December 2007 in the desert, midway between al-Hassa and the Qatari border,
with the 10D and 50mm f1.4 lens, 1/1200th at f/4 and ISO 100. 24" print.
I mentioned before that I wasn't at all proud of my last composition nor its focus, and an undiscriminating eye might think this one suffers from the same reservations. But on the contrary, I would only have adjusted this focus very slightly, and am completely adrool over this composition. (My spell checker doesn't like adrool ?!?) In fact, this one feels (at the moment) like one of my most profound compositions ever (but my new ones usually do after I've been looking at them for days, lol).
Very miscellaneous notes behind the fold, for anyone interested in such things. Happy new year!, new decade!, to everyone else.
Tonally, this one is a strange trick of the eye, isn't it? It looks very middle grey, but in fact, the histogram is as full-bodied as one could dream of. As with virtually all of my works, this one just doesn't entirely come to life until it's big. (And to my thinking, that's a feature, not a bug.) So it serves itself well as my new frontispiece - please make sure to view it large out there (and also because mine usually look better on black too).
I'm aware that the depth haloing may look a little garish while reduced like this, but at full size, it should look perfectly nuanced. (You'll see how it improves when it's larger if you compare between this 600 pixel version and the one out front at four times the size.) As I tell anyone who'll listen, I am making prints, not little jpgs for the web. If a print doesn't scale down well, I've just got to suffer that (and I do!).
As for the color, long-time viewers know that I've done only one true black and white, but anyone could reasonably wonder just what the hell I'm doing with these minimal hue jobs. It's very simple really - the hues are chosen primarily to enhance depth and pop. Which, in this case, needed all the help it could get. Despite the focus and bokeh, it was tough to tease the depth and definition out of this one, because virtually everything was the same rust color. (Which, not incidentally, I didn't want in the finished work.) A touch of mint in the sky (in this case) really makes a huge difference in popping the foreground.
Hardest thing about this one? There was some conspicuous bird shit that was quite difficult to remove. A couple small segments have remained for authenticity, but the original lumps where almost exactly in the wandering eye's center of attention. Took over an hour to do the good careful job of removing them. Not a fun task to start with for cracking into a new work.
At some point, I'll have to document the strange story of shooting this and Yesteryear, but not at the moment. There are at least a couple more good works to emerge from that spool eventually, so I'll type it up someday. Feel free to ask if you see me.
Oh, almost forgot! Yes, my titling strategy will be evolving in this new year. More explanation to come. But this is the first print I've ever made without the title embedded, and some (not all) of my other images will be retrofit for availability either way later this month. Somewhat related, but this title might change eventually. I like this one well enough - it meets all my standards - but a better one seems to be lurking out at the fringes of my consciousness, where I'll keep trying to grasp it. UPDATE: Okay, got it. The new one is revised atop this entry.
Anyway, had another work called Ringside Seats in mind for the first frontispiece of the new year, but in a fit of motivation shortly after New Year's midnight, I suddenly recalled this one and felt very inspired to tackle it. Ironically, I'd only remembered the hellish aspect at that moment (its working title was "It Gets Worse"), but the hopeful aspect became clear to me quite quickly once I dug in. I hope you see it too.
So!, my New Year's Eve was wild and varied (including a long walk home in the rain, which felt quite magical and unusual here, of course), but about 3 a.m., I got down to work. Having lacked motivation (to put it lightly) throughout most of December, it felt really good to get back in the zone. Hope yours are off to good starts too.
Oh hell yeah this one is AWESOME my friend! Great start to the new year.
Posted by: JNgaio | 01 January 2010 at 08:38 PM
I'm simply loving your new compositions Thorne! But more important, I came by to wish you a very, very great new decade and year, filled with vision, creativity and more importantly, peace and harmony!
You know you always have my best wishes, my friend!
~Yaka
Posted by: Yakarin | 02 January 2010 at 02:24 PM