Category: Photography

What Do You Do…Create!

I’ve been away quite a little while, but I have been busy creating! With all of the creating I have done of late not much of it has included the written word which has always been the backbone of my creativity. The funny thing about creativity and creating is that the creators are often so hard on themselves. You never think you are really any good. There is a voice that lingers in your head questioning your every step and stating with authority that you are not “all that and a bag of chips” even though you may think so.

This voice or gremlin (thank you Karen Walrond) is very loud and fills your mind, and head with so much doubt you begin to suffer from creative block. Writers refer to this as Writers Block, but I speak of creative block because as the title says I create! I create through words, photography and papercrafting! These are the things that bring me joy, but these are also the things that leave me feeling less than more often than not.

Kat Sloma recently wrote a post about the many hats she wears and how it is difficult to answer the question “What do you do?” with a single response. I too would be limiting myself and the things I love to do by simply stating “I am a Marketing Manager,” in response to that question.

As I close out 2011 it is with the strong desire that I will learn to ignore the GREMLINS in my mind and continue to pursue and practice the things that I love to do.

Here’s some of the work I have been creating of late:

Taken for both the texture and the composition – I came across this fence during a recent Photo Walk.

I really love this next picture because it shows how beautiful, and intriguing nature can be. I have recently become a big fan of the outdoors and trying to see the beauty that exists around us, but that we rarely take the time to see.

Hairy Tree is what I call this photo, because I never recall seeing a tree with all of this hair or fur.

This last shot would fall under the category of paper crafting I believe and is my first attempt at Subway Art. Thanks to Jessica Sprague for her recent class Mouse, Paper, Scissors – Give which incorporates Photo Shop and paper crafting as ways to create wonderful gifts and works of art. Joining Jessica in presenting the class is Heidi Swapp. The class has been a true journey and I’ve learned a great deal about Photo Shop! If you’re not familiar with the work of Jessica Sprague, you must check out her site here.

Subway Art

Silencing your inner doubts

Reflections – my shadow

If we’re honest with ourselves we all a doubting Thomas swirling around in our heads denouncing our abilities, and if you are lucky you take those threads of doubt and tie them into a knot which is thrown out the window. But there are those occasions when Thomas is persistent and you stop creating for fear of failure.

I can say that Thomas has a semi-permanent residence in my head and at times I really let him hang out a little too long. Recently I have found that participating in groups with like minded individuals and having the courage to post what you have created does a good job of ridding us of the Thomas’ in our head.

Over the last four months I have had the pleasure of participating in a number of online forums for photography over at Big Picture Classes and the community I have found there is awesome! Just think, you are interacting with hundreds of like minded people and you share your work and you receive thoughtful remarks that give you that little boost of energy you need to keep trying.

In life all things are a challenge and whether you succeed depends on your passion, persistence and commitment to the task at hand.

So today I’ll post a few shots from my journey with Big Picture Classes. I hope you enjoy!

Welcoming Spring

Dropping in to offer you a view of my ventures by the lake yesterday. As I continue to seek out my Artistic Muse I have taken up photography again, and yesterday I took a walk around the lake for a little while to try and capture nature. I’m not sure if this is a Groundhog or a Beaver, but I found him to be rather interesting.
Much more to talk about later, but for now -take a gander at Bucky! I named him that because I assumed he was a beaver.

I’m also pretty proud of the watermark I created, thanks to the free tutorial offered by Kim Klassen over in her cafe. If you’re looking for help with texture and Photoshop, stop by she has some very helpful information.

Mastering Manual Mode

For the last five weeks I’ve participated in “Mastering Manual Mode” a photography class presented by Big Picture Classes Online, and I’m really enjoying it! Today I finally downloaded the 522 pictures I have taken in the last couple of weeks, which is not all of the photos taken.

I recall someone saying you shouldn’t delete your bad photos, well I’m not totally sure about that, but I can say that some shots that are not the greatest, can have merits. A case in point is this photo of the tree in my backyard. I like this shot, but I can say it is not the shot I was looking for.

It is bit over processed, but I was able to learn a thing or two about ISO, shutter speed, and aperture from taking this shot.
This next shot is much better and also is the end result of several shots taken at the Westside Market.
Keep an eye out for more photo posts! Now off to do some knitting. Have a great week!