Carney • Child's Play

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Swirled show
Squeal light
Ride glow
Excite.

Part of a small city carney series I’m slowly working upon.
Lancaster, PA
Canon 40D, 17mm.
PP: PS4/Topaz/AlienSkin: Bokeh2, SnapArt: Water Color, Custom

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.

Carney • Air Chairs

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Inspiration happens...

When your

Memories

Come unplugged

From reality.

Or vice versa...

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

Lancaster, PA

Canon 40D, 17mm.

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

Carney • Wheel

I'm just saying...

Emotionally charged?

Part of a small city Carney Series I’m slowly working upon.
Lancaster, PA
Canon 40D, 17mm
PP: PS4/AlienSkin: Xenofex2, Bokeh2,
Custom filters/textures/brushes

Only

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It is what it is.





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And here is the magician's secret revealed.... Enjoy.

Resemblance V. Meanings

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Simple elements can combine in complex ways so that resemblance remains but meanings morph.

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Hmmmm.... let me try a second take on this with CS3.

Squalk!

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At the Carney last week in Lancaster there was a game-table where the barker could attract no attention. She pleaded with passers-bye, cajoled, and finally insulted them. Called a grandmotherly lady the sort of names you expect to hear from a rapper on crack. Nothing. People rushed on past. The odd thing was that her loudspeaker was hidden under this bird. You got the impression that the penguin needed anger management rehabilitation.

Zippered

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Why do we love these things? This carnival oblong ride has ferris wheel seats swaying along its outter rim. That rim slides fast - sometimes clockwise, sometimes counter clockwise – splaying its chairs wide outward . Then the oblong spins in a direction differently from the chairs. Girls squeal, boys yowl. It clatters in a coating of raucous 50's Rock N' Roll. Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers mix all through the screams'.

I've always wondered, even though I do them... Why we ride these things? Why we eat jalopenos? And "Why," as Frankie ponderd, "Do Fools Fall In Love?"

Urf City

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Okay... so there's this creature who's a part of a foamy time bubble in Urf City. And he's either dissolving into, or emerging out of, the clamorous color of a carney ride. And it's really noise, rumbling and sqeeeeeeeking around in a circle there in Urf City - from where it never escapes but runs and runs and runs... against the currents in the river of life.

Innocent Fun

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Look at these faces. You can't fake that wildly happy excitement. These girls are well... look... look how you can look at them and see ten year old joy. Feel it! Love it. I'm so pleased that I was there tonight. That they were so delighted in that moment. And that their sheer loveliness got captured for all of us to grin along with their squeals. How very, very fine. Carnivals belong to the kids... inside each of us.

Silly

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Listened to an inspirational speaker tonight. I guess I am inspired. Not sure about what though. This is what came out after the inspiration of the speaker took hold of me. Hmmmm.... Maybe you are in a better position to judge this inspirational mood than I am?

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?