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.