Cayman Brac Revisited
Insomnia sucks, but I may as well make the best of it. I took one of my favorite landscapes for a little reprocessing trip to correct some horizon distortion, and also give it a go with some luminosity masking. It looks so much better now that I deleted the old version from my site and won’t even show the comparison. 
It looked very washed out compared to the newer version.
This is a secluded little beach on the island of Cayman Brac, obviously not popular with sand-loving sunbathers. The entire island is rather “rugged” with its large limestone outcroppings and cliffs. A great place for those that want to avoid some of the commercialism and congestion of Grand Cayman. The dead coral that makes up this beach is what I love most about this image. It provides such an interesting character to the landscape. Photographed at dawn, you can see I am not looking into the sunrise, but just the opposite where the clouds in the western sky are catching the morning light. It is also the reason for the wonderful, soft light on the coral. Long exposure to blur the waves. I look in the opposite direction of a sunrise or sunset as a matter of habit now, but back in November 1999 when this exposure was made – let’s just say I didn’t always think that way. You could call it one of those “Ah ha!” moments.
Luminosity masks
Who knew I would be processing the image again more than 10 years later at 3:30 am? I didn’t even know what a luminosity mask was back then, and probably didn’t do much masking of any images at all. I hadn’t realized the potential of spending more time with my images than simple scanning, dust spotting, and perhaps a global curves or levels adjustment. I have to thank Tony Kuyper again for introducing them to me and for providing some excellent actions that make using them a snap. By running Tony’s actions, you can generate layers like these quite easily, and then it is subtle tweaks to the curves to start to make things pop.
I wonder what images I may be processing at 3:30 am in the year 2019? What new tools will I have then that will make me look differently at the images of today?
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I found it quite funny, that even 25 years later, that little booklet that drops in the ad for the original Macintosh looks just like the booklet I got with my MacPro when I switched last year. I suppose it goes to show even with leaps and bounds in advances in technology on a computer that is astronomically more powerful than the original, Apple still strives to keep things simple across all of their products. Are they always successful? No, but that goal is obvious in their product philosophy even 25 years later. I would have to say my experience to date is filled with a lot fewer computer frustrations than before Feb 2008, and for that – I owe them thanks. So Happy Birthday.
Here is another video that aired during the 1984 SuperBowl;
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California Sea Lion
So what to water lilies have to do with sea lions? I was rescuing some more images from Picture Purgatory and came across a couple that seemed to have a similar concept to them. I couldn’t help but notice how important the elements other than the main subject were to the image. Isolation is great for creating drama and impact, and just as background creates an important role in isolation, it can also create a supporting role as well. The extra elements may cause you to have more curiosity about what is going on, change what is being communicated entirely, or give you a better sense of place. Of course the pitfalls are when those elements are not helping your main subject and become a distraction.
Instead of just a sea lion on a beach – I wonder – why is this particular sea lion hanging out with all these harbor seals? The sea lion’s body posture is quite a stark contrast to the posture of his beach-potato companions. Even the coat is a bit of a contrast, sleek vs. patterned and furry. I suppose that is what I like most about it. The other image, a simple water lily. The lily pads in the frame just add another supporting element. Sometimes our subjects like a little company in the frame.
Water Lily & pads
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Reflection
My wife Lisa recently treated me for my birthday (Go Capricorns!) to the exhibit that is just closing this weekend at the Detroit Institute of Arts: Monet to Dali. It is somewhat hard to describe the feeling of seeing the actual brushstrokes of some of these masters and names so many are familiar with. I have always been a fan of Monet’s impressionistic work, Dali’s, and Picasso’s abstracts – but I wasn’t very familiar with some of the work they produced when they were younger.
Probably the biggest impact to me from this exhibit was how these artists dramatically changed their vision and styles over time. I saw some works from Monet when he was 24, and when he was 50. Not being an art historian, I would have never linked some of these works as being from the same person. Same with Picasso, his earlier work radiacally different than pieces he produced later in his life. I would never have linked them to being from the same painter.
As one would expect, people change as they get older, so I suppose it is not unexpected that something so personal as their artwork would also. Many of us can look back and say we are not the same person as we were as teenagers, in our 20s,etc. Life’s events tend to throw our ways of thinking around like bumper cars. There are also outside factors of artists wanting to polarize themselves from what others were producing at the time – and certainly that holds true in many ways today. This all had me thinking about in how many photography teachings there is emphasis on developing a style of all your own. And to just the opposite, how many photography cliques can be developed that discourage anything different.
So it had me thinking – what the heck does that mean if any style will be shortlived anyway? And how long is some “style” supposed to last after you have developed it? I know I would be bored out of my mind photographing something in the same way over and over again. So my own personal opinion is that having some unique style is much to do about nothing. It seems it is more important to develop a sense of what you like, don’t like, what you have a passion for, versus trying to impose some artificial uniqueness just to distinguish your work. Your “style” will come through all on its own, and will probably never be permanent anyways. So perhaps it is better just to not think about it too much.
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