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Chill breeze puffs
The day before a
First frost
Crackles summer
Away with
The boat for
Winter.

GEEK STUFF: Chesapeake Bay, MD. • Canon 20D: Canon EF-S 10-22mm (f3.5-4.5), PS/CS4, Topaz, AlienSkin/SnapArt/Watercolor, Custom strokes, textures, brushes, filters.

Summer's Last

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Hmmm.... at first I just wanted to show my buddy Andreas Manessinger what he'd miss by postponing his US trip. We drove over to the Wellwood in Charlestown. That's in Maryland and the light you see reflected in the pitcher's flashing off of the Chesapeake Bay. Which is also wafting breezes across my half dozen bluepoint #1s. The pitcher was filled with Blue Moon, and would be soon again. It was about 5:30 on the deck and the sun was just starting to grow heavily golden over the water.

That's Bay Seasoning encrusted on the shells which is a salty/peppery mix. That explains the beer, huh?

But anyway... I got to wondering about this fantasy and thought to myself.... "Self. Why don't you see how cool this still life would feel all dressed up in oils?" So, well .... look at this wonderful mixed media.... Can't you smell the crabby steam that's shimmering upward? Which makes me wonder... which image works best? Thoughts?

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GEEK STUFF


About the thoughts? Here's some geek stuff for you. Pre Processing: captured by my Canon G10 in natural light at the Wellwood Restaurant in Charlestown, MD right beside the Chesapeake Bay. Post Processing:Well as you can see by this virgin image taken from my FlashCard... in the first image above, I did some cropping and enhanced the dynamic range with some intense tone mapping in CS4 with the juice-kicking power of TOPAZ (love those tools) which also allowed me to add lights and spot the blue points and beer with some drama. Oh yeah, there' s just a touch of AlienSkin's Bokeh filter around the edges to obscure some distractions. You thinkthis recipe works?

Then... then... in the second image I worked in AlienSkin's SnapArt2 with a medium brush in portrait.... later masking away the oil effect to spot the crabs. I can see either of these blown large on the wall of a restaurant.... lit with one lamp from above on an otherwise dark paneling. How elegant is that? Huh?

So? Wuddaya think?

You've Seen This Before But....

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See this? Yeah, I posted it before during the Summer, just click on the keyword "sailing" below to see the series. That's not the point. Fun is the point.

Steve wasn't posing here. I was standing in the gangway to below decks, taking picture for so long that I became invisible. Now I like it that this mid-afternoon picture is something that we can do today that used to take me a bank of lights to create back in the day. But that's not the point either.

The point is that Steve's just had a major birthday. So I took the image over to Dave at Poppit Studios and he blew it up for me to a size that would get big-time attention. The idea was that Rita and I would invite Steve and Maria to dinner at a top of the line restaurant. And we'd arrange to get a table off to the side last Saturday night where we could prop the image against the wall behind a covering. And of course we'd rip away the cover during the meal, and well... embarrass the hell out of him... heh heh heh...(Okay, women won't get this... but to men it resonates, right guys?) Think of it as a really big Birthday card.

So Dave, he blows it up... and up... and up... to FOUR feet by SEVEN FEET!!!! SEVEN FRIGGIN FEET!

You should see it. It is tack sharp (where it is supposed to be tack sharp) and the colors ROCK! And I invited my buddy and partner Steven and his wife Julie so we could carry the thing and.. and...

Well Dave doesn't own a truck at Poppit Studios. And we couldn't get the print into any of our cars. Or into our station wagon. And well, what the hell to do? The practical joke careened back on me! How to give it to him when I couldn't take it out of the printer's studio?

Meantime Dave was so proud of it that he set it up right by the door of his place (the guy owns massive printers, and cameras, and even a large device that will computer-cut images out). In fact he offered to have it cut Steve out of the big image as a stand-alone figure. Have you noticed, or imagined, that he's life size in the image? I took it with my old Canon 20D and you can count the hairs in his mustache... it's that detailed. Imagine what my new 40D will do... but I digress.

So what to do? Well finally my colleague Tammy, the layout artist at my magazines brought her huge RV over to Poppit and last Friday we got it to my house. So.. we changed plans and had a dinner party for the six of us.

During cocktails my partner and I went upstairs and hefted the thing down the steps et voilá .... we swung the thing around to reveal... "Heroic Steve At The Helm".

Great reactions... Everyone loved it. Super fun... BUT.. BUT!!!!!! He couldn't get it home. The BILLBOARD is sitting in our living room. YIPES... Didn't see that coming.

Steve's first reaction was, "Holy S**T, that thing will cost a grand to frame!" Um, well, yeah. It's printed on a fairly solid substrate so it stands up by itself. But what do you do with this .. object the size of Romania?

I suggested he take it to his plant, frame it in busy golden gilt, and put a tiny plaque engraved... "Our Founder". Mount it right behind the receptionist, right? Get her a tiny sailor uniform.... Somehow Steve isn't crazy about my suggestion. Particularly my plans for installation of track lighting. Pity.... Some folks don't have enough imagination, huh?

What do you do with a 24 foot square heroic image? Steve told me that "It ain't my problem!" He's right. It was fun, but I'll probably throw it away tonight.

The moral to all of this? A four by seven foot portrait might not be the best idea. Bummer.

April Sail #10

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Now for the last in this series. My friend Steve is the guy who chartered our yacht and who contracted Jeremy to instruct him toward his sailing certification. He was my host for the weekend.

So through all of these images I've practiced to find the way to build him the most compelling image for his office. It comes down to this portrait of Steve At The Helm.

Huh? Wuddaya think?

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Here's the virgin image from the FlashCard.

Un-Enhanced?

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Hmmm.... yesterday's post is bothering me. Well, actually some of my friends are bothering me. They, er, sorta... dislike yesterday's post. So here's today's post....

April Sailing #7

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This image took a while... Days actually. I've worked on it... gone away.... worked on it... gone away. There's an evocative moment here where the Chesapeake meets suburbia. There's something abrupt about this place. The people who live along its banks are likely to have nothing to do with the sea. This area is so close to cities where people's incomes are generated by the throb of suburbia, commerce, industry, and professional services. In Europe and Asia homes along the sea belong to sailors and their families. They belong to those who eke their living from water. And somehow their designs reflect that fact. They are ocean homes. Here the homes could be found in most of suburbia. It is as if America ends abruptly at the water's edge.

But the water is their playground. While others with a view of mountains might hike, hunt or camp. Here they sail, motor launch, or sport fish. What I see is a watery backyard - very wet fields. It is decorative rather than functional water. That's what I tried to capture and I worked on it... went away... worked on it... and... here....

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If you are interested, here's the original out of the camera....

April Sailing #4

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Ever heard of N.C. Wyeth? He was the patriarch of the Wyeth artists, the father of Andrew, grand dad of Jamie. A lot of his egg tempera paintings had sea subjects. last weekend's sail caused me to recollect on his brilliant palettes and rigorous action compositions of sailors and pirates who handled the oceans like you or I deal with a country road.

Nothing nailed the way Jeremy so casually dealt with the pitched and rolling deck without reaching for support as this moment when he pointed out to Steve the 'tell-tails' dancing on the mainsail. Life sure is easy when you know how to handle it, huh?

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And the original photograph? Here it is. So, wuddaya think?

April Sailing #3

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The Blue Cloud is where we slept last weekend... and played last weekend as Jeremy taught Steve how to sail the thing. Ever been out on the Chesapeake Bay? We live just above it a few miles from the Susquehanna river that feeds the Bay. Still, with Friday night traffic it took about two hours to drive to Annapolis where they berth the yacht.

A stateroom bed sloshed gently by the water's a tonic for sleep. It took me three days to get rid of my sea legs though.

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For those who like to see the originals of these images... here's what the image above grew from. Pretty ordinary, no?

April Sailing #2

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My buddy Steve contracted with Jeremy Hopkins to teach him to handle the 36 foot sailing yacht he chartered. Jeremy learned his craft in the Royal Navy and he's got papers that will probably let him captain an aircraft carrier. He's charming, and more importantly he can teach. It's in his manner actually, he's one of those people who not only loves what he does, but shares the passion - y'know what I'm sayin' here? He teaches by letting the student do. Impressive.

I like this triptych ... it's nuanced to say a lot about the guy's seriousness, charm, and humor. Add in competence and well... character matters, eh? And it's that kind of strength that can turn a student's resolve into action. Which gets me back to the teaching point.

April Sailing #1

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Went sailing on the Chesapeake last weekend from Friday through Sunday. My friend Steve Cornibert chartered a 36 foot something or other yacht. He hired Jeremy, a master seaman, to teach him to master a boat of this size. So this was a training voyage for Steve, work for Jeremy, and for me... manly leisure.

Saturday was sunny and almost hot. Here I am on one of my few appearances above decks. Hmmmmm.... Actually Saturday I spent a lot of time up there mostly picture taking. Tried my hand at the wheel, and dropping anchor. Did my best to avoid pulling sheets and mucking with the sails. Mucking of course is a nautical term, along with luff, jib, and head. Speaking of heads... here are a couple of mine that I took myself with my wide angle lens. Behind me in the first is Jeremy and Steve in the second.