Thursday, October 8, 2015

If the Design Fits, Wear it!

I am a member of Clickin Moms, an online site featuring forums, contests, classes and more for photographers. Yeah, it’s mostly made up of mom-arazzies, but there are many professionals, too, who participate in the contests, online classes and conferences.

Each year they feature a t-shirt contest, and here are a few of the designs I submitted. (Still hoping they get the like button fixed on my entries so people can vote for them! ;D) You have to be a member to vote for the designs, so I thought I would post them to my blog so that everyone could see the ideas.






If you are a clickin moms member and like any of these designs, vote for them using this link to the 2015 contest. Thanks for your support! Who knows, you may just be seeing one of these on a t-shirt real soon!

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Creating Portrait Artistry One Pixel at a Time

In this day of turbo charged cell phones and an abundant means of sharing images on social media, standing out in the photography field is a new challenge for photographers. 



The typical criteria that customers use for selecting one photographer over another 
(location, experience, talent, personality & reputation) still have value, but today, 
many clients make their choice based upon a photographer's style or a specific 
artistry that they want to achieve with their  own portrait/photos. 

It is a wonderful opportunity for photographers to find their uniqueness and 
to express the talents that make their photography special...their brand.

For me, I approach photography with an extra creative eye, looking at lighting, 
the blur of colors, the patterns or shapes created in posing, striving to 
create MORE than a photo, something I refer to as portrait artistry.




Sometimes the opportunity just happens, when light falls magically upon the 
subject creating an image that looks more like a painting than a photograph, 
but other times I choose to create the magic through digital means. 

How is this done, you might wonder? Through advanced programs 
such as Lightroom and Photoshop, photographers get the opportunity to 
shine like artists and bring their vision to life through blending layers, 
masks, textures, the merging of multiple images, etc

Below is an example of an impromptu photo I took of my daughter Ashley 
with her puppy, Zoey. You can see how the before image is super sweet and 
evokes an emotional response, however I saw the potential to take that to a higher 
level and create real portrait artistry, as shown in the after result below. For me, 
creating portrait imagery that takes whoever is viewing it on an emotional 
journey is the ultimate goal. Leave them breathless and wanting more. 



Make your portraiture a priceless treasure that each customer wants 
to repeat and can't resist sharing with the world.

For more examples of my photography, click here 
to visit my website or facebook page.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Some people view art; others live it.

“Some people view art; others live it.” - Cheri Wenger

For you creative types out there, you get this statement totally. Art is not just something we look at or create, our whole life is a continual process of appreciating beauty, collecting inspiration and translating that into everyday experiences and art. So it is with great joy and excitement that I can say that after a two year interruption (divorce and other life events just happen), I feel like I can return to the "art" of it all...my passion and my creative self. 

Life sometimes takes us on detours, some of which I have yet to even encounter, but I refuse to allow it to take from me the one thing that gives breath to my life. I create. I need to share it so others can enjoy it, too. Don't get me wrong, I never stopped creating, my enthusiasm and passion dim were merely dimmed. Through the process, I learned a very valuable fact — never let another person dim that light, and make you question your talents.

So here is my welcome back to blogging...I am beyond excited to 




...once again.


Art 
Portraiture

Most of you know that my creative roots started way back in kindergarten with my love for drawing and painting, which later evolved into a career in graphic design. After an introduction into digital photography and much encouragement from friends, my passion and interest for photography grew. So why not offer customers a more unique product combining the best of both worlds?

The image above was taken during a beach shoot, and the photo by itself is precious, but why not take it one step further to create a unique work of fine art portraiture? 

How did I do this?

This was created combining other photography images and textures on layers in photoshop with some design brushes to create an expanded background suitable for a large gallery wrap (canvas). 

My customer didn't have quite the wall space for this 16x20 version, so I reworked it in size to fit an 8x10 canvas board wrap which they chose instead. Below is a quick cell phone shot of the it.

Quick tip: Always work in a larger size than you think you might need cause you can always shrink but quality is effected when you try to enlarge.


The smaller finished canvas board wrap




Keep an eye on my blog for upcoming tips and even some tutorials on art portraiture and other DIY creations! I plan to share the chalk paint restored vanity that is now my new desk.