autofantasia's photos with the keyword: statues

For this week's Sunday Challenge , for which we were asked to go back to basics : Either use a non-zoom or set your lens to 35 or 50mm only, camera to ISO100, and lets see something SOOC, no crop, no post pro, just like in the old days of film, or even use ISO100 film, mono or colour. The only post processing allowed will be your watermark-signature. To meet the challenge I used the 18-105mm kit lens that came with my Nikon D90 set to 50mm. I couldn't select ISO 100 as such because the D90 only goes down to ISO 200, so I had to select Lo 1.0 , which apparently equates to ISO 100. For my subject I decided to go with this thought provoking and imposing piece of art called Eleven 'O' One (11:01) which can be found near the Terrace Green cenotaph in Seaham, Country Durham. Known locally as 'Tommy' the statue was built using special CorTen steel, an alloy material originally produced by United States Steel. This corrosion resistant steel when left uncoated develops an outer layer patina that protects the steel from additional corrosion and gives the statue its distinct appearance. Standing 9ft 5ins tall, it weighs 1.2 tonnes and was created to mark the centenary of the start of the Great War by artist Ray Lonsdale. Looking decidedly war-weary 'he' sits thoughtfully, head bowed, rifle in hand, as he reflects upon the sheer horror of World War One during the first minute after peace was declared in 1918, which is where the official name comes from. Apparently, the sculpture is also intended to represent Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which many of the returning soldiers endured even though at that time the condition was little understood and was simply referred to back then as "shell shock" as it was attributed to concussions caused by the impact of exploding shells. Shell shock was characterized by "the dazed, disoriented state many soldiers experienced during combat or shortly thereafter". And when soldiers who were not exposed to exploding shells were found to be experiencing similar symptoms it was assumed that these soldiers were cowardly and weak. Treatment was brief, consisting only of a few days of comfort, with the "firm expectation that the soldier return to duty" and because 65% of shell-shocked soldiers ultimately returned to the front lines, treatment was considered a success. Anyone who wants to know more about the installation and the artist behind it might like to read the following article, which was published in the local press shortly after the statue was put in place: www.thejournal.co.uk/news/news-opinion/sculptor-ray-lonsdale-reveals-story-7374302 A tricky challenge I found as I missed the flexibility that being able to change the SO can give you and it also made me realise how much I rely on post-processing to tweak my shots and supposedly bring out the best in them even down to the fine border that I always add, but which I've managed to resist doing here ... even if how the photo merges into the white background really, really annoys me!

Just a little bit of fun I had a few weeks ago when trying to get to grips with mirroring in preparation for a Sunday Challenge . It's based on a single shot I'd taken of a statue at Harewood House on the outskirts of Leeds.

So folks, my late entry for this week's Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of texture, features Howard the Hare . I’ve been looking to photograph Howard, perhaps for the purpose of a Sunday Challenge , ever since he was given to me by my wife as a gift. This cold cast resin sculpture is one of a series produced by celebrated artist Paul Jenkins. Many of his pieces are inspired from direct observations of wild animals in their natural habitat and I’ve been an admirer of his work, especially the hares, for quite a while so was delighted to be given this as a gift. As soon as I saw this week’s challenge was texture, I immediately thought of using Howard as he himself has a lovely handcrafted texture. Howard normally lives indoors, but for this challenge I took him out into the garden as I wanted to try and produce a photograph of him that would eventually look like a painting of a hare in the wild. I sat him atop a large boulder and carefully positioned some potted plants around him to give what I hoped would be a naturalistic backdrop. Once I had a shot I was happy with the next challenge was how best to process the shot and what textures to use to give the desired effect. I opened the photo in PaintShopPro X2, which is my weapon of choice in such matters, and used the posterize effect to make the image slightly less realistic looking. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to lose the definition on the plant leaves and so the overall effect was still to realistic. Howard was looking good, but the leaves were still proving problematic. So I created a duplicate layer of the overall photo and treated the top layer to some PSP brush strokes, which really started to make the leaves look like they were painted. Next, I deleted Howard from the top layer to allow the less processed hare to show through from the lower layer. All that remained was to try and do something with textures, an area of processing I have little experience. PSP does have a canvas effect, but I didn’t feel it looked quite right so I got an old bit of carpet down from the loft and photographed the backing. I then copied the image into PSP and used it as a texture on the shot of Howard. It took a bit of fiddling around to get the opacity levels right, but I think in the end I got what I’d set out to achieve … something that looked like a painting of a hare in the wild. Looks better I think when viewed large. Oh, and if you want to know more about Paul Jenkins, follow the link below to his official website where you will find examples of his latest ceramic and resin bronze sculptures: www.pauljenkinsgallery.co.uk