Manhattan by night

I love how cities become a different place at night. The burden of distance and detail are relieved by the advent of the dark.  Spaces are defined in new ways as the flat equality of sunlight gives way to the uneven topography of artificial lighting. All the wildness in a place seems to ride that edge of the day before spilling out into dark places. For me, Manhattan is the epitome of this urban dimorphism.

I was recently in NYC to see my sister's family, and managed to snap a few night pictures along the way.

Mirrored Images photo project leftovers

I was working on a photo project the last couple days, using mirrored images to create visual stories and new (surreal) landscapes. (Some of them turned out a little dark.)

I had some left over that didn't really focus on a landscape level, but which I thought were interesting in their own regard, even if they didn't inspire stories.

Herne Rising

Two Trees

Driftwood Sheds

Wood and Water

Wood and Water 2

Glacial Eyes

Odin's Rest 

Mockingbird Bookends

Stone Mandala (double mirrored)

Stone Patterns 1

Stone Patterns 2

Sandstone Skull

High-level Conversation

Plumage

Erratic Orbits

Something wicked this way comes

Lurker
Under the wheeling seabirds, in basaltic depths, it waits. And smiles.

In a previous post, I put up a couple of manipulated images from an abandoned photo project of years ago. The project was simply creating new images by mirroring or otherwise duplicating existing images, with the intent of creating new, surreal landscapes that hinted at hidden stories. Creative Rorschach, if you will.

Some of them turned out sort of dark. These are a few of the b-sides that gave me a "wow, that's a little Lovecraftian" reaction.

Clawing Free
In retrospect, we should have been less worried about it gaining freedom, and more worried about its appetite

Elementals
In our defense, we dug neither greedily nor deep. That thought, however, did not extinguish our flames. 

Imprisoned
The new races of men had forgotten his transgressions.
Even the forces of sun and water would not hold him in the shadows forever

The Space Between
...and then she knew why only those Chosen by the village were to open the gate. And why their screams pierced the mountain. 

It Sees
As it dragged him through the sand, Jacob searched its quicksilver eyes for any hint of emotion, seeing only the cruel desert sky reflected back

Swamp Terror
Beauford R. Garrinoux had cried only two other times in his life, after his first fight and at the death of his father. As the glowing eyes arose from the bayou, his tears came unbidden. 

Down to the Sea
The rocks should not move, she thought, the water should not rise in a boil. She had  had but one infant to give the sea, what else could it want to anger it so? 

Phenomenal Cosmic Power
....iiiiitty bitty corpses. All over the place. 

Vampyr
As the mist coalesced into a demonic countenance, the strange little girls turned to them, faces blank and stark white against the wet, black rock, beckoning.    

View from inside Death Bot Mark III
Frowning in his control chair, Professor Johanson was mildly disappointed that the reinforced glass of his creation's webbed and uncaring eyes muffled the squishing sounds from below. 

In the Courts of the Elder Gods

The Island
At the center of the island, the carved monolith stirs from dreams of earth and  wave...

Like many things, I began a small photo project using mirrored images a couple years ago, and then it fell to the wayside. I had a little time at lunch the other day, and fooled around again with a few images. Nothing fancy, simply mirroring scenes to create surreal landscapes, and infusing them with story. The effort boiled down to finding interesting forms that would mirror well and create something new and different from the original photos. The captions are just hints of accompanying story. (best seen in original size)

Among the strictly mirrored versions, the doubled effect at the joined edge sometimes produced odd and alien symmetries. The images below were among those that struck me as appearing to be natural temples of some ancient and unknowable denizens. That's perhaps making a little much of some minor photoshopping gimmick, but that's what suppressed and under utilized creativity will get you...

Dryad's Rest
Boats of leaf slid like knives through the mercurial waters of the sacred pool, bringing their daughters to the grove's heart... 

Shaman's Call
Plaintive flutes bring stony feet lurching forth from the entrance to the Underworld...

Herne's Holt
And the wild hunt spread out in tendrils across the landscape, thrust forth in the limbs of oaks...

Sentinel Gate
Whispers flew out on silent feathers, proclaiming to the quiet sojourner "the way has been made open"...

Frost Giant
Beneath the moss, tremors grew, and purpose renewed

The Chicken Throne
The map on the pueblo wall warned of the dire consequences of disturbing El Pollo Grande..