Memories, dreams and reflections 2011–part 1

Ashley over at Ramblings and Photos has set an interesting photo quest as a way to reflect on the year.  She has a list of 25 items and invites us to share photos that fit the categories between now and the end of the year.

The idea appealed so I decided to play along.  I want to print them out so I created a  8 x 8 page with a collage and brief description.

I’m doing the items on the list in no particular order.  I’ll create and post one page each week.

Anyone else playing along with this exercise?

Photo art from the archives

For Photo Art Friday this week Bonnie proposed that we all look through our archives and post a piece from the past that deserved another showing. 

I thought it would be fun to show my first use of a texture and blending modes – the texture was from ShadowHouse Creations.  I created it as part of creativity bootcamp in response to the prompt ‘hush’.  I still really like it and haven’t lost the interest in applying textures.

I also came across this image which for some reason I have never posted.  I know it has a linen or canvas texture applied but don’t know which one.

Do you have the 1st instance of using a technique that you now use all the time?

Istanbul–I believe

Last week I had my third work trip to a big city for a workshop.  I know that I was in Istanbul but the suburb and our hotel could have been in any large city.  There were lots of tall apartment blocks, busy roads, lots of cafes (including Starbucks) and some corner shops selling basic supplies.  There was a school and yellow taxis and buses crammed full of people.

One clue that this was Turkey was the flag flying in the school playground.  And form my bedroom window on the 16th floor, in the distance I could see the shape of large domes and turrets of the large mosque on the hill in the middle of town. 

Unfortunately I did not have any free time on this trip so did not get into the middle of town to see the bazaar or historic sights.

So I decided to have just 2 pages for Istanbul in the photo book I’m creating with some Biograffiti templates.

I haven’t shown the text because it has details of the people at the workshop.

I included some photos taken from the plane on my flight back as they show the snow capped mountains and a glorious sunset.

That’s it for my trips this year but I will continue this album next year as I’m likely to be running workshop in more big cities.

abstract pixels

Another fun play session for Photo Art Friday.  I was inspired by Carola Bartz’s piece last week where she inverted the image so I opened up several photos and inverted them all.  One photo of flax leaves – now in shades of blue – attracted me because of the lines.  I found that the change in colours freed my eye to see the image as abstract rather than an object. Then I flipped it horizontally and then the 2 images vertically to create this kaleidoscope effect.

Thanks to Bonnie for encouraging us to experiment and play with photo art.  Check out what everyone else has been up to here.

Taking Phoebe to Battery Park

OK so the Phoebe in my title is the name of a texture from Kim Klassen that she wanted us to use for Texture Tuesday this week and I applied it to 2 photos that I took in Battery Park, at the bottom tip of Manhattan when I was there.

First applied to the fabulous statue erected to commemorate all the immigrants who entered the USA there.

the original was dark and I like the way the texturizing brings out different aspects of the figures

Then I applied the texture to a photo of the Statue of Liberty taken from the shore, with flowers from the remembrance garden in the foreground.  I was pleased with the composition when I took it and love the results of my texturizing

Check out Phoebe’s other adventures at Texture Tuesday

Frosted fruit and flowers

Bonnie invited us to try a photoart technique that we do not usually use. I’ve been wanting to create a collage of abstract textured images that all use the same texture.

The photo in the middle is the texture applied to all of the others – it is the frost on the car windscreen taken last year.  I applied it to various photos of fruit and flowers from my collection and used mostly colour burn and overlay blending modes, plus one on difference.

I like the balance of repetition and difference

To see what else people have been experimenting with visit Pixel Dust Photo Art

NY through my camera

An eclectic mix of images that together made up my 9 days in the city. Some are events that I happened upon and some are sites we see on the TV all the time.  I love the range of templates in the Focus Biograffiti album set that I am using for this photobook of my travels.

Top left going clockwise: 

taxis on Times Square – there are masses of them but never an empty one when you need one! 

there were a lot of mounted police around the financial area because of the protests – these 3 are outside Lehman brothers and seemed to sit all day rather than moving around

fabulous views from Battery Park at the bottom of the island – skyline is how I think of the city

Red M&M on a massive electronic billboard in Times Square – do they really make that much from chocolates?

The wall street protestors

Show hoardings in Time Square.  I went to see Mama Mia which was fabulous – such energy and fun

In a subway station – efficient and functional and utilitarian

One of the 9/11 memorials – this one a damaged statue now in Battery Park

One of the flags on the scaffolding around ground zero

Flags fly everywhere – something I really noticed as being different from the UK

Pizza by the slice – v yum and so many choices.

For the title page of the set of 4 for NY, I followed the same pattern as the Nepal set and featured the workshop, including me in action explaining something.  I have filled the bottom box with a summary but I did not include it here as it includes details of the participants and facilitators. 

I’m liking this format for the city summaries.  Next up will be Istanbul.

Look up

New York has to be portrayed in tall, thin images – its the shape of Manhattan. 

Walking around the financial area where I was staying and attending the workshop there are many tall buildings and we did have to bend our necks back to see the sky.  I had forgotten how many amazing art deco buildings there are in the city alongside the mirror glass that we see so much of now. I loved the contrast of architectural styles.

Top row – looking along the street my hotel is in; view from the 21st floor of the office block – with and without snow; glass and brick

Bottom row – Empire State building; the ubiquitous metal fire escapes on brick buildings; Liberty from Battery Park; Times Square as the natural light fades.

More of my NY pages tomorrow.

Halloween NY style

When I heard the dates for my workshop in NY I was excited that it covered Halloween so I could see the special things in the shops.  I was even more excited to hear about the annual Village Halloween parade and to find a spot where I could watch some of it.  In fact the journey to and from the parade was equally entertaining as many adults were dressed up as anyone in costume can join the parade.  Some amazing costumes – I absorbed the atmosphere and sights rather than trying to take crowd photos when it is dark.

I decided to focus one of my travel photobook NYC pages on Halloween

The large photo and the other one of skeletons are the puppets at the start of the parade.  The cakes and loaf with the cat I spotted in shops.  I ate some delicious dark chocolate cupcake with lurid orange frosting too.  The carved pumpkins were outside an apartment block and the trough of pumpkins were outside a restaurant. 

The template is by Biograffiti (being retired in November).  More of my take on NY tomorrow.

Visiting Gotham City

On my wanders around downtown Manhattan on Saturday before heading for the airport I turned a corner and found myself transported to Gotham City!!  filming of crowd scenes for Batman were underway.  I’m beginning to thing that ‘not typical’ IS typical in New York.  I’ll have my glimpses of the city pages for you later in the week once my jetlag is gone and I can concentrate on picking photos.

In the meantime here are some groups of security personnel in Gotham City

not a typical October weekend in NY

Snow in New York City in October for the 1st time since 1952 – on the weekend I visit !

Some was still in piles the next morning but the pavements were clear

I was expecting cold weather so I had come prepared with boots, coat etc. 

The other site I walk past each day as I leave my hotel is the tent protest on Wall Street.  On Sunday I took some photos.  Of the protest

 

and the large groups of police in evidence

I also did a whole lot of more typical things – more on those later in the week