Colour My World

Colour My World

I mentioned in an earlier post that it is a goal of mine this year to intentionally create positive images. In the past couple of years I have leaned toward a monochrome, minimalistic world with my photography.

So...I looked back in my files and did a bit of playing to create the "Colour My World" image above. This photograph from a few years ago is where I started:

original photograph

This is a self portrait taken on Hirtle's Beach in Nova Scotia. I used a tripod and a timer set to take ten photographs. As you can see by the image, I didn't have the tripod set up quite right and my dog Riley managed to photo bomb all the photos. It was a dull day and the images didn't live up to the vision in my mind. I wanted to create a sense of freedom and joy with the wind blown scarves. And...I forgot to take off my Blundstones so I am wearing clunky boots which didn't quite set the right tone either.

I did a few things when re-working the image:
- I cropped Riley and my boots from the photo
- I removed the black scarf on the right and replaced it with a coloured scarf from another photo
- I removed the scarf from my left hand and added a coloured scarf from another photo
- I stretched my skirt so it billows more and I darkened the skirt to remove the leopard skin pattern
- I added a texture layer on top which was a close up of a sparkly table top...which is where the coloured "bubbles" come from
- I added a texture layer to make the image look painterly. 

All in all, it took about an hour or so working on the computer to come up with the revised image. So now does it convey freedom and joy?  Or is it just weird?