Blog Assignment 6: Typography in Composition

The challenge is to integrate font into the composition of a photo, or other art.  The final product must be visually pleasing.

 

 

 

Blog Assignment 5: The Return of Nine Inch Nails

Trent Reznor is the quintessential angry rock star.  The long ride with Nine Inch Nails started with "Pretty Hate Machine," the band's first studio album in 1989.  NIN has been called metal, electronic, techno, industrial and many other genre labels, but continues to defy categorization.  The latest studio album "Hesitation Marks" released in September of 2013 is the ninth studio album and the first album on a major record label since 2007.

Introduced with the single "Came Back Haunted," "Hesitation Marks" represents a return to the studio and state of the art recording technology for NIN.  "The Slip," the previous album released as a free torrent, was recorded with all live recording equipment, with amps mic'd and the band playing every song together for recording.  The new album is exquisitely refined.  From the industrial beats to more house style bass loops the album is distinctly NIN but also distinctly new.

Blog Assignment: Visual Pun

The following are examples of visual puns:

1.  Jar Head

2. Super Bowl

3.  Candy Rapper

Blog Assignment 4: The Nature of Dreams

What is the nature of dreams?

Dreams, in my world, are a subconcious response to my life experiences.  Every night I have the same two dreams:

1.   First, I dream that I am back in the Army, that my squad is getting ready to move, and I am trying to convince everyone that I am old and fat and cannot fight anymore.
2.   Second, I dream that I am in school, and I cannot find the locker with my books, and I am late for class.  I walk around and around in circles looking for the locker.

Do you believe in coincidence?

I do not believe in coincidence.  I believe that the Universe has an underlying Energy, that moves every particle in a specific pattern so that all of the particles mix and combine as they are designed to mix.  I believe that this Power follows specific patterns--some that we know and call laws of physics and such--but also patterns that are beyond our comprehension.


How is memory like a dream?

My memory is very similar to a dream, in that I only remember events, people, and places, the way my subconscious rebuilds them.  For example, I typically only remember the good traits of an old girlfriend.  I never remember the fights or the times that were bad--unless the bad times were embarassing enough to define that portion of my life.

Textures--Computer Art class: Blog Assignment number three

This is the official assignment prompt for this blog:

Lets make some art…

Take artistic photos of subjects of your choice.

Take photos of textures (close up shots of old deteriorated things, rust, paint coming off an old wall, crumpled up paper, old pages from books, texture is everywhere)

Combine the textures with the photos to add mystery to the content of the work.  The steps are simple but the results can be profound.   Add a texture layer to a photo you have taken then change the blending mode of the texture layer – Done!  Make three and upload them to your blog then write a little about where the images came from and how you made them.

All of the images used in this blog, are my images.  Each texture image was taken with a Pentax WG-II, which is marketed as a point-and-shoot adventure camera.  I have found that the WG-II sucks as an adventure camera, the waterproofing has a long history of failure--my camera has been replaced under warranty already for waterproofing problems, and the blog sites on the camera list many other customer complaints about the waterproofing.  The WG-II has proven to be an excellent super-macro camera.  The camera has a mode which is described as "Digital Microscope" in which six built -in LED lights illuminate and the camera takes superb pictures as close as one millimeter from the subject.Each of the primary subject photos were taken with a Canon 6d, Full-frame dSLR.  The 6d is the best camera I have ever owned--I actually own two of the bodies.  The camera is a great camera for all types of photography and shoots great video also.

First combination

I will post each of the original pictures and the combined image.  The first work is a combination of a super-macro picture of my blue jeans with close-up portrait of my cat.

 The combination actually makes the cat look like she has scales.  Her face looks like a snake with whiskers.

Second Combination

The second work is a combination of a super-macro picture of my Keen water shoes and a picture of Trade Street in Uptown Charlotte.

 The texture from the weave on the shoes, added to the picture of the street, gives the illusion of a hard rain pouring down on the city.

Third Combination

The third work is a picture of large metal rings.  This picture appears to be black-and-white, but it actually just has very little color.  The ring picture is used to provide texture to a photo of two musicians performing.

 The application of the rings, gives the photograph and apocalyptic feel, which is very appropriate for these musicians, because they cover mostly metal bands like Slipknot, Metallica, and Pantera.  I did not want the ring texture to obscure the faces of the musicians, so I used a layer mask to exclude the faces from the application of the texture layer containing the rings.