Glamour Stone

What is beauty?

Tom, what a contrast! Great idea, and provocative question. I like it. the hard round stone, the soft folded satin. It's satin, right, not velvet? Is it velvet? It's too bright for velvet.

 

Anyway, it's beautiful. Want to know what beauty is? Look at this.

Elegant, sensual..Anna

This stone is probably, what?... a thousand years in the making? It's about 5 inches across and fits my hand like a custom tool... t

tom, probably a thousand thousand thousand years, and then some more. It looks like a piece of granite, which is a metamorphic rock, which means at one time it was sedimentary, which means it was deposited one grain at a time on the bottom of an ancient sea, or igneous-from a volcano, either one, but then either squeezed for millions of years beneath tons and tons and tons and tons of water and/or then subjected to magma intrusions and baked to perfection by a 4000 degree river of molten lava. And all this before chipping off the exposed face of a cliff, or mountain side, falling off and landing in a stream where sediment-laedn water could rush over it for ever and ever and ever to make it smooth enough to remind you of a custom hand tool.

 

the stone, a marvel of nature. The satin, a marvel of industry.

Can I quote you? I've never really found the words to convey what I feel are the wonderful characteristics of a beautiful stone, like this one (I have many, do I have a stone fetish?). Thanks Doug... t

I see...:-) Great concept, I must say. Subtle.

Aesthetically, there are a few details that could get better, I think... Maybe some light painting would be perfect for this - and a good training ground at our level...:-))

Then, besides the light, I have a problem with the horizontal fold line bottom left, and I wish a few other folds would have more feminine curves... So that the joke would be complete... So, what about a light painted version...? :-)

Cheers.

Ah yes... Subtle. And that's exactly where I want it to be. I have seen an image of a satin sheet on a bed that (not very) subtly forms a woman's face, and another that forms a womans ass, and another that forms her thighs, and another... well you get the picture, and get it too quickly in my opinion. The speed at which those "subtle" images work is dictated by the dynamics of advertising. "Get the message across before he/she can turn the page". Here in the fine art world (I flatter myself) I look for longevity, an image that has a message, yet gives it up only to a determined curiosity. And the message itself is reluctant to be specific, so that the viewer will find opportunity to consider his own interpretation, and change it with satisfaction to even a contradictory meaning. I want a person to say "I could live with that on my wall and wonder about it for years, and see what my friends think about it, and see if it pisses off my father in law, or makes my girlfriend horny, or scares away idiots". I do not want them to say "I get it!" because then they will be done with it... t

Yep, I'm looking around for a 25 watt bulb, too :^)

I don't quite understand why it has to be 25 w, I must say... What's wring with higher power, I wonder...:-) The thing must be about the distance, which probably allows more contrast locally... I'm going to try something with what I have seriously one of these days, and let's see. So far, for some reason, I never dared to go very close to the subject. Jorg said 15cmm to 20cm from the face in a particular shot. Seems mad to use such low power and go so near, but I guess this madness is why it works so well for them. :-)

The first one who understands something to this technique helps all the others - deal ? :-)) Good luck to you. Regards.

Good morning Tom,

 

Good choice of a stone :-)

Beautiful color & contrast of textures, nice concept. The glaciers did a good job on this pebble :-)

Nice contrast between the stone and fabric. As if the stone deserves a throne. Nicely done... smile,,,