ALL THOSE CLICHES COME TO MIND...

"All That Glitters Isn't Gold," "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (thanks to St. Mick), " Ya Shoulda Seen The Fish That Got Away."

Well, it was like that the other afternoon....
Driving down a street near town a delivery truck turned a corner and suddenly my windshield view was taken up with this huge square shape filled with a beer glass and bottle looking so perfectly scaled and color coordinated with the red, yellow, orange autumn follage surrounding it. And the sky's blue was the perfect complimentary color.... I reached across the seat into my handbag for my ever present camera only to not find it. I continued on searching for it, and my mind, wondering how I left it at home. The image began to taunt me....beginning to glow like a gem just out of reach. Blocks later, I had to turn off onto the freeway, and would lose my opportunity; the image began to be more and more important in the face of having no way to possess it.....We got to the freeway entrance, and omfg, he turned onto it also....and the tree lined expanse became more lush and perfect with the uncluttered road way, not messing up the perfect composition. The Photo Gods were laughing at me now, I thought, they're amused at my frustration. And then came the moment of "aha...the cell phone!!!" I have to say, I never use the camera function and barely know how to work it. So there I am, tailgating this truck at 65 miles an hour, clicking furiously, barely able to see what was on the tiny viewer without my glasses on,
plus not knowing how to save the little suckers....click, click, click. The truck finally got to his exit and away he went, probably grateful to get this crazy woman off his ass...I had no idea what I got, except feeling it was a futile attempt for the crumbs of a glorious cake that got away. When I finally looked at the file in the phone, most didn't get saved for not knowing how to work the damn thing. There were 3 frames of my dashboard only and this one with the truck somewhere out there in the distance, above the dashboard which I cropped out. It sure ain't art.

So the magic of the moment was the only prize of the day; the lesson for me is that's all there really is.

ART OF MANIPULATION

Converted with the antique plate filter

No one sees things exactly the same as another. If you put 10 reasonably creative people with cameras in the same situation I suspect you'll get 10 different photographs. Not only that, but someone else looking at those photographs then interprets what we have seen in their unique way. Pretty cool on one hand, because all we can do is what we do, then put it out there for others to see in it what they will. However, as an artist, we have many options to create a portal or path for an observer to follow into our own special world of visual delights. I find there are times I have a specific intention for a photo, and want to make a particular statement. Sometimes it's more illusive.....an image seems to make it's self intuitively, the outside beckoning me from within; a feeling sparking pure consciousness into being, connecting perfectly into a form in the confines of the camera's window frame. Those are magic times; I think that's what keeps many of us clinging to our cameras as one would a love interest. (that sounds weird, huh?) Anyway, with new technology adding more possibilities to extend our photographic vocabularies and flights of fancy, visual impact becomes more and more available and sometimes overwhelming. If money were no object, I'd probably overdose on lens and software, like a diabetic run amok in a candy store. I should probably be grateful I'm being protected from myself. That said, I found an interesting program that I'm using on a 15 day trial download (thank you photo-god.) It's Silver Efex Pro by NIK Software. It's a filtering program that goes into Photoshop and lets you create very interesting black and white conversions. Since downloading it yesterday, I've been experimenting with how one image can be altered to create an entirely different emotional feel.

This is the original photo of Central Park in NYC

Converted with yellow filter and some contrast fiddling

THE LUXURY OF TIME

Being unememployed is certainly a major inconvenience when it comes to having money, but the one trade off of having my time is priceless. Not having to parcel creative time around committment to being somewhere for so many hours a week, has opened a precious space of unbound availability to wander around inside and out, shooting and working on images way into the quiet of night. Here are some of the results of last week's meanderings.