Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Life and Death






They exist only as names etched out in stone
But in memories, they’re still alive
Even amidst death grows life

--------------------------------------

The Angel of Hope Garden in South Bend, Indiana is dedicated to mothers who have lost a child. The first picture in this post is my submission to Cuckoo's photo contest of the month. I usually hate photoshop-ing photos, but in this case, I've made an exception - only because I think the photoshop-ing adds to the message of the photo. And it's my first pathetic attempt at photoshop.

~vagabond~ © 2008

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

yeah! its much better,

Anonymous said...

What photoshopping have you done on it ? Don't laugh, I am worse than you in photoshopping.

And Cuckoo gives that look to vagabond... you know that million dollar smiling look. :-)

~vagabond~ said...

@cuckoo:

Your website wont let me participate in the competition. My comments are disappearing into dark space. I think it's dumping them to the thrash. It really hates me. I'm guessing it thinks I'm spamming you because I have a URL in the comment.

*giving you that look...you know that look that says its not my fault and i cant be blamed for anything anymore* :P

alok said...

Ah! wonderful description for the nicely taken pic :)

but where is the life part of it?

~vagabond~ said...

@ Alok:
Thanks :)
The life is the flower growing amidst the stones laid out to commemorate the dead. I tried to bring that out by using gray monotone for the background that commemorates death and leaving color only in the flower that has life.

Anonymous said...

Aa oo...
I've just pasted your link on my blog thinking you forgot to do that. :P
And ok, now I'll go & rescue them from trash as well. :P

Can you show me the original picture as well ? How was it?

@Alok: I think that was a silly question, no ? :P

~vagabond~ said...

^ LOL. Cuckoo, drag your mouse over the first picture and the original picture will now show up. Like I said, I'm not a big photoshopper so all I did was give the entire photo a gray monotone and then "color" in the flower with its original colors.

Solitaire said...

Wow. We hardly realize how much that may have impacted someone when we pass it by.

GMG said...

Hi Vagabond! I was heading to your travel blog, but found it under construction... ;( Anyhow, this looks a great place to land! Loved the Chaco pictures and the fabulous sunset!!

Do you want to have a look at a magic place: Delos, Apollo’s birthplace and home to Dionysus sanctuary? Blogtrotter has it! ;))
Hope you enjoy! Have a great weekend!

~vagabond~ said...

@Solitaire:
Thanks for your comments :) Welcome to my blog.

@gmg:
I know, I know, the travel blog is waaay overdue. I hated how things were on that blog and deleted everything and now it looks so bare I cant get myself inspired to put up a post and start afresh. I really WILL get it started. Welcome to my blog. Glad you like the pictures here. I'm off to go check out your amazing travel blog...there's just so much to read there, I dont know where to start. :)

Nishchal Shukla નિશ્ચલ શુક્લ said...

very nice

~vagabond~ said...

@ Nischal:
Thank you!
And thanks for stopping by here. :)

alok said...

Thanks for your reply. Got it!!! On the first instance I was searching through the 'descriptions' with the theme of death of a solider and the lives saved for his country, but then realized it was actually conveying some different things also, and may not relate just to its virtue and I needn’t focus to the solider and his name only.


@cuckooji, if you are looking for my answer to your question - :P

Anonymous said...

LOL....

Now you must thank me for sending you so much of traffic. :P

Except for the very first 2 commenters (they look like spam to me), all are coming from my blogs. All of them are regular there on one or the other blog.

Arrey yaar koi mere blog par bhi to bhejo.. some newcomers. :P

Now the picture... I saw the original one. That too wasn't bad. :)

@Alok: Oh oh...

~vagabond~ said...

@ Cuckoo:
LOL! Yes, I do need to thank you. Didnt know they were all regulars on your blog. Traitors! :P
And you dont need me sending you newcomers to your blog. You're practically a celebrity, newcomers land there all the time on their own. =}

Diana Sahu said...

Even amidst death, grows life.

The picture sayd exactly this....Beautiful

~vagabond~ said...

Thanks, Diana :)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations ! You are the winner.
Check my blog.

You had changed color of the photo & the judges didn't really appreciate it. Still you came out as a winner. :)
I am writing this here & not on my blog. Had we had sufficient no. of competitive entries, we would have definitely rejected it. :)

Check your inbox as well.

Anonymous said...

Lol@Traitors !!

Yeah ! :P

~vagabond~ said...

I dont care that the judges didnt appreciate it and honestly I dont participate to win. I put up photos on my blog the way I like them, to convey some meaning to myself. The fact that other people too view my photos is entirely incidental and irrelevant to me. I appreciate it and it's very encouraging to me when other people like my photos, but they dont HAVE to. To each their own. I give people the liberty to like or even hate my photos. The photo is on my website for me, and not to please others. As I said before, I am not a big fan of photoshop, and most of the time I think it ruins the originality of the photo. But having said that, I dont regret photoshopping this photo - i did it because i wanted it to convey a particular meaning to me. And I like how it came out (not the photo, the meaning to me). But this is probably my first and last attempt at photoshop.

Anonymous said...

You're a damn damn DAMN good photographer! Call yourself that--not a vagabond! =]

I've honestly never seen anything like those pics and angles before...they're so beautiful.

~vagabond~ said...

^Your comment made my day! LOL. I'm glad you like my photos...I dont consider myself a photographer...I'm impulsive with the camera and simply capture whatever tugs at my heart at a particular moment.

Trevor Penn said...

Hi there! Beautiful photograph.

You've selectively desaturated the rest of the photograph (apart from the flowering shrub) which looks very nice. However, how does the first photograph change color when you mouse over?
I wonder how you did it?

~vagabond~ said...

@ Trevor:
It's magic! LOL. Actually, I inserted a piece of code to do that. I found it somewhere on the internet (I now forget where) but nothing you cant find with a little google-ing around.

Thanks for your encouraging comment. :)

Trevor Penn said...

LOL!
Thanks. I think i'll put google to work, for this is a handy thing to have for my (yet to be launched) photoblog. :-)

Btw, i figure you use an DSLR. What's your favored kit?

~vagabond~ said...

^ Really, to each their own. Whatever works for you, fits your budget, feels comfortable is perfect. And although I've owned a Canon before, I personally am a Nikon fan.

PS. As I've said before, I take photos simply because I want to capture a particular moment and create memories for myself. I have little expertise on photography.