Did you know…
That in only two places in the entire world there is a phenomenon called ‘simultaneous bioluminescence’ where fireflies in the area sync up their flashes so they all light up at the same time repeatedly all night long. This happens (apparently) in Southeast Asia and Smoky Mountain National Park.
I had no idea!
Found on ‘The Magic & Folklore of Fireflies’
This image is another one of my iPad creations.
I’ve been REmaking images lately.
It’s my new favorite thing. I’m kind of obsessed actually.
What I like to do is search thru images in my camera roll – particularly images that seem very ‘lacking’ – photographically. You know, those images you take because you see something unusual or something you feel you just need to record – but not something necessarily frame-worthy.
I have a LOT of those images. It’s impossible NOT to have a lot especially when you’re a photographer and you have a camera in your hands almost every minute of the day!
I like to take THOSE images and see if I can turn them into something completely different as simply and as quickly as possible.
It’s a challenge. And it’s really satisfying when every now and then you strike gold.
Here’s the before image.
A left-handed-rest-against-the-window-use-the-volume-controls-as-a-shutter-button-and-hope-you-get-the-image image…into a Rocky-Mountain-National-Park-now-appearing-on I-20-somewhere-in-EastTexas-abstract image.
My kind of fun.
“Alice came to a fork in the road. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked.
‘Where do you want to go?’ responded the Cheshire Cat.
‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered.
‘Then,’ said the Cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Another creation using the apps, Living Planet and PaintFX
Art.
Interfered with.
Interference Art.
(Aka more fun with apps)
Photography makes me happy.
You know, I kinda just now came to that realization.
Now I know that statement must sound a little crazy considering how much I enjoy photographing things and the fact that I have an entire blog (practically) dedicated to the medium – but it really comes down to this:
Photography is something I’ve always enjoyed doing.
DOING. Participating in. In the verb sense of the word (if that makes any sense at all).
But just now while playing around with this simple little image, an image that I took with my iPhone (in my car, through a dirty windshield no less) I realized that, with each swipe of my finger, with each new result of my playing, I found that my heart was beating a little bit faster and an honest to goodness swelling of emotion was building up inside.
And this happens all the time.
Not only do I enjoy the process of photography; the searching, the discovering, the capturing of images – that process involves me actively participating in something. But what I’m talking about here is – this process has an affect on me.
Continually. Even after the searching is over.
I’ve just realized I’m in a long term relationship!
And it’s a beautiful one!
Through my dirty windshield, South Congress, Austin, Texas.
Here is a simplified example where I grabbed an image from my camera roll, painted over it with blue, outlined a few simple shapes with a pen tool, and erased within the shapes to reveal the original image.
The great thing about it is that you can change the opacity before you start drawing (if you’re not into surprises) and be as precise as you’d like with your drawing (for placement purposes).
I’m still using my finger to draw and paint, mainly because I like the rough, organic feel it gives but also because I’m really getting into this new, spontaneous way I’ve found to create art every day – but using a stylus would give you even greater control.
Btw…it’s the iColorama app I’m using — I have it for both the iPad and the iPhone – they’re a little different and (I’m ashamed to admit) I can’t seem to figure out how to use the one on the phone – but I prefer working on the larger screen anyway.
.
Another great thing about using an app to make art besides no messy fingers (and that’s a pretty good reason in itself) is the ability to add layer upon paint layer without worry of overloading the substrate.
In this example using iColorama (my latest obsession) I’ve started with an image from my camera roll. I then ‘painted’ over the image to create a solid color background that I could then ‘reveal’ selectively by erasing and then adding to by adding even more layers; erasing, adding, erasing, etc.
Changing up the ‘tool’ selection created variety and also gave me a chance to experiment and see what would happen.
And since this was just an exercise in experimentation, I felt absolutely no pressure to create art.
Now, how easy was that!
Another great thing about using the iPhone to make art – is that you can get by with images already in your camera roll. You’d be surprised at what you can do with what you already have. And its those images that you’d least expect, the ones out of focus, or those accidentally taken, that will surprise you the most.
Don’t think that because it turned out blurry, or if you didn’t get the composition just right that its worthless…more times than not those images will give you that unexpected, spontaneity that is difficult to re-create on purpose.
Very rarely do I discard an image. NO matter what. You just never know what you might need one day to do the trick.
And not only are you creating cool new pieces of art with each new creation, but you’re also giving yourself more images to create new work from.
Its all about layering. And sometimes, the more layers the better.
Say you’re using Blender (app) and you’ve combined two images together that you’re happy with. Simply save that new image, and start a new ‘session’ using that newly created image as your new first layer and pick another image to blend it with. And so on and so on. You can continue on in this way for as long as you like.
I call it layer stacking.
WARNING! Its addictive!!!
The above image was one of those ‘not sure what it is but might want to keep it anyway’ images. And this is what it looked like before.
See what I mean?
Oh the joy of creating with reckless abandon; without care or concern for the outcome.
And why, if I know this to be true, am I constantly surprised with the results each and every time??
Here, I have simply grabbed a couple of unlikely images (those without a drop of potential) – or so I thought – and carelessly merged them together with the iPhone app ‘Blender’. I then tweaked the (pre-set) Blend Modes until I came up with these fun results!
You must try this at home!!