In my never ending search to make your life easier I have been out looking under leaves and rocks and twigs and have found for your surprise and delight…stuff!
That’s right more stuff from the Ole Trawler.
First and maybe the easiest I have ever seen is this little Web-base picture editor, Pixlr. It isn’t as powerful as the high priced spread or as flexible as Photoscape but you can do some amazing things with it and best of all it doesn’t clog up your hard drive cause it’s web-based. Let someone else’s server carry the load. Oh yes, it’s free. Now that’s not bad, no space on you hard drive and free, that’s nifty, neat and cool.
http://pixlr.com/editor/
Click on the link and then bookmark it and you’re done, a picture editor in a web-based package with nothing for you to do but click and enjoy.
Ever wonder what all of those buttons and settings on your digital camera are for and what should you do with them if you knew what they were? Wonder no more.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/248699/using_your_cameras_settings_program_mode_shutter_speed_and_more.html#tk.nl_wbx_h_crawl2
Read this short but inclusive article and you’ll have the inside track and be able to manipulate your Brownie with all of the aplomb of Annie Leibovitz! Don’t let the Program setting buffalo you, take charge and make that camera whistle Dixie, oops that politically incorrect song again, maybe the Sound of Music sound track would be a better choice…The hills are alive…
And when you finish the article and are walking around with your head in your hands and thinking maybe the ole hemlock death of Socrates wasn’t such a bad deal, go to…
http://camerasim.com/camera-simulator/
Where you can start putting all of that knowledge to good use without spoiling a single frame of digital film!
For next class there will be a pop quiz on camera settings so don’t think you can just go home and watch re-runs of Gilligan all night and expect to be prepared when we meet again!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
32nd Annual Spring Photography Contest
32nd ANNUAL SPRING PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST
presented by Photographer's Forum Magazine and sponsored by SIGMA
PRIZES :: OVER $8,000
IN CASH & EQUIPMENT
EARLY ENTRY Date: APRIL 16, 2012
Early entry fee is $4.95 per photo entered
(uploaded/postmarked on or before
end of day April 16, 2012 EST)
FINAL ENTRY Date: MAY 14, 2012
Final entry fee is $5.95 per photo entered
(uploaded/postmarked on or before
end of day May 14, 2012 EST)
WINNING PHOTOS PUBLISHED IN THE NOVEMBER 2012 ISSUE OF PHOTOGRAPHER’S FORUM MAGAZINE AND EXHIBITED AT BROOKS INSTITUTE GALLERY 27.
ALL CONTEST FINALISTS WILL BE PUBLISHED IN THE BOOK BEST OF PHOTOGRAPHY 2012.
ENTRY GIFT: 2 FREE ISSUES OF
PHOTOGRAPHER'S FORUM MAGAZINE
$10 Value - Just for Entering!
(U.S. and Canada only)
Enter Online at:
PFMagazine.com/photography-contest/
To Enter Prints or Slides by Mail
Download Entry Form:
PFMagazine.com/contest.pdf
Monday, January 30, 2012
Camille Pissarro
“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.”
::: Henry Moore :::
There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Begin At the Beginning
There comes a moment in everyone’s life when things just don’t work right, the coffee doesn’t perk, the car won’t start, the dog won’t go out, the cat won’t come in and the inspiration won’t come.
So what do you do? Well you could run around in little circles screaming, “The sky is falling,” or you could look for a way to start things back on the right path.
Show of hands please, how many for right path? And how many for the sky is falling? Oh come on it s not that bad. No matter what you feel at this moment, the sky is not falling.
Okay rule number one, I learned this years ago when I was a telephone support person for HP, is it plugged it? Have you checked? Do you have kids, pets or spouses? Cause of you do odds are they’ve come along and changed things without so much as a sticky note to warn you.
The Long Suffering does this to me all of the time. I sit down to watch TV and the remote is missing or the lamp won’t turn on or I set my glass down on empty air. You’ve really never set a glass down without looking to see if the table was still there? How do you know the table has moved if no one tells you? What do you think people actually look at the rooms they live in?
Okay, okay I should have looked and I did clean everything up, cause the Long Suffering was muttering about Lorena Bobbitt while tapping her foot on the carpet. (Actually we don’t have carpet any more. We pulled it up and replaced it with composite flooring and the house ahs been much cleaner ever since not to mention moving furniture around has been so easy even the Long Suffering can do it without my help, which she would never do cause supervising me is one of those hidden things that are included in the marriage vows like “love, honor and take the blame.”)
So the very first thing you should do when things don’t work is…let’s not see the same hands every time, yes, see if it is plugged in.
This works for almost everything and is a universal rule.
Next, if it doesn’t work try changing the… You have to fill in the blank. It’s not all that hard, like this if the lamp doesn’t work, try changing the outlet where it is plugged in, the bulb, the breaker, etc, etc.
Computers are particularly fond of this sort of thing; they won’t work unless they like the thing you are trying to use.
USB, this stands for Universal Serial Buss or Useable Sucking Bleeper! When the USB works it is a marvel, just think of all the times you have downloaded pictures from your camera and how quickly and easily it went and then remember the bad old days back in 99 when it might work or it might not. Sony made a killing with the Mavica digital cameras which used floppy disks and CDs for this very reason, floppies and CDs always work.
Most of the time now it does work, but if you are having trouble, try using a different USB device. Sure you probably just have the one data chord for the camera, but you can pull the memory card and use a card reader and get your pictures that way.
Printers are notorious for doing this thingy, ever hook one up and it won’t print? Is it plugged in? Is the USB chord connected? Did you read the instructions? HP printers will not work if you plug the USB line in before you load the software and power up the computer. But if you load the software and power up the computer before you try to connect the printer then when you connect the USB line the machine will instantly recognize your printer and all is well. Read the instructions.
Read the instructions. This is one of the ones that everyone skips and pays for, if you don’t read the instructions you won’t know what the maker had in mind for you to do and because you didn’t do it that thingy won’t work. Or the picture won’t come together.
It is amazing how many people believe that art is something you can just sit down and do.
Aside* There are thousands of people in this world who really and truly believe they know more about what you are doing than you do and they are willing to tell you and then shout and scream if you don’t do it their way. If they are teachers or successful artists or business people specializing in art listen, consider and then decide if you should do it their way. If they are not one of the former, ignore them, politely.
You and I know that art is not something that just happens even if you are Jackson Pollack and have a ten square foot canvas stretched out across Highway 101 and slosh paint across it every third car.
Even that took insight and inspiration. And those two things are hard to come by. So, take every chance you get to find inspiration and insight. Talk to other artists, read art blogs, hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, go to shows and read, read, read.
Take inspiration for poetry, music, food and dance, these too are arts and they can be instrumental in kick starting your “little grey cells.”
Is it plugged in? Use another device, outlet and take inspiration where you can find it.
Did you ever wonder why it is so many talented people do so many things well? The artist who cooks, then paints, then runs a business, all with seemingly endless energy and creativity. How do they manage? One thing feeds another. Remember the part about using a different outlet? It works for people too.
So instead of whining about the cold and the wet what are you doing to kick start your brain and why are you still here? Go plug something in and then tell me all about it you mechanical genius.
So what do you do? Well you could run around in little circles screaming, “The sky is falling,” or you could look for a way to start things back on the right path.
Show of hands please, how many for right path? And how many for the sky is falling? Oh come on it s not that bad. No matter what you feel at this moment, the sky is not falling.
Okay rule number one, I learned this years ago when I was a telephone support person for HP, is it plugged it? Have you checked? Do you have kids, pets or spouses? Cause of you do odds are they’ve come along and changed things without so much as a sticky note to warn you.
The Long Suffering does this to me all of the time. I sit down to watch TV and the remote is missing or the lamp won’t turn on or I set my glass down on empty air. You’ve really never set a glass down without looking to see if the table was still there? How do you know the table has moved if no one tells you? What do you think people actually look at the rooms they live in?
Okay, okay I should have looked and I did clean everything up, cause the Long Suffering was muttering about Lorena Bobbitt while tapping her foot on the carpet. (Actually we don’t have carpet any more. We pulled it up and replaced it with composite flooring and the house ahs been much cleaner ever since not to mention moving furniture around has been so easy even the Long Suffering can do it without my help, which she would never do cause supervising me is one of those hidden things that are included in the marriage vows like “love, honor and take the blame.”)
So the very first thing you should do when things don’t work is…let’s not see the same hands every time, yes, see if it is plugged in.
This works for almost everything and is a universal rule.
Next, if it doesn’t work try changing the… You have to fill in the blank. It’s not all that hard, like this if the lamp doesn’t work, try changing the outlet where it is plugged in, the bulb, the breaker, etc, etc.
Computers are particularly fond of this sort of thing; they won’t work unless they like the thing you are trying to use.
USB, this stands for Universal Serial Buss or Useable Sucking Bleeper! When the USB works it is a marvel, just think of all the times you have downloaded pictures from your camera and how quickly and easily it went and then remember the bad old days back in 99 when it might work or it might not. Sony made a killing with the Mavica digital cameras which used floppy disks and CDs for this very reason, floppies and CDs always work.
Most of the time now it does work, but if you are having trouble, try using a different USB device. Sure you probably just have the one data chord for the camera, but you can pull the memory card and use a card reader and get your pictures that way.
Printers are notorious for doing this thingy, ever hook one up and it won’t print? Is it plugged in? Is the USB chord connected? Did you read the instructions? HP printers will not work if you plug the USB line in before you load the software and power up the computer. But if you load the software and power up the computer before you try to connect the printer then when you connect the USB line the machine will instantly recognize your printer and all is well. Read the instructions.
Read the instructions. This is one of the ones that everyone skips and pays for, if you don’t read the instructions you won’t know what the maker had in mind for you to do and because you didn’t do it that thingy won’t work. Or the picture won’t come together.
It is amazing how many people believe that art is something you can just sit down and do.
Aside* There are thousands of people in this world who really and truly believe they know more about what you are doing than you do and they are willing to tell you and then shout and scream if you don’t do it their way. If they are teachers or successful artists or business people specializing in art listen, consider and then decide if you should do it their way. If they are not one of the former, ignore them, politely.
You and I know that art is not something that just happens even if you are Jackson Pollack and have a ten square foot canvas stretched out across Highway 101 and slosh paint across it every third car.
Even that took insight and inspiration. And those two things are hard to come by. So, take every chance you get to find inspiration and insight. Talk to other artists, read art blogs, hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, go to shows and read, read, read.
Take inspiration for poetry, music, food and dance, these too are arts and they can be instrumental in kick starting your “little grey cells.”
Is it plugged in? Use another device, outlet and take inspiration where you can find it.
Did you ever wonder why it is so many talented people do so many things well? The artist who cooks, then paints, then runs a business, all with seemingly endless energy and creativity. How do they manage? One thing feeds another. Remember the part about using a different outlet? It works for people too.
So instead of whining about the cold and the wet what are you doing to kick start your brain and why are you still here? Go plug something in and then tell me all about it you mechanical genius.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Spring Planting
What seeds have you planted for this spring?
Did you weed the beds, put out new seedlings and spray the old so the bugs and the damp don’t get it?
That’s the way it is with growing things, they need constant attention, and so does your art. If you haven’t gotten out and started your spring planting, you are way behind.
Have you started your Independence Day paintings, sculptures, photos? It takes six months led time to get anything in the slick magazines. They don’t look for what is happening right now they are out there half a year ahead doing what needs to be done so that when all of their projects come together they can put out that July issue and have it look right.
Sure it is too cold and wet with all of our rivers overflowing and the pastures sunken under ten feet of water so don’t even think about trotting out and starting something. If you don’t have it in the can you are outta luck!
Valentines Day? You should have thought of that way back in September! Now it’s too late for this year, better start planning for next year and while you are at it make out a calendar with all of the projects you need to start for next year.
You don’t? How can you expect your art to make a living for you if you don’t plan ahead? Sure there are a handful of artists who have such a reputation and following they don’t have to plan. How did they get that way? They worked and planned and got out in the trenches and made it happen.
So you don’t think you want to focus on magazines anyway. That’s commercial art and you are a person with aesthetic vision and don’t pander to the decorative interests of common folks.
Jeeze, you are on an ego thingy aren’t you. Those common folks you are so quick to dismiss are the ones who will be loading up their campers and RVs in the next few months and driving along the Oregon coast where they will buy things to take back to where they came from and hang in their travel trailers and Winnebago’s and it might just be your art if only you had planned ahead and gotten it ready so that they could find it when they got here, but you didn’t do that did you?
You think living here in paradise is all that you have to do to create a reputation so vast and broad that it gets written up in all of the travel magazines? Oh that’s right you don’t think you want to get your art into slick magazines.
The next time you have to go to a doctor, dentist or a CPA, it is coming up on tax season or maybe you have to go see a lawyer and are shaking in your boots because the kid ran the car into the neighbor’s fence and then drove off without saying so much as “sorry” and now that neighbor is suing you for the cost of a new fence made of solid gold and the court costs and lawyers fees which make the teensy little cost of the O.J. trial look like pocket money and there you are sweating and moaning and flipping through magazines which are at least six months old and reading about what you can do to make a pumpkin scary without losing fingers or having to have a transfusion and you suddenly flip a page and see ole Blind Fogy’s duck picture that was in the Public Hanging two years ago and was snapped by an AP photographer covering the event and seen by an art director in San Francisco and now it’s in the magazine and old Blind Fogy is getting paid enough to buy a new Audi 2000 and no one will safe on the streets of Coos Bay and how did it all happen? Old Blind Fogy got his work out there and got it seen, that’s how.
Entering shows is one of the best ways to get your work out where it can do you some good. And because the news folks with the big cameras come and look and get to take pictures which the general public does not because the work is hanging in a museum where there is no photography allowed and the picture goes viral and winds up on Letterman and there you are Old Blind Fogy got a big pay day and what did you get?
Maybe you just don’t like museums and the whole juried show process? It isn’t fair that some get chosen and the rest get cast aside. Does that mean you are out of luck? No of course not. You won’t get as much exposure as Old Blind Fogy but you can still get your work out there, if you plant the seeds.
So where are you showing your work while you are waiting for the next big show so that you can be the one that the UPI photographer snaps and besides you look a lot better on camera than Old Blind Fogy, so it would be much better for Letterman if he had you on the show instead of Old Blind Fogy.
You aren’t? The shows are really the only way to get your work displayed without shelling out beaucoups bucks and you just don’t have the beaucoups right now to spare so you’ll just have to wait for an opportunity which doesn’t require quiet so much beaucoups.
No you will not. The libraries, Coos Bay, North Bend, and Bandon are always looking for art to show in their cases and they get big name artists cause the Big Guys know that not spending your hard earned beaucoups is the best way to go and so they show their work at the library where if you have a card you can get The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and be literary while being a successful artist with imagination.
No library card, try one of the local art shops. There are a bunch of them and they gladly take consignments. They’ll show your work, sell your work and give you the money and you don’t even have to be there to get the job done.
What about one of the free, that’s right free display places? Josie’s On Broadway right in the middle of beautiful downtown Coos Bay or North Point real estate office, both places have lots of space and are artist friendly. But you have to go and check it out.
The Crystal Dolphin will also take art on consignment High Tide Café displays art and Ken and Jane Snoddy at Easy Lane Frames and Select Gallery have just finished one show and are hosting another one. Call or email Jane and see if she has room for your work. Even getting one piece out of the closet and on to a wall will do more than all of the stuff in your closets.
Spring is the time for new planting; make sure that your art garden gets as much attention as the garden at your house. Then this fall it will be you and not Old Blind Fogy showing up on all of the morning shows, getting their picture taken with Sharon and Ozzy Osborne on The Talk and even getting a kiss from Kim Kardashian! Now that’s a spring to look forward to!
Did you weed the beds, put out new seedlings and spray the old so the bugs and the damp don’t get it?
That’s the way it is with growing things, they need constant attention, and so does your art. If you haven’t gotten out and started your spring planting, you are way behind.
Have you started your Independence Day paintings, sculptures, photos? It takes six months led time to get anything in the slick magazines. They don’t look for what is happening right now they are out there half a year ahead doing what needs to be done so that when all of their projects come together they can put out that July issue and have it look right.
Sure it is too cold and wet with all of our rivers overflowing and the pastures sunken under ten feet of water so don’t even think about trotting out and starting something. If you don’t have it in the can you are outta luck!
Valentines Day? You should have thought of that way back in September! Now it’s too late for this year, better start planning for next year and while you are at it make out a calendar with all of the projects you need to start for next year.
You don’t? How can you expect your art to make a living for you if you don’t plan ahead? Sure there are a handful of artists who have such a reputation and following they don’t have to plan. How did they get that way? They worked and planned and got out in the trenches and made it happen.
So you don’t think you want to focus on magazines anyway. That’s commercial art and you are a person with aesthetic vision and don’t pander to the decorative interests of common folks.
Jeeze, you are on an ego thingy aren’t you. Those common folks you are so quick to dismiss are the ones who will be loading up their campers and RVs in the next few months and driving along the Oregon coast where they will buy things to take back to where they came from and hang in their travel trailers and Winnebago’s and it might just be your art if only you had planned ahead and gotten it ready so that they could find it when they got here, but you didn’t do that did you?
You think living here in paradise is all that you have to do to create a reputation so vast and broad that it gets written up in all of the travel magazines? Oh that’s right you don’t think you want to get your art into slick magazines.
The next time you have to go to a doctor, dentist or a CPA, it is coming up on tax season or maybe you have to go see a lawyer and are shaking in your boots because the kid ran the car into the neighbor’s fence and then drove off without saying so much as “sorry” and now that neighbor is suing you for the cost of a new fence made of solid gold and the court costs and lawyers fees which make the teensy little cost of the O.J. trial look like pocket money and there you are sweating and moaning and flipping through magazines which are at least six months old and reading about what you can do to make a pumpkin scary without losing fingers or having to have a transfusion and you suddenly flip a page and see ole Blind Fogy’s duck picture that was in the Public Hanging two years ago and was snapped by an AP photographer covering the event and seen by an art director in San Francisco and now it’s in the magazine and old Blind Fogy is getting paid enough to buy a new Audi 2000 and no one will safe on the streets of Coos Bay and how did it all happen? Old Blind Fogy got his work out there and got it seen, that’s how.
Entering shows is one of the best ways to get your work out where it can do you some good. And because the news folks with the big cameras come and look and get to take pictures which the general public does not because the work is hanging in a museum where there is no photography allowed and the picture goes viral and winds up on Letterman and there you are Old Blind Fogy got a big pay day and what did you get?
Maybe you just don’t like museums and the whole juried show process? It isn’t fair that some get chosen and the rest get cast aside. Does that mean you are out of luck? No of course not. You won’t get as much exposure as Old Blind Fogy but you can still get your work out there, if you plant the seeds.
So where are you showing your work while you are waiting for the next big show so that you can be the one that the UPI photographer snaps and besides you look a lot better on camera than Old Blind Fogy, so it would be much better for Letterman if he had you on the show instead of Old Blind Fogy.
You aren’t? The shows are really the only way to get your work displayed without shelling out beaucoups bucks and you just don’t have the beaucoups right now to spare so you’ll just have to wait for an opportunity which doesn’t require quiet so much beaucoups.
No you will not. The libraries, Coos Bay, North Bend, and Bandon are always looking for art to show in their cases and they get big name artists cause the Big Guys know that not spending your hard earned beaucoups is the best way to go and so they show their work at the library where if you have a card you can get The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and be literary while being a successful artist with imagination.
No library card, try one of the local art shops. There are a bunch of them and they gladly take consignments. They’ll show your work, sell your work and give you the money and you don’t even have to be there to get the job done.
What about one of the free, that’s right free display places? Josie’s On Broadway right in the middle of beautiful downtown Coos Bay or North Point real estate office, both places have lots of space and are artist friendly. But you have to go and check it out.
The Crystal Dolphin will also take art on consignment High Tide Café displays art and Ken and Jane Snoddy at Easy Lane Frames and Select Gallery have just finished one show and are hosting another one. Call or email Jane and see if she has room for your work. Even getting one piece out of the closet and on to a wall will do more than all of the stuff in your closets.
Spring is the time for new planting; make sure that your art garden gets as much attention as the garden at your house. Then this fall it will be you and not Old Blind Fogy showing up on all of the morning shows, getting their picture taken with Sharon and Ozzy Osborne on The Talk and even getting a kiss from Kim Kardashian! Now that’s a spring to look forward to!
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