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©2007-2008 Aimee Stewart, Foxfires – please see my CC Terms of Use before considering using this image for any personal or commercial use http://foxfires.deviantart.com/journal/6266450/ / —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—- “When the wind is blowing and the sleet or rain is driving against the dark windows, I love to sit by the fire, thinking of what I have read in books of voyage and travel.” – Charles Dickens “Let your bookcases and your shelves be your gardens and your pleasure-grounds. Pluck the fruit that grows therein, gather the roses, the spices, and the myrrh.” ~Judah Ibn Tibbon “A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.” / William Styron “A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way” / Caroline Gordon All stock credits can found HERE – click to view My other picture in this series, called Ex Libris, can be found here: /
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“I wouldn’t recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they’ve always worked for me.” Hunter S. Thompson (American Journalist and Author, 1937-2005)
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Barack Obama - Change for America, for the World, for All of Us - The Audacity of Hope
by Ze ZhaoUS$4.66–US$106.40
Barack Obama – Change for America, for the World, for All of Us – The Audacity of Hope On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain and became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. In his victory speech, delivered before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of his supporters in Grant Park in Chicago, Illonois, Obama proclaimed that “change has come to America.” Born in Hawaii, Obama will be the first U.S. President born outside the contiguous United States. He also will be fifth youngest President at the date of accession and the second since Lincoln whose primary political base is Illinois. This portrait illustrates and epitomizes the audacity of hope. President Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America on January 20, 2009. Selected information courtesy of Wikipedia. Original Oil Portait On Canvas By Zhao, Ze, Guangzhou, China
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This was taken at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, Minnesota. Popular Photography named this as on of the top five zoo’s for photography. I agree. Please View Larger
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Lighting The Head Shot
by John Hooton“If God had intended photographers to use more than one key light, he would have made more suns.” Just about every single shot includi…
“If God had intended photographers to use more than one key light, he would have made more suns.” Just about every single shot including the food and still life shots in my portfolio was made with one light. One light in the right place. You won’t need any more except possibly to light a background. In this case make sure that they light the background, and do not spill back on to the subject. Use barn doors or large black sheets of card if necessary. Very early in my career I learnt that light bounces around all over the place in a white studio. This is unwanted light. When I worked for top food photographers and fashion photographers like Barry Lategan, we actually blacked out the studio with drapes or black screens. Great for glassware too. I ordered funeral drapes to cover an entire studio when I was asked to light a “Finish” (the dishwasher stuff) TV commercial in Milan. The essential shot was of a glass. How do you get a glass to look sparkling clean? Answer, outline it in black, make it totally transparent and have one clean reflection of light on it. How do you do that? Black out the studio; this creates the black edges which are the walls reflecting in the edges of the glass. Use one ‘window’ type light. In this instance I used a 6×4 sheet of opaque white Perspex and stuck some halogen floods behind it. Result – one clean reflection of soft light, no glass to be seen, just the black outline of one. It looks as clean as a whistle because the glass is invisible! The actor doing the demo in the commercial looked good too, with a similar lighting quality to that in my stills. The cameramen were two old hacks from Rome who scoffed in bemused wonderment at this 22 year old kid who had made the studio look set for a funeral. The drapes were all that the three funeral companies could provide. However, the results were crystal, the client was thrilled, I was a hero for a day, and I got more work from the production company who shot the ad. This lighting style was often copied after that, and is still the basis of many British commercials today. So where were we? Yes one light. One light in the right place. At John Cowan’s studio, I persuaded John to have the entire walls of the studio painted black to which he agreed. Why black? So that the light does not bounce all over the room filling in shadows where you want shadows. To start with black and then paint with light gives you much more control over your lighting. It makes you the master of it. It gives you the contrast you want without having to print on grade 4 paper, thus allowing more detail in mid tones. I painted my studio in Milan black, and would do the same today. It gives you a quality that is sharp and precise. OK so where does the One Light go? More or less above your own head and slightly above the subject. This will slim the face by putting the cheekbones in shadow if the model is facing you head on. Take a look at the head shots in my portfolio and look where the shadows are. Then figure out where the light is. Above the camera, maybe slightly to one side. This should be the side the model faces if the shot is three quarters on or the shoulders are three quarters on. When you have set up, always use a tripod to establish your camera position and then adjust the light until it is exactly where you want it. Don’t run around the model with your camera in hand. It may look good in the movies, but it will look crap in your contacts, with no consistent lighting whatsoever. Just one more thing, what sort of light you may ask? The light should be intense but soft, so a single umbrella is fine, a soft box is fine, and a bowl light is excellent. This is where the flash head is reflected into a shallow bowl and the head is shielded. If the bowl is then opaqued by a thin sheet of plastic, you will get the same quality as some of the Vogue photographers. It is a very flattering light. You can tell when it has been used by top photographers. You will see the circular highlight with a black center reflected in the model’s eyes. OK folks so that’s how I light head shots (and many of the top guys I have assisted). Give it a whirl and see if you can take some shots that stun you, the girl you are shooting, and the horse I rode in on. ‘til next time – John
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Dancing In The Dawn Author: Enivea Standing on top of a hill, a cold wind blowing in our faces. / Standing in the pale dawn light while we wait patiently for the sun to rise. / Standing in the centre of a ‘fairy’ ring of mushrooms. / Standing with a friend who had never before stood and watched the sun rise. / Standing with my dog, who thought the humans so strange. There is much to commend those / Who break a habit of a lifetime / And rise to the challenge / To experience / A moment / Fully. There is something very special / To witness another in that moment / And to feel their wonder as they experience / That which has held humans in wonder over eons. / There is something very special / To witness an event that happens every day / Yet happens only once. The sun has risen. / It’s light casts long shadows / And we play with the shadows, / Dancing in the fairy ring of mushrooms / On top of a hill, with a cold wind blowing. / Pastel painting on colourfix paper
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©2007-2008 Aimee Stewart, Foxfires – please see my CC Terms of Use before considering using this image for any personal or commercial use http://foxfires.deviantart.com/journal/15905899/ / —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—- (Updating this to coincide with my latest piece, ‘Treasure Hunt’ http://foxfires.deviantart.com/art/Treasure-Hunt-72963802 ) “I have fallen in love a thousand times in my lifetime. / All which have been with books…” / —Unknown “The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts…” / -Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) / / “A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us…” / -W. H. Auden (1907-1973) “Read in order to live…” / —Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) “Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books…” / —Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832) —-—-—-—-—— Many thanks to the following stock artists: / Main books: sxc.hu http://www.sxc.hu/photo/480945 / All other books: :iconmerely-anger: / Model: :iconfoggystock: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/34608301/ / candlestick: :iconLunaNYXstock: / cat: :iconALP-Stock: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40487196/
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watercolour 18” x 24” (46cm x 61 cm) on Arches cold press paper Charlie Wilkins (Canadian author of a dozen books) sits with a coffee at The Madhouse (a restaurant in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada). We met for the first time in many years, having been classmates and friends in high school in Cornwall Ontario in the sixties! / It was a great reunion in a great setting!
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Hand holding a burning scroll. Photo based illustration.
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Pastel on sanded Colourfix paper (burgundy) – 35m x 50cm On a day in Northern Victoria when the temperature is predicted to reach 40 degrees and a Total Fire Ban is in place, we are all extremely grateful for the volunteers of the Country Fire Authority! After fires devastated this area about 5 years ago, I went out with a group of these volunteers during their ‘mopping up’ operations, and this is one of the paintings that resulted. The fire came within a few metres of my chook pen!!! I was home alone and had to put our ‘fire plan’ into operation (a long story and a long day)! I have never been so terrified in my life! Consequently, days like today make me very nervous! This work was featured in the groups ‘Mature Men’ and ‘Rural Around the Globe’ – Jan 2009
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stock credits / longstock.deviantart.com / chulii-stock.deviantart.com / iconelenadudina.deviantart.com / bean-stock.deviantart.com / the rest my own textures and paint… *I love Elizabeth Barrett Browning so I wanted to make something in her honor.. :) I’m sure a lot of you know one of her most famous poems: “How Do I Love Thee?” >> Elizabeth Barrett Browning << How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. / I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight / For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. / I love thee to the level of every day’s / Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. / I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; / I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. / I love with a passion put to use / In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. / I love thee with a love I seemed to lose / With my lost saints, - I love thee with the breath, / Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death. This image has been digitally watermarked and if stolen or used without my consent, can be tracked online. / ©Claudia McKinney – Phatpuppy Art
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The Comics Code Authority was created to appease public and political prosecution. It’s regulations limited comic book writers and artists creativity for over 25 years. It’s stamp was placed on every Comic Book cover for all that time. It’s affects helped retard public opinion of comics which still has echoes to this day. The Code was a by-product of the anti-commie crusades of the 1950’s and partly due to the works a popular psychologist named Wertham. His book “Seduction of the Innocent” claimed that comic books would cause their readers to become criminals and sociopaths. In fairness, the code was created to protect. However it restricted beyond it’s aims. In comparison, if the equivalent of the comics code authority was continued in cinema; then films such as “Apocalypse Now” and “Psycho” would never have been made. After 25 years of outside censorship the comics industry is mostly free to be responsible for itself. It’s nicer nowadays. I can read a comic on the train without people assuming that I have a learning disability… I think you should be able to dream free as long as you don’t hurt anyone doing it. I reworked the original logo for my own comic which sits outside that code. It started as one of my student works and finished as what you see today.
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Damn right!
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MamaMia! Striking mammatus clouds rolled into my area, riding on the backside of a severe thunderstorm. Shortly after their arrival, a cold front was ushered in / to my area in Ashland, Kentucky on March 04, 2008.
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Plain and simple, Question Authority. It’s your duty to engage in Civil Disobedience.
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My bedroom
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Some of my favorite inspirational and thought-provoking quotes from my favorite authors, peacemakers and wisdom teachers to accompany photographs from the past, present and future.
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PRETTY & SMART – Detail from an oil self-portrait on board, by Albrecht Durer. / A German painter, engraver and mathematician. Famous for his print series: / Apocalypse / Passion of Christ / Knight, Death, & the Devil / Melencolia / Four Horsement of the Apocalypse / The Rhinoceros. Third child in a family of eighteen children, of Hungarian father, German mother. Traveler and student, goldsmith, Durer became the most successful publisher in Germany and abroad, owning 24 printing presses at one time, incredibly famous in his early twenties. Painter, watercolorist, etcher, woodblock print maker. / He published the “Nuremberg Chronicle” in1493 with over 1800 woodcut illustrations. He didn’t think painting could earn him enough money (still true five hundred years later), and turned to printing. / Scholar, intelectual, and successful businessman, his engravings and prints affected the giants who came after him: Raphael, Titian, and Rembrandt.
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Add Ushna Sardar to your watchlist Title: hallucination Colour of my dream / eyes.. / Hallucinations start to fade / there are many dreams / but there’s no sound / I can feel the wind / Underneath my feet / colours are floating in outer space / Do you dream in colour? / I can see the colour of my dream / I want to know.. / the colour of the sky / I want to deal with the hallucination / can you steal the hallucination? / how many colours sky have? / how I can deal with the hallucination? / earth’s face was drained of colour / I’ll draw a earth and you can colour it in / can you paint a vivid picture of life in the world—. / the dream was a mass of colour / what can be the colour of this world? / what the colour is earth’s skin? power / freedom / sovereignty / authority / I’m standing at the top looking down / Breathe / hallucinations start to fade / some phantom illnesses / phantom profits / phantom loss / phantom success / phantom failure / phantom of progress / phantom of collapse / phantom ideologies / phantom ethics / I’m out of touch with reality / so I refuse to face reality / the harsh realities of life / the political situation / wars / racism / economic and political issues / economic growth / the current economic climate / trade / industries and development of wealth / economical barrier / starting blocks / I found that we had been blocked in. / There are million barrier between heart and mind / crash barrier / many countries suffering with poverty / hunger drove them to steal / how many gave up the struggle in despair / the misery of life in sink estates / authority seem to be out of touch with the real world / the growth of violent crime is a very real problem / there’s no real possibility of them changing their minds / It seemed, there was no real barrier between reality and fantasy in their mind / Outwardly I seemed confident but in reality I felt extremely nervous / so many voice around me / how I can deal with the hallucination? / so many colours / what do I do? / I want to cover world with paint / how can I steal the hallucination? I Wished, i can hear and feel all that colours are thinking / what colour it should be? / White? / red? / yellow? / green? / or black? / the colour of skin / and all the discrimination on the ground of race, colour and religion—. / White.. / the achromatic color of maximum lightness / it reflects nearly all light of all visible wavelengths / completely honest and morally good / the world where everyone having very left-wing political opinions— / We hope to be able to bring the warring factions to the negotiating table to try to end all conflicts / cause white is the colour that depicts love and peace / Wrap the world in the white colour then / ‘Wrap yourself in that.’— / cover world with white / Go to the end of the line! / hallucinations may start to fade / I want to you steal the hallucination before it fades / so we can say that discrimination was finally at an end. / no one black or brown discriminate in a predominantly white world / so cover it with white / I searched desperately for something to say / something drove me further than I had realized / nothing could be further from the truth / I took the new direction to further / am i so alive in my skin? / so are we alive? / my voice sank to a whisper / when I’ve been thinking of this world! / Go to the end of the line! / wrap the world / cover it with paint / ‘Wrap yourself in that.’— / love / peace / and / Harmony.. / these all depict the colours of white!
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9×12” Arches 140 lb cold pressed paper, watercolor and ink. / Revolutionaries Series. / ORIGINAL SOLD Henry Rollins. His impact on the punk scene was impressive, and his spoken word work and writing continue to embed him in our society. He’s mad as hell and he’s not gonna take it lying down. He is a mover and shaker, more so than any current musician, author or celebrity that I can think of. If you don’t know who he is, google him. You will love him or hate him, but you WILL hear him and you will not forget who he is. He is the most American person in spirit alive today. He stands for freedom, human rights, and common sense. He is my largest inspiration when it comes to questioning “authority.” / He also inspires me to keep kickboxing, keep pushing on when life is hard. Read his “Iron and the Soul” and tell me it doesn’t stir you. “Iron and the Soul” I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention. To not be like you parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. Completely. When I was young I had no sense of myself. All I was, was a product of all the fear and humiliation I suffered. Fear of my parents. The humiliation of teachers calling me “garbage can” and telling me I’d be mowing lawns for a living. And the very real terror of my fellow students. I was threatened and beaten up for the color of my skin and my size. I was skinny and clumsy, and when others would tease me I didn’t run home crying, wondering why. I knew all too well. I was there to be antagonized. In sports I was laughed at. A spaz. I was pretty good at boxing but only because the rage that filled my every waking moment made me wild and unpredictable. I fought with some strange fury. The other boys thought I was crazy. I hated myself all the time. As stupid at it seems now, I wanted to talk like them, dress like them, carry myself with the ease of knowing that I wasn’t going to get pounded in the hallway between classes. Years passed and I learned to keep it all inside. I only talked to a few boys in my grade. Other losers. Some of them are to this day the greatest people I have ever known. Hang out with a guy who has had his head flushed down a toilet a few times, treat him with respect, and you’ll find a faithful friend forever. But even with friends, school sucked. Teachers gave me a hard time. I didn’t think much of them either. Then came Mr. Pepperman, my adviser. He was a powerfully built Vietnam veteran, and he was scary. No one ever talked out of turn in his class. Once one kid did and Mr. P. lifted him off the ground and pinned him to the blackboard. Mr. P. could see that I was in bad shape, and one Friday in October he asked me if I had ever worked out with weights. I told him no. He told me that I was going to take some of the money that I had saved and buy a hundred-pound set of weights at Sears. As I left his office, I started to think of things I would say to him on Monday when he asked about the weights that I was not going to buy. Still, it made me feel special. My father never really got that close to caring. On Saturday I bought the weights, but I couldn’t even drag them to my mom’s car. An attendant laughed at me as he put them on a dolly. Monday came and I was called into Mr. P.’s office after school. He said that he was going to show me how to work out. He was going to put me on a program and start hitting me in the solar plexus in the hallway when I wasn’t looking. When I could take the punch we would know that we were getting somewhere. At no time was I to look at myself in the mirror or tell anyone at school what I was doing. In the gym he showed me ten basic exercises. I paid more attention than I ever did in any of my classes. I didn’t want to blow it. I went home that night and started right in. Weeks passed, and every once in a while Mr. P. would give me a shot and drop me in the hallway, sending my books flying. The other students didn’t know what to think. More weeks passed, and I was steadily adding new weights to the bar. I could sense the power inside my body growing. I could feel it. Right before Christmas break I was walking to class, and from out of nowhere Mr. Pepperman appeared and gave me a shot in the chest. I laughed and kept going. He said I could look at myself now. I got home and ran to the bathroom and pulled off my shirt. I saw a body, not just the shell that housed my stomach and my heart. My biceps bulged. My chest had definition. I felt strong. It was the first time I can remember having a sense of myself. I had done something and no one could ever take it away. You couldn’t say ** to me. It took me years to fully appreciate the value of the lessons I have learned from the Iron. I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted. I was wrong. When the Iron doesn’t want to come off the mat, it’s the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn’t teach you anything. That’s the way the Iron talks to you. It tells you that the material you work with is that which you will come to resemble. That which you work against will always work against you. It wasn’t until my late twenties that I learned that by working out I had given myself a great gift. I learned that nothing good comes without work and a ceratin amount of pain. When I finish a set that leaves me shaking, I know more about myself. When something gets bad, I know it can’t be as bad as that workout. I used to fight the pain, but recently this became clear to me: pain is not my enemy; it is my call to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn’t ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you’re not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control. I have never met a truly strong person who didn’t have self-respect. I think a lot of inwardly and outwardly directed contempt passes itself off as self-respect: the idea of raising yourself by stepping on someone’s shoulders instead of doing it yourself. When I see guys working out for cosmetic reasons, I see vanity exposing them in the worst way, as cartoon characters, billboards for imbalance and insecurity. Strength reveals itself through character. It is the difference between bouncers who get off strong-arming people and Mr. Pepperman. Muscle mass does not always equal strength. Strength is kindness and sensitivity. Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and emotional. That it comes from the body and the mind. And the heart. Yukio Mishima said that he could not entertain the idea of romance if he was not strong. Romance is such a strong and overwhelming passion, a weakened body cannot sustain it for long. I have some of my most romantic thoughts when I am with the Iron. Once I was in love with a woman. I thought about her the most when the pain from a workout was racing through my body. Everything in me wanted her. So much so that sex was only a fraction of my total desire. It was the single most intense love I have ever felt, but she lived far away and I didn’t see her very often. Working out was a healthy way of dealing with the loneliness. To this day, when I work out I usually listen to ballads. I prefer to work out alone. It enables me to concentrate on the lessons that the Iron has for me. Learning about what you’re made of is always time well spent, and I have found no better teacher. The Iron had taught me how to live. Life is capable of driving you out of your mind. The way it all comes down these days, it’s some kind of miracle if you’re not insane. People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole. I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the Iron mind. Through the years, I have combined meditation, action, and the Iron into a single strength. I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts. Time spent away from the Iron makes my mind degenerate. I wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind. The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it’s impossible to turn back. The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.
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Photograph post-processed in Photoshop, where I adjusted the colors and contrast, etc. / Model is my dear friend Janne – www.janne-landet.deviantart.com. / Clothing is from Ebay.
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. / .. / ... “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. / And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” / Friedrich Nietzsche “To TEST a Man’s Character, Give Him POWER.” / Fortune Cookie ... / .. / .
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You might expect London’s City Hall to be a medieval building some thousand years old, but in fact, the Greater London Authority resides in this building designed by Norman Foster and opened in 2002 and very much part of the modern millennium. Located on the south bank, steps from Tower Bridge and in sight of the Tower of London on the opposite bank, the lines of this building are truly inspiring. This was taken with a fisheye lens which has exaggerated some of the distance in this photo.
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The legend that is Keith Richards, with one of his classic quotes.
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