Toxic Fish
So lets start with an interesting and unusual image. De-constructing Toxic Fish.
Toxic Fish was inspired because of the toxic levels of mercury that is contaminating our fish. I don't create my images to be a political statement, but I use whatever is on my mind to inspire the stories of my images. I believe that when an image develops from an emotion it takes on a different kind of passion and in the event the image does not appeal to competition, it still doesn't matter because it means something to you.
The fish is actually a huge statue about 10 foot long and was shot through a dirty window at the hospital when my daughter was having some major surgeries. If you would like to go and see the fish it is viewable from the Restaurant at Manchester Children's Hospital. The background was created from several elements taken at Alton Towers, the trees, the building roof (bus stop in Southport), water from the river rapids ride and the screaming people (from a roller coaster ride). The oil cans were shot at a local farm on some waste ground and they were also leaking oil.
I've not tidied the layers up as I do with most of my composites, so this is exactly as it was when the images was developed.
The RAW Photographs
The following RAW images are as shot. The photos are nothing special, but as you can see, add some creativity and you can have fun and produce an interesting image.
The base background, just a simple sky to give a gradient.
The fish statue taken at Manchester Children's Hospital is the primary element of the image. This is what the images started with and everything else was built above and below the main subject.
The screaming ghosts are actually some random people on a roller-coaster ride at Alton Towers.
The building is just a bus shelter at Southport, but to make it look a little different and add to the theme of the image I changed it's roof.
The roof is a building at Alton Towers.
The water is just different selections of water from Alton Towers, they have tons of moving water, so it makes an ideal collection.
More water from Alton Towers.
The oil cans spilling oil from a farm location near where I live.
The little fat owl sat in the tree.
So as you can see this image is built from over 10 different images, I used several images for the water, but there is no point showing you them all as they are all very similar. Everything else is done on the Wacom with a standard Adobe brush, or brushes I have made.
I also shoot my own textures and have a huge folder full of them, although the only texture I used for this image is the one below.
Making the Composite
Everything starts with the fish.
The floor and oil cans are added from the same image and the background is splodged on with the wacom. The trees are hand drawn separately and saved as a brush.
The acidic water is added and colour toning is applied as well as the building to give some background interest.
A few tweaks are made and the screaming people added.
So that is the making of the Toxic Fish. You may find it interesting, I doubt you would be influenced to make an image like this as to me it was more of an experiment and fun. It was also one of my first of the creative series that I have produced this year, so lets just say my work since this image has been some what refined and improved. Before you judge my work...remember photography is the mix of technical and a creative art form, everyone is different and everyone will enjoy different styles and types of photography.
All images on this page were taken and created by KT Allen.