Aug 22, 2014 |
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I’d been dreaming of bokeh-ful photos for awhile before I finally created these past few images. What’s bokeh? It’s simply those out of focus orbs you see in the background of these past few photos. It’s the only photography jargon I will bother you with; I promise-I’m just so in love with it I had to tell you more about it!
Those dreamy spots can only come from hot spots in the background. I could have just put a pile of Christmas lights on my set, but the yellowy (and god forbid – multi-colored!) lights were not right for the mood I was going for.
Instead, I found these styrofoam balls covered in sequins. When I bounced my light off of them they became pastel colored lights that shone just perfectly. I filled a pie dish with them, and covered it in plastic wrap to hold them in place as I leaned the plate up against a black background. I used blue gels (they are see-through plastic sheets tinted blue). over my two flashes pointed at the background to get the color right. Wa-la! Bokeh to die for.
P.S. – I also have a wide version of this photo available in my shop
What are these numbered posts all about? Read the introduction to my Photo & 100 Words project and find out!
On the set of latest series filled with blue bokeh
May 9, 2014
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“I can’t mow the lawn,” screamed 16-year-old me, “do you know how many bugs I will kill?!”
I was serious, I mean, it wasn’t just an attempt to avoid a new chore, I really never killed bugs. That is… until this week.
So what happens when I see a bug? Well I guess that depends on the situation. I’ve been known to jump into flash seizures, eeking out loud as I shake and spin myself into a nearby wall. Usually though, those frantic episodes are caused by a piece of my own hair grazing my skin and followed by a laughing fit at my irrational fear.
When I really discover a bug in my house I tend to just ignore it and let it do its thing. If it’s a spider bigger than my thumbnail though, it’s time to call in boyfriend backup for trap and release tactics.
Then there are my outdoor bug finds. An interesting bug, even a ::gulp:: spider, always gets my attention and if my camera is nearby you can expect to see me shimmying through the grass on my stomach for at least the next few hours.
Maybe I just watched Honey I Shrunk the Kids a few too many times, or maybe I had a valid moral obligation to let the little critters live, nevertheless, my save-the-yard-buggies protest was a failure and I had to mow the lawn that day. So yeah, I must have killed a few bugs, but I didn’t do it by choice and I didn’t actually see it happen, so it doesn’t count… right?
Earlier this week these little black bugs decided to take over my kitchen and shed their wings all over the floor. The boyfriend and I took turns sweeping the little bastards up and throwing them outside. It wasn’t long before things started to get out of hand and we turned to a harsher method of removal.
Now, as I stare at the tiny, black carcasses, I imagine what it was like for them. What would it be like to wade across a stream unaware of any danger. Halfway through I might pass a pale, bloated hand bobbing in the current. A foot here, an elbow there, a knee, and then there are bodies everywhere. Suddenly it’s harder to breathe and my insides are burning as the poison spreads.
I feel guilty – but it’s a guilty… pleasure. I really hate to admit it but it’s sickly satisfying to suck up their lifeless bodies into my vacuum, lay down another river of Raid, and wait.
Suddenly the girl who once claimed that mowing the lawn is immoral has become some sort of Hitler, capable of exterminating anyone that bothers her. As a sufferer of the human condition, I fully confess to being insane and hypocritical. Tell me you’re not.
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!
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.
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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!
May 30, 2013 |
I’ve been playing with close up photography and off-camera lighting for 3 whole years now… where does time go exactly?
There have been many times I’ve gotten an awesome photograph and thought that I could share my set up for anyone interested, and every one of those times I broke down my set and put everything away, realized I’d forgotten to take a photo of the whole picture, and slapped myself firmly on the forehead while reciting Homer Simpson’s mantra.
Well this time I remembered to snap a few quick shots of my set up and I’d love to show you how I came up with this latest batch of fine art photography! These photos are basically the result of a Michael’s shopping spree. What can I say? – inspiration struck!
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These stones are super shiny meaning they are super reflective. I crumbled up two pieces of aluminum foil, uncrumbled them, and formed a dome over the top of my stones. I cut a hole in the front piece that was just big enough to squeeze my lens through. There was just a bit of space in between the foil on each side to allow the light into the dome. The lens of my camera did show up in the reflections so I did a few minutes of photoshop work to retouch them out.
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I’ve always had a fascination with water droplets and reflections, but water is far harder to manipulate than these clear bath beads I found at the craft store. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity to photograph something that looked like a perfect droplet and came with none of the issues I’ve faced with water. I was able to play around with the reflections until I got the perfect combination of blurry flower backdrop and sharp, full reflections. My set up ended up looking like this.
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I did something similar here, only I filled up the tray with pink bath beads and went for a different angle. I also changed the lighting so that the light was bouncing off the ceiling instead of being directed at the flower. I call this one Black Swan Eggs and it is my favorite of this batch.
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Then, I just went crazy! I’d have to say this is the first abstract I’ve come out with that I’m really proud of. But is it still abstract if I tell you what it is? Eh, who cares it’s so kewl! I took dozens of shots moving the tray of beads up and down above the shimmery stones, not one of them came out the same. It was so much fun to just play around again… I’ll have to make time for another play date with light real soon!
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