Feb 21, 2014
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I tossed the velvety scarf into the air and, when it landed, I explored its curves with my camera.
After many attempts at molding the fabric into the sexy scene I envisioned, I finally gave up on sculpting and decided to give randomness a try.
The result is a bit more up close and sensual than my initial idea, but I’ll take it because it was given to me! If something’s not working sometimes it’s worth it to stop forcing the issue and just let it all flow.
Now if I could only relax and apply that theory to life, well that would be a miracle!
What are these numbered posts all about? Read the introduction to my Photo & 100 Words project and find out!
Feb 14, 2014
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Today is the only day I get a license to be cheesy, so you’ll just have to deal with it!
I haven’t composed a rhyming poem (not counting the songs I make up in the car) since high school.
To my boyfriend in New York:
Rosas are red,
agua is blue,
I’m all alone in Guatemala
and I’m thinking of you.
The snow’s up to your eyeballs
as I sit here in the sun.
I’m getting my tan on,
but without you it’s no fun.
It’s Valentine’s Day
and we’re so far apart,
but no matter the distance,
you’ll always have my heart.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
What are these numbered posts all about? Read the introduction to my Photo & 100 Words project and find out!
Feb 7, 2014
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Gracie and I were rushing back to the house after her mid-day potty break. More likely, I was rushing to get back to website building, email answering, or social media wrangling… one of those most urgent matters.
As we trotted across the deck that little leaf called out to me like an old woman stretching her wrinkled hand out for spare change. I felt bad for it, being encapsulated and drawn into the icy depths below.
The way I see it: ugliness + sadness = beauty.
It was nice to slow down for a second and just witness nature.
What are these numbered posts all about? Read the introduction to my Photo & 100 Words project and find out!
Feb 1, 2014
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I’m in beautiful Guatemala where Christmas never ends and the decorations are still prominent in homes and businesses alike.
This photo was taken back in November, when the first Christmas songs were being drilled into my head. I went to a Sear’s and one of the clerks told me they started playing them before Halloween!
Halloween and Thanksgiving are my favorite holidays and it makes me sooooooo angry that there is no space for their celebration. It makes me a total scrooge.
This photo is a result of the media and stores jamming Christmas down my throat for two months every year.
What are these numbered posts all about? Read the introduction to my Photo & 100 Words project and find out!
Jan 30, 2014 |
Want this hanging in your house? Just click on the photo to buy now!
I believe a photo is worth a bazillion words, but these days most of us can only afford the time for about 100. I blame it on inflation and our shortened attention spans.
It’s sad to say but if the paragraph is too dense, or the page scrolls for too long, we just won’t read it. Unless it’s an email from your lover abroad, then maybe.
All throughout school I unconsciously learned to stretch out the word count. If I had a 500 word essay to write and, after I got my ideas out I was 200 words short, what did I do? I added things that weren’t really necessary. Don’t tell me you’ve never done it!
I’ll never forget the story my journalism professor told me about a man who landed a job with two words: “I’m concise.” That was his entire cover letter to a newspaper.
These ideas have inspired me to begin a new project! For the next six years I’m committing to 1 post per week. Every Friday I’ll send you a photo with around 100 words. My goal is to keep creating my art on a regular basis and learn to write short. My own little “just do it” boot camp.
You, my friends, are the most critical part of this project. You see, I’m really bad at meeting personal deadlines. If I don’t have anyone to answer to I won’t push myself as hard.
I’ve been creating photographic art for quite a while now, but it’s always been third to the product photography and pet photography that eats most of my time. I’ve decided I want to put my art first for awhile and I hope you will enjoy taking the journey with me.
Update 1/5/17
What I originally dubbed the “Photo and 100 Words” project has evolved into “Artsy Reflections.”
The 100 word limit was great practice in conciseness and how I made a weekly blog post an achievable goal… but somewhere in the first 100 blog posts I changed the rules to 100-and-something words, and then I finally realized that most posts were never less than 197 words!
I briefly toyed with the idea of moving on to a “Photo and 200 Words” project, but that idea quickly fizzled out when I realized that would limit how little I could write. So a new title, with limitless possibilities, was born!
Don’t worry, I’ll continue slashing the wordiness out of my stories, but I’ll save tons of time NOT obsessively checking the word count tool!
New Artsy Reflections come out every week! My Patrons get a sneak peek of new art 2 days before anyone else, and my Insiders are the 1st to know when new work goes public. Patrons and Insiders also get all kinds of other perks nobody else gets 😉
Become an Insider for free!
Become a Patron for as little as $1 per month!
Nov 17, 2013 |
First of all, if you don’t already have one of my printable calendars, it’s totally free and you can download either a copy of my 2016 pet calendar or my 2016 fine art calendar right now. Hell, download em both if you want =).
So you printed my calendar and and now what? How do you hang this sucker? I suppose you could use a thumbtack, but the word tacky came from somewhere right… get my drift?
I’m going to show you how to turn a stack of photos into a beautiful accent for your home or office.
What you will need:
- 14-page fine art printable calendar printed on 8.5 x 11 in. photo paper (you can print your own or grab one of mine from the 2 links above)
- 1 wooden dowel 12 in. long and 7/16 in. thick
- 2 wooden doll pin stands 1 1/8 in.
- variety pack of chain links (I got a pack of 30 with large rings 1 1/2 in. wide and smaller rings about 1 in. wide in two different textures)
- silver metallic paint
- hole punch
- 2 pairs of jewelry pliers
- 1/2 in. paint brush
- ruler
Step 1: Paint the Wooden Pieces
I used two coats of silver metallic paint on both the wooden dowel and the doll pin stands. Let the paint dry 10-15 minutes between coats.
Step 2: Connect the Rings
Start off with two 1-in. rings and connect them. Then take one of your larger rings and attach it to the two smaller rings where they intersect.
Tip:
Don’t pull the rings apart to open them, instead use your jewelry pliers to twist the rings open. Otherwise it will be nearly impossible to get the ends to match up again.
Step 3: Complete the Chain
Add your small 1-in. rings to make two chains; one hanging off of each small ring you connected in step 2. My variety pack of chain connectors came with textured rings and smooth rings, so I alternated between the two for a little extra style.
Step 4: Punch Holes in Your Calendar
Flip your calendar over and make two marks on the back, each of them 1 1/2 inches in from the sides and 1/2 in. down from the top. This is where you should punch the holes.
Tip:
Instead of going crazy and measuring the spots out on every single page, just place the punched page on top of the next page. Make sure the edges of the photos are lined up and punch your new page right through the holes in the first page. This will also assure that the holes are lined up exactly.
Step 5: Bind the Pages
Use 2 large rings to to bind all the pages together and slide your dowel through the loops.
Step 6: Finally Finish Off the Chain
Take two more large rings and loop them through the wood doll pin stands that you painted earlier. These will serve to keep your calendar on the dowel and spread the chain out into a triangle shape.
They should slide snugly onto each end of the dowel like this.
Step 7: Put it all together!
First, slide the calendar onto the wooden dowel and then add the stoppers to each end (I know, I’m showing it backwards in the photos, but I forgot to photograph this step :-/). Finally, add your chain to these ends to complete the calendar!
Step 8: Hang my Art and Enjoy!
This is how it should all come together. I’m so glad you chose my art to decorate your space and keep you organized this year!
P.S. Feel free to print out more copies of my calendar and use this tutorial to give your friends an awesome homemade gift for any occasion.
P.P.S. If you sign up below you’ll get a new calendar every year, so don’t miss out!
Oct 26, 2013 |
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Looking at this photo you might think I’ve just come back from a relaxing retreat in the middle of the woods. Must have been such a serene experience, you might imagine, sitting nearby a beautiful waterfall and just waiting for the camera to finish its 30 second exposure.
It’s believable… right?
Although now I see this image and I can feel the peace I was trying to portray, this was in no way an easy, breezy photoshoot.
I was struggling to find the right angle for this shot. I wanted the swirling pool AND the waterfall to work together compositionally. I probably tried three different spots, and fired off dozens of photos at each. Nothing looked right.
It was while crossing the stream at the pool’s base that I realized where my camera had to be. Naturally it was in the middle of the stream where I found the best angle.
Now imagine me balancing on two slippery rocks, my tripod balancing on three, and you’ll have a clearer picture of how this photo came about.
It was all worth it though, because now I can lounge around, look at it, feel the tranquility, hear the raging, yet soft, white noise of the water, and have some deep reflections.
Oct 13, 2013 |
Photography and writing have always seemed to be in a battle to the death for my attention. A camera on my left shoulder and a pen in my right hand.
Even though they seem like perfectly compatible obsessions to have, you might be surprised to find out that’s just never been the case for me. It was always one or the other, never both.
I used to write poetry all the time. My poems went from mushy, gushy, inexperienced love to deep, dark depression. Back then being content never fostered enough emotional charge for poem writing.
Didn’t matter though, there was never an apathetic second in my life. Every moment was so dramatic because every experience was brand new. Every feeling so grandoise. Everything was always so all or nothing to me.
I’m going to be a writer! No! A photographer! Yeah, a photographer… ugh my photography sucks!! I’m going to be a writer… ugh my writing sucks even more.!!! (Well that’s the long story short – which I’m sure you appreciate ;-D)
I’m just realizing now that it wasn’t my photography and my writing that sucked… it was the photography and writing they told me I had to do if I wanted to make a living out of it. What royally sucked was being told to write about school politics and photograph bitchy women in white dresses. So I gave up.
Like a bad addiction though, they always crept back up on me, I just so happy that now they are playing nicely together.
Making this calendar was the first time I’ve ever put my two obsessions together. It was fun, it flowed, and I didn’t even realize what I was doing while I was doing it. I can have both? I can!
Not only can I do both, but I don’t need the desperate emotion to write something meaningful. The mundane can be interesting under the right lens, I just need to make someone look through it.
So I’ve been thinking about starting a weekly post featuring a photo and a poem. What do you think? Would you be interested in subscribing to this?
If you haven’t already, download my fine art calendar for 2014. It’s free!
Sep 21, 2013
I don’t have children, so with my lack of that experience can I safely say that looking at this is like watching the birth of my child? Or maybe the birth of my parrot (birds are NOT cute newborns) would make more sense in this scenario.
Anyway, thought you might be interested to see how I started out in this business. I was so eager to do everything even when I knew nothing. We all start somewhere; I’m not ashamed… I’m actually kind of proud of how far I’ve come =)
Aug 31, 2013
For those of you who don’t know me very well, I hate weddings. I know what you’re thinking: Who in their right mind could hate weddings? Well the answer is me, I do, but no comment on whether or not I’m in my right mind.
Well I’m in that period in my life when everyone and their mother is getting married, so I’m at least beginning to develop a numbness to all the poofy, showy, expensive nonsense of it all. But I’m not here to complain about weddings am I? No, today I’m going to be grateful for a wedding I went to.
Nearly two years ago my boyfriend’s best friend got married. We were sitting at our table, just after dinner when the DJ announced a game for everyone. If I remember correctly it was like hot potato only with a dollar bill. The dollar circled around the table and if it was in your hand when the music stopped you were kicked out of the game.
Well I won, then the DJ said with a big cocky grin, “Now pick up that centerpiece and give it to the person who originally supplied the dollar!” Well, the dollar was originally supplied by my ever generous boyfriend so I won twice! HaHa, joke’s on you Mr. DJ.
The centerpiece was a floral arrangement in a square glass vase with a big beautiful Gerbera daisy. So I took it home, pressed the flower, forgot about it, and recently discovered it again. Well thank you wedding for giving me an art opportunity, and thank you boyfriend for being such a winner!
This is the simple equation for those of you who are just a little curious, but if you’re a fellow Photoshop nerd scroll down below the photos for more details.
Want this hanging in your house? Just click on the photo to buy now!
When I first compiled these two images I thought I would come here to write a tutorial on how to give any image this opal like iridescence. I was oh so wrong though. Try as I did, I couldn’t get this effect with any other photo or photo combination.
In my Photoshop document I had two layers, with the flower image being on top of the candleholder.
I changed the opacity of the flower layer to 65% and changed the blending mode to color dodge.
Then I adjusted the hue to +11 and the saturation to +25.
The only thing I did to the candleholder layer was change the brightness to -23 and contrast to +100.
Then I merged the image together and silhouetted around the edge of the candleholder with the pen tool in order to get rid of the grey background.
That’s all there was to it, a bit of playing around, and a bit of luck!
