Watchers
(frame from “Watchers – Shades of Green” NFT)Eyes everywhere they stare
No escape
No respite
Draped in spotlight
Watchers always watching without stopping
While I’m plodding on by with many a sigh
Constantly under a big ugly eye.
(frame from “Watchers – Shades of Green” NFT)I’ve been fascinated with water droplets since 2012, when I first started shooting macro photos of them. This was all by accident of steamy windows and multiple different types of light sources. It drove me a bit crazy trying to shoot in an environment with zero control over light, until I let go and saw from another perspective.
This water droplet fascination led to my photographing them everywhere, including the condensation on the inside of clear plastic containers of produce. That’s how the inspiration for the “Watchers” Collection was born. I had a small amount of mixed lettuces in one of those clear plastic containers sitting in the fridge. It got sacrificed for photos. I placed it out on my balcony in the sunlight to let the condensation build inside the sealed container.
The idea was to shoot macro photos of water droplets, capturing whatever greenish leafy lettuce things appearing in the droplets. As I say often, I never know what I will end up with. It could be some boring wilting puddle of vegetative crapulence. I find that out later while screen sifting through photos, trying not to be heavy handed with the delete button.Source Photo I
This image was used as the background to build on. Call it my blank canvas that isn’t blank. The photograph is of water droplets through a clear plastic container with a solid green background underneath. Light source is natural light outdoors.Source Photo II
The second image has lettuce eyes along with other interesting shapes. This photo was sourced for creating the eyes in Watchers. Add to that a massive amount of hand painting, a ridiculous amount of layers (400 plus), and the use of multiple blending modes throughout to complete the first stage.
In the second stage I created a smaller animation focusing on a large eye. More hand painting, blending modes, and adjustments went into completing it before inserting into the main animation.
Still more….yes…more hand painting and adjustments…..yeah, I went a bit crazy with this. It’s the longest animation I’ve ever created, literally frame by frame in Photoshop. One hundred and seventy six frames upon completion. It was only supposed be a maximum of around forty frames. Not anymore. That went out the door.
Just had to take it even further than that. I created a third animation, “Watcher Eye”, following the same theme. I used the techniques described above to create it in Photoshop. I wanted to make a downloadable animation that was different, yet still in keeping with the theme of the Watchers Collection.
The Watchers Collection has been minted into three different single edition NFTs in video format. A video downloadable of “Watcher Eye” in the same theme is included with the purchase of each “Watchers” NFT; 11 HIVE each.
Available for purchase on NFT Showroom:
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~~~ ~~~All digital art created by Nine using source photos taken with a Pentax digital 35mm camera and 90mm Tamron macro lens.
Whoa. I never knew old salad could be so beautiful!
Thank you @corvidae!
It was fresh salad that, after these photos, was left outside for at least three months and involved many more shots over that time period. I managed to eventually sunlight bleach the lettuce leaves of all colour. 😂
That's some serious artistic dedication! Good thing you didn't start a compost fire on your balcony.
I end up doing weird things like this just to see what happens, what I might find interesting to photograph. It's also play time...playing like a child, which is so much fun.
Funny you mention fire...came home today to a smoky building with the superintendent and other staff running around the building trying to figure out where the fire was. Five fire trucks later and lots of firefighters and all was okay. Was NOT my apartment, no compost fires here, LOL!
I'm going to try meat next I think...meat I wouldn't eat.....
something with bones in it.
hmmmm...so many choices....I'll have to see what jumps out at me....
Also decided I'll buy some crickets at the grocery as well, that could be serious fun there. I'm about to go bug bug buggy!
Your grocery stores sell crickets?? Are you sure that's not just the sound you hear when you walk inside and the shelves are empty?
Those are incredible! Did you have to recolor each frame to do the different series??? I can only imagine how many hours this took 😲
This post has been manually curated by the VYB curation project
Thanks @wrestlingdesires! Yes, I had to re-colour and set the time for each frame for the series. I also did some additional work on the frames in the second two in the series. I did this because changing the colours didn't have the right feeling and flow to it. These were made over a period of weeks, roughly guessing around a hundred hours, maybe more, since I ran into issues along the way, meaning more time to solve those.
Thank you for curating me! 😊
That's an incredible amount of time to put into it, I just wish I had a bigger vote for curation :) ...
I accept whatever is and am grateful. To be frank, for me, the best part is always in the process of creating and then sharing it to see what others think, see, and have to say. 😊
I look at it the same way :) ... It's just nice to be able to do a little more for others sometimes though :)
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Love the green one
Thank you @aagabriel!
Guess whom owns the flagship of this post? :D
Well I know that's your Wiley Self picked that up lickety fast! Thanks so much @klye!
Uhm, beware of those "watcher" eyes once put out in your balcony in the sunlight for several days. But above all, be even more careful of those plastic sealed containers to procreate and conceive those strange eyes that watch you.
Because I remember once I tried to do the same thing as you and suddenly and when I least expected it, one of those eyes that were watching you came to life and jumped out of that supposedly well "sealed" container and tried to devour my camera through a single bite when I tried to photograph it.
Now, that's indeed a great NFT to remember for life. Without more hand painting or photoshop adjustments nor anything! LoL
😂😂😂 You're hilarious! I don't want to be eaten by one of those, no thanks.
buys industrial strength monster duct tape company
Thanks, LOL!
the real question is who watches the watchers??? or something like that lol
love the testures, they don't stop being pleasing to watch tbh, almost going mad about them... hajajhshahkj
lovely work! :)
the controllers, for lack of a better word ;)
Thanks @ailindigo! Hahaha -->* "almost going mad about them... hajajhshahkj"*
If anything does the term alien art them these do. Fabby stuff. I do like the third one better although red is normally more my thing!
Thank you @meesterboom! All by accident of lettuce. Red is definitely your thing, but there's always exceptions to every rule, as I have been repeatedly reminded over the last month by someone I know.
Lol. Yes, exceptions everywhere!!!
Lettuce, wraps mean literally who knew!! :0D
Brain beaten with it. Fermentation. Creative tapping. Output unknown but guaranteed to be smirky back to sender. All in good fun, like fencing.
It started with dead mint found in fridge and escalated to sacrificing fresh lettuce, among other things. I should try meat next. 🤪
Meat would be strangely fascinating I bet!
Meat gets eaten before it makes it to photographic material, so I'll try that out with meat I wouldn't eat. Might be just a bloody messy sight.
Yikes, meat you wouldn't eat. It sounds fiendish :0D
Yay! 🤗
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That's some scary lettuce!
😂Fresh lettuce that mutates under a macro eye.
Dear @nineclaws,
May I ask you to review and support the Dev Marketing Proposal (https://peakd.com/me/proposals/232) we presented on Conference Day 1 at HiveFest?
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You're most welcome, looks like a great project!
They look incredible to be honest, i loved them :D
Thank you @jesustiano!
You're always welcome :)
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