Fun With Composite Photographs

Wow it has been so long since this blog was active, I have been under soi much pressure and blogging had to take a back seat. I will be trying to do a little catching up with some photos that I have had fun with since the last posts.

First of all, I was writing a novel around the time of the last post and as with so much of writing which I find difficult to get down on paper (or on the screen, LOL) I used images, my paintings or often photographs to try to free up the flow of words.

These photos presented here are composite photos. I.e. using images "cut" from a photo to form a different, often more expressive image. I know this is a little bit of a cheat but my main ob jective here is to be able to help my writing come together,

The first two are very simple and really are not much to speak of. I have cut a "figure" from a photo and added it to a background. Nothing very clever, I am not so very useful with photo editing software but it helps the above stated objective.

This first image is of a small garden statue of a wizard, in a garden "folly". I have of course altered the apparent sizes of the two to make it appear as if they are of the same proportions.

In this very similar photo, The figure is a life sized statue of a hooded, seated monk situated in the remains of an old industrial furnace. The furnace was originally used for producing quicklime, but provides a niche for the "hermit". Again I have re-sized the two images to create similar scales.

In this image I wanted to create a study/library of the wizard in the story, I chose a stone floored room to be the main background feature. In the room I placed a stone table (or desk) upon whichI placed a pilke of (3) books and an open scroll. In the background there is a shelf of almanacs and a map on the wall. The flame is meant to add "something", whether it works I leave to your own imagination.

A selection of the individual images used in the last composite image above. Of course images are not only resized but may need to be rotated, inverted and otherwise played around with the fit in the overall scene. And not forgetting the need for transforming the shape of an element to make a realistic placement. I.e. a square may need to become a parallelogram if it is placed at a different angle. horizontal instead of vertical for example..

Why not have fun and try this for yourself, there are free photo edit apps on-line or you can download them. Go on have a go!

Blue Lilies - Photograph

I can't believe that it has been so long since I posted, I have not been taking many photos since I have spent a lot of my spare time rehearsing with my new ukulele. I have joined a club/group which is giving concerts in the local area and I need to get my act sorted (pun intended). Read more on my music blog, Guitar Bashin'

Anyway, with the advent of the warmer weather I have been inspired to get out into the garden and take a few walks to exercise my new knee-joint. This particular shot of a bunch of blue lillies, was a gift to my wife from our sons step daughter.

It is not a colour we had seen before, and were really taken with them. I just had to capture them for posterity. A later search on Google produced lots of plants called "blue lilies" but none looked quite the same as this bunch until I found this site.

They were all in bud when they arrived but are now opening and hopefully I might get an even better shot in a couple of days time. I shall watch them carefully.

Lovely colour in these blooms, the red marks on the leaves are of course pollen deposited on the petals prior to being fully open.

A different bloom showing a better positioning of the stamens.

Anyway, I have found my camera again and hopefully will be posting more shots in the near future.

Photography Is An Art!

As an artist, I often had to convince myself of this. After all, I created sketches and paintings and also took snapshots of days out and family occasions but did not consider the latter as art. Now my son is taking photography seriously and often surprises me by his choice of subject or his mode of capturing it.

He spent Christmas at our house this year and as we laid the table for Christmas dinner, and at various times during the meal he took some simple shots. He was using a short focal length - I think - and some of his results were ... well surprising. Here are a few examples:-

In this star, if you look carefully you can see a little snowman at each point of light. The photo was taken through a pair of glasses which my wife picked up at a shop somewhere. Just using the lenses for this shot would never have occurred to me.

The effect of the short focal length is illustrated in this this shot, and the next ...

You can see more of his photographs on Flickr, where he goes by the name of Kaibakorg, if you want to see more creative photography. He is winning many awards on various photography sites and has had several of his photos published in photography magazines.

See more of my poor efforts, on this blog.

Pet Portrait, Dante The Lurcher

My son (the photographer) has been winning prizes with his portraits of his pet Lurcher. (A similar breed to a greyhound) so I thought I would post a couple of my own photographs of this lovable pooch. In fact, my son's photos of all sorts of subjects are earning him many accolades from the press, the internet and from happy "customers".

Dante The Lurcher loves soft toys, some that squeak when he bites them, and some that just plain are cute and work equally as well as pillows as well as toys. These shots all include one particular toy which maybe not surprisingly he knows as Pinky. He is actually a very clever hound and knows many of his toys by name.

It is amazing how he will stand for so much, many of the family are always taking photos with their phones (I've still got a phone which I can talk on and very little else!) and of course my son is always, as I mentioned (or did I?), taking "proper" photographs. I love the look in his eyes here, "Not again", he seems to be saying.

Of course he does sometimes get very bored and just goes to sleep on his "pillow". Can you see the scars on his snout? He was being nosey and pushed his snout under a fence, only to be walloped by the neighbourhood meanie, a massive akita hound. I am afraid he is scarred for life.

Apparently our house is too hot for him, and this is the way he cools off from time-to-time. Hope you enjoyed this little glimpse of Dante and Pinky, I am sure there may be more to come. My wife has been inundating us with doggie photos whilst Dante is living with us at the moment. If you can't wait, you can see more photos of  Dante TheLurcher on his Face Book page, yes he does have his own page.

An Inviting Window On Another World

Do you like Thai food?

It is one of my favourite foods, second only to a decently prepared Italian meal. But on a recent trip to Banbury, this restaurant was just opposite the hotel. Simply had to pay it a visit. Expensive but visible from out hotel window and beckoning. Could not resist! But why do Thai restaurants always seem to be more expensive than surrounding establishments?

First, a shot of the outside at night with the lights giving a sense of wonder:-

And yes those are elephants welcoming visitors. BTW, this was taken from the hotel room through the window glass. And then a more usual shot:-

Doesn't have the same welcoming aura, does it?

And the hotel? It was The Cromwell. A very characterful hotel and I would visit again but like many such establishments, they could learn a thing or two about service times in the restaurant from places like The Thai Orchid.

Our room was top left, here. The one with the open window. A superior room (?) mostly because of its character, it is full of beams - did you see the roof?

At six foot three inches, this was a real problem for me. However, I only banged my head once or twice - narrowly failing to finally concuss myself going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, LOL.

More travel photos soon ...

Abstract Photographs Using Oil & Water Mix

I am not sure if I have posted about these images previously, but a search has not given any positive results so I am posting about them again. And why not?

By using a shallow dish and coloured paper on top of a sheet of glass; positioning this so that it can be lit from the bottom we have a basic (very basic) way of creating some great abstract shots. With this set-up in place pour a thin layer of water into the dish, and then dribble a little oil - vegetable oil is fine into the water. Stir to create bubbles of oil. Simples!

All you need to do then is to switch on the bottom light for illumination, and take a photograph or two. I apologise but cannot remember where my son found this technique described.

Here are two of the shots from a series which I took using this technique.

I think they have possibilities, but even more variation can of course be aquired by using post-processing in Photoshop. Here is one edited shot which increased the range of colours.

The technique is so easy and really great fun - if you are into abstract images.


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Here is a shot taken on a visit to Whitenge Gardens, a faux stoneage folly I guess you could call it. A modern way to add a little interest into a large park or garden. I show it here because one of our favourite destinations are the many wonderful neolothic (stoneage) sites from around the country a number of which are featured in prvious posts on this blog.

Photographic Montage or Collage?

I have never really understood which term is the correct one to use for a photograph edited from several others.

Recently we visited Whitenge Garden Centre, a large adjacent garden is open to the public (for a small fee) and is used as an examplar for the garden design business operated by the owners. Lots of unusual features and water features, follies, etc. An enjoyable visit. However of course, I had my camera with me and took lots of photos. Now I am in the middle of writing a novel - yes I know, boring ... but in order to bring characters to life, I am using images which I have edited to visualise various scenes in the novel.

It is a fantasy novel and features a wizard. So I made use of two of the garden sculptures and a photo of one of the follies. Bringing them together to stand in for one of the scenes in the book. now my question is, is this a montage or a collage? Does anybody have a definitive answer?

If you study the knight and the wizard, you will see that they have been hurriedly extracted from shots of other parts of the garden. Then pasted into the shot of the folly with "ruined brickwork" and resized to match the perspective of the two figures. The little imp looking over the wall was in the folly to start with.

OK, a lovely feature for the larger garden, but id does help me with visualising my story. I have done this a number of times now and am finding it so helpful. Want to read more about my novel, pop over to my blog, "A Novel Appears". You can also use the navigation bar under the heading at the top of the page.

Oh by the way, I have used two overlapping images of the wizard and blended them with the soft light mode to increase the contrast and bring him forward in the image. Also, just a little touch ... I added the grass at the magicians feet to place him within the scene.

The original photograph of the folly and the statues:-

See you next time.