Something for the weekend - Part 121 - A place in the sun!

[davescm]

Thanks to all who took part in last week's playing card challenge. This week, as the weather gets colder here in the North, I thought we might go somewhere warm, very warm! So here we have a sandy desert, what will you make with it?

The “rules”:

• Anything goes, as long as it meets the forum rules on decency, copyright etc.
• Anyone, and everyone, is welcome to have a go, whether you are a complete beginner or a Photoshop expert.
• There are no prizes apart from the chance to practice, show off, or bring a bit of humour and fun. Don't be shy, join in and have a go!

To download the image below at 3840 x 2160 pixels, with an embedded ICC colour profile (sRGB), hover over the image and click on the circle with the arrows at the top right. Then, when the image opens in its own window, right click and choose “Save Image As/Save Target As” (or similar depending on your browser).

When posting back your image – please use the Blue reply button in this first post. If posting a comment on someone else’s entry then please use the grey reply button next to their image post.

Have fun.

Dave

[Jacob Bugge]

Click/ShiftClick to get closer; to see it in Chrome, Click Here. 

[davescm]

An appropriate mix Jacob. I wonder though with the oasis on the hill whether we will lose the water soon?

🙂

Dave

[Jacob Bugge]

That is worrying, Dave. I had a delusion about how a dry desert delusion might look, loosely based on the mirage concept, only in the sand rather than above it. And when I saw the Giza colours it had to appear there. And then I had the trouble of getting rid of all the visitors that kept getting in the way, so some brickwork was needed.

[jane-e]

The first monolith showed up mysteriously in Utah this month. Now it seems that they’re popping up all over the place.

 

~ Jane

[Rista12]

Shades of Arthur C. Clarke?  I have been wondering since I saw that monolith.

[davescm]

Very topical Jane. I wonder if we should have a 'place the monolith' competition one weekend?  🙂

Dave

[jane-e]

If you create the monolith, Dave, and we place it in previous SFTWs, can I call dibs on the moon scene? 😊

~ Jane

[Jacob Bugge]

A moonolith, Jane?

[Norman Sanders]

Jane, you done good!  I have to admit that, at first, I came up with something along those lines but just couldn’t make it work.  The idea was built on the Rosetta Stone poking out of the sand.

I planned black & white: a simulated newspaper with Dave’s modified image presented as a crude b&w halftone below the paper’s bold headline. (I didn't mind that halftones didn’t begin to appear in newspapers until almost 100 years later.) I just couldn't make it work and moved on.   

I still hope someone comes up with the Rosetta Stone before the week runs out. 

[jane-e]

That's a great idea with the Rosetta Stone and the newspaper, @Norman Sanders! I'd never thought about the beginning of halftones, though, so I had to look it up and found a timeline on page 5 of this PDF from Getty:

https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/pdf/atlas_halftone.pdf

Didn't you tell a story once about halftone dots when you were quite young?

I confess that I really wanted to try to draw the monolith in 3D. I knew I could draw the rectangle, but was afraid I would get stuck on getting the metallic right, as I'm too much of a beginner. So I took the easy way out and copied it from a recent news photo.

@Rista12 , that is one of the theories being considered. I just put the movies on my watchlist, as it's been a few years.

[Norman Sanders]

Didn't you tell a story once about halftone dots when you were quite young?

Yes. Great memory! I hunted around among the posts and found it. The post began with an inquiry about “Lorem Ipsum”, migrated to Linotype’s “etaoin shrdlu." then it got around to my earlsiest days in printing. Here is part:

Regarding Linotype,  I had graduated from sweeping floors in the shop to running errands after school. I was introduced to just-cast type that blistered my hands. The Lino men called it good natured fun.... that was followed up with the press foreman sending me to a neighboring shop to get a box of halftone dots. Once there and being told they had just used their last one, they sent me on to another shop, and so on. I didn't wise up until about the fifth shop. And so began my graphic arts education... Age ten. 

[jane-e]

That's a wonderful story, @Norman Sanders !

[Trevor.Dennis]

I was missing the reference when you put this up Jane, but I see it has really happened.  It's not quite the obsidian monolith from 2001. In fact it looks more like thin stainless steel sheet held together with pop rivits, but I expect some wannabe 'artist' will put his or her hand up to claim their 15 minutes of fame.

[jane-e]

Today has brought new news, @Trevor.Dennis. The monolith has now disappeared from the Utah desert!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/28/us/monolith-utah-disappeared.html 

The story gets curiouser and curiouser. Also, they found it while counting bighorn sheep, and who can stay awake while counting sheep?

~ Jane

[ProDesignTools]

Hey @jane-e and all:

Our work has just gotten a lot easier... Check this out!

Adobe Launches New Plugin to Add Monolith to Any Photo

You can now do it all with only a single click – just like Sky Replacement. 😃

[davescm]

Haha - it made me laugh 🙂

Dave

[jane-e]

Haha, Jim, I love these! 

When I saw the one at Falling Water, though, I couldn't help but imagine Frank Lloyd Wright's violent reaction. He was such a dictator about his designs right down to where the furniture was placed even after the house was sold and the buyers had moved in. He would have been horrified beyond imagination!

The total opposite personality of @davescm , who says: "Here's my creation. Now mess it up!"

Thanks for the laugh! 😊

~ Jane

[jane-e]

@ProDesignTools 

I came across this thread while looking for Norman's "box of halftone dots" story and spotted your Generative Fill (limited in scope) article. You did a fantastic job of predicting Photoshop's future! What else do you see in your crystal ball? 🤣

Jane

[ProDesignTools]

Thanks, @jane-e !

It gets better... Check out the April Fools' post from 2019 which promotes an (imaginary) new Photoshop feature dubbed “Content-Aware Content” where “you just draw a big box and it puts all your content in for you. Whatever you want, whatever you’re thinking of – it shows up auto­matically. Boom, a little clean-up and you’re done.”

It was a joke; nothing I ever thought we’d see… But here, now, that exact vision has (somehow) become a reality. Truth is stranger than fiction!

[jane-e]

Hi Jim

John Adobe? Must be related to Tim Apple? 🙂 Folks are already expecting Firefly to create a poster, write a resume, and such, so the "big box" would make them happy! See you next week?

Jane

[ProDesignTools]

Regrettably, I won't be making it out this year, so I will miss seeing you and my other friends. It should be a very exciting show though. Have a terrific MAX!

[Rista12]

[davescm]

Haha. Very good Rista 🙂

Dave

[Norman Sanders]