SMILE!

Yeah, i know, we have an absolute idiot for a president, it seems the world is going to hell in a bucket.Try and look at the up-side - smile! It will do ya good. This is another one that digital color just can't do justice to. The reds/orange on the face are 'false' but strike a deeper chord than simple photography.

I have found countless displays on the beach.

They are always provocative which is why i take 'em into the darkroom and improvise with them a bit more. And many get colored .. creatively, not so realistic.

If you like what you see here, and want to take in more:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net

I've been self publishing my own books thanks to Blurb.

Previews of all at:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/BB_Books/index.html

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After many years of making darkroom photomontage (since the late 80's), and not being able to get arrested for it except for a few appearances in competitive group shows, and some assignment illustrations in various magazines ....I am designing & publishing books I make at Blurb with 'Bookify' - two of them are on Amazon, one is at Blurb.

'California Beach Trip':

On Amazon:

www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

'Desert Trip'

On Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

'Seeking the Vibe'

On Blurb:

http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Previews of all at:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/BB_Books/index.html

Check 'em out - i think you'll be glad you did.

Cotton Balls Vs. a rodent....

The rodent is of course a mouse ;-)

So far, i haven't found anyway to replicate what i can do with Q-tips and cotton balls with anything i can do digitally. Here's an image i call 'moonrise', darkroom montage and oil colors.

I could have colored this with 'day light' colors, instead i used warm reds and yellows on the hilites, as in 'sunset colors'.

Here's a few of 'in progress' images, colored digitally. 

Drive in Movie

Here's the layer palette for 'Drive-In':

I say 'in progress' because i got to this point and then realized that it would take hours to do what i could do manually in less than 20 minutes.

I guess i just don't have the patience for it. Perhaps some do. I started as a paste-up artist in an ad agency in 1976, it was mat board, galley sheets, typositor (?sic) strips, wax and rubber cement.

What can be done now is nothing short of revolutionary, if you'd told me back then, we'd be able to do things like this, i'd have responded something along the lines of "Really?? what have you been smokin', and where can i get some?"

I subscribe to half a dozen magazines, and get a sunday New York Times - the design and graphics are awesome, must take someone many hours to build this art.

But i can't get the same effect from digital as cotton balls.

You just can' t get............... colors like sienna, raw sienna, viridian, umber, raw umber, cadmium red and yellow, ultramarine, cerulean... you get the idea.

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https://www.dickblick.com/products/marshalls-photo-oil-sets/

And if you do digital work read this:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/smarter-living/backing-up-your-photos.html

If you aren't already backing up your work once, or perhaps 2 or 3 times, get hip to this kindly tip.

Do it. Storage space ( external HD, be they the spinning kind or solid state) is cheap.

Stop back in again in a month - plenty of imagery for your edification and/or enjoyment, 

which ever is the case.

"Smile"

Do that often, it makes life much nicer.