Life & Times > Photoshop (53)
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Collage for Dad
A VERY early bit of Photoshop dabbling done in a hurry for a Christmas present in 2001. Scans of family pictures, digital manipulation.
I might also add that it was an act of grace to make this and present it to him that year—the year when he got ownership of the house, and also the year of the revelation about his old skeletons in the closet. And likewise, you can imagine I have mixed feelings about including it here, if only because it is such a piece of sucky editing work!
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Audio Woman
An unfinished photo collage of a woman made from things to be found in a recording studio.
c. 2003
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2003
The title is 2003. A lot of depression and questioning in 2003.
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30th Birthday
I made this in October 2003 in preparation for my party. It was an occasion that I thought I would never attend, given my suicidal ideation for years before that. But here it was. A subtitle says "death of a bohemian."
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Candles
This is not really the work of Photoshop as much as it is the source image. My first digital camera had manual controls but was not yet evolved in image stabilization, so I have a library of shots like this, with many not being even this artful.
c. 2002-3
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City Night
This was a more intentional blurred shot with a dose of Photoshop treatment to heighten things. It was done with a new digital camera, eight years more evolution to its credit.
2011
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Cognitive Dissonance
In 2003 I made some mock up ideas for band CD covers to sort of put a visual to the music that I was doing at the time. I tend to get images from the Web and then do tracings or highly processed copied layers to help them suit my sense of composition. The head here is from a graphic that was way too small to use in a composition but when traced in Illustrator or Flash (with a handy trace function), I could scale things up and stylize things more fully.
c. 2003
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Marauding Maranitos
This is part of a flow of ideas around my HogHeavenMedia.com site which was something I used to pitch services I really never had any intention to develop far! Original photos, web photos, and extensive digital manipulation.
c. 2003
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Marauding Maranitos left
Still more of the HogHeavenMedia.com dabbling. Original photo, web photo, and digital manipulation.
c. 2003
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Hog Heaven Media
This became the spash page for HogHeavenMedia.com for a while, with two buttons directing the viewer to my web design pitch or my studio recording pitch.
2003
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Nuages
You might recognize this as the background of the Marauding Maranitos. Original and web images.
2003
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Uncle David
David was my grandparents' eldest child. He drowned when he was 12. The story has been told me often enough that that was a tragedy that my grandfather never really came back from, and that the family dynamic was thrown askew from then on. Obviously I never met the guy but I keep all the pictures that I found while having unfettered access to all my grandmother's stuff after she died, and some of these pictures invited me to scan (or even outright photograph) and collage. The water is a picture from off the edge of the USS Constellation aircraft carrier, another nod to the old days when my grandfather was a sailor on a carrier. This collage generated several variations.
c. 2003-4
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Dreaming In Color
This is one of several variations generated in various color combinations. Original photos and manipulation.
c. 2004-5
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Duck Wranglers
This is a silly thing among silly things. I guess I can't fathom why it exists. It is shaped like a CD cover so maybe I was doing another mock up for a band with no plans to be great. The duck was one of those spring-based riding toys at a playground. Original photos and manipulation.
c. 2002-3
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Try Everything Once
This has to be an early one. I used to get off on simply using every filter in the Photoshop toolbox. Photo by Mike Thaxton.
c. 2000-1
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Echo Head
I go through countless drafts of images to get into website mastheads, and I don't even save them all. This one has images shot in early 2006 but I might have composited it far later. Original photos, including one from Ponce Inlet lighthouse in Florida, shooting up the vertical space with the curly staircase spiralling out of sight.
c. 2006
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Strat Face
This is actually based on a video still from some stuff I shot for a school project. Otherwise I don't remember why I made this unless it was to be an avatar on mp3.com or something. Original video, scan, and photo.
c. 2001
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Ed's World
This came from a season in 2003 when I got myself into a crossfire of woman grief, ergo the female symbol. I was at the same time making my first leaps to identify with Jesus, hence the cross. The whole scene of 2003 was turning my world upside down. This one fell into place pretty easily.
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The Fallen Mighty
In about the same month, I scanned a few pages from a book on Rome that happened to sit in my grandmother's library, and then the 9/11 attacks happened. By that point I had just used Photoshop enough to get in trouble. Scans and web photos and compositing.
2001
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Eyerony
I'd be lying if I said I didn't fall in love with Photoshop for its ability to bend reality and aid in the realization of surreal eye-scapes. This is among the earlier stuff, done while at Art Institute of CA. Various web images and digital manipulation.
2002
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Surreal Satie
For my first real website, I did not actually self-promote. I actually did one on Erik Satie, the eccentric musician-composer from France. This must have appeared on the website somewhere. Web photos, and digital composition.
2002
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Oh, To Fly!
This is pretty early stuff too. I doubt any of the source images are original. But the pig just makes me happy even though the collage is pretty random and lame.
2001
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Mother Earth
This is actually a tracing of Kelli that got shifted and adapted a few times before it got to this point. I often recycle images and even layers of previous compositions. Tracings of original and web images.
2003
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The Emperors of Kashmir
This definitely is one of the band name ideas that I had fun sketching out. At the time, I was listening to a range of music from around the world, and the idea of The Emperors of Kashmir stuck in my head. I think if I had finished this, there would be the likenesses of some imperially-garbed figures, maybe in a bronze finish.
2003
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Nuclear Arms
In 2003 I was somehow captivated by the nuclear threat which haunted my younger years. I went in search of the movies Threads and The Day After, both of which came out when I was in 6th grade or so. Around that time I was also madly into fighter jets, the F-15 being among my favorites. Somehow, 2003 evoked a rush of rumination on that period about 20 years before. Web photos and images, digital manipulation.
2003
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Ten Percent Optimists
This was perhaps a draft of a school project in Art class. Notice that man-head? That is the basis for the head in the Cognitive Dissonance image elsewhere in this gallery. In fact, the text on this one sort of plays into that kind of topic. I was mocking the Bush administration here. Photo collage of web images.
2004
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Inter Being
One night I carried my camera through an artist alley in town and there were wireframed balls and other wirey things hanging from the ceiling. I took several shots from different angles and composited them with different blending modes. The possibilities are endless with that kind of thing. Original photos and digital manipulation.
2011
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LRC Ceiling, Mesa College
I carried my camera to the Learning Resource Center (formerly known as a library) at Mesa College. The building is one of those all-concrete things that is ghastly to behold. But from a photographer's viewpoint, there are plenty of curious things to shoot. Original photo, no processing.
2004
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LRC Wall, Mesa College
From this vantage point, one might be forgiven for thinking it was a prison complex. No, it's a library at a community college. Original photo, no processing.
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Harmony, CA
Harmony is a cute little hamlet that has some old world style artisans working there. Nice place on the coast not far from San Luis Obispo. Original photos with digital manipulation.
2004
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The Race to Palm Springs
On our trip to Joshua Tree, we returned by way of Palm Desert and the CA-74, stopping on that winding road out of the desert so that I could dabble in my rejuvinated excitement for shooting pictures. Original photo, some processing for color.
2010
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The Race to Temecula
Another from the same night, just miles away at the top of the hill. Original photo, some processing for color (but the colors actually were like this).
2010
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The Page
Don't let the Harry Potter people know this is a picture of Kelli reading one of their books. Would it help if I promised to not make any money off this picture of their book? Original photo, digital processing.
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Return to Whenever
Brandon and Paul and I were jamming a lot in the last few months of 2002, but never turned out anything worth hearing. Paul was notably the brother in law to the fallen Jaco Pastorius. That made it a bit hard to pick up a bass and play in Paul's presence. Original photo and digital processing.
2002
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San Fran
Looking south from the Golden Gate Bridge area. Original photo with auto tracing in Flash.
2004
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Ed's Saturn Plus Sabbath Saguaro Shindig
I happened upon a novel way to make 37 an important birthday. I combined the 30 year cycle that is known in Astrology as the Saturn Return with the ancient Hebrew Sabbath, a seven year cycle. The saguaro reference was to my week in Arizona during the Mens Rites of Passage. Collage of original and web photographs.
2010
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Sunset over Marin Headlands
This is one of the variations that I made to play around with a favorite picture from my honeymoon. Original photo, digital manipulation.
2004-5
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Stepping Out
A merging of a stylized self portrait on the sidewalk coupled with the streaks and stutters of some long exposure play in a dark room. Original photo, digital manipulation.
2003
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Shrivelization
This is the aerial view of a city filled with colorful characters. Digital manipulation of something.
2004
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Through the Bars
I don't remember the source image of it, but it was an original photo that got the treatment.
c. 2003?
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Nudity In Public
Another of the 2001 Roman scans and subsequent experimentation.
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Untied We Stand
The hooded Iraqi makes another appearance. Once I traced him, I tried a number of variations to get the image situated. Eventually, I settled on the pure black and white variations that you can see in the political posters from 2004 in the Untied We Stand gallery. Traced image and original photos with digital manipulation.
2004
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Whizzz!
I have no idea what went into this collage, nor when it was done.
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Gynecrisis
This arose from that nasty spell of 2003 when I was in a crossfire of women expressing their thoughts on my actions, all about the same time. Wasn't leading me to a very charitable artistic expression, was it? Web photos and original scans with digital manipulation.
2003
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Sayonara
A few weeks in March of 2003 were spent as a van driver for a group of Japanese exchange students. They were here for the few weeks just before and immediately after the Iraq war started up. I was set thinking about how 60 years before, people like these kids were thought of as the enemy, and now we were working on a new enemy. Seems this nation just has to have enemies, doesn't it? Original photo and digital manipulation.
2003
