La Llorona
by Cory

Comment:

Originally posted by posthumous: I'm pretty sure I see more than mylar in this photo. It looks like la llorona to me. But if your mylar is a soul-eating spirit from the other side, I'm sure SC will validate you.

Well of course you do. And I thought that was the point of this indistinct sort of photography? To make the mind play games with the senses.

What you really see is a set of colored blotches that arrange themselves into a face. Would you feel any differently if I had projected the image onto a reflective surface? Cause I don't have any technological deficiencies that would prevent me from creating this same image any one of three or four ways.

And yes, my mylar eats souls!! ;)

La Llorona
by Cory

Comment:

Originally posted by posthumous: so, you are taking photos of your monitor and it's getting validated?

Just a thought for you Don. I think it's pretty darn likely that I worked a lot harder on this than you do on almost anything you submit.

Tell me, how long does it take you to set up and shoot an entry? Including editing?

Took me about three hours for this. Photographing my monitor indeed. Not sure why you would feel a need to put it like that - but, when we spoke at length about it last time, you were pretty clear, if I feel like I'm doing something beyond photographing my monitor, and if I'm really modifying the image, adding myself into it, then I'm creating something new and valid. Or so I though I understood you to have said. In the end, I'm focused on the surface of a piece of plastic, taped to a box, an inch or two away from my monitor, with plastic wrap in between, and I experimented and adjusted the relative angles carefully to play with focus/detail, all this with my camera attached to my desk on a magic arm, with a remote, so I can get the shot without the camera moving and destroying the fine grain and scratches on the mylar. I mean, come on man - how many entries of yours did you work that hard for? Really? Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me the often many of your shots are honestly just serendipitous shots that managed to capture something that strikes your fancy. Maybe I'm wrong- but do you envision then shoot, or shoot, then fantasize? Perhaps that's why you do not appreciate the effort put into a 'monitor shot' like this one.

Really man... I think I earned it, and I feel a little betrayed by you on this. I even had your advice about it in mind as I was shooting, and tried hard to add extra dimension to it. An example is the deliberate placement of the splotches, the extra plastic wrap, etc. And now, you hit me with this "picture of your monitor" crap. I didn't really expect that from you to be honest.

Message edited by author 2013-09-03 15:26:26.

La Llorona
by Cory

Comment:

Originally posted by posthumous: so, you are taking photos of your monitor and it's getting validated?

No. I'm taking pictures of mylar and it's getting validated.

Saying that I'm photographing my monitor is inflammatory, especially since it is directly after a post where I explained exactly why I am not simply photographing my monitor. And you have, indeed, inflamed me a bit. ;)

I'm photographing my monitor about as much as a landscape photographer is photographing the sun.

You might as well say that I'm photographing a flashlight, because there was one in the box that was illuminating the mylar too.

In fact, I lit this with my monitor and a flashlight too. Does the fact that it's a fully opaque surface really matter that much?



I promise you that if I had simply photographed my monitor, I'd definitely have ended up on the other end of the stack.

I'll prove it sometime soon, by entering a photo of my monitor.

Message edited by author 2013-09-03 15:14:16.

La Llorona
by Cory

Comment:

Originally posted by skewsme: Scary image. Just wondering, is it another monitor picture? Was the last one validated too (the one you called yourself out on)?

Well, to call it a 'monitor picture' seems a little off base.

It was accomplished by photoshopping an image up, then placing a layer of plastic wrap over my monitor, then placing a sheet of frosted mylar(which I have 'treated' with coffee, oils, and sandpaper) on a cut-out in a box, and then focused on and shot the mylar with just a bit of back-lighting to enhance textures.

So yeah. It's a 'monitor picture', or at least, the monitor is what's providing the blotchy patches of colored light.

It's much more similar really to the ribbon from the cutout challenge which was validated ages ago, although I did add in a bit more work to the process this time to get a more creative result and to hopefully satisfy those who question whether or not this is a valid technique. In any case, it's significantly more involved than simply snapping a picture of my monitor.

As for the validation on the one I called myself out on? Still no word. SC is either debating it still, or have simply forgotten? No idea. In the end though, I decided to enter as I thought the technique was amazingly well suited to this challenge, and I don't see much difference between projecting light from a monitor onto this surface, or projecting the light through a lens onto this surface.. (since it's basically the same material I use in my large-format digital machine...).

DSC_8253dpc
by cgino

Comment:
Yeah, I like the richer clouds. This place is just begging for light painting on a full moon night. Beautiful set.

DSC_8479B
by cgino

Comment:
It really does almost look like there was a colorful sunset going on.

DSC_8479B
by cgino

Comment:
I think I like this in general for the sky and mountains, but agree that the land is off a bit.

What might be really cool is to run this again for the land, and then maybe even once more for different cloud colors, then mix all three as layers, blending in the best parts.

u n t i t l e d
by Bear_Music

Comment:
Well... There's sort of a V here. ;)

Triste
by PenelopeK

Comment:
It was the deep black. That's what kept me from loving it.

The grain in the roses was lovely though.

Nom Nom, Delicious Grain!
by Cory

Comment:
ROFL.

I'm not so worried about it. Definitely never letting you live it down though. ;)