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Mark Drago
{K:10902} 11/12/2003
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Anyway, the blue period stuff is excellent.
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Anna Dill
{K:3872} 11/7/2003
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Very interestingphotograph. Definately a different image. Well done.
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Gregory Fiedler
{K:15439} 11/7/2003
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Jim, Spectacular!
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Stefan Engström
{K:24473} 11/7/2003
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Having been an astrophysicist in a previous life, I'll join your lament over the dark skies we've lost to brightly lit cities all over the globe. Finding a really dark spot way out in nowhere at night is still a great treat to me. I think it would have been a nice touch if you would have incorporated (started with) the real geometry of the constellation scorpio (sorry if it is there - I can't make it out). Cheers, S.
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Jani Salvataggio
{K:27283} 11/7/2003
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Great idea, excellent composition!!!!!
regards!
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Mari Mar
{K:11469} 11/7/2003
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Fantástico! are you an scorpio? abrazos!
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Harlan Heald
{K:15732} 11/6/2003
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Visionary! Great sign of things to come!
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Craig Garland
{K:27077} 11/6/2003
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Hi Jim; I really like this-- both aesthetically and philosophically. The scorpion is great, but co-mingling it with a celestial background is even greater. The composition and colors certainly are both dynamic and dramatic-- going to my favorites!
I too have a "star story" experience that has stayed with me a lifetime. In about 1970, 2 friends and I camped on top of Hart Mt. in early Sept. in eastern Oregon at about 9000 ft. elevation-- miles and miles from civilization. The campsite was at a waist deep hotspring big enough for 3-4 people. Well, we soaked in the 100 degree water for a half hour or so, and then-- so relaxed, and limp as wet noodles-- made it to our sleeping bags. No tent, we lay there looking up at the purest and most star filled sky night sky I have ever seen. I had my camera, but didn't even think about trying to shoot such splendor-- no man made image-- or words-- could do it justice. There were (as Carl Sagan said) billions and billions of stars. It was one of the most magnificent views of my entire life, and I watched in amazement for 1/2 hour or so then gently drifted off to sleep. I agree with what you say about the ancients and their study of stars, ie they must have often had similar views, but without any scientific explanation-- even today we know so little. Thanks for all the thought provoking and wonderful "Blue" pictures. I've really enjoyed them.
On a more mundane note, I was hoping you would see and comment on my "Simpson Reef Blues" photo. When I was working on it I was thinking of the many splendid "blue" images that you have done in PS and posted here, and I was hoping you especially would see in it what I did. Thank-you for your comments-- I grinned with pleasure when I read them;>). I guess it's my way of getting beyond reality w/o having to master computer programs. I too see a lot of the surreal in that image, and what I really liked is that it's very difficult to tell where the ocean ends and the atmosphere begins. Our daughter liked it so much we had a commercial lab do a custom 24 X 36" print to put over her fireplace. Cheers and the Best. Craig
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David R. Fink
{K:1792} 11/6/2003
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Hi Jim,
Thoroughly enjoyable.....both your wonderfully crafted image, and your brief treatise.
One of the themes you touched on is actually one that I try to emphasize over and over to my students.....that the manner in which we perceive our environment (including the celestial canopy above us) is intrinsically connected to how we function psychologically.
I am with you ALL the way in terms of the vast differences between the ancients and us in how the stars and the firmament are perceived. Jung had it about right concerning myth, observation, and the psyche, I reckon.
In any case, one slight quibble, though not meaning to be overly literal.....Scorpio "rising" would put it on the eastern horizon, not overhead. (But I'm sure you know this, and you are meaning "rising" in a more symbolic sense.)
Great image, Jim.....and much fodder for thought and reflection.
Best wishes,
David
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Chris Spracklen
{K:32552} 11/6/2003
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Dear Jim,
I've very much enjoyed your 'blue' series. Wonderfully creative, deeply thought-provoking, and superbly crafted. As I think I've said before, you're an artist and a scholar of the highest order!!
Funnily enough, I've got a 'star story' ~ I hope you can spare a moment to read it?
We were down on Lake Erie, eight miles from a little town called Dunville. We were in a field of log cabins, with the water just 100 yards away, and nothing else around except the odd trailer and lake-side cottage. I was a visiting speaker at a church youth camp ~ it was the last night, and we were sat in the dark, around a blazing fire, singing songs and listening to these young people tell us how God had worked in their lives that week. It was a special night?
But for a lady called Joan it was a particularly special one. For close on forty years she'd led these camps. Worked all year round to make them happen, then stayed on site for all three weeks to give them much-needed direction and leadership. She was a remarkable woman ~ still is! But this was her last night as the camp director. Three weeks a year for forty years, but now she'd decided to step down?
We were running late for a variety of reasons I haven't the space to go into. My friend from England was speaking and he went on a little lonegr than he should have! But it was a challenging talk, which he finished with a prayer. Every eye was closed, every mouth but his was silent. He was part way through talking to God when it happened?
The sky literally lit up! Through closed eye-lids we were all aware of it. There was an audible gasp from around the fire. For around ten seconds it was like daylight. The last prayer, of the last fire, of the flast camp, in the final year of this amazing lady's career as director! And the whole sky lit up! It was awesome! We didn't know what had caused it, but we would never forget it!!
The next day we learned that a meteor had entered the earth's atmosphere and had flown directly over our campsite at the precise moment we were listening to that final prayer. We should all have been in bed, but everything was running late! If we had been, we'd never have seen it. Earlier that day I had gone into the Christian bookshop and bought this lady a card to thank her for her input into my life, as well as into the camp for those forty long years. When I took it out to write it the next morning, I was amazed as I looked at the design on the front?
It incorporated a 'shooting star'!!
Of course, it could all have been coincidence! On the other hand I like to think that God was in the timing and direction of that meteor. It was like He was saying, 'Thanks, Joan ~ you did a good job!'
Thanks for your time Jim.
Best regards, Chris.
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peta jones
{K:12615} 11/6/2003
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What an awesome experience to view the night sky like you did Jim.
This is a creative and beautiful fantasy, making that scorpion look positively enchanting!
The Rocky Horror is one of Brooke's favourites! :) lol on being subversive! She recently dragged me to a midnight showing of Ziggy Stardust...was lots of fun actually.:)
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sandy c. hopkins
{K:17107} 11/6/2003
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i really love the color you work..
it is so, i don;t know,
so ....
wonderful..
:)
well done..
and are you?
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Rhonda Prince
{K:17687} 11/6/2003
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Theirs must have been a world of constant amazement. We will never experience that in the same sense...good to have people like you that can still amaze us in a new way!
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Alberto Agnoletti
{K:12811} 11/6/2003
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Another fantastic photoart!!!!
Best regards, Alberto
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Tiro Leander
{K:19060} 11/6/2003
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I'm a great fan of your work.. and this is absolutely special. The motive are so good, the colors - everything works here. This is pure art in my humble opinion. Always exciting to see new work from you.
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- simos -
{K:9354} 11/6/2003
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Strange, and so beautiful...
regards, simo
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Khoi Nguyen
{K:8700} 11/6/2003
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Wonderful piece of artwork indeed Jim!
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jo pez
{K:2958} 11/6/2003
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...well done...
nice to me
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Jim McNitt
{K:11246} 11/6/2003
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http://www.winshop.com.au/annew/Scorpio.html
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Jim McNitt
{K:11246} 11/6/2003
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P.S. For an excellent academic account of the history,meanings and symbolism of the constellation Scorpio, see .
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Aykan OZENER
{K:5996} 11/6/2003
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Very strange .Good idea.Cong...
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Vitor Hugo Teixeira
{K:230} 11/6/2003
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That's really a good composition.
Very powerfull
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Can CETIN
{K:1989} 11/6/2003
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Great composition with excellent colors.
Congratulations....
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Paolo Barthelemy
{K:25552} 11/6/2003
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Last but not least!
Great composite perfecly composed and balanced.
Bravo!
My best regards, Paolo
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^j^ .
{K:8554} 11/6/2003
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Despite all the totally un-romantic fears it may inspire, I really think that the tail of this animal and its ability to survive in extremely severe conditions are fascinating... By the way, something about that is on its way but, I didn't mention it... It's called teasing !
:)
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Naty Z
{K:16436} 11/6/2003
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there's a lot to read and to learn from your comments, i'm still trying to translate the one of your previous post!
for now i can say that this image is wonderful, then i'll take my time to read how you got it!
great creativity Jim, and always clever ideas.
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Joao Brosque
{K:4197} 11/6/2003
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Excellent :)))
Regards
Joao
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Jim McNitt
{K:11246} 11/6/2003
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One of the "peak" experiences of my life happened in my late 20s while sailing offshore at night. I came on deck at 4AM for the "dog watch" on a cloudless, moonless morning. As I looked up and my eyes adjusted to the darkness, a remarkable thing happened.
No longer was the dome of the sky a dark sea illuminated by a few flickering stars. On this night, far from the pollution of urban looms and industrial smog, there were more stars -- millions, perhaps billions -- to been seen than there was darkness. From horizon to horizon, the sky was a bed of sparkling diamonds which reached a blazing zenith in what I can only describe as the vast cloud of light we call the Milky Way.
Surely, this is how the ancients saw the stars.
But it is not how they saw the "heavens." Even in this primal splendor, what I beheld were stars and galaxies -- majestic beyond words -- but still subject to the universal laws of motion and gravity as defined by Newton in 1666.
How different the perceptions of that Babylonian astronomer, who saw in the movements of the stars a mystic dance of gods and goddesses, of omens and portents, of deep meanings and deep projections from the hidden deeps of his own psyche.
I'm not trying to romanticize the world of the ancients here. But am trying to see the universe through their eyes. That's the idea behind "Scorpio Rising:" the last blue image for a little while. --Jim
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