Escape: Pepto To Quench Peptic

The Lone Tree
Pebble Beach, California

Six weeks ago my wife Rita had her knee replaced. A bit before  I moved my office from the Business2Business Magazines HQ, here to our home. Four, or so weeks ago, my buddy Rocco-The-Dog died. Last week we bought a new pup. During this, Rita's sister and brother-in-law came for a five day visit.

And, of course, the monthly magazines I edit came out on schedule on the first of this month. Life went peptic...

Photography's my baking soda: Pepto to quench life's peptic waves. It can be smoothed into the slower moments, massaging at angst and melancholy. This art stuff's is angst processor, dialing it down, or sometimes blotting it out.

Anxiety's tentacles can't hold onto feelings focused on say, the Lone Tree that clings to its Pebble Beach rock cropping into the Pacific. For at least the hour, or so, that I visited this place my mind-muscles floated free of the churning world so I could return to it with stress cranked way down.

I'm not whining. Rita's recovering wonderfully. This knee now matches the other she received a decade ago and its already improved her mobility and comfort exquisitely. I still ache for Rocco's company, but little Musser's fun and filling the void.

Here's Musser yesterday... All 9 weeks of him.

Okay, I found time in moments when the winds were quieter over the past five or so weeks to escape into my images, but didn't open minutes to think about the comments visitors left here below, nor have I responded to mail. That all wanted me to think, and while thinking's totally exciting, the swirl of these weeks demanded time to turn off thought and excitement and to wallow in the Pepto of places like Pebble Beach, y'know?

But... I'm baaaaaack! There's more time to refocus and to have the energy to think as well as feel. Still, it's a blessing isn't it to have this art narcotic ready when we need to mellow away for a bit, and crank down life's peptic volume?

By Its Cover

<- Click here

Thing Over Seal Rocks

<- Click here

On the edge of San Francisco
.
There's a thing
.
Above the seal rocks it sits there
.
Looking out
.
Which is what it does while we look
.
Back at it.



Have you seen it? If not... so look. There it is.

***

The thing tugged at my camera's lens. Look how pristine the place is. How sterile and bare. Scoured continually by Pacific winds. But out on this point poking over a cliff into the sea, against the sky hanging above the sand, is this human scene. And the mysterious thing just pokes at my imagining. There's a story here, right?

And this thing, by the way, sucks in light. Which makes it a lighthouse that works exactly in reverse to the way other lighthouses work. Now that's cool, huh?

Yellow Plus Blue

<- Click here

Hmmm... Is there a difference between discovery and creativity in art? Lemme try that differently. Is it all about process or maybe its more about concept? Okay... okay... still not clear, right? Sigh. When Michelangelo decided to pull 'David' out of that enormous hunk of stone... well, how much did he know before he began hammering? Had he imagined the boy/man and then dug him free from the marble? Or did he find him as he chiseled away pieces of rock?

I started this concept out by watching a man on West Chestnut Street in downtown Lancaster. And I used my EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens to snag him free of the crowd. Then I went to work in PS/CS4 to reveal his character which originally attracted my lens - by building up tonal maps that let me dig into shadows and highlights. But as he emerged on my digital palette he demanded a setting. A moment... Yeah, his presence was the concept but the process wanted a place to both compliment and amplify it.

And I thought of the rugged coasts of Northern California where the yellows of the hillsides complimented the yellow of the guy's shirt. And then... then... a palette of yellows and blues all seemed exactly correct - perfect to balance the way that the coastline seemed too romantic for this portrait. So... so... process led to discovery. And where does creativity come to visit? Maybe that's a judgement for the visitor to make? Maybe we cannot conclude we are creative, merely presenters or discoverers... eh?

A FOOTNOTE: I built this image yesterday but before writing this tiny essay I rode my bike through Musser Park, next to my home here in Lancaster. And there on a gorgeous Sunday were two young painters from the Pennsylvania College of Art And Design each working in palettes of blues and yellows. While we each discovered very different images, I wonder. Is there a yellow/blue something in the air here in the Historic District? Cool.

***

Here's an image of the coastline which is really the result of three virgin images stitched together into a pano in Photoshop, which were taken with my Canon 20D through its EF-S 10-22mm (f3.5-4.5) at approximately the same time as mu subject on an equally sunny day.

Eureka!

<- Click here
Ever noticed how scientists are ashamed of epiphany? Read a scientific paper and you will never find the words, "And at this point in the procedure we abruptly realized that Dr. Skinny had accidentally spit into the solution and that his saliva added a stimulus to the precipitate that overcame the impasse resulting in the miracle hair restoration break through."

Nope, read their stuff and Point A results eventually in Point Z through a well planned process that never veers from the genius of the scientific team. Of course Point Q was probably Dr. Skinny's spittle, but the report fails to account for epiphany that emerges during the process.

Visual artists are not scientists. See this first image? I wanted to apply my new interest in AlienSkin's SnapArt to some images I'd taken at Pigeon Point Light on the California Coast. And I thought it'd be cool to create an illustration featuring my feelings about the light.

And then a funny thing happened along the way to creating that image up there.... This happened! BOING! I discovered that SnapArt's oil painting options allowed me to swirl thick strokes to compliment an idea I had when I dramatized the original photograph with Topaz3. I'm thinking of it as Doctor Skinny's spittle...


***

And the virgin image that started, or startled, my imagination? Here's what my Canon 20D saw through its EF-S 10-22mm (f3.5-4.5).

I've Got A Cold... Poor Me...

<- Click here
Sitting in the library. Snowflakes falling outside. Gray November. Listening to torch singers from the 30s & 40s... buzzed on a Mucinex high. Thinking of California. We'd have liked to live there. Family here on the East Coast was an anchor. So instead we visited a lot. Hey, still do. And on gray chilly days I wonder how it is in Sausalito, or down along the Big Sur.

Images bring me back... once again to Pigeon Point.

But then I wondered what I could pull away and still leave a sense of the place? How much can be chipped out without loosing that dreamy mood. How about this? Huh?

Creepy Guy

<- Click here

A Halloweenie....

I found parts of this guy at Governor Palin's rally last Saturday. Somehow his essence (changed to protect the innocent) felt right at Pigeon Point, huh?

BOO!

<- Click here

Tensed

There's a difference between the artist and craftsman. "The artist," it's said, "Does not picture things as they are."

___
And here's the virgin image directly from my FlashCard... Comments?

Pebble Beach

<- Click here

Sitting on the patio... Rita's got a margarita. Me? A gin and tonic. There's a gentle breeze blowing around the 68 degree air. Not bad... no... not bad at all.

A Step Away

<- Click here
Here's image fiction. Recently my friend Andreas Mannesinger blog-wondered about the legitimacy of photographic art. In an interaction with another photographer he dealt with whether photographers can actually bring their version of truth or meaning to a media which essentially just goes around copying what it sees.

Which led me to create, "A Step Farther". See the boys wending their way toward a radiant vista? See what they are about to see? And I was lucky to be there when these three iconic kids were poised upon seeing a WOW! moment. And of course, my camera acted as a kind of bucket which 'merely' scooped up these elements as opposed to what a painter might do.

See, it's argued that a poet, painter, novelist, sculptor, composer... every artist other than a photographer starts with a blank paper/canvas and fills it with his or her imagination. But a photographer, these folks insist, starts with a frame filled with an image that s/he simply stumbled upon. Hmmmmm....

Oh, by the way... These boys were playing in Musser Park at the center of Lancaster, Pennsylvania last week. Which of course was a... few... miles and months away from the magical coast of California I came upon last March. So much for the photographic artist as a bucket guy, eh?

And what are your thoughts? Are we mindless bucket wielders... or can photographers actually communicate their truth in images? Huh? Huh?

Guardhouse On The Hill

<- Click here

Once upon a time, up on the hill, there lived a guard house. And its keepers were Arnex and Dazie. And all day and all night for so many years they guarded. Until the orange letter came from Sacramento...

No Reason

<-Click here
I've been playing with lyricism.

Huh?

Bernie Taupin.... You know him? He wrote, for example, "Philadelphia Freedom". Ahhhh.... but you thought Sir Elton John wrote that melody. And you are exactly right. Elton wrote the melody, but hid DID NOT write Philadelphia Freedom. Nope, the words... those were Taupin's. Yes, you can call it poetry. But while all lyrics are poetic, not all poetry is lyrical. Lyrics rhyme. They are percussive, and their timing slides within the melodic discipline.

So, how to do an establishing shot that is lyrical? That sets up the melody to come and with color, texture, and an array of elements the provide the coming story arc with everything it needs? Hmmmm.... What better place than Cannery Row to set the scene? And how to mix mystery, with portending (great word huh?), and sufficient ambiguity that the viewer begins creating the melody? Lyrical... get it?

Pigeon

<- Click here (Virgin)
Nothing deep tonight. Actually this is a touch of self defense. A friend said, "Ted, like the way you reveal your imagination through all of these enhancements. But come on... can you actually take a straight picture?" To tell the truth, it's been a long time since I've just pulled a naked image out of my camera, spanked its little bottom and sent it out into the world. It almost felt unnatural. But ... errrrg.... okay, okay. Suppose I... I did it, but really quickly slapped a couple of layers of stuff atop them? Huh? Huh? So... here are three sets of Pigeon Pt. Lighthouse. That's about as vanilla a site as possible, right?





<- Click here (Romantic) Let's crank up the volume, lather over glam filter, and diddle with the relative values so that everything enters that romantic dream world where we store memories of lighthouses in the sun.






<- Click here (Heavy Metal)
Nahhhhh... too gentle... too girly.... What I need are edges sharp enough to shave my beard. A sky that crackles in the clean air. Images harder than than a heavy metal guitar lick. Can't you feel the wind swipe across this point?

So see? I can kick the habit and do straight images, right? But, um, not for long. Hmmm.... you think I need rehab?

Fisherman Wharf Muscle Workers

<-Click here

Master photographer Craig Tanner started this with an image he posted on February 14th. Click here to check Craig's image out and read the title closely. I posted a comment on that Tanner image and since then I've been on the lookout for sort of the same thing a continent away from Craig's Savannah morning.

So? Wuddaya think? Gotcha covered in San Francisco Craig... No need to travel 3,000 miles, right?

---

And here's the as-usual original...

As Promised

<- Click here

Penelope stopped struggling , perhaps because of the rope that held her snug to the mizzen… Or perhaps because of the scoop of her neckline that held her far less snugly with each new fidget. Regardless of her motives, the plucky lass froze and watched through bomb-bursted air as the mighty ships engaged.

---

I found Penelope in a far back corner of a marine supply store along San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. She seemed abandoned atop a heap of rigging and ship fittings. I suspect that she was carved from wood and may be an authentic masthead from an 18th century brigantine. I'm guessing that she is tied to that pole until a buyer gives her a new home. At any rate, I pictured the image and found the tiny cheap Tall Ship models at at a tacky tourist shop a couple of stores up from Penelope's present home. This images came together almost exactly as I'd envisioned. Hope you enjoy.

Artifact

<- click here
It didn't so much sit as it squatted there in front of the 10AM sun forcing everyone to squint. And I wonder, does squinting cause reality to scrunch into your imagination? I'm just sayin' that when you squint way down upon something, are you only letting enough in through your eyes to see it as it is, or as your imagination wants it to be? Hmmmmm?

---

And if you're wondering what the camera saw without squinting... Here's the original.

Giant Camera

<- Click here
Scientists say that writing was originally pictures of visual events. These were symbols designed to release information that the reader already had. You know, the bull getting pierced with arrows. You see the stick figures, you understand it's a hunt, right? But suppose someone who'd never heard of bulls or arrows came upon the thing. The information the symbols were supposed to release would be forever lost.

All images are like that. Here the Giant Camera looms against the sky in a starkly impersonal alleyway seared by a noon-day sun. How much do I need to tell you to have these symbols make sense? How much sense do you suck from information which you bring to the viewing? Do you need to know that this is Seal Rocks, at the edge of San Francisco? Does ithe name of the place settle your questions? Or is there still a massive amount of mystery here? Hmmmm?

----

Should you be interested, here's the original of the image above. Enjoy...

Quality Of Presence

<-Click here

I did not take this picture.... I made it.

You understand the difference?

Hmmmm?


Early March, 2008: Seal Rocks Beach
San Francisco, CA.

----

Here's the original for ya...

Tim Burton's House

<-click here
Wasn't sure. First I thought this was an under-the-opening-credits scene for an Oliver Stone or Michael Moore flick. You know, their vision of America on a good day?

But of course this place up the coast from William Randolph Hearst's mansion... It is exactly how San Simeon would have come about if conceived by Tim Burton.

***

And here's the original of this WW II bunker sitting atop a hill along the coastal highway early this month.