Summer Oak

As some of you know, I've been creating kaleidoscope images since the idea struck me about a year and a half ago. This was my first successful attempt, and has become somewhat of an icon in my personal gallery of images. The original image was taken in the summer of 2016 at Deming Park, which is in Terra Haute, IN. There was an amazing old oak tree in the park that towered over the disc golf course. I spent a good half an hour photographing it from different angles, trying to capture the magnitude of it's branches. I had a feeling something interesting would come out of the photos, but I wasn't sure exactly what at the time. For several months, the photos just sat in a file on my computer, waiting for me to do something with them.

Around Christmas of that year, I had been toying around with the idea of building some sort of mirrored contraption that I could mount to my lens in order to take photographs that had the same effect as a kaleidoscope, an idea that came to me as I was looking through my daughter's kaleidoscope (wondering what else I could get her that she didn't already have). It wasn't long before I realized a simpler solution was to create the effect using Photoshop software that I already had. It would not only be easier, but more precise done this way. I just needed a good image to work from.

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Flipping through past photos, I remembered the giant oak I had photographed months before. I had an idea it would be a good candidate for this project. This was the original image I used to create the kaleidoscope above, "Summer Oak". Figuring out the details of how to create a kaleidoscope image from this was daunting, but the results I got after just a short experimentation phase were mind boggling. It was more than I could have ever expected. I instantly knew I was on to something that would generate ideas for years to come.

In 2016, I entered my first piece "Summer Oak" into Paducah's annual Art Through the Lens photography contest. It was accepted into the contest, and after a month on display, it had the distinction of being the only piece to sell. It was a grand achievement, and the start of something big.

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Since the success of "Summer Oak", I have experimented with many different types of images. Each have their own unique personality, and to this day, I cannot fully predict how they are going to turn out. That has been the source of my enthusiasm for this type of art. The unpredictability of it. Occasionally, something I am sure will turn out, falls completely flat. Other times, it is the other way around. It keeps me guessing, and that's what makes a finished piece so remarkable.

Through this blog, I will chronicle my trials with this art form, and share with you my process, and my successful pieces. Please click through my website and see some of my most intriguing pieces to date. If you live in the Paducah area, some of these pieces are available to see at the Art Guild of Paducah. If you live out of town, I have set up a page for you to order prints directly from my website.