"MacArthur Park"
Seeing how I posted my first non-photographic Picture of the Day on Monday, a digital artwork, today I've decided to post another first - a new photo manipulation. While it's new, in the sense that I just finished working on it this morning, it's genesis was in 1999, with a digital scan of a photo I'd taken of a swan, sitting on the ice of a frozen Massapequa Lake. This poor quality scan was also used for a number of other photo manipulations I created at that time, and then posted on deviantART, in March of 2006.
As I was tweaking the original "Purple Swirl" image last night, during my train ride home, I decided to try one of my favorite artistic filters from Photoshop: Plastic Wrap. I've used this filter (employing varying amounts of the three attributes available to adjust - Highlight Strength, Detail and Smoothness) to great effect on many digital artworks and photo manipulations I've created throughout the years. It, and the assortment of blurring filters, are the ones I use most often.
After achieving a look that pleased me, the image called to mind the chorus from the song MacArthur Park:
"MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark, all the sweet green icing flowing down. Someone left the cake out in the rain. I don't think that I can take it, 'cause it took so long to make it, and I'll never have that recipe again, oh no!"
This 7 plus minutes long song was written by Jimmy Webb (who's written many hit songs, including at least 5 that went Platinum!) and it was first recorded in 1968, by the great actor Richard Harris. The lyrics sound a little corny, now as much as they did back then; but the song has been covered by numerous artists over the years - including Donna Summer and Waylon Jennings.
So, before I saved the changes I'd already made, to my purple rendition of cake in a melting MacArthur Park, I decided to alter the hue of the image. This way it more closely represents all the sweet green icing flowing down...
Links:
"MacArthur Park" Fine Art prints, matting and framing.
Jimmy Webb biography.
Richard Harris on IMDb.
Note: No camera data is available (for those few who may care) as the original picture of the swan was shot on film, and I never kept any kind of shooting info.
Jimmy Webb biography.
Richard Harris on IMDb.
Note: No camera data is available (for those few who may care) as the original picture of the swan was shot on film, and I never kept any kind of shooting info.
