Born on the 4th of July -

"Trinity"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

I was going to post a simple birthday wish as I began working on this photograph. As often happens, other voices began speaking to me so I started taking notes. This photo is only a few weeks old as I write and when I clicked the shutter a question stuck in my mind, "when will I ever use an image like this?" The idea that I was so close to the 4th of July was nowhere in my conscious mind - that makes me thankful for the sub-conscious worker bee tirelessly toiling away in dark recesses. During the manipulation the metal posts in the background began looking like a terrific design for another sculpture for my Totem Project - look here if you haven't heard about this before. They were plain, simple, like a trio of stunted flagpoles and I was quite happy with the minimalism of it, especially since the three flags are the focal point. Once I hit full stride with filtering and layering, BAM! The more complex version seen here appeared and I'm just about ready to use this as my design sketch for another proposal. Now, what material to use? It's always something, isn't it?