an old favorite revisited

Synthaetica — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:23:05 +0000

My all-too-brief stay in California was a constant series of inspirations and explorations. These callas grew in a neighbor’s yard just up the street from us in Camarillo, but I only managed to shoot them once. These were the larger variety of callas, with long, thick elegant stems and impressive blooms.

Although the crop factor on my digital cameras is usually 1.5, I composed this mentally as a panoramic view when I took the shot. It was a challenge to photograph, due the Santa Anna winds that time of the year. There is a slight blur noticeable in the closeup, which was an intentional recording of the natural movement.

The first version below, entitled “WhiteWash”, has hung at the Colorado Technical University installation and is part of their permanent collection. It has also hung at Cliff Hangers Gallery and the Horse Barn Arts Center.

The second version, entitled “WhiteWash Revisited”, is a new (late 2006) derivative work designed to capture a mood similar to “Wisteriance” (to be showcased in a later post) while maintaining its feeling of subtle movement and tension. The light glow along the edges of the callas is both a by-product of the treatment used, and a way of bringing focus to the center of each flower.

Both versions are available in limited editions of 250 with roughly one dozen of “WhiteWash” sold to date. Sizes may range from 12″x24″ to 24″x48″.

call it habit

Synthaetica — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 04:24:25 +0000

each previous incarnation of this blog has begun with “Big Stone Autumn”, and this one is no exception. photographed in early October, 2004, it was taken with a Nikon D100 and the Nikkor 80-400mm VR lens. the scene is just south of my parents’-in-law home on the South Dakota side of Big Stone Lake. “Big Stone Autumn” is one of my best-selling productions. Like all of my fine art prints, it is available online exclusively through Made In South Dakota.

after a major ice storm in 2005, one of the trees no longer exists, and several of the others lost large limbs. the colors in the original photograph were not quite what is seen here. i chose to retouch it using several of Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro 2.0 filters. the master file has several layers—a by-product of my penchant for low-contrast capture for digital manipulation.

all images on this blog link to copyright-protected higher-resolution previews hosted on our company’s website, the ShadowMoon Productions Base Camp. simply click on any image to see a larger preview, which you respectfully requested not to use. images available for licensing will be clearly marked.

Synðætik Synapse

an old favorite revisited

call it habit