The Thursday Pic No 2

Welcome to the Blue

Today is just a short post event and I would like to share with you an image I created recently using my favorite iPhone app, Average Cam Pro.

Use is probably the wrong word, mis-use would be more accurate, for AVC is designed to stack multiple frames of the same image on top of one another with the camera attached to a tripod. The frames are then averaged to present a very low noise high detail final result, it is especially good under low light and the files convert beautifully to monochrome due to the high retained detail and extremely low noise across the three channels.

Anyhow I use it to overlay differing frames on the fly, often moving the camera around as if I had ants crawling all over me.

This image is the result of several taken on Surfers Paradise Beach on the evening of New Years day 2014 and it is in fact a composite of two separate  Average Cam Pro composite captures.

To me it portrays a feeling of peaceful but contented loneliness, instilling the idea that one could just walk off into the surf to a beautiful afterlife. A place where time and distance disappear and all things can and do happen simultaneously, a place where life is always pleasant and simple.

The initial exploratory editing was done in Snapseed on the iPhone over dinner just a few minutes after the capture. These initial edits help me gauge the value of the files, once I returned from holidays I then did the final editing in Photoshop on the Mac.

I am not one to believe that iPhonography must only be carried out “in mobile” so I often work the above way, sometimes I even shoot stuff in my mirrorless camera and transfer it to the phone for a quick zip through my favorite iPhone editing apps.   Whatever works I reckon.

This was actually quite a fruitful evening and I obtained several captures that will be revisited at a later time.

The Thursday Image - No 1

Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging

My mother in law, Ivy often has a strange turn of phrase and occasionally  and quite delightfully mangles the English language, a few weeks back she turned the word, mesmerised into mezarized, which I kind of like.  Anyway I find I am indeed "mezarized" by reflections and how they interplay with the real world, over the years I have taken many such images, enough for a book.

But here today is one of my faves from last year, it was taken in during an holiday afternoon stroll in the Rodeo Drive area of LA.

The technicalities,.... I used my iPhone 4S and ProCamera for capture, the file was pre edited in Snapseed then post edited in Photoshop.

This particular image was entered in a regional art comp and whilst it didn't, win was the second "Peoples Choice" which was nice to know. The print now hangs in Wendys' office.

It is a bit of a statement piece for me, you may have noted from a previous post I am a trend and fashion contrarian, I see most of it as superficial and contrived, a part of the self serving commerce machine.

Anyhow the name, which just fits for me, is derived from a track off the now ancient "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" set, by Genesis, titled "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging".

BTW, should you have some spare time, check the Album (double album) out, at the time of release it was quite controversial polarising opinions left right and centre, but now after many years I think it stands up as an amazing work of musical exploration and provides some pointers of the directions that Peter Gabriel would take in the ensuing years.  Oh and take your time cause you really do need to listen to it several times to get the nuance and impact.