More Photos

This is supposed to be a writing blog, so why am I posting photos? Because sometimes they just fit with what I'm writing.

My novel In Memory has an ensemble cast of characters. (Its reincarnation will split them up into smaller groups, giving each their own entire novel, but that's another story. Pun intended.) Awhile ago, I got an urge to give my blog an In Memory-themed background and pasted silhouettes representing each character onto a photo I had. (Some of you will remember that background.) 

Here's the original photo, which I took from the roof of the Doncaster Shopping Centre in suburban Melbourne, Australia in late 2000. It was shot on 35mm film, 200 or 400 ISO. The camera was a compact Pentax with auto focus and exposure. The scan was made from the negative. It's a pretty typical Australian sunset.


And here's the wallpapered version made with stock-photo silhouettes:


The feel of the sunset was exactly right for the book. The suburban setting was right, too. And I hate putting photos of actual people to my characters, because they're never quite right. The silhouettes work nicely. (Though I did have to swap one of the heads to get the hair right.) The guy on the far left is Peter, the bad guy of the book. His head and shoulders are currently my Twitter profile pic.

I also considered the photo below, which I also shot in Australia with the same camera. This is looking southeast from the highway between Finley and Tocumwal, New South Wales.


The storm is nice, but the sunset works better with people.

Comments

  1. I really, really need a good photo manipulation program on my computer. Currently I use iWed (comes on a mac) and then take a screen shot, lol. NOT the most effective tool.

    People are Soooo hard. NDB has that girl on the cover. She's not exactly how I pictured Leigh, but she's close enough. This is the reason that the author probably shouldn't do their own cover, b/c I wouldn't have chosen her, but I LOVE the cover. SO, go figure.

    Love your Australia shots.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've always liked that IN MEMORY movie poster (that's how I've always thought of it:) ), and I'm not at all surprised to find out you took the picture. That's one of the things I really loved about DRIVERS - it seemed like a book that only you could write.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have an actor picture that is exactly my villain to a T. This rarely happens, but then I wrote this character with that actor in mind. All the other characters might as well have silhouettes.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No, wait! I like this query better!

The Writer's Voice

LDS Writer Blogfest: The Atonement Covers All Pain