The Rockies

The Rockies by Ratso59
High Quality Poster printing at www.Zazzle.com

Photographed while traveling out west, it clearly shows The Rockies peaking out amongst the cumulus clouds.
I chose to convert this image from color to black and white because of its contrast and depth.

The Voyage Home

The Voyage Home by Ratso59
See More poster designs on www.zazzle.com

I created this as a tribute to the three celebrities who have passed away this week.. Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon may each of you rest in peace.

(Created with Vue6 Infinite)

Lake Willoughby Vermont

Lake Willoughby Vermont by Ratso59
Browse Lake willoughby Posters

Nestled in the northeast kingdom of Vermont in an area called Westmore which is east of Orleans lays the beautiful Lake Willoughby surrounded by mountains of all sizes each with their own historical values. A great area to visit if you're ever in upper New England.

Also available at my FAA store.

River Run

One of my all time favorite areas to photograph was in western North Carolina, this particular image was captured on a part of the Horse Pasture River near Lake Toxaway, it was photographed in the morning hours while the cool mountain air was producing a light haze which gave a feeling of tranquility and mystery. It was photographed with 35mm film in 1985.

Available in both my Zazzle and FAA stores.

Operation Moonlight

Once more I got the itch to try my hands at another digitally created Aviation Art piece, this time a World War 2 invasion consisting of bombers on their way to a target far off into the night. I wanted to try it from a persons perspective on the ground looking upwards and seeing the underbellies of the planes while using the moonlight and clouds as a backdrop producing a wave of silhouetted aircraft's.

One of the problems I had as I was trying to keep it as closely to photo realism as possible was the sharpness of the model planes so a slight blur added through Photoshop fixed that, the other was the original idea of color I just wasn't pleased with that at all like I was with my "Dog Fight" piece and its chromatic finish so I decided to try it with Black and White and finally adding sepia to the finish for a more nostalgic and historic feel. I made many tweaks in the process playing with contrasts and highlights before coming to what you see now.

This was created with Vue6 Infinite and Photoshop CS.

This art piece like most can be found at both my Zazzle store and my Fine Art America's store.

Twin Palms

I always found Infrared Photography fascinating, it has such a unique look and sometimes a dreamy effect.
While cleaning out some old files in my office I found a role of infrared negatives which I will be posting more shots of in the future, this particular role was taken in and around Key West Florida back in 1995 during a short visit to the area.
Twin Palms was taken in midday on the coast and in the background one of the barrier islands can seen in a lighter gray scale much like the palm leaves while the water showing up as black. Different effects can be made with or without filters and being film I was always surprised of the results when they were returned from processing.

Tahoe Rocks

While driving around Lake Tahoe in a 1997 visit to the area I was fortunate enough to come up upon these huge rocks piercing through the ground along the roadside, a perfect abstract shot, I quickly pulled over and whipped out my trusty 35mm camera and started photographing these naturally unique shapes, the sky was a perfect blue for contrast and the background trees added to the overall composition and extra color needed to fill the frame.

Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautifulest places I ever seen and experienced, though it was a rather quick trip to that part of the country it was also a most memorable one I hope one day I can get back out there and see more of this fantastic landscape.

Available in both my Zazzle and Fine Art America store's.

Dog Fight

This 3D art creation was produced with Vue6 Infinite and inspired by WW2 fighters and air battles of those days. The combination of depth of field and tracer fire along with smoke and maneuvering effect gives the image one of photo realism. Its Autochrome finish which was used during early days of color photography gives it a feel of nostalgia.

Vue6 Infinite
Photoshop
Paint Shop Pro Photo

Reverse Throttle

Being a long time RailFan one of my favorite stops while living in North Carolina was the North Carolina Transportation Museum also known as the Spencer Shops, it is located in the town of Spencer and was once Southern Railways largest maintenance facility in the southeast United States from the late 1800's through the 1970's.
Shown here at Spencer is the #604, a 2-8-0 Consolidation built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in the 1920's, originally photographed in color in the early 1990's I added a sepia tone finish in Photoshop to give it a historic feel.

The Black Hills

Photographed in 1996 this 35mm monochrome image shows the rolling terrain and valleys of an area in Montana from a higher elevation, the Black Hills cover five states (Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, North and South Dakota) and are a great place to explore if ever in the region.

Patrol of Sector 9

This image was produced totally with my Vue6 Infinite 3D environmental software, Photoshop was used for some minor tweaking. The time to construct it was about four hours while the rendering time was about 14 hours due to its size and resolution.
The model, courtesy of Gaetan Blanchette is of the Raptor ship from the Star Trek series.

Owls Head

Among my bizarre tastes of interest are those of mother nature and her unique art forms, what beauty can be found in a rock you ask? Perhaps the unusual shapes or likenesses that one sees while viewing them, these Tufa rocks that are a porous type of calcareous limestone formed from the precipitation of evaporating springs are some of the most unusual types of rock that I ever seen especially while out in the desert.

This photograph was taken in 1997 using 35mm Kodachrome slide film while visiting Pyramid Lake in Nevada north of Reno, a most incredible lake to say the least with Tufa Rocks both on land and in the water, some even taking shape as pyramids thus giving it its name.

Midwest Landscape

Another aerial photograph of my trip out west to Nevada this one showing a large winding river weaving its way through the cloud shadowed landscape made of mountains and valleys filled with rich colored soils, the storm clouds in the background gives it a powerful yet moving feel while the terrain with all its layers and textures fills the frame adding to its composition.

This was photographed with 35mm film and Pentax camera in 1997 somewhere over the mid western states.

Swan Dance

Fractal Art is sometimes a necessity as a break from my photography work which at times overwhelms me, some may even say it has therapeutic values and I can agree. Apophysis is a great fractal software program that is free and simple to use, once you experiment around with it for a few hours you can create some beautiful work fairly easily, though rendering times for a higher resolution sometimes may take awhile depending on what your goals are for printing or other venues.

Swan Dance was one of my first works with Apophysis but not my first try, it did take awhile to get the shape somewhat to where I wanted it and having a program like Photoshop to clean it up a bit or add extra effects helps too at times.

Apophysis is worth the download and will give you many years of creating great artwork and for some- therapy.