ViewFinder Photography Forum

General discussion - our photography living room. Talk about aesthetics, philosophy, share your photos - get inspired by your peers! Moderated by another view and walterick.
ViewFinder Forum Guidelines >>
Introduce Yourself! >>
PhotographREVIEW.com Gatherings and Photo Field Trips >>
Results 1 to 12 of 12

Thread: Two Landscapes.

  1. #1
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    409

    Two Landscapes.

    Two landscapes that I did today, in responce to a power company ACTEWAGL diverting the river near our home into a waterstorage facility called Googong Dam.

    It is very sad to have lost the natural flow of the once mighty Murrumbidgee River to a shallow water storage facility where it will just evaporate. We've lost a meaningful river near our home but over the State border, the graziers and irrigators have potentially lost their livelihoods.

    Charles Sturt was an early explorer. In 1829 he charted the Murrumbidgee River. We live near 'Camp Sturt' where Charles Sturt first started his expedition. Nowadays Sturt couldn't do the expedition by boat because there is not enough water. http://www.davidreilly.com/australia...turt/sturt.htm

    'Goodbye Sturt'. The dry bed of the Murrumbidgee River and the giant Sheoaks.





    The Hermannsburg School is an Aboriginal artists group of Western Arrente people from the Central Desert. They are watercolourists who would be very much at home here now, now that our natural water flow has gone. I've tried to use the colours that they use ... pre-empting the start of a new desert. http://www.hermannsburgschool.com/ 'Gallery Archive' is the go, if you have the time to look.

    'The Ghosts of Hermannsburg will Haunt the Mountains of the Murrumbidgee' ... now. It is amazing how easily the Kangaroo grass, Snow grass and the Pimelia took on a desert look.





    Warren.
    Last edited by Wild Wassa; 10-24-2008 at 12:37 AM.

  2. #2
    Drive by shooter susaan's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Jakarta,Indonesia
    Posts
    930

    Re: Two Landscapes.

    Very sad,very beautiful.

    " Got Soul, but I'm Not a Soldier "
    The Killers

    “ Make no judgments where you have no compassion ”
    Anne McCaffrey

    " If you wish to know what a man is, place him in authority.'
    Yugoslav Proverb

  3. #3
    A picture is a present you give yourself shootme's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    2,676

    Re: Two Landscapes.

    Warren, it's great what you've done here, I'd call it art myself, great colors, sounds like the world is turning upside down. Thought there was already enough arid land in OZ, no need for more. I hope the rains return.
    :thumbsup: Shootme...

    Please don't edit and re-post or use my images (not that you'd want to anyway...). without my written permission. Thank you



  4. #4
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    409

    Re: Two Landscapes.

    Thankyou Susaan and Shootme.

    It is sad ... but civilization must fill its swimming pools and water its lawns.

    Warren.

  5. #5
    They call me P-Wac JETA's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Pacific NW
    Posts
    2,165

    Re: Two Landscapes.

    I love the second. Very artistic and beautiful.
    It's not blurry. It's bokeh.

    Canon EOS 1D Mark IV
    Canon EOS 5D Mark II
    Canon EOS 1D Mark III
    Canon 24-70mm EF f/2.8L
    Canon 24-105mm EF f/4L IS
    Canon Zoom Telephoto EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
    Canon 17-40mm EF f/4L
    Canon 15mm F/2.8 EF Fisheye Lens
    Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
    Canon 50mm f/1.8
    Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite
    Canon 580EX Speedlite
    Canon EOS Rebel 300D

  6. #6
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    409

    Re: Two Landscapes.

    Jeta, Thankyou.

    People might like so see some of the stages that were involved in the construction of the image. No doubt others will know of easier ways of doing this ... but I just plod on and keep adding and removing parts of layers.

    I originaly photographed the decaying bullock dray and gave it a toned and aged appearance.





    I added mountains, because they are the dominant landscape feature of where I live. If anyone has been looking at the 'Late Road Home' thread, you will know that dirt roads are my favourite routes to everywhere. Picturing how I wanted the image to eventually look, with a smoothing tool I removed the clouds.





    This resulted in this image. Somewhat lost in the resulting layer.





    I then reworked the drey by cloning the original drey that I had made into a black and white image and readded the grunge. Reworked the sky again usung the smoothing tool and the eraser tool.





    To give the black outlines to the timbers of the dray and render a bleached look to the timbers. I then reworked a high contrast black and white made from the original and clonned sections to the print in progress. I then cloned sections off several false coloured landscapes that I had shifted the hues of, several times, until I was happy with the colours of the Central Desert.





    I then reworked sections of the montage ... resulting in the final image.





    I've left several stages out of the post, like; adding or removing the grunge effects often, reworking and balancing the hues often. When cloning I set the cloning tool to between 35-60% transparency rather than 100% opacity. The individual layers were saved often, so that retracing my steps was relatively easy, for whenever I wasn't happy with the progress.

    All in all I'm happy with the result. This is my 5th layered image so far. I use Canon's ArcSoft 5.5 software. I have the modern programmes like CS3 and Lightroom and Digital Photo Pro, ... but I just like ArcSoft.

    Warren.

    PS, A couple of Little Ravens added to this image would look, evil and cool. All art is a continual work in progress.
    Last edited by Wild Wassa; 10-24-2008 at 08:02 PM.

  7. #7
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    409

    Re: Two Landscapes.

    Take an image of dead River Oaks down on the Murrumbidgee River, simplified to black and white to save on the photo manipulation.





    ... add the colours of the Blue Range which are the mountains of the Murrumbidgee and the late afternoon colours of the gum trees and heat up the tree's volatile Eucalyptus oils.





    and that gives a bushfire called ... 'Dangerous Days'.





    Warren.
    Last edited by Wild Wassa; 10-25-2008 at 03:49 PM.

  8. #8
    A picture is a present you give yourself shootme's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    2,676

    Re: Two Landscapes.

    Warren, absolutely fantastic I really like how you do this, must take ages. Love to give it a try some time, not sure I'd have the patience or skill though. S
    :thumbsup: Shootme...

    Please don't edit and re-post or use my images (not that you'd want to anyway...). without my written permission. Thank you



  9. #9
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    409

    Re: Two Landscapes.

    Shootme, Thankyou.

    I'm pleased with the way the few photo-manips' that I have done, have turned out.

    The workings are very basic at this stage. Do give it a go Shootme, if only just to see what happens and evolves. I don't devalue the accidental results. I only started doing the manips because I wanted to do double exposures and my digital camera didn't allow it. Wanting exposures similar to what we find, when shooting multiple exposures on film, was my aim.

    My images are just texture and grunge screens layered over photos and built up with transparent layers.

    When I first started photography, texture screens were readily available for sandwiching with negs, for enlarger printing ... that's my starting point.

    The cloning and colour changes that I've done, are done with the digital shaders set to 35-60% transparency. This give a glazed water colour look, and render images that closely resemble a multiple exposure on film ... not the usual solid 100% opacity rebuilds, normally used when retouching images. Nor the cut and masked images, which are the perfectly blended inserts that accomplished photo-manipulators employ.

    Where I live, bushfires and fast moving grass fires are a continual summer torment. Already there has been a major fire in the mountains this month, which prompted creating ‘Dangerous Days’. I live in what we Aussies call the Bushfire Capital .... fires r' us unfortunately.

    We all have a go at playing firefighters, when we live in rural suburbia. Making images like the one above debriefs my being from the death and carnage that I've seen ... when I was on the trucks.

    When I was on the trucks my wife Helen hated it ... but she likes this photo. Helen asked me if a print could be made and then framed. Obviously there is a healing process in this image ...
    that was not forseen.

    Photographic art is amazing, when it can work at a level beyond being just a pleasing visual.

    Warren.
    Last edited by Wild Wassa; 10-27-2008 at 12:55 AM.

  10. #10
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    409

    Re: Two Landscapes.

    A final two landscapes. I've been fortunate to be on the site for a month longer than first thought, after our yacht got hit by a power boat. These two images are a goodbye until after summer.

    I'll miss putting shots of the Mountains of the Murrumbidgee on Photography Review Forum.

    I'm going to some big cities to try to win boat races. Hopefully I should get some street photography done while I'm away. I'm convinced that I live in one of the most people free places going. So hopefully I'll find people to photograph for a change ... unlike living where I do. All I see during the day are Kangaroos and Wallabies and birds.

    'Another Dry Waterfall' ... All the waterfalls in my neck of the woods are dry. I pretend that water flows over them. The yellow ochre tint is most appropriate.





    'HHHigh CCClouds MMMake MMe DDDizzzy'.

    A 5 exposure multiple exposure, shot on Kodak High Speed Infrared film. There is something old fashioned about still shooting a bit of film and trying to get the total image shot on one frame of film.





    Have a good Christmas and hopefully Santa will bring my Skipper and I a qualification for a World Title in yachting ... we will even take any qualifying spot that we can get in the Flying Fifteens. Just qualifying would make our Summer. If we come last in a big fleet, we will still look good doing it.

    C'ya.
    Last edited by Wild Wassa; 10-29-2008 at 11:41 AM.

  11. #11
    A picture is a present you give yourself shootme's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    2,676

    Re: Two Landscapes.

    Great stuff, I look forward to eventually see a bunch more, good luck with the sailing. S
    :thumbsup: Shootme...

    Please don't edit and re-post or use my images (not that you'd want to anyway...). without my written permission. Thank you



  12. #12
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    409

    Re: Two Landscapes.

    All the best Shootme. I can't wait to get into a bit of serious street photography.

    Warren.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •