Essential Likeness

This very similarity raises the possibility that we could be known.

I was photographing trees from the passenger window. While culling, this image stood out to me because of these two trees.

I have been reading about human connection and the powerful ways relationships can help us understand ourselves better, can help shape us. I was reading specifically about twinship, the kind of friendship where we recognize something familiar to ourselves in another person. The kind of connection that makes you feel like someone else might finally know you in ways most don’t. I read how these friendships “will arise most urgently for us during times of deep reorganization of self.” (Stephen Cope, Deep Human Connection) That resonated with me.

Sharing below how I edited this image.

Original image

Editing Process on iPad

First I removed distracting elements using Retouch. I knew I would be running this image through another app to create a painterly version so I let it be messy. Once removed, I used Snapseed to extend the background a little.

I used PaintCan to turn this image into a digital painting. I love this app and was so sad to learn that it is no longer available to download. I have tried several other apps and can get something somewhat similar, but nothing I know of yet can do quite as much with large brush strokes to completely change the original image like this. I saved a few options to work with within this app.

Next I layered one of these images over the tree images and masked off portions in SuperimposeX.

Staying in SuperimposeX I layered in a painted texture.

I went back into PaintCan to make another painted image. And this is the rendering in PaintCan that can more closely be achieved with a few other apps.

In SuperimposeX I layered this over the previous version and masked off parts of the trees and ground.

Next a few tweaks in Lightroom Mobile

And last step was a filter in Mextures