Jurassic Dawn

[Kerry Perkins]

This image started when I went to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, in the very southern part of California. My wife and I went to see some amazing metal sculptures that an artist named Ricardo Breceda http://www.ricardoabreceda.com/ had installed around the Borrego Springs area during the past seven years. I spent an entire day finding and photographing as many of these as I could find, which isn't all that easy as they are spread out over quite a bit of the desert. On our way home, we spotted what we thought had to be his workshop or something, as we saw dozens of these sculptures scattered around a building. When we got there we saw a guy sitting on the tailgate of his truck enjoying a cervesa. I told my wife "that's him!" and sure enough it was and it was his studio. I asked him if I could take pictures of his work and he said "sure, I'm not a photographer" (!). I showed him some of the HDR images I had gotten the previous day and he got excited and asked if I was interested in trading pictures for artwork because he needed good images of his work! I said "sure!" and made a new friend. He is really amazing! On a hilltop next to his studio (which was a huge metal barn full of works in progress) he had placed three of his metal animals. I saw the cool composition of the march of dinosaurs and knew that I had to make something primal of it. Topaz Adjust "Solarized Dreams" filter.

[Dennis Bishop]

What a great account! An interesting image, too. I like that your viewpoint put the brontosaurus (???) behind the vegetation, and the idea of them marching up the hill -- especially with the clouds -- really fits. It does look like the awakening of a new age. I'm not sure how I feel about some of the blues on the hill and would be tempted to use either a warming or cooling Photo Filter adjustment layer (or something else) to make them blend into the rest of the image a bit more.

Thanks for mentioning the park in connection with the sculptures. I'm going to put that on my list.

[Randall Farhy]

Interesting backstory, it's always a pleasure to read how an image came about. I like the composition, angle and overall Idea. The sky is just awesome. Not sold on the infrared style foreground created by the filter-I'd play with masking it and seeing what else could be done with it to make it feel surreal. I've played with exagereating colors in adjust from time to time, scenes from World of Warcraft's Night Elf zone come to mind.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Kerry, how lucky you were to find the artist and get to trade. I love the surreal look and their "march".

[Judy Howle]

I love the dinos and the story and went to look at his website... awesome! I'd love to have a dino in my yard although my neighbors would freak out! Nice surreal processing but I agree with Randall that the IR look of the foreground is a little distracting from the rest of it.

[Diane Miller]

What a great story! It pays to poke around!

The wonky colors here work for me but the FG being so much lighter than the BG bothers me. (But then I'm easily bothered. Just ask my husband...)

[Nancy Bell]

Love the impending feeling that the orange sky gives to the image and the vulnerability of the dinosaurs up on the edge of the hilltop. Their glowing colors create a surreal feeling, which is how I think about dinosaurs anyway, being so very, very long ago and utterly fantastic looking. I agree with everyone about the foreground. Maybe something more foreboding, but still with that "radiation" looking glow.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Maybe just darken the fg vegetation a bit Kerry. Great fantasy piece, I really like it.

[Anita Bower]

I'd like to see the original image. Wonderful perspective. I like how they march up the hill, and how they seem to evolve. I did notice the light foreground, but I spent most of my time looking at the sculptures.
Thanks for sharing the story.