A Dream

September 25, 2020
by Michael Scandling
comments 26
Abstract / California / ICM / Impressionism / Inspiration / Landscape / Photo Log / Photography

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July 12, 2020 — Marin County Headlands, California; September 24, 2020 — My Office

…realized.

I woke up at 4 a.m. with a different treatment of an ICM image from a previous shoot in mind. I went back to sleep with a smile in my face.

A few hours later, not even halfway through my first cup of coffee, there it was. And here it is.

Despite what it says below, this was all done in DxO. Photoshop was only used for resizing and export.

(Nikon D850, Nikon 24-120mm f/4G VR. RAW processing and initial editing in DxO PhotoLab 3.3; Final editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

PS — I’m way behind in catching up with the posts of those of you I’m following. But I’ll make it.

The Author

California based fine-art photographer featuring abstract, impressionist, and minimalist seascapes — near and distant — and floral-based images. Fine-art photography can be seen at www.amagaphoto.com All original images on this blog are copyright 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 Michael Scandling. All rights reserved. No images on this site may be copied, duplicated, reused, published, or re-purposed in any way without express permission from the copyright owner, Michael Scandling.

26 Comments

  1. Steve Schwartzman says

    Here’s what you might call a meta-photographic consideration. Because the upper left part of your photograph is so light, my brain doesn’t see much separation between it and the white of the page. I did a screen capture and looked at your photograph against a gray background, and I have to say I prefer the image distinctly set off that way. Have you considered putting a thin border around light-toned images to keep them from merging with the white of the page?

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    • Michael Scandling says

      Thanks, Steve. That might be a good idea for display purposes. On my website I have thin white borders around some of the black photographs for that exact reason. The background on my website is black. Or, I could go all pretentious philosophical and say that ambiguity is part of the picture and one must be uncertain as to where the page ends and the picture begins and similar claptrap but that’s claptrap. Truth is, I have been doing a lot of experimentation recently and in my attempt to push the boundaries it seems that I have actually lost them. My preferred solution in this case would be to restructure the top part of the picture and put just a bit more value into it.

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  3. shoreacres says

    As pretty as the colors are, my experience of this photo’s a bit odd. I feel as though I can’t quite see it as a whole; it seems to keep dissolving before my eyes — like a dream, perhaps. That may be exactly what you intended, although the effort to find the boundaries at the upper left leaves me focused on what ‘isn’t’ there, rather than what ‘is.’

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    • Michael Scandling says

      Thank you very much. See my comment to Steve. It is intended to have a dream-like quality, but the fact that your attention is pulled the upper left defeats the purpose. I very often post pictures when they are at a sufficient point of doneness to stick a finger in the breeze to get a response and then go back and fine-tune it. This is one of those cases.

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      • bluebrightly says

        It’s shot through with light, and feels, like I said, like the light of California – not northern Europe, which can be very bright too but had a cool calmness to it. This is more warm and intense. Feels good.

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      • Michael Scandling says

        Thank you. It’s interesting how light in different parts of the world looks different. Even in different parts of California. Coastal light is very different from inland light. That has to do with how much humidity is in the air, among other things. Light in extreme latitudes is very different from temperate and equatorial light. At extreme latitudes the sunlight has to go through more atmosphere and that changes the color.

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  6. Tina Schell says

    Interesting image, story and comments Michael. I viewed the image as a soft, rather earl interpretation which rather matches with your story. Personally if I’d have awakened I’d surely have forgotten why so good for you for putting the memory to good use

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  7. Steve Gingold says

    Maybe it’s just an ear worm I have in my head as I shared it a short time ago, but the title and the image, despite it not being such, immediately brought Box of Rain to mind. Lots of brightness and cheer in this. Dreams can be that way.

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