Lately, I’ve been experimenting a lot with posters.
Not long ago, I discovered that if you take an otherwise good photo that has some issues with resolution, you can use one of the filters in Photoshop (for instance) to posterize it — and the resolution problem is smoothed away in the process of being rendered more painterly.
For instance, here’s a surfing photo that I grabbed some months ago from Cayucos pier.
I loved the raw image, but the focus just wasn’t tight enough. Rather than discard it, I cranked it through a Photoshop filter (probably Paint Daubs or Palette Knife, I can’t recall exactly), threw on some word art, and turned it into a poster. And I quite like the result.
Since I love to watch and photograph the local surfing community, I now have a whole portfolio of “Surf Cayucos” posters, a few using the raw photos, but most taking advantage of a bit of posterization.
I’ve always loved poster art. The best examples are masterpieces of design and color, whether evoking the romance of exotic places, providing a foretaste of cinematic adventure, or rallying passions in a patriotic cause. Among my favorite examples are the amazing WPA-era travel posters such as those that celebrate our national parks:
So lately, I’ve been trying to turn some of my photos into posters styled in imitation of those WPA masters. One of my earliest is shown at the top of this post — the sea lions hanging out on the navigation buoy just outside the entrance to Morro Bay. The original was a phone photo I took from a moving whale watching boat last spring. The original, as you can imagine, was not a perfect image — but I think it came out pretty well reimagined as a faux vintage travel poster. In some ways, the poster to me seems more representative of our seaside town than the photo; it (hopefully) conveys the funky, whimsical, and somewhat retro vibe of California’s Central Coast. It creates the right feels.
My gallery space at Marina Square is, sadly, probably not the place to display my posters; but I plan to have them on full display when Carol and I have a booth at Morro Bay’s “Art in the Park” events on July 4th and Labor Day weekends. If you’re in the area then, come check us out!
Ronald Crittenden 