A friend was doing a locum in Thurso and we visited for a week. The weather was changeable but when it was good the views were amazing… seeing Orkney across the Pentland Firth and Dunnett Bay to the east.
The image of a boat in the firth was made with an Olympus digital camera. The small amount of red in a blue and as in the last blog I reworked this. So here are two other images from the top of Scotland and the work in progress.
Top of Scotland Dunnett Bay
Top of Scotland Towards Dunnett Head
Original Image used Towards Orkney
Processed image
Perhaps the distressed image was not an ideal texture so further work…
I have been seeing a lot of creative artists’s work and this has resulted in me exploring beyond the photographic image and seeing more. The borders in particular do not have to be defined, layers and textures can be added and images can be extended – photograph or art…
So which genre(s) do the images sit within… They have probably moved from documentary or landscape photography… are they within creative photography, mixed media, abstract images or…
At the moment the work is mostly achieved by processing in a number of Apps and revisiting them as necessary. I often work with the image inverted or reversed then return to the ‘correct’ view. However, I have not been particularly methodical and failed to record the processes for each piece of work – so they are definitely ‘one offs’ and there is a lesson to be learned.
So here is a new version of the landscape from my previous blog: ‘Crossing Beauly Firth’. Besides applying layers and textures I have merged a second copy of the image at 90 degrees thereby making the ‘crossing’. I have included some of the work in progress with the final image.
Buealy Firth Processed Raw image
So the original raw image was made with an Olympus digital camera and processed through Apps, all told over a day’s work including travel. How long would it have taken if I had created this by hand, physically applying every layer, texture and, border on top of an original piece? Perhaps I should feel guilty that there has been little pain in making this, and would I have felt more comfortable had I made an image with my Sinar X large format film camera [no lens as yet through], had it printed onto canvas and then worked on it – it would have cost more certainly…
But would it have worked in black and white or sepia?
A recent trip beyond Inverness incurred a brief stop at Kessock Bridge and the light in the estuary needed to be captured. This time an Olympus EP5 and images taken in Raw and produced in both colour and B&W.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
From North Kessock, HighlandFrom North Kessock, Highland – Olympus EP5 processed in Lightroom & Nik softwareFrom North Kessock, Highland – Olympus EP5 processed in Lightroom & Nik software
The journey back brought most of a Sinar X large format camera but this was at night by then… The light here remained for at least 30 minutes – changing slightly over the period so there would have been time to set up the Sinar – if I had had a lens!
Scotland … open skies, rolling hills, small coves and harbours, amazing sandy and stony beaches and the weather is generally better – warmer and drier than the west coast…
But the Grampian Mountains are not far away and the views when travelling to Inverness and into the Highlands….
We do have winds here with added land and sea breezes and living in a small village our nearest main shopping is eight miles away.
The influences here are so very different, not just the absence of city buildings and structures, but the wide open skies and colours. Importantly, since our retirement, there is more time to see and learn from local artists and to be creative with experiments in ways that I just did not have the time for in Manchester. The result is that I often see differently.
So this blog may become different now……
Photographs or pieces of work…
More than photography…
A new way…
It is difficult to ignore the vibrance of summer colours, the light in the long evenings and the play of shadows all around.
So to start this new phase here are two iPhone images of the winter sun rising above our village three days ago. The first is as I saw the light through our blinds and then when opened taken through condensation on another upstairs window… and yes in colour. The first two images show the originals first as a reference – not a comparison – these are fairly ordinary and then the two worked on / processed versions where the ‘pictures’ break out from the window frames so that the border and the view became one.
‘Another way of seeing’ to borrow from John Berger … photography, art, mixed media… Would I put the last piece of work on our wall or exhibit it – yes I think so…
White and black photography 