Tag Archives: landscape

Works In Progress…

04 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by in Art, Caribbean, Nature, Painting, Pastels, still life, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture, Uncategorized

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Aren’t we all?!

Who said something about standing in the spring rain?

Oh, yeah… that would be me.
And here, it happens every day… faithfully. Everything reflecting in the lovely Italian marble floor… so beautiful, so… dangerous. I brought an old box of pastels, broken and worn. I used them years and years ago…I think. I’m so used to my soft pastels in the big box there was no hope of bringing along. So… the old box would do, of course!

Mistake.

I used these? Seriously.

They are the hardest, most frustrating materials. And…they won’t be returning to New England… they’ll be used up or buried on the island where no one will ever think of looking for them. A mystery one day when unearthed.

Until then… a reflective pool after a spring rain.

A work in progress.

After the Rain

After the rain – Pastel work in progress – approx 20×15

Back on Earth

03 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by in Africa, Photography, Travel, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture

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Hovering just above the red earth…

trying not to touch the ground.

What is this magic place?

No, no… don’t tell me.

I really don’t want to know.

I just want to stay a little longer. 

Ngorogoro Crater Conservation Area

Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area

The earth and sky touch each other in a different way. There is a primitive look to the way the clouds hang at the edges before they curl over and flow gracefully on their way across the 20 miles of open space. They move in slow motion, unable to break through an invisible ceiling that prevents them from spilling onto the floor of the crater. Like an enormous stage set for a grand performance, the curtains have gone up and we’re speechless at the prelude.

Taking a break from the studio, family obligations and the daily routine of “life at home” we’ve ventured off to see what there is to see in Africa… well… in Tanzania, anyway. Some other parts of Africa are having their medical and/or political issues… but… Africa is a very big place… a very big continent, actually. And Tanzania has something we’ve been longing to see… very large spaces of unspoiled land where animals roam without barriers. These areas are protected. Access to humans is controlled but, poaching does occur sometimes. The animals are free to go where they want and some do migrate in and out of the parks and conservation areas. Some stay within the relative safety of the controlled parks. I say ‘relative’ because predators are everywhere and few species are spared being the prey of lions, leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, eagles and others. Some animals are food for others and nothing is wasted… everything nourishes the cycle of life in this amazing place.

Walking on Main Street

01 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by in Abstract Macro Photography, Art, History, Photography, Uncategorized

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We walked on Main Street in Georgetown, Massachusetts… Jack and me, crunching our way through the piles of color and texture, our heads down against a steady breeze. Not because of some extreme temperature that need be endured… but to shield our eyes from the low and exceptionally bright Fall sun. We walked away from the center of town along the busy street, trucks rumpling by every few seconds… until the sidewalk ended, then turned and walk toward town on the other side of the street. We’re making good time when… a car stops and two young girls, visitors from Germany inquire about where they can find a MacDonald’s or a Starbucks. They aren’t looking for a fast food meal or overpriced coffee… but a WiFi zone so they can communicate with their families and friends… relate the details of their trip… reassure their parents that they haven’t kidnapped here in Massachusetts. So on we go. Main Street, we discover is all about texture and color today! I’m trying to take pictures of what I’ve found and Jack is all about getting back to the pet store we discovered on our way. There’s a treat waiting for him, he’s pretty sure.

Here’s what we found on a little portion of Main Street…

Color… of course… it’s Fall in New England. It’s what we have! With the tropical storm ‘Sandy’ approaching, there will be little color left when she’s gone!

Shadows on a red barn. The low sun at this time of year is interesting… creating patterns on everything.

Texture!! Can you even tell what it is? There’s another with a different pattern…

Believe it or not… this is from a front door. Paint peeling off a door on a house built in 1810. It’s unoccupied and probably for sale. Any one interested?

An American porch… without a doubt. The glow on the ceiling is a bounce from all the yellow leaves in the yard. I wanted to sit and watch the day go by.

Primary colors… gone too soon, to be sure.

One of my friendly tree people. This one seems a little anxious about the coming storm… excitable but harmless. :)

The white shade… A composition in angles and lines. This historic house, the Adams Clark House, is striking in that a corner of the house is almost directly on the street. A personal favorite from the days walk. Look how all the lines and shapes lead the eye to the center of the photo and the brightest spot… the shade.

An accidental heart… they find me everywhere… this one in the peeling paint of a neglected fence.

You’ve Got Mail… I couldn’t help smiling at the irony of talking with the girls from Germany communicating half a world distance from their families while we stood in front of this “LETTERS” slot on an ancient door. How long would someone have waited for a simple letter from a loved one to slip through this portal with the “latest” news?… not that long ago.

Leading the eye…

26 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by in Art, Image Post Processing, Learning, Nature, Photography, Uncategorized

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I noticed something odd while I was editing a few recent images that I found interesting and thought I’d share… We’ve had some spectacular “cloudshows” lately and I stopped to capture one in the parking lot of my local grocery store. I liked the angle of the cloud formation and the overhead, umbrella of the massive formation on the left. While looking at it on the screen, I made a duplicate copy to try a different crop so I could look at them side by side. The two images aren’t that different but… it occurred to me that I was looking at images with two different subjects!

cropped version

In the cropped version above, the eye is moving down the dark column on the left and finally rests on the bright sun in the sunset at the bottom. To me, the subject  of this image is the sunset, the color and drama in the distance.

original version

In the original, it’s just the opposite… the eye is drawn down the thin clouds from the right and back up to the bright spot at the top. The eye is being lead in a completely different direction. (See the black and white images with the arrows.) The subject of this version of the image is the overwhelming scale of the scene, the height of the column of clouds, aided by the bright edge at the top and the tiny light poles at the bottom. A completely different feel. The actual sunset is secondary.

I’ve never seen as dramatic an example of the effects of knowing where the eye is being led and how much a simple edit can change the subject of an image. It’s important to know where the viewer’s eye is going in the composition of an image. You want the viewer to see what you see… to experience the impact of the scene as you did… or at least as close as you can assist them to see and feel.

Which image conveys what I wanted you to see? I’d have to pick the original. While I cropped the duplicate to make it a stronger composition, I lost the subject I wanted to present… the scale and feeling of being a tiny being on a beautiful planet… a very special place, even in the grocery store parking lot! :)

Agree? or Disagree? Your thoughts?

Saving Mid-Day

20 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by in Art, Image Post Processing, Learning, Photography, Uncategorized

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I don’t have many shoots where we’re outside after 10am in the brightest sun of the day… but it happens. In this case, we only had mid day on the hottest day of the summer in New England. We were all sweating our clothes through… except the model who never broke even a drop of sweat!! How did she do that??!! Anyway, our limited time found us outside in a garden with clear primary colors and heavy dark shadows… extremely bright highlights and an impatient and sweltering crew. A year later and I’m looking at these images with new eyes in light of having installed the new Adobe Lightroom 4 and Photoshop 6.

I’ve been testing the new features as I find them… or need them and the new organization in LR where “Fill light” is broken into Whites and Blacks, Highlights and Shadows… 4 separate sliders that really let you put your finger on what an individual image needs. In addition… in PS6 there’s a whole new “Blur” gallery that will simulate the lensbaby effects but with more precision about where the image will be blurred, what direction the blur will take, by how much, etc. Very controllable and fun to play with! There’s even a “Tilt/Shift” blur! Cool!

There’s lots more but I’d rather share some of the results of trying to do something more with all these mid-day shots. Some alternative treatments to the first which is the original. Suggestions welcome… what would you try?

We did find a little shade in corners to hide in and a few of the new tools worked better than what I was able to achieve a year ago.

Archway

Bench

Playing with fire…

18 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in Abstract Macro Photography, Art, Photography, Uncategorized

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Volcano 1

Volcano 1

In my ongoing and seemingly endless project of organizing my files, finding a way to work off the network that my husband and I both use… and do a little editing along the way when something interesting pops up in the files… I found a collection that I didn’t know I had! What a nice surprise. And… an odd subject as well which, makes them even more attractive to me. :) Volcanos!!!

I do realize that the hidden picture… or Accidental Image isn’t the most exciting of subjects… but, most people do identify with the phenomenon of seeing something that is an accidental occurrence… and recognizing it’s existence. The most common is perhaps the clouds that look like rabbits or profiles of people, angles or fish shapes. Just how common is it? Well, I host a group on the Redbubble site which is all about these hidden pictures and the membership has reached 800+ and there are are 16,300 images in the group collection!! Come visit the group and click on the “Gallery” in the menu to scroll through the image thumbnails. Click on any thumbnail to go to that images page.

So, here is my little collection of smokin’ mountains of molten whatever from the center of the earth… distant views with smoke spewing in metal, concrete, asphalt and a peeling paint diagram of magma tubes as plain as day. I hope I find some more!

Volcano 2

Volcano 2

Volcano 3

Volcano 3

Volcano 4

Volcano 4

Volcano 5 Magma flow

Volcano 5 Magma flow

Re-evaluating B&W in the digital world

14 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by in Art, Photography, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture, Uncategorized

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The Sleding Hill

The Sleding Hill – Boxford, MA

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts is presenting a marvelous new look at the works of Ansel Adams from now until October.  It’s a fascinating look at an iconic photographers work… with some surprising images that send me back to my own collection of work to re-evaluate the whole black and white idea in my own portfolio.

Peabody Essex Museum – Ansel Adams: At the Water’s Edge.

In the 60’s and 70’s my photographic interest was totally in the B&W darkroom. My husband and I would build a darkroom in the basement or bathroom of whatever apartment or house we were living in and spend our evenings in the dark with our hands in the chemicals… adjusting exposures, dodging and burning… to achieve the range of tones of the great Modernist photographer who was already a legend.

Adams system involved ‘previsualization’ which meant the artist should imagine what the final print should look like before he even took the shot. Today’s modern digital cameras provide that in the ‘scenes’ setup modes in even the least expensive models… and the digital preview on the screen that shows what you’re about to shoot… and what you have shot!! B&W and sepia toned images are possible without even the slightest bother of a darkroom tray. I wonder what Ansel would say!!

I went back to my own files, in which I’ve only made a few conversions to B&W over the past few years. I was interested to see if the modern B&W processes would turn a few of my favorite images into something new and different. I have to admit that I saw them with new eyes in their new B&W forms. The process let me visualize what they should look like before the conversion and that helped me make the decisions of tone and exposure along the way. A far cry from the smelly darkroom dodging and burning and more satisfying results!!

Rainbow from the Pass

Rainbow from the Pass – Ireland

Murphy's Pub

Murphy’s Pub – Dingle, Ireland

Garden of the Gods - Colorado Springs, CO

Garden of the Gods – Colorado Springs, CO

Johnson's Pond

Johnson’s Pond – Boxford, MA

Maple walk

Maple walk – Bradford, MA

On the road in VA

On the road – Virginia

Witch Hollow Barn

Witch Hollow Barn – Boxford, MA

The distraction of ‘found art’.

11 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in Abstract Macro Photography, Art, Photography, Uncategorized

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In the act of fixing a chewed piece of woodwork (aren’t puppies wonderful!!) and after applying the necessary wood filler and sculpting an edge with handy pallet knives… and the necessary sanding, etc… I finally opened the almost empty gallon of white interior latex paint to finish the job. But, my progress ground to a complete halt with the discovery of a whirlwind of winter weather on the walls of the inside of the can of paint and the round lids as well. These kinds of images have become an obsession… I’ll make my husband wait at a gas station while I capture the peeling an crackling paint on the side of a rusting dumpster. But… this is the first time I’d been delayed by the fresh paint itself dried into wintery shapes and textures in the can it came in!! I share them with you…

A can of winter in the middle of June…

Whiteout

Whiteout

Lasting impression

Lasting impression

What we don't see

What we don’t see

Perceptions

Seasonal cold

Seasonal cold

Change of air

10 Saturday Mar 2012

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Change sunrise

Change sunrise

A definite change… still, warmer, humid, mosquitos! Hearing things you don’t hear when the breeze is running… the dog down the hill… a carpenter cutting wood somewhere far off. Preceded by a night of wind and rain that rattled the shutters, the sunrise sky is like none we’ve seen since we arrived. I’ve amused myself with my watercolor postcards, finding hidden pictures on the tiles of the floor and pool lounging when the sun is not quite so high. I’m getting the hang of the watercolors. I’ve never liked the medium… I’m too impatient and tend to overwork a piece by not letting the color dry before I work on top of it. The breeze here taught me something. It helped dry things up and I could see that I had to wait. Learn something every day… try new stuff… keep those brain cells moving… :)))

Hammock on the porch postcard

Hammock on the porch postcard

 

© Susana Weber and Tattoo Communications, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Susana Weber and with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.