Darkroom - 'Stories to be told'

Tell me a desert story - a myth, a parable, whatever.

Let's go back to the darkroom for a spell, this one was done late last year.

Top part of this is a sandwich, some rocks at a place called '7 Sisters' in Valley of Fire SP in Neveda, and a desert bush of some sort.

I did some PSD sketches that used the the 7 sisters rocks, and combined it w/ other things, but they just didn't 'ignite', didn't feel like they were worth printing.

I had scanned the proof sheet.

A plant is also on the same roll, i can't keep these plants straight, it is either a creosote, or an ocotillo. Or maybe something else entirely. It waves sadly and slowly in the wind.

I just had an inkling something might be going on by sandwiching just these two, so I pulled out the negs, and sandwiched them manually, held it up the the window light and thought 'aha!', that's IT!

Almost immediately I remembered a neg taken a long time ago.

The bottom part is a book left on Ocean beach in SF, and has been significantly weathered, the scene untouched by human hands. I took it 20+ years ago. And now it comes in handy. Don't ask me what i had for dinner last night, but i can remember this neg after all these years.

Once again, it's all about something other than software and photoshop - the best software is between you ears, and that's what I use to connect these negatives together, and weave them into montage images.

I flopped both negs so the light direction would match up w/ the book, which i don't want to flop, seeing as how you can read the text.

That I shoot negs for hi-lites, and let shadows fall into black (or close to it), continues to work just fine. The shadow in the rocks has just a bit of detail, just enough to add some interest/contrast to the sandwiched plant branches.

I tried out a digital/colored version of this....

Digital colorization many times feels false/forced, to me, though I've been getting better at it. Some images are conducive to this, others just aren't.

There are stories here, in this book, and in the desert... you just have to take the time and effort to read.

For larger images, here's the link:

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

In the 'whatever catches my eye' file this month:

Slate Magazine: A quiet yet profound look the the American West

By Lisa Larson-Walker

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/04/09/robert_adams_the_place_we_live_is_a_retrospective_of_adams_s_work_that_covers.html

and one last parting suggestion:

http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Plastic-trash-from-the-ocean-is-art-at-S-F-Zoo-5501191.php

Go to the beach, if you can, you'll be glad you did. ALWAYS!

Another digital montage post

There will be a link to a page on my website at the end of the post that will have larger images, screen shots of the PSD files showing the layer palette and small PSD files you can download.
The first 2 images to discuss are digital shots of the sun, which i liked for the starcross thing (didn't need a filter to do this - dig camera lenses suck, and do this with no help), but needed to change them a bit so i could drop it into anything else with mucho flexbility. I wanted a light one, and a dark one.
For the light one the capture had a major flaw, there were some palm tree leaves in one image at the edge of the frame.

So I copied part of the image, flipped it horizontally and merged the two. Then i copied that layer, flipped it vertically and that finished it off - almost. Then i used a white circular gradient ( from transparent to 100%) and it was done.

The other one, similar technique - copy, flip, merge, copy and flip again. 

Here's the starting point:

Here's where i ended up:

(I also hit this one w/ a severe 'Hue/Saturation' layer to play up
all the wierd things these cheap digital camera lenses do.
Whatever lands in your lap, do something with it, ya know?)

So now that I had some nice 'suns' what did i do with them?

Added one of them to a rather dark and somewhat ominous sky symmetry... with some waves dropped in and copied and flipped symmetrically. The 'icing' on the cake was one of the suns.
I used the same approach as other 'symmetry' images, copying layers, flipping horizontal and vertical, lining them all up (use 'guides' in P'shop, and make the 'snap to guides' option active, (it's in the 'view' menu choice on the top of the menu bar) they are very handy :-) ) They ain't perfect, so enlarge image to 100% in the navigator, and push the layer back and forth until the seam is purrr-fect.

Larger images, and screen shots of the psd files with the layers palette, and downloads of psd files at:
www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2014/WheresTheDigital/2.html

In the 'whatever catches my eye' file this month:

www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/04/09/robert_adams_the_place_we_live_is_a_retrospective_of_adams_s_work_that_covers.html

In other beach and ocean related news:

http://blog.sfgate.com/stienstra/2014/04/26/orcas-attack-gray-whales-in-monterey-bay-11-pics

https://travel.yahoo.com/photos/america-s-most-scenic-waterside-drives-1397785187-slideshow/

While we are exploring the ocean depths w/ incredible new technology:
http://news.yahoo.com/deep-expedition-seeks-life-ocean-trench-135005336.html


.....sometimes something amazing just 'falls into our hands', so to speak:

Scientists amazed by accidental Gulf catch of second-ever goblin shark
Heather Alexander, Houston Chronicle

Updated 11:05 am, Friday, May 2, 2014

http://www.sfgate.com/news/nation-world/article/Scientists-amazed-by-accidental-Gulf-catch-of-5448545.php

But some news ain't good at all:

 http://www.slate.com/articles/video/science/2014/05/human_trash_on_the_ocean_floor_garbage_patch_in_the_pacific_is_only_the.html

And last but not least one small nugget of wisdom:

Enjoy life - this is not a rehearsal.

...and 'trashing the planet' (as noted above) is not a rehearsal at all.

In fact it is the first act in a tragedy, still unfolding.
I don't think we have a clue. Dinosaurs lasted for millions of  years.
We won't even come close.