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Sunday, October 15, 2006

Self-portraits of the blogger as a young man


Before digital cameras and Photoshop, there was film, dark rooms and water colors. I dabbled. It wasn't as flexible as Photoshop. You didn't have the luxury of instantly knowing what you were getting. You took the photo, processed it, and printed photos and hoped for the best.

Even then, I messed around with self-portraits. The model fees were cheap and giving direction was much simpler. I could only print in black and white in my dark room. So I played around with hand coloring prints. The contact sheet above is a sample of one of my experiments.

I never really knew what I was doing or why. Sometimes I pretended I was being an artist. At the very least, I was capturing a piece of my own past in a colorful way.

Now we have almost completely become a digital society. Photoshop is much simpler than the darkroom. And I still like experimenting. The beauty is that I can still work in self-portraits, past and present. Digital painting opens up whole new worlds.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm all for technology, but I hope it keeps its nose out of the business of my memories. I like my past served up just the way it was - raw and unedited.

Looks like your past (if the photos are any indication) was pretty colorful, T.

Alex Pendragon said...

Back in the day, I had a dark room set up in my bathroom, did plenty of B&W, and dabbled in color, but the color was a bitch, needing total darkness and was expensive as well. Plus, my eye for color matching was horrendous at best. My self-taught hobbiest lab work gave me the in I needed to work at a lab, where I really had fun.

But I really prefer the ease of digital. If only I had photoshop......sigh.

JP (mom) said...

Interesting thought...what will come next?? I love the work you did as a younger fellow - very cool. And, until that next great thing comes along, keep on with your digital wizardry (we never know where that mug of yours will show up next!)

Anonymous said...

I love the photos art (and YES it is art). I used to do the same thing in photography lab. I have some interesting painted photos of myself.

Love the photo in the upper right... you sexy beast you!!! lol

Time said...

Miss Bliss, My past, though checkered at times, was colorful.

THE Michael, X-mas is coming. Maybe Santa will bring you Photoshop.

JP, Thanks. Just as long as it doesn't turn up as a mugshot, I'll be happy.

Shandi, You should post your painted photos. Or paint your posted photos. Glad you like the young me beefcake photo, sad as it is. I would think you would have focused on the monkey mask in the bottom frame. Mank did :)

Time said...

Lights,
Everything I do is of course for you.