Moses Makes Pictures

 Last week we took some time to explore the mysteries of photo-shop. The first image I manipulated was a painting by Malevich which, in it's original state, was the composed of a black square and a red triangle. When I was done with it it wasn't anymore. Moving shapes around in photoshop is much easier than daubing paint on a canvas, and I would think that Malevich would have taken full advantage of it if he had lived to see it.  I had some fun with Matisse. The first is real subtle, but it's intriguing to see how showing two breasts instead of one changes the implied perspective of the viewer. The next edit is an expression of how I felt using photoshop for the first time. 

Lansing and Tejas walked down to the water to take some photos on a fine Saturday. I got some environmental portraits of Lansing and his film camera that are quite compelling. The three pictures on the bottom are of a kind fellow I met outside Kingsbury. I asked him if I could take his picture out of some sudden compulsion, and he immediately said yes, and that it was his birthday. This was a nice bit of synchronicity. 

Having left class early on the day we shot portraits for the amalgamation project, I was worried that I would be unable to  complete this project. However, I was saved by David's kind offer to come in on Saturday and show me how to use photoshop to layer all these beautiful faces together. I succeeded in making one amalgamation of the more serious photos we took, and now that I know the basic process I will also work on making one with the silly photos featuring our wee canine friend.   This is the first amalgamation that I put together with David's help. We couldn't figure out how to make the background more even, but otherwise it's working okay.

             It was 5 hours from the Walmart parking lot where I left my car and joined Sita and Meenakshi in the Subaru. I hadn't spent a good long time with my mom and sister for weeks, and we had a lot to talk about, so the drive went by quickly. We arrived in Alfred late Sunday afternoon and moved our bags into a classically weird hotel that seemed to have all the air sucked out of it on a regular basis. Sunday night was dedicated to dinner, work on a marathon of a grant proposal, and some well deserved rest, Saturday morning was dedicated to exploring Alfred and taking pictures along the way. Exploring with a camera in hand is a relatively new experience for me, and I liked the way it made me more attentive to the visual interest of any given scene. I found myself going places that I would not have had I left the camera at home.            Something that made a strong impression on me was how people react to someon...

Here are the five photos I like best 

1. Photography something circular or round 2. Photograph a stranger 3. A doorway 4. Something in disrepair 5. Abnormal perspective 6. Night 7. Contrasting colors 8. Fast movement 9. A challenging place 10. Something tiny 11. The weather 12. Interactions 13. Representation of time 14. Photograph a friends secret 15. Journey or travel 16. A Rock 17. Photograph your interest or something meaningful to you 18. People expressing emotion 19. Low vantage point 20 Reflections of object or area 21. Texture 22. Pollution 23. Take a photo of something ugly 24. Power or the force of something 25. Something Yellow 26. Strong Light 27. Staircase 28. Comfortable area or Home 29. Instructions  30. A trick or joke;-)