Man Alone

Vineland, NJ

We were on a trip to Vineland, NJ to see their beautiful azalea gardens. I past a tulip tree and photographed its bark in the hopes that if someone needed this image we'd have it in stock. I took the slide and scanned it into our computer and began to work on it again using Ulead. The result is what I'm calling "Man Alone".

I see a man walking hands in his pockets, he has his gray hooded sweatshirt pulled up over his head, he is looking down and is alone. Walk down any street in any town and you will see just such a man. Today the young, especially, embrace this look. I will sometimes see them as I come home from work wearing their "hoodie" and their faces so far tucked inside that you can't tell who they are. Of course this is today's dress and ten years from now it will be something else and these young men will move on not alone like the subject of my picture above.

Man Worshiping

Pine Barrens, NJ

This is a photograph of pignut hickory bark from the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The original slide had a blue tint to it and some of that was removed with the hue and saturation section of the Ulead program. Even with the blue tint removed enough remained to produce an image of a man worshiping.

Grotesque Man With Wise Owl

Laurel Springs, NJ

I have taken many photographs of dead and live tree roots. This image is at the base of a live tree showing the roots. It was taken at Laurel Lake in Laurel Springs, NJ. In fact, it was taken the same day that I took the image I call "Walt's Lake". If you look carefully at that picture you can see the tree. I used shot a closeup of the roots and then cropped it once more after the slide was copied to the computer. I have decided to put into my man and wood series. Look closely and you should be able to pick out the little man and his owl.

Man at War

Winslow Township, NJ

We spend a lot of time down at a park in Winslow Township, NJ. We've photographed birds, flowers and other scenics. This picture was of an unopened hawkweed plant. The original image was not quite what I wanted. It was of the three buds yellow and ready to open. I didn't like it. I took my photo and began working more on the darkness and brightness, contrast and I began seeing 3 people. One appears to have a gun. They look like they are in camoulage uniforms. I call it "Man at War".

The Red-hooded Man

Philadelphia, PA

The image begins to pop out as I play with our photography program. Bill walks into the room and says that it looks like a man wearing a hood. Now I can't get that phrase out of my mind and everytime I look at the abstract I see "The Red-hooded Man". When we started the blog I didn't intend to do abstracts like these. Somehow we've discovered another side to our work. This picture began as a red bow and evolved into something different. Sometimes it is good to free ourselves from the standard photograph. A freeing of the soul.

Man Walking into Angry Storm #2

Philadelphia, PA

It started yesterday. I was angry and annoyed. I took a look at my earlier abstract image "Man Walking into an Angry Storm" from an earlier blog. I began putting my anger into the image making the clouds angrier like my mood. It is what artists try to do. Put their feelings into their work. Today the anger and frustration continue. My mother had to go into the hospital and I'm stuck at home with ice and freezing ran covering the car and streets. I feel frustrated and want to get over to the hospital but I have to wait. Today I offer another version of "Man Walking......", adding my current black mood to this new version.

Abstract #1, Philadelphia, PA

We were walking, footsin' again in Philadelphia when we came across this cement wall with rust forming a shell-like pattern. I took the photograph and filed it away as the title abstract. I liked the cracks in the cement and rust colors. Today I decided to put the image on our blog. I am trying to show that an abstract can be photographed as well as created on the computer. In the "Man Escaping" image from December where I used the "contrast and brightness" selection of Ulead, I decided to leave the image as it was. I saved it only as abstract. Never one to leave something alone, I began to make a second image. A little brightness here, hue and saturation there and out comes the image below, "Abstract: Man walking into an angry storm".

Man walking into an angry storm, Philadelphia, PA

Man Escaping, Pine Barrens, NJ

In 1983 while walking the Batona Trail in New Jersey's Pine Barrens we came across this old root. Twenty-three years later the image was scanned into a computer and with the help of Ulead and Adobe "Man Escaping" was created.