It has been almost four years since I have made a post. My world disintegrated in 2019. Almost everything in my life has changed since then and nothing for the better. It has been a very long and sad story that I will not burden the reader with at this point, other than to say I have ended up far away and removed from my beloved Gulf Coast and the now seemingly blessed life I had. To be lost in the very "Mountains of Madness. For almost 2 years I have had little urge to do much of anything. I sit and watch the telly, surf the net, and play the "Sims4". I have numbed my mind with loss. I guess in a way I have withdrawn and retired from life. It has taken me quite a while to get to this point where I am able to even consider taking up my long neglected blog once more. Initially I was way to busy to take time for making an occasional post, but the good kind of busy. When all was lost I did not think I would ever care to blog again or anything else. I am now waking up after a long sleep and in a way want to reach out into the world once more. I know that very few people will see this so it is kind of a safe step out of doors for me so to speak.

The image above is an art photograph that I did late last year. It started out as an image of some leaves blown to the curb in a strip mall parking lot. The next day I just happened to run into this big mantis on the front porch of where I am residing so I took a photo. I took an image of the rose that I have in a pot. Added an image of an ancient silver coin from the Greek city of Ephesus.
Photoshoped the living daylights out of them and ended up with this digital image that I have called "Rock n Roll". It is entitled as such, because the rose is named, "Rock & Roll". Created by American rose breeder, Tom Carruth, in 2006 and introduced to the U.S.in 2007 by Weeks Wholesale Rose Grower, Inc. 

Mobicon 2017 Photos by Michael W. Moses

Mobicon 2017 was held over the last Memorial Day Weekend at the Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel, located in Mobile Alabama  it was on the 26th to the 28th May 2017.  I took a remarkable number of images on Saturday the 27th. It was a wonderful day of just talking with people and taking lots of photos of the incredible costuming!  CoastConFan Blog posted a large number of my images taken that day on his blog and you can visit the blog and see the images by jumping to them at the following links to the two different post he did for the images:

 Mobicon 2017 Part I

Mobicon 2017 Part II

 I have had a lot of life occur during the time that I took these images back in May and have also taken a mind draining number of other images at other events and places, so, it has taken me a bit longer than I would have cared for to get this posted.  I hope you enjoy them and please feel free to comment.

         

 Rikativity

      Click  Above to Visit Her Facebook Page 

I would like to thank all the fen that were kind enough to allow me to take so many images of them and their beautifully creative outfits!  A well done job to all! I would like to also thank all the kind, courteous and patient folks working at the Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel.  

I would also like to thank the guests staying at the hotel for their generously putting up with all of our hijinks and shinnagens!

 With so many of my images, I know what the finished work will look like as I am taking the photograph on the spot. The photograph above, was one of those images. As the exquisitely dressed woman was posing, I knew exactly what background I would use and how I would handle the over all mood of the photograph.  It is almost hard to believe that this antique image was taken in 2017!

 

The image above "Isolda Sophia" shows the original unaltered photograph and is followed by the finished Art Image.  Using various different apps, I cut out, paste, and blend different images mostly of my own manufacture, together to create one original work of art.

The above image of the two young ladies in 1920's haute couture apparel was taken inside the Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel, which is a delightfully sunny place, but unfortunately for my photography has yellow walls that give a warm golden glow to many of my images. The warm golden color can fortunately in most instances be corrected and made to look more natural. In the case of this image "Flapper Girls" I rendered the image into black and white and then gave it an antiquing filter and an authentic circa 1920's border. The over all effect has a truly vintage look!

I really enjoyed this years MobiCon and I will be anxiously waiting for next years to arrive.
I will try to get my next post up a bit sooner, so until the next post.......

Please note All text and images on this blog are copyright Michael W. Moses unless otherwise stated.   Feel free to copy these low-res photos for your personal, noncommercial use.   Also feel free to link to this blog and share with others.

Michael W. Moses goes to CoastCon 36 Science Fiction Convention in Biloxi, MS

Here is a non pottery related post for you.

Over this last weekend I went on Saturday to the 36th annual CoastCon Science Fiction convention at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Colosseum in Biloxi, MS

This year the convention saw what seemed to me to be a considerable increase in attendees from the last few years. I would like to thank the many people of CoastCon for putting together a pretty good one for 2013. It makes me anxious for the 2014 one next year!

There were a fairly large number of gamers that showed up and there were many people in costume. I found this years layout for CoastCon a bit better than in previous years at the Colosseum. There was a nice flow to the setup that really worked well.

I picked up a few items in the merchant room and went to the costume contest. This year the prize for best costume was a reproduction Brave Heart Sword, that was donated by South Coast Antiques. The sword was won by a young lady that had a great looking Wonder Woman costume that she made herself. I took a few images during the costume contest and once again was not happy at the Biloxi Colosseum's difficult lighting for photography.  After the costume contest I went around and took a few more images with my digital camera.  If you want to see a few more of the images that I took at CoastCon please go to my photobucket gallery.

I spent the evening setting around talking with some of my friends that I do not often get a chance to spend time with. We had pleasant conversation all Saturday evening, until the convention closed and we were sent out into the night.

I have spent the last two evenings processing the images that I took. I have created a few Art Photo Manipulations using some of the images that I took that I thought deserved a bit of a bump up to the next level so to speak.

I have a passion for doing my ceramic art pottery, but I must admit that I sure do love doing digital photography a whole lot.  I just love taking an image and making a collage of unrelated images that create a new and wonderful image to behold. Many do not consider this type of work to be art, but many people in the 1800's and 1900's did not consider film photography to be real art either.  To me it does not matter one way or the other. I just love digital art and photography and to me creating because one loves to create is more to do with being art than solely creating to just make money.

For a few more of my digital art photo manipulations you can see them at photobucket

A Happy Halloween to All From Michael W. Moses!

Jack-o'-lanterns in the front window of South Coast Antiques & Gallery

What do you think of my Halloween photograph of the pumpkins in the window of the shop?

Oh, I almost forgot!!! A Happy and Safe Halloween to All From South Coast Antiques and Michael W. Moses!

New Photograph by Michael W. Moses, Hybiscus Hunger.

Here is an image that I took the other day.  I had taken a hybiscus flower that I had cut in my yard into the shop to put in one of my art pottery vases. I discovered this cute little insect setting on one of the stamen. It was a little baby grasshopper. It was just so tiny and cute that I had to snap a few images of it and here is one of them. Unfortunately these little things grow into very big things and they can strip a plant of leaves in no time flat.  So I had to thank him for posing and then take him away. I will have to spry the yard in the next day or so, because I am seeing them everywhere. They are just so cute, but they are very bad for the garden.

Image of a Greenware Art Pottery Figurine of Cthulhu by Michael W. Moses

Today's post is a greenware work in progress. I usually do not show a lot of my works when they are in the greenware stage. Being just unfired clay, pieces at this stage are so fragile that it is just not worth making a permanent record of the piece. This one however just was begging for some photographs. It seemed so photogenic that I just had to take a couple of shots of it. Here is one of those shots. This image of a ceramic art pottery figurine of Cthulhu features a detail of a Victorian era leaded glass window as a background. This image was enhanced with a bit of sepia tone added with Photoshop. Once this piece is fired and painted I will post further images.