Color Sunset Photography

Sorry to keep you waiting...personally delivered my sister-in-law's framed images she purchased from me.  All the way to Lake Havasu City, Arizona!  Long drive, but we had a great visit.  Helped her hang the photos up and they really look great in her living room.  The first night we got to Barstow and had to stop and spend the night.  We were tired before we left - so need I say more?  It was windy there, but when we left the motel to go eat dinner there was this fabulous sunset.  Of course I had to run and grab my camera very quickly as these images don't last long.

My husband's sister and husband put on a little party with about 14 friends coming over to greet us and she said, 'to see my artwork'!  That was really outstanding in my book.  Very thoughtful.  We got to see their friends some of whom we know, and also the grand kids who are now teenagers.  They do have a little sister who is just a doll!  I'll post a photo of her tomorrow!  Today I am working at the High Hand Gallery, so if you're in the vicinity, come by and say 'hi'!  I'll be back in my studio manana getting back on track!

Digital Resizing

Yesterday proved to be quite productive despite me having vertigo!  After scanning in photos for my husband, I was able to start resizing the European photographic images and got thru most of them.  I only have three more cities to do:  Rome, Florence, and Barcelona, Spain.  What a job that was - I worked on it for probably five or six hours!  I'm resizing them for my website which I haven't updated since the beginning of 2011.  This blog takes some time, imagination, and selection of a photo.  I try to do most of my postings in the morning, but sometimes that doesn't work.  My next step is to upload them to my website, which is another event in itself!  That should take another couple of days and that's just the uploading of the photos.  Then there's the dialogue and the pertinent/historical information that I add to each image.  But I am getting there!

This image is from the isle of Santorini, the town where all the blue domes are that you see on calendars.  I've had several myself.  I thought there would be more of those blue domes than what I saw.  There's really only about 10 if that many.  However, every view is beautiful and I'll post more from Santorini as we go along.  Again, by the time we got to any of our destinations it was already somewhere between 10 a.m. and high Noon.  Not good photography-wise.  But you've got to make the most of it when you do get there.  I guess I don't need to mention that it was so bright up there on top of this island, and then you're dealing with bright white reflections!!  My film black and whites were not so good even after shutting down the lens, but I did get a couple that I might be able to work with.

Perils of a Photographer

When I worked on Sunday I got all my updated prices on my photography.  It was storming that day so we did have some traffic in and out, and sales weren't bad either.  It was one of those days that most of the folks already knew what they wanted.  Either they had been in before, or were looking for gifts.  I took my oils and painting in with me, so Paula and I both worked on our paintings that afternoon.  There is a new retail shop located in the sheds now, called "The Vintage Bricoleur".  They re-purpose items and one side of the shop has re-purposed antique silverware made into necklaces, bracelets with added beading and such.  Very nice stuff I must say.  A lot of other antique items.  I saw a set of four Colonial small frames that had pictures of Thomas Jefferson's home in them -  I believe it's Monticello.  However, what I saw were four small darkroom prints in them!  ; )  That would look really cool!

Unfortunately for me, I woke up today with vertigo!!  Ugh!  It seems like I tend to get this from time to time.  I hate it.  So I won't be doing a lot of stuff today except maybe scanning in some old family photos for my husband.  Yesterday I worked on photography paperwork - it's that time of year, and also cleaning up my desk area.  Looks neater in here now.

I was looking through my European cruise photos and saw a photo that reminded me of a near mishap!  Ahh, the perils of an intense photographer!  I was so involved with the beautiful scenery at this monastery that we stopped at in Paleokastritska, Greece.  It was up at the top of a mountain, overlooking the ocean, and the monastery was pristine white, and I'm looking thru my viewfinder as I'm climbing up the stairs, oblivious to anyone and anything, and ... I trip on the uneven flagstone flooring!!  Then I'm taking off, bent over, almost running, but not wanting to fall with my two cameras (yeah, let's save the cameras and forget about our body!), and luckily for me I actually stop when I come up to the group of people in front of me!  A young girl says to me, "wow, you could've gotten hurt!"  No @#$! Sherlock! ; )

Matting and Framing

Well this so-called Google Chrome is nothing but a big pain in the you-know-what, if you ask me!  Nothing like going around in circles to get to my blog..  I liked my old version of blogger - not this one!  That only took another half hour to get online today.  How does one complain to Google?

Today I spent all morning matting and framing.  I finished up my sister-in-law's order, so that is done!  My son gave my husband a beautiful print of an original drawing by the artist Dan Brewer who also re-signed the print.  It is titled "Bartering to Pass", and consists of a cowboy on a horse bartering with an Indian on foot.  It's done quite well and my husband loved it!  I had ordered the frame and ended up not matting it because I didn't think it needed one - it stands out all on its' own.

I'm going to re-establish my prices for my photographic images, which means I will be printing up new labels for my work at High Hand Gallery.  One of the many things I learned early on when I went 'public' with my work, was that an artist should be consistent with their pricing.  So increasing my prices at High Hand will definitely make me more consistent.

Good news! I went to my second oil painting class yesterday - and I think I'm getting the hang of it now! It was a lot more enjoyable this session and I was able to put down some oil on half the painting. Last night I finished up putting the portraits I took of the High Hand Gallery artists on CD's which only took me about 40 minutes for 16 CD's. Then this morning I stopped at the gallery and dropped them off. I put them on disk mainly because I have satellite internet connection - bad scene. I would have been here for days trying to email them out. But here's something for you bloggers, I updated to Google Chrome. So I'm not very computer literate when it comes to figuring out programs. I downloaded it, but shouldn't it come up by itself for the blog? It didn't. There is a shortcut on the bottom menu bar and that's how I was able to get into my blog. I tried my normal way of getting to the internet to my website blog, and '...my browser no longer supports my blog.' So as long as I went to the Google Chrome shortcut I could get to my website, then my blog. Why did I ever click the update button for Google Chrome? I spoke with two of my fellow gallery artists when I was there, and they were commenting on my new Venice images and thought that my prices weren't high enough. That's funny that they brought it up, because I was just thinking that to myself recently. I do put a lot of work into taking the image in the first place, developing or uploading, printing it just so on fine art paper or developing them in the darkroom on fiber based paper, cutting my own archival mats, replacing the glass with non-glare glass, and framing them in a professional way with the proper backing and wire. So that is a lot of work, time, effort, expertise, etc.! You don't have to sell me on this subject! ;)

Matting & Framing

Yesterday I began working on the three 11x14s that my sister-in-law ordered: two from Venice and one from France. I usually cut my own mats, but I purchased the mats for her from Aaron Bros., as well as the frames. I use Aaron Bros. when I'm in a pinch! The reason I don't buy from them all the time is that the frames aren't the best. The ones I purchased weren't wood, but rather plaster with gold paint. They had the 'Old World' look to them to go along with the images. Well, the plaster broke off on the corner of one of them, so now I have to go purchase another one. I know they won't let me exchange, they'll say I dropped it. Whatever! And I wasn't able to replace the the plain glass with non-glare because they must put the glass in first, then finish off the 'plaster' work which makes the opening less than 16x20! Oh well, she wasn't really expecting the non-glare glass anyway.

Last night I was checking my supplies to make sure I had enough Cd's to put the High Hand Gallery portrait photos on for the artists. I won't be emailing them the photos as the files are rather large and we have satellite! I would be here for days trying to send photos. This morning I will start putting the photos on the Cd's and then later this afternoon I have my second oil painting class. I don't know about that class. I'm not really in the mood for painting. It seems I have to be in the mood to paint - and oil has such a big learning curve. We'll see.

Portraits in Color and B&W

A few weeks ago I offered the High Hand Gallery Artists the opportunity to have their portraits taken and/or with their artwork...yup! I sure did! High Hand has a blog, so we needed photos to go along with the artists bios. So photos took place yesterday, all day long, which was also our first "Artful Sundays" at the High Hand Gallery. It was a happening place let me tell you. We also had some great keyboard music by Wayne Baxley who just happened to play with my uncle's band for over 25 years, known as the George Bruno Big Band. And if that wasn't enough, candle making classes were going on too in the back studios. I like it when they're making candles, it smells so wonderful!

I set up my lighting and backdrop panels in the back area where we wouldn't be disturbed and I could turn off the overhead lighting when I needed to. It went fairly well and I ended up taking 16 artists' photos out of 31. Not bad. At first I was taking the portraits inside, but during a break I started wandering around and found a back wall of the sheds that would be a great backdrop with natural lighting, which is what I love working with. I had searched on the drive into Loomis looking for a natural backdrop setting and there were some brick walls, but we would have to walk back down the street a couple of blocks. So the back wall turned out to be perfect!

Needless to say, I wanted to finish these up and be done with this project, so I've been working on them all day. I just finished and I think I need a hot pack on my neck. I told the artists not to expect truly professional portraits, as this is not being done in a studio (I'm landscape, remember) but that I would do my best. Hope it works out for them (and me!) Here's Unni Stevens who is an oil painter. She's extremely photogenic!