Right Place, Almost Right Time & Not Quite Right Tools

As I was taking the dusk HDR set for the post below, I noticed a pelican in the last frame gulping down something at a great rate. It was fishing, and very successfully, so I quickly changed over to my telephoto lens. However the pelican was in the shadow and the light was failing, and the pelican moving so much it just became a white blur. I opened up the f-stop and cranked the ISO higher so I still had a exposure time of 1/60th second, but hand holding a long (lens 300mm) is a challenge. Back button focus (which usually helps when trying to pan on moving birds in flight at dusk) didn’t help, mainly because it was difficult to follow the pelicans movement (eg panning). How I wished I was closer (I could have walk around the lake but the pelican may have move on and I would be looking into the light) or had my tripod with me, or that it all happened a little earlier in better light. So I had to do the best I could (and accept that I would not get a perfect photo) just enjoy the moment, use my memory as inspiration and the blurry photos just as reference.

This is a prefect example of my constant message that “Being in the right place at the right time is difficult but being there with the right tools is more important to creativity”

ArtInspired :: More Inspiration from Fred Williams

One of my Fred William’s inspired experiments escaped into the wilds of Flickr a bit sooner than I was ready for (image on the right). It is based on a series of bracketed photos I took in the Deadman’s Gully park/wetlands behind Clifton Beach, just north of Cairns. I really liked the abstract patterns of the light and shade, particular as captured in a series of autoawesome HDR* images google had produced BUT whilst the shapes where amazing the colours where not realistic and somewhat hideous. I felt they did not convey “a true sense of the place”.

The problem of getting the colour right might not worry many but Fred Williams definitely did honestly represent the colour and texture of the Australian landscape. He also likely to being the process out in the landscape as a way to anchor his works with a true sense of the place. I actually don’t have a sketch to go with these images but I do have a couple of pages in my sketchbook that document all the water based media for sketch I had taken on my trip to north Queensland,. It wasn’t hard to scan this and use it on Corel Painter Essentials 4 (yes I haven’t updated yet!) to modify the palette of colours used in my strips. I then autopainted with a standard round watercolour brush to resample these images using my colour palette to give a more watercolour/gouache look. Much closer to what I remember of the place but still about the shapes and textures.

The final step was to place the strips over another HDR image from the set and now the images is working much better as a classic William’s painting that changes your sense of the place as space as you interact with the image. To do this display the Flickr image below full screen. Being by looking in detail close up and slowly step back still focussed on the image. You should soon reach the point where you feel you are there. Enjoying the shade and respite from the burning glare of the sun. Perhaps you are looking for your next meal, a large eel lurking in the pools, perhaps a fat mud crab hiding in the gnarled roots or perhaps you have an eye peeled for that crocodile looking for his dinner.

Taking the time to really look

There is a slight optical trick here, go to flickr and make this image full screen then look at it from close up. Your eye will be fascinated with the pattern and texture of the bark, and that will dominate what you see, Then stand and move back a few place and you will start to see the beach where this tree grows.

Working on the inspiration of Fred William's paintings of the essence of the Australian Landscape.