This week’s photo challenge is timely: Eerie.
After posting the first version of the turtle, Pete suggested posting a B&W version. Not sure which is more creepy, but for the 2nd version, I refrained from applying filters, or playing around with it too much… What do you think?
This morning on a paddle board ride I came upon a HUGE dead turtle. Backtrack… this morning for my ride I took out a brand new toy to play with: a GoPro camera. Yay me! On my ride, which was with friends, we spotted something floating. As always “Let’s go see what it is!” was on each of our tongues. I wasn’t the first to come upon it, but I was the first to hear “It’s a huge ass turtle!”
“Is it dead or alive?” I was dumb enough to ask. If it were alive, it would not hang out long enough for us to paddle up to it. Huge ass it was indeed. And very dead. Its eyes were red and bulging. As I approached it I thought to myself “Oh how creepy and eerie.” That’s when a light came on in my head for this week’s prompt. I played with filters, and did what I could to turn the creep on this already eerie dead turtle. Little did he know he would be celebrating el dia del muertos in style…
Talking about the day of the dead. That’s eerie too!
Can eerie and cute go hand in hand?
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Click here to join or to view other submissions for the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge
my cyber house rules 
Yikes!
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Being that you’re a diver too, you get to see all sorts of eerie stuff all the time! (Aren’t those kids cute? It was my first Mexican Halloween!)
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They are really cute! Yes, we do see eerie stuff on dives. One time when we were in Bonaire, we came upon a HUGE dead Moray Eel lying on the bottom in the sand. I jumped when I saw it and with the mild surge, it was moving so we weren’t sure it was dead. Very creepy!
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You know every year I see better and better make on kids, is it the talent of the parents are getting better or the kids demand to be more scary. The turtle I would have like it just black & white the texture of the skin and shell would have been brought of and I think anyone seeing it as close as you portrayed will sensed the death of the old timer. Could you post it without filters please as I would like to see it.
You will find my entry here http://www.rainbow-photography.net/weekly-photo-challenge-eerie/
🙂
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Hi Pete! Thanks for the suggestion, I’ve added a 2nd version (and looped you in on it.) The two versions are indeed very different, I’m not sure which I prefer. And yes, make-up and the creepiness factor of kids on Halloween has intensified a lot. This was my first time experiencing the day in Mexico. What I loved was how most kids were so much more creative in making their own costumes without buying anything pre-made.
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Thank you for your reply. I think the people of Mexico have a different out look on death, most is based on the teachings of the Roman Catholic church and a lot of influence of Voodoo from Haiti and Cuba making its way into the culture which also can be found in the mix of cultures in New Orleans. I am just going to go over and take a look at the black & white version. 🙂
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I prefer the b&w version sorry, I don’t know what software you have for altering your images, but playing the shades of b/w along with the contrast and different light directions it is amazing how you can change a b/w image, just as there are different changes of colour, its the same with the b/w
Here is a image http://www.rainbow-photography.net/step-back-in-history/frasers-93/#main which I wanted to show lots of light coming in the door but also show the coldness of the building and the darkness which is part of living in a Scottish Black House. 🙂
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Although I have Photoshop, I must admit I don’t use it as much as I should and go with shortcuts (iPhoto or Picasa) I think the coming of Instagram and instant filters has hurt my desire to spend more time in PS.
I’ll go check out your pictures, if they’re anything like your eerie submission – I’m sure I’ll love them! And maybe even learn more about photog!
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I had just this conversation the other day, I spent years learning my craft both with film and digital, I spent time and effort:learning Photoshop and then teaching others in a school. I have worked many years as a photogeapher photographing everything from riots to babies. Being a professional photographer is bloody hard work and only 5% of it is glamorous, the rest is in front of a computer or in a darkroom, doing bread and butter work such as newspaper photos, screaming kids and moaning mothers of the bride.
Today with cameras on auto and really not knowing how their cameras work or anything to do with Fstops, lens speed or anything else are setting themselves up as professional photographers and under cutting true professionals who have paid thousands for equipment, software, printers, computers and monitors, spending time setting all these things up. Did you know that you can buy a spider that scans your monitors and then produces a file that makes sure what you see on the screen, is what you see in a print.
I am not saying everyone is like this most just think its an easy way to make money, like charging £4000 to just photograph a wedding and then asking for more if the want photos printed, sending the images away and the total print bill is £30.
The most I ever charged for a wedding was £800 and that included 12 hours of photography, albums, framed print.
Do you know I came across a arrogant photographer would not allow anyone to take phitos of the bride at a wedding and he was charging £7000 for taking photos only….no one is worth that!!
Just because people point a camera doesn’t make a photographer.
Learn the craft like any other hobby, learn photoshop or similar.
What to try is Gimp http://www.gimp.org its a fantastic bit of software.
If you want to get the best out of your camera learn what it does, try the different setting, film speed (iso) Fstop and the rest. There are lots of great free filters for photoshop and lessons for Gimp just Google.
I am semi retired now due to disability and photography is now for mtself and friends and enjoying it 10 times better lol. 🙂
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I took photography classes at the University years before the digital age. What I loved most was the hours spent isolated in the dark room. What I also loved about it was the trickery was 100% dependent upon the photographer’s skill and imagination.
I agree with you – it’s an insult to see people buy an iPhone, take dazzling instashots and turn around and label themselves professional photographers. It’s the same with desktop publishing and the dying art of true graphic design.
Thanks for the suggestion – I’ll look into gimp (just the name alone leaves me ever so curious).
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Hoooooorrrrraaaaa someone who knows the inside of a darkroom and a red light doesn’t mean a whore house lol. I was starting to think I was the only one left in the world who knew what an enlarger and counting elephants have in common 🙂
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Or who could suddenly smell some odd chemical product and be suddenly thrown in a dark memory, with prints hanging on a line.
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When I was in the Air Force and before computers, I was a teleprinter operator and worked underground and we had a bit of string tied between two teleprinter on this string was over 100 metal washers and wgen a message came in, it was replicated on ticker tape arounf 2 inch wide with 5 holes in a line that represented a character which was printer on the paper which came out with the message on, now this message could be 50 or 60 lines of text. So when the message was printing out, the ticker tape would be punched with holed for line 1 if the character was an A the holes punched would be 123 and so on, lt was called the Murry code.
Anyway the message is now printed in text on paper and there is now around 2 to 4 feet of ticker tape full of holes, I would take the paper off the telrprinter log the time and date in a book, write the same on the on the end of the ticker tape, then this is were te string and washers came in, I would take te tape and hang it between two washer and the weight would hold it there. Some of these messages were top secret, now the ticker tape would be like your backup, if you needed a copy of the message, you would take the corrisponding tape and put it through reader which was on the side of the printer you lifed a little catch placed the start of the tape in the guides and started it and the tape would pass over 5 pins, the if the pins pass through the tape it prints a character…..Now why did I tell you that because I used to use the same system in the dark room but with plastic washers I could get a lot more on on the line hanging side way back to back….. a longway round but hope it was interesting lol 🙂
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Sorry for the late reply, been up and down with my health, thanks for the comments, very much appreciated and please if you have a question please please please just ask 🙂
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Hope you are now better, health issues suck! I was sick all summer, so I can relate.
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Thanks but there is no quick fix to what blighting me, in fact I become worse over the summer. I have arthritis in majority of my joints including in my spine, I have a blockage in my brain and spinal cord that stops or delays signals going to my legs, hips which makes walking a little fun lol its started in my arms now so it makes photography tricky. But these things are sent to try us and they do and I cope and then move on. 🙂
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Dead things don’t particularly scare me. Maybe I’m just desensitized from all those zombie movies I watched. But it sure is a big ass turtle!
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It is a huge ass turtle! Dead things freak me out, I don’t know why, but they do. Even dead bugs. Once after an overnight crossing as I walked on our deck I found over a dozen dead squids tucked into every little nook and cranny. I was offset by that discovery…
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Sad fact: all living things die.. 😦
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And thank god for that! Can you imagine how overpopulated the planet would be if nothing ever did die?
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Well yeah. There are pros and cons to everything. 🙂
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🙂
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So sad for Pete. I get to see the turtles hatch and you get to see one at its end. The black and white is definitely more eerie.
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Thanks Tara, I have the Discovery channel and I get to see baby Haggis born 🙂
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HA! I thought Marie had called the turtle “Pete.” Baby Haggis?
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Yes I live in Scotland and Haggis is a deliciously yummy food we eat mainly to celebrate the life of Robert Burns. The Haggis live wild in the mountains and the legs are longer on the left then the right so it helps the run around the mountains. Every 4 years the babies are born with the longest legs on the right side so the run the opposite direction, it takes two years for them to sexually mature, so there is lack of Haggis as the 2 year olds meet nose to nose with the older females and so cannot mate. So in the lean years we have fake Haggis made from offal, spices and its all stuffed into the sheep stomach, then boiled or steamed and eaten with mashed neeps (turnips) chapped tatties (mashed potatoes) then for a sweet, pin head oatmeal, mixed with fresh cream, dram of whisky topped with raspberry sauce and top with a fresh Scottish raspberry. 🙂
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Ha! I thought that was what you meant – that I’d called the dead turtle Pete!
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Eerie indeed
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I would have loved to see the turtle dead or alive, although seeing it dead would have most likely upset me.
Loving the discussion about photography as I too took photography classes a long time ago and learnt all about the process of developing real film and creating photos the old fashioned way
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