Lost Aussie on the loose

Some Things I Did Today

I'm finally pulling my head out of the Venetian clouds and settling down to do a bit of work. Mostly on the new painting class I keep promising .... yes, yes, it is coming along.  Albeit much slower than I would wish.

There will be a variety of styles that I will be teaching and I have had a few requests for things to include in the class.  Christine asked me about how to do comic book style images and so I will be including that style of work in the class too.

And I am still in love with painting with patterns and texture ....

and then of course, there is the more traditional look....created with another one of THOSE Venice photos!

So you can see, I have been busy.  I have not forgotten the promised new class.  Now just to work all these ideas into one coherent and replicable syllabus and I'll be good to go!  Ha!

Patience Grashopper!

(oh and inbetween, I've created 25 fabulous new texures and overlays using my Venice pictures.  They'll be posted over at HERE soon!)

 

The Other Face

For me, no trip to anywhere would be complete without the requisite "grunge" shots and in that regard Venice was no exception.  Whilst it was full of history and ornament there were also the trademarks of 21st century artists, tags and stencils.  Lots of which found their way into my camera viewfinder and duly snapped!  Probably 15 or so of which I have collaged together here.

I especially liked the paste-ups of flyers advertising Hope and another for Love - you could tear off a strip if you needed some.  By the time I found them, the strips were all taken ...... enough said I guess!

We all need Love and Hope!

The Weekend that Was

Thanks to all the well-wishing, my cold is abating and I am on the mend.  The weekend has been filled with catch-up chores and some time taken for photo editing....

I snapped this lady on the island of Burano and have some empathy with her as that is what I have been doing today, albeit the US "dryer" version!

I primped and preened a little to go out for dinner last night, although not quite to this extent ...

and then today we went out for a good long walk around and about, though can't say for sure that we saw any colors or canals of this ilke? ...

That's probably it for now in the way of Venice pictures.  For sure I don't want to bore you to death with them all.

Perhaps at some point I will get it together and assemble an album or something, though right now other things are pressing!

Ciao for now

A Painted Lady

Click and Mouseover the image for the before and after edits.

It's cold and miserable here in New York today.  Perfect weather for staying indoors, drinking tea and doing a little Photoshopping!  I've also got a case of the sniffles, maybe due to the crazy rocket ride of temperatures here abouts, either that or some less than delicious germs bestowed by the guy who was sitting next to me on the plane sneezing all the time!

This piece has taken about twice as long to concoct as it should have, about half way through working on this image Max the cat decided to tiptoe round the back of my desk and plopped his dirty great paws over the powerboard and "poof" the Mac shutdown and 70% of what I had been doing for the last 2 hours was lost.  Yeah, yeah, I did have a saved version of my file, but it was you know, like Rev 1!!
Just as well I love that cat .....

Anway, here we are. Miss Venice 2012 - well for me anyway.  I just loved her hat! 
I used the "sooc" photo and then layerd a neat image of a big clock face and some architectural bits for the background that I took later in the week.
You can mouse-over the image to get the before and after edits.

Enjoy!

Some Musings on Picture Taking

Our model Julia (SOOC)
© Marie Otero

Clearly going on a rather expensive photography trip and learning how to use your camera in the company of professionals gets you thinking a bit about how and why you take your photos.

I have always been a kind of point and shoot gal, coming to the world of photography from the back end via my experiments in mixed media and photoshop.  Pictures were always a means to another end for me and I never worried about what was in the frame, the camera's shutter speed, aperture or any of that kind of "techie" stuff.
As my friend Nancy can attest, it was always about grabbing some sort of snippet that could be crafted into something fabulous in Photoshop.

Now after spending a week with a bunch of crazy A**ed pro' photographers, learning lots more about my camera and how it can take really rather nice pictures :-) .... I am beginning to see the other side of the equation, where a nicely framed shot (yes I'm watching my edges Gerri!), properly set exposures and some nice depth of field, generated by well thought out aperture and shutter speed settings can be quite rewarding to look at.

I can't say that I've achieved any miraculous level of expertise at taking pictures, I still have a lot to learn but I'm thinking that there is going to be room in the future for some "perfect" pictures now, as well as the on the run "auto" shots.

I can play with them ALL, regardless, in Photoshop - right?

 ..... and here's the creative version! :-)

So what about you? How do you like to snap your shots?  Are you a manual maniac or an auto baby?

A Touch of Glass

I seem to be heading backwards into my photos, not that you would know! 
However, one of the days that we were in Venice we headed to the famous island of Murano to grab a photo shoot at a Glass Factory.

If you thought that hot flashes were a problem, think again.  30 minutes watching these guys blow glass and I was just about to expire on the floor!  Clever craftsmen in the extreme and my hats off to them, each one.  It really makes you appreciate the price of an 80 euro drinking vessel!

Then there was the showroom which the factory gladly gave up to us for our cameras to make the best of for several hours.  Patient in the extreme as we arranged, rearranged and fiddled with their priceless glassware.

One of the fabulous things about the Photo Tour was the generosity of each and every one of our group.  I picked up some good macro shooting hints from another student ....

...  and tips from the teacher, in thinking outside the box and turning the image upside down for greater impact!

What can you say? ... but Cheers!

A Few Snaps

So I'll share with you a few snaps from the week in Venice - in no particular order.

The schedule for our Venetian workshop was pretty full on and for those of you who know me well, getting up early is not really my forte, but our group determined that one one day a "dawn shoot" was in order .... and so get up early I did and I confess that I was not sorry I had made the effort.

We took the Vaporetto to San Marco and whilst you might think that at that time of day (and given the freezing temps) that the place would be deserted, wrong, it was crazy busy with photographers of all shapes and sizes, vying to photograph the costumed models who were parading about.

This red Bird-Man was one of my favourites.  His posture and brilliant costume with it's sumptuous plumes were just the epitome of style and grace.

This glorious gold creature was just as splendid with his/her? wings up as down.  What was fascinating was the number of men who were hidden behind the costumes, not just women.  It was quite hard to tell the difference really.

Colour abounded.  Every shade imaginable - the costumes were fantastic and by all accounts VERY expensive to hire or have made.

And, for the most part all were willing to play the part for a photo, pose and preen, have fun and share.
Some even handed out little calling cards with a request to send them their picture back in return for the favour of posing.

I have a lot of those cards spread out on the desk, a lot of favours to return!

I took over 200 photos in the space of about an hour and a half before the freezing chill sent a few of us running for hot chocolate and time out.  I'm guessing beneath those fabulous costumes were layers of thermals and keep warm goodies too :-)

.... and that's all for now.  Time for some East Coast zzzd's!

xoxoo

Back Down to Earth

Safe and sound back in Long Island and enjoying (not) a reality check!

As the visual queue might suggest I am otherwise occupied today - doing laundry and catching up on domestic chores.  I keep glancing longingly at my computer, itching to get to work editing some of the 3000 or so images that I snapped in Venice.

It was indeed a trip of a lifetime. Carnivale was just fantastic.  I learned lots, made some nice new friends and have come away with plenty to think about!

I'll let you know when I am back up for air :-)

On A Magic Water Ride

.... Floating about on a Gondola

The Stuff of Dreams

Venice Carnivale, Feb 2012 © Marie Otero

I'm posting over at Vision and Verb today.