Artalyst blogs

Color, improving my photography, and other ramblings

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 09:47:01 -0500

Like so many others I've been very busy. As such, I haven't spent a lot of time here. The main reason is I'm essentially rediscovering photography. Over the summer I started to feel like I was in a bit of a slump. I was shooting, but not getting anything too exciting out of it. I thought that when I went to Yellowstone in Sept., I'd be re-inspired. That was mostly true, yet much of what I shot didn't "pop" the way I thought it might. I've recently had an epiphany. It's actually a bit of a story. Perhaps journey is a better word.

During the summer I discovered that Adobe bought Pixmantec. I was greatly distressed by this. Pixmantec seemed to be a company that understood photographers and very quickly made a name for themselves. What I didn't know was that Adobe had been working on developing Lightroom, a new aproach to digital photography workflow. They wanted Raw Shooter for it's RAW conversion engine. It intriguied me enough to start playing with LR b3. I was amazed at what I could do with RAW conversion and disapointed at it's DAM capabilities. It was slow as molasses, but still showed a lot of promise. I was especially impressed by the control over individual colors that it offers. Then LR b4 was released. Much faster, more tools, but still really crappy DAM capability. Not even close to ACDSee.

This sucks royal monkey butt

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:26:49 -0400

So here I am sitting at my computer when I should be driving to work posting about something that just happened to me.

I got ready this morning, ate and walked out the door to go to work. I get down to my car (I have to park on the street because I don't have storage room and I have to use my little tiny garage for that). I open the driver side door and everything is wrong. The dash is totally jacked up. Someone took a crowbar to the dash to get the head unit of the stereo out and they broke in the small window in the back. This is the second time my car has been burglarized (not in the same location mind you) this year. I'm just sitting here waiting for the sheriff to show up and make a report. Apparently 2 other cars within a block got hit last night too. I hope it's drivable...

Blog referred to above has been Deleted.

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:26:05 -0400

If anyone wishes to go to my blog this is the new address. I have photo's, stories, and mainly flame fractals, most of which are not put in this Site. The photo's are not of high enough quality for here. Running out of words to put here, to make 50 words.

http://fractalsincoyxbhfge.blogspot.com/

To date

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 12:57:56 -0400

So to date from the Rugby tournament last month I got a picture in the Glenwood Springs Post-Independant newspaper and I'll have around 6 pictures in the next issue of Rugby Magazine. Not a big money making event for me for sure but some good exposure and two publishings.

I'm also still waiting on the little league parents to order prints. I know that two of the kids have parents that said they would definitely buy some.

Really need these things to be profitable to continue doing them. Right now making $75-150 for an event may be icing on the cake but it sure doesn't make it worth going out and spending all this time and effort and the expense of equipment...

More new stuff

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 00:13:10 -0400

Yesterday I went and took pictures of a little league team playing in a tournament. In reality I took pictures of 3 teams, since the team I was 'invited' to take pictures of played the other two teams. I got some good shots I think and it was kind of fun watching the kids playing. Watching little league baseball is infinitely more interesting and exciting than watching pro baseball though (at least to me). The kids try so hard and are so cute and make so many mistakes that it is just fun to watch. Plus the games are short. My hope is that the parents love the pictures and order lots of prints. If they do then I will do it again.

Happy Fathers Day to all you Daddy's out there!!

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 17:48:17 -0400

So good to see things brighten up around here! I love the contest idea, but mostly running out of things to say as much of the art around here is truly great! About that critique poll, I personally like having my images critiqued regardless if someone says good things or hey that needs some work. I think most of us would say the same thing. The only thing I can't stand is malicious people who just want to say mean things. I guess it's all about intention. Are you trying to help or give advice, or are you full of yourself and just want to be an ass? I haven't seen anyone on this sight who was malicious, but I have encounted these types of idiots other places, and those I could really do without.

Another step

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 08:49:28 -0400

I took pictures at the 2006 All Star Championships this past weekend and things have been hopping in my neighborhood ever since. I handed out around 100 flyers at the games themselves and quite a few business cards too. I also took about 3000 pictures with my new Canon 30d (which I just love). Every night I have been downloading and processing and posting pictures in my rugby gallery on smugmug (http://lineofsight.smugmug.com/rugby). Since then the traffic has on my sites has started to go through the roof (230 visitors in my gallery) and I have gotten one picture in the Glenwood Springs Post Independant newspaper and I'll be getting some in Rugby Magazine.

More angst

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 22:07:14 -0400

Well if it wasn't enough to be in slump. When I was motivated to shoot again, my 20D had a problem with the "main" wheel. Uggh! It's 14 months old, so I figured that it was out of warranty. Canon still covered it. It's been gone for nearly two weeks and I'm having withdrawl symptoms :P. They should be shipping it out next week. The good news is that I'm buying a 5 year extended service contract through Visa. Evidently it's a benefit that I didn't know about.

The same week that I discoverd the problem with the camera the A/C in my truck went, and our dishwasher started acting up. when it rains it pours.

Stuff

Wed, 17 May 2006 21:37:35 -0400

Well, I'm going through one of those periods where I haven't used the camera for a while. I haven't even carried it with me. No motivation. Not for three months. I took it out of the bag the other day. I even turned it on. That's about it. We're supposed to discuss what makes us tick. Sometimes I don't even know myself.

I've read it many times that artists and writers lose their inspiration from time to time. After 3 years of shooting, it's only a few months ago I actually started to think of myself as an srtist. I made a lot of shots on a trip to San Diego in February that became mostly what I expected them to be when I pressed the shutter button. So does my lake of inspiration make it so? That I'm really an artist? Ha, not likely. More likely, it's all the stress that work has put on me of late. Working 60 hr weeks does little to encourage the creative side.

Wow... long time

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 17:00:54 -0400

I just visited today during some down time...
I've been very busy with the new job and after hours activities.
Haven't had much time to shoot or create.
I hope to upload soon. The server and website changeover
really took away the desire to re-upload everything.

Thanks for being interested enough to read this. Just
thought I should explain myself. :)

New Start........

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 02:04:05 -0500

Well, life changes and opportunities come an go, I’m a air conditioning controls engineer by trade and have not had much work for a while, being fed up of travelling for work, I have been very picky. Anyway, I decided to set up a studio for my own use and hire, it’s 800 square feet and on a brand new development, I have been working like mad fitting a laminate floor, kitchen and back drop doofers, but I got there, it’s done, I now have a studio! I am just waiting for some furniture and lighting gear to arrive and it will be up and running. In the few weeks it has taken me, I have had 14 offers of contract employment, funny world eh?

M.I.A.

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 12:14:20 -0500

Haven't been around much, but I couldn't see wasting space. Haven't picked up the camera much except to take your everyday snapshots, nothing profound - till I took the ham out of the freezer. Life has been busy trying to get my health in order blah blah blah.... boring stuff like such. Just a note of explanation to those who care to read it.

Art and the amateur photographer

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 13:22:14 -0500

Many years ago was when I first learned basic photography. It was in high school. To make a long story short, I never had the money to purchase a 35mm SLR, lenses, developing, etc. So I was away for a long time. A few years ago, as digital photo technology began to mature to a decent level (and my income was a wee bit better), I bought a 4mp digicam. It had manual capabilities so I began to experiment and re-learn all that I had forgotten. One of things I read had to with the study of art as an aid to learning good photography, especially paintings and drawings. While I understood the concept, I didn't have any practical experience with it. I'm sort of a hardhead in that I often have to experience things for myself before they sink in. I have no formal art or photography training, so nothing to root the concept with.

Sports

Sat, 17 Dec 2005 13:29:05 -0500

Well I may have a shot at doing some real sports photography. Not peewee, not high school, not college. Pro! I got tickets to a minor league (CHL) hockey game and took my camera. Even though I was 3 rows from the glass I got some good shots which made someone go wow. That wow is turning into an opportunity to shoot either a Bronco's game or an Avalanche game. I'm pretty excited about it.

Critiquing others, accepting criticism, and self critique

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 09:56:13 -0500

Part 3- Self Criticism

I really meant to write this a while back. Life, being what it is just didn't allow me the time. So here it is.

This is a scary thought. Really scary. To have to look at one's own work the way someone else might look at it. To take away the emotional attachment that you have for your work. WHAT! That's what my art is all about, my emotions! How can I separate my emotions from my work? Well, that's the real trick isn't it? The fact is, this is one of the keys to self critique. Remember, others will not look at your work with the same viewpoint or emotions. Let me qualify one point, human nature dictates that it is nearly impossible to completely separate our emotional attachment. However, we can train ourselves to take an objective viewpoint. One of the best things we can do is to walk away from our work, that is, put it out of sight, out of mind for a few days or better yet, a few weeks. The advantage to doing this is to allow your emotions to take a break.