Paying Homage to Bert

Every once in a while you find something that reminds you of something you've seen or have been touched by. Today's image is along those lines. We were out shooting in Rockport Massachusetts, walking up Bear Skin Neck and came across this display. I like the simple composition and the repeating colors in each piece. There's "enough" detail in the tops of each shaker and the cruet. The tops are all metal and should be very reflective. The slide on the cruet provides interest and keeps the lid from being just a big blank spot in the image. The colored shadows give some depth and bring attention to the textured mat. Each time I flip through the set from this trip I find myself pausing for a step at this shot. This is, obviously, a photograph. There's an artist out there who routinely makes photo realistic scenes with much more detail than you see here. To find out a little about him, hit the "read more".

If you haven't checked out Bert Monroy's work, you're really missing something. You've probably seen Bert's work on magazine covers or in some clever piece of advertising, but, he also does fine art, electronically produced pieces. The inspiration for today's image is Bert's piece, "Lunch at Tiburon". It has several of the same elements, like the shakers, a table covering and the reflections. The one big difference is that the gallery's image is a photograph and Bert's comes from his imagination. No part of the piece was there before Bert put stylus to electronic "paper". (Bert works on a Wacom Cintiq interactive pen display.) If you do a side by side comparison of today's image versus Bert's art piece you'll be amazed how photo realistic his image is.
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While you're on Bert's site, check out every piece there. Each demonstrates what can be done in Adobe's CS4 Suite (and before). You can also find tutorials by Bert over on the Revision 3 website, under the heading of "Pixel Perfect". The ease that Bert has with Photoshop and Illustrator is shown in each episode. Things that would take hours for someone at my level are done by Bert in minutes. He routinely demonstrates the limitless possibilities available with the Adobe applications.
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One thing to keep in mind as you look at Bert's work is that he is unencumbered by any "depth of field" limitations we find using cameras to create out images. Do a Google search on Bert and find out how he's coming on his latest work, a panorama of Times Square in New York City. Take a look at what the finished size will be. You'll be astonished.