Letters from Mojave I and II

These are my most recent photographic images, having worked on them over the last couple of days. I find it often takes several different sessions of work to complete an image, making an adjustment here, an adjustment there. Coming back after even two minutes time can help to see it fresh again, to see what needs adjusting. This is true for something more produced as are the following two images, as well as for a straight photo without obvious manipulation, which still requires adjustments to saturation, contrast, hue, etc.

The original image that these two images are products of, I thought looked pretty good after the initial lengthy work session. It didn't look so good when I did a second one. That second one needed quite a bit of tweaking, and then the third one, too, needed a bit of tweaking. These final two images are the results, with the original image being scrapped.  These two may get altered again after time has passed allowing me to see something I don't like, but for now, I'm kinda liking them.

I initially titled them Letters From Nowhere I and II. I was thinking that the joshua tree indicates desert, and the desert is "the middle of nowhere," but that seemed too negative. So I changed it to Letters From Mojave.

The envelope that is blended with the joshua tree image is from 1929, if I can read the year correctly. My wife received it when she purchased a set of old postage stamps. The joshua tree image is from near my aunt and uncle's home in California. I photographed it nearly a year ago, during one morning of my final trip to visit my grandfather, my dad's dad, before he passed away.

Soon to be available at etsy, they are now available here.