Printing is almost finished

With a rush of blood to the head a few weeks back I got a bit carried away and now I am heading for my first ever market stall along with two other very talented women.  When I write it like that it seems like I too am talented??  Must do that again.

We have secured a spot at the Leura First Sunday Markets, starting on Sunday 4th November and if I'm correct, I probably need to have made a few items to sell??  No worries .... it's all underway.  It's as if I am missing the stress of the final term of the school year and feel the need to be busy like everyone else rather than saunter around and tend my vege patch.

What am I selling? What are we selling?  Photo cards and matted prints - all too beautiful to resist (we hope).

We have been thinking of this for some time but never quite made the big leap into the unknown.  It's been a bit of pressure to print and present my work, but as I've been quite addicted to Lightroom 3 for some time, the actual sorting and choosing becomes quite easy.  It's as if you have this marvellous personal assistant working away in the background and when you ask them to find some of the best images you have from your last trip to Paris, back in 2007 they just do it!!  No complaining, no moody sulking, no hands thrown up in despair .... just a few seconds of computer grinding through it's memory bank and bingo, I have my best.  I've told you before how good Adobe Lightroom is but when it comes to tasks like this, it really excels.

I'm organising my wares for sale into mini collections and Dot and Robyn are doing the same.  Mine will be based around the idea of colour and movement in some of the places I love or have visited and enjoyed as well as a handful of other themes.  I can then add or delete depending on need as our sales start to soar?? Well, they will won't they?  Doesn't every novice market stall owner walk away with riches beyond their wildest dreams?

In all seriousness I did want to let people know that I'm organised to print work this year for Xmas gifts.  For me what has been an added joy is the thrill of seeing some older work be transformed by some new Apps.  It's like a real makeover.

I'm going to include a couple of sets here in this blog, however, I'm adding the more complete set on my pbase account.

http://www.pbase.com/ssteel/art_cards_


Robyn's webpage is here:
http://robyncook.photomerchant.net/home


and Dot's images can be found at these links:

http://dotradley.blogspot.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotradley/

https://www.facebook.com/dot.radley


Just a little taste of what is to come.......


The Colours of Paris

Night wandering around Concord.  No tripod but overwhelmed by the visual feast.  An old image comes to life with new technology.  How many more are there hidden away?

One of the lovely old bridges over the Seine.

Have loved this green VW for years and often wondered what to do with it.  Thankyou Apple!  Thankyou Snapseed!

A more traditional edit.  I am always taken by the street lighting in Paris.  Why wouldn't you be?  I like the simplicity of this image on the cards.

I was out this morning quite early and enjoying the brisk feeling with the local workers on their way to workplaces throughout the city.

Looks like I was into lamps doesn't it?

and from The Colours of Turkey Series .....

In working on these images from Eastern Turkey, I have had its people in my thoughts.  About this time last year we travelled through the area around Van, staying overnight in Van and visiting a couple of outlying villages as well as the beautiful Lake Van.   Wonderful people.  Friendly, open, welcoming and more often than not, quite poor.  Looking at my images of the small towns we travelled through, I notice again the simple housing that will not have been built to withstand earthquakes.

A little creative edit in Snapseed.  One of the beautiful window features at Sumela Monestry over near the Black Sea.

In Sunilurfa we had time to sit and enjoy the moment in the courtyard of this beautiful setting.

And more to come tomorrow.

Thankyou for reading this far!!

Recovery Mode

Arrived back last night from 8 days in Western NSW with a couple of photo buddies.  Fabulous time, brilliant scenery and photo opportunities.

We began the trip from the Blue Mountains and headed west to Hay for our first night, then on to Mungo National Park where we stayed in the Shearers' Quarters for a couple of nights.

The first four images are taken from around Hay.  I had some fun panning and "blurring" as the car went along.

In Mungo, the history, the sense of being in a very special and ancient place was all around.  The Aboriginal people who now have responsibility for the stories that their elders know, shared with us as we walked on the Walls of China.  Impossible to fully explain the sense of significance in this place.  The Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area, in which Mungo sits is a very special part of Australia.  The discovery not so long ago of Mungo Lady and Mungo Man have changed this place.  It is a area steeped in both Aboriginal and European history.  It is a place where scientists, archaeologists, local Aboriginal people, farming families and government work together.

The sands are moving quite quickly each year and every new rain and windstorm bring a difference to the landscape.

For us, to spend some time here in the silence and with nature allowed us to really begin our photographic journey.  Emus, kangaroos, birds were all about and the recently renovated old shearers' quarters were wonderful to sit and think about what had come before.

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/nationalparks/parkWorldHeritage.aspx?id=N0049

The land here has experienced much.  It was also a working sheep station for many years.  The renovations at the National Park Information Centre are fabulous and allow you to get a strong understanding of all that has come before.  Quite a bit of interpretive work has been done for the displays and outside, the new landscaping has provided a dignified yet informative welcome.

This emu was around the old shearing shed with a few young chicks.

One of the roos we came across in Mungo.

These emu chicks were out with their father (not shown here)

We had a long drive around Mungo and this is typical of the landscape out there at the moment.  They have had some unusually high rainfall of late.

Even though the rains have been, it is clear what the ground will be like in the coming weeks.  It has begun to recede and dry up around all the waterways.

An opportunity to wander over one of the sand dunes.  Fabulous views!  I have tried this shot a few ways but like this interpretation as, for me, it captures the simplicity and the beauty.

The mono image above was also taken on the Dunes @ Mungo.









The Walls of China (below)

Then to Menindee .....

Menindee is on the Darling River and the large lakes surrounding the area can be home to many birds and animals.  With 2 heavy rain seasons in a row, the lakes are full to the brim.  One of the women in our group has visited Menindee on many occasions and has never seen such water.

The middle of the day was not ideal for capturing photos but I found on this occasion a few nice spots that came up well as almost a black and white image.  The image below is one such image.  Taken in the middle of the day in bright sunshine, the white milky looking water against the dying trees in the lake and reeds in front, looks as if it could even be in a snow field mid winter.   I was really attracted to the blackened bottom sections of the trees as they met the water.

These next two images (below) also taken at midday in sun shows the milky water beyond the pepper tree.

In the two images (below) I enjoyed the opportunity to get a pano look.  It was a stunning vista!

And then to sunrise.  I am not a morning person, but agreed to be shoved in the car about 5.30am to drive about 45 minutes to see if we could get a nice bit of early morning light.  Even if the images weren't award winning, the moment certainly was one to treasure.    I wandered a bit away from the area where we started because I could see this lovely creamy yellow streak appearing on the water parallel to the horizon and a bit below the trees.  This is a hasty edit of one image so I could upload today.  I'm looking forward to playing with a few of these a bit later to see if I can get one to print well.

The image above is the Darling Pea in early bud.












The journey home......

In all we did about 2800kms.  Heading east again, we stopped for lunch west of Nyngan and shared the table with the Apostle birds.  They in turn shared the water bath with a few hundred bees.  Harmony in nature!

Through the windscreen heading east on the way home. (below)

The sun was gone and the fog lights were on as we headed back over the mountains.  This image below was taken about Blackheath around 5.30pm.  What a difference!

OK, so I'm hooked!!!

A further note on my new favourite things.  Talking here (in case you didn't realise from yesterday's post) about my new ipad and the "too much fun" app, Snapseed.  If you haven't got it yet, you have to download it.  So much fun and quite a bit if creative control along the way.  (see note at the end of post)

The only rider I give to this post is that it is very wet in Sydney today, it is the NRL grand final day, I do what I always do on grand final day and that is to ignore it and instead, get out my camera.  I had planned to head to the city to catch Len and Christine's exhibition but terrible weather and a silly teenage girl and her equally silly friends took advantage of the parent being away next door and partied hard all night - and I mean, ALL night.  So, with almost no sleep and bad weather, I stayed at home and took a handful of images only but today I restricted myself to a 70-300 lens.  Why?  Because it was already connected to my small camera and Len is correct in his comment on yesterday's post that sometimes restricting choice produces much better results.   My subject matter is therefore quite limited.

I've sort of figured out the transfer from camera to ipad to imac and then to upload here.  I have done this in a roundabout way as I wanted to be able to bring them back into LR3 and reduce their size.  And also, partly because I want to print a couple and see how they look and although I can print wirelessly from the ipad, I really want to have all the choices available to me in the LR3 and Epson 3880 interface.

My focus today?  More leaves.

And the note I mentioned?  If you do use Snapseed, it's important to play with as many of the options as you want, just "apply" before you leave that area.  All of these images have been cropped, had a Tune Image to get brightness, contrast right.  Some had Vintage Film, Grunge or B&W used, some had texture.  Most had frames.  In each case, at the end of my fiddling, if I wanted to add more light or contrast or ?? I just went back to the relevant folder (I think they are folders) and fiddled a bit more.  The sliders are lovely to use.



Enjoy

This image (above) of the vine on our carport, looking out to the rain is my favourite from today.  I'm hoping that I can print it properly as I think it will make a fabulous card.

This crazy red leaf is on the see thru roof at our entrance door.

The Black and White option is Ok too.  

And finally,

I'm not usually a frame person, but think it has added to the images where there has been texture used.

Can't wait to see how this all goes out at Mungo and Menindee next week.  

Just a bit of fun ......

Bought myself a new toy a few days ago.  Succumbed to the ipad craving that I've had for some time.  Just love it! Have to say tho that it is a bit of a learning curve - not the basic controls but the things I want to use with photography.

Haven't actually used the camera yet, just sorting out how various aps work with some images.  Really love Snapseed and can see why it has such high ratings.

I've imported a few recent images that I had on a CF card.  Just rainy day garden ones from this week.  Chose the closest card to the desktop.  Had already downloaded these to my imac and done some fiddling in Lightroom.  Problem with ipad is the CF card isn't compatible but the cord from my 5Dmk11 to the photo adaptor works a treat.

Snapseed is as easy as, so no problems there.  The issue for me is retrieving the images I've played with on the ipad so I can upload to this site or maybe pbase.  Difficult!!!  But there is always a way.

Have just been emailing them to myself and accessing them but they can also come via mobile me.  Why won't the 2 x iphoto programs sync???  Maybe tomorrow they will.

The other fun thing I've been doing and trying to convince myself it's actual work is re editing some 2010 Turkey images.  I'm getting closer to being satisfied with a set of mono images for the book I'm doing but the last few days I'm a bit over serious mono work, so I had some fun with a bit of colour.  Weird and crazy however, I like them.  They won't make the publication tho, so need to be admired and enjoyed here.

Below is a mix - some Turkey revisions with a bit of craziness and any iphoto/snapseed/ipad ones that I have managed to get to the web.  I think Apple knows exactly what it is doing!!!  They move seamlessly to my mobile me gallery??  Funny about that!

Rolling Hills of Eastern Turkey (above) somewhere near Mt Ararat looks better to my eyes with some decent makeup.  The tiny dots on the yellow below the hillside are farm animals.

I think this one (below) is my favourite from the ipad edits using Snapseed.

Another quick snapshot (below) from the garden in last week's rain and edited in an ipad ap.