Smoke
I guess one of the things that has intrigued most of us since we were independently mobile enough to be warned not to get too close to it, is fire. Who hasn’t sat mesmerised by the cavorting flames or stared into the embers looking for answers to life’s burning questions. Who hasn’t been pursued around a campfire by smoke looking for eyes to water. (Tip: dry wood only :-). I certainly have enjoyed fire and smoke in the form of incense, sage and palo santo as well as campfires, and vegies cooked in the coals of a winter garden cleanup burn.
Native peoples of the world have used smoke to cleanse and clear their spaces. Some Aboriginal Australians use smoke of native plants to cleanse physically and spiritually. As it turns out there may be more to this than as immediately obvious as research has shown that heating the leaves of the berrigan emu bush ( Eremophila longifolia) produces a smoke with significant antimicrobial and anti-fungal effects. The smoke kills bacterial or fungal pathogens in the air.
When photographed correctly, smoke can produce some beautiful abstract images. Those of us in whom pareidolia runs strong may also perceive beings and objects of this and other realms. Dinosaurs, demons, dolphins, cellos, aliens, flowers, leaves, cats, birds, and a variety of humanoid shapes are just some of the images emerging from smoke. These are all very impressionistic of course something which allies with my preference for ICM landscapes when let loose in the wild.
Recently I have been collaging smoke images and moving away from the typical coloured smoke on a black background as I learn what is feasible in editing. The gallery shows a few of these. Colour and background texture can have a profound impact on the image mood.
(FTR: I don’t burn things in the wild (fire safety first) but even the stillest days there are wafting breezes that can frustrate your setup - much like campfire smoke actually. )
Gerald
Emerging from the clouds and seeing the view from his world, Gerald’s world view changed.
How I do stuff bit: this was a single smoke image, and a single star field image with 4 .. no 5 … textures for clouds, colour. (4 is normal 5 is extra - this number is growing - it was 1. I build these textures from other images say cicada wings for example, blurring, recolouring and blending to suit.
Imagination: practice, practice, practice. Ask others what they see, and then practice some more.
Titles: Often the first word that comes into my head when I first see the image, but that can mutate as I work on it. Gerald is a mutant and comes from the lyrics of Bike - Pink Floyd.
”I know a mouse, and he hasn't got a house
I don't know why I call him Gerald
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse”
Of course I change “mouse” to “muse” in my head. Song titles and lyrics do feature a fair bit in my titles but I try not to be too descriptive of the image content, after all we’d (Gerald and I) would like you to have your own experience and engage with the image.
So whaddya see?
Tuesday the 14th …
Testing this space proceeds apace. RSS feed appears to work, comments (these are NQR at present) and email subscriptions to go. Once this is done posts will fall beack to one a week.
So what gives with the greyscale images? Well I have been taking black and whites for a couple of weeks now to try and train my eye to see tones or value rather than colour. Fret ye not, the camera records all the colour info too, nothing is lost. Colour can be distracting: for example the wriggly, curvy, bendy grass stem would get a little lost in the green/straw background. Conversely, the Bee at left and the Tatterdemalion at right gets a little lost in the background without their natural colourings.
Monday the 13th…
… seems appropriate.
I have been intending to add a blog to this website for quite some time and it looks like that time has arrived. My intent is that this be a space of delight, and hope for any viewers. I really only have one thing to say today: whatever ‘it’ is, get out and do it as often as you can. This is what I am about to do against all the rools of macro photography. I am going out on a dull, grey cool summer’s morning sans tripod and flash, with only two bodies - mine and the camera, a single lens, a hat, grey block (the antithesis of sun block) and a lens cloth.
I hope you can enjoy your day whatever that may mean for you.
Now if I can just conjure the magic for adding an image and an RSS feed to this …
“Smoke on the water”