Time Travel discussion

GoodReads now allows large masthead photos to top our group pages. Submit one to add to the rotation. So here are the rules:

RULES

1. The masthead needs to be exactly 970 x 245 pixels.

2. Any photos used in the masthead should be your own photos or photos that are legal to use non-commercially or in derivative works. You can find such photos by doing advanced google image searches, advanced Flickr searches, or by searching Wikimedia Commons.

3. If you use someone else's photo (legally as mentioned above), please cite where you found the photo so that we can give them credit.

4. You are not allowed to recruit members to our group to vote for your photo. If you do, you will be disqualified.

5. To enter, you should place your masthead in the comments section below. If you don't know how to, look in the "(some html is ok)" section above the comment box. If you have difficulty with this, you can just comment with a link to your masthead. If you don't have a place to host your picture, you can always put it in Photobucket.

6. You are encouraged to also submit an accompanying photo to use as the icon for our group.

Reference Note: My masthead photo derived from http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobowen/.... Group photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/25477528...)

How fun!

Awesome group challenge. Even for those of us who think of ourselves as having no artistic vision, give it a shot, just for the fun and who knows you might surprise yourself :)

Doh, I just notice we have a masthead already. Amy is that your design? Sigh, you've set bar way out of most of our reach :)

can I use my artworks?

R.A. wrote: "can I use my artworks?"

You can absolutely use your artwork!

Tej wrote: "Doh, I just notice we have a masthead already. Amy is that your design? Sigh, you've set bar way out of most of our reach :)"

Wow. That is a very cool masthead. Guess a contest would still be fun anyway. :)

Well, thanks. I'm glad you like it. If someone wanted to improve one the one I have, I'd be happy to let them. I just don't have great editing software, so I thought it looked kind of crappily-done. You're sometimes your own worst critic, ya know?

Great idea. I look forward to seeing the results.

Amy, I've been followling the posts & the input so far is all good, but I happen to like the current masthead.

It's weird & understated but gets the point across nicely.

If a larger one is the point, why not just make it bigger?

We can put the current one as part of the vote.

If you do, my bets are on you winning ;) But we'll try give you a challenge!

Probably too "old-timey" for some, but I liked the steampunk ambience...



Photo credit for the large watch back on the right: http://www.flickr.com/photos/killbox/

Gertie, I was a graphic designer in another time frame, before computer art was common.

Before computers, actually.

I see now that we have a real contest.

I looked you up & see also that you are someone worth knowing.

Know this: How far you want to go is always dependent on the 'Elastic Limit' of your imagination.

I've found that's true in any time frame & always, for some, there is no limit at all.

From your profile, I think you are this singular type.

Well done.

Lol, thanks Howard! I borrowed Amy's tagline since people like her masthead, and it is an evocative question.

No problem Gertie & I meant what I said, I like your profile, it struck a chord, you see.

People often tell me that my books are the weirdest thing they've ever read & I always respond with the same comment.

The old adage is true, you write what you know.

I love it, Gertie!

well done Gertie, I like it! Good challenge to Amy's high benchmark :)

Thanks Amy and Tej! I'm surprised there haven't been more entries, it's a fun project.

Gertie, in another time frame, in my graphic shop (before computers), we had to shoot everything ourselves, in order to make the image 'camera ready.'

My camera, already very old then, was huge & was loaded in the darkroom but the bellows & lens were outside, mounted off the common wall.

Inside we'd cut & load negative paper sufficent to fit the artwork that was held at length (for focus) on the adjustable mechanism outside, which was controlled from the darkroom.

I could blow something up to a 2X3 foot image, but hardly ever needed to go that big.

Much easier I presume with computers & the product no doubt can be greatly enhanced thereby, but it's still the artist that tells the computer what to do.

I agree with you, however. I'm surprised at the lack of other entries, as this group seems pretty savy.

So did we close the contest on this already?

I have been away from the group the past couple of months due to time constraints. (No pun intended!)

Andy wrote: "So did we close the contest on this already?

I have been away from the group the past couple of months due to time constraints. (No pun intended!)"

Hmm ... I think I forgot about this whole endeavor. We actually didn't vote yet. Did you want to add something for us to vote from? If so, I'll plan the vote for this weekend or so.

No one's entered apart from Gertie because Amy's banner is already too awesome for anyone to do better! Such a high benchmark :) But Gertie's entry is a great entry too.

I have been wanting to take a stab at this, but I just haven't had time. When I found this quote, it inspired me to put something together. The photo is one I took in Luray Caverns. They had something special going on that weekend, so they had candles throughout the cavern, which created an awesome reflection in the areas that had pools of water. It reminded me of "The Time Cavern" from Todd Fonseca's series.

Nice. Now it's a contest. :-)

Not much of a contest. Gertie's is far better, but it is fun to play around with some ideas. Here is another one that is a little more abstract and features another great quote about time.

Do you have any more up your sleeve? I won't have time to make a poll until the weekend's over because I'm going out of town, but you're more than welcome to make a poll if you'd like.

John, your first attempt is better, I think, more of a striking statement, but try the lettering on the right which might give it more of a sence of movement.

With the quote on the left it seems 'stiff' to me somehow & on the right it may appear to 'flow' but perhaps it's just the font used.

Either one, or any of the others, including the one used now are better than I could do.

By the by, what's wrong with having a few that could be phased in & out every now & then?

I was going to suggest the same thing Howard. Maybe Amy could just keep them all and use them whenever the fancy strikes. That way people might even be able to add more over time. (I realize this means more work for Amy though...)

P.S. I like those quotes John, how did you track them down? Or do you just have useful quotes stocked up in your brain? :-)

BrainyQuotes.com

I used the site a lot when I was a journalist to look up quotes for a particular story I was working on. Good quotes make for an easy lead on a news story.

Useful! Thanks.

John, a second look at your first attempt yields another thought:

Perhaps if you 'dropped' the letters used in the quote, superimposed them, that is, over the picture instead of having them in a box with a solid background color?

You may not like it as well, but a comparison might be advantageous.

And I see I misspelled 'sense', in my eariler post, duh.

I took Howard's suggestions and incorporated them in my first graphic. Here is the result. This second one was done on Photoshop, which is a lot more versatile. To answer your question Howard, if I stretch the photo to fit the space, I lose either the stalactites from above or the reflecting pool below. So instead I used a gradient fade to black, giving it more of an illusion of a dark corner of the cave.

Your last version is excellent John. The gradient fade works nicely and does indeed give that flow Howard was suggesting. We can learn a few Photoshop tricks on this thread, lol.

Yes, much better John & the photo is indeed a striking image, very ephemeral, approaching spooky.

The black background on the right blends well with the cave's shadows & to very good effect.

Well done & looks as if we have a real contest at last.

Perhaps this will spur some other entries, who knows what the future will hold?

PS: I still like Gertie's a lot too, the shadow effect of the copy she used is good & the picture fantastic, giving the illusion of a machine (Time Machine?) & that's what I meant about having a real contest now.

Hard choice given I still like the understated masthead that's in use now.

This whole endeavor, slow to emerge, has turned into great fun.

I like that idea. We can just cycle through all of these from time to time. Then anyone can add a new one to the mix any time.

Masthead rotated. Anyone else wanna give it a try for our next in the rotation?

Here are some time quotes to jump start your creativity if you'd like to make a masthead for rotation for our group. With over 900 people in the group, surely someone's interested!

“Time is the longest distance between two places.”
― Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
― Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

“Time is what we want most,but what we use worst.”
― William Penn

“Time is an illusion.”
― Albert Einstein

“You may delay, but time will not.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want.”
― Bill Watterson

“The past is never dead. It's not even past.”
― William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun

“Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.”
― Stephen King, The Green Mile

“You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.”
― Charles Buxton

Shh! Listen! Someone’s coming! I think — I think it might be us!”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

A variation on the Albert Einstein quote -
"Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so." ~ Douglas Adams

Glynn wrote: "A variation on the Albert Einstein quote -
"Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so." ~ Douglas Adams"

What does that even mean? (says a person who always manages to get a lunchtime)

Here goes nothing:



Closer Look

That is awesome, Lincoln.

John wrote: "That is awesome, Lincoln."

Thanks John, just a fun exercise for me...

What are the rules on group photo?

Size restrictions and such...I assume it has to be legal and all. My masthead photo is my picture.

Thanks Gertie,

The rules for the masthead are spelled out at top of thread, I was just curious the rules for group photo. I assume I should own or have permission to use both but was wondering about size of group photo.

Ah, duh, deleted my answer.

I didn't realize you meant the group icon. Looking at the original that the group icon links to might help: http://www.goodreads.com/photo/group/...

Size can be pretty much anything not outrageously huge, since Goodreads scales it down from a regular photo. It helps to make it square.

If you want it to be an exact match pixel for pixel (something that doesn't get scaled) it is 50x50.

Thanks a lot Gertie!

Sure! Amy might have details to add later, but figured I'd try to fill in some blanks in case you were working on something in the meantime. :-) (I'm impatient, and assume everyone else is too, lol.)