Symmetry - Let's go digital for a change!

I've loved mandalas since i first set eyes on one. 

Incredibly detailed, psychedelically colorful, mind boggling, and entrancing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala

"A mandala (Sanskrit: मण्डल, lit, circle) is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the universe.[1] In common use, "mandala" has become a generic term for any diagram, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically; a microcosm of the universe.

The basic form of most mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. Each gate is in the general shape of a T.[2][3] Mandalas often exhibit radial balance.[4]

The term appears in the Rigveda as the name of the sections of the work, but is also used in other religions and philosophies, particularly Buddhism.

In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation and trance induction".

A few years ago i started doing symmetrical images in Photoshop:

I have loads of sky photos, that was the starting point. Then I continued adding things to the images:

And reshaping them any which way that occurred to me.

I quote Robert Rauschenberg in my artist statement:

(http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/statemnt.html)

"I think it was Robert Rauschenberg (correct me, someone/anyone, if my attribution is wrong) who said it best - "It starts by YOU telling the picture what it will be -- in the end, THE PICTURE tells you what IT will be...".

I also have several boxes of things I've collected thru the years, from walks on the beach - stones, bones, shells, these are a small part of my 'visual library' so to speak.

I guess maybe i could call them 'modern mandalas.'

This takes you to a portfolio page of images:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/Symmetry/index.html

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/SymmetryHowTo/index.html

This goes to a 'how to' page, showing how i built this image:

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And now a few words about my books:

(Check 'em out - i doubt you will be disappointed.)

After many years of making darkroom photomontage (since the late 80's), and not being able to get arrested for it except for a few appearances in competitive group shows, and some assignment illustrations in various magazines ....I am designing & publishing books I make at Blurb with 'Bookify' - two of them are on Amazon, one is at Blurb.

'California Beach Trip':

On Amazon:

www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

'Desert Trip'

On Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

This includes an image i have recently posted, titled 'Desert Time'.

'Seeking the Vibe'

On Blurb:

http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Previews of all at:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/BB_Books/index.html

As the Terminator most famously said: "Ah'll be back"

How 'bout some mo' Digital?

Gotta keep blowing my own horn for a while about my book.
Here's a preview:
http://www.blurb.com/books/5470637-a-walk-on-the-california-coast 
Or take a look at the B&W montage images done 16 yrs ago that are the foundation for the booK: 
www.californiabeachtrip.com

Time for some more digital. I am still having fun with symmetry, let's look at two of those. But I also have an occasional montage that's not symmetrical, we'll check that out too.

First the symmetry.

I took a walk along a road that follows a bay in San Rafael into a neighborhood I had not visited before, it had a completely different feel from the downtown area I usually spend my time. There were lots of very nice houses on the waterfront, with some colorful exotic plants next to the sidewalk, and many marine/boating businesses. Climbing up the hills are various funky places, to my eastern sensibilities, very amusing, lots of character. It's been 22 years since i moved here, i am still getting used to it, and enjoying the surprises of 'west coast' style.

I'm not usually one for flowers, but I do really like succulents, palms, other plants that I never saw on the east coast, where i spent my first 40 years.

So here's how one image came about, I started w/ a simple shot of a flower:

I cropped it with the idea that the leaf at top left would be at the center...

... and duplicated that 3 times to come up with this 'kaleidiscope' image. 

It could use another layer of something... i chose a succulent, but used a cropped version to fill 2 quadrants of the image, flopped that to cover the other two. Set that layer at less than 100% transparency...  Then added a sunburst in the center. 

I called it 'done'.

Second one was a bit more complicated, but it's more of the same thing.

I suggest you go to the page at my website at the bottom of the post to get all the down and dirty details. I like to keep these posts a bit lean so that anyone can read easily no matter how slow their web connection is, and if you want to explore further, you can, but it's optional, I don't want to clog your browser.

Last but not least? China Beach Pier.

Funny how intuition and that 'sixth sense' can work. I visited a place called China Camp, east of San Rafael proper, juts out into the bay. It's a state park that has been fitfully maintained, the camp the Chinese made is poorly kept up. But being Chinese? it survives in spite of all..... I took a few frames.

One of the pier from inside a building, the other of sunlit hi-lites on the water through openings in the building wall. Yes, a star-cross filter got into the act on that one, i just held it in front of the lense.  I sandwiched just two frames, on a whim. They *flew*. I like that. I think perhaps what this montage says is.. there is 'light at the end of the tunnel'. Find it, it's there.

As always, larger images at a page on my website:

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2014/WheresTheDigital/3.html

The 'whatever catches my eye' file has been lean lately, but this one is worth it:

Duane Michals

(My browser had trouble w/ both the pages below - web designers are getting too full of themselves, too fancy, and the code they write sometimes goes awry. i hope you can get to the meat of this w/ out too much BS. As a copywriter i used to work with just outside Wash. DC would say about his parties in Baltimore - 'it's worth the schlep'. Some things are. Yup.)

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/30/duane-michals-looking-back-moving-forward/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/30/duane-michals-looking-back-moving-forward/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1&#slideshow/100000003204912/100000003204968

It's the sequential images that 'zoom out' so to speak that struck me - #9-17

this one is pretty good too, a dedicated darkroom dude:

http://laurentgirard.blogspot.com/

I'll be back in a month w/ some darkroom, unless i am dead.