Pablo's fish eye misadventures...

I have never owned a fish eye lens or any other devise to manipulate an image and still don't, but by some mistake of trial and error fiddling around in the Light Room lens correction area, I discovered a setting that allowed me to create a fish eye effect that turned out to provide the solution I didn't even know I was looking for to deal with a few problemsome images I had taken that had potential but somehow left me flat emotionally and aesthetically unsatisfied, so manipulate I did, with quite satisfying results that my teacher Arthur Leipzig would have given me hell for, like the time I submitted a sepia toned photo for an assignment and was admonished for handing in something that "looked like I rubbed shit on it".  He was a purist from the old school and he was kind of right but sometimes extreme measures are required to pull something out of the dust bin of photos that were almost good enough.  My first effort at artifice was an image I liked a lot when I took it, but never felt satisfied with later because I knew there was something there but it wasn't coming across.

All the elements of a compelling image were there, but they didn't add up.  The whole was not greater than the sum of the parts.  And then I started to fool around with the distortion bar in the lens correction setting and it all came together in a tight composition with a touch more saturation and contrast that just reached out and grabbed me...

Sometimes you take pictures, sometimes you need to create an image....

Today I was puzzling over another photo I sort of liked a lot when I took in Silver City, New Mexico that seemed to have the potential to be a good image, but it also fell flat as it was.   

It was a good enough picture but it left me craving more.  Its a feeling that's hard to explain, but when its there (or not there) you know it.  There was just something lacking, so after trying a few adjustments that didn't do anything for me, I hit the distortion bar, pedal to the metal, and just couldn't stop.  Here the manipulation is blatant and unapologetic, but as an image, it works.  I don't want to rely on artifice, but I don't want to be a rigid purist left holding the bag on a good photo that wasn't quite good enough and ended up being relegated to the trash heap of photos that sort of seemed good enough at the time but didn't pan out in the end.  I've got enough of those.

Pablo

Addendum:

3/9/16

Till now, I haven't taken a photo with the intention of distorting it to make an impression, but I'm not getting around as much these days, so I have to make the best of my limited range of activity.  We just got back from Stony Brook, Long Island where we spent a few days attending the funeral of our brother in law Billy's mother.  I have always admired this post office in Stony Brook, built in 1941 as part of a pleasantly successful effort to recreate a New England village on the north shore of the island, although of late many of the residents are not happy about the fact that the previously utilitarian shops (butcher, baker, hardware, grocery, etc) have been replaced by trendy boutiques and fancy eateries.  So goes America, but as of now, the post office abides.  I present it here, before and after, with modifications to enhance its graphic impact,  Hope I am not reduced to this degree of artifice to keep my output interesting.

I shot this knowing it would need some "post production" work to make it a more compelling image and I think it worked out well...

Pablo, otra vez

Back to Cozumel Mexico for just one more beer (or two)...

2/21/16

It's been a while since my last posting, I know, and I have been needing to jumpstart myself.  Haven't been out much since out Thanksgiving week in Miami and there hasn't been  much to say.  Jackie fractured her ankle and has been laid up, its been overcast and gloomy in Albany, and I haven't taken any new pictures till recently although I have been at the gallery as much as possible, printing furiously to catch up on the backlog of work that remains undone when you are out in the field.  In spite of Jackie's fragile circumstances we managed to get out of the cold and make it down to Cozumel and the Florida Keys for 3 weeks.   

If you've been following the blog, I'm sure you recognize some of the old photos in this posting to catch you up on our 9/14/11 return to Cozumel after who knows how many years, and my delight in finding out that indeed, that it was not just some alcohol inducted Gilligan Island fantasy/delusion, but the exact place I had been dreaming about, untouched, unchanged, and unAmerican.  No malls, no hotels, no shirt ...no shoes...no problema!!!  The same 15 or 20 grass thatched huts scattered along the coast,  peeking out of the jungle overlooking the ocean selling cheap beers and tequila shots and questionably edible food.  Couldn't find Lucho, our faithful manservant of old, so hoping that maybe he's moved along since we last saw him 5 years ago...

As I mentioned last time, when I first posted this picture, it is not photoshopped.  It was taken as is, and just happens to be perfect, that's all;  kind of what the world looks like on an idlic tropical island after 3 or 4 (maybe 5) beers.  The place looks the same, only I've gotten older...

....the bar, Señor Iguana, Marilyn Azul, the gift shop and the beach.  Since we circled the island in the reverse, Mezcalito was our first stop heading in reverse direction toward Punta Sur...

Not much has changed as I said and what has changed looks the same as what was there before, so just a few new photos taken on the road to Punta Sur to close out my Cozumel state of mind thing, and if I don't get back, no biggie...

Be sure to check out the 9/14/11 Cozumel posting...

                                                                             Pablo

Addendum...

Found this photo of Jackie and me in Cozumel the first time around, when Cozumel was just a port o' call for us on a cruise we took with my father and sister...

                                                                             Pablo