Fall in Anchorage, Alaska

September 5th  for Alaskan's means putting up the summer toys and bring out the long winter gear.  Usually for Anchorage by mid-September there is frost on our windows in the mornings and snow on the mountains.  None of this has happen until a few days ago! 

This year I proudly say it has been the most beautiful month for Fall I've ever seen while living 21 years here in Anchorage.

Flowers are still blooming, the leaves of the Birch are golden yellow even though now laying upon the sidewalks and yards in my neighborhood;  many of those golden leaves have just fallen off the limbs within the last couple of days.

Creative Types

Are you a gambler trying new and wild things?  Do you jabber away while creating that next Mona Lisa?  Or are you a silent type whose yearnings can only be read in your eyes? 

I have to admit there are various days that I could be one of the three. 

                  

I’m sure you can add more to the list of ‘creative types’.  I’m just hitting the top of the iceberg for those whose passion is some form of art or crafts!

Many of my friends on Facebook and Twitter are the creative type.  It is so enjoyable to see pictures of their latest creations and even pics of their old stuff.  

Artists across the world seem to encourage each other, tease and taunt each other, plus sometimes even become sponsors for another.  That makes me so glad… in this day and age of so much pain and grief that one sector of life remains constant – art and those who encourage folks to be creative.  

Art is a passion.  You either love it or you don’t.  Once it has its hands around your throat there is no surrendering.

Freedom in Art

I've been exploring new filters on my Adobe Photoshop Elements. 

Its a blast being creative - 

a wild abandonment of being safe 
&
uninhibited has flooded my photo folders.

Various filters and layers have been applied...

Frozen in Time

Cycle of Life

Happy Feet

All I can say is this is keeping me happy until summer arrives when flowers are blooming!

Amazing Race

On Sunday night the team of two women won the Amazing Race.  A team I had been rooting for since the beginning of this season's start.  Finally two women beat out all men teams and man/woman teams.  I just about roared out a cheer but I just the the womanly thing and silently clapped my hands and said "YAY!"

Amazing Race has been since the first season one of the handful of programs this household follows. 

Dreams of being a team lurks in my brain. 

Fantasy of winning has been often replayed in my mind.  Except this is a household of two medical problematic folks.  Both heart patients.  And one has had two serious back surgeries and he medically could not do some of the stunts.  Then some of those things; I myself would balk at doing.  But the temptation to apply is always in the background when watching the teams race to the next stop along the race.  I think he would be a great partner to see the world with...I'm sure he thinks I would be an okay partner - I can be a bit of a nag, jump on his case for any reason, and I think things need to be done my way.  Other-words I have an attitude. 

I've never been out of the States.  He traveled once to England.  The cities on Amazing Race are ones I would love to race through.  He would rather do others, ones with more ancient history esp any that have a Roman history surrounding them.  He is an ancient history buff!  I'm just a time traveler to any city on the map of the world.

With a new season starting in January for teams that didn't win any race but became favorite of the viewers I can hardly wait to relax each Sunday night, dreaming of far off places and cheering on my next team to victory!

                                                 My guy racing each day in his own way

Finding Perfect Ink-jet Photo Paper

A common complaint I hear from many who print a normal amount of work on any brand of printers is that replacement inks are expensive and that the machines use it up faster than any of us could predict.  I have said several times before: Ink-jet inks are my number one loss of income.  

  

Ink-jet photo papers are another major source of my revenue spent.   My rant today is about finding affordable photo papers and paper that I wish to use for my photographs that are printed out on either of my two printers.

Photo paper for either of my printers drives me to look at all online sites with a fine tooth comb.  Which is very hard for a tactile person as myself.  I desire to feel a paper before I spend a lot of money on it for three reasons: I dislike thin flimsy paper, then it must not be too thick that is causes my machines to jam, and if the texture is one that is something I like also.

Anchorage has one art supplier store.  They were stocking a wonderful brand of photo ink-jet papers by Canson that Fishlips fell in love with using for several of her masterpieces that had the ‘watercolor effect’ as their focus.  Plus their color regular photo paper was outstanding.  The last several months restocking of these wonderful papers have not occurred. 

Anchorage has one photographic shop offering a small selection of inkjet photo paper also (although I have yet to crack open the box to test the brand recently purchased)  

Office Max and Office Depot both have every day Inkjet photo paper with one premium paper I have purchased that I found acceptable.

Although for any print larger than 8 ½ x 11 inches are send out to a printing company…I still must print out each creation so that I know what the final outcome is for color, depth,  make sure all is in focus, and that the photo meets with my standards.  Plus for every piece I create… a copy is kept in a portfolio.  

I do a lot of print testing.  Print testing means trying out on the different type photo papers that could make or break a photo: Matt, Satin, Gloss and Textured.   

Most photos will look stunning on Gloss Photo Paper.  Satin is wonderful for those photos in a glass frame so that glare is not an issue.  Matt and textured paper is wonderful for certain effects.

There are also times when viewing a photo that is 5 inches big on my laptop and may look pretty interesting.  Then when printed out on a full size piece of photo paper that slight blur which I thought was my eyesight is actually a bad photo.  Or one will print out a beauty but needs to see how it looks on all types of papers.

There are those times when wild abandonment hits me and I create artwork that requires several different steps and those need to be printed out so one can compare each different step.

This all just goes to show everyone reading this: nothing is easy as it looks when viewing the final product. 

So to all those other artists out there: If you have a favorite ink-jet photo paper let me know what it is, where one can locate, and what you like about the paper .  I’m sure there are brands I haven’t heard of or tried yet plus  It is always fun to experiment with new papers!

Color Me Bright

As mentioned in other posts Color is one of my driving forces.  The brighter and wilder the color the more Fishlips is attracted to them.  My take on using colors:

Pastel colors are soft, used to subdue the subject.

Bright colors shimmer, used to bring the subject to attention.

The following three photos are different perspectives of the same photo altered in a wild abandonment of having fun and discovering the different effects I can apply using Photoshop.

  

 

 

Three Faces of Eve

I’m a sucker for color.  The bold, bright colors fill my thoughts.  When I see an item I envision it in different colors.  Taming colors is not what one should do.  One needs to celebrate the colors within their world.

Modern marvels from my computer:

Digital Enhanced Photo’s altered by Photoshop

‘Three Faces of Eve’

or

‘Baby Face’ 

as I am calling the final one in all purples which is listed at my Artfire shop.

Technology Dreaming

Today a contest ends.  The winner receives a brand new Canon Rebel Camera.  Sweet!  I entered the contest; something I rarely do.  

I have a little Samsung 10mp digital pocket model camera that I’ve used for the last two years.  I have dropped it more times than I should admit – so it at times acts up – the back is a tad scratched up from roaming in my camera bag with car keys and other countless items a woman carries when one does not take a purse.   Although most of the accidental drops of camera where from when my bike would toppled over on uneven ground  as I was loading everything back into the small basket on my front handle bars on various bicycle rides visiting gardens around town.

As far as one can tell my photos are not affected by the dropping of the camera.  There are times I need to gently tap the camera to get the lens to move out of the camera body so it is operable or for it to focus.  Not a big deal when one knows about the camera’s slight problems.

When one depends on a camera to create art one has dreams of newer and better cameras to enhance ones work and play load!

Last night out of boredom and wistfulness I visited Ebay.  Technology is a powerful entity.  My mouth was drooling over several specimens in both categories that I was clicking through:  large format printers and cameras as the viewing selections. 

If one has $1,500 to $2,200 lying around an 18mp digital camera by a couple of manufacturers where placed high on my dream list.

For $1,000 more selections were added to my list. 

And several winners I found for the under $500 with 14mp – enough pixels for large format photos up to 30 inches.

The large format printers’ price range was $2,500 to over $6,000.  These printers were more for the professional photographer who was well on their way to recognition and one who has a large studio that one could take in work to help fray cost factors.  Ink and photographic papers are more expenses than the average person realizes.

It is always fun to look at what is available, enticing one to dream and wish.  No one is too old to dream and have wishes. One never knows when the dream fairy can bring a wish to you.