New Calendar!

The new 2013 wall calendar is out!  I have used MagCloud, my trusty book making company, to compile the top 12 images for this years calendar.

This is a nice size, 8x8, not too small, not too big.  Beautiful color images, and only $12 plus shipping.
Here's the link:

Uncharted Territory

A cold front has moved down from Alaska bringing us some early frost.  I set out to take some photos one morning, although it was only 30 degrees.  A down coat and wool gloves were in order.

As is usually the case with camera in hand, I forget all time and temperature, and an hour had passed before I realized I could no longer feel my fingers!

I couldn't decide which I liked better, color, or black and white, of the frosty rhododendrons.

I spent a long while crawling around the base of old stumps shooting these little guys.  I believe they are called Cladonia carneola, a lichen, only reaching about an inch in height! 

The frost made for some delightful light play, whether I used color or black and white.

Rain returns tomorrow, so it was fun while it lasted.  Perhaps some snow pictures will be in order next month!

Picasa Play

(imported from my former photo blog)
I love Picasa!  Hard to believe anything is free anymore, but Picasa photo editing is, and they have a new version out!  (Available from Google).  More photo effects for the crazed digital artist that I am - oh wait, or is that convergent media, more appropriately.

They now have figured out how to bypass the need to buy a Lomo or Holga camera, (sorry manufacturers!) with their effects button for either one.  I played with the functions which allow you some room to play.

Here is the "Holga-ish" function.  (That cracks me up by the way).  I used it with this black and white semi wide angle I shot on the beach.  It really brought out the detail.

Here is the "lomo-ish" version.  Talk about wildly vivid color!  What fun.

And for those of us who cannot draw a stick figure - I give you the "pencil sketch" function.  Isn't that fun??  I almost feel like an artist.

The intriguing thing is that you can adjust all these settings.  It's not like a click of a button, you actually get to play with the tones, and brush effects, or shadows and contrast.  Of course if you're like me you will then move on to other functions and tweak it some more.

I encourage you to try out Picasa if you haven't already, or check out the new functions.

Art & Photography Part I

(imported from my former photo blog)
Are you an artist?  Are you a photographer?  Are you an artist-photographer?  I have been thinking about this for years.  I see some assumptions by art lovers that art is a painting or sculpture, for instance, and photography is a portrait or landscape. 
It's much deeper than that however.  With the dawning of digital photography came post production editing and manipulation.  Now the photographer is an artist.  How do we fit in?  What do we call ourselves? 

We have to be gentle with the masses, for they know not what we do.  Let them admire our works and contemplate how we did it, but don't be discouraged by their lack of knowledge.  There are still a lot of people who don't even know how to use the computer, let alone the functions of PhotoShop. 

Perhaps we can just revel in our mystery.  Although it might not be a bad idea to have some kind of explanation about how we came to the finished product.  Keep it brief though, as the attention span is limited.

I do think we need more labels, however, subcategories for our mediums.  I believe any kind of creativity qualifies one as an artist - "one who creates art" as Webster's New Dictionary defines it.  So perhaps we can find our own labels within the generalities.

An example of this is my beloved "Girasole" image.  This has been admired and purchased as cards, prints and on metal.

This image is first a photograph, later digitally manipulated with color and layers. 
Perhaps it is the happiness of a sunflower that attracts people, or the use of color.  All I know is that it makes people feel good.  Which is why I create anything in the first place, because it makes me feel good.

It's a fantastic time to be an artist, we are everywhere, recording and creating and sharing our vision with the world.  The internet has allowed us to share our work with the entire planet!  Our success is unlimited!

So am I an artist?  Or photographer?  I prefer artist-photographer.

Outta My Tree

(imported from my former photo blog)
Oh the things that obsess the creative mind. 
I took the camera out recently to experiment with the settings.  (I have had it for years and am still figuring it out!).  I had some good challenges for color this day.  I shot the fall leaves, blue sky, white clouds and reflecting water.  After about 86 frames I was burned out.  But, I got some interesting perspectives.

These are totally organic, no post processing or tweaking.  I did however use all manual settings, color, black and white, and some for vivid color. 
I'm trying to learn how to think "digital".  I'm such an old school film buff, still living in the dark ages I guess.
Next experiment is with infrared.