I’m teaching photo editing and web design right now in my Trinity class, and I thought I’d make a tutorial for you guys to show you how to use iPiccy, which is a free online editing tool. Click on the artsy-effect photo of me, below, which I just edited and fancied up in iPiccy in less than five minutes, and you can access the tutorial and see how to art yourself up too! Have fun 🙂
Colorado Springs, 2011
Remember those old postcards that had lettering filled with scenic views? Like it would say “California” and the letters were filled with in illustration of orange groves? I made this informal tutorial for a colleague yesterday and figure why not share it with you guys – if you like to play with Photoshop, this is fun.
I’d been thinking about researching and buying a new camera for the last year or so – and today – wham! I walked into a Boston Radio Shack on Boylston Street with my friend Danny and saw this Nikon CoolPix L820 on sale for less than $250 – OK, so not totally cheap, but not $1000 either (and I did make a little money at the Beacon Hill Art Walk):
So far, this is an amazing camera. I set it up, zipped across the street to the Boston Public Garden, and gave the 30X Zoom a try. Check out these pics from waaaayyy far away:
And last but not least, a sleeping kitty’s ear two rooms away when I got back to the apartment (yeah, yeah, the rest of him was asleep too):
As usual, I don’t have any stock in Nikon (it would be nice), but I’m impressed with this camera. Danny bought one too, so we will be comparing notes. Sometimes people in my Digital Photo classes ask what kind of camera they should buy, Â and I would not hesitate to recommend this little Nikon. So far, it’s a winner.
I survived this morning’s tooth pulling (hooray), and, almost like a reward, the article my friend Jasmina Wellinghoff wrote about my new work came out today in SA Woman Magazine. She did a fabulous job of organizing my randomness. And Janet Rogers took a photo that made me wish I looked like that 🙂 – I am very grateful to both of them. Click on the photo to read the article if you’re interested. Now back to the ice pack.
Gina and I had scheduled an unannounced Collage on Canvas workshop several months ago, and it ended up being a very enjoyable one-on-one afternoon. Gina is a talented crafts-person in her own right and has made some beautiful journals for me – today she brought photos and mementos from her trips to Ireland. The hardest part was deciding on the central image. She chose a Irish beach photograph she had taken, and she also had shells from that same beach, including a razor clam shell that ended up being an integral part of the composition. We had a great time going back and forth about colors and textures and her collage is just lovely, organic and serene. Take a look.
While looking for a particular illustrator’s work, I found this gallery – a collection of images taken by looking straight down in a variety of locations. Jon Sachs believes there is a lot to see right at our feet and presents this evidence to support his claims. It reminds me of my recent Street Shards photos, but with a lot more expertise and thought.
His photographs are great studies in texture and color and composition – here are a couple, and here is his gallery link.I love his quote about the first photo, “I did not put the leaf next to the rock. Somehow it seems to matter whether I did or not, but why?
Sometimes I do move things in order to make the photograph more of what it wants to be.But not this time.”
