Rural Grove

Rural Grove — Original FX Camera photo

I use my Droid phone to take altered photos with FX Camera. I have been using this camera and software combination to record my research trips in the Mohawk Valley for the past 3 months. I have a hard time believing it, but my Droid 5 mp camera gives me better quality photos than my 3 - 4 year old Kodak Dual Lens. Not that the Kodak is such a great camera....it's also a 5 megapixel camera, but for some reason the Droid holds the shadows nicer. FX Camera is a cool droid app that allows you to take pix using filters that simulate polaroids and toy cameras. I luv luv luv this feature. It's kind of like having a mini portable MAX/Jitter toolbox on my phone.
The altered photos are providing me with the ultimate inspiration. The recent series of Tall House on Blaine was based on a picture I took in this manner. These photos provide take-off points for me. I use photography to alter and distort the reality. Then I feed this back into my brain and reprocess the vision with these new colors and filters. Out comes a more imaginative collage. I rely a lot on technology to help me mutate images. I am using this technique more and more lately as I use more of my imagery for composition.

Rural Grove — Watercolor

There's a little remnant of a town nearby. It's called Rural Grove. Most of the homes are tucked in lush hedgerows. There's this stark contrast between the homes that people still reside in versus the homes that are decaying and lonely. There was this one house had really excellent architectural lines...and I have used this as my next subject.

Rural Grove — Collage