- Faux Winter Scene
This was shot from the bus window. I don’t normally do that, but when you are on a cruise, you have very little time to roam on your own. You must always be back for lunch on board. That isn’t too big a problem as lunch is always delicious.
We were drving across a bridge crossing the Neva and I liked these red brick factories with the church. Very Russia. But when I looked at my photo in Photoshop, I didn’t think it had enough pizzazz. So I tried to turn it into a winter scene. I think I used the infrared setting in one of my plug-ins. (Plug-ins are additional software packages that make Photoshop quicker and easier. You could do the same thing in Photoshop if you tried.)
You can tell it isn’t really winter because the trees have leaves on them. It reminds me of the way Hollywood films night time scenes. They call it ‘day into night’ and I think it is done using a blue filter. Hollywood has lots of tricks. Once I was visiting my daughter in Sacramento and they were filming in her neighborhood. They had covered all the grass in the area with something like cotton batting. Films count on you not noticing. Sometime when you are watching a film showing a palatial home, look at the walls and doors. You will notice dirt marks and other things that have no place in a home like that. Rather a let down. It’s all so fake.
I call this a ‘drive-by shooting’. I’m happy when one of these is pleasing. It’s a different viewpoint from standing on the street and that in itself makes it desireable. Try to get down or up high. It will take an ordinary subject and make it extraordinary.
I’m packing today. I’ll be going to Romania in a few days for a couple of weeks with a young Romanian photographer. I’ll put a link to his website on the day I leave and you can have an idea of what I’ll be shooting.
I won’t be blogging while I am gone. I don’t take a computer and I haven’t mastered the art of post publication.