Felt icky most of the day today – after rallying yesterday for a day of art I went right back to feeling crappy. Didn’t feel like having my picture taken but I persevered and then played with this a lot (obviously!). I did a split tone in my RAW editor, followed by a bi-color filter, and then a high key filter (both Color Efex Pro) and finally did a little dodging on the white of my eyes.
So this is the ubiquitous resolutions post – it’s pretty simple.
FOCUS!
Focus on photography – and by this I mean read every book and magazine I can get my hands on, utilize online sources – including classes, join some local photography groups and SHOOT everyday, even if it’s just silly stuff around my house. I’m doing a 365 Project and a 52 Weeks Project – working on a theme for that one.
We’ve had a very arty day so far. Went to the Albuquerque Museum, it was Family Day so Katie and Will both made art and Will and I went on a special “kid’s tour” of their current exhibition. Then we went to the Open Space Visitor Center and checked out David Cramer’s exhibit of wild horse photography, and then we went to the Factory on Fifth for their art opening. I was cool to see some familiar names of people that show or have shown at The Cow, and some intense work by artists I’ve never seen before. Very inspiring.
At the Factory there was a tree decorated with lots of big silver balls, and I chose those for my second self-portrait of the year.
So, I am participating in a 365 project. I’ve tried to do the photo-a-day thing the last two years and have failed miserably both years. This year I’ve added two things to increase my odds of finishing. I’m giving myself monthly themes, and I’ve joined a Flickr group of like-minded women. Let’s see what happens!
This is a little series I’ve been working on for a bit. These original photos are vintage family snapshots that a fellow artist gave me to “play” with. The one above was created today. See the netting in it? That is from the inside of a huge manmade pumpkin that lives at our local botanic garden. I used other images from the same day I took the pumpkin – a flower, a jellyfish, and light reflected on water in an aquarium. All cobbled together to create what you see. One of my little “tests” for myself is to only use imagery from a particular day. It makes the images more meaningful to me and is a nice constraint – otherwise I’d be combing my 20,000+ images obsessively.
I worked on this one last week, I just added an adjustment layer today to make it fit – colorwise with the image above. Below is the original version of it.
My story for this one is that the person viewing the people on the yacht just woke up and is looking though some tree branches and their vision is a little hazy – hence the golden light and green accents.
This is actually the first image I worked on from this series. I added the same adjustment layer to get the same tones.
We went to Old Town last night to see the luminaria there – it was a beautiful display! The whole neighborhood becomes bathed in a golden light. Merry Christmas, everyone!
Could have been a farmer’s wife,
moved a simple mile from my parent’s home,
watched those green fields forever
I was an artist’s wife,
the muse without a thing to call my own,
placed on a shelf with all the other pretty things
Now I am me – growing in the bright blue New Mexico sky.
Now I am a partner – not just a wife.
Now I am a mother – marveling at the children whom I birthed.
Now I have my own vision.
And I’m nurturing it in the bright blue New Mexico sky.
Actually she’s my boss’ daughter, waiting while we were checking out the new space of one of our clients. She was bored, so I asked her to be my model as things were wrapping up. Go Josie!
