The Watchtower Series

Times are currently very strange.  Covid 19 has us all on edge. We are not allowed to wander to the usual places we might find inspiration and take photographs, our four walls are getting more view than they ever had! So for me, who is an essential worker and getting out more than some, it was time to take a fresh look at what I have already taken and try out some fine art ideas.

Fine Art photography isn't for everyone. It is often quite personal and has meaning for the person who created it.  The interesting thing for the viewer, is to try and have their own impression of what is being portrayed. Often people will see and feel something totally different looking at the same image.  So, where to start?

For me I took an image to start with of a place I love to visit, the cliff walk in Ardmore.  The Watchtower there is something that anyone who has been there will recognise immediately.  It has featured in so many images over time.  It is not a particularly interesting or pretty piece of architecture but it stands tall and gets amazing light.  Also featuring in the image are my family. I then had an idea of a clock in the tower so I photographed one of my nurses fob watches and put it onto the tower and blended it into the wall. This was my first time doing something like this so I was terrified. Then I figured I could just delete it if I didn't like it! After that I used a sky overlay that I had gotten as a gift with Digital Camera magazine, and faded it until I was happy with the look.  This is what I made...

A Wrinkle of Time

My children decided that it reminded them of the film and book a wrinkle in time.  I see it as me the watchtower guarding my family and our current situation is the wrinkle of time.

After this I started having a few more ideas based on the same image.  I thought about being pulled away from my family to go to work and how that felt, so I took another image of the tower that I had taken on the same day.  I stretched out the crop and added a moody sky from the set from Digital Camera magazine https://www.digitalcameraworld.com.  I then realised I had a much nicer clock upstairs so quickly took a few snaps of that and blended it into the wall of the building.  I had taken a photograph of a cloud earlier in the day so I blended that into the original image, transformed the image into a leaning tower and then drew imaginary ropes from the cloud to the tower. I used the same cloudy sky overly as the first one. It is very fantasy looking and this is what I made...

The Pull of Time

After this, the next day I saw some moody clouds and I was feeling a little glum about the whole Covid thing so I photographed the sky outside with the moody clouds and changed the crop again adding a moody sky, cloned a few fluffy moody clouds, added my cloud and decided that was enough. The following is what evolved...

The Weight of Time

The next day I wondered how I might evolve my image again and had been out photographing the full moon the previous night.  I also had phographed a mirror and wondered how to use it.  I thought about an alternative world not exactly a reflection, so that it felt one way to me but so different to someone else at the moment.  I extended my crop, added some grass from another shot and then blended in my mirror.  I copied my tower and turned it upside-down and added it into the mirror and then added the moon.  I distorted my tower slightly and then added a Lara Jade https://www.larajade.com overlay that I had obtained from a Creative Live class https://www.creativelive.com. I added another overlay from that collection to finish the image as I wanted the mirror to look a little older and abandoned than it was.

Alternate Time

The next day I had taken a shot of water going down a drain. I figured I might use it at sometime in the future.  I attended a critical care day at work in training for upskilling in case there is an influx of covid patients and redeployment from our usual work area.  I went home with a sinking feeling and this is what I made...

Sinking Time

As I said this is my first fine art series.  I have a lot to learn! I hope you enjoy it.