Thursday, July 3, 2014

'Vibration' - more darkroom montage

.......I'm not sure where to start on this one...
It went thru some 'ch-ch-ch- changes" as the Bowie song goes.
Once again I did a P'shop sketch of this one...





The stacked stones were shot at Ocean Beach, mid '90's. O.B. stretches for a few miles from Cliff House south, it's easily accesible, and VERY large, there is a wealth of raw material for the creative soul, all kinds of stones, driftwood, and soft sand cliffs you can carve into with whatever is handy.

A nice start, but 'no cigar' as the old saying goes.

Then i changed my mind and replaced the crashing waves w/ some circular 'splash' ripples. I looked at adding a huge tree.. and also adding an additional thunderhead of a cloud.



And then ended up remembering the old Zen question - 'what's the sound of one hand clapping?' and i thought 'what's the sound ( or vibe?) of 5 stones *levitating*?'... and decided to keep it simple, just 5 stones floating on the water, making one vibration.

Once again when i saw the first test print of the ripples at the bottom, i was surprised - the sketch seemed to have left out the far side of the circular ripples, but they showed up fine on the test. This put a new spin on the image -  how about if the stacked stones become somewhat transparent at the bottom, and you can see the further ripples - what does this say about how the stones are suspended in space? Are they held up by the surface tension of the water alone? (physically not possible, of course.)

So I made 3 prints, all slightly different, i'm not sure which i like best.
The three are indistinguishable at web resolution, here's just one:



I also took a stab at coloring this one digitally:



Not very happy w/ it, but i always give it a try, just to see what will happen.

If you want to see it (and the others above) larger, and check out the psd file, here's the place:

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2014/Vibration/index.html

And now it's time for this blog to ..uh.. wander a bit.
(Try it, you just might like it!)

Interesting story about these people that precariously stack rocks like the above:
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Perfecting-rock-creations-a-tall-order-5379420.php

There's always alotta fun to be had at beach, it's that kinda place.

Southside Johnny & the Asbury Dukes/Live:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLnFbR9L41g
--------------------
SS Johnny - 'Trapped again'. It totally sears your speakers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI_LjHiYTgg
------------------------------
"It's been a long time"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJLo5EkU7Lo

'It's been a long time...'

....'coming'? - i could add that word, but it would recall another most famous song -
Sam Cooke -  'it's been a long time comin' but a change gonna come'.
Yes, indeed. A beautiful voice, a life cut too short, a message that resounds decades later.




I still am one on the happiest guys in the planet to have a cassette copy of 'Southside Johnny & the Ashbury Jukes' - "Love is a sacrifice"
And i have a cassette player that will play it! *Yabba-dabba-doo!*
It *totally ROCKS* from beginning to end, with no let-up in intensity - it is totally ON from start to finish.
Tomorrow (July 4) i am celebrating 'Independence day' by being *independent* of digital, opening up the darkroom and doing whatever i can in 2 days time.

On sunday, i will go to beach. Yabba-dabba-doo!

If you don't get 'Yabba-dabba-doo'? it's from the Flintstones cartoon TV show,
many years ago. Fred Flintstone says this when he's very, very happy.
Whoever, where ever you are? ..try to find something 'happy' in whatever you do.

"Ah'll be back"........ next month.