A friend of mine called the other day to ask me if I would like to submit either or both an art work or works or a photo or photos for his Halloween art/photography contest with the theme of Halloween as its subject. Of course I would love to submit something and I had a photo in mind as I said sure.
I headed back to my computer to open in Photoshop a photo of a tree I had taken in a grave yard downtown on December 02, 2008. I had taken the photo in this lovely graveyard that sits one block off the main road through Commerce, Georgia. Actually I took 555 photos of the tree that day. It is an old tree sitting right in the middle of the Grey Hill Cemetery. The sun was right behind the tree with clouds that set it off just perfectly.
I worked on the photo for hours, only problem was I forgot to save along the way as I was working. I had over forty layers worth of work when the power flickered and went off. It was only for a few seconds but that was long enough for the computer to shut down and I lost all forty something layers of over five hours of work.
Luckily I had saved the presets in each plugin as I created the effect that I applied to the photo layer. So after I used a few words which I will not repeat I went off the sleep for a few hours as I had stayed up all night working on the photo. When I returned after sleeping and eating. I opened Photoshop once again and started working on the photo. I usually apply each plugin in a sequence that I follow so I could recreate the effects once again and having saved the presets in each plugin that sure saved lots of time.
I ended up creating over a hundred different variations of this one work. Below you see only 32 of the over 100. I've narrowed it down to these 32 variations, now I have to select from them only about four or five. As I do not have enough money to print and frame more than four or five I have to decide which are the ones I am going to submit.
I would like to ask if you would let me know which you think are the best of these. I realize it is my decision not yours in the end but it would help to know which five you like best. I always have my favorites of my work but sometimes what I may like is not what others would like to see. So which do you like best?
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Comments: 21
You did a ton of work. Photoshop is not easy.
I've been working with Photshop for about ten years now just about every day. So it is like using a brush or any other tool to draw with just on the computer. I can do in Photshop things I could only dream of doing in a darkroom. I spent many long nights experimenting in my darkroom and never could I achieve in weeks of work what I can do in PS in one hour.
Again thank you for your choices,
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Thought I had replied to you but guess I didn't...must be getting old...lol...that would be true if I had not already gotten old...
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This is superb.
Had no idea you were THIS good.
NOw I know whom I will ask the publisher to hire when the 3rd dragon book is finished.
I wish I had known you back a few years ago when she had an in-house artist work on the book cover for Krona
Would you believe the only art I have sold is six portraits of a local comic strip artist, Ed Dodd who did the comic strip Mark Trail. Those are in a local museum. Other wise the only photos I have sold are for local families who wanted better work than they could do themselves.
I would be honored if you were to use any of my work.
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BTW, did you ever get hear from that group of service people I met in Atlanta when I had traveled there to work with Elizabeth Kubler Ross' Death & Dying forum at the Omni? I'm probably out of touch with how you are doing, James, but this was back when your health issues were being compromised by the nonsense of having expensive insurance, and I thought there were probably professionals there who could offer a helping hand local to where you live
I am completely awed and inspired by your images above, James. And congratulations, man!!!
You deserve getting sold, and people need that sort of art to inspire them.
Never was able to contact any of them. My doctor was finally paid for last years tests etc. as it seems for some reason Humana lost the four bills sent to them. This time it was sent registered mail so they had to sign for it. Health Insurance companies here are not there to help with such a thing as health they are there to make profits bottom line!
Thanks Bent, I have over 64 DVDs and between 100 and 200 more CDs full of my photos and art, plus 300 gigs of hard drive space full of the same. I've taken over 83,000 photos in six years and can't imagine just how many creations I have done with them in that time. Of course like with the tree in the work above I took over 550 photos of that one tree to get just the right one or two to use so not all the photos are individual subjects. I forget the pain while I am creating either on the computer or with the camera if but for a short time.
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I went with ten of them printed on one sheet at 24" x 46", two rows of five each...
And have a pending sale of both of the examples I printed out...
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