timely – PictureLongmont

Long may you run

Mo power Mo better? I don’t know what to say about this Kenworth other than it is just so damn well boss. I think it’s a W900 pulling its load at the diesel fuel truck event that took place over at Indianapolis Raceway Park this past weekend. As for the art, this is a statement piece. Trucks are large and especially when covered in a bright paint job and loaded up with chrome they look bigger than life. This one sports all these wind deflectors up around its grill making it ideal for some windblast filter effect to punch up the image a notch or two. As for artistic composition or presentation, don’t get all judgy about it. It is an image of an in-your-face truck that’s been amped up a smidge to make it look as loud on a print as it is out on the road. This image could look great printed and displayed on the wall in a garage of any diesel truck loving fan.

It’s about balance

The condo in early morning sunlight. I like all the arts. The art that I make is visual art and the medium that I work in is photography. To that end I make images that I like to look at and sometimes print and display. Sometimes other people like an image that I made, and I think it’s cool when that happens. Maybe they like it enough to buy a print to display or give as a gift and I think that’s great when that happens. There is an art show at the Midtown Art Gallery in Indianapolis this month and they selected one of my prints to display in their show. That was fun and made me happy. Just like this image with the sunlight and shadows flowing down the hill makes me happy to look at the bright sun peeking out behind a tree contrasting with the darker tree canopy in the shadows. I like the composition of the vertical trees against the horizontal landscape and roof lines gives a nice balance and makes this scene nice to look at.

Buy a dream now

How do I quickly relieve the sense that I’ve entered into a dream when looking at this image? How do you feel looking at this scene? When I lived in Colorado the sun rose at 5:00 am, here in central Indiana it’s a little more reasonable at just after 6:00 am. For this dreamscape I was on location at 6:45 am and worked for about an hour watching the sunlight paint the landscape around me. It starts at the top and then works its way down. I wear long pants and sleeves to keep the mosquitoes from killing me while I stand watching the woods get bathed in the light of the new day. I use Gimp to add a couple of filters that push the image into dreamland. First the softglow followed by the oilify and I adjust the filter values to achieve the look that I want for the image. This image would look great printed on canvas and displayed either standalone or I think better as part of a grouping of images that bring interest and wonder to those who view them.

Honda CB1100

Product shot, 2014 Honda CB1100. Outdoor shoot, early morning sun is only light source and handheld camera. I wanted a clean background and thought that a large and empty parking lot would provide that. I also did not want any detail to show in the background, so I set my lens to a fully open aperture and let shutter speed and ISO settings be automatic. This image is a front three-quarter view of the subject. I try to position myself so that I’m not seen in reflection on any of the bike shiny surfaces but here I ended up in a reflection on the right-side mirror. Black on black is difficult for me to photograph but with the early morning light I feel like I got some separation of body and engine components pretty well. The main feature of this motorcycle is the four-cylinder, air-cooled engine and I think this image shows that very well. This image will be used in a sales brochure for this bike but could also be printed and displayed on any wall where motorcycle enthusiasts would enjoy viewing it.

Stuff happens

It’s been a rough day around the condo today so this image of Poppy hanging out is going to have to do for today. We had a lightning strike hit close enough to us that it killed the computer that I use to do my photography and Picturelongmont. It’s not repaired yet. I’m going to need some new hardware to get back in the swing of things. Fortunately, I have backup kit to use but it slows down my workflow something terrible. If there were ever a day to keep a positive open mind and be flexible this is one of those days. Other projects are backing up because of this sudden computer crisis. LOL. Poppy sleeps 20 hours a day. No worries there.

Eagle Creek Park

I did not take this picture, but I did take it. It’s become one of my favorite images that I had nothing to do with except for being the subject of the image. One day I was searching the internet for photos of Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis. This picture comes up and I immediately like it because hey, that’s me riding in the park. A photographer got a picture of me riding in the park and posted it all over the internet. It’s shot from a low angle with a low horizon and good placement of the subject leaving room in front to go riding into the picture. I would love to find out who the photographer is to tell them how much I enjoy this image that they made. It’s part of a collection on an Expedia site. I guess I’m a travel destination. If you’re visiting Indianapolis be sure to see Eagle Creek Park and you might see scenes like this.

The greatest spectacle. . .

Having a big day at the track. Mark and I at the Indy 500 on Sunday. There’s only so much you can do with a selfie from the phone but a little bit of cropping to clean up around the edges and tiny bit of windblast filter to give a sense of motion. We’re sitting at the top level and up there you do feel the wind and smell the burnt rubber from the cars as they race by. The speed and noise are total bonkers. There we are in May 2023. Until next year.

The horizon

I watched The Fabelmans movie recently where at the end of the story Ford tells Sammy to place the horizon either high or low to make the shot look interesting, I think about that scene when I look at this image with its center horizon. I love beach scenes and I think what makes this one look interesting is the level horizon and the angled surf making triangles of surf and sand. That and that one cotton ball puff of a cloud that casts a reflection on the blue-green sea. I use a modified framing of this image for Picturelongmont logo across all its sites on the internet. This image would look great printed and displayed where it gives a relaxing sense of calm to all who view it.

Onehundredandseven

The 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 (but the sign says 106.. I know. this picture is from last year. lol)

The experience

This would be called product photography, a shot taken for the purpose of showing the vehicle in a sales advertisement. One of many images meant to trigger in someone the urge to buy this Suzuki motorcycle. Images show what the accompanying text attempts to convey about an experience that’ll enrich your life if you take home this two-wheeled wonder. Over the course of thirteen years and thirty-seven thousand miles my life was enriched by experiences ranging from terrifying to sublime that I had riding this blue and black two-wheeler. In the end it’s the glowing blue paint in the sunlight that sticks with me. I’m a sucker for blue paint jobs that sparkle in the sun. This scene with the sun reflecting off the sparkly blue paint would look great printed and displayed on nearly any wall in any person of adventures life.

JP

I love this image of a scene from the Jurassic Park movie franchise. We were visiting Universal Studios and you see this kind of display everywhere in the park. I move in close to get a picture of it with my phone, I want to isolate it from telltale signs and crowds of people. The picture is ok but lacks the sense of action that it needs to be interesting to look at. I use Gimp to add the blur effect of motion. And it turns out to be one of my favorite images to look at. I think this image would look great printed and displayed on a wall in a child’s room giving a sense of wonder to the kids who view it.

Tiny bit of red

A peony bloom with its hundreds of petals stands in the sunlight in this image. The center of the flower seems to be the source of light that brightens some petals and shadows others. This plant’s DNA gives it tiny bits of red color, hardly any at all just some specks of red against two handfuls of white blossom. I think this image looks best when printed and displayed in a grouping of other images of similar subjects. Just like how the flower is one of many, a group of images displayed on a wall brings delight and interest to nearly any space.

Stand tall

A trail in the woods in the morning is what this scene is about. I like how the early light of the sun highlights the three distinct layers of the woods. The ground and ground cover, tree trunks and finally the tree canopy. This is a relatively young forest. The trees are tall, but they are not yet the giants they become after so many decades of growth. I think I count twenty-nine trees in this image. All standing tall taking in the light of a new day. This image would look good printed and displayed on nearly any wall in the home or elsewhere.

Get out

All these skulls piled up together, who did this and why and how did they do it? You would have to have been there to know the answer to how this happened. I came across this took the picture with my phone and got out of there soon as possible. Not a pleasant experience. Life’s lessons I guess. Don’t dwell on the negatives, move on and do the best you can.

Canoe crossing

First time ever on a lake in the canoe these fellas were having a good time out on the water. It looks like land is pretty close in this scene and I guess we are getting there. The reservoir is good sized, and it can take a few hours to get around it all in the canoe, so you get a sense of relief as you near the shore at the end of the journey. Like the feeling you get at the end of a long hike as you approach the parking lot. I love the looks on these guys faces. They had never been on a lake before, and I think they had a good time out there that day.

Rough night

In the image Hogwarts is under the spell of dark arts which can’t be good for anyone. Hopefully Hermione, Ron, and Harry can muster the strength of magic to cast out Borgin and Burkes crew before it’s too late. Speaking of dark arts, making this image consisted of casting a few spells with my favorite photo editor, Gimp. I took the picture with my phone camera from quite a distance back and pointing upward to the scene. Gimp’s transform perspective tool helps to straighten up the building lines from the original photo. I don’t go too crazy with this, because perspective exists, and we expect to see some of it in this type of image, but I try to achieve a balance of look for the scene. I use the color curves tool to manage the exposure, contrast and colors until I like how things look. Fans of the dark arts might enjoy displaying this image on any wall within their caves.

Run wild

In this scene three horses run across a valley. The horses look like they are having a good time. They look free, maybe even wild and they are in a green valley next to big water. Awesome. This entire scene is large which is something I tend to stay away from. My images are typically a tighter scale, focusing on a smaller amount of geography. I think the flowing lines of the land, the water and the horses come together to make this a pleasing image to look at. If this were printed and hanging on the wall in an office lunch-room, it might encourage the viewer to maybe schedule some time off for vacation. Image for sale in gallery.

A new day dawns

This image, an early morning walker along the Atlantic coast would look good hanging on the wall of a breakfast bar restaurant. I think it could provide a sense of wonder if displayed in a child’s room. It’s the kind of image that is easy to look at. There’s no mystery about what it is or what you’re supposed to see in it. But for a hundred people who see a beach scene there will be a hundred different stories of what the scene means to them. I like the simplicity of three great elements displayed here. Land, sea and sky in three even layers with the sunlight holding things together from above and the human presence anchoring things from below. If this is the kind of image that you enjoy looking at you could add it to your collection by purchasing a print at the Picturelongmont photography art gallery store here.

Morning has broken

My phone camera captures some pictures as ‘live’ which has options for either loop or bounce. This image was saved with loop mode and then processed using Gimp to be exported as an animated gif file. The loop file opens in Gimp as layers but acts as a single layer for editing as changes are applied to all the layers. The cool thing would be to print this to a glass or metal plate which could be charged enough to play the animation while it is displayed on a wall in a kitchen.

Gringotts Bank

Gringotts fire breathing dragon is perched atop Gringotts Wizarding Bank to guard the contents found within. My phone camera captures the flame action as a ‘live’ picture that’s then saved in loop mode. Looping is applied to all elements in the scene that moved during the picture exposure. Some of the movement is from hand-holding the phone which gives the resulting animated gif image a pulsing wobbly effect that I enjoy looking at. I imagine we’ll soon be able to ‘print’ animated images to glass or metal plates resulting in wall art that moves the way it does in the Harry Potter stories. Picturelongmont gallery photography art sales.