When Artwork Inspires

"A letter to a Friend about happiness" by Alexander Edwards

 

Let’s be honest, I spend a fair amount of time browsing through art and photography sites such as RedBubble, JPEG Magazine, Ph.Art, Onexposure and Flickr and I look at lots and lots of wonderful art created by really talented people. Sometimes I wonder how life would be different, less colourful, if I didn’t have all this art and photography at my fingertips; I guess I would be browsing through books instead. It wouldn’t be the same.
Occasionally there will be a piece that returns to mind even when I am in the midst of the most mundane of tasks, weeks after I originally viewed or read it. The piece isn’t always about the perfection of that image or writing, or whether it follows rules or not. Generally, the piece has somehow resonated with me in a way that I cannot explain.
Recently, this has happened with a new series created by Alexander Edwards. Edwards created the “Touch Series” in 2008, a series he successfully exhibited in Melbourne. His most recent series, “A letter to a friend...” is simply hand written words on blank white paper. Although simple, the words carry quite a punch, and it is these words, and the sentiments behind these words that have lingered now for weeks.
It got me thinking; there are certainly words that I can say to people in my life, words that I choose not to express, mainly because of the impact the words would have and how sometimes honesty isn’t always the best policy. Inspired by Edwards’ phrases, some of my own phrases I choose not to express are as follows:

I do what I do because it helps me forget.

* * *

I know you think I’m incapable, but when I look into your eyes I see someone who has settled for far less than they think they deserve. And you don’t realise just how obvious your resentment is.

* * *

You made me a promise and although small and insignificant, I’m still waiting for you to carry it out.

* * *

It’s sad how you hide from life and I’m not sure what it is you fear, but it’s all passing you by. Life isn’t that scary. I wish you would give it a try.

* * *

I’m sorry that all this time has passed; I thought that I had only closed my eyes for a moment. I will try harder not to miss anything more from now on.

* * *

After all these years, I realise that I am still invisible to you. Just because you can’t see me, doesn’t mean I’m not here.

* * *

It’s sad the way you live your life through the lives of so many others. Time is ticking. Stand on your own two feet and live your own life.

* * * * *

How to Avoid “D’Oh!” Moments in Photography - 10 Bleeding Obvious Things to Remember before your next Photoshoot.

forest of impression II, originally uploaded by Adriana Glackin.

Homer Simpson has been having “D’Oh!” moments for over 20 years, which is funny when you’re an animated cartoon character. What isn’t so funny is when you have your own “D’Oh!” moments in real life. Then those moments become frustrating and annoying and you simply can’t believe you’d be that stupid and/or forgetful. Take this week for example. I planned a morning shoot about 40 minutes from home, I organised all my gear the night before. The plan was to test the Sigma 10-20mm lens that I’m playing with. I left home at my planned time, experienced no traffic along the way, arrived at the location, set up only to discover to my horror - the lens I had planned to shoot with was not in the car – D’Oh! But wait, it gets worse. I thought I would simply go with the flow and use another lens and shoot something else entirely. So far, so good. I continued with my shoot, alternating between lenses, subjects and locations and eventually made my way home. Uploading the images from the camera, I discovered that the photos from the first location were all out of focus – WHAT?! D’Oh! I checked the lens, as I had only used it for that location, and well, what a surprise, it was set at manual focus and I hadn’t even realised. Being myopic as I am, the images looked ok and they so clearly (pun...) weren’t. To add more insult to injury, the photos aren’t out of focus enough to be “arty”. They’re just rubbish.

The photography journey is riddled with D’Oh! moments. Sometimes we just don’t want to admit to them for fear someone will tap us on our shoulder and confiscate our camera gear. I can see it now – “Excuse me madam, I think I’ll take all this camera equipment from you. You clearly have no idea what you’re doing with all this.” So, to help you avoid your own D’Oh! moments in photography, below is a list of things to remember when you’re planning and attending your next shoot. They are all obvious and straight forward, but oh so easy to overlook. So before that mystery person comes up behind you tapping you on the shoulder and requesting you hand over your camera gear, take a look at the bleeding obvious:

1. Charge the camera battery the night before.

2. Make sure the back-up battery is also charged and in your camera bag. Today’s cameras are thirsty beasts.

3. Where are the memory cards you’ll be using? Is there one in the camera? Is it empty? If not, can those images be deleted? Place your spare memory cards in your camera bag. Now.

4. Are you meeting others for this shoot? Have you confirmed the time, place and date? You don’t want to attend the shoot in your pj’s because you didn’t have time to get dressed – although, as long as you have all your gear, the others would just think you’re eccentric, I guess. Tell them you do your best work when dressed in your pj’s.

5. If you know what you’ll be using for the shoot, gather it all together in the one place, so that you can pick it all up when you’re about to leave – no distractions when you’re doing this!

6. If you shoot a variety of subjects, before you commence your next shoot, check the camera settings. Sometimes in moments of distraction, this can be overlooked and the photographic moment can be lost.

7. Do you want to focus manually or let auto focus take over? Make your selection before you commence, and don’t rely on myopic eyes to approve of the image in the viewfinder. It won’t be artily OOF, I promise you that.

8. If you’re using a tripod and your lens has “image stabiliser”, then check whether it’s on or off. It should be set to off.

9. Get into the habit of putting your equipment back in the same spot each time. My camera bag has side pockets and a few internal pockets, and I try and place the same pieces of equipment in the same places. That way, at a glance I can see whether I have something missing.

10. If you have forgotten a crucial piece of equipment and can’t possibly commence the shoot, providing it’s not a client involved shoot, then simply sit back and enjoy your surrounds. You’ve obviously driven there because it was an appealing location, so enjoy it without a camera jammed up to your eye. It will certainly make a change to what you’re used to, and you might just see things you would have other missed.

If you can think of other absolutely bleeding obvious things to remember and you’d like to share, then pop in a comment, so that we can all laugh all learn from the bleeding obvious. Afterall, how else do we learn, but from our mistakes?

Valley of the Waters - Wentworth Falls

Recently I had the opportunity to visit the Valley of the Waters with two other photographers - Peter Hill and Tatiana R. These two are absolutely passionate about their waterfalls and landscapes and will go to all sorts of lengths to get the shot perfect (and by that I mean, getting up at a ridiculous hour even in winter in order to capture the scene in it's best light) . I was also fortunate enough to borrow a spare Canon 30D  - which, of course, I fell instantly in love with...sigh....

I'm in the process of considering an equipment upgrade, and after using the Canon 30D, I think the upgrade will be happening sooner rather than later. I'm looking forward to our next outing, and shooting some more of our beautiful surroundings.

To view more Blue Mountains and the waterfall images please go and view Peter's gallery here  and Tatiana's gallery here.  Their works are available for sale as greeting cards, matted prints, wall art and canvases through RedBubble.  when you view their gallery of images, I think you'll agree that getting up at "stupid o'clock" is well worth it if it means being able to achieve such wonderful results.

To view more in my series of the Blue Mountains, see my flickr gallery.

 

 

 Peter and Tatiana in action - if you've taken a look at their galleries, then you'll see that getting up at "stupid o'clock" is certanly vital to getting the perfect shot.  And yes, that means not only all the necessary camera equipment, but also good shoes, cap - rearward facing, flask of tea, chocolate and a beanie - preferably with a pom pom, good shoes, and a heap of patience and stamina. 

undergrowth 3, originally uploaded by Adriana_G.



 

Sweet Blog

Sweet Blog, originally uploaded by Adriana_G.

Recently, the comment seen in this image was left on my blog. I felt flattered - for a nanosecond - then I realised it was probably left by a machine with links to goodness knows where. I googled the entire term, and sure enough, over 625,000 search results came up - all showing that people had accepted this sweet little comment on their blog without realising that it was instead, fake.

It's always nice to know that another person is reading my blog, and feel flattered when comments are left. But, sheesh, when it's a machine leaving fake, little, meaningless blurb, well that just stinks.

Mineral Make-up - so what does it all mean?

These last few days while ironing in front of the tv - there's a lot of ironing to be done you see - I notice that every second advert on tv seems to be for mineral make-up.  So what it is?  Why is it different?  Do I really need it?  Will it get my ironing done any faster and more efficiently?  Will it resist our Australian summers without sliding off my face?  And what if I get caught in the rain - will it form brown sludge marks as it drips off my nose and chin?  Does it stain clothes?  How do you remove it?  What happens to the powder that doesn't stick to your face, will it fall on my shoulders like brown dandruff? Will it create more housework as I try and dust all the powder away? And for those of us lucky to have wrinkles - does this mineral make-up fall into our  creases (laugh lines, actually...) so that our faces look like a topographical map?  I'm really not convinced it's the answer to my make-up prayers, this mineral make-up thing...especially since I have to send away 3 easy payments of upteen dollars, plus postage and handling of course, and then I get all these "free" products to try, lucky me...  Well, the jury's out on this mineral make-up fad.  I haven't come across anyone who wears it or who has tried it.  Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie seems to wear it, but I'm not sure that's enough endorsement for me.

"Pucker" by Josiem. This image kindly reproduced here with permission from the artist.  Visit Josiem here to view her work at RedBubble.

When love goes wrong...

...you take your life into your own hands!  Well, so it seems when you view this photograph.

It's actually a staged shot taken by Melbourne based photographer "Alexander Edwards", in collaboration with "Dallas Ashton", a visual effects artist.  Simple in it's composition and while being effective, complete with humourous title.  It makes you think - gosh, some people take their morning coffee very seriously indeed! 

Edwards has an exhibition at the moment of his work entitled, "Touch Me Series".  A simple, elegant and very moving portrayal of human feelings and thoughts expressed in the most touching ways.  To find out more about Edwards' work, click here.

Art Pain?

Is that what you're left with if you lose images from your hard drive without backing up?  It must be...  Luckily one of my New Year's resolutions is to back up all my data - images, documents, the lot, before I lose precious data.  I recently lost a whole stack of brushes I had made in Photoshop, the "art pain" wasn't too bad, as I know at a push I can create them again or at least retrieve them from the saved .psd images I now have multiple copies of. 

I've had several external drives sitting here, simply waiting to be used, and today I bought even more blank cd's and dvd's so I can burn multiple copies.  You just never know what hardware will fail, so it's best to keep multiple copies and to store them in different locations - ideally off-site would be great.  Next on my to-do list is to investigate online storage of my images, but at the moment I will be content with the multiple back-ups I'm creating.

Before you get too involved in 2009, have a little think - when was the last time you backed-up your images and documents?  This task is really not one you want to put off till tomorrow, as you may wake up tomorrow to find your only copy is now on a dead drive.  And then you'll experience the suffering, the agony, the regret of what it's like to have 'art pain".

"Art/Pain" by Cathie Tranent

Please visit Cathie and buy her work at RedBubble.

When grrrrinning and bearing it just won't do...

There are just some people in this world that are able to bring out the best and others that are so damned good at bringing out the worst in you.  You know the type.  You don't even need to have offically met them, or even spoken to them directly or even have anything to do with them.  But no matter what they do or say,  they have that ability to just bring out the worst.  Is it the perpetual, cheesy grin they wear on their perpetually sunny face?  Is it the permanent twinkle in their carefree, happy, laughing eyes?  Is it their over-the-top, can-do charm, no-job-too-big-no-job-too-small attitude?  Who knows what it is?  But I know that it's people like that that manage to bring out the Grrrr in me at each and every encounter.  Grrrr to people like that, is what I say.

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="397" caption="Grrrr by Chris Wahl"][/caption]

2009 Calendar - Fifties Fair candid shots

Looking for a 2009 Calendar with that retro feel? Do you love fashion from the fifties? What about rockabilly? Then this may just be the calendar for you! ;p I've selected some of the images taken at the Fifties Fair from 2008 and with the new calendar functionality on RedBubble, this calendar is now available for sale. Click here to order your copy today!

Fifties Fair 2008

I've been so excited waiting for the Fifties Fair to roll around again, and the crowds this year were bigger and better than ever.  I haven't seen it so busy, it was amost impossible getting to the market stalls to browse and look at the goodies.  I just hope that it hasn't outgrown it's venue of Rose Seidler House, I'm sure it was an almost capacity crowd on sunday!  The fashion, make-up, shoes, hair - the hair! All gorgeous and so meticulous.  And of course the music - what a stand out!  The highlight?  Well that would have to be seeing the beauty parlour and knowing they hold hair and make-up sessions that transport you back in time - and they're not too far from where I live!  Yippee!  Guess who'll be treating herself to some little make-over magic soon?!  If you'd like to see more images from the day, go to my website and click on Fifties Fair 2008.  I can make the images available for sale through RedBubble for anyone interested.  Enjoy!

 

A Symbol of Hope - Fine Art Photography examples

What does the term "Symbol of Hope" mean to you?  Wikipedia defines hope as being the belief of a positive outcome, especially in relation to an amount of depair or wanting or wishing or suffering.  We can hope for such basic, trivial and mundane things such as "I hope my washing dries before it gets dark", "I hope there's chocolate in the cupboard for me to snack on" to a deeper, more urgent need to hope - "I hope she'll be alright", "I hope I can make it to the hospital in time", " I hope a cure for cancer can soon be found".

It's always interesting when asking artists to depict an abstract emotion such as hope.  It can be more challenging than it first seems - how do you show hope in an image?  And what does hope sybolise to you?  As august is Cancer awareness month here in Australia, it was timely to ask artists from "A Photographer's Craft" to submit images to this challenge.   These artists have also donated works through "The Gift of Art" where all the artists' proceeds are being donating to the National Cancer Insitute. The disease that is cancer affects each and everyone of us.  I don't think I've come across a person for a long while, who hasn't in some way been affected by this disease.  I am hopeful of a cure, I am hopeful that as a society we are doing all we can to assist those researchers in finding a cure, and to help those who are living with the disease.

The following images were submitted by those artists who wanted to show their "Symbol of Hope".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whether it's the early morning rays of light, a dove in full flight, the fresh face of youth, a guardian angel watching over you, the strength that is nature or your faith in your God, it's important that we hold that sense of hope.  Thanks goes to Adrian Rachele, Mark German, Dana DiPasquale, Sue Wickham, lallymac, Redtempa, Tom Vaughan and Karri Klawiter for taking part in the challenge and allowing this images to be shown on this blog.

In Photographic Art - What moves you?

They say artists are a sensitive lot and there's no more obvious a place to display their emotions than in their art.  It's interesting how different factors will draw out that emotion.  The skill in a great photographer is to connect with their audience so that some of that emotion us also felt by the viewer.  The subject portrayed can be a person, an onject, a location - basically anything than can convey an emotion from familiarity right through to taking your breath away. 

Below are some images that resonated with both the photographer and their audience in a recent Emotional Attachment challenge over in "A Photographer's Craft".  There's no right or wrong way in how you should feel when viewing a photographic piece - the ideal would be to feel.

 

"Sisters Two" by Adrian Rachele

The look of despair and sense of helplessness is apparent in this photograph taken after visiting Auschwitz.  The heavy shadows, the play on light, the expression and the Black & White treatment all convey that deep sense of sadness.

 

* * *

"On Her Way" by Sue Wickham

Quite a contrast with the first image - this glorious bride has that look of expectation and excitement in her face. I can remember my own wedding day when I look at this beautiful bride - and I remember all the emotions that go with such an exciting day.  Sue Wickham has captured the moment and beautifully edited this image that will resonate with other brides and their parents.  It's the moment the bride begins her new life with great expectation!

 

* * *

"Waiting to say goodbye" by Dana DiPasquale

A photograph of an inanimate object is sometimes all that's needed  to open the floodgates of memories from another time. Dana DiPasquale while visiting family for a funeral captured this image - anything to keep busy while trying to forget the sadness surrounding the family gathering.  The lone chair, the warmth exuding from this image and the way it has been portrayed shows the richness of family life.

 

* * *

"Alone in paradise" by Debbie Black

The image of paradise can take many forms, afterall we're all different, so what is paradise to one, may not be to another.  This image taken on Michaelmas Cay on the Great Barrier Reef holds great signifance to Debbie Black, the photographer.  Firstly, taken whilst on honeymoon - paradise in itself! And secondly the location is truly spectacular.  You can feel the warmth of the sand, the coolness of the salt water, the gentle sea breeze, and the lone figure on the beach really does make you feel as though you are alone in that paradise.

 

* * *

"Beautiful Creation" by lallymac

"Home is where the heart is" and for lallymac, this dawn image will always remind her of  happy times and new beginnings.  New beginnings as a photographer in capturing such an image with sharp silhouettes and gorgeous warm tones of morning.

 * * *

There would be no greater compliment to a photographer than to let them know "you get their image" - their purpose of recoding that image, that moment - has been achieved.  Go and view these artists' on-line galleries, and tell them you "get their images"!

 

 

What do your t-shirts say about you?

Do you wear your clothes or do your clothes wear you?  Fashions come and go, and when we look back on old photos, we all cringe at what we were wearing that seemed so hot at the time.  The t-shirt trend at the moment is to make a statement - forget the plain one colour t-shirt - adopt a slogan or design that is either pertinent to who you are, what you believe in, how you feel at the time, or think is just plain cute and will bring out the colout of your eyes. Awww....   Here's some pretty hot examples:

 


 

 

welcome to my virtual world...

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...a place where many of us spend time relaxing, learning, chatting, socialising and playing. My intention is to share with you images I come across the web, websites I find informative and interesting and any other topic that fits in my virtual world.