Working Close to Home

Ostrander Point

The world seems a little smaller these days. We are adjusting to our new reality. Sometimes limits can enhance creativity. Keith Richards once said about open G tuning on his 5-string Telecaster – “5 strings, 3 notes, 2 hands and 1 asshole”. One of the first songs he used this tuning on is the brilliant “Street Fighting Man” from Beggars Banquet. Limits sometimes create a box that forces you to work differently.

I love reducing images to black and white or at least monotone. About 7 years ago, I started using an aging process to “rough up” my images.

Old Shed

Vegetable Stand in the County

This process starts with a colour image. I convert it to black and white and add layers of texture and blur parts of the image. The result is a photo that looks damaged and worn.

Old Trucks

Nude in Nature

Sometimes I will leave a bit of colour.

Red Doors, Yellow Flowers

The resulting images become more of an illustration than photograph.

Tree in the Fog

Engine 1095, Kingston, ON

Steam Engine

With all that is going on in the world, I find I’m escaping into my own world of creativity. The world around us is as big as we make it, even if we are confined.

The Train Series

A few years ago I created a photo illustration of a train:

Steam Locomotive Illustration

(See Composite for more information on how the train illustration above was created.)

That image has been published several times over the years so I wanted to create some more.

I don’t have many train photos. I take them sporadically as I travel. The one below is from Toronto. It started out very plain. I tried to stylize it to add a bit of drama and interest.

CN Rail Illustration

The smoke was the hardest part. I created a custom brush and just played with multiple layers and blends until I got something I liked. This can be a time consuming process. The image can become quite complicated. Here is the Photoshop document with all layers:

I let this one sit for a while but finally sent it off to my agent at All Canada Photos. Then I started to look for more raw material to continue the series.

In 2013 Lori and I travelled to New Zealand for a 6 - week trip. It is a lovely country. We visited the Kingston Flyer, a steam engine train on the south island. The images are okay but I wanted to bring them closer to the style of my other train images. That was my intent. I ended up with something a little different.

The Flyer Illustration

The Flyer Illustration

The Flyer Illustration

The Flyer Illustration

The Flyer Illustration

It’s always fun to play and explore with my images. I never know where I will end up.

Compositing

The concept of compositing has been around for a very long time. Many artists combine images and mediums to create collages and composited images. With modern software programs, this process has become easier and faster. I too have created many photographic composites over the years. In fact, I’m often on the lookout for subjects that would make an interesting photo illustration. One example is this image of a plane flying into the sunset. The plane was originally shot in the daylight. I stripped it out of its background and laid it on top of a sunset I painted in Photoshop. The result is a simple but effective composite.

Composite plane image - click to view original

One that was a little more complicated was this image of the old lighthouse at Cape Spear on Newfoundland. I had to turn the image into a “night” image with the lights on and then composite in the snow and the moon. Here are the stages of the image:

Point mouse at any thumbnail for larger view

Cape Spear final image - click for larger

Recently, I was shooting in southern Ontario. I came across a Steam Locomotive at a museum in Brighton. I instantly thought it would make an interesting composite. I shot several images, some close some further away. The sky was a washed out grey. The first step was to choose the right composition. I then went about replacing the sky. Next, I wanted to turn on the light at the front of the train and last, I added the “smoke” from another image. I think it has much more power and interest like this. What do you think?

Click Composite left for larger view