I was fixing up my myspace profile and I wanted to put a particular picture in my about me section that is really a magnificent photo. It was taken by my parents friend Mad-Aussie (as he is known on the internet). Earlier in the year he and his wife went over to Western Australia for two weeks or so. MA is very interested in photography and, because he can, he has a very professional camera worth at least five thousand dollars. Needless to say, this camera takes excellent photos. You would certainly hope it does after what it cost!
Anyway, he took some fantastic photos in Western Australia, especially of the natural beauties that can be found there (beaches, forests and such). One such photo is this one.
Now I love this particular image for many reasons, not the least of which it being so amazingly abstract and perfect; he has managed to capture the raw beauty that the earth has so magnificently, able to show its splendour and yet still portray that us humans are no match for the earth, to show how strong the earth really is. When I look at this image its like I can feel the roughness of the rock against my skin. Its like I can feel the rhythmic pull and push of the waves, and hear them in my ears. Its like I can feel the softness of the clouds brushing my cheeks and feel the slight breeze playing with my hair. I suppose this is no thanks to the good quality of the image because it was taken by such a good camera. But it also intrigues me for two other reasons.
Number one is the circumstances in which I first saw it, but I wont say anything more about that :P
Number two is because I know for a fact that this image has been photoshopped.
MA is your typical “computer nerd”; his job is to make websites for other companies. So naturally he knows a lot about computers and, having more spare time than some, he also has the ability to play around a lot on the computer. He used photoshop on all of his photos, even just to put his stamp on there: Astro Visual Photography. However, with this image he spent a fair bit of time on.
He actually took three images of the same thing. In each image he focused on one aspect of the whole picture: first the sky, then the rocks and finally the sea. See, when you take a photo, most of the time only one part of it turns out how you want it too, with perfect colouring and exposure and colour saturation and a hundred other things. So if you concentrate on just one object or section in the picture and get it perfect you can then combine it with another image that has concentrated on a different section of the same photograph. This is exactly what MA did, took three photos of the same picture, each one concentrating on a different section. He then took the image into photoshop and merged the three together, creating the final photograph.
I think he should be commended on his creativity and ability to create such a wonderful photo!
Anyway, knowing how the image was created reminds me of something I have previously said, about how you should always look at the good things in life instead of the bad ones. But what this image made me think is a little different.
Life isn’t beautiful. Its only you who makes it beautiful.
The reason this picture made me think this is because the actual place where the photo was taken is not actually as enchanting as it appears in the final picture. Its only how MA has photoshopped it that makes it beautiful.
Sometimes life may seem ugly. But thats only because thats how your seeing it. If you change how you see the world then it will magically become much better.
Appriciate what you have and your life will seem more beautiful.
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You can view more of Mad-Aussie's pictures on PhotoBucket:
http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u104/Mad-Aussie/
Oh my, you post such lovely blogs.
ReplyDeleteThey inspire me.
Beautiful photo also. :)