earth and sky we walk between pondering both
A new piece for my ongoing project the Sum of the Parts where I’m intentionally blurring a scene during capture in an attempt to deconstruct them into their component parts. The result invites the viewer to ponder and create their own landscape … a new sum of the parts. One day I’ll get enough of these to put a show together.
I particularly like the way this one remains ambiguous. Is it dusk or midday? Inland or coastal?
The tones are sweet and wonderful, almost as if they dreamed. I also really like the later stripped of this abstract
Thank Marie … I’m aiming for the landscape as abstract … thank you 🙂
Such an image leaves much to the imagination, Geoff. I like that. When heaven and earth meet like this, the two become one. It reminds me of what we often say in astrology: “As in heaven above, so on earth below.”
The imagination is where it all happens for us … I’m hoping to make something that stirs something inside … something the viewer wasn’t expecting before they arrived in front of the picture.
I love this. Peaceful, beautiful and evocative. Thank you.
Thank you Sue, for dropping by and letting me know the image took you somewhere 🙂
Hi Geoffrey,
I’m not in your class as a photographer at all, but I did notice that I was seeing a lot of good pictures when I composed scenes that made it hard to tell what you were looking at and how far away things were. This was in complete opposition to an instinct for traditional landscape composition, and it really kicked in more interest in becoming a better photographer.
This one of yours really goes beyond that into… well, I want to say, “Abstract Expressionism.” It is definitely something I’d hang on my wall precisely because it stimulates the imagination.
On another note, these soft, diffuse fields are exactly the type of content that cause jpeg compression to generate ragged edges. Though the file would be larger, I suspect the image would look much better on most monitors were it a png instead of a jpg. I think most people who like images (your readers and mine) have long since ditched the old browsers that don’t support pngs.
Hey Rick. A sense of scale is one of those things I think our rational minds look for in a picture. As our minds attempt to construct meaning to a photograph they look for familiar things; a person, a tree, a car… when confronted by something beyond scale or without scale data the mind slips into another mode if you like and begins to drift and that drift, that slide is limited only by the viewer’s imagination and willingness to let go.
Regarding the jagged jpeg issue my short answer is ‘I know’. My longer answer is that I try to balance the size of an image with it’s resolution to provide both content and image fidelity. The balance I arrived at is to export the images as jpegs with a standard long edge of 800pixels at 72dpi which is fine for most screen applications. I understand the PNG format maintains a greater fidelity but at larger cost in size. My other issue is convenience … I use Adobe Lightroom for my image management and the plugin I use to export directly from Lightroom to my blog doesn’t support PNG. I know, I could export and then upload manually but it takes time and is a step I would rather automate. Rest assured on my monitor it looks beautifully smooth (and printed would reflect that gradient) … you’ll just have to imagine that for now.
I meant to get back to you quickly, but I ended up immersed in redesigning my site and reformatting all my old posts into standard xml. That took a couple days.
I understand! And don’t get me wrong. The image is beautiful from where I sit too. I noticed little things because I looked at it so closely for a long time. I hear you on the necessity of automating routine tasks. It allows us to focus on art–whether words or pictures. I use Lightroom too. Great program; that is, I figured out it was a great program after I got over my initial overwhelm.
I’m pretty geeky though. I still use command line tools like various ImageMagick functions and ftp for uploads. Why? To automate routine tasks. 🙂 Like learning a new program, they are hard in the beginning, but easy in the long run.
All that being said, I must say that I’m thinking I would like to be a customer for your work. When I said I’d hang this on my wall, I meant it.
The site’s looking great … nice and simple and deceptively plain – I like that. I grew up on the geeky side too … I regularly shift things around with ftp and do command-line conversions and batching … but I do appreciate when an application comes along that can contain all of those administrative and processing routines into a common interface r environment. LR isn’t perfect by any means but it’s certainly the closest I’ve come to an application that covers nearly all of my workflow.
If you’re interested in purchasing any of the art I post here (or anywhere for that matter) please drop me an email and we can work something out. It’s a buzz to think someone likes something enough to want it their place too 🙂
beautiful. how about a little tutorial???
🙂
Er …
🙂
Upon re-reading my reply – I didn’t mean that to sound quite so smart-arse … there is of course more to it than that. But it’s not so difficult and much relies on the ability to ‘see’ what you’re looking for. The technique is pretty much as described and you can see I prefer balanced images and working with representations of layers … I haven’t yet refined the techniques of rendering more complex scenes in this fashion … not that I haven’t been trying 🙂
Very interest effect – this new experiment of yours. It sort of reminds me of the many hundreds of cloudscapes I so like to shoot whenever I have the opportunity to fly. This type of experimenting in beauty, in stretching the imagination beyond some designated boundary is one of the gifts God endowed us with. There would have been a time that I might have even said that it is a shame that someone would want to do the opposite but for the last few days I have been watching the original series of KUNG FU. I want to tell you – what a wise series it was!!!! but that is an aside. There was one episode on evil and a young Caine was distressed that there was such evil in the world and his old master pointed out to him that the reason we recognize goodness in the world is because the oppose stands in stark contrast and points it out to us. (These are not the exact words and certainly not as poorly put but you get the idea, I think). Everything has its place in the world and we always are in the process of choosing for ourselves what we will view, do, think, and present to the world. Thank you for your beauty!!!
Marialla, I have to declare at the outset that I did not think about Kung Fu when composing this picture though some of the elements you describe about the creative process reflect those mentioned … particularly the stretching of imagination across it’s regular boundaries. Gosh, Kung Fu … I can’t even remember the last time I saw an episode of that … thanks for the memory 🙂
Lovely, dreamy and harmonious while retaining an element of mystery.
The best dreams retain mystery 🙂
I grew up in the light of an abstract expressionist. My mother studied and exhibited with some of the greats. Your image is painterly and reminds me of how Mother Nature expresses her majesty, often in abstract ways. Hans Hofmann (one of the most noted Abstract Expressionist) said: “The creative process lies not in imitating, but in paralleling nature–translating the impulse received from nature into the medium of expression, thus vitalizing this medium.” I believe that you’ve done that, Sally
Wow … that’s a beautiful thing to say Sally … thank you. It is an natural scene. In fact it’s a photograph of a natural scene … simply nature seen in a different way … indeed in a parallel way. 🙂
I was a little bit confused when I read that it’s #2 as I was pretty sure I’ve seen two of these from you before. And indeed you can see three when following the link, the first one was just called different 🙂
I think the style of these pictures will always remind me of you and this one, on a first glance, made me think about somebody I met not long ago who would like it as much as I do. And of course it also reminds me of home, the sea, the beaches, those that are close and also those that are far far away. It also looks a little bit like the sky over the city today which is mostly blue but framed with white clouds.
Thank you V 🙂
Very astute! 🙂 there’s no fooling these science types. You are correct, this is indeed the third post featuring the project but the second entitled Sum of the Parts. I thought about renaming the initial post (I really did!) to obtain consistency but the truth is that I came up with the project title after the publication of that first post … now my next project post will titled #3 when in fact it’s the fourth … you see how easily standards slip 😉
the extreme delicacy, marks the perfect border, in this picture, a very intriguing and fascinating result in a yield of good parts in color.
Glad you were transported even a little by the work Fabrizio 🙂
I am -definitly- fan of this serie…
Thank you Pascale .. it’s an evolving series … the more I complete the deeper each becomes in its own simplicity.
With this surreal image, I imagine.. ..maybe…..just maybe….this could be the first glimpse of something which is beyond this life…..maybe.
I think perhaps the series represents a transitional phase between reality and imagination … certainly something beyond what we see in our everyday 🙂
It looks like an abstract piece of art, reflective . . . . allowing the viewing to get lost in the image.
Exactly the effect I’m after Kathryn! 🙂
Stunningly good
Thank you … I rather think they’re coming along 🙂
The blurry beauty more than adds up to the sum of these beautiful parts!
Thanks Patti … something about ‘wholes’ and ‘greater thans’ 🙂
This is a gorgeous picture. The tones and the transition between them makes the picture into something very expressionistic. I like it exactly because it invites «the viewer to ponder and create their own landscape». For me the literal interpretation looks like a lake captured at dusk – because of the purple tones in the sky and reflected in the water. Very nice!
… and I like that it has the power to transport other people to places of peace and tranquility. Thanks Otto 🙂
Peaceful, beautiful. Love it!
Thanks B 🙂
This is absolutely magical…totally and completely captivating. Love how you’ve conceived of this series..and are beginning to put things together. So glad to have found you over at Vision and Verb!
Marcie, thank you and for your lovely words over at V&V too. I’m glad you like the series … I thinks it’s beginning to take real shape. Albeit a blurry shape 😉
gentle, soft, excellent!
Thank you 🙂
Zen composition and tones ! Great shot !