Lost Aussie on the loose

Abstract Fun

Things on the kitchen counter top, mixed with a little strobe light and a good dose of imagination.

Packing continues.....

Moving Along

This is another "cooked up" piece.  Images from Venice, Charlotte NC, Central Park NY and the Beaches of Long Island.  Made last week when the pressing events of moving were not quite so pushed to the forefront of my mind.

And whilst I might be immersed in stuff to do with the house and moving I am not so oblivious to all that goes on around me on the world wide web and am appalled to note that another teacher of photoshop classes has rather blatently ripped off my syllabus for an online class that I taught a while back .....
right down to the same weekly offerings, of Camera Raw, straighten, crop, portrait retouching, buttons and blog banner stuff.  All with the same order and detail as a class I have posted in the past.

I am all for being entrepreneurial, but PLEASE get your own ideas and think a little further outside the box if you want to represent the same kind of material......

And on that score, I will be teaching more in 2013.  Possibly more "in person" workshops based out of Charlotte, NC.  Photo walks, photo tours and some post processing as well.  I'm going to be based slightly north of Charlotte, right on Lake Norman ....

 

so I am thinking, long explosure and perhaphs some wildlife photography and architecture in the City.... 

What do you think?

Digital Stitchings

The Rush of Tide
© Marie Otero 2013

A composite of about 12 different photographs and textures (all my own).  Long gone are the days when I'd compose with stock images from Deviant Art, freebie Flickr etc.

I like the notion that there is beach from Long Island, pillars from Washington DC, waterfalls from a Hyatt Hotel in Connecticuit, texture scraps from Venice and a dude from California, all pieces of me and my camera.

I'm also liking the newly revamped Light Render tool in CS6 which they all but did away with in CS5.  It's nice to have it back in all it's 16 bit functionality!

Looking Back A Little

Hard to believe that this time last year I was tripping around Venice (in the freezing cold) snapping fabulous pictures of the costumes and scenery that abounded during Carnivale.

I fell in love with the country, the people, the food, the wine .....and most of all with my camera.  I'd hoped to go back again this year but as the worm turns, it was not to be and so I will hope that perhaps things will shake out a bit differently for next year.  I'll wish at least.

Aside from more packing and sorting chores this weekend I managed two trips to the movies, to see Identity Thief and Quartet.  One was sheer amusement and predictable.  The other was a delight in dramatic character portrayal and left you believing you had been there in the moment and not at the movies at all.  Mind you I am a sucker for anything with Billy Connolly or Maggie Smith in the cast!

So the latter movie, whilst perhaps not the usual mind numbing commercial US fare, was definitely the better choice!!  And highly recommended.

 

Skating On Thin Ice

I wish I felt more certain about the direction of things and was able to have some concrete notion of where I am going and more to the point, when.

Stuff is sort of nailed down but not quite.  We have a rental house sorted out, more or less.  We have buyers for the house kind of.  The movers have a tentative date.  My Studio is packed to the point where it is good for nothing except aggravating the cats as all their cozy spots are out of order.  They are twitterpated and so am I!!

I know it's that betwixt and between and in good time everything will fall into place... it's just in the mean time I am a 'tad' out of sorts....

Happy Valentines Day

It's that time of year when smooches, hugs, cuddles and love are in order.... whether you get to impart them in person or have to send them off virtually!!

This one is for my lovely friend Nancy whom I am thinking of every day.  Sending her lots of love and strength. xoxoxoox

Flash Ah Ha....

The camera really is a never ending adventure.  And inspiration for photos takes some odd twists and turns at times.

Today, the outdoor vista was one of pelting rain, overflowing iced up gutters and murky mist.  A perfect oppportunity to haul out the tripod and flash and have at some of the wilting tulips off the dining room table......in the comfort of warm indoors.....

Major drawback of indoor dull light day photograhy is that I'm actually a Speedlight idiot, and I know it's only my own fault, usually hiking up the ISO and preferring ambient light, but today I worked hard with some reflectors, light diffusers and also tested out my lovely Xmas gift of remote flash controllers.

These shots were taken with my Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens.  I set my ISO at 100, f stop at 10, shutter speed at 200 (to sync with my flash), attached my pocket wizards and set my flash to manual mode, 1/2 power and -1/3. (And yes, I used a tripod).

And YES, there was a fair amount of jiggery pokery going on before I snapped the shots that I wanted, testing all of the previous settings up and down the wazoo until I found what worked....

On the whole I am pleased with some of the pix I took.  I've got lots of really nice primo flash gear but am always hesitant to use it......But  I'm at the point where if I don't take it out of the damned box and play with it, what's the point?????

I think the boundaries were in my head and after today I'm keen to experiment a bit more (inbetween packing of course..........)!!!!!

And who knew that dunking tulips could be so much fun???

To Charlotte, NC and back

I've spent the last few days in Charlotte, NC, revisting old haunts and taking the camera to new places that have sprouted up since last I lived here, particularly in Uptown Charlotte.

New eye, new camera and new interest, and there was lots of camera fodder to be found.  Just a shame I forgot my card reader and camera cables, so was not able to post pics while I was there...

The architecture there is really quite phenomenal, lots of cool sculptures to photograph and as it looks like this will be my home again in the not too distant future, I already have in my mind a photo walk tour that could prove to be quite fun.

The main aim of this trip was to house hunt (as renters for a change).  I want a little more flexibility and time to figure out what will work best before jumping in at the deep end and buying a property that is not necessarily in the right place.

We may have lucked out today, but time will tell.  Renting there is a dog eat dog business, hot market and slim pickings to choose from....so fingers crossed that our application on the house of choice goes well.

Finally made it back home to Long Island to be greeted by 22 inches of snow.   I'm sure there are a few landscaping disasters lurking under the fluffy white stuff, but until I can fire up the snow blower and clear out tomorrow, it remains a lovely and pristine vista of chilly white ......

Playing With Tulips

Yes, there was a thousand other things that I should have been doing today, but a lovely vase of tulips and sun streaming through the front windows meant that all good intentions were forgotten and I grabbed my camera and tripod and had at it.....

And then of course, a commensurate amount of time spent fiddling with the pictures.....

At least it made for a day where the possiblility of Spring seemed within grasp .... and I still met my junk heaving quota for the day .... so all was not lost!

En Pointe - Some Ballet Delight

I had the pleasure of shooting pictures with model Viktoria today, some 1000 of them in fact.  But since this is the last day of time to be spent with #2 son, post processing has taken rather a back seat this evening in favour of long chats and delivery of the last of the maternal sermons for a while.

Viktoria was great though.  Bendy, supple and just a delight to work with.  She is also noted for her 'contortionist' abilities.  So I have shots of her in all sorts of incredible poses, upside down, wrapped around herself.. pseudo flying through the air...amazing really.

Unfortunately my days of doing ballet splitz are long gone.  90 degrees I can still manage but 180 is about 20 degrees short and looks kind of weird, and let's face it, who needs to hover 3" above the floor for anything much at my age!!

And as I type this, snow is falling.  So plans to visit Arthur Kill early tomorrow might need some revision.