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Teunis Haveman
{K:52875} 10/31/2003
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Jim, misty photo
Great work
Teunis
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.l m,.
{K:519} 10/31/2003
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Very well done. The texture in the sky is very nice. Gives it a stormy night look. I see that you use blue a lot but I think it is very fitting for this image. excellent work. I look forward to seeing more.
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Mário Sousa
{K:16985} 10/31/2003
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very good image
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Katharine E. Wright
{K:533} 10/31/2003
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Great illustration & timely contribution.
But how the heck do you do that? Is the figure added on top of the graveyard picture? Is it drawn or photo-based? Or am I being too nosy?
Very atmospheric --eek. (have you ever seen Night of the Living Dead?)
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Rhonda Prince
{K:17684} 10/31/2003
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Wonderful image! I thought your dancing skeletons were great for Halloween too. My interest is in the fellow running out of the graveyard. What was he doing in there? Or should he be leaving? It looks like he is holding the tails of his coat as he runs so nothing spooky can grab them on his way out!
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peta jones
{K:12615} 10/31/2003
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Wonderful Jim, I just love the ghostly light appearance. The tilt is great and your fleeing figure. Very atmospheric.
Thank you for your lovely comment on mine. :) Have fun tonight...mine are still dressing up!
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MaryBell
{K:32791} 10/31/2003
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Excellent, feels more like some of your earlier work...I love the cut-out figure reminds me of mystery theater's intro on PBS...
Mary
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Craig Garland
{K:27077} 10/31/2003
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Jim-- this is really cool-- and well done. Also soundly grounded in reality-- compared to your recent Time Series-- this one is only slightly surreal. I see you're back to the blues-- but it fits the subject. I really really like this. The composition is perfect for the subject. The man bent over as in a hurry, the gravestones-- all excellent. Nice work!
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Jim McNitt
{K:11246} 10/31/2003
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Hi Guys:
Just packed my offspring out the door for Halloween festivities. That's her in costume as Audrey the carnivorous plant from "Little Shop of Horrors." It was her idea and her costume. Where on earth do kids come up with this stuff?
Lots of great questions on this image. It was photographed and composited in PS in late August, I just thought today would be the most appropriate time to post it on UF. I will surely revisit this style again -- although, for the moment, I'm concentrating on a more realistic, make that surrealistic, approach.
The graveyard was photographed during a thunderstorm. This may sound atmospheric, but believe me, the photos were dull, flat and lifeless. Still, this 200-year old New England cemetary is on an extremely steep hill and I was captivated by the ramshackle headstones which point every which way as the result of ground creep. If it weren't for the three hour drive, I would have returned to photograph it in good light. Instead of driving six hours, I spend nine or ten hours experimenting in Photoshop and Painter 8.
In effect, the final image consists of three layers -- the cemetary layer, an "effects" layer (actually, a combination of three different FX layers) and a layer with the walking man -- plus the usual pile of adjustment layers.
To answer the question about the man, he was added later -- and not until I was sure the scene was going to work out, at that. I started with the photo of a commuter taken on the platform of the Greenwich Metro North station. I wasn't satisified when I composited the image, so I imported him into Painter 8, created a tracing layer and fiddled around with different brush strokes.
In the end, I decided a silhouette was actually the most effective of all my experiments -- which is something I could have done faster and easier in PS to begin with. But you never know.
The figure is small, but absolutely essential. For me, he defines the real theme, which has to do with our post-modern attitude toward death. He also adds a focal point and, above all, a sense of human scale.
The cemetary received a good deal of selective work. I used the EXTRACT feature to get rid of the sky which was too dark and gloomy even for a Halloween cemetary. Some portions were blurred, others were sharpened; some where dodged, others were burned. A couple of headstones were moved hither and yon to balance the composition. Finally, the entire layer was destaturated and dutoned.
The FX layers -- one was created in PS and has a lot of sparkling lights, another consists of the light pattern on the bottom of a swimming pool photographed with an underwater camera, and the third was simply a black-to-transparent gradient -- were added using differently blending modes (predominately the overlay mode) at reduced opacity settings.
Many thanks for the interest and the interesting questions. Best --Jim.
P.S. Katharine I once attended a midnight showing of "The Living Dead" during college. I lasted all of 15 minutes. Lately, I've been vowing to take my daughter to the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." She knows it's a completely hollow threat. There is a good chance that if she and her friends don't go to bed by 1 AM tonight, that I will make them all watch the "Rocky Horror Show."
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Alex Uchôa
{K:18547} 10/31/2003
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Another surreal and very creative shot of the master of photoart work.
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André Bermak
{K:14443} 10/31/2003
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Porra!!!!!!Fantástica composição,excelente trabalho,,,(FAVORITOS sem dúvida!!!!!!)
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Chris Spracklen
{K:32552} 11/1/2003
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Great stuff, Jim. I'm not a great fan of Halloween, but this is the best contribution I've seen to the plethora of Halloween shots ~ by a long way!
Good to see you back.
Regards, Chris.
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ADAM ORZECHOWSKI
{K:7957} 11/1/2003
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Great picture with nice idea and i love texture and blue tone.Regards
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Anna
{K:2994} 11/1/2003
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This image doesn?t look to me "Halloween like" Jim... it?s much more a dream... with a very magical mood... something strange and beautiful is going to happen... the anticipation... wow! wonderful!! :-))
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Mari Mar
{K:11417} 11/1/2003
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Muy buena! tu hija es linda y con un disfraz genial!
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Robin McAulay
{K:8908} 11/1/2003
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this is awesome Jim - great to see you in full form :)
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Carol Watson
{K:5185} 11/1/2003
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Ahhhh... he's BAAAAAACK! And in fine form. Great graveyard shot. This looks like it's illuminated by aurora borealis. I once streaked through a graveyard with a bunch of crazy friends back in the 70's. And the fellow in this looks like he's taking his coat off... is he streaking too? :-)
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Naty Z
{K:16486} 11/2/2003
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i missed your blue works! this one is...can't find a proper word to say...i woudl say scary but it's dreamy too, it could be a bad dream but there's a wonderful light and blue... oh sorry you got me confused, too much beauty!
i thought about Frankenstein looking at that man!
thanks for your thought about manipulation, i agree with you!
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Shiv Kumar Surya
{K:13464} 11/2/2003
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Wonderful. You have uploaded very nice ariestic photos here in your folder and they are very original, very reative. It will take some more time to see all.
Thanks to presenting your great art work.
Regards.
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Kristina Kohut
{K:49990} 11/2/2003
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Spooooky! Mysterious and beautiful, a lot to think and feel, and a really fantastic work as always from you! Excellent!
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Lou Verruto
{K:1375} 11/2/2003
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WOW!
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- simos -
{K:10714} 11/2/2003
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Very good... Great blue composition and effective mystery light...strong tilt on left, this make great speed effect, because man run so askew to right... Excellent, I like it...regards, simo
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B:)liana
{K:30945} 11/3/2003
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Oh Dear Jim. Dear Blue Jim. How I love to walk with you trought your wonderful imaginative World. Bravo. Great. wonderful. Love it. Into my favorites. Merci.
Kisses Biliana
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Yutaka Itinose
{K:21359} 11/3/2003
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N!Breathtaking!
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Paolo Barthelemy
{K:25552} 11/3/2003
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Great emotional appeal! Everything in the right place and surrounded by those lovely moody, bluish tones.
Best regards, Paolo
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Ana Vianna
{K:15270} 11/3/2003
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Very interesting! Well done! I liked, Jim!
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Aykan OZENER
{K:5996} 11/3/2003
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Hi ! My friend.Super!Thank your writed for me.
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sandy c. hopkins
{K:17107} 11/3/2003
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ohhh. jim...
this is just wonderful....
what an image...
i just read your description of all it took to make this masterpiece...
and whew...
the patience you have...makes me curious as to when your birthday is!!!
so many tales could be spun from this photo...
is he someone visiting?
or someone leaving?
hmmm....
wonderful job..
:)
sandy
oh yeah...(hahahaaaa bad hair day!! hahaa...)
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Gregory Fiedler
{K:15439} 11/4/2003
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Jim, Happy belated Halloween! The tilt makes this guy look pretty fast! Great atmosphere. The blue with the lighting gives it a sort of energy. Dats scary! Marvelous photoart.
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Alan Orr
{K:9671} 11/5/2003
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Jim, I checked back a while ago, and didnt see anything new. I decided one of two things. You were on a beach with a gaggle of cheerleaders, or time itself was pissed at your revelations,and had taken its toll on you. This image is excellent, and would be a great illustration for a story or video. Ive done this in real life and I could feel the spectral entities you have pictured here so well. I would like to see you do something on "the rat race". (you will need to get some rat shots).
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Gaetan Chevalier
{K:4188} 11/5/2003
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Excellent work Jim. This one is so magical it goes to my favorites.
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