Image manipulation with Match Color

Here's another example of experimenting with Photoshop's Match Color technique to apply color palettes from source images to your photographs.

Full tutorial here.

Here's the original image:

More shutterbuggery...

This week I was interviewed by Julia K of Beyond Robson for her weekly local photographers feature. Needless to say, I was pretty honored to be part of such a great series.

Anyone who knows me probably realizes how much I'm into photography at the moment, and it's always nice to be recognized by others who share my interests. So again, thanks very much to Julia and everyone at Beyond Robson.

You can see the full article here.

Hot Buzzz

Another one of my photos, 'Buzzz', has been featured on this weeks Beyond Robson photo feature page. Thanks guys!

You can see the feature here.

Finally!

I finally got around to paying for a Flickr Pro account. For $24.95 a year you get unlimited storage, uploads, bandwidth, and sets and permanent archiving of all images.

Considering all the photos I've taken since the beginning of the year, I thought that was a pretty good deal. Finally ALL of my images are displayed on my Flickr page instead of the latest 200. Plus I get to organize them into easy-to-browse sets. Yay!

Check out my new improved Flickr page here.

Three Woody's in one day...

One of the things I love about the apartment building I live in is that people are always leaving used books in the lobby for others to read. A couple of days ago, somebody left behind this great boxed collection of three of Woody Allen's books from the 60's and 70's. Just last week I picked up Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (I passed on the collection of lesbian erotica).

Even if I don't get around to reading them, I can just leave them lying around the apartment and people will think I'm intellectual or something.

Full circle

I've never really considered myself a spiritual person, but I do believe that there is some sort of pattern to the apparent chaos of life, some sense that eventually everything comes full circle.

Circles are a recurring motif in director Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain; there are Mayan symbols, tunnels, wedding rings, globes floating in space, closeups of eyes. Characters frequently gaze directly into the camera, the circles of their eyes framing a chaotic thread of color and light.

The story weaves together three parallel stories from the past, present and future. Hugh Jackman plays all three central characters; a conquistador, a scientist and a space traveler, each, in their own way, seeking to discover the secret of eternal life. The Fountain is not a traditional science-fiction film, but uses the genre (much like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Solaris) as a backdrop to a meditation on human existance. Amidst the spectacular photography, backdrops and beautifully organic special effects, it is the heartbreaking performances of Jackman and Rachel Weisz as his eternal love, that really ground the film and bring it that much needed touch of humanity.

The film's ending is, like 2001, open to interpretation. I'm not sure if I completely understood it, but I was satisfied by it. There is a feeling of rebirth, renewal and an acceptance of destiny. Moments can be shared by many lives over many years, much like a needle and thread piercing hundred of pages from the same book. By sharing these moments, we can never be alone.