DRAGON TALE

Oh, no! He might set the American flag on fire!

I think he's trying to lick the flagpole.

this is an image that could be interpreted in many ways. One of them could be...did you read any of David Icke's books? If you did you'd see this as beautifully symbolic of what he writes about.

Or is the dragon hungry and is it looking at the pictures of the offerings? Does the sign "no turn" mean that the flame-throwing dude has to choose one of them? Or is the American flag barring the dragon from proceeding further? Great vision, and considering the subject nice composition. BTW, you have the caption wrong, as the picture shows the head of the dragon. Cheers, Micheal

Nice shot. Warm regards...

Thank you gents. Just having a little fun after the parade.

A very cute scene with another great Meyer juxtaposition.

Take a look at this photographer:

BIRTHE PLONTEK

Notice the thumbnails on the right and check out the one with the orange and legs.

I see a lot of very saturated work on PN. You've been doing it more and more. I understand the expressive desire behind that and think it can be very effective. But, in my mind, honing your technique will make it work better for you. Notice the *richness* and *depth* in Birthe's color and the way it is not just bright nor is it monotone. It has character, variety, and a lot of interest in the color tones and hues themselves.

Do you work with color controls at all? (Image - Adjustments - Selective Color also Image - Adjustments - Color Balance.) I like exaggerated, nuanced color work and play with color a lot myself. What I often see being done on PN goes toward a kind of crayola/neon blast which can grab attention for sure but at the same time it can seem flat and one-dimensional.

There's also something going on here in your sky. You've got much less muddy and purer blues outlining the trees. Down around the center of the frame between the two banners and the yellow post, it looks to me like you burned in the sky or something, but it feels off. The blue starts much more realistically at the top but we get that brownish feel as we go down (and it doesn't feel like big city pollution, which often comes into play with skies here).

Also, for a very different way of handling colors (more airy, pastel, thinner color use), check out some of the contemporary Scandinavian photographers. I love the way they approach color.

I have to admit that I probably should not have uploaded this image. I don't like it that much, and see no future in printing it or trying to promote it. So I really had no business uploading it and boring my fellow Pnetters. You are most likely correct in that it is over saturated. The only adjustments I made were hue and saturation, selectively sliding the colors (mostly up) and cropping and maybe levels. I see the brown areas you are talking about, and there are only two explanations possible. First is that by boosting the saturation, there is some aberrational thing going on there, or, second, and more likely, it is just plain smog. We have had very bad air quality in the valley, and the sky often does appear brownish. The closer to the horizon, the more brown it is.

 

I will check out the gent you suggested, as you rarely lead me astray. Thanks for your help.

I can see why it appealed to you. There's nothing wrong with sharing and taking a good look at something even if it's not your best.

 

I think the sky is an aberration of something you did with color. I say that because of the outlining around the trees, which would not happen if it were pollution. See how much bluer and purer the color is right at the tree edges. By the way, do you shoot RAW. Starting off with RAW files gives you much more information and allows you a lot more latitude in making color and all kinds of adjustments, before digital aberrations start showing up. I only recently started (maybe six months ago), and it makes a stunning difference in the depth of photos, all kinds of things like more info in shadows, much more ability to work with highlights, and lots more flexibility in color control.

Perhaps you are right. It would have to be tweaking saturation too high, because I think that's about all I did. Yes, I always shoot in RAW if I am using the D200. I know the benefits of RAW over Jpeg all too well. When I use my point and shoot even though it has a ten mega pixel sensor, the fact that you have the original in Jpeg can really hurt if all is not well from the beginning.

Interesting, interesting. I like the concept of the dragon. I think the garish colors work incredibly well for the scene. There is a halo around the dragon, which make it feel sort of 3D. Because this is such a bizarro scene, I think you can go a long way in tweaking and enhancing without destroying the essential weirdness of the scene. I do wonder, however, if the dragon devouring the flag is actually the GOP elephant in disguise.

Seems to me, the Dragon holding the American flag, not the Eagle anymore??

 

Cheers; Bela

The dragon is not devouring the flag, he's carrying it in the parade as part of the honor guard. That halo is there in the interests of authenticity, because this particular species of fire breathing dragon has a halo as a defense system (dragonius angelicus). That's my story and I'm sticking to it. LOL

This thing is so wildly different from the sort of images you create, that I cannot imagine you even viewing it. Well, I'm grateful for your visit and thank you. Cheers

David. It is nothing to do, what I am creating. You creating an other style of images, images I'm very interested. You are an artist in this field, to show the irony, the human stupidness, and etc. etc. etc., with your images, nobody can doing it better. I really enjoying most of your images. It is a different kinda art. Your images represents a statements in political sociological humanitarian and etc form. Many time I just laughing when I see them. You known what I meant.

 

Cheers; Bela

Of course you are right. I was simply implying (and, believe me, I'm more guilty of this than most) that often there is a tendency to only look at and examine images that are kind of made in our own style of subjects that are of our own primary interests. I don't know if that makes sense or not. For instance, I enjoy your work, and would mostly be quite proud of myself if I had done it. I'm not sure I see you doing an image like this. Or wanting to. So, I'm saying that I view images that I wish I could or had make or made. That's not always a good thing, as it makes for kind of a narrow view of things. I guess I projected that on to you and that was reflected in my comment. Thankfully you and many others are more open to novelty. Take care.

David,

 

My grandson David likes dragons and appreciated this image. Thank you for leaving a comment on "My Bug Daddy".

 

Best regards,

Tammy

My pleasure. Keep him interested in his photography.