Jake's Backdoor Hippie-palooza, 2014 Edition

BackdoorArts

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Here's another from yesterday...

20140330-D80_8568-Edit.jpg
 

hark

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Wow, Jake! This one is stunning! It captures my attention, and I don't want to stop looking at it! :)
 

BackdoorArts

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I'd been caching away several images for the March Abstract contest, trying to decide exactly what I wanted to enter while trying to finish some things before the end of the month. I have to say that there were some phenomenal images submitted this month that cover a wide gamut of what folks would refer to as "abstract". My ideas could be split into 2 categories, "Abstract as shot" and "Abstract as created". Given the many great photos that benefited more from pure composition than from image manipulation in post I had abandoned some of my ideas, deciding not to muddy the waters with layered multiple images along with some of the great shots that were there.

That said, I thought I'd work to finish them for my own education, and will post them as they're done - "Making" a picture instead of "Taking" it some days, since I'm no longer in the running for the challenge.

Here's one I did early on. It's a 4-cut composite of a single image I took at a local Farmer's Market. The original that it's based on was posted earlier in this thread...

20140308-D62_4274-Edit.jpg


When the abstract topic came up I thought back to a tree image I'd shot earlier that I later produced a mirror-reflection of and thought maybe that would work here. When I couldn't find a way for it to mirror I decided to play with rotating it 45 degrees and cropping it differently and sure enough, that was something that worked. So, for giggles, I rotated and mirrored two more times, and that worked. I then played more, replicating things, transforming and rotating layers, and wound up with this Magic Mushroom composite...

20140308-Shrooms.jpg



OK, so since this was "abstract", I figured, "Why stop there?!". So, I replicated the image and started playing with blending the image with itself using different blend modes (something I've become far more familiar with this month). When I hit the "Exclusion" mode I was very intrigued by what I saw. Well, I wish I could tell you exactly what I did, but playing strictly with Blend Modes and layer opacity, Magic Mushrooms became Psychedelic Mushrooms. LOL

20140308-Shrooms2.jpg



Now 'scuse me, there's a sky that needs kissing...
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
OK, so since this was "abstract", I figured, "Why stop there?!". So, I replicated the image and started playing with blending the image with itself using different blend modes (something I've become far more familiar with this month). When I hit the "Exclusion" mode I was very intrigued by what I saw. Well, I wish I could tell you exactly what I did, but playing strictly with Blend Modes and layer opacity, Magic Mushrooms became Psychedelic Mushrooms. LOL

View attachment 81019


Now 'scuse me, there's a sky that needs kissing...

On the work computer, I truly only saw one pic at a time. The 1st mushrooms without the mirroring was fantastic. The mirrored/inset edit left me amazed and wanting to dabble and learn (read: inspired), then the last one... *jaw hitting the floor goes here*

FWIW, I heard the guitar before I read the final quote. :cool:
 

Vixen

Senior Member
WOW!! That is an amazing finished abstract Jake. It reminds me of the glaze on pottery that I did many years ago. It's really AWESOME :D
 

wud

Senior Member
You are really creative, Jake!! Amazing last shots.

On previous page, I love how you made the orchids looks like it got glitter on :)
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Forget the black light, the disco BALL ;)
This shot is just superb Jake. Maybe a tiny bit over saturated, but stunning.

Thanks, Marcel. I left it as was after playing with the layer blends, saturation and all, with the hope of doing a tutorial. But I must have blacked out and flattened it some time during the trip. LOL
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
You are really creative, Jake!! Amazing last shots.

On previous page, I love how you made the orchids looks like it got glitter on :)

My wife got that plant 4 years ago or so and hasn't been able to kill it no matter how hard she tries. The texture of the flowers is just as you see it. I'm just mad that I shot those 2 days too early for this month's photo challenge. LOL
 

Geoffc

Senior Member
My wife got that plant 4 years ago or so and hasn't been able to kill it no matter how hard she tries. The texture of the flowers is just as you see it. I'm just mad that I shot those 2 days too early for this month's photo challenge. LOL

That's really funny Jake. We have one and for most of the time it looks like a dead twig and I keep suggesting we discard it. Then it blooms into one of those and the camera comes out again.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
That's really funny Jake. We have one and for most of the time it looks like a dead twig and I keep suggesting we discard it. Then it blooms into one of those and the camera comes out again.

That's the way it works. Last time it bloomed they stayed for an awful long time. She's got 3 or 4 "twigs" running and two popped at the same time last week. Unlike previous blooms, this time I had a studio set up to drag it into. Past times I've simply thought long and hard about it while sitting lazily on the couch.
 

hark

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April 7, 2014:

Paired long exposures - 30 second color, 15 second IR

View attachment 82013

What? :eyetwitch:


I cover my eyes :hopelessness: then I look again.


:eek-new: Whoa. This is so......................................

It is very rare that a photo has this type of an impact on me. I don't see in 3D like most people. My reality is that when looking at something, the scene is flat like a photograph. Yet once in a blue moon I come across a photo such as this which appears more lifelike than if I were to view the scene in person. I've never been able to 'see' the 3D images in those Magic Eye calendars either. There is so much depth to this that it appears to be 3D to me. :applouse:

This is so............breathtaking! :eagerness:

Now for a technical question if I may. This is shot at 95mm with f/8. How did you achieve so much DOF since it was taken with a telephoto length? Wide angle shots tend to be much more sharp than telephoto shots because the actual diameter of the aperture is so much smaller. How in the world did you make this sooooo crisp????????? :confused:

Wowzer!!! ;) I'm having trouble taking my eyes off of this because it looks so real! :)
 
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