My brother is an academician who studies Mormon missionaries – why they are so dedicated to their mission, what it is like to be one, etc.  He himself is not Mormon but has had a long standing interest in that religion.  He told me about a couple of young missionaries who were going door to door in a small town.  They walked up the sidewalk of this one house and across the front porch.  They knocked on the door and after a few moments it was opened by a very irate man who said ‘What’s the matter with you?   I just painted the porch and can’t you see that paint’s still wet?  Who are you and what do you want?’   Thinking fast, one of the missionaries said ‘We’re Jehovah’s Witnesses and we’ll come back another time!  Sorry to have walked on your wet paint!’

I’ve been working with Corel Painter 11 along with Photoshop and have been so immersed in it I haven’t even been out to shoot much let alone write about it.  Lots of paint here but no wet paint.

One of the first things I found out about this program is that it destroys details and presents pretty much only the larger elements along with tonality and color.

In other words, it puts a high premium on basic composition.

One quickly finds out that ‘it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.’  And the swing here is composition.

I’m starting to get it.  The good thing about it is that many elements of composition can be learned.  Probably not all of them, certainly not all of them, but enough that any photographer or painter can improve.

Painter is almost as complicated as Photoshop so the learning curve is long.  But one can do enough right from the start to provide encouragement.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve always wanted a painterly effect in my work and now that possibility is here in spades.

We had a lot of rain night before last and there were puddles in the driveway.  As soon as I saw them I knew I had to photograph them.  I’ve photographed puddles before and been disappointed because too much detail showed.  Gravel and blacktop aren’t that interesting to look at.  That’s changed now that I am using a paint program.

It’s fascinating to notice that I’m looking at the world differently now.  I’m not sure how to describe it, but having some idea of what I can do with images – standard photographic techniques and now painterly effects – affects what I look for.

Makes for a larger world. And it’s a world where the paint doesn’t need to dry.