Flower Photography

July 29, 2014

Ooh Baby

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First, let me tell you about the new hard drive I got this weekend. It’s a Seagate Wireless Plus. It’s about the size of a smart phone – just a little thicker – and its for mobile device storage. It also works as a hot spot which is really a nice plus (probably where the name came from) when you like sitting in your car or at a restaurant whiling away the hours learning new iPhoneography tricks like I do.

Which reminds me…found a great new resource for that as well…www.thetheatreprofessor.com (definitely worth a visit!).

The hard drive is 1TB. And so far I’ve uploaded 19,438 images.

I didn’t have that many images on my cell phone or iPad – it also lets you upload from your computer too – which is great if you’re like me and have a few images stashed here and there.

I have no idea how many images a terabyte will hold (it’s one level up from a gigabyte, if that helps at all) but I have several more places to pull images from yet- so I guess I’ll find out sooner or later – hopefully much later.

One slight problem though – it doesn’t seem to like Raw images – so either I will have to revert the Raw images and re-upload or try and figure out a way around it.

So anyway….while I was at the restaurant whiling away the hours tonight, I stumbled on some of my Lensbaby images. I’d forgotten how much I love looking at them. This image is straight out of the camera – no post production work here at all.

Is this not the most delicious looking light OR WHAT?!?

I made this photograph in Colorado – the birthplace of delicious light.

Yum.

August 25, 2013

“And the day came…”

fairy lee with trees

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. – – Anais Nin

I got a new book!!

‘Surreal Photography: Creating the Impossible“, by Daniela Bowker and its loaded with fun, fairly easy instructions for creating some ‘impossible’ photography.

Photoshop is such a great tool but sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming – for me anyway. I am NOT a technical photographer.  AT ALL.  My method of shooting mostly consists of: 1) aiming and 2) pressing the shutter button.

Not exactly highly technical stuff.

So you can only imagine what having thousands of post-production options must be like for me!  My post-production workflow (to date) is mostly basic stuff.  A typical workflow is tightening up the sliders in Levels, boosting the exposure (or not) in Raw, and, or maybe, tweaking  the Clarity slider.  That’s about as far as I go usually.

But I have ALWAYS, always, ALWAYS wanted to be able to create my own little fantasy worlds that conceptual photographers like Natalie Dybisz and Brooke Shaden create.

I realize I am NO WHERE NEAR this level yet but the book has helped me realize there just may be a light at the end of the conceptual tunnel!

And this image is a first attempt – it was late last night but I was anxious to try it out…and these were three images I already had on hand.

And yes, that’s me… 

What??…doesn’t everyone have images of themselves in fairy costumes??

August 20, 2013

Warm and Fuzzy

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Wouldn’t it be fun if we could see the world through warm and fuzzy filters?

This image was taken with my cellphone and the Roidizer app…then run through Photoshop’s Oil painting filter (aka the warm & fuzzy filter).

Yummy.

Btw…(if you’re into this sort of thing)…this is a new(er) variety of coneflower (to me anyway) called “Pink Double Delight”.  The bloom head is just as big as the picture shows. No manipulation was done to alter the flower itself.

Beautiful, isn’t it!

April 30, 2013

Jasmine Cottage

jasmine

Not sure if ‘Jasmine Cottage’ will be the official name of my ‘new’ studio …but its a good one to start with considering the entire building is almost completely taken over with climbing jasmine.  And its just a matter of days, literally, before every single bud (and I’m talking thousands if not millions – you can see them if you look really close) will burst into bloom!  Have you ever smelled jasmine?  Its deliciously sweet.

I planted them years ago with the hopes that one day they would completely hide the building and this may be the year that happens – the entire roof is almost covered!

Here’s a picture of the inside of the studio…sorry its kind of a mess – but after moving more of my art supplies in (I’d initially only occupied half of the space but now have the entire space) I couldn’t wait to get started – I forgot to take any ‘before’ images – but maybe you can get an idea.  It has a nice wide door for a nice view with lots of light and, so far, I’ve been able to work with the door open even though the temps have been in the upper 80s here already.  The only problem with keeping the door open is…we have a small problem with mosquitoes around here and wasps!  BUT, I hung  mosquito netting as a  ‘curtain’ over the opening and that seems to be working quite well so far.  I do realize the days are numbered before I will have to resort to closing the door and turning on the air conditioning, but for now I’m taking advantage of the nice weather while I can.

studio

And since the space is bigger, I’ve decided to start working bigger too!

Here’s a recent one – an encaustic – no name yet – but its 16×16.

16x16

I’m inspired to go even bigger and just placed an order for 24×24 and 30×30 panels…I’ll keep you posted!

March 11, 2013

Sweet Violet

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How brave you are, sweet little one

with your shiny new face kissed with the dew.

What made you leave your warm nest

to risk the unknown?

Was it the hum of the bee

or the flap of a wing or was it the butterfly tiptoeing above?

And what about the others…

the shy ones still hidden dreaming under the covers?

*The first violet of the season – I captured it yesterday with my cell phone using the ‘roidizer’ app.  I wrote the poem just now.

January 8, 2013

Paper Dolls…

fleur icon symbols wild windblown

November 15, 2012

Even the weeds look good.

When you’re in Santa Fe, even the weeds look good.

Every year, about this time, I reminisce about a road trip I took to Santa Fe a couple of years ago. I hadn’t planned on getting stuck there – but a snowstorm kept me there a couple of days longer than I’d planned.

It was wonderful.

I wandered aimlessly; not having an itinerary, and I think that is what helped to make it such a great trip and one I think of often.

August 2, 2012

Blender Splendor

I’ve recently discovered the amazing world of iPhonography.

I was browsing in the digital camera section at Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks ago and I happened upon the book, iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps, by Dan Marcolina.

I’m always on the look-out for new books – and since I visit bookstores fairly regularly, I notice things like that.  So I started looking through it and immediately got that fluttery feeling in my stomach.  You know the one I’m talking about – the one that makes you feel a little excited and a little queasy at the same time?  Well, its the feeling I get and its a feeling I know to pay attention to – because its an indicator of good things to come.  You’ll just have to trust me on that. But mainly because I bought a book on iPhonography and I have a Droid!

Long story – short…I have since adopted an older iPhone (that had been relegated to iPod status) and the rest is history.

To date…I have thirty-two apps…if that gives you any idea.

This image was taken with “Blender” – a close up of my eye, a photo of some text, and a photo of some flowers outside a restaurant…Its like having a photo studio in the palm of your hand!

July 3, 2012

If you love it so much, why don’t you marry it??

Its funny how inspiration can sometimes come right out of the blue (pun intended).

I was daydreaming in the studio the other day (I do this a lot) and I got to thinking about how much I enjoy working in encaustics.  There is something very relaxing about the process.  And I really, REALLY love the aroma of melted beeswax.

I also love photography.

Very much. 

Infrared, particularly so.

‘If you love it so much, why don’t you marry it?’ (remember that from elementary school?)

Hmmm….

May I introduce…the newest addition to my family…”Infrared Encaustics”.

A match made in heaven.