Butterfly Adventure
Taking a chance encounter on a Cheltenham pavement one sunny summer evening and transforming it into a beach adventure with some interesting perspectives.
A butterfly on the pavement
One evening last summer (2019) I took this image of a butterfly on the pavement. It was just at the entrance to a retail park, across the road from the hotel I was staying in. It wasn't moving. Even when I bent down and took this picture with my iPhone.
A paper butterfly on the table
Taking this photo, I printed it out and re-photographed it on my table at home. I wanted to also capture the surroundings, so that some of the table and the placemat would come through. The image was manipulated using PhotoScape X with simple filters.
Taking it to the beach
Now the interesting part!
After some re-filtering (basic colour correction, brightness that kind of thing) Stage 2 was printed out and I went down to the beach. This was in February 2020 in Southbourne, Bournemouth, before certain important events: the Covid-19 Lockdown and if that had not had happened, dogs being restricted to certain parts of the beach for the summer season
The Stage 2 photo was modified by cutting out the butterfly partially (so it was still attached as one big photo) and the butterfly was folded to make it come out in relief.
I placed it in the sand and kept it in place with stones. As I was doing this two cockapoo dogs came sniffing around I think because the stones were near my hands. After a minute of them sniffing around and me trying to shoo them away without letting the image go, the owners finally called them away. I thought I was going to lose the thing and it would all have been a waste!
So once this episode had resolved, I took a number of shots trying to get perspective, making sure the butterfly was still folded and slightly in relief. The Rubik's Cube was a last minute idea that I had when I was going out of the house. I thought it would add some interesting colours and provide a counterpoint to the butterfly, which is being gradually washed out from rephotographing.
Creating the confusing perspective
The last photograph session was done in my house. I initially wanted to include the tiled floor so I took the shot above. This time I cut out the butterfly and the Rubik's Cube and placed them on some coins and other small objects to balance them above the main photo. I also added some keys and a bright orange vitamin container. This was purely to add some interesting shapes.
To Finish
Some extra filtering was applied as well as selective blurring and sharpening. Again all with PhotoScape X. The final image was a crop without the tiles showing. I decided that having the tiles on the outside would break the effect too much, though you can make out the tiles underneath beside the butterfly.
And that's how the Butterfly Adventure was created