Foxx Trotter's Cavern:  Creative Works

This section consists of  various creative works, mainly photo art.  Many are photo alterations I've made to give them a more interesting look and maybe...bring more ideas or inspirations later on.  More pictures will be added over time.  I will soon be requesting submittals of creative photos and/or scenic artworks.  There may be some other forms of art which I may include as well, so expect more variety here.   Pictures will be posted with the oldest first due to how the captions are made up.  RECENTLY POSTED PHOTOS can be found by clicking the capitalized link.  Click on any picture to enlarge.

I will be doing many skyline setups of towns and cities like this one, as I like this idea.  It includes a turnover to a sketch style and to a grayscale photo negative.  It kinda looks like a chalk drawing in a sense.  One of my town I did up is on their Chamber of Commerce website.  This one here is of downtown Canajoharie in Upstate New York.  Notice the unique historic landmark in the foreground...one of only two like this left operating in the United States.  I have a close-up photo which I will post within the next few days.    Submitted by M.L. Devall -- Raleigh-Durham, NC (USA); May 28, 2006

This photo art here is an abstract setup.  It's a picture of the Coosa Mountain Railroad Tunnel near Leeds, Alabama done in a photo negative, electrified, embossed, punched along with a couple other alterations.  The actual photo was taken during a light fog and kinda has an eerie look into the tunnel.  Both sides are rock gorge.  I will be doing other abstracts with some similarities in the future and see how they come out.  This is not the first I've done that way.    Submitted by M.L. Devall -- Raleigh-Durham, NC (USA); May 29, 2006

I like how this one came out.  This is a photo of myself and Carolina Hurricanes mascot "Stormy" which was taken during an event at the RBC Center a couple years ago.  The image has been electrified, embossed  and placed in vignette.  I was surprised by how the colors came out after the electrify.  Sometimes it changes to something totally different, like a photo negative.  A few color changes can be noticed because the ice surface is actually supposed to be white and the goal crease blue.  It sorta looks like a 3-D effect.    Submitted by M.L. Devall -- Raleigh-Durham, NC (USA); May 29, 2006

Here's another grayscale photo negative art, this one being taken during a street event last month in Franklinton, North Carolina.  I wanted to see how people would turn out in this alteration.  Not too bed, but I like the vehicles better.  Eventually, I'll get a photo of the Raleigh skyline and put it through the same alteration.  I know just the place to get a decent shot.  Something with taller buildings always are a great scape.  Expect more in this section soon.  Stay tuned.     Submitted by M.L. Devall -- Raleigh-Durham, NC (USA); June 9, 2006

Groovy, man.  I originally altered this picture in grayscale photo negative, but it looked too plain with the clear sky above.  Then, I decided to try a psychadelic approach.  Not too bad.  At least the setup made the sky look less open.  This is an image of downtown Greensboro, North Carolina looking over the trees from the north.  It's a little bit closer shot than the other photo of the same area I posted in the Scenic Picturesque section.  The image wouldn't look right from far away in this fashion.  Totally tubular.      Submitted by M.L. Devall -- Raleigh-Durham, NC (USA); July 3, 2006

A photo art of the Hyde Hall Covered Bridge in Upstate New York done in an embossed wet paint style with a slight punch.  Drippy, but not a bad abstract.  Right now I'm using Corel Photo House which has various image alterations.  I know that Adobe Photoshop is a much better program, but I'm still not quite used to it yet.  In due time I will probably use both to create new pieces.  Anyways, I may try more wet paint styles of other pictures down the road.  I still like the color alteration tools better though.    Submitted by M.L. Devall -- Raleigh-Durham, NC (USA); July 27, 2006

Yeah, it looks kind of dark.  This is a photo art of the Selkirk Lighthouse in Upstate New York done in a electrifed vignette and crystallized.  Maybe some mini-bats flying around everywhere.  I probably won't do another one like this due to the color turnout, but an experiment is just an experiment.  Trial and error.  A good thing with abstracts is that there are no limits.  All the photo arts so far have been altered in Corel Photo House.  I'll soon be trying some more of the filters in Adobe Photoshop and see how they work.    Submitted by M.L. Devall -- Raleigh-Durham, NC (USA); August 26, 2006