What do you see on your way to work?

I see tulips!

and more tulips!

It's spring and flower inspiration time is here.

Photographing 3D and Fabric Art Class

I took a class at the Pacific Northwest Art School in Coupeville on Whidbey from  Denis Hill and John Olsen

Here they are taking a photo of silver earrings thru a hole drilled in a skylight,  using the skylight as a diffuser.

here is the same piece of jewelry using a light tent as a diffuser.

Here is Denis Hill (his website)  holding up film to filter the light.

here is an example of 3 lights set up using string and plastic as a tent.  Teacher John Olsen (his website) is adjusting the background.

Most of what I got out of the class was the importance of getting the lighting right.  They talked a little bit about composition, but almost all of the time was spent on lighting. 
They did the class using both a point and shoot and a digital SLR,  so the camera didn't seem to be as critical (at least for posting images on the web).  Of course there are a lot more adjustments available on the SLR, but they showed it was possible to do what we needed on a point and shoot as well.

They did a half hour at the end about using Picasa to edit the images,  (crop, adjust lighting a bit more, and sharpening).   That information was also critical as when they showed taking the shot, there was always the assumption you would crop out the excess with the computer at the end.

The class was a 3 hour class, I wish it was longer.  (the best kind of class leaves me wanting more!)

Vision and actuality not quite matching

OK, I bumped into this video of Ira Glass telling about his beginnings, and what I love about what he says is that the problem with creating something when you are first beginning is that your vision, and what you are capable of making, don't quite match, but then, you just have to keep producing, and after awhile, hopefully, what you can make, and what you like will come closer together.



So, maybe there is hope!

Caterpillars and Butterflies

I know Butterflies are done over and over, but I bumped into this book at work "100 Caterpillars"  with amazing images,  (and it does show what each looks like as a butterfly),  and I got to thinking about what it would be like to do a series on caterpillars, with the flip side a picture of the butterfly it would transform into.....
Not sure if I'd run into image rights, I guess that would depend how literally I used the images...

Still struggling a little with does the piece have to have meaning, altho the reason the caterpillar and butterfly are so fascinating is all about metamorphisis.

So, I'm in the thinking thru phase of how to do caterpillars......