All the children were blue (short story 29)

  Over a year ago, as an exercise, I started writing one short story a week. This was something Harlan Ellison (I think) suggested to one of his fans, his reasoning being "You can't write 52 bad short stories in a row." I'm not sure about that, but here's one of those stories.

* A blue-colored little girl Lena, who’s tall for a 10 year old, enters a rusty metal building with Bee-tou, a short stocky Blue who always wore a knitted cap even when it was hot. Their clothes are shabby, torn, and patched, in dark reds, browns, greens and blues. The structure is made of corrigated metal shaped like a half-cylinder on it's side. Lena thought it could have once stored farm equipment or maybe it was once a hanger for a prop plane. It had electricity, but not much. Enought to heat one small section, and to power dim lights here and there. Mostly, it stored boxes and was a place for the Blues to meet the Wise Man. The Wise Man, looked at them as they approached the heated section he sat in. His eyes we impassionate, but he greeted them with a warm smile. This made Lena more nervous but Bee-tou smiled back. “Please make yourself comfortable,” Wise Man said, pointing to a sofa and chair close to him with cushions. Wise Man gets some bottles out of a cooler. He gives one to Bee-tou, “Call me Woosa. You at the protector Bee-tou?” Lena took the chair and Bee-tou takes the sofa. Bee-tou nods. “Thank you.” As he gave Lena a bottle he asked, “So you are Lena, the one with the bad dreams?” Lena nods nervously and sets her bottle down. Bee-tou drinks and says “She can be shy. That’s why I came with her.” “Of course, you are her protector.” “Not the only one. The others are outside.” “Of course” Woosa says and smirks at the door. “She calls them visions, not dreams,” Bee-tou says with a corrective tone. “Do they scare you?” Wise Man asks Lena. She nods and looks away. “Well, relax, you’re safe here. These dreams are normal. Your brain processes the stress and strain of everyday life. It’s not natural for our kind to live like this, is it? Scrounging for food, fuel, electricity. Keeping eyes peeled for Reds. We go into survival mode. Therefore, when you sleep, your dreams carry these scary, stressful images. Nothing to worry about. Would you like to talk about them?” Lena shakes her head. “I understand. Has she told you about them?” Wise asks Bee-tou. “A little. They involve Red attacks,” Bee-tou. “Exactly my point. When was the last time we fought the Reds?” “Months ago,” Bee-tou says. “Was Lena scared?” “Oh, yes.” “It’s quite possible the Reds now want peace. We don’t know. But, in any case, that explains it. Lena was scared in the Red attack and her subcounscious processes that fear as dreaming these scary visions during her sleep. Basic psychology, right?” Woosa smiles and nods to them both. Woosa gets a small pill bottle and hands it to Lena. “Take these for a few nights. They will help you sleep.” Lena takes the bottle. “Thank you,” Bee-tou says. He looks to Lena. “Ready?” Lena nods and gets up. “Thank you,” she says shyly. “Absolutely my pleasure,” Woosa says with a smile, watching them walk out. As they shut the door he turns Red and his smile vanishes.

* Lena and Bee-tou walk a path between crumbling buildings and junk. large and small. Abandoned relics, tossed aside by the Elders just as they did with their children. They look around then, seeing no one, enter the rear door of a rusty car parked too close to a long crumbling brick building. Lena goes in first, and slides over the vinyl seats, then Bee-tou. He shuts the door behind them. It's quiet and, because the windows are tinted, darker. Then they open the door on the other side, which doubles as a hatch into the building. They are greeted by another stocky Blue, who nods and helps Lena step out into the building. It’s clean and on the other side, there’s a well-lit space with lots of little Blue girls paired with their stocky Blue protectors, all dressed in the same drab colors. As Lena and Bee-tou approach them, one Blue girl asks “How did it go?” “He said not to worry,” Bee-tou says. “He gave me these,” Lena says, handing the bottle to the smallest Blue girl. Deesha. Deesha tries to open it but can’t. She looks to her protector, Gee-doo, who takes it, opens it and hands it back to her. Deesha sniffs it, shakes her head at Lena, then tosses the bottle in the trash. They all look to Lena with an unspoken question. Lena looks at each one of the little Blue girls then says, “I know what I saw, call it a dream or a vision, whatever you want. We need to be on alert.” Each of the Blue protectors looks at their girl with concern. “I’m going to make a food run. We sleep here tonight and move at first light,” Bee-tou says.

* That night, they are all sleeping soundly, even Lena and, not far away, Bee-tou. Lena’s head jerks and her eyes open. She gets up, the sound waking Bee-tou, who watches her carefully. Lena quietly tip-toes to each of the little Blue girls, touching each one on the shoulder. They wake when touched, look at Lena, and nod. Bee-tou coughs. All the Blue protectors’ eyes open at the sound. They look to Bee-tou, then to Lena. Bee-tou points to the exit, a hole in the wall leading to a car door. They all quietly head to the exit.

* Outside, it's dark, the way lit by the flashlights held by the protectors. They walk in single file along a path between junk and abandoned buildings. Lena turns to look behinds them. The sky, once dark blue, starts to turn red, like a strangely colored sunrise. “We need to run,” Lena says. They run reaching a large parking lot, where they spread out and run as fast as their small legs can go. The Protectors stay between the girls and the Reds in the sky behind them. Once in a while, a couple of stray Blues boys come out of the shadows to join them running. They fall behind, whether by intention of lack of speed. The Reds are visible in the distance behind them. The closest Red, flying at the height of a small building, throws a red translucent small cloud at a Blue stray. He collapses in the parking lot, dies and turns Red. The Protectors see this and re-organize to keeps themselves between the Reds and the little blue girl they are in charge of. Bee-tou yells at little Lena, “Hurry.” They speed up as fast as they can. Another Blue stray dies in a red cloud. Bee-tou yells at even louder, “Hurry.” Three Blue strays die in red clouds. As far as the eye can see, there are Reds flying towards them, a rag-tag bunch of scared little Blue kids. Now Bee-tou is loudly yelling ‘Hurry”, so loud Lena starts to cry. The little blue girls look to Lena, reaching out to her, all the girls touching Lena. Lena stops running and, sobbing, she drops to one knee. She raises her head to the sky and screams a long high-pitched scream. The girls hold each other tighter. The Blue Protectors surround all the girls, facing outward towards the approaching Reds. As the Reds, en mass, descend for their final attack, a translucent blue cloud condenses and grows around the girls, spreading to the Blue Protectors. They look at each other mystified and Lena's scream continues impossibly long and loud. The cloud condenses and grows and expands wider and wider. The Reds throw red clouds at it, which simply dissolve into mist and fade away. Each little girl starts to scream, joining in the terrible scream coming from Lena. As each one starts to scream, the blue cloud grows. Finally, Deesha too screams and the blue cloud explodes to infinity. As the edge of the massive blue cloud passes through each Red, they turn Blue and drop from the sky to the ground. For what seems like hours, the sky rains Reds, who drop to the ground and turn into a Blue adult. Asleep at first, one by one they wake and look around at their new world. The little blue girls vomit when it’s over. Then they all collapse in exhaustion. Eventually, they get up eventually, leave their Protectors. They know they must search for their parents, who once abandoned them and became Red. Their parents are somewhere out there, among the fallen.

Photography design principles according to Johannes Itten (part 2/2)

This is a continuation of part 1, where Itten's Laws of Form were discussed. In this post we present Itten's basic contrasts.

To the complaint, ’There are no people in these photographs,’ I respond, ’There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer. — Ansel Adams, (1902 - 1984)

The basic references used here are

1. M. Freeman, The Photographer’s Eye, Focal Press, 2007. (Note: The latest 2019 edition has no mention of Itten in the index, but the original 2007 version does.)
2. J. Itten, Mein Vorkurs am Bauhaus. Gestaltungs und Formelehre, Otto Maier Verlag, Ravensburg (1963). Translated as Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus, Thames and Hudson, London (1964).

Also, Steven Bradley has written a terrific series of blog posts on design elements.

Basic Contrasts

1. Open vs Closed - A closed composition is a static image which contains all the elements inside the frame. For example, the monochrome shot of a lamp and shadows cast.
   
   An open composition is an image that contains elements that run off towards the edges and seemingly beyond. It could involve dynamic movement (out of the frame) or leading lines (out of frame), or even shadows and/or reflections suggesting a subject out of frame.
   
   The hi-key example above has tree branched leading out of frame to the tree itself. It's shot against a building (the Baltimore Museum of Art, whose exterior is tiled with rectangular metal panels). Another open composition is the shot of the skateboarder's shadow shown above.
2. Point vs Line - These two design elements must both occur predominantly in frame. The shape of the line can suggest a mood - for example, straight lines can appear calm, while jagged lines can suggest nervousness or anger. Lines can also be used to lead the eye through the image. A point, on the other hand, is asking for some kind of relationship with other elements of the image. Our brain is compelled to connect parts, to describe the point as part of something else.
   For example, in the following minimalist composition we see a thick line, giving some texture, along with a point (the flying bird towards who knows what). Our brain tells us the bird is heading towards the line.
   
   
   
   See also Points vs Line below.
3. Diagonal vs Circular - These are less compositional elements than styles. The diagonal line is the communicates dynamic energy. (For instance, the floors of a building shot at an angle creates diagonal lines resulting in a dynamic, open composition.) On the other hand, objects arranged in a circular composition within an image gives the viewer a sense of organization and unity. This is more typically a closed composition.
   It's unusual to run across an image that contains both but here is one:
   
   (A long exposure taken while driving through an arc over the road which was strung with Xmas lights. Not recommended to try at home.) The diagonals are formed by the individual light rays and the circles are formed by the shape these rays are arranged in the image. Another example:
   
   Arguably, this has both diagonal (the arms) and circular elements (the arrangements of them), but to me this is more of a closed, circular composition.
   An example of purely diagonal style is the Peabody Library image above.
   For examples of some circular compositions:
   
   (Here, I've arranged the collage of images in a circular manner around the face of a model.) Another example:
   
   (Looking straight up in the Levy Center at the USNA.)
   For an interesting discussion of the pyschology of the circular composition, see this online article, part of John Suler's book Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche.
4. Straight vs Curved - Lines are design elements which commonly arise in photographic compositions. Here's a simple example of a reflection in a fountain with both elements.
   
   Here are two images (both from buildings in Rosslyn, VA), one entirely composed of curved lines, the other entirely composed of straight lines:
   
   
5. Rough vs Smooth - This is a contrast of textures (more precisely, of perceived physical textures) of objects in the photograph. In design, rough surfaces suggest visual activity, while smooth surfaces are more relaxing.
   
   
   Each of the images have both rough areas and smooth areas. Here are examples of each:
   
   
6. Points vs area or Points vs Line - These design elements must occur predominantly in the image.
   
   
   The image in the Simplicity Law of Form in part 1 of this post is an example of Point vs Area.
7. Many vs Few (or Much vs Little) - This creates a contrast which can potentially draw the eye's attention to one (the "many") or the other (the "new").
   
   
   
8. Area vs Volume -- An area, eg a surface or planar contour, has a visual "weight" determined by its size and complexity. Simple shapes (eg, geometric shapes, like circles and squares) typically have more weight than complex ones (eg, a maple tree leaf). Volumes have greater visual weight than areas or surfaces and can create interesting visual contrasts of forms.
   
   
9. Lines vs Volume - Lines connect, unite, they lead somewhere. Lines suggest movement and direction. Perspective lines can help create the illusion of volume. Another way to create this 3-dimensional illusion to change the color value across a 2-dimensional object in an image, simulating the effect of light and shadow on a surface. Thus giving this 2-dimensional object has the illusion of being 3-dimensional.
   
   
   And I'm sorry but I can't avoid this visual pun (volumes = books:-).
   
10. Big vs Small - Contrasts provided by size, scale, or proportion. By size, we mean the physical dimensions of the object in the image. By scale, we mean the relative sizes of different objects in the image. By proportion, we mean scaling suggesting distance. The first image below is a contrast in size, while the second is a contrast in proportion.
    
    
11. Hard vs Soft - This could be taken literally or could mean "sharp vs blurred" or "solid vs liquid". All are examples of contrast, each with their own use. For example, sharp focus and soft focus create a sensation of depth.
    
    
    
And one more for the sake of photographic humor:

There are lots of other contrasts, for example:

point	vs	line
high	vs	low
light	vs	heavy

Go forth and experiment!