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I love that camellia season here in the San Francisco Bay Area coincides with all the pink and red hearts of Valentine’s Day. I took this photo and shared it on social media. After I did, a friend suggested that I make it available to buy in prints. It is now available at my pixels.com shop.
Right on schedule, the ornamental pear trees are in full bloom and laden with white blossoms. We found a whole parking lot full of them. I had to take a pic with the street lights shining through. Being under the canopy of branches felt like being in a magical wonderland. It reminded me of what Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables called “the White Way of Delight”.
When I got done with the hand-lettering for today’s challenge prompt, I knew it needed to be overlaid onto a photograph I took this week of my ‘Tahitian Sunset’ rose that has, despite the extreme 3-year drought, been such a trooper and given me the hope and faith that not everything I love is going to dry up and look crispy. If you look closely, you can see the raindrops on the rose from our last rainstorm.
Click here if you want to participate in this fun creative challenge sponsored by Dawn Nicole Designs
In the northern hemisphere, the Christmas holiday falls during a time when days are shorter and nights are longer. The custom of decorating with twinkly lights was probably born from a need to add light to those long (often chilly) nights and has become synonymous with magical Christmas cheer. Trying to capture that magic photographically often seems technically illusive. Have you stood somewhere with your camera in hand and thought, “Oh, that’s such a gorgeous scene right there” snapped the shutter and then reviewed the image in dismay wondering what went wrong and why the image looks so different than what you saw? Here are a few things I have learned to help me when shooting holiday photographs.
Most cameras are capable of capturing an image in low light using automatic adjustment features (smartphones compensate well in low-light situations too). Your eyes do the same thing without you even thinking about it by opening up your pupils larger to let in more light to see things. Your camera has to do the same thing by letting in more light in order to see what you are seeing with your eyes. This also means that any movement is going to create blur. Sometimes motion blur is a desired effect (or a happy accident), but a lot of the time it isn’t. Even the slightest shake from handholding your camera and/or pushing the shutter button will cause blur in a low-light setting. You won’t be toting a tripod with you everywhere, so stabilize the camera by setting it on a flat surface (e.g., table, railing, hood or roof of a car, bench, etc.) to take a shot. To get a beautiful soft “bokeh” effect for lights in the background, focus on a subject closer to you, then take the shot with a gentle hand pushing the shutter button. Or if your camera has a timer feature, using it will allow you to put the camera down and take the shot without touching it at all.
Most cameras and smartphones have a setting that lets you take bursts of shots with one click. This feature is really helpful when taking shots of moving people and animals at Christmas time when everyone and everything is abuzz with uncontainable excitement. The first image in a burst usually isn’t the best one, but the second, third, or fourth image is typically the perfect shot.
I used to make the mistake of looking at a shot on the back of my camera shortly after taking it and then trashing it if it didn’t look perfect “straight out of the camera” (SOOC). I don’t do that anymore. You’d be amazed at what you can do with an “oopsie” shot once you get it back into your photo editing software of choice (even freebie apps, tools, and the in-app tools on Instagram create some pretty amazing visual magic). This is particularly the case when it comes to correcting the yellow or blue light in an image caused by shooting in certain lighting. Don’t be afraid to bring an image into a photo editor and start pushing the sliders around. That’s how you’ll learn. And you may discover a personal image-editing style along the way. Cropping can also work wonders with a seemingly “oopsie” shot. Don’t be afraid of playing around in your photo editor until the image begins to look like what you remember it looking like with your own eyes when you took the shot.
One December, I had to go in for a routine mammogram. While I was sitting in the waiting area of the clinic, I noticed they had a nicely decorated Christmas tree with pretty ornaments and lights on it. I had my camera with me, so I pulled it out and took some shots. I had no control over the horrible fluorescent lights. I couldn’t reposition the tree or ornaments. All I could do was discreetly snap off some shots before my name was called. Once I got back home and uploaded the shots to my computer, I was able to work with them in my photo editing software. One of my favorite Christmas images “Golden Christmas ornaments” is from that batch.
One evening as my husband and I were walking back to the car after watching a movie at the theatre, we walked by some beautiful display windows all lit up with gorgeous Christmas decorations in them. Even though I was shooting through glass, when I stepped slightly to the side I could avoid a glare off the glass. I didn’t use a flash, held very still to avoid blur in the low-light situation, and snapped off some shots. Once I got back to my computer, I played around in my editing software until I recaptured exactly what my eyes had seen when I was shooting the photographs. Every time I look at those photos, it takes me back to that chilly winter night when I was walking hand-in-hand with my husband enjoying the feelings of Christmas cheer. Ultimately, that’s what photography is all about. It’s about capturing a moment and a feeling that is fleeting but can stay with you for years if you take a photograph at just the right place and time. That’s what I call “photographic serendipity”.
For fun, I’m trying to hone my hand-lettering skills by using the prompts in a lettering exercise called the #DNDchallenge on Instagram springboarded by Dawn Nicole Designs. [I’m a latecomer for the month but better late than never, right?.] I thought I’d play with putting my hand-lettering on one of my photos from the garden this week.
Since I’ve got the song “Favorite Things” from Sound of Music playing in my head right now, I think everyone should.
I like it when a photograph makes me think there is a story contained within it.
Do you see a story is in this one I took with my iPhone yesterday?
As a photographer, I often find myself creating images that I hope inspire the viewer to begin a story in their mind as if the photograph captured just one frame of an event or place that is part of a rich story plot-line. That story is between the viewer and the photograph. The story I thought of when I created the photograph will probably be completely different than each story that each viewer envisions in their mind. The photograph becomes its own entity separate from me and my imagination. That’s the cool part.
As I took the above photo with my iPhone yesterday and began post-processing it to share on Instagram, I realized where this aspect of my creative process was born and why I often create this way.
When I was in college as an art history major, I had the rare privilege of taking a Japanese art history class with a visiting professor who was also a collector of antique Japanese woodblock prints.
One day in class, the professor had the entire class come forward out of the stadium seating and all sit on the floor at the front of the room. He then passed around a large stack of mounted antique Japanese woodblock prints from his personal collection for each of us to hold (the thrill of holding something that rare and precious was indescribable).
After each of us got a print to hold, he told us that there was a specific way to appreciate Japanese art that he was going to teach us right then and there. He told us to study the scene and everything about it. Once we had time to absorb everything that was in the scene, he said, “Okay. Now let your mind allow you to step into the scene and envision what is just beyond the edge of where the image in the print ends. Imagine what would be around you if you turned around and looked back. Imagine what it feels like and any smells that might be there.” Then he left us with our own minds to wander within the print.
I distinctly remember what the image of my print was even though I can’t remember the artist, the date it was created or the title. It was a beautiful night scene with a full moon over an ornate Japanese bridge in a garden. Silhouettes of willow branches hung down into the edges of the composition. Moonlight sparkled off the dark water that ran under the bridge. I remember mentally stepping into that garden and exploring. I remember imagining what the cool night air felt like and the sound of the gentle breeze as it rustled the willow branches.
That experience lasted only a few minutes and was a very long time ago but I remember it very well. I could easily recognize that woodblock print if I saw it again. Why? Because of what my professor taught us that day–that to truly appreciate a piece of art you need to find a way to step within it and experience it in a deeper way than just looking at it and saying, “Oh, that’s a cool picture” and then moving on.
That experience completely changed how I viewed art from that point forward. It deeply affected my artistic tastes. For a piece to make me turn my head and love it, it has to inspire a similar response deep inside me.
Today, I found a new-to-me painting that has done just that. It is the 19th century painting by Vittorio Reggianini entitled “Eavesdropping”.
Eavesdropping by Vittorio Reggianini (1858–1938) in the public domain
Here are some other examples of my favorite paintings that I love for the same reasons–I feel like I could step into the scene and find myself in the middle of a wonderful story.
The first time I discovered this painting, I began to weep because of a feeling deep inside my chest that was tugged and pulled. That’s how much it inspired a story to begin to form within me. I can almost hear the sounds of a summer evening at twilight and feel the summer night air around me. I am completely captured by the magic of this moment as two little girls get ready to enjoy the garden at night by the light of their lanterns.
Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by John Singer Sargent in the public domain
And this has to be one of my all-time favorite paintings. I look at it and I feel like I am in that living space with that little girl. I’m almost able to read her thoughts as she reclines with her skirt all rumpled up around her as if she just plopped down.
Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (1878) by Mary Cassatt at the National Gallery of Art
I’ve been giving myself a creative challenge over the last 9 months… I challenged myself to try to take photographs of daily life with my iPhone instead of relying on my “big gun” (aka my Sony A77 DSLR) and see if I could still create images the way I see things in my head. I share my images on Instagram (@cindygarberiverson). Here’s a sampling of my ongoing iPhonography learning experiment.
A photo posted by Cindy Garber Iverson (@cindygarberiverson) on
This afternoon as I was weeding, I found the first hyacinth of the year. The first one is always scraggly and spindly, but it still smells heavenly. A photo posted by Cindy Garber Iverson (@cindygarberiverson) on
A photo posted by Cindy Garber Iverson (@cindygarberiverson) on
Spring is… Popsicle-colored snapdragons #SpringIs2015 Until summer officially begins in June, I’ve decided to challenge myself to find photographic representations of what Spring is for me for this year. If you’d like to join me, tag your photos #SpringIs2015 A photo posted by Cindy Garber Iverson (@cindygarberiverson) on
A photo posted by Cindy Garber Iverson (@cindygarberiverson) on
Every evening, I sit out in the garden watching twilight come over the garden. If I look straight up, this is what I see. #FromWhereISit A photo posted by Cindy Garber Iverson (@cindygarberiverson) on
A photo posted by Cindy Garber Iverson (@cindygarberiverson) on
I love making beautifully dreamy images out of regular shots. When I use textures, my photographs begin to look the way I’m seeing them in my head as I shoot them. I want my images to look like a memory—something that harkens to something in the recesses of the viewer’s mind and reminds them of something good, magical and heartwarming.
One of the best ways to get that dreamy and nostalgic look on a photograph is to use textures. I’ve been working with them now for seven years and have built up quite an arsenal of go-to favorites that give me exactly what I want. In recent months, I’ve started releasing these textures in variety packs for other artists, photographers and designers to use to inspire their own creative works.
This past week, I’ve worked on revamping and expanding my texture variety packs, and I’m happy to announce that they’ve been released and are ready for purchase.
Even hard metal textures like the ones in my variety pack Metal Shop, can produce soft and dreamy results. Hard to believe isn’t it?
I’ve been amazed at what I’ve discovered in my years of experimenting. I’ve found that hard stone and rock textures can create a soft pastel drawing look. The results often make it difficult to discern whether the photograph is really a photograph anymore or if it was hand-drawn. I’ve had people ask me before “Is that a drawing, a painting or a photograph?”.
The fun thing is that using textures doesn’t have to be difficult as long as I’m using any photo editing software that lets me work with layers. I think of the texture layer as slightly transparent tissue paper that I lay over the top of my photograph—like vellum. Then I reduce the opacity of the texture layer, so I can see the photograph underneath… and the magic begins.
For more in depth instruction on how to work with textures, you may want to visit my texture tutorials by clicking here.