Wednesday, March 30, 2011

White and Light

The other day I was reminded of a project I had to do during my first year of DAAD (digital art and design) in my digital photography course. I thought the course was a bit of a joke...as far as artistic composition and photography skills it taught me nothing. 
As is often the case, however, the value of that part of my education has only become clearer over time. I was taught about the technical side of exposure, aperature, and shooting in manual mode, all of which had been completely foreign up to that point. Most of what I learned in that course only made sense to me afterwards, as I really began to experiment with my (at that time) Canon powershot S5IS. Followed by my Rebel XSi, my work Olympus E1 (good old boy) and my new work Nikon D7000. (I'm slowly making my way up, i have my sights set on the top ;)
Back to my university project: We were challenged to take both a "low key" and a "high key" image (Low key being very dark, high key very light) with as much detail as possible. I ended up shooting a random assortment of jewelery, shoe-laces, and broken pottery in an attempt to create an interesting composition, and the result isn't worth even digging up. At the time, I had no concept of "making" a picture. Using light, movement, creating composition rather than finding it...
The point: look at my fun high-key image I took in the studio the other day! Simple, boring...yet lovely...
 

Ship Ahoy

Sometimes great ideas abound, and sometimes they don't. When they do, it usually means I have left-overs! Here is an illustration concept that got rejected (by me) today. I was going for an "art deco" feel but also inspired by some more modern trends...anyways, I enjoyed the result and thought I'd share! 


Sunday, March 27, 2011

Oooops...

 

I'm not sure if anyone has visited my website lately, but if you do right now, this is what you'll find. (dont bother trying, i promise you, my account is suspended lol). This is the result of changing your email address and failing to change your contact information with your website host providor. I got "invoice unpaid" emails for a few months before they suspended my account, but unfortunately I never checked my old address in order to actually recieve them...oops!! 

So my website is temporarily out of commission while I get it figured out. Its not the end of the world since 
A) I have a job and it wont hurt my employment
B) all my updating is done to this blog, not my website
C) I've never been happy with it anyways, and
D) pretty soon I wont be LMK...and I have some new ideas. So maybe I won't renew it! 

We'll see! So,
Today's Lesson: remember to change your contact information with anyone that matters...lol!  

And today's inspiration: check out Stella & Dot for some fantastic jewelery! 

Friday, March 25, 2011

little birdies

Just for fun, a little illustration. I guess its a sneak peak of my latest painting project, which follows the same "little birdie" look. Maybe someday I'll make a series of cards.

Oh. and by the way...4 months, 16 days till i get MARRIED!!!

"whats with the bowls?"

First of all, I have no idea if anyone is interested in some of these "technical" posts. Mostly, I am sharing because I'm having fun and experimenting, and I hope it inspires anyone else exploring the world of photography on their own. And because I have all these photos of random things with cool effect (what I think is cool anyways) and I have nothing else to do with them. lol!
(it dawns on me this is really the purpose of my blog...I am having fun and experimenting and I hope it inspires someone!)

Today I did some more practice shooting with my handy little off-camera strobe. Today's assignment was "cooking light," the challenge being to create something "fine art worthy" out of regular kitchen utensils or tools. (assignment from strobist.com) Yesterday I found some light gels tucked away in the cupboard at work, so I thought I'd give them a try. I also had to pull out my favorite model, my engagement ring...lol! As you can see, it was fun and produced some neat results. Useful for what you ask? Not sure yet. I'm just making pictures.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Lights, Camera...more lights...

Playing with light is becoming my new favorite thing. After my camera and flash upgrade I attended a workshop in vancouver for on-camera flash units. woah. i know understand quite thoroughly how my flash works in relation to my camera. know what that means? I can learn how to use it! I've been going through an online "course" (blog at strobist.com) and trying all sorts of new things. So, here is today's best exercise! And a big motivator to me to use my flash more effectively, since although ambient light is usually gorgeous...there often isn't enough, and there is no reason my flash can't achieve the same effect! Or, as demonstrated by these photos, a blow-your-mind better one. Ok maybe its just me.





Friday, March 11, 2011

Illustration Happiness :)

Yesterday was a good day. You know why? I've been illustrating. I'm working on another piece for Insights Magazine and as usual its been a wonderful blur of a few hours creating a new piece. Its funny...I never set out to illustrate, but I'm finding that I enjoy it more than anything else I get to do at my job! Almost more than using my new work camera. ALMOST. So here are a few screen shots of what I'm working on. Keep your eyes peeled for the finished digital issue, or sign up to get it in print (for FREE!!) once a month. Not just to see the work I do, but to get a good dose of solid biblical teaching in an engaging format.