Browsing the Interweb, the other day, for photographic inspiration and ideas, I came across some photographs that looks very unusual, almost sinister and most definitely not your usual run-of-the-mill photography. The images appeared to be the hideous faces of demons, goblins, gremlins and the like lurking in the trees. However, closer inspection revealed that they were composite mirror images of various knots, holes and other features found on trees, mirrored to create a resemblance of a face. This was something I just had to try my hand at.
However, while the principle seemed easy enough, in reality it was far from easy. What you are looking for are features on trees that resemble only half a face, for example, holes, knots, broken branches, knobs and hollows. The direction of the light and shadows also comes into play. You need to use your imagination to see what might be there with a little bit of darkroom trickery, or software manipulation. It’s not as easy as it looks. It took me two walking trips, one round the woods at Newbattle Abbey and another in the grounds of Melville Castle Hotel, to work out how to find them. The one above reminds me of something in the X-Files, sort of. Season 2, episode 2, if you want to know. Out hunting monsters again soon.
More Goblins and not just a few of their friends can be found here.
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