099 - Saving the Woman

099 - Saving the Woman
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

Damn, this was a hard picture, I got caught half way through and could not see a way to complete. The answer was to accept that I had already used all my known methods on previous images and had no desire to go down those roads again. I mean, some of my previous methods had already been used, such as cutting out and use of high contrast, highly used already in many cases. The problem is that if you keep repeating the same techniques the results tend to become samey - they transfer from being innovation into skill training.

I am skilling on contrast and cutting out parts of images, and there is nothing wrong with practising skills - but you have to be careful that they don't take over. What I had was an odd shaped image of a woman and a picture and no idea how to balance it all up. I could have researched, I could have asked someone for advice - but what I wanted to do was resolve the problem myself, using my mind.

Eventually I modified my border skills, and experimented with a color palette (pale blues) that I rarely touch. Eventually it came right, proved popular - and only then did I see that I had resolved another issue that has intrigued me for some weeks - how to produce a gold effect. Look closely at the text - that is the most convincing gold I have ever produced, and it is related to the use of a pale blue filter layer.

Another thread of thought was based on my trying to conviince Ania that many of the things we do are wrong, because they simply follow what society dictates. The problem is that most of society is made up not of winners but of also-rans. This is not to be derogatory, but as in the case of fashion to dress in old styles today instantly makes you recognisable as being old from down the street, but that is the pressure of society, of also-rans.

Now, imagine that you want to be a winner - how are you going to win if you copy the average performance of the people around you? How are you going to beat the people already leading?

The answer is that IF YOU WANT TO BE THE BEST, DON'T FOLLOW THE REST, do something else. If you dress old, people will first assume you are old and hence think old. Dress current, and people have to categorise you different, whether they like it or not