NYC April 2019

Cool girl at the Museum.

At the Metropolitan Museum. Artist learning by copying the old masters.

Hot and Cold Pizza

Walking the dogs

Chevrons and Stripes

We stayed at this hotel. Fifty by Affinia on the corner of 3rd and 50th.

At the Metropolitan Museum. I always think of this one as "The Virgin Mary and the Blessed Baby George Washington."

Vacation Snaps Made More Fun With Prisma

Prisma is my favorite app. It makes my pictures look like what I would draw if I had more time and talent.

I visited my Aunt and cousins in Santa Barbara, California. I don't know any of the people in these shots; I just like scenes of everyday life.

Easy and affordable framing recommendation

Photographers and artists -- easy and affordable framing recommendation here...

If you took a photo you really love and want to make a gift of it to family or friend, an easy way is with www.americanframe.com. Upload your high-resolution photo, choose frame and mat(s) and they will put it together for you and ship it off to your recipient. You can choose your paper -- I like the pearl finish. It really makes colors pop.

The framing uses a high quality acrylic instead of glass. You can't tell the difference and there's no worry about breakage. (Note: don't use window cleaner on acrylic; a barely damp cloth is all you need.)

Choose an "Econo" frame if you want to keep the cost really affordable. Costs are usually half or less than what you might pay at Michaels. My house walls are covered with 20+ of my framed artworks that were done at American Frame (some are originals, some are high-quality scans). You can save even more money if you buy metal frames and put them together yourself at home; it's super easy!

ABOUT THE PHOTO BELOW...

My cousin Sarah took this absolutely magical little scene of her children at the park. I think it could be an illustration for a childrens' book. 

I cropped out the top and bottom a bit and a little off the left side to push the kids slightly off-center and create a stronger focal point. I love the way the water turns into the sky at top right and how the tree is reflected in the water so you get a sense of the space even though you can't see it all. Plus the pose really captures the kids' personalities -- the adventurous girl always dives into life and her little brother is a bit more cautious.

I thought it was worthy of proper framing so I asked for the original file (downloads from Facebook are probably not good enough) and she got it just a few days later.

Photo Fishing

As I have mentioned a few times before, I love walking along downtown streets, taking pictures as I go. I might take 200-300 shots in an hour or so. Then I sit in a comfy chair and look through my shots to see what goodies I caught. My favorite subject matter is store windows -- day or night -- because you can see the inside and outside world at the same time.

I was just in Manhattan for a business trip and had several opportunities to snap photos as we walked to dinners and around the hotel on the last morning in town.

Below are some examples of how there can be hidden gems in your pictures. "Zoom in and crop" is how you can take a picture from ho-hum to hmmm!

Each set of pictures shows the original and then the cropped version I made. In some cases I also used Photoshop to boost the color or add a filter.

A random street turns into...



...a story about people and cars in close spaces

A nice pink jacket, but nothing to see here, right?...



...look at the almost abstract hiding in the lower left corner.
I used a filter but can't remember which one -- maybe Paint Daubs.

 





I liked the strong sunlight framing the couple who had been walking in front of me so I snapped a series
and liked the pose below that turned up in one of the shots.
 

 

 

Waiting for the right people to walk into the scene can make a difference.

 

 

 

I snapped a series of about six images as we crossed the street and ...

 

...found this comparison of two relationships in one of them!

 

The solid color clothing doesn't distract from outside scene reflections so you can often get nice details.

 

I cropped the top half of the photo. I boosted the saturation and used the Poster Edges filter in Photoshop.

 

another view. I used the Cutout filter in Photoshop on this one.

 

Occasionally I find my way into a photo...

 

 

New York City "Photo Fishing"

When I'm in a city environment with my camera phone, I turn it on and click-click-click as I walk along the street. I usually use the "cartoonify" filter on my Samsung Galaxy Note because I love the faux screen-print look it gives.

I take several hundred pictures and then go through them to see what I "caught" just like a fisherman dragging his line in the water.

Sometimes it's just a little section of the picture that I like and I blow it up. For example, this:

came from a small section of this:

Then I take the photos into Photoshop and mess with the colors and exposure, crop in to capture the interesting parts, and apply various filters and effects to the pics to "dirty 'em up." I am in loooove with the poster edges filter.

Manhattan 3/3/16

Military Mini

I often take pictures of windows because reflections can introduce collage-like visual textures in the image.

This is my favorite of the bunch.
I call it an "in-camera collage" because it's got so much goin' on!

This looks like Beatle shoes crossing the street. Abbey Road from a different angle?

Manhole

Waiting to cross

Morning Trudgery

The Lunch Date

Classic

Lady and Little Dog

Great Smokies photo inspires a necklace

My coworker Ashley Macik attended a photography workshop called Spring in the Smokies with instructor Jennifer King a few months ago. She came back with beautiful photos. I really liked the colors in the one at left below so asked if I could "borrow" it for a bead project.

First I pulled out a few colors from the photo:

Then I got to work with my new clay color mixing skills learned in Carol Simmons' workshop in May. I used Premo fuchsia, ultramarine blue, and cadmium yellow, plus black and white to make the 5 colors. I made a variety of shapes and sizes, some etched, some plain. Below are a few after the first baking. Next step: fill the inscribed lines with black liquid clay.

I strung them up but couldn't get them to drape the way I wanted. I also decided I needed more beads because the necklace wasn't long enough.

I made a variety pack of additional beads and strung them up. Ultimately I chose not to use the large round tree bead... I just didn't like it enough. The red and gold each should have been a bit more orange-ish and the eggplant could have been a bit more purple but the colors all look decent together.

I will wear this with an eggplant-colored t-shirt and black skirt.

Tuesday, June 23 P.S.: What a nice surprise to find out I'm on Polymer Clay Daily today. Thanks Cynthia!