Studio39Designs

Digital Photo Art – Trees & Leaves

A few months ago, I mentioned that I was playing around with a new technique I called digital photo art that combined my photos with digital collage.  I shared a few pieces with you then, but with travels and all, I neglected to keep up with the sharing.  This set of pieces all have trees and/or leaves in them, making up a nice grouping.

Fallen Leaf

One rainy morning, as I walked from our home to my studio (a major hike of about 30 feet!), I noticed a leaf that had fallen off a nearby bush.  I was first drawn to the rain drops that beaded up so perfectly on the leaf, and secondly, to the color of the leaf, not brilliantly colored, but not completely brown yet.  I decided it would make the perfect image for a photo art piece, including birds migrating for the winter and trees stripped bare of their leaves.

Along the Road

The central subject of this piece is my favorite deserted cabin.  This image was shot before it began its final collapse.  I added some moody background paper and some vintage handwriting.  Whenever I see deserted cabins or other buildings, I can’t help but think of the history thru which they existed, and the handwriting is meant to capture that.

Prelude

Ah, in this image, my cabin has begun its decline.  I also included some distressed looking background, a vintage birth certificate and sheet music.  The title comes, obviously, from the sheet music, but I selected that specific music because I thought it sort of reflected the different preludes we have in our lives.  The birth certificate represents the most obvious prelude – to life.  And, the cabin is in a sort of prelude to final destruction.  I added some paint daubs, coffee rings, bare trees and other digital paint brushes to complement the overall feeling of the piece.  Its complexity makes this one of my favorites.

Silent Song

When we were camping this past summer, we happened to get caught in a very low fog one morning.  The tree in the center of the piece looked so lonely and forlorn against the fog that surrounded it and us.  I added to that an image of some stormy clouds I took a while ago, and then complemented them with a vintage postcard, some specialty brushes, and some butterflies to sort of lighten the mood.  The butterflies also serve to remind us that the darkest days will end, and there is a brighter day ahead.

Time Passes

The background for this piece are two different images of tree leaves in the fall.  The photo in the image was one I took this past summer, of a deserted ranch house on a mesa in northern New Mexico.  Once upon a time, there was quite a settlement on the mesa, but over time, the ranchers left, so that only memories remain.  It just sort of reminded me of how time passes, and one way or the other, we, and life, just end up going with the flow.

Enjoy!