Crafty Blogger

So, I hated last week’s assignment to photograph strangers in their environment for a series of environmental portraits. I love the idea and do it all the time with people I know, but it was tough to do with strangers. I think I’m looking at a much lower grade than I usually get, but I did my best and put twice as much time into shooting as I usually do. Since I didn’t ask if they minded me splashing their photos all over the internet, I won’t post them, but you really aren’t missing much!

This week, though, I have to turn in some diptych and triptych photos. Oh, I had so much fun putting these together. I may never stop! I can’t show them to you the way I printed them because I made them as pdfs in Bridge and my blog doesn’t seem to like them or the psd format either.

So, this week, the assignment was self portraits. I think I was drawn to photography because being behind the camera means that noone is taking my photo, so you know I’m just loving this assignment. Ugghh. Anyway, I did get into making the sets up for the different shots. I so need to work on indoor lighting still, but I’m figuring it out a little at a time. I think this is the one I’m turning in.

Still 13 Inside

I had a hat like this I wore when I was about 13 and I felt so cool when I wore it. I found a photo of myself wearing it the other day and thought I’d recreate the look.

I was able to stop by a Civil War reenactment and take a few photos over the weekend. It is an annual event the first weekend of October and has been going on for years, but this is the first time I heard about it. Here are a few of my favorites:

A girl in costume walks into the Confederate encampment

A Union wife enjoys a few minutes of quiet time.

This little girl could have stepped out of the pages from a history book.

I would have loved to make it back for Sunday's battle, but I did get to see one cannon in action.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been out shooting photos instead of in the studio, but what’s happening in the rest of the art world? Here’s a glimpse:

Auntie’s Beads supplied some wonderful faux sea glass beads for Cyndi to use in a new design!

CreativeDreamer says, “Oops… I forgot to include the wrap up next week, so here it is… the Boo Pumpkin wrap up…”

Eileen, The Artful Crafter, says, “Don’t let the rotten egg smell or safety concerns keep you from discovering the wonderful burnished effects you can create on a thin metal sheet with liver of sulfur.”

Halloween is coming up, so this post on drawing a troll from a picture and then doodling the background using markers is very timely.

I was playing around with digital mixed media pieces and trying to learn how to take better photos to get the images I wanted. The more time I spent with my camera, the more I got hooked on photography. So, I have a few pieces in progress as I work on getting just the right shots, but the majority of my stuff right now is photography related. I thought I’d start sharing things here instead of letting my poor little blog stagnate.

I’m taking classes through Cecil College and am lucky enough to have started at the same time as Andy Bloxham, who is teaching the class this year. I am learning a lot and hopefully will be able to get what I see in my head out of the camera and onto the canvases I’m working on sometime soon.

A few weeks before the class, I decided to go Pentax and bought a K10D. The great thing about these cameras is that I can use all my Pentax film camera lenses on them, too. I wrote a few things about my new camera – a Top Five Reasons to Buy a Pentax Digital SLR Camera list and a Loving the Pentax K10D Camera lens.

I also have been taking a bit of my photography experience to Suite 101. I wrote an article on renting photography equipment for small businesses doing a DIY marketing campaign.

Well, enough about where I’ve been and what I’ve been writing. Here are a few of my favorite assignment shots:

These chicks crack me up. This is part of a minimal focus assignment.

The shells are under water and not quite as sharp as I wanted, but I still like this one.

So, what are you up to in your art studio?