December 2012

White Tulips #2 Bozeman, Montana 2012

Yesterday I showed how I created a simple composite image, White Tulips #1, from a single photograph. Today’s image was created from another photograph of the same white tulips. In this case I extracted a triangular shape (specifically a 45-45-90 degree isosceles triangle) from the original photo that looked like this: I duplicated the triangular photo, flipped it over to create a mirror image, and then merged the two pieces together to form a square: This square image was then duplicated three times, each duplicate flipped appropriately, and then the four pieces merged to get the final larger square with the circular image, White Tulips #2, above. Note the interesting mosaic look at the center of the circular image. These complex designs appear often in this kind of mosaic. They are somewhat magically created from the simple act of combining the triangular pieces into a circle. I find it curiously hard to relate them back to the details of the photo from which they are formed. Tomorrow I’ll show the final image I came up with using combinations of today’s and yesterday’s photo.]]>

White Tulips #1 Bozeman, Montana 2012

I’m about done with posting composite images for a while but I thought I’d show how I put together one comprised of a couple of images of some white tulips I took some time back.  Below is one of the original images I started with; an overhead shot of some molting white tulips in a vase. (Don’t tell the Fashion Queen I was standing on the dining room table when I took this photo!) White Tulips #1 is just a crop of the top half of the original photo rotated sideways, converted to black and white and then duplicated and flipped to create the symmetrical mirror image. Tomorrow I’ll show another more complicated component from a related shot of the same flowers.]]>

Future Bozeman, Montana 2012

This composite image even more blatantly borrows a famous painter’s ideas than yesterday’s photo did. If you immediately recognized the Mondrian background for this image, then you know at least as much about art history as I do. (Not a hard standard to meet.)  If you can name the specific painting it’s from, you’re likely a Mondrian fanatic.]]>

Retro Modern Bozeman, Montana 2012

After posting yesterday’s “senior portrait” photo of this raven, my cousin made a comment regarding the current creativity in senior portraiture vs. the formal poses of the dark ages (i.e., when we were in high school). I thought today’s photo, which I actually had created prior to yesterday’s post, might be an example of something more modern and creative. It might be more creative but it isn’t exactly more modern since I kind of got the idea from something 45 years old:

Marilyn Monroe Andy Warhol 1967

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Senior Year Bozeman, Montana 2012

I was just trying out a few techniques the other day and came up with this treatment for one of my favorite raven photos. I wonder if there is a career to be had in bird senior portraiture. Surely they have graduation ceremonies.]]>

The Elders Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 2009

This is actually a rework of a photograph that is part of my Opus Corvus exhibit collection. In that collection I call the original straight black and white version of this photo Steam Bath because the two ravens are bathed in the steam from a hot pot at Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone. I’m not sure what the green and brown background of this version is supposed to represent, I just liked it. But I didn’t like the connotations of thinking of green and brown steam.

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Pax Noël Bozeman, Montana 2012

I took this photo yesterday, Christmas Eve, while it was snowing, so we’re having a freshly dusted white Christmas in Bozeman this year. Happy holidays from all the staff at POTD. (That would be Zippy and his more than able assistant, the Fashion Queen.)]]>

Magpie Butterfly Bozeman, Montana 2012

Creating a composite image out of repetitions and manipulations of a single photograph is a fun challenge and very time consuming too. Between all the Photoshop intricacies and many iterations trying to figure out what I really wanted to do creatively, I spent 8-10 hours on this one yesterday. Good thing I (sometimes) have nothing better to do. I like this arrangement a lot; perhaps because it has a similar strong black and while graphic look as some of the patterns of ancient Mimbres pottery which I’ve always admired.]]>

The Gleaners Bozeman, Montana 2012

Many of my crow photos come from watching the birds methodically working a parking lot or other area where humans have scattered food or trash, e.g. after football tail-gate parties or lunch time at McDonald’s. It’s one setting where you can count on them not moving far for a while. It’s hard to tell in this composite photo due to it’s reduced size, but some of these crows have bits of food in their mouths. The rest are moving, moving, moving; hoping to find their own morsels.]]>

Night Moves Bozeman, Montana 2012

I’ve been spending some time creating composite images again. (O.k. a lot of time–it’s very tedious work.) Some people may see this particular image as being spooky I suppose. I think of it as more mysterious than spooky. Or perhaps they are just heading out to scout routes for Santa Claus.

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