Packing Tape Ribbons and Cellophane
 

Here is a photo that always makes me smile: http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/attach...1&d=1425392249

This is from my "Weeds" series. The original was just a photo of weeds taken a few years ago on a trip to California. I abstracted it and inverted the resulting colors using Photoshop Elements 8 for Mac. It frequently finds a home on my desktop because of the curves, curls and color.

Hope I did this right.

Hi Lorraine,
I hope you don't mind me posting this in the thread.

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/attach...7&d=1425392244

I do like the colors very much. The digital manipulations have taken something earthy and made it ethereal and light.

You say it so much better than I. Thank you, Sharon.

Do you still have the original photograph? If so, I'd love to see it.

Ann,
The first photo here is the original photo

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/attach...1&d=1425997682



This second one is the ramped up version done in Aperture to get the color channels at a maximum before sending it to Photoshop Elements

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/attach...1&d=1425997715

That's intriguing. I wouldn't have recognised it as weeds to start with; there is only the one trace of green in the original - and I can't quite see what that has become in the final version.

I don't know what all technical language means, but I love what the changed colours have done to the texture in the second one. Though the blue hurts a bit, the deepening of the neutral colours does wonderful things to the texture.

I find the final picture a bit water-coloury for my taste, but the effects of the technique are fascinating.

Thank you Ann.

The purpose of that second step is to make whatever contrast/texture more usable in the final photo. That strip of green was cropped; you won't find it there.

Yes, it is water colorish; that is something that I prefer, particularly in my modified southwestern photos. In line with that preference, I am learning to do Chinese brush painting techniques, using paint, brushes and paper. I have some photos that I've modified that have resulted in appearing like they are Chinese brush painted.

I like the idea that you are inspired by your digital adaptations to attempt to produce the same effects, hands-on and one-off. In fact, the thought delights me.

I am still worrying at the notional question "what is art?" and, by extension, "what isn't?". (If only because it makes such a change from having to answer the question "what is poetry?")

Discussions (as here) of process and intention really help with both those questions, which I often think can only be answered in our own voices, with the words "look" and "listen".

I am not inspired by the first picture; it's just what's left of irises or such, collapsed over the first showings of what Spring may become. Covering, cherishing, soon to be sacrificed to the first bonfires; things I understand because I know how it feels to be in gardens, and the now of them. (Oh, no! you snipped the new growth and not the debris...)

The second picture is also highly combustible. It is wood shavings, the results of the workings of a perfectly-sharpened block plane. I can almost smell them, I could almost identify the types of wood. Knowing, because you told me, that my woods were your weeds made me smile.

The third picture, "your" picture, has moved away from what I know and become frippery, giftery, quilly-bits that no longer move me. You have lost me along the way but have found the feeling of the loaded brush, the varying pressure of your own hand. May you find joy in it - and thank you.

Ann,
I look at each photograph as a jumping off place. Whatever the original photo is about, my continuing question is 'What else can I do with it?' as I manipulate it digitally. Yes, the resulting photos are often(usually) light years away from anything recognizable. What I enjoy is that moment when a manipulated image works for me. Frequently the pleasure comes from a comparison of how the image started life.
I don't think regular visual artists have that flexibility of try this, try that. They look at a subject and decide how they want to portray it. I look at my photo and I start generating versions. Heck, I do the same thing when I write poetry. I swear my mind exists solely for the purpose of version generation. I get all the versions out there, and then decide what I like best. Sometimes, I like none of it; all those versions get set aside for later evaluation/trash.