Winter World 2

In November 2007, I started work early on a holiday card. I had seen a tutorial on creating circular distortions of landscapes online and already planned on using a modified version of this technique to create little planetoids. Since these were for winter, I wanted them to look crisp and sparkling, like fresh snow in the sun. Over two weeks of work later, things still didn’t look right. I had tried all kinds of effects and filters to get the right look - none of which was just right. I finally ended up doing a lot of painting with the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop, which had me nearly there. The final element was deciding to abandon having a perfectly circular edge and to add the border. Voila! I used this technique to create several more planetoids, which make me think of “The Little Prince”, but I also liked the effect when the sky was in the center of the images.

“Winter World #2” was my experiment to see what would happen when the sky was in the center of the image rather than at the edge. It worked so well, I made several more. I like how the jaggedness of the edge echoes the shapes of the trees. Uses a photograph from stock.xchng member Ondrej Verzich.