Lost Aussie on the loose

Black and White Mandala Love

If you browse back and look at the post from Thailand and check out my Palace Stairs, you will see the BW starting image for this series of Mandalas....

I love concocting these things.  It's a rather calming and certainly serendipitous kind of creativity that you just can't beat .... and the results aren't half bad either ...

So reminiscent of being a kid and twisting those funny tubes so that the crystals would align just so... and create that funky visual magic....

And lest you should think that I am doing narry but gazing at the Lake these days, I am in the throes of a massive digital re-organisation project.  Web-sites, blogs and stuff..... very headachy!  But hopefully soon to be productive and good....

To Clarify....

For those of you who have left comments or emailed me about my previous post....

Never fear, I won't stop blogging!  I like the format and the platform, but have grown weary of Typepad and it's insufficiencies and just want to "tidy up" stuff.

I know that there are a lot of you who visit who don't FB so the adventures of the "Lost Aussie" will still be around for you to peruse, just perhaps not at this web address...

I'll be sure and let you know about the progress of the virtual house move!!

Thoughts About Blog Stuff....

Star Dreaming
© Marie Otero 2013

Next month my Blog will be 8 years old!!  WOW!!

I started it in way back when I lived in Charlotte (NC) the first time, 2005 .  Since then I have seen my boys back to Australia to take on High School, seen them graduate and now ensconced in University.
I have moved house (not counting the moves in Australia) THREE times.
I've launched (and closed) a boutique Rubber Stamp Company.  Taught at Art Retreats,  exhibited at art galleries in New York and various other Global locations, created a bunch of online classes and along the way caught the Photography bug which has lead me to spend the better part of a year entering International Photography competitions with, latterly and thankfully, a modest degree of success.

Having said all that, I think it's time for a CHANGE!

Facebook, sadly, is eroding the Blog world and as much as I try to resist, perhaps the "FB Page" is the way to go.....

Whilst Typepad has been a good and honest and good soldier for me, I really want to consolidate my efforts into one (or two) arenas and need to figure out the best way to do that.

I won't be closing this Blog in five minutes flat but I daresay it's on the horizon.  It might just morph into another website in a seamless way or something, I am not sure yet.

Regardless, I hope you will stay with me for the ride and continue the journey forward.....

Reflecting On Things

I spent a fair amount of time today helping a friend figure out how to make effective reflections in Photoshop and it rather got me thinking about some new ways to interpret some of the model shots I garnered in Perth last month.

The reflection part is not too hard, copy paste, flip vertical, add some motion blur and add a displacement map to give the reflection an authentic "wobble", but the darned thing looked a bit boring so, I added a huge flourish of red across the canvas, modified it with the warp tool and added a bit more motion blur for good luck and lo you have a streaming ribbon which has been gently masked away.

Much better, or well, at least a little more interesting than the SOOC image on the right!

I never really tire of tweaking and fiddling in Photoshop.  The results are not always particularly replicable and to that end I suppose I should make better notes or create actions to mimic what I do... but for me the spontaneity is half the fun!

Here's wishing you all Happy Summer Solstice and a good Weekend!

To and From The Mouth of Babes

             Image from model shoot with son#2.

I'm still tucking away snippets in my head from my time away in Australia with my boys.  Delicious hours spent trolling around Perth with #2 son, cameras in hand, fashion nights out and model shoots...

Then there was the 21st birthday for #1 son.  A bang up party by all accounts.

On the night I declined to make a speech but in hindsight, rather wished I had.

Here's what I would have said if I did...

I'd like to have thanked him for being a good son, perhaps not necessarily a perfect one, as he has been prey to a good many instances of "teenage behaviour".... but on the whole nothing that required a police record or me having to hold my head in shame! Ha ha!

I'd liked to have offered him kuddos for surviving "other parent" behaviour that has been less than nice, and for being the greater man to forgive. For knowing how and when to forgive is a BIG thing.

I'd have said that I love the fact that at 21 he still calls me "Mum" and is happy to "talk" to me, at any and all times of the day...... that he calls me when he is happy, when he is sad and when he has nothing better to do...and especially when he is excited and vamped about stuff....

That we talk about life, politics, music, movies and much more.....

That my iTunes account almost mirrors his and we dig the same music....

I'd have also said that he (and his brother) have been the greatest teachers for and to me.  Teaching me patience, humility and empowering me with that self-less love that only some parents get lucky enough to enjoy.  And that I feel very lucky and very proud!

I didnt't give a speech at his party because I was sure I would embarass myself (or him) by crying.

Now, I just get to do it in the privacy of my own space .......

xoxooxlove you Jamesy!

 

For The Love of Nancy

As many of you know, one of my bestest friends (and first ever students), Nancy is having the battle of - and for her life.  She is currently undergoing Chemotherapy treatment as well as intensive rehab in a Spinal Unit in Toronto.  Thankfully she is surrounded by MANY wonderful friends and carers who provide a fantastic support network.

Her friends have orgainised a fundraising event to help Nancy and if you can attend the event in Toronto, I sincerely hope that you will.  Otherwise if you can donate money to her cause then it would be much appreciated too.

 

For those of you who can't attend the fundraising event and are not in a position to bid for Nancy's artwork, I shall post tomorrow several prints of my own that you can choose to purchase with 100% of the proceeds going to Nancy's  * Cancer Box.

The prints will be of the usual calibre that you would receive from me but very conservatively priced in the hope that MANY purchases will help fill Nancy's war chest.

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?

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....

Friends In Need

This evening I've come to learn that my long time friend and one of my first ever Photoshop Students, Nancy Donaldson, has been hosptitalized and undergone major surgery to treat a rather life threatening issue.

If you dont know her, Nancy is the best of the best.  You could not wish to meet a warmer, fairer more generous spirit on this earth if you tried.

PLEASE post a get well note on her blog or you can send her a real life card to St Michaels in Toronto.

More than anything else right now, I want Nancy to know how much she is loved and cherished.

Get well soon my sweet friend.....

Wistful Thinking

It's nearly 12 months since I hopped on a jet plane and enjoyed my first proper photography/travel workshop in Venice.

I fell royally in love when I was there, not only with the City and it's people, but with my camera too and I'd like to think that leaps and bounds have been made in my photo taking abilities since that awe inspiring visit was made.

This is the SOOC image that I used for the photoshopped version above.

If you've been a student in my Paint Sketch Play class you should have a good idea of how I arrived at the final image.

Lots of Art History and Mixer brushing. 
Layers of texture and sketch. 
Judicious amounts of Gradient Mapping and Selective Color Adjustments, topped off with some Smudge, Blur, Blend and Vignette layers. 
And of course a good crop to find the part of the image that worked best.

Carnivale is almost upon us again.

I'm thinking, wishing, dreaming of being there again.  Sipping little cups of hot chocolate, dining in the cafes beside the Grand Canal, walking the promenade and the Piazza and feasting on the eye candy with my camera....