché? Critics cherish ambiguity…

Images… Backyard fantasy light, Lancaster, Pa. 2011

Canon 7D, PS4: Custom textures, AlienSkin Bokeh2 to simulate Canon 50mm f/1.2 @f/1.2, AlienSkin: Exposure 4, Agfachrome 1000 RS, Custom watercolor soft bristle brushes & point-pop texture sharpening,

It's Beginning To Look A Lot...

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Soon the bells will start
But the wonder-filled sight that will spring
Is the glow that will quietly ring
Deep within your heart.

Sometimes they cloy… but we can’t help it because… Darn… we clutch at hooks to which we can hang an order, a map, an understanding…. a life. Here’s my moose-ical hook.

I found this little orphaned-guy on the shelf at a Goodwill shop years ago. He was tattered... stained here and there... but his grin was so optimistic. Look at him, and like a switch, you smile, right? Someone had breathed that into this ball of wrapped stuffing. I wonder where he is today. Wherever, his aura's here... and there with you, right? Okay, it's corny but still... still... Magical, don't you think?

Canon 7D, PS4: AlienSkin: Bokeh 2, SnapArt3: Watercolor, Custom textures & brushes.

Halloween Hand

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Can the
Costumes of
Daytime
Become the
Magnets of
The night
Time
Stalker?
Bwa-Hah-Hah-Haaaaaaaaaa!

Canon 7D, New York City, All sorts of PS/Topaz/AlienSkin/Textures... Wheeeee!

To The Soul

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In a moment
When lights
Catch.


Eyes window
Outward
In.

Izmir, Turkey
Canon 7D, PS4: Custom filters, Topaz, AlienSkin: Bokeh2, BlowUp3 (Beta), Custom textures.

Now for the fun. Here's the virgin image from my FlashCard. Okay...

Now... NOTE: While I do not work for them, I was invited to beta test by AlienSkin. Their not-yet-released BlowUp3 allowed me to carve an approximate 20% section from this image and enlarge it without degradation to 36" on the horizontal edge. It’s a stunning technology, Huh?

Back From Turkey

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Golden…
The morning.
Constantine might
Recognize his city
As his church turns
Golden.

Just back… from ten days straddling two continents..

The Hagia Sophia
Istanbul, Turkey
From the roof of the Ramada hotel
Canon 7D: PS4, Topaz, AlienSkin: SnapArt, Oil Paint, custom filters, textures, and brushes.

Okay... after writing all of that Andreas Manessinger broke it to me that this is NOT the Hagia Sophia but in fact it's the Yeni Camii or New Mosque. The Hagia Sophia - Constantine's fifth Century cathedral is yet to come.

Which brings me to...

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Carved or released?
The houses of Mardin
Pop from their stone
Cool beneath
The broiling
Sun…

There is in Istanbul the world’s largest minature park – or park of minatures…
Miniaturk, Istanbul, Turkey
Canon 7D, PS4: Custom brushes, textures, Topaz2, AlienSkin: SnapArt, colored pencil, Bokeh 2, Planar.

Para & Noid & Noid

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Was the room random?
Was the night darker?
Was the world hidden?
Were the watchers un-
Bidden?

Is alone ever
Where a man can be?
Or is the night just
A place where watchers
Spy in?

The thing about para-
Noia is that you
Must have secrets which
Are worth the big costs
Which make them way im-
Portant.

There are more para-
Noids than there exist
Secrets that are worth
The costs of their sur-
Veillance.

Pity…

Canon 7D, PS4, Topaz, AlienSkin: SnapArt, Oil Painting, Custom: filters & Brushes.
NY, NY

Searing Mid Day Dixie

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Nightmare Daylight

Searing light bleaches
Colors and inks
Black shadows
Except when
It doesn’t.

Tybee Island, Ga.
Canon 7D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm: PS4, AlienSkin, Bokeh2: Custom textures & brushes. Thanks to Distressed Jewel.

Emporia Tanked

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Sunrise burns
Pepsi quenches.
It is not
A tankless
Job...

Emporia, Canon 40D: 40D: PS4: AlienSkin, Bokeh2: Topaz: Custom textures & brushes

Not for sale...

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What not to do at a wedding.

Don't know about you, but friends sort of expect that I'll take pictures at weddings I'm invited to. And at the same time, they've hired a hard working pro. Now, I haven't done a wedding professionally in over 35 years. Maybe longer. And I won't. They don't stimulate my creative juices. Um... what I mean is that they are a commercial challenge. It's expected that the pro will do some very hard work in making certain that a number of formula pictures are taken.. quickly... with minimum interference at maximum quality. That pro expects to sell those pix and probably more at alá cart pricing. I'm not there to eat into that professional's earning's by taking the easy creative shots around the fringe. I will take a few images, and after waiting long enough that I'm comfortable the pro's made his/her sale... I gift my friends... BUT... It's take it or leave it, y'know? If they don't like what I like, um, tough.

You may recall that we went to my wife's niece's wedding last year. It's anniversary time and I'm thinking the pro's made his sale by now... soooooooo :-)

FWOOOOM...

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Chris loaned me his 2007 Corvette.
It's very ... very ... quick.


Especially atop a table.

Canon 20D: PS4, Topaz, AlienSkin: Bokeh2 & SnapArt: Water Color

Carney • Zipper

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Something whippéd

Comes This Way.

Part of a small city carney series I'm slowly working upon.

Lancaster, PA

Canon 40D, 10mm.

PP: PS4/Topaz/AlienSkin: Bokeh2, SnapArt: Water Color, Custom filters/textures/brushes.

Some may recall this posted here before the Bad Apple (see explanation on the sidebar to the right) snapped it away.

Playin' W/Texture

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Nothing profound, deep, or even thoughtful powered this thing. Nope. Probably pretty shallow actually. My last post was an effort to pull mood from an idea through the use of textures. And the response has been amazing. Thanks to everyone who sent me email both ere and from the other forums where it's appeared. The reaction actually made me want to investigate texture technique farther. So.... I turned to my most accommodating model... Me! See, I wanted to see how textures could work in portraiture. But as you can see the results need not be flattering. And since almost everyone else who's trusted me to take their portrait was not interested in a purposely unattractive result... well that, you see, explains why I've again asked me to be the subject.

Moreover, I wanted to see how I could use both texture and AlienSkin's SnapArt together to create a dramatic result which would pop from the monitor. At a 4th of July picnic I loaned my camera and long zoom lens to a young friend who'd never used that kind of equipment before. Nice thing about a 70-300mm lens on camera w/ a crop frame sensor... the photographer can take candids virtually unknown to the subjects. Okay.... but then what?

Here's what happens when I recrop, diddle with the dynamic range, use Alien Skin's Bokeh to create a shallow depth of field... then carefully mask in a texture over key parts of the image.... and finally apply various parts of masked layers which were differently filtered through SnapArt's Oil option.

Of course I used PS4 to further enhance the dynamic range to deepen the drama of shadows while cranking up the highlights.

Lots of stuff. Now... seriously... Critiques anyone?