Is it Art?
I have found unexpected pleasure in the rock photographs, discovering images I never knew were there. Like this piece of moss agate:
The actual source is about 1cm across, as is this tiny section of geode:
...and this warrior's mask inside a small piece of bismuth (a mere handful of millimetres):
And then of course there are the miracles of focus that showcase a single crystal bathed in light and colour. This is celestine:
I've always loved the play of light and colour in arctic ice. I love the idea that light and colour can play :-)
And many more. For each session there's usually at least one that stands out like this. Once I've cropped and tinkered a bit with brightness and contrast, of course. I currently lack any photo processing software apart from Windows Picture Manager so that's all I've got to work with at present. I'm feeling the urge to filter some of the more abstract images to add back in a richness of texture that gets lost with such tiny sources.
A couple of these have made me wish that I could paint like that; I love the swirls of colour and texture. While I could never hope to emulate nature with paint, it's occured to me that I could make prints, and if the quality is reasonable enough I could put them into the Swancon art show.
Photographs? My photographs, art? I am more than comfortable with the idea that other people can make art with photographs, but it seems impudent to claim that for myself. I'm not making it, I'm just finding it. Oh. That's art, isn't it?
The actual source is about 1cm across, as is this tiny section of geode:
...and this warrior's mask inside a small piece of bismuth (a mere handful of millimetres):
And then of course there are the miracles of focus that showcase a single crystal bathed in light and colour. This is celestine:
I've always loved the play of light and colour in arctic ice. I love the idea that light and colour can play :-)
And many more. For each session there's usually at least one that stands out like this. Once I've cropped and tinkered a bit with brightness and contrast, of course. I currently lack any photo processing software apart from Windows Picture Manager so that's all I've got to work with at present. I'm feeling the urge to filter some of the more abstract images to add back in a richness of texture that gets lost with such tiny sources.
A couple of these have made me wish that I could paint like that; I love the swirls of colour and texture. While I could never hope to emulate nature with paint, it's occured to me that I could make prints, and if the quality is reasonable enough I could put them into the Swancon art show.
Photographs? My photographs, art? I am more than comfortable with the idea that other people can make art with photographs, but it seems impudent to claim that for myself. I'm not making it, I'm just finding it. Oh. That's art, isn't it?