I had one of those wildly productive days today. The sort where you get myriad chores done inside and out and then in the afternoon I sat down and spent a few hours cleaning up my computer. Folding away class files, cleaning out my download folder, editing pictures and even found some time to "play" a little with some of my recent pics, collaging them into the piece above.
It felt good to wield the pen over the tablet for the heck of it!
Not sure what it takes to bust the PG-13 rating on the Blog and I am not that keen to know - and nor is that my intent. However, artfully described nudes have been around for centuries and I am sure I am not the first person to "show and tell" without offering offense. And rest assured, none is intended.
"Helena" was a lovely model. A dancer with very expressive hands, which more than anything captured my eye.
It will be a while before I figure out what to do with the 900 plus RAW images that I shot of her. Some several hundred have already been assigned to the "trash" bin, but she was very captivating and I have lots more pictures that I will be working on - inbetween laundry, gardening, online class stuff.... and whatever.
You know how it goes!! Anyway, this the beginning of the 'creative' interpretations!
The above image, a little abstracting of a photo taken from a Macy's window.
And this, a little Hell's Kitchen Flea Market gem.
I overheard the stall holder say that she wished she a had a dollar for every photo that was taken and objects not sold. So I fished 4 quarters out of my purse and slapped them in her her hand. She was pretty ornery and I was not about to tick her off further!!
Just the sort of thing that people do??? ... pull the camera and tripod out at 12:30 am and start taking pictures of eggs on the kitchen cook-top - which by the way makes for uber fab reflections!
What can I say? - I'm not that normal (and I daresay both my parents will vouch for that!) but my enthusiam for my camera, and taking pictures is rather all consuming these days. So I figure I will just go with the flow....and snap while I can. I can nap when I am 80!
Since figuring out how to make my camera work in low light places I have started to garner quite a nice collection of images shot whilst riding the train in the New York Subway. These candid shots always seem so authentic and in some ways, more than many other pictures I take, truly represent the people of New York.
This guy was snapped late last night, on the subway train back from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Dozing a little as the train rocked and rolled!
I've painted him using techniques that I will be teaching in Week 3 of my Paint, Sketch, Play online class.
I've had this little bird house for years now. I think I bought it in Delaware at some point and regardless of which ever state it resides there is always some happy family that comes to visit it in the Spring, builds a nest and hatches some chicks.
This year is no exception and thanks to my new piece of glass and trusty tripod I was able to capture a few snaps of the latest guests. Their fleeting movements make them a tricky capture but shutting the cats indoors and a little patience reaped some fine rewards.
I'll leave you with the latest of the "dead tulip" adventures. Snapped just as I was about to put dinner on the table and glanced to the side of the dresser and saw "the light" .... that delightful golden hour stuff which pours into my kitchen from the west each afternoon ....
..dinner had to wait.
Photograph - Streetside flowers on Amsterdam Ave, NYC.
Marie Otero © 2012
I had a fun day out in NYC yesterday visiting with a Artist friend on the Upper Westside who wants to do some collaborative work for an exhibition she is planning.
The concept and i-phoneography is in her head, but she's persuaded me to take care of the Post-Processing of her images in Photoshop and to profile and print the large format ones.
I'm pretty excited as we are rather on the same wave-legth - which is a good thing and I can quite see where she wants to get with her work which will ultimately be displayed in large and small format using paper and Encaustics.
Stay tuned on that score!
I then cruised down to Battery Park and ensconced myself (cat free) in the uber smooth Ritz Carlton (courtesty of sleep-over priviledges thanks to DH's business meeting). Soaked up the view of Miz Liberty before joining the "boys" for a few glasses of wine and fast paced conversation on topics ranging from business to politics and back to politics - whereupon I prudently ate more peanuts and just listened!
Since I can't vote, dontcha know.... (although I seem to pay an awful lot of taxes.....)...
As promised here are a couple more pictures of my light painting experiments.
Bear in mind that these shot in a totally dark basement with no more light than a sweep of a torch!
A tulip dunked upside down in a vase of water....
I know it's not your average style of image and perhaps will not appeal to the photographic purist. But they kind of float my boat ....
and I guess that is what counts most....
(yeah, I am getting bolshy in my old age!!)
I've had a few ideas rumbling around in my head about picture taking of late. Wanting to experiment more with my camera now that I am getting to be confident with at least HALF of the settings!
To that end I hopped down off into the basement this afternoon and set about my "Painting with Light" experiment.
I took a few test shots with the lights on and then once I was set up turned all the lights off, and aside from one or two near misses, stumbling around in the dark over the tripod, had fun with my camera and fiddling with the torch light.
Some of it's hit and miss as wafting a torch around is not exactly an accurate science so a lot of the shots just went in the garbage. On the whole though I was please with my experiments.
I even managed a moderately successful play with words ....
I'll post a few more images I took tomorrow and might even cook up a "how I did it" for you.
The first week of the new online class Paint, Sketch, Play is put to bed or should I say, Live! and along with that accomplishment comes a few minutes with which to "play"? in Photoshop.
The marriage of paint and pixels is always magical to me. Neverending permutations and possibilities. A bit like life I guess??!!
