Feather Maiden Shopping

Last night I went shopping again and this is the result.

I started out with this rather botched photo.

 I am still not entirely sure about all this. I suppose this is why I use my pictures that normally would have been sent to the trash.

In this case, I used the actual photo as the background with brushstrokes and made a collage with a detail of another pow wow picture, on the right.

Pow Wow photography

Cropped, not shopped. I mainly used a 55-200mm lens at the pow wow, which eliminates the background nicely. I like using this lens when doing portraits too.

Strong Hearts Pow Wow

I have been going to Pow Wows in the years that I have lived in the SouthWest and find it endlessly fascinating. A few years ago, I was there with a 7 year-old friend. The lady sitting next to me said that she was Havapai, and asked what my young companion was. Without thinking, I said, "He's a cutie-pie". She looked me in the eyes for a moment, and then we both started laughing.

Pow Wow Shopping

Often in photography, a background can make or break an otherwise good picture. It is the same when collaging or painting. Recently, backgrounds have been my focus, whether making them on paper, Yupo or in Photoshop. This photo didn't have a very distracting background, but I worked on it  a little anyway with 'brushes' and then 'smudged' the subject, which brought out the light on his profile.

Pow Wow photography

Children always make good subjects. They can be totally oblivious of their surroundings when playing. 

Shopping again

Dishes not done. Nothing for lunch. Appointment at 2 and it's 12:48. But I am happier with my Photoshop efforts. My own photo made at the Sedona Pow Wow, a neutral background in beige/tan, and brushes. Getting a little closer to where I want to be. 

I have always liked this photo, but the wall was distracting, although not as distracting as a pole growing out of someone's head in a otherwise good shot.
Photoshop is a nice way of using photos that didn't make the mark for whatever reason - my mark, that is. 

Dragonfly on Ice

It all seems to take place at the same time here in the desert. The days are warmer, warm enough for shorts again, the local pow wow takes place, hundreds of vintage cars roll in (nothing to do with the pow wow), and the migratory bird shoot is on (nothing to do with guns). I am going to make the most of it.


The above is a black and white picture I took, with a macro lens, of a very dead dragonfly, which I had put on ice for a background. In Photoshop, I added a frame and a part of the poem 'Fragility' by Kale Beaudry.