Manic Spider Art and Photography

Flickr Friday - Boiworx and Contrast

2010-04-09T14:15:00.001+10:00

If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought., originally uploaded by boiworx.

Photography at it's most basic level is about asthetics. It's about what is pleasing to the eye, what is displeasing, what tricks the eye into looking longer and making you think.

Boiworx on Flickr has got some great examples of using contrast and colour tone to make you look again at images you may have seen before, images of famous landmarks or beaches, and seeing them (forgive me) in a different light.

Some examples work better than others, and this shot is fantastic. The composition is beautiful, with the strong architectural lines, the balmy tone adjustment that makes the grass greener and the supernatural contrast that gives the sky an amazing (and somewhat eerie) depth.

Definitely worth checking out the others in this series!

Never throw out what you could recycle.

2010-04-08T11:36:00.000+10:00

So finally I have finished my post-wedding breather! It was lovely and I don't regret a minute of it, but there are things to be written about. Things, people!

I was reading Lifehacker yesterday, and came randomly across this quote by wildlife photographer Andy Rouse.

"As a photographer, you have to push yourself all the time. I take a lot of crap."

I know that in a one week period, I took about 1000 photos and found that about 10 of them were excellent, about 20 additional shots were good and there were about 50 more that were fixable. That's A LOT of shots that got thrown in my circular filing cabinet.

A lot of them had elements that I could cut and paste into my digital art attempts. When I looked at them the other day, more than a year on, I could see good shots I'd overlooked before and shots that had moved into the fixable pile because my knowledge had increased and I knew what to do to improve it, to make it asthetically worthwhile.

Lifehacker suggests the delete key. I disagree. Never delete your photos. Get yourself an external harddrive and look through your past work occassionally. You never know what you might find.

One Perfect Day - 8 x 12 inch Yellow Flower Photographic Print

2010-01-30T02:23:00.001+11:00

A stunning yellow flower, a warm flood of sunshine tempered by the slightest of cooling breezes, a cold drink next to the swimming pool. Remember the glory days of summer with this superb 8 x 12 inch high resolution digital print.

I know it's my own shot, but I was so proud of how it turned out! It was practically perfect as taken, I only needed to adjust the contrast and brightness levels ever so slightly to really make the colours pop. Very, very happy with this one!

Great Photographs - Buzz Aldrin on the Moon

2010-01-25T14:37:00.000+11:00

In 1969, a event occured which had an irrevocable impact on human civilisation. America became the first country to land people on the moon. Travelling in the Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins spent two and half hours on the moon setting up experiments and taking photos, including the photograph of Buzz Aldrin above taken by Neil Armstrong, before sucessfully returning to Earth.

The photographs that resulted from this brief sojourn are perhaps some of the most scientifically analysed shots of all time, raising questions of how exactly photography works and how the physical conditions on Earth determine how we shoot. Consipiracy theorists who believe the moon landing was staged have questioned everything about the shots from why no stars appear in the images to the source of the light casting the shadow in the image above. The answer to the first question seems to be as basic as "Because there was a fair amount of light, the shutter speed used was too fast to capture background stars".

Some of the other questions aren't as simply answered, and come down to the physics of the interactions between light, air and subject. Ian William Goddard explores some of these issues on his site, using models of the lander and the astronauts to recreate the physical conditions under which the shots were taken.

The camers used by the astronauts were chest-mounted Hasselblad 500ELs using both black and white and colour film. As Michael Light notes, colour film in an interesting concept in a vaccum and it may be that the colours we're seeing aren't actually the colours you would see if you stood up there yourself. The astronauts were given photography lessons and practice cameras, allowing them to be confident in using the equipment on site. Overall 3584 images were taken on the mission, not a bad shoot!

Remembering Apollo 11 has a selection of wonderful photos from the era along with quotes from the astronauts, and is well worth a look to people interested in space, photography and/or the 60s.

As a final memo - keep in mind that astronauts don't take well to being told they're lying about landing on the moon!

A Modern Day Ozymandias

2010-01-18T11:29:00.000+11:00

Shelley's poem has always touched me. It's so simple in it's vocabulary and it's construction, and yet it has so much meaning. Even in the present day, when we fight death, decay and change harder than we have ever done, there are signs all around us that, like Ozymandias, we too will be swept inexorably along by nature's more powerful tide.

The Wednesday Heart - Kelsi Doscher Photography

2009-11-19T11:49:00.000+11:00

One of things I love about Etsy is them team environments. It engenders a sense of community and support which is essential for that kind of endeavour. My favourite group is the Sneak Attack Team who surprise a new seller or three each week with a whole bunch of views, hearts, sales and love. Supporting budding shops is one of the best things you can do.

This is all a long way of getting around to today's Wednesday Heart, the new Etsy seller Kelsi Doscher Photography. Her photography is simply stunning.

Take this first image for example. Crisp, clear - a fantastic micro shot.

The colours and the pattern are what mostly drew me to this shot. I love images like this that encourage people to see the beauty in the small, often overlooked, things in the world.

Texture is an important part of the above shot, but it is what takes this next print from being just ordinary to absolutely stunning.

It's the ideal desert shot, it makes you thirsty just looking at it. The cracked, parched imagery just leaves me reaching for my hand cream. And I absolutely love the colours.

Lastly, there is this amazing black and white landscape:

The first thing that jumps out at me from this shot is the excellent composition. I love how the symetery works both vertically and horizontally. It's also a great example of black and white photography. The blacks and whites are sharp and distinct and there is no problem with pixellisation, something I sometimes struggle with.

Kelsi Dolcher Photography is one of those photographers who both inspires me on to greater quality photography and intimidates me a little with how professional her work is. She brings the unrecognised beauties of the natural world out into amazing works of art. Kelsi Dolcher Photography, you are my Wednesday Heart!

Great Photographs - Migrant Mother by Dorthea Lange

2009-11-17T10:39:00.000+11:00

It was 1936 and the US was in a time of great depression. Dorothea Lange was travelling the countryside with her husband, an economics professor studying the economic conditions. Dorothea, a trained photographer, would take pictures while her husband conducted interviews and provide them free to newspapers to highlight the depth of the problem the country was undergoing. After spotting this impoverished mother with her young children, and without much discussion on either side, Lange took a series of six pictures, the above, Migrant Mother, going on to symbolise the plight of the intransient and poor.

This photo was later identified as being a portrait of Florence Owens Thompson. a 32-year-old widow who earned 50 cents for every 100 pounds of cotton she picked. There is an interesting recorded interview with her that can be found here.

This image really demonstrates the power imbalance between photographer and subject. When asked about the image, which became hugely famous and contributed to Lange being awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in photography, Florence Thompson is quoted as saying:

"I wish she hadn't taken my picture. I can't get a penny out of it. She didn't ask my name. She said she wouldn't sell the pictures. She said she'd send me a copy. She never did."

Lange's actions brought attention to a serious problem, and even prompted the Federal Goverment to send much needed aide to the area. The photograph took on a life of its own, drawing people in with it's stark reality. So should she be forgiven for taking advantage of Thompson? Is the greater good that she achieved worth the shame that the picture's popularity caused the children in it, who felt stigmatised as lower-class poor?

When Florence Thompson was ill and dying, a campaign was mounted to come to her aid and 2,000 letters arived bringing the family over $35,000 from people who had been uplifted and inspired by the portrait. Florence's son Troy said this:

"None of us ever really understood how deeply Mama’s photo affected people. I guess we had only looked at it from our perspective. For Mama and us, the photo had always been a bit of curse. After all those letters came in, I think it gave us a sense of pride."

You can find the entire series Lange shot of Thompson here. As an interesting contrast, here is a picture of of Thompson and her daughters taken many years after the depression had ended:

Canon Photo 5 Competition Finalists

2009-11-10T20:52:00.000+11:00

That's right, another year and the Canon Photo 5 competition finalists list is woefully short of a me. However, what it's NOT short on is some absolutely fantastic talent! You can check out all the finalists here, but here are a couple of my choice picks. As this is a positive blog in general, I won't be featuring the ones I looked at and went "What the?? How did THAT beat me?" :-)

As I may have mentioned before, there were five briefs in this year's comp. The first one was close-ups of 100s and 1000s. Here is my favourite, the creepy Sprinkle Face by danielh:

The second brief was to capture an opaque liquid in motion. I never got around to shooting an image for this brief, though I had some cool ideas. This image is It Came From Above by ezzz:

Mostly I just love that the liquid is basically green slime and that it appears to start out of mid-air. Awesome :-)

The next brief was something called a Bokeh experiment. It makes lights appear as little stars. I couldn't make it work with my all-in-one camera though I'm not sure why. This is definitely something I will continue to experiment with in the future. Allyeska, the creator of this image, obviously figured it out better than I did:

Penultimately, there was the fantastic brief of a portrait of someone where somewhere in the image a pair of really cheesy black glasses had to appear. I am just in absolute awe of this Black, White and Read All Over by Bloto:

I mean, the reading theme was used in a lot of the entries, but this shot is just astounding. If it doesn't win it's category I will run rioting in the streets and set fire to some expensive luxury cars, all in the name of art.

And the fifth category was open this year to all and sundry and the theme was nearly black and very low-light photography. I actually had a hard time picking a favourite from this category as small imperfections in each image ruined it a little for me. Overall, the one that stuck with me that most and that I kept wanting to go back and look at again was She's Watching She by WillSpill:

I love the perspective and the atmosphere. I know the slight blurring around the face was unavoidable, and perhaps even intentional, but for me it's a detraction.

So, that's this year! I'll be interested to find out who actually wins, and I'm very much looking forward to competing again next year. I find it one of the best competitions in terms of taxing your creativity.

And don't forget to vote if you want someone to actually win!

How to get a Treasury Main on Etsy - The Treasury Hunt

2009-11-07T18:02:00.000+11:00

It's finally happened! My very first Etsy Treasury Main!

It's crazy, when I first started on Etsy I had no real idea how to get a Treasury. I would show up and there would either be 800 treasuries or there would be 334, I'd keep refreshing to make sure I didn't miss the change and then suddenly there'd be 800 again! It was very, very frustrating. So, for Etsy newcomers and others who just enjoy hearing the sound of my writing voice, here are some tips to getting a Treasury on Etsy:

1) How do I know when??

I don't know how people used to do it, probably by judging the position of the moon at the equinox or something, but Craftopolis has taken all (well, most) of the hard work out of figuring out when your best shot of getting a Treasury is. Just go to www.craftopolis.com and click on "Treasury Clock". It should be just to the right of the "Treasure Hunt" tab. This will tell you approximately when you should be heading over to Etsy to stake out your claim. When the needle hits the red, click on the timer and it will take you straight to the Treasury or Treasury West page!

A word of warning, this site does need some sort of flash player, so if you have an old school system you may not be able to use that aspect of the site.

2) Okay, now what?

So now you're on the Etsy Treasury page. The numbers say 334 or 336 or something like that. Just sit there and watch. This may take some time, so I recommend a crossword puzzle book. You'll need something you can focus on for short periods of time while continuously checking the numbers. There is a countdown timer but they can be inaccurate, especially when there are a lot of people on the site as there usually are when a Treasury is about to open up.

This is very important - Do Not Refresh or Reload! The Treasuries update automatically and you do not need to refresh. In fact, if you do you are far more likely to miss out. I live in Australia, so when I'm Treasury Hunting, I shut down all unessential internet applications to leave the line as free as possible. I don't know if that makes any different, but at least I feel like it does ^_^

3) How will I know when the Treasuries are open?

There will be no warning. The notice that the Treasury is full will just be replaced with this:

(Image from the Storque - they have a very interesting article on treasuries here)

Then all you need to do is type in your title and press create and congratulations, you have a treasury!

Note at this point that you cannot just create a Treasury and fill a title in later. It is an extremely good idea to have some idea of what your theme will be in advance so that you can very quickly type a title.

4) So - that's it?

Not quite. Then you will be faced with a screen that will ask you to put in all the items that you would like to display in your Treasury. As you will have already had a theme in mind (see above) it's likely that you will know what kind of images you want. If you want to be really organised, Etsy provide this excellent Treasury preparation tool which lets you put in items as practice and see how they look. It's fun to play around with even if you don't have a Treasury Hunt in mind.

I hope this helps some people avoid the frustrations and obstacles I struggled with when I joined Etsy! As I say, I now am the joyful owner of my very own Treasury Main.

Happy Hunting All!

PSPX2 Photo Editing How To and Competition!

2009-11-06T05:31:00.001+11:00

Paint Shop Pro X2 has some very simple to use tools that can really enhance your photos and even change the entire feel of them. I think a lot of people try and stick to the simple stuff purely because they don't know what some of the other buttons do. A couple of my favourites are found in the makeover tools. They can be incredibly handy.

Another under-utilised tool can be found under Adjust - Brightness and Contrast - Clarify. Clarify, according to the Corel help section, is "to enhance depth and clarity". Basically what it seems to do is both brighten and sharpen the image simultaneously. Not much is needed and a very low setting (even 1.3 or 1.7) can provide a very satisfying result. The advantage of using this setting seems to be that you don't get the over-pixelisation you can get with the sharpen tool. I would still recommend using the Brightness and Contrast tool after this, just to make sure your image is exactly how you want it.

COMPETITION TIME!

My dear friend has let me take photos of her for my portrait portfolio. Beneath are two images, one as shot and one enhanced. Pick out one of the differences between the two images, throw it in a comment and you're in the draw to win an 8 x 12 inch print of your choice from my store! Looking at the bigger images will definitely give you an advantage in finding things others won't.

Happy hunting and I look forward to picking a winner just before the Sneak Attack on Tuesday, US Time.

My New Listing - Earth Saved 8 x 12 inch digital art print

2009-10-27T15:25:00.000+11:00

Inspired by the wonderful photo collages of last week's Wednesday Heart, Imagine Studios, I sat down and had a bit of a play around last night and came up with this:

A giant, shadowy man emerges from a smouldering, smokey volcano to save the world from an evil swan monster. It must be true, it was in the paper.

The Wednesday Heart - Imagine Studio

2009-10-21T18:47:00.000+11:00

The other day I mentioned briefly the concept of images that were in the public domain. As a funny coincidence the person who jumped to my attention as today's Wednesday Heart uses public domain images to create awesome photo fusion collages. I absolutely adore this type of digital art and Imagine Studio practices this artform to an extremely high level.

You all know what a big fan I am of fractals and photographic patterns, so it was a pretty sure bet that I was going to love this wonderful picture of a naked woman with a swirling blue pattern covering her body:

I love the romantic feel that hearkens back to the legends of Arthur and the poetry of the early Regency period. The blue circles echo down to the water beneath her form and it gives the whole piece a dream like resonance.

A common theme through most of the images created by Imagine Studio is that they focus a lot on women and have overtones of celebration and sexuality. This next print is a very clear illustration of the theme:

The sensuality comes through in the full lips and the darkened eyes, the mystery in the veil of shining colours across her face. The curves of hue beneath the eyes and upwards from the corners of the eyes enhance the feeling of a veil and give the image an exotic feel. I love this picture.

The exotic and the foreign is another theme that carries across the body of work. This picture is stunningly beautiful and evokes a Japanese feel:

It also reminds me of the work of some of the more fantastic body painters around. I'll do a completely separate post on them. Suffice it to say that the technical photo editing skills that have gone into this image are really very, very good.

Browsing through the work of Imagine Studio is like wafting through a dream that is both bold and sensual. That is why she has my Wednesday Heart.

Great Photographs - Afghan Girl by Steve McCurry

2009-10-19T16:55:00.000+11:00

This is one of the most famous portraits ever taken. This 1984 photo was published in National Geographic in 1985 and Sharbat Guala became the human face of the Afghani refugees for the western world.

Steve McCurry is a photojournalist who makes his living through his evocative and tremendously brilliant images. Have you ever wanted to be a photojournalist but don't know where to start? Have you tried the method Steve McCurry used?

His career was launched when, disguised in native garb, he crossed the Packistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanstian just before the Russian invasion. When he emerged, he had rolls of film sewn into his clothes of images that would be published around the world as among the first to show the conflict there.

(NB - I don't actually recommend entering war zones in disguise unless you are really, really dedicated)

The image was shot on Kodachrome. I'd be lying if I pretended to understand the process, so I'll just give you a link to the Wikipedia page which you can peruse if you want to know more about the technical aspects.

In the end, Steve McCurry and National Geographic went back to find her and talk to her and see what had happened to her. After a long search, they found her and (with the permission of her husband, which is essential in that part of the world) re-photographed her. It's amazing the difference a lifetime can make.

If you'd like to buy a copy of the original image in poster size, please try Steve McCurry's website here.

Alien Cloning Pod

2009-10-16T00:21:00.000+11:00

Okay, I made some changes to my purple alien cloning pod and listed it. Here's the finished version:

The Wednesday Heart - Nature is Art Photography

2009-10-15T09:24:00.000+11:00

One of my favourite photography books that I have at home is one featuring winners of the Wildlife Photography Awards. I'm not sure if Greg Ledermann of Nature is Art Photography has ever won such an award, but if he hasn't I'm willing to go out on a limb and say he certainly should!

Take for example this first picture of a hummingbird in mid-flight:

Technically amazing! The capture is perfect, no blurring of the wings at all. And the colours are so crisp and sharp. If I was to be a nit-picker, I might say that the flower distracts a little and maybe a slight crop would be good, but then the green spaces may be a little overwhelming. All in all, good choices, good technique and an excellent shot!

Harping back to my snow theme from my last Wednesday Heart, I love this shot of a red fox standing in the falling snow:

I love the soft blur of the falling snow, the beautiful colour contrasts between the red fox fur, the dark forest greens and the snow white and the excellent composition. Awesome.

Picking my third feature image was really, really hard! A cute little bobcat kitten almost won my heart, but this print of a wolf sitting on a floor of autumn leaves was just really too good to go past:

Again, the composition and colour are excellent. I also love the personality this shot has. The wolf almost seems to be smiling. It's both cute AND extremely well done.

Seriously, I loved almost every image in this shop. If he made a book, I would seriously consider getting it (*hint, hint* ^_^) Nature is Art Photography, you ARE my Wednesday Heart!

Quilting Weight Fabric Finally Arrives!

2009-10-14T11:51:00.001+11:00

Quilters, dress makers, designers! My new designer fabric has arrived. I have a yard and a fat quarter of quilting weight cotton that has this wonderful digital art design imprinted on it:

This is a really unique fabric, no-one else has any yet. The blue and black looks fantastic and this could go towards the creation of some really interesting items.

As an added bonus, if you buy this material and send me a photo of what you make with it that I can add to my blog you can take 10% off your next purchase ^_^

Public Domain Photographs

2009-10-13T11:19:00.000+11:00

Images in the public domain are fantastic things for both digital artists and traditional photographers and that's where sites like The Public Domain come in.

As a photographer, it's interesting to study what people have been doing in the past. How they have framed their images, what poses they used, what they bothered taking photographs of and thinking about how that can improve your own skill levels. For artists, it gives you something to work from and also becomes a source of ideas.

I am also a big fan of writers using pictures to inspire their work. Here are two images from the The Public Domain which are just wonderful. I keep trying to make up stories that go with the pictures and thinking about different things I could create using them :-)

The Wednesday Heart - No Stone Turned Photography

2009-09-23T15:24:00.000+10:00

I have a big problem with the cold. I shiver in Autumn and hibernate in Winter. Strangely, I also love snow! I love to look at snow while I'm sunbathing next to the pool, mostly :-) Another person who loves the snow is the American nature photographer, mother and teacher behind No Stone Turned Photography.

Still a relative newcomer to the wonderful world that is Etsy, No Stone Turned has some really stunning images and I love how each one has information that gives you insight into the environment it comes from. For example, this shot:

The image itself is beautiful and the soft pastel tones convey a sense of peace and awakening with the early dawn. But at 10am!! And -20 degrees celcius! I don't think I could do it, and it just adds an extra dimension for me to the ice crystals hanging on the twisting reeds.

This next shot I think is simply fantastic. I love the composition and the way it engenders a sense of duty, iron-will and freezing cold!

To me the image itself tells a story, and the way that that is fleshed out in the item description is really well done. If there was one thing that I would change about that image, it's the traffic lights in the bottom right-hand corner. I find them distracting but I can't think of a simple way that could be fixed. I think cropping the image would damage the compositional value, either done horizontally or vertically. But can you imagine being that guy? I run for the house going from the car to the loungeroom. This is one of those iconic images that will stick with me as representing exactly how dedicated people can be.

My final pick for today is I think the best of the lot.

This is technically really good. The interplay of light and shadow is wonderful and the composition is envocative of a timeless sense of peace and possibility. I love it.

No Stone Turned, you have my Wednesday Heart!

I'm in a Treasury!

2009-09-11T20:53:00.000+10:00

It's very exciting :-) It's a real bright sunshine-y collection.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=81385 is the link if you'd like to take a squiz.

The Post a Long Time in Coming

2009-09-11T02:25:00.000+10:00

I've been unwell and away, but now I am well and back! The Wednesday Heart will start up again from next week, just so y'all know. My etsy store is now also back up and running.

If you're an Australian or New Zealand photographer, you might want to check out this year's Canon Photo Five competition. I gave it rave reviews as being a whole bunch of fun last year, and this year there is an open category for people who didn't register in time to receive the box. Meaning you can still take part! Just head on over and take a look at this website here.

I love that this year the box is split up into briefs. It makes it FAR more challenging creatively, because there is a greater chance that at least 50 other people are going to be doing the same thing. For example, on of the briefs is taking a close up photo of a 100s and 1000s, those little coloured candy things you put on top of cupcakes. I can guess now what a lot of the images are going to look like. I have no clue what I'm going to do yet.

When I'm done and dusted, I'll post my efforts here for everyone to take a look at :-)

The Wednesday Heart - Michael Garbutt Exotic Photography

2009-06-18T14:38:00.000+10:00

Today is the day for loving local artists! Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oy Oy Oy! Michael Garbutt Exotic Photography, aka elgarbo to fellow Etsians, is a Sydney-based photographer who, in his own words, has travelled 'the world with a camera in hand', taking interesting shots of the wonderful things he has seen.

This first print is of tank traps up in Newcastle. I say "up" because it's pretty much 4 hours north from where I live. The thing I love most about this image is the interplay of light and shadow. Just wonderful. The patterns created by the shadows are so well defined and so perfect. It makes the whole shot seem more like created digital art than a photo. They're like tiny pyramids trapped out in the desert.

As you all know, I love a photographer who has variety in their portfolio. This next shot is a perfect contrast to some of the other images Michael Garbutt has put up. I like that he is just as comfortable with fast and furious action shots as he is with beautiful landscapes.

And my final pick to show you all is an image I actually purchased myself. It's a trifecta to my mind. Cute baby animal? Check! Artistically done? Check! Technically competent? Check! Yay for cute baby monkey pictures!

So in summary, Michael Garbutt is a fantastic photographer who seems to stradle all the disciplines nicely. It's really nice to come across a body of work where you like almost everything, but these images are all strong, interesting and well done. Elgarbo, I heart you!

The Wednesday Heart - Grand Ole Bestiary

2009-06-03T17:09:00.000+10:00

Digital manipulation is a big thing in photography these days and, like any other photographic trick, can either be done awfully or fantastically. The person behind the Grand Ole Bestiary does it with a quaint flair and great execution that makes these photographs highly collectable.

This first one, of a kitten-woman walking a puppy, is just so cute:

The thing is, the principle behind this technique isn't particularly hard. And yet so few people manage to make art like this with their photographs without making it look a bit tacky. What I like about these photographs is that there has obviously been a lot of effort put into getting them exactly right.

I also like how the Grand Ole Bestiary matches people so well with their animal. It's like one of those Facebook quizzes, but awesome and in photographic form:

I'd also like to add that this shop is an excellent example of tapping into a niche and doing it really, really well. Wonderful photographs, wonderful Etsy store! I heart you Grand Ole Bestiary!

International Garden Photographer of the Year

2009-05-07T09:49:00.000+10:00

The winners were just announced for the above competition, and while I am a bit sad still that I didn't get anywhere (I was so sure that at least one of my photos would make the highly commended list!) I can rest happily knowing that nothing I made would have competed with the image that actually won the competition. It was this spectacular black and white fairy-tale-esque garden view. The image really holds your eye.

They are holding their next competition soon and I totally plan to enter. I keep having all these ideas for how I can do better this time :-) The categories I'm thinking of entering are Trees, Wildlife in the Garden, Plant Portraits and People in the Garden. I like the idea of the Edible Garden category but I just can't think of what I would photograph that hasn't been done to death.

If you'd like to enter too, the address to go check them out is www.igpoty.com

The Wednesday Heart - The Eye

2009-05-06T23:12:00.000+10:00

Occasionally you come across a photographer who imbues everything they do with such style and panache that even their photos of the most mundane items make you go Wow! The Eye is one such photographer.

This photo for example has such a simple object, and yet manages to convey an almost film-noir sense of style, beauty and depth.

As I think I've mentioned before, I love photographers who can so easily straddle multiple styles. The Eye is another one of those people who make it look like it's easy. The creativity and technical skill that went into this are great, and I love how it's just sitting there amidst the butterflies and flowers like it was cleverly camouflaged and just waiting for lunchtime :-)

I've always had a penchant for pictures that tell a story. It's something I've been playing with a bit in my own work. This one, A Valentine Story, I love for the concept:

I'm not sure I'm so keen on the technical execution. The third image with the flames seems to be a little muted for what it is symbolising (love being devoured by flames) and I think the image would be stronger with simply the first and the last picture. But I absolutely love the concept and I think the multi-panel layout is a great idea. There should be more of this kind of experimental print making in the photographic community, not just landscapes and kittens.

Honestly, I could go on about this girl's work all day. I'll just simply say you should go here: The Eye! to check out the rest of the images. I <3 you The Eye!

The Wednesday Heart - QuietDarling

2009-04-22T13:47:00.000+10:00

I had it all planned out, the way I was going to describe this photographers wonderfully dreamy, child-like, nostalgic and slightly disturbing style, but she's gone and said it all in her profile:

"chapped lips and skinned knees
blanket forts and paper cranes
hiding behind the magnolia treedreams of whales and the milky way
memories and grandma
freckle summer and bubble tea
someone to read withold ghostssecret treasures and whispering secrets
sad ghosts
lace and grandfather elk
run-away dollies and pippi
sailing a wooden shoe and peter piper
honey cakes and pear piea garden of my own
these magical mountain forests."

That's what her photography is like. Take a look:

I love how a lot of her work is about what's not seen. And that each of her images is a one of a kind (OOAK for those in the biz) polaroid that comes to you framed and signed. Her style is so distinctive and I love the feel of her work, like the feel in the few minutes where a normal film suddenly becomes a horror film that both entrances and disquiets.

Quietdarling, I heart you!

The Wednesday Heart - Mystique Island

2009-04-15T17:07:00.000+10:00

I love etsy, and there are so many fantastic photographers on there. I'm going to review one photographer I love per week. This week is American-based photographer Mystique Island.

One of the things I love to see most in a photographer is variety, and Mystique Island certainly has that. I've chosen three photos here, and all are, I think, really good examples of different aspects of photography. This first one is just beautiful. I love the colours especially. The burnt orange leaves with the dark stamen contrast really well against the bright yellow of the background flowers and the high green of the grass.

It's also a great example of macro photography. The detail of the foreground works really well with the blurred background. On a slightly more symbolic note, this makes me think of how we tend to remember tragedy in so much detail, whereas the bright, happy times are more of a warm, fuzzy blur in the background. Therefore, this photograph symbolises the process of living, and you can't get much bigger than that :-)

This next one is simply stunning.

The wonderfully vivid colours combine well with the framing to give the overall image an eerie sense of a life floating under the ocean in complete silence. Awesome.

And this one is in just because it is such a cute elephant picture

I heart you Mystique Island!

How to make patterns with your photos

2009-04-10T10:11:00.001+10:00

Recently I've really enjoyed making patterns out of my photographs. I especially love how the high detail photos can turn into really awesome patterns that have a lot of texture to them. Of course, it's really easy to do.

First pick a photo that you find really interesting. Lots of detail and lots of colour I find tend to produce the best results.

If you're using Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 just click on "Effects" and then "Reflection Effects" and have a play around with the Kaleidoscope or Pattern functions.

There should be a dice located on the effect screen when you've gone into one of the above and when you click that it will randomise the settings and create a new image. I always make sure my preview screen shows the whole picture because that can definitely make a

difference.

The other thing I would recommend is playing around with your colours and so forth after you're happy with the pattern you've chosen. Especially go to "Adjust" - "Brightness and Contrast" - "Brightness/Contrast" and play around with those settings. You can give your piece a muted, ancient feel or perhaps a highly vibrant psychadelic vibe!

The one at the top of the screen is made from a picture of the water from a waterfall at the local Bontanical Gardens hitting the pool below. This one is from one of the fireworks pictures I took at Skyfire a few weekends ago:

Skyfire XXI

2009-03-24T14:14:00.000+11:00

Skyfire is a Canberra tradition, held by the banks of Lake Burley Griffin. The local radio station, 104.7, holds this excellent fireworks display once a year. I love going, but normally the weather is drizzly and you have to sit around for hours if you want to get there early enough to get a good spot. This year the weather was perfect! I took my camera (naturally) and was very excited about the prospect of photographing fireworks. Here are the results of my attempts :-)

Creative Photography Swap

2009-03-04T20:03:00.000+11:00

I recently joined this great site called Swap-bot. Everyone shoud be a member. Here is my creative photography swap.

Welcome swappers!!

1) My emotions seem to echo those of the people I photograph. . "Whether it is photography, assemblage art or filmmaking, my work is to see beneath the surface. - Christophe Agou

2) Like every other means of expression, photography, if it is to be utterly honest and direct, should be related to the life of the times - the pulse of today....The photograph...to merit serious consideration, must be directly connected with the world we live in. - Berenice Abbot

3)A photograph can be as striking and as haunting as a great painting or a fine poem. Anonymous - Handbook annual, 1988.

4)It's not the camera, but who's behind the camera. - Anonymous

5)Photography is like a meditation for me. It is such a concentrated moment. - Stephanie Torbert

Self Portraits

2009-02-06T20:57:00.001+11:00

I've been experimenting recently with self portraits and I think they haven't worked out too bad.

The first one was the hardest because I had to keep the baby asleep, hold the camera over my head and still try and look reasonably peaceful :-)

I'm a bit nervous because I am starting a photography course at the ANU Art School on Monday, and I am very much dreading being told I am crap or wasting my time. I'll let you know how it goes.

Recent Photos

2009-01-26T15:24:00.000+11:00

I've been really interested in portrait photography at the moment. I love the way some photographers can take a photo of a person and transform it into a work of art. I would love to take more photos of people but I feel very nervous asking people if I can take photos of them. On that note, I absolutely love this picture of Hilary Swank.

The strength and power inherent in this shot is excellent. I wish my stuff was that good. This is the closest I have got to a good portrait recently:

I was reading a book on portrait photography recently which suggested that one good tip for people wanting to take more people photos was to go up to people and tell them that you were a student in a local photography class and could you please take some photos of them for your portfolio. The same book also suggested sending people a free print of the photo you took so they get something material out of helping you.

Anyone got any other hints for how to combat portrait shyness?

Canon Photo Five Competition

2008-10-22T13:40:00.000+11:00

Canon held this fantastic competition last year, and are holding it again this year. The idea is that you register for the competition, get a box full of goodies and take photos using the items you get in your box. Each item has to be in a separate photo (you can't take one photo using all the items) and you can only enter one photo per category. This years objects were:

- tealight candle
- crayon
- cocktail umbrella
- bubble mix and
- a red ribbon.

Unfortunately, this year's registration is shut so if you want to give it a spin you'll have to wait for next year, but here are my entries in the competition:

If you want to check out more of the entries, you can see them in the gallery here. I probably don't have a chance of making the finals considering I'm just a noob with a camera, but I have really enjoyed the challenge of coming up with ideas for specific objects. As you can see, I went with a murder and mayhem theme. I wish they would hold this more often.

Is anyone else in this competition? Want to show off your stuff? Leave a link in the comments below!

Night Floriade Photos

2008-09-26T10:38:00.000+10:00

Last night I went to Floriade, a Canberra flower festival. Shooting at night without a tripod is really hard! Because the exposure is longer every time your hand wobbles so does the picture. I keep meaning to buy a tripod, but until then I'm stuck just using whatever is around. These are some shots I took using my babies pram as a tripod.

Telemarketers are People Too!

2008-09-07T09:33:00.000+10:00

If you've come to this site by accident looking for ways to piss off telemarketers, go here.

I worked for ages as a telemarketer. People can be such jerks and it seems like telemarketers are the sanctioned punching bags of a highly stressed population. My friend Raven is one of the most imaginative telemarketer haters I know. He has it down to a fine art and can keep the poor saps on the other end of the phone hanging on for up to an hour, certain he's going to buy something as soon as he answers the door, gets the other phone, takes the burning dinner out of the oven or talks to the policeman about that horrible murder next door.

I hate that. Can't he just say "Sorry, not interested" and hang up? Yes, he's annoyed but if it didn't work as a strategy the companies wouldn't hire people to do it. Don't take it out on the employee. Telemarketers are people too.

This design comes on shirts, clocks, buttons, a mousepad - all the essential office supplies. If your friend just got a job as a telemarketer, the cards on the inside say "Congratulations on Your New Job!".

Is your profession hated? Want a shirt that tells people to get off your back? Leave a comment and I'll work something up!

I like taking photos of things up close

2008-09-04T00:18:00.000+10:00

One of the functions I have always loved on my cameras is the macro mode. I've always had this fascination with taking pictures up close of really small things. When we got back from the park the other day I had bits of dried grass all down my top from where I'd been lying down trying to get the right angle on some tiny flowers.

I especially like taking photos of insects. Here are some of my up-close shots:

The beetle in the third photo down was actually in my sleeping bag crawling up my leg. That was a very eerie feeling.

One day I want one of those lenses that lets you take photos of really tiny things like individual ants and so forth. My ant shots haven't worked out well so far, but I haven't tried yet with my new camera. That will be my next excursion - shooting ants :-)

Changing eye colour in Paint Shop Pro X2

2008-09-03T15:21:00.000+10:00

Today I had the luck to find this very quick guide to changing eye colors. It's so easy that even I had no trouble with it.

Way to go Torqque! I've been having so much fun playing around with this. Here are some examples using my (usually blue-eyed) baby Marcus as a model:

I just love that I learned so many useful concepts so quickly. I'd already been playing around with hues, but now I know how to select different areas to play with. The only thing that confused me was why I couldn't see the eyes in the preview screen like he can in the video, and that was because I was too closely zoomed in.

This is so much fun. I'm off to go give people I don't like Demon Eyes.

My New Camera - The Olympus SP-570UZ

2008-09-01T09:06:00.000+10:00

For a while now I've been mucking about photographically with a little point and click digital. It was a great beginner camera that I loved. It worked underwater, in sandy conditions, after I dropped it that time...

But the camera store near me just had a special on new cameras and I really wanted an SLR camera with a higher megapixel count. I convinced the love of my life Matt that what we really needed wasn't a sofa (pft, what's wrong with the floor I ask you?) but a shiny new Olympus SP-570 Ultra Zoom. Weirdly enough, he agreed. There's a good run down of it's features here but the things I love about it are:

- 10 megapixels!!! (That's 10 reaally big pixels, right?)
- 20x Optical Zoom
- to use the zoom you have to physically turn the lens, not just press buttons. It's a nice feeling, like you're an old times photographer in one of those awesome films about how fun it was being a star reporter back in the 40s.

Yesterday Matt, Greg and I went on a picnic with the baby and I took so many photos! Of course the image sizes are larger on my new camera but I still managed to fill my 2 gig memory card, mostly just by saying "ooh, what does this setting do?". We tried out the fast capture mode by pushing the pram around really fast but we decided that was a bad idea with the baby actually in the pram. Here are some pics from the day:

Getting all arty in the lead up to Mother's Day :-)

2008-04-04T13:06:00.000+11:00

So I've got the demo version of Paint Shop Pro X and I'm absolutely loving it. I've been drawing more and then playing around with all the things I've been drawing. I feel like a kid at Disneyland again, there's just so many things you can do! I've been playing around with this one image for a couple of days now and it should soon be ready to be put up on the site.

This is one that is already up there. I will also be putting up a version of the image without the text at the request of my sister who liked the picture but not the quote. The quote, by the way, is from Elizabeth Stone and reads - 'The decision to have a child is momentus. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body'. With my first baby due in a couple of weeks now, and with all the wonderful and absolutely terrifying aspects surrounding becoming a parent, it felt appropriate. Especially with Mother's Day coming up.

Elizabeth Stone, for the interested, was a writer in the 1800s who was put into a mental hospital by her family after she had a religous conversion. There is an interesting piece of her autobiographical writing to be found here.

Rockin' Set of Stairs

2008-03-24T04:22:00.000+11:00

Just put up a new photo on the shop - this wonderful set of stairs from Petra. Petra was so beautiful - the pictures hardly do it justice. It's this ancient city in the middle of nowhere carved into all this amazing red, pink and golden rock. For the film buffs out there, it was the place where they shot that scene from Indiana Jones - you know the one.

The new journal there is particularly good, if I do say so myself :-) I've been waiting for a good journal image.

But hey, don't just take my word for it! Check it out for yourself.

Go Camel Photography Opens!

2008-03-19T17:41:00.000+11:00

Everyone has a dream.

Mine was to see fantastic photos lovingly placed on mugs, t-shirts, posters and framed tiles in order that such items could be purchased online and then distributed to the people through a series of interlinked tubes.

And now my dream is a reality. Mostly.

Go Camel Photography provides great photos from around the world. Mugs for the workplace, gifts for your friends, clothes to dress your dog in, handy bags that look very flash as well as proving great carrying space.

We're still working on the tubes.