** COMMENT THREAD FOR NOVEMBER CONTEST **

[postatomic]

Please post your comment(s) on a photo or photos, discuss the contest, or share your favorite Cake Recipe here.

You need to Submit your photos here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/103623315

[postatomic]

1. Ouch!

That's going to leave a bruise Solly Mack. Excellent entry.

[Solly Mack]

3. Thank you, postatomic.

It's always good to hear someone likes your photo.

[postatomic]

2. Since I can't play. This would be my entry:

It's called Neighbors because that's what it is. It's 100% in-camera. I used an old plastic optic Lens Baby with a piece of plastic over it and took a picture of my neighbors house. It's a 30 second hand held exposure.

[Solly Mack]

4. Gives me the feeling of your neighbors doing the watching.

I like it.

[Solly Mack]

5. I sure do like Aura.

Very nice!

[Stevenmarc]

6. Thank you

I really like what you did too.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

11. Is it kosher to ask - what technique you used to get the swirl around her ?

[Stevenmarc]

14. Perfectly Kosher

First, the original photo was taken with my regular camera with a EyeFi card to wifi link it to the phone and all the editing for this shot was done on the phone.

It was run through a couple other apps before I got to the swirl part. Snapseed to do the B&W conversion, next Handy Photo an app that has the best set of tools for cloning, filling and erasing objects that needed to go.

Now to the swirl part, iColorama S was the app I used for that one because they have a brush set equal to none. I masked in the area I wanted to work in and the brush picks up the underlying information, I chose a gradient brush and individually painted in the swirls. All the color toning was painted in after that.

I really like iColorama because it's an app with almost unlimited creative possibilities but out of most editing apps it's the one with the steepest learning curve, although worth the effort.

[Solly Mack]

23. Thanks for sharing that.

I was wondering myself.


I'm glad Laura PourMeADrink asked. (Thank you too!)

[Stevenmarc]

26. No problem at all

With so many apps out there it's good to see what other people are using since there really is no one app fits all solution like PS.

There is an iColorama Flickr feed that has some examples of what others have done

http://www.flickr.com/photos/icolorama/with/9125941410/

[Stevenmarc]

16. Just as a frame of reference

This shot was from a Butoh performance I was documenting and it's a shot where a lot of things went wrong, flash didn't fire, out of focus and I saw I needed to change position to avoid catching the deli across the street. Sometimes it's a good thing not to throw anything away.

Original photo:

[Mira]

7. I'm loving the entries

they are teaching me a bit about what the contest is about. I have the hardest time understanding "Metaphor"
and I vacillate between it being a simile or something that suggests something different or something that just visually explains a phrase. I understand it verbally, but can't yet translate it to the visual.

While I watch the entries to learn and I play around with stuff. I have 5 possibilities, none I'm crazy about.
Since all I mess with at this time is Picasa, I'm astonished at the abstractions it helps me achieve.

Onward and upward. Hoping to have an entry........

[a la izquierda]

8. I had a hard time with it too...

I'm too busy to be creative right now. Working on my book takes precedence.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

10. what are you writing about?

[a la izquierda]

12. Revising my doctoral dissertation...

which was on a small west Mexican indigenous group and their ability to maintain their cultural practices and identity despite the increased presence of the state over the course of the 19th century. It sounds horribly boring, until I mention that one of those cultural practices includes peyote consumption.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

21. Not boring at all - sounds fascinating. Hope you post a link when you are finished. nt

[a la izquierda]

24. I will…but it will be a few years still.

I can't wait for it to be done and out of my life so I can work on something else.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

9. Ditto. I think the most easy to understand example for me was

a metaphor pic I saw of a dandelion puff with pieces blowing in the air. It was titled Parachute. Those pieces were
not really parachutes - but a metaphor for a parachute. On a more human level, more subtle than parachute, I read that the picture should evoke emotion in the viewer ...an example could be perhaps a silhouette of someone walking alone on a dark street to evoke the concept of loneliness. Think it's much deeper than say taking a pic of corn and calling it "Yellow". What's hard for me is to marry the two - metaphor and abstract. Like you - I only use Picasa and Photobucket. Downloaded Photoshop - but way too non-intuitive to use without a lot of further study. And, some pics I have taken may be good metaphors but adding abstraction may add nothing to the concept - and even make it worse.

Have to totally commend Postatomic on this one - biggest challenge yet !

[alfredo]

13. With me, the wind did the work. I exploited it by

Using a tripod, nd filter, and slow shutter speed.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

20. You did it exactly right and the colors are phenomenal. I wish this was

an ongoing theme somehow - The perfect mix of abstract and metaphor that you found is so rare.

[alfredo]

25. Thank you. This theme was way outside my comfort zone.

You entry really describes color blindness.

[rdking647]

15. im having a real problem with the theme

i have a couple of potential entries that seem to suggest a word to me but cant decide if they are really metaphors. hopefully ill have something.

[Mira]

17. I got a better grip once I read what Laura pouring drinks :) had to say

In this thread she has a post that brought home to me that I was not to illustrate a word or a concept, but that I was to take a word or a concept that means something and then it suggests something else, and to use the illustration to show the suggested secondary meaning.

i.e. Firewater = a phrase used by American Indians for alcohol and then show a burning red ocean at sunset

or = in the Doghouse = and then showing a glaring wife and a cowering husband.

I hope that makes sense.
Now that I think I understand it I see the possibilities everywhere.
Thanks Postatomic for making me think, and Laura for making me think straight.
See there's another one we could find the underlying visual for.......
like a road drawn with a ruler in the dustbowl states.......

I already have a photo for that - I might swap mine out.
I am so punchy today.

[Mz Pip]

18. I did too.

I had to read up on different kinds of metaphors. Who knew there were so many?! Then I narrowed it down and went hunting for a photo I could "abstract" and still have the metaphor come through.

Still not sure if I "got" it but it is what it is.

[Mira]

19. You got it.

You got it good IMO

[Solly Mack]

22. Love the variety.

Can't wait to see more.


Johnny Noshoes : I always suspected mannequins talked to each other when no one was looking. I like it!

[Blue_In_AK]

29. I'm not sure mine is a metaphor, really.

More of a symbolic representation, but the meaning of "metaphor" for me is kind of squishy, so I went with it anyway.

Maybe the symbolism of the eagle (America) feeding on bloody carcasses is a bit harsh, but this country does have a history.

[Solly Mack]

30. Symbols/emblems can be a metaphor.

The eagle is America, making it a metaphor.

Your photo works as metaphor.

[handmade34]

31. no squishy

about your photo… love the metaphor! and great photo!

[Solly Mack]

27. Lots of wonderful entries. (need more...come on everyone!)

Handmade: I like! I like!

[handmade34]

34. thanks...

the photo is very personal for me

[Stevenmarc]

28. Nice, Handmade

A photogram, that makes my Dada loving heart skip a beat.

[handmade34]

33. ...

thanks…

[Laura PourMeADrink]

32. Postatomic - Sorry for mucking up your submission thread with my misplaced

comment (deleted).

But your post count caught my eye - and has got to be an abstract metaphor for something. :&gt