If your birthday falls too close to another holiday – well – events may often become blended. So it was for Ann’s mom. Millie’s birthday and the McDonald christmas celebration came together last Saturday evening.
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Leica M8, 28 mm Summicron
For over fifty years I’ve felt a fascination about how life “looks” in photographs. No famous people here. I don’t even know these people. No special effects. Though there does seem to be something special about black and white photographs. No news. Just everyday life in a local restaurant. Sort of silly. Really. Yet visual slices out of time and space continue to fascinate me. Why? In these three examples it’s very much about the hands (among other things).
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Leica M8, 50 mm Summilux Asph
For the artist, as well as the photographer, technology has most certainly evolved. I purchased Adobe Illustrator 88 (in that year), for something close to $500, to do design work on my $3,500 Mac SE. And of course also had to have Photoshop soon after. In 1990 Fractal Painter came along for another few hundred dollars. As the years went on the computers kept getting bigger and faster; and each iteration cost another $3 – $3,500; plus continuous software, memory and harddrive upgrades. The “serious” digital artist also needs calibrated monitors for accurate prepress work; and a Wacom tablet, starting at around $300, to most closely approximate the “feel” of traditional art materials. The 12″ Wacom Cintiq, which incorporates an LCD screen into the tablet will run $1,000; with the 21″ version running a cool $2K. And all this pretty much needs to be tied down to the desk.
Today I can grab a $500 iPad and any one of a number of $5 (ArtStudio) to $8 (Brushes or SketchBook Pro) apps and have an experience “similar” to using a $1K tablet on a $3.5K computer while sitting in a coffee shop, on a plane or in a train. The accuracy of the finger (or stylus) will not equal that of a Wacom pen… but… hey it’s a sketch pad.
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figuring — iPad “painting” by Lottermoser
And of course one can bring photos into the apps for “artistic” effects as well.
ann — iPad photo manipulation by Lottermoser
At this time the iPad artwork is limited in pixel dimensions. Yet it offers the artist a very portable, clean and useful set of tools whether a figurative, representational, or abstract expressionist. David Hockney recently exhibited a series of work done on his iPhone and iPad using the Brushes app.
growing during chaos — iPad “painting” by Lottermoser
first out — iPad “painting” by Lottermoser
My friend, and painter, Jack Hernon, recently visited. I plugged in the headphones and set him loose in ArtStudio. We certainly agreed that the iPad would be a great companion on his flight home to Winston-Salem, NC.
Leica M8, 50 mm Summilux Asph
Consider this: Men mine iron ore; smelt it; turn it into steel; form the steel into sheets; transform the sheets into heavy equipment. At each stage labor and resources add value to the ore. People then use the heavy equipment to transform the earth; plant and harvest food; process that food; transport that food to super markets where we pick it up and drive it back to our kitchens in our steel vehicles. When the heavy equipment is used up and no longer functions as intended it goes to the scrap yard; where men cut it up and smash it into manageable chunks. This steel, now reduced to $100 per ton raw material (or $.10 – .20 per lb in small quantities) had a full life. It sits in the yards for decades; oxidizing, pitting and developing altogether new properties. The steel waits. Last week’s wabi-sabi wednesday photograph was just that — scrap steel in the yard of Tyler Studios, ltd; waiting.
In the hands of a creative talent this scrap becomes raw material to create a beautiful “new” object.
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With each heat and hammer blow the craftsman adds new value to the old material. Additional photographs of this process can be found here.
The artist, Seth Tyler, has drawn the plans and made the prototype model as the first steps toward creating the full scale range hood.
Within a few months the completed range hood will hang in a fine kitchen. It will absorb the cooking aromas, heat, laughter, anger and tears of the family cooking and dining there. From morning coffee to celebrations it will continue to evolve with an ever changing patina; unique to its new environment; full of wabi-sabi to be sure.
Leica R8, 35 mm Summilux (15 mm Super Elmar)
I’m always amazed when people look at photographs of themselves and say things like, “I look old and fat…” or “I look awful…” I look at the same photograph and think, “I’ve managed to capture your beauty.” It makes me wonder what they see in the mirror. Garry Winogrand said, “I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.” It would seem that many people do not want to know what they “look like.” Every now and again, mostly while checking the light for some other photograph, I too wonder what I look like photographed.
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Leica M8, 50 mm Summilux Asph
summer departed
yet through memories and dreams
float within this time
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Leica M8, 28 mm Summicron Asph
Okay. Some weeks ago (over on the LUG) Wednesday acquired weird as an appropriate midweek photographic post; followed a week or two later by someone feeling more comfortable with wacky. As I consider photographs for this genre of midweek posts, whether new subjects or images from my archives, other related “w” words came to mind — such as wild, waggish (for old times sake) and for this week even whimsical. For me these will open up the Wednesday challenge a bit while remaining, I believe, true (enough) to the spirit of the original visual quest.
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Leica M8, 50 mm Summilux Asph
I’ve posted this first example, of using a photograph as a jumping off point to create a digital illustration which suggests a work created with traditional art materials (such as pencils, brushes and/or paints), as a response to a conversation with another photographer. I contend that one has to use the digital tools to move the photograph sufficiently beyond what a photograph “looks like” and enough toward what a drawing or painting “looks like.” I believe this requires the use of hand gestures of sufficient quantity and quality (and well beyond just hitting filter effect buttons) in order to fool the eye and mind. Does this example achieve that desire? I think “just.”
Wacom Tablet, Photoshop, and Painter
Below are two of my early attempts at drawing on the iPad; examples of taking it the other way. Meaning “drawn” on the iPad and exported through Lightroom. We find ourselves in truly interesting digital imaging times.
Griffin Stylus on iPad (drawn from life)
(somehow this photograph seems like an apt metaphor for our recent election results — ’nuff said)
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Leica M8, 28 mm Summicron Asph
the photographers
disappear behind grandpas
when fairies appear
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Leica M8, 28 mm Summicron Asph
