Imaginary Twin

Imaginary Twin
"The Imaginary world has always been the most fun place for me to be" - Claire Forlani

This image is old and new. I shot this back in 2011 as part of my 52 week self portrait project. However over the last few years I have reedited it to give it a different look. I like both for different reasons.

And it looks like I was right to re-edit the photo and am happy to announce that this photo won the Fair Medal for Originality in the Small Monochrome division of the juried Northwest International Exhibit of Photography at the WA State Fair!!!

Here is the image.

Here is the original image from 2011.

Re-edits

Re-edits

"Life always offers you a second chance, it's called tomorrow"

Sometimes images are edited only once and I am forever happy with how they turn out.
Sometimes I re-edit images and then am happy with the new edit.
Sometimes I re-edit images over and over and over again. Today this post about these type of images.

I enter photography contests and need images in both color and b/w and sometimes I find I don't convert enough images to b/w. I made it my mission this week to take a second look at some of my previous work. I sat down at my computer and converted many of my images and played with turning them black and white to see if I was missing any images that should be monochromatic.

The first image is a self portrait I posted in color and all the different ways I have edited it back on Week 3. But even when I posted it, I was still not 100% happy. I never could quite capture the feeling I wanted to convey. I was very much stuck on the magenta color of the cape and how I wanted that to pop off the green of the background. Something that probably hindered me in seeing that the image didn't need to be in color in the first place.

When playing with converting images to black and white, I was struck how this photo that I never could quite get to come out right, popped out as a monochromatic image.

After doing a quick conversion, I sat down to do a real black and white edit. Playing with the blacks and eventually adding more fog to contrast the dark background.

I finally feel like this image is the best it has ever been. Is it perfect? No. I might even play with it again in the future. One day I might scrap it altogether. But I am glad I took a second look and now feel I have a stronger image then I did 3 months ago.

Here is another image I played with converting this week. It also has been posted before in Week 6. This image is a little different then the previous one, since I was not unhappy with the color version. I just find it compelling in black and white too.

So don't feel like you can't revisit any of your previously "finished" images. You never know what you might find.

And don't forget to convert images to black and white to see what you might get!

Good vs. Evil

Good vs. Evil
"We've all got both Light and Dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on, that's who we really are." - JK Rowing

This is actually a recreation on another self portrait I did back in 2013. I do have plans to rework some of my older work, but in some cases the reediting is more then just using a different color tone or adding one additional thing. Sometimes I will be reworking entire pieces to the point they become a new creation.

With this piece I took two elements I had already created and put them together in a different way. To me this creates an entirely new portrait.

Watch the below video for more info and to see the original 2013 photo.

I hope you enjoy!

Video:
And I promise the video quality will get better, I had to do these last two videos quickly to get this project going on time.

Enjoy your week!

Original Idea