Whiskey Island, during Prohibition, was a dropping-off point for bootleg from Canada. Those glory days well in the past, the Island, in its backwaters, now tends to collect floating debris. I took this shot over the weekend.
Some time ago, as part of a dialogue with Steve concerning waterfalls, I had reworked an image of a shallow stream stepping over a flat and rocky bed. In touching up the visual I had entered a mild state of flow in which I was aware of my surroundings, but so deeply engrossed in an emerging pattern of alterations that it seemed I was mapping my own mental landscape. Here again I encountered something similar. Time seemed to go away and I lifted my eyes from the screen to find it well past my bedtime. It was a lovely floating experience.
Do you lose track of time when engrossed in your work?
Jay,
Impressively looking sticks.
Having fun, I usually only notice that I overindulged playing on the computer when I start feeling really stiff with sitting down too long.
I like painting standing up.
Do you lose track of time when engrossed in your work?
Always.
Jay,
I just might be a tad biased, but I do find this more interesting in black and white, better blanced without the yellow and blue patches. Plus the blown-out white highlight doesn’t bother as much. Was B&W one of the variations you were looking at?
I am more likely to be in a flow state while out photographing. It happens less often when working at the computer. Perhaps it’s harder then to forget how many other things I could/should be doing. But that’s related to the reason I do not (much) indulge in the profligacy of digital capture–it requires too much editing time at the computer, too little time per image.
Steve:
Actually I was feeding off of the “blown” area as parts of the scene had a bone-like bleached quality that I wanted to extend. I will now run the image through in b&w to better see what you are seeing. Black and White is never my first choice – and I remember our discussing this concerning the riffle image from the White Mountains that I presented a few seasons ago. It may be a matter of neural wiring, but I am enormously attached to color; good reading for me is a book of paint samples. The template phenomenon that I have mentioned, wherein an image that I am manipulating comes to resemble my mind in some fashion, occurs only in the presence of color.
I’m not sure that I understand “digital capture”. Actually, now would not be a good time for meditation as I sit here with my morning coffee. It’s only when the day is through that I’ll be looking at the screen and I’ll be seeing me.
Steve:
It appears that a database error just took away my comments. I’ll try later.
Jay,
Thanks for the note about the comment problem. Now fixed, it seems to have been caught by one of the spam-prevention tools. Did you turn cookies off? I think this is the first time it’s caught a legitimate comment. Sorry!
By the “profligacy of digital capture” I meant the tendency to take large numbers of pictures, because the immediate cost is essentially zero. But the later decisions as to which are worth working with and printing can be time-consuming.
Steve:
I wish cookies turned me off, as that would simplify certain dietary issues. But not to my knowledge.
For me, profligate digital capture is engendered partly by the time lag between pressing the button and getting an exposure. Every so often I can get by on one take.
Steve:
I gray scaled the logs and placed the result on this paot.
I, too, go for color.
One of my students just wrote her term paper on Synesthesia. I was happy to learn why I count and spell more slowly than the average person. Supposedly, it is because, as a synesthete, in my brain letters and numbers are associated with color.
Birgit:
Let me guess: the number seven is a reddish brown.
Nope! For me, it is a darkish green
Birgit:
excuse me, did I say seven?
Jay,
I always lose track of time when I paint — and in the desert, time/space continuums really seem to make sense. I sometimes lose track when I am doing computer art-related stuff, although since it’s mostly tweaking for accuracy, it’s really just editing, not working through aesthetic considerations.
I have been known to spend more time than it’s worth doing brochures or business cards or postcards, which are ephermera (unless stitched on).
I don’t lose time with cookies — but that’s because I’m afraid they might get snatched out of my hand.