Electric Images

To me, electric images serve to play out a dream or fantasy through a series of thoughts.  What I've done here is create a series of photos taken during a visit to my parents' home during which two things happened: my older brother, Charlie, was visiting from Ohio, and a massive Noreaster snowstorm was burying the area.  The gusting 50 mph winds carried with them 17 inches of heavy-wet-sleet-like snow over two days.

Since both of our parents worked, and the snow began Thursday early morning, Charlie and I were left all the shoveling.  We were outside all day, literally.  We rewarded ourselves at dark with pizza and a six pack.

During the course of our night, where we shared new stories and fond memories.  I was also feeling nostalgic being in my childhood home with the brother I don't often see, so I felt it my responsibility to respond by taking these photos.

The five originals used are the truest representation of the night.  Revisiting them to create the following remixes was a stellar experience.  My inspiration for the remixes was the color purple, and its many lovely hues.

The dream begins with Charlie and I watching some movie, drinking Yuenglings...

A fierce gust of wind outside brings us to the window.../div>

I ask Charlie, what do snowflakes look like from another snowflake's perspective...

Lomograph...

Let's build a snowman!  A tiny snowman... because that's hilarious...

Remixing these photos was interesting.  I wanted to keep the mood of the night visually authentic, while still incorporating color and texture elements from my own dreamscape.  With sumopaint, I applied various filtering and appearance makeups, while also altering hue, color balance and temperature, and other color elements.  The distortion options were endless, but I wanted to try as many as I could while remaining consistent.

Photo 1: Photo taken of the television with close-up of onscreen inferno.  I brought out the red and blue tones for the fire and background tones, and then choose to pixelate the fire, almost overemphasizing its movie-like qualities.

Photo 2: View of the storm from the back bedroom window onto the yard.  I experimented with the blur tools in the backyard photo, as I wanted hyperbolize the swirling wind actually taking place outside at the time.

Photo 3: Camera zoomed in on falling snowflakes.  The photo from the snowflake's perspective is my favorite visually.  To make the black background appear purple, almost deep-space like, I amplified the red and blue hues, removing green, and playing up the brightness to bring out the falling flakes.

Photo 4: Charlie and I running downstairs to get to the yard.  The photo of the stairs is one I took by accident and realized only when I looked at my camera later; since I find it remarkable that it wasn't blurry but was quite clear, I did little manipulation and instead played up the flash against the stairs and darkened the contrast to bring out the wood grain.

Photo 5: Charlie high-fiving our brave mini snowman. Outside, our childish spirits took hold and we built a snowman, a tiny one to contrast the big storm.  I wanted this photo to mimic an Impressionist painting, something that had rich texture and fine accented dimensions, so I played with the lighting and color balance before crystallizing.

What I've learned from this photo project is how to see an image, then revisit it to highlight its outstanding qualities in a way that will burn its electric imagery into your mind so you will always remember.