Black and white / monochrome? You might expect these images to have been produced in monochrome but in fact the last one is the only one that I felt merited the change from colour.
I like the subtleness of the colour in the first two and although I tried the third in B&W and made the necessary adjustments, I found the blue at the bottom of that tyre well to be just right along with the a-concentric curves of the layered rubber.
All images taken on my iPhone with ProCamera.
I am currently working on the post-production for a StillWalks video in Cwmdonkin Park in Swansea. It is a while since I was able to look at the photos and I was surprised to come across the image below. It is not one that I am likely to use in the video but I love the abstract nature of this tree bark.
The colour and texture make it a painting for me, one which makes me feel a little uneasy! Is that a face in there? Can you see it?
As with all other posts, click the pics to view them larger.
A few weeks ago I took a tapestry weaving workshop over the weekend for the Crickhowell Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers. They had asked me if I could do a version of my workshop “Sounding out Colour and Texture”.
The workshop focus was sound and the intention was to help everyone to develop ideas for tapestry weaving by using a medium that may not have occurred to them previously. It wasn’t going to be possible in the time allowed to produce finished tapestries but we were able to experiment with different techniques and materials as a means of interpreting different aspects of sound.
The language used in describing sound relates very well to the language used in the visual arts and crafts. I am not talking of the technical terms connected to audio and tapestry weaving, but rather the interpretive, emotional terms used. Colour and texture, rhythm and melody.
We often hear the term “the tapestry of life” – the wide range of techniques and materials it is possible to use within tapestry weaving make it possible to represent any number of aspects of our emotional and physical lives and sound can be an excellent starting point for exploring those possibilities.
In these workshops I would also ask people to close their eyes and imagine what colour a sound might be or what it would feel like in their hands if they could grab a hold of it. The sound editing program I use, Adobe Audition, can show us the wave form of the sound and it can show us the “shape” of the sound in the spectral display, but it cannot tell us its texture and the colour it shows is only that selected by the user in the program’s preferences.
This is where the imagination comes in and helps us to develop the designs we may use to present an interpretation of a subject that could be said to have an extra dimension to it.
apart from looking at how different sounds appear visually on the spectral display of an editing program like Adobe Audition,
This old rusty gate and shed are just two of the ageing things I found by the wayside on one of my walks through the Galloway countryside in Scotland.
Absence of sunlight does not necessarily mean the scene will be less beautiful / dramatic / atmospheric.
These photos I took on the Galloway coast in SW Scotland are almost Rothko-esque in their subtlety of colour, tone and texture. The sea merged into the sky but as the colour of one reflects the colour of the other, I guess that merging should be expected. It is just the differing textures or a hint of land (rock) that allows us to understand the view.
Concrete, glass and pebble dash – the outer materials of the Civic Centre building in Swansea. It is in a beautiful position on the seafront in Swansea bay and those working there may sometimes find the view somewhat distracting.
These are photos I have posted on Instagram recently and although, on this occasion, the quality of the photos leaves something to be desired, the images themselves are ones I find interesting – that’s why I took them I guess!
One reason for my interest is the effect the different surfaces have on the light that hits them. Whilst the the glass reflects the light and colour in a very direct way, the (originally) white surface of the walls deflects the direct sunlight from dazzling the eye too much because it has been textured with pebble dash. In the second shot the walls have also been given a vertical line pattern which further deflects the light.
