Archive for the ‘photography’ Category

More from our two-day stay – and again, playing around with lighting, cropping, and other assorted photo thingies (too technical to mention)….

Storm the day before, so at low tide the beach was LOADED – took this for my other Mom, Betty – she of the tidepooling book!

Next day – the gulls had scavenged whatever food there was left!

My early morning companions for beach-walking –

See what cropping does for this one –

View from our porch – Like the various textures in this one above –

This is a series – was playing with light for a possible “plein air” fabric painting…..

Manages to clone out the plastic cup, cropped it with some lightening – now I feel it’s a good picture.  

Next year……

The town of Vergennes was settled around the French and Indian War, very big up here in the Vermont/New York area. The downtown has begun to revitalize, although some of the outer businesses haven’t been able to make a go of it. We hadn’t done much exploring within Vergennes, as it was always on the way to somewhere else. This time we took the turn for Vergennes Falls and were delightfully surprised at what we found – gorgeous falls, running wildly from the rain, and some great picnicking to return to next summer. Lots of photo ops, and a chance for me to experiment yet again. The sun wasn’t perfect,m so you can see how I played around with that. Definitely a place to come when the sun is exactly right – start keeping that in mind when we set out to explore.

Definitely benefits from cropping  and sharpening – this is the middle of the three falls:

Much better with the light – Close-up, just some cropping –

Almost impossible to get all three falls in, given my little phone camera –

The original – you know I love bark –

With cropping – light issues –

Black and white, as part of an online challenge – I will continue to work with some black and white – really love the effect.

Not really able to take much of a long vacation this year – getting ready for surgery, finances, hurricanes cancelling Delaware – lots happening, so we did manage to get a few wonderful short rides around Vermont, exploring a lot of new off-the-main-road places. I am using my camera phone and hubby uses his little point-and-shoot. A new DSLR is on the agenda for next year, but in the meantime I am understanding the difference between digital zoom and optical zoom – explains why my “close-ups” hardly ever are in focus. I also am concentrating on more interesting framing of my pictures. I find I take more pictures, and usually have one or two good ones out of each batch.

This trip was a Sunday drive down around the the town of Georgia, perched right on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain. Normally we take the road from north to south, but this time we went south to east – like it was a completely different area! Sometimes it pays to look backwards at where you’ve been Discovered this beautiful boat access that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Plus, we’d had so much warm weather for October that autumn was pretty sketchy for New England – then suddenly the leaves turned – almost over night. We hit a couple of good spots for leaf-peeping.

This top one benefited from cropping. I was moderately successful at removing electrical wires.

This next series was looking north on St. Alban’s Bay – you can see how the cropping helped with more interest.

I fell in love with turning to the left to see what was there – light wasn’t perfect, but I think there’s a lot of interest in the photo.

Better with the cropping.

Some lighting contrast.

I love it in black and white!

Facing the bay, northwest. Light was not great, but I was playing.

A gorgeous Vermont autumn day!

I spent a lot of time just coming up with an idea I felt would work, and then some of the time spent rehabbing my knee by walking the halls helped it come more into focus. Then once I started, ideas kept coming – what was a month’s project stretched out into two months, with a lot of time writing what would become the messages on the piece. Women’s Work s Never Done – the topic lef me in so many directions, starting with Susan B. Anthony and the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848 as a result of the women’s congress. The complete document can be found in the right-hand pocket of the jeans. Using a Sharpie, I started to painstakingly write in the GRIEVANCES woman had against men at that time…and as I was writing, I realized not a lot had changed. The best part of this piece was traveling back in time to read in full this document and realize how far we still have to march.

Here are the jeans about two-thirds complete with the writing – each letter gone over two-three times to ensure legibility.

I worried about fading and having to re-do the writing – but isn’t that what we women have had to do through the ages? Prove ourselves again and again? Rewrite or own accomplishments so they aren’t forgotten? If the piece fades – any part of it – that’s the story of us as women.

Next came a woman’s required piece of clothing – the apron. I made it reversible – the front is traditional quilt design and somewhat traditional fabrics, and in each of the squares are messages to women – either from my own family or from society. I put a ruffled border on, and written on it is the litany of what women were expected to do: cooking, cleaning, babysitting, housework, laundry, cooking, etc. sex, birthday parties, planning dinners, sex, cooking…..you get the idea.

Click on the next picture – for some reason it isn’t clear….

Then came the apron strings. Not completely happy with how they worked out…but I love the message (original copy is in the left pocket of the jeans: a manifesto by Joyce Stevens from International Women’s Day in 1975.

Now the reverse of the apron is more a modern design, with fabrics of the same hue but considerably brighter. On that is written positive messages I have given myself as a daughter of Women’s Liberation.

Next step was the background – actually background and backing – same fabric. I initially thought I would only quilt what would actually show before I began my writing on the front, but I realized why not continue on the back with more “hidden” women from history. So I ended up quilting the whole background. Then came the burying threads – which I don’t normally do, but since the back suddenly became important, I went and did it…..there were a lot…….

I spent a lot of time online looking for missing/unknown/hidden women and I found amazing stories – most I didn’t know – even as a history major. I started out writing every other line, from the middle to top and bottom so everything would remain even.

Then I filled in everything and started on the back.

  I am very pleased that it came together as I had envisioned – learned a lot (I usually do…), but very pleased.

Comments? I’m taking names to continue the back of the quilt with other “hidden” women – send  ’em along!

Our photography has definitely improved over the years, but we still have issues. I reconnected with a friend from 25 years ago, and he came to photograph our pieces in the library show we had this past August. OMG – they are amazing. Bill Kneen, a Richmond, Vermont photographer, does pretty amazing work. (email me for his information) We’re going to use him for our major pieces. So here goes –  a really good look at a few:

Wetlands 1 – the color is so true, and the texture really shows through.

Wetlands 1

This is green cotton lame, and it’s been really hard to get the sheen that Bill achieved.

Endangered: Rainforest

Glorious true colors! So excited that this shows so well.

Rough Waters

This piece was really hard for us to photograph – looked washed out and not really a good sense of the desert – now it is!

Sonoran Desert

Bamboo Jungle – again, very true colors – you can see the dimension in the leaves.

Bamboo Jungle

THANKS, BILL!!!!

Vermont Open Studios, 2016

When we did Vermont Open Studios last May with artist Mary Hill, one of the great things about sharing the space was all the time we had to talk about our various art and marketing attempts. Mary had some GREAT ideas for us concerning packaging. We continue to process everything we thought about, with some definite changes in what we are doing. Thanks to Rachel of The Textile and Fiber Art List, we have also been improving photography – both how we shoot items and how we present the finished product.

First, the photography. Our pictures have a “muddy” cast to them, and we are basically rephotographing everything we have. The place we are living now doesn’t allow for much flexibility for setting up good lighting. Hubby experimented with a lot of options – including moving to a rolled fabric presentation rather than each piece in a haphazard manner. Give an overall idea as opposed to every thing about each piece. In this manner we can still send the packages flat and save customers money (on international orders – domestic shipping is free). Some “before and after” ideas –

Getting the overall set-up of the product looking good –

Lighting and color still issues….but against the white background looking better. Also, we discovered that we needed to save pictures at a larger size in order to get more detail in the pictures. Next is better with a good cropping and some adjustments in Photoshop to correct the lighting.

Definitely getting there –

Uh-Huh…..

Definitely brighter –

Close-up shot for the Twitter picture, which I am slowly getting back to using…..

This is just for our Charm Pack 2 – ten pieces of hand-marbled pima cotton, assorted patterns and colors, 10 x 10 inches each. Slowly working on others. The pieces need to be appealing, hence all the work on presentation in the pictures. The mailing is easier than a rolled item, which costs more to ship and doesn’t give customers a good look at the fabrics.

This looks better in person when displaying for a show – but not for online sales.

Much more ahead for us as we continue adding new items…let me know your thoughts and how you solved packaging problems.

   Another Tuesday, and I still keep finding lots of new ideas and posts to add for Tuesdays, and I still have a lot bookmarked! I also find myself going off on little research jaunts for my novel, with some interesting – and downright scary – disgusting articles. It is amazing what one can find on the net these days, and I chuckle when I remember the one cartoon making its rounds: a true friend is someone who will clear out your history cache on the internet when you die. I have really been reading some very strange stuff. But all of that is bookmarked in a separate place. What follows is the good, light-hearted stuff!

I thought this was quite cute. The site is in its infancy, but I like the premise. I will be following along to see just what they offer. Click on the pic to see more. I think the class offerings could be kind of interesting……

The Eat Pray Love lady, Elizabeth Gilbert, recommends these books as ones that helped her become a writer. How many have you read?

Useful websites you never knew existed – a lot to check out here.

…and in my ongoing quest to eat healthy, the 15 grossest foods……yup, it’ll do the same thing Supersize Me did….

Also available as a free download – 27 foods you should never eat.

The 60 Most Powerful Photos Ever Taken – how many do you remember? The one I remember the most…..

Limitations in a wheelchair? I don’t think so……

Molten aluminum in an ant hill? Look at this art…..

For Nelson Mandela – a flash mob…..

An Hour of Code – a way to help our youngsters learn computer coding – very cool!

If you find cool stuff on line, send it along!

Yet another gorgeous day! We were so worried about all the rain and tornadoes, but I’m thinking we’ve brought the good weather with us! We left Des Moines, gorgeous morning, and finally crossed the Mississippi. There is something mythic about this mighty river and it’s division of the country. Every time we cross the Continental Divide, I think about the water that flows to the Mississippi. And the gateway to the westward movement, with all its pros and cons. And Mark Twain, whose many books I have read. I always feel like I am entering or leaving a different country. The day was quiet, and very relaxing…Iowa is certainly “heartland.”

Illinois just seemed soft and green, lots of farms, not nearly the amount of sprinkle systems that we saw in Nebraska. It is SO NICE to see rivers with water in them! And I must say, Iowa has some of the nicest roadside stops!

We traveled through Illinois, past Regan’s  birthplace, into Wisconsin, and finally to Milwaukee. We weren’t  sure we’d head this far north, but I have always wanted to visit this city. Tomorrow we are doing a boat cruise around the lake and river.

Here’s a few shots from today.

A whole rest area devoted to quilting!

Iowa rest area – patchwork. locks

Even the brickwork…..

The little picnic areas are identified by patchwork.

We noticed in Illinois that the mile markers were in fractions…one-quart, half, and three-quarter.  Very cool…I’d like to know why….in Wisconsin the markers were in two-tenths….also cool!

Mile markers!

Tomorrow on the water!

A pretty unproductive week this week in terms of blogging, what with fighting a mild case of the flu. I’m even behind seeing what’s going on the net. But I did find some cool ones…..

50 Places You Can’t Reach Without Climbing – and wow, are these ever gorgeous!!

Again, some helpful hints from 365 Project: 5 Classic Composition Tips To Improve Your Photography.

From Dumb Little Man comes 5 Ways to Overcome Mental Blocks.…timely for me this week! Some good stuff here!

Very disturbing, but necessary to watch – the perils – and death – in plastic……

A collection of video on the meteorite from Russia:

You may have already seen this video of an iceberg calving – this is the LARGEST ever. Nature is absolutely amazing!!

Guess the Spot – how well do you know landmarks? A fun quiz.

Love this commercial for the Lottery, and I am such a dog lover!

Love this next – you have to be very good to make yourself look very bad! An ode to gymnastics……

And finally – this has been making the rounds for a while, but the message is a good one.

Spending some time getting caught up with blogs….and wondering why Google burps up – on a regular basis – blogs I’ve deleted. There is enough OCD in me to want to keep my list clean. I think I may have discovered a permanent way to fix this….we shall see. But a lot of interesting stuff this week!

From NBC News, the diver who saved the dolphin.

Fractals – built from business cards – what a great student math activity this would be!

A lot of interesting stuff from the 365 Project. First up – tips for winter landscaping photography

Here’s some more amazing photography:

Fire and Ice, Jake Sorenson

A Muppet spoof on Downton Abbey – LOVE Lady Violet!

Quilling – an amazing technique, and check these out. Gorgeous!! Quilled Paper Anatomy by Lisa Nilsson

Alison Schwabe’s blog has a story about the tent makers of Cairo – absolutely fascinating. I would love to see the finished documentary.

The Textile and Fiber Art List is three years old! Here’s a celebratory video of over 400 artists and a sample of their work. Amazing eye candy!

Art Quilts Around the World just finished their new challenge – Portraits. (and yes, I’m one of them….) Loved looking through all the entries and overflowing with ideas!

And finally, a 360 degree look – from occipital.com. 360Verse. Very interesting.

Have a great week!!

I cannot get over just how quickly this year is flying by. It’s nearly the end of November.I enjoy doing these posts because all the great stuff I find is now in one place where I can easily get at it! Here’s this week:

Some hints for pattern writing – something I’m very interested in, as I finish us two new ones.

From The Best Article Every Day comes an interesting look at past and present: World War II photographs superimposed on the present. Quite intriguing.

Also from The Best Article comes their Thanksgiving offering on “humanity.” Wonderful pictures.

Now here’s a mom with a great idea for a gift….not that I believe in zombies. From The Best Article Every Day, which you must read to see the whole transformation process of basic sweets……

From Dumb Little Man – advice about protecting yourself while working from home – not quite what you think!

From Design Seeds, another great color combination – this one is so restful. And I would love a quilt out of this.

I love Morgan Freeman. The Shawshank redemption is my absolute favorite movie. Here he is in a new add for marriage equality – very eloquent.

From the 365 Project, yet another set of gorgeous pictures.

Balluminaria 2012 by Cathy Donohoue

Wonderful little piece of history from the civil rights movement from Letters of Note. Short, succinct, and in your face…..

And…finally, in honor of holiday food season, one of my favorite videos by Vi Hart, recreational mathematician. How CAN you optimize your potatoes and gravy?

Have a great week! Let me know what you find online that’s really cool.

Well, over the last two weeks, as I have been getting more heavily into marketing, I’;ve discovered a BUNCH of great new blogs. So here goes:

More Design Please – great ideas! I’m seeing some great ideas – would love to do some serious purchasing…..Love these lasercut lamps!

 Another blog called Observatory Mansions – an ongoing discovery of all that is visual yet more than just visual (from the site) –

Ball Droppings – hours of fun, and be sure to have the sound on! The picture does not do it justice!

Mood music at your fingertips….StereoMood – just a small piece of moods!

From StumbleUpon I found this interesting article  Amazingly Creative Drawing vs. Photography. My art taecher friends tell me this is similar to a drawing exercise they have students do in finishing a photography. In a class with Lyric Kinard, we needed to extend the color on a postcard – very interesting attention to details!

Loads of tutorials and DIY projects at Craft Gossip:

Another cool DIY blog – 20 Awesome Do It Yourself Projects

25 Spectacular Movies You Probably Haven’t Seen – I think I’ve seen two on this list, but the Netflix queue is going to be filling up. Interesting plots……The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is one I’ve seen – A.MA.ZING. movie…..

Some pretty amazing paper sculpture – here’s Calvin’s Behance site.

While Banned Books Week has ended, I’m getting caught up with Letters of Note, and this is a marvelous letter by Pat Conroy concerning the banning of two of his books. Well stated, quite eloquent. If you don’t like a book, then don’t read it, but stay away from telling me what I can read myself.

Have a great week – let me know cool stuff that you find on line!

I keep getting behind in my surfing!

The 365 Project always has great photography, and here’s another great set of examples.

Seven by Arielle

And some more photography – this time taking pictures with smoke. The Art of Smoke Photography. Kinda cool – would like to try this.

Here’s a cool app for photography called DScan from Cool Hunting – let’s you shift reality – methinks I need to get this for my iPad…….

From The Best Article Every Day comes this wonderful graphic that puts another slant on a recent political controversy:

Here are some really cool ideas for around the house, again from The Best Article Every Day.

This next is just a feel-good video….

And…for those of you wishing we were still following Neil Armstrong to the moon, here’s a great look at what it takes to get to Mars….amazing what we can do……

I very much admire Leah Day and everything she has done for the quilting community when it comes to free motion quilting. Her Sunday posts are un finishing UFOs – unfinished quilts and the like, and her photos of two pieces she completed are just spectacular, and they are motivating! Every time I look at something she has quilted, I am inspired. I too am finishing up projects – three in fact that just haven’t made it on line, and it is certainly freeing. Take a look at her amazing work. You need to go to the link and see this stitching up close and personal.

This next is a letter from a mother to her 16-year-old daughter on the day before her execution in Prague in 1950. It is incredibly moving, especially given the political circumstances. Letters of Note always has something of interest, and this is heart-wrenching.

 And finally, are you stuck creatively and can’t seem to get moving? Lyric Kinard has a great series on her blog called Baby Steps, little things to do that can just get you started moving ahead. Try one or two and see what it does for you.

Have a great week – let me know what you find online that’s cool, unique, weird, different……….

I LOVE LOVE LOVE surfing the web – so many resources, and just down-right interesting things to see!

Some more amazing eye candy from Joan Leschenault and the Perth quilt show in West Australia. I really like look at FMQ designs in quilts.

Want some things and don’t know how to make them happen? Maria Brophy shares this inspiring look at positivity. Hawaii, here we come!

Look at the studies in triangles from this week’s JPG Magazine.

Light Traingle Swimmers by Claire Smith

From The Best Article Every Day comes a really creative use of stock images to tell a story. Every single frame is different, and yet there is a cohesive story. Very clever!

For you origami afficianados, here’s a post from origamijoel with the work of another origami artist, Eric Joisel. Isn’t it amazing what can be done with a single sheet of paper?

There is a really fascinating documentary called “Between the Folds” that is well worth the watch.

40 Famous Photographs – some you’ll recognize, some will be new, but they all tell a  story.

 Another entry from 365 Magazine – love the lines on this one!

Under the Westside Highway by Michael Elliot

I tried to find credit for this next, “The Beauty of the Night,” but can’t find anything through Google. This is a gorgeous set of photographs in a powerpoint. When you click the black and white, it slowly turns to color. Gorgeous!

This is really cool – the Sydney Opera House as an art installation. Lighting the Sails by Urban Screen. Incredible idea! Take the time to view the video.

If you’re doing some form of artist trading cards – or would like to – here’s a free online publications that just might help you: ArtTrader Magazine. They look really interesting, and you can download past issues.

What did you find on the web this week?

A couple of days off to visit friends in Sedona, so I’m playing catch-up on blogs. I have some great sites and info to share from this trip, so stay posted for some new artists.  For this week so far, an amazing video by a “destination photographer,” Shawn Reeder, on Yosemite. Go check this out!

A very cool look at old/out-of-date art supplies: The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies.…..I still have a bunch of these…..

This next is a panorama view of Paris from a bird’s-eye view on the Eiffel Tower. Pretty amazing…I watched for about 10 minutes before I started to get dizzy. I SO want to get to Paris. Be sure to try all the buttons on the bottom.

Ever had one of “those” weeks, especially as a female? The Bst Article Every Day has it captured perfectly….and this is just the beginning………

An arts advocacy organization – the Western States Arts Advocacy. From their website:

“Celebrating the Western Imagination through the Arts
The Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) is a regional non-profit arts service organization dedicated to the creative advancement and preservation of the arts.
WESTAF encourages the creative development and preservation of the arts regionally and through a national network of clients and alliances. WESTAF fulfills its mission to strengthen the financial, organizational, and cultural policy infrastructure of the arts in the West by developing and providing innovative programs and services, technology solutions, funding opportunities, advocacy and cultural policy work, and other services.
Founded in 1974, WESTAF is located in Denver and is governed by a 22-member board of trustees that comprises arts leaders in the West. WESTAF serves the largest constituent territory of the six U.S. regional arts organizations that includes the state arts agencies, artists, and arts organizations of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.”

R.I.P. Maurice Sendak, whose influence shows in some surprising areas…..one student was diagnosed as color-blind because he could always see where the wild things were. His books will live on. It’s a good video, worth the time.

“In this unexpectedly candid 2004 interview, Sendak reveals some of the early childhood memories and surprisingly dark influences behind his work. Shaped by immigrant parents and the tragedy of the Holocaust, Sendak provides frank insight into his complicated psyche and a rare window into the soul of an acclaimed artist. He also discusses how he shaped the character of Max, the mischievous lead in his blockbuster book, and what he might have been like as an adult.”

From Joetta Maue comes an interesting post on a fiber artist, Ernesto Neto, an artist I’m unfamiliar with, and one with some very interesting fiber work. See the person inside?

Belated, yes, but some amazing photos from JPG Magazine on Earth Day.

Carbon Footprint by Debbie Hartley

Eye candy from Joen Wolfrom, as she tours a quilt show in  Brooking, South Dakota.

And finally, if you’re a fan of Monty Python, then you will appreciate this exchange between John Cleese and a newspaper who misquoted him, from Letters of Note. Love the sarcasm!

Enjoy your week – let me know what you find on line that’s unique and different!