miles beyond the moon

A Fan of Black and White

More black and white image play with the photos from Marie's workshop.  I never realized I could become such a big fan of b&w. :-)

 

A bit of creative play.

 

Rainwashed.
 

 

At the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art.

I'm recently back from a Fine Art Creative Black and White Photography and Photoshop workshop in Charlotte, North Carolina with Marie Otero.  The workshop was a mix of morning photo walkabouts in the city and afternoon sessions of playing in Photoshop - exploring many techniques to process our photos into dynamic black and white images.  Marie was one of my first (and the best!) Photoshop teachers, and it was great to finally have a chance to meet her in person.  It was also great fun to connect with old friends and meet some new ones.  The workshop was mind-blowing!  So many new things to learn and explore.

One of the new things for me to try was some street photography.  I have always been a bit intimidated about taking photos of strangers, but it was SO much easier to do with a group of other people doing the same thing.  On our Sunday morning photo walkabout we came upon this stylish guy on his motorcycle.

It was obvious he had other things on his mind, and was not aware that we were snapping away.

All of a sudden he turned his head and caught sight of us.  Three cameras with big lens pointed directly at him.

He was a good sport and gave us a big grin before he sped away.

Off on Another Adventure

I'm off on another adventure this weekend.  This time I'm heading to Mesa, Arizona to attend Tangie Baxter's Art Journaling Workshop.  I met Tangie (and her mom Rebecca and her sister Molly) at Journalfest last year.  Three talented women!  We had a great time working in our journals together - I felt as if I had known the three of them forever.

It will be great to take some time away from my digital art to create some paper pages. I think working in both digital and paper keeps me from getting stale in either of my two favorite art mediums - there is always something new to learn.

We'll have a late night journaling party tonight and spend all day Saturday creating in our journals too.  The temperatures in Mesa will be in the 80's - so this will be a nice break from our cool fall days here in Seattle.  It will be back to normal life again on Monday, but what a nice interlude this will be.

A weekend getaway

I'll be heading off to the Washington Coast this week to attend a women's photography retreat with my good friend Karen aka vintage findings/painted works.  The course is taught by Rebecca Benoit and is sponsered by Newspace Center for Photography in Portland. 

 

I'm looking forward to photographing some rural landscapes, stormy seas, and endless horizons where the land meets the ocean.  I'm looking forward to learing how to finally take my camera out of auto mode.  Most of all I'm looking forward to having time to learn new things, unwind and relax and catch up with a good friend.  I hope I'll have some great photos to show you in a few days.

 

PS>  All these photos were take in Oysterville - on the Long Beach penisula - the last time I visited the Washington coast in 2005.