New Favorite Photographer?

I love this photographer: Erin Vey. Need I say more?

Also a solid reminder that I need to get out and shoot more.

Celtic Tree

A friend commissioned banners of three celtic symbols a few months ago - tree, fire, and wind. I designed them, and painted the originals. In an attempt at learning Adobe Illustrator better, I decided to try and clean the designs up a bit. I believe this is the first art I've ever made on the computer (not counting photography). I take some comfort in knowing this design started as a pencil sketch and then was painted before it became digital (in real paint! Acrylic even. None of that Photoshop fake digital stuff some people call painting. Stealing perfectly good terms for your evil computer things). I need none of that fake computer art! Now time to go hide from my digital artist friends and their well paying jobs.


Line art done in Adobe Illustrator, color and background added in Photoshop

Rosie the Labradoodle

Here's a couple of my favorite photos of Rosie from a shoot I did a few weeks ago. Her eyes are easier to see in larger versions. First, some typical portraits:




This one is actually my favorite:

Job Change

Completely not related to art, but I'm writing about it anyway. I have a new job! I'll be working for EveryScape, a company that makes virtual tours of cities, hotels, etc. Initially, I'll be doing QA for the city tours and then (hopefully) getting moved to studio. I pretty much will sit in a cubical all day and work on a computer. Yeah, I know. Not really my style, but it's a more stable schedule than weddings, frees up my weekends for various activities, and is a steady paycheck.

I'm still working on putting together my own little photography/painting business (photos from this weekend coming soon), but in the meantime I can't really complain about a steady paycheck. This job will give me more time during the summer to work on my own projects than if I was doing weddings.

Henry Wenry

Just a couple photos I sent to my sister for her Birthday. Henry is really Jill's dog. First, here he is looking handsome.


This one is Henry looking more like himself. Beagles aren't very serious dogs.

Weave Poles

This is the shot that I wanted.

This is the shot I got first. Because why would I ever play with weave poles without the Aussie? She's helping.

Textures

Just playing with the new camera. Nothing in particular.

Playground Series

I uploaded the whole playground series on DeviantArt. It's another old project (old as in about 3 years ago now), but it's an idea I want to revisit. I've got DeviantArt arranged in roughly chronological order, so it's a bit toward the back now. Here's the series in case you can't find it on there.

Bridge
Over Under
Perspective
Tunnel
Turning
Arches
Slide

I really like how abstract the colors and shapes on the playground can become. It started out just as an experiment with the idea that you can't really see a whole space in just one photo. So I started combining multiple images or trying multiple exposures. This series was the end result, which became much more abstract in some instances than when I began (and probably more so than any of my other work). If I go back to this project, I'd like to try using a much more shallow depth of field. I'm not sure what I could use as a subject other than playgrounds or if I even need to switch subject. Agility equipment is in the running, which I guess is a sort of playground. Go ahead and throw out any ideas. I'd love to hear it.

Moss

I actually did play with the new camera today! Since my life is governed by the demands of a little red dog, we ended up at the state park.

It's taking a while to go through today's photos because I decided to shoot all in RAW. Since I've never done it before and it's a time consuming process regardless, I've finished one. That's right, one. If it looks like crap on your monitor, I'm blaming this monitor. My better monitor bit the dust last weekend (or hopefully, just its power cord).

Drawing Process

I got a new camera, so I should be playing with that but my muse (who is an angry bluebird, by the way) decided that I must draw now. So I figure I'll go with it, but as a compromise I'm taking photos of the drawing as I go along. If nothing else, I think it will be cool to have a record of how this thing evolves. It's not a complicated drawing. I'm still trying to build up a pet portfolio, so that's what you get. I make no excuses for the quality of the photos. I'm just to lazy to obsess over color-correcting and adjusting the in-progress photos. The final one will look good. The rest, well at least you can see what I'm doing, right?


Here's the initial drawing, done in compressed charcoal on colored paper. I tend to use charcoal very much like finger paint in the beginning stages. Also, the chamois is an essential tool.



Throw in some darks. It's starting to get a little more form.



The whole thing doesn't always go well from start to finish. This an example of it starting to go bad. Really bad.



Now the drawing is starting to get better. It's getting a little too tight though.



I loosened up the face a bit and started to add some white for the highlights. It's too soon for the white. It's really not working. Her head is a little big for her body too.



That's all for now! I'll add more to this post as I go along.

Peepers

Sometimes photos just don't capture it. I'm not much of a writer, but some moments just deserve words.

I took the red dog for a walk tonight. It was a perfect, still night. No stars. The air was heavy and humid with a wind blowing high though the trees, too high to feel but strong and loud all the same. We walked through the stillness until we reached the top of the hill. It drops down again into a wet, still marsh and there the peepers were deafening. The first peepers of the year are always significant. They sing to spring and of warm summer nights. These guys made no small entrance. I don't remember ever hearing them so loud. Interesting, they kept to one side of the road. On the other side, where the water was moving, it was silent. It was like wearing headphones with one broken ear piece.

I was going to stop at the end of the neighborhood. It was late, and we'd avoid traffic by turning around. Iris believes that cars need chasing, and sticking to the neighborhood usually means seeing no cars. It's a good compromise. But I could hear the peepers down by the pond, and the pull to go down there was strong. It meant a longer walk, and Iris was happy to go along. The night was so peaceful, there seemed no reason to head home just yet.

We got to the beach and the gate was slightly ajar. It's a public beach, but it felt like we were intruding on the stillness of the place. We padded softly inside and across the sand. The water is high and deep. The peepers called out from down the shallow end of the pond. Clouds covered the stars but the wind rippled the water and caused the lights to shimmer across the surface. I stood listening, while the red dog explored the scents on the sand. We left as quietly as we'd entered.

As we past the old airport field, an airport than doesn't see planes anymore and half the buildings have been torn down, Iris started to walk down the path. I was thinking the same thing, little girl. The wind continued to rumble above us. Even without the moon, it was light enough to see in the field. We only made it about 3/4 of the way down when Iris spotted something. A raccoon? A fox? I could see the shape but not close enough. He started to move away from us and then circled back and into the path ahead of us. Iris was straining at the leash. She wanted to tussle. I think he just wanted to head for the treeline. We left him to his hunting.

As we walked toward home, the wind changed from a rumble to a roar. Lightning flickered, but without thunder. The air still hung heavy around us while the wind tugged at the tops of the trees making them creek and groan. We left the water behind us and the silence returned. One more spot of marsh, this time it was filled with wood frogs. They sound like ducks. Iris wasn't convinced.

And there was one last lonely peeper calling as we walked back up the street and slipped inside before the rain.

Louie the Goldendoodle

Trying to build a portfolio for pet photography.

Naturalis

So definitely not something new, but I did (finally!) get the Naturalis series up on DeviantArt. I think it only too me 2 years of procrastination and three tries at photographing it to finally come up with hafway decent pictures of it. Just in case anyone hasn't seen it yet, it's over there.

Spring?

Here's one sign of spring... maple syrup! Or at least the beginnings of it. I seem to be losing intensity in the greens when I save these ( or upload them? Somewhere along the way). I'll have to play around with it a bit.

Salem

Photos from the Salem Wax Museum

State Park

I took the red dog over to the state park for a walk this afternoon, and I actually remembered to bring my camera since I wanted to try and get some nice photos of the Dogess in nature. I think we found the last bit of ice still hanging around.

Iris Sketch

Just a quick sketch for a larger drawing I'm working on. I'm trying to come up with a "mascot" type image for my website. Originally, it was going to be a wolf, but since I was making Iris pose so I could get the front legs right... I guess you can't go wrong with "cute dog." I might tilt her head a little less for the final.

Deer

Iris was in the other room raising quite a ruckus (as usual) and when I went to quiet her down, this is what I saw:


The deer went back to munching on the bushes as soon as Iris quieted down. First there was one deer, then there were two, and then they just kept coming...

Project 365

"Project 365" is an idea of doing something, anything really, once a day. By far the most common theme is a photo-a-day. I've seen this done for illustration, writing, and self portraits, so it's not a new idea. But it's new for me (well, relatively).

I tried starting this project on Livejournal a few months ago and really didn't keep it up. I like the Blogger format better, so the project has been moved to here. If you've wandered over from Livejournal, that page will not be updated, so bookmark this page!

Right now, I'm trying to get all of my old work scanned and organized so I can put up a website. That's been taking away time from making new work (I know, excuses excuses)! I'm not planning on doing exclusively a photo-a-day. This will be more of a combination of photos, drawings, paintings, and whatever else I end up working on. If you're interested in seeing my work-in-progress, this is the place! Right now, my finished work can be viewed at DeviantArt.