Photo Manipulation

Here's a photo I took late this afternoon. I took it at about 4:00 p.m. You can see that the sun is shining on the tree above the studio, but it's beginning to get dark, or I should say that it's close to sunset which is not readily apparent from this photo.

I tried to get the wireless network running again, and I thought I had succeeded, but when I got back to my studio, it was still not working. I realized that the repeater had been unplugged in the gallery near me, and I thought plugging it back in would solve the problem. I also had to reconfigure the connection in the Spanish Village Board office, because that was disconnected. But there's still a problem between the two parts. Or maybe I haven't reconnected it properly. I'll ask Phillip to help me when I see him on Friday.

I spent the day working on a composite photo that I'm going to use to create a photo etching. I want to do a piece in memory of my late husband. I had previously scanned some photos of him into my computer, and I'd like to combine on of them with photos of some of the places we traveled to. I envisioned the idea after seeing some of the photographs Phillip has been creating in which he has combined part of the Paris Musee d'Orsay with a valley on the Napali Coast of Kauai. It's most effective. He also created one that is a combination of a statue from the Fountain of Four Winds in Rome, I think, and the coastline of Maui. Phillip, correct me if I'm wrong. But anyway, I like the statue and it gave me the idea of doing one with a photo of my husband against the landscape. I also thought I might use an old map as the background layer.

Nowadays there is so much that can be done using a combination of regular or digital photographs and a program like PhotoShop. When I left the business world, I thought I might get away from the computer, but I find myself being drawn back to it. It's certainly a useful skill to have: knowing how to use the various kinds of programs. I feel myself being drawn back into it. The disadvantage is that it's very easy to spend whole days working on something like manipulating a photograph. There is an infinite range of possibilities. Phillip mentioned that his photo collages take him ten or more hours to create.

One of the discussions we've had here at Spanish Village has to do with using the computer in our studios. We've also had discussions about creating our works of art here in our studios as opposed to at home. Certainly using a computer to manipulate photos is a legitimate creative process that can be done here in the Village.