Archives for February 2014

February 27, 2014 by Kat

Ethereal

I gained a new word to describe my work yesterday… Ethereal.

I was hanging some prints in the hallway of a local medical office yesterday. It was near the end of the work day, so people were still bustling about. They seemed excited to have new art on the wall, and I received many very nice comments on it. But my favorite was the one that my work was ethereal.

e·the·re·al iˈTHi(ə)rēəl/ adjective
Extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world.
“her ethereal beauty”
synonyms: delicate, exquisite, dainty, elegant, graceful;

I decided I like that description, and will add it to my list. Previous words I’ve taken from other people’s comments include contemplative and delicate.

Getting your art in front of other people, especially non-photographers, is a great way to get descriptions of your work. Not just critical feedback, which we often seek from our fellow artists as a means to improve, but reactions from the general public. How does it connect with them? How does someone unfamiliar with your art, your process, your motivations react? That’s powerful feedback in itself.

There are lots of ways to get your art out there, into the real world, not just online. Doctor’s offices, restaurants, meeting rooms all have wall space they need to fill. As an exhibiting member of the Corvallis Art Guild, I can sign up to hang my work at various local businesses on a rotating basis. It’s a great benefit to members, in that we don’t have to do the leg work to find places to hang our work independently.

Getting a gallery exhibition is nice, and I’ve had a couple of those recently. I’m finishing up a show this week and will have new Treescapes on exhibition at The Arts Center in March. But to work up to that, it’s helpful to hang in other venues that aren’t quite so formal. It’s helpful to have the reactions of people in the real world, to give you some confidence.

Confidence, and maybe a few great words, to help you describe your work.

February 25, 2014 by Kat

Layers upon Layers

Aaaahhhh, Italia.

Italy seems to be coming up for me a lot lately. Just little remembrances, here and there. It’s like a soft realization that my time in Italy has been absorbed into the layers of me, of my history. No longer the most important layer, or the most fragile, raw layer. A layer that’s been safely ensconced by “before” and “after.”

Italy Sorrento Bicycle Kat Sloma Photography

Sorrento, Italy

Maybe it’s because now — heading on 3 years later — I know there is a “Kat” after Italy. Life has continued to go on. There has been more creativity, more learning. More growth. I’ve reinvented myself again, as a new person, after Italy.

My time in Italy was about reinventing myself. Beyond the scope of my normal life it was this chance in a new place to dig deeper and find who I am at my core. I uncovered the creative, artistic part of me again. I found confidence in myself outside of my previous frames of reference.

But it was still with a frame of reference, and reliance, on Italy. I took my identity as an artist, as a photographer and writer, from the place. From the travels and adventures around Europe. So, coming back I had to reinvent myself once again, in a new context. The context of “after.”

For a while, Italy was still my frame of reference. That layer was on the surface, always to be referred to, compared to, examined against. And then, when it started to get covered up, the top layer was too fragile. I couldn’t dig down to Italy, because I would damage things on the surface. I need to let it go, and move forward.

But now… I can revisit it again. It’s like picking up a treasured object; savoring a special memory. A layer of who I am, like any other. Not one that defines me any longer, but one that enabled my definition. And a layer that, because I found I could transform, allows me to continue to transform. Because of Italy, and the return, I know I can learn and grow and forever change.

I am all layers. I am adding to myself all the time. No one layer dominates. No one layer defines. The beauty is in the strata… Layers upon layers.

February 20, 2014 by Kat

Quiet, Revised (A Mobile Tutorial)

Hello, hello! My data is back, my computer is all up and running on my new hard drive, and I’m excited to be sharing a mobile tutorial with you today. Turns out, these Mobile Tutorial posts are easier to prepare on the computer than on the iPad, which I didn’t even realize until I was in the throes of my hard drive crash last week. Now that everything is back and running well, I can share a new tutorial with you.

I posted another version of this photograph last week, called Quiet. Later I started playing with a new-to-me app, Fragment, and discovered that there was more to do with this image! Here is the new version, called Quiet, Revised.

I’ll step you through the process of creating it. Here’s the original image, captured using ProCamera 7, on a walk during our big snowstorm two weeks ago. I saw this bird perched atop the tree and got as close as I could without scaring it away. Of course, without a zoom he’s pretty small in the original image:

So the first step is a crop, using Snapseed:

I like the placement of the tree and bird in this much better now! The next step is still in Snapseed, using a Vintage filter to start to shift the color, add a bit of texture, and create the vignette that works so well in this image, highlighting the bird atop the tree:

I was liking the vignette and texture, so I pulled it into XnView FX for some more texture work. I liked the addition of one texture:

But I wanted more. I liked where this was going, but wanted more dramatic texture and color. I played around with it in XnView FX for a while, looking at more color processing and textures. Unfortunately, I can’t remember exactly what I did within the app in sequence to share with you. The details aren’t so important, because if you follow this recipe you will have a different image and need to do different things. The important thing to take away is the incredible functionality that exists within a single app to transform your photographs. I know people who use only Snapseed to create amazing photographic work. XnView FX is another app with an amazing range of options for processing. Here’s the final image out of XnView FX:

This is Quiet. Originally, this is where I thought I was done. I loved the way the tree seemed to pop off the background. I loved the hushed feel, as if I was holding my breath, trying not to scare the bird away. Since I had cropped pretty substantially, from the 2448x2448px original to ~1700x1700px, I ran it through the Big Photo app to increase the resolution to ~3000x3000px. Having a high resolution file gives me flexibility in my printing options later.

Turns out I wasn’t done with this image, though. I purchased a new app, Fragment, which looked interesting for it’s ability to add geometric shapes to an image. Since I love to play with the combination of geometric and organic shapes, it seemed a good fit. I pulled “Quiet” into the app, just to play with its capabilities. In this app, the shapes you add are filled in with the original image you are working with. You can change the sizing and rotation of this “ghost” image within the added shape, which allows you control over the graphic impact of the shape relative to the original image.

As I played, suddenly a new version of Quiet emerged:

I loved the way the square shape framed the bird yet also creates some different dimensionality within the image. While the tree was popping off of the background before, now it is placed behind the frame. The rotation of the image within the square frame provides some great light/dark contrast against the background and some interest against the tree. You can’t quite tell what’s going on at first glance, and have to look closer. I like that. All in all, I think it added a nice dynamic element to an otherwise quiet scene. For me, this elevated the image from “nice” to “interesting,” but still with a peaceful, harmonious feel.

Here’s the mobile recipe for this edit, to remind you of the steps. You can download and save this recipe for later inspiration:

I am constantly amazed at how I can continue to create a wide variety of effects with just a few different apps. Find those apps you love, and really get to know them. It will pay off in the quality and consistency of your work.

I want to leave you with one final edit I did to this photograph, but discarded in the end. I took the original “Quiet” into Image Blender, and blended the new “Quiet, Revised” on top of it with blending mode Normal at 100%. Then I masked the frame over the tree:

I thought it would make the tree pop off of the background better, which it did. But it also lost it’s “interestingness” to me. In “Quiet, Revised,” the visual impact of the lines moving into and through the tree, and the bit of visual confusion it creates, make the image work for me. This last version doesn’t quite have the same energy, and goes back to “nice.”

Which version do you like best? Would you choose “Quiet,” “Quiet, Revised” or “Quiet, Discarded” as your favorite? Why? You know my choice, but take a moment to make your own, and sort through the reasons. Comparing similar images like this is a great way to discover your own personal aesthetic.

February 18, 2014 by Kat

Let’s Swap!

I’m back with another Liberate Your Art postcard swap update! We have less than one week left for sign up to join the swap, so if you’ve been delaying, it’s time to get in gear. You can sign up here until February 21st. After that time gets too short to make postcards and get them mailed to me before the deadline of March 15th.

So far, 52 envelopes have arrived! Yay! I started “checking in” envelopes this weekend. “Check in” involves opening every envelope, making sure there are the right number of postcards, stamps and labels, making sure the postcards have a greeting written on them, and removing all of the extra bits and bobs that get sent along, like lovely notes or extra postcards for me. (I love those little surprises!) Envelopes from international participants are matched up with their Paypal payment, and a note is sent to confirm receipt. If anything isn’t right about the package, I’ll try to contact the artist if I have their email address. It’s possible to resolve issues for those who send early.

Some more gorgeous mail art to share with you…

Amanda Bradley is a calligrapher in Washington, and her envelopes are a piece of art in themselves! I wish I had a link to send you to, so you could see more of her work. It doesn’t seem she has a website, sadly. I would happily lose myself for hours in the beautiful words and flourishes she creates, if she did. But instead I’ll just look dreamily at the envelope she sent!

Paula Bogdan transformed a plain manila envelope into a dramatic piece in red, white and black. I love the touches of yellow which blend in the few places the envelope is showing!

Jane Peeks is a mixed media artist, and veteran envelope decorator in the swap! I think I’ve posted her envelopes every year. This year her envelope had lots of hand drawn flourishes in a gorgeous purple and green…

…and a perfect sentiment on the back!

I agree, Jane! Let’s Swap!

February 13, 2014 by Kat

Let’s Back Up a Bit

Normally I talk about the “fun” things related to photography and creativity, but today I’m going to turn my attention to the more mundane: Backing up your image files. Like file management in general, if you don’t put a little time and effort into this topic you may end up in a world of hurt.

This topic is on the top of my mind this week, because I’ve been in the throes of some computer maintenance. I’ve had indications that the main hard drive on my desktop computer is on it’s last legs, so I’ve been trying to replace it. It has turned out to be a bigger project than expected, first for technical reasons related to he new hard drive size and my computer, second for failed mirror image on my external back up, and finally, for the old hard drive failing permanently this morning.

Through all of this adventure, though, I’ve been calm and unworried about losing my data.

Why so calm? Because I have a solid back up strategy that means I’m in good shape. Let me walk you through it…

First, my desktop computer is my main archive. Even though I’m doing all of my photographic work on the iPhone and iPad these days, all of the image files I create get transferred over to the desktop for archival. I transfer the image files to my computer using Lightroom, same as I’ve always done for my dSLR files. (Did you know you can easily import from your device directly into Lightoom? Just plug in your device through a USB port and go to Lightroom’s Import menu. The device will show up as a drive and you can import as normal. One tip: Wait until iTunes has done its sync with the device before you try to Import with Lightroom.)

Once the files are on my desktop, they are backed up two places: An external USB hard drive (my mirror image drive) and online. You want both a local backup and an online back up, because they cover you in different situations.

The local backup is great way to get up and running quickly if you have an internal hard drive failure. All of your data should be right there, ready to restore if you accidentally delete a file or folder or replace your hard drive. There are a few maintenance things you need to do with an external hard drive backup:

1. Make sure your back up drive is larger than your internal hard drive. Some back up software saves multiple images of files and so the back up may require more space than you think.

2. Schedule your back up for a regular frequency. Most back up software allows you to schedule the back up for a time you aren’t using the computer. I back up daily, but weekly or a few times a week is likely fine. Think about how much you might lose if you have a hard drive crash between back ups, and the. Set the frequency accordingly.

3. Check periodically to make sure the back up is happening as you expect. Sometimes there can be software problems or settings in your computer that interfere with the regular back up. You may not get an error message.

4. Check to make sure that you can actually restore your files. This last one is the one that I got caught by this week, just assuming the mirror image would restore fine. It didn’t. A mirror image, which is supposed to restore all of your system software and settings in addition to data, is not something you can easily check, since it completely resets the computer. So I won’t be using a mirror image back up, at least on its own, going forward. I’ll find some good data back up software for my external hard drive that I can check for restorability occasionally. I need to do a little more research to find the right solution.

Since I’m not planning to back up a mirror image anymore, I need to make sure I have the system restore disks for my computer and install disks for all of the software I’ve added to my system over the last couple of years. Whenever I buy software, like Lightroom or MS Office, I like to buy a physical disk rather than just downloading from the web. This makes it easy to reinstall all of my software if I need to, as I’m doing this week on the new hard drive. I’m sure you can keep track of product keys and links for software downloads too, it just seems easier for me to keep track of a physical disk. I put them all in one place and forget about them. Easy archive.

So that’s the local back up. But what happens if there is a fire or a flood, and both my computer and local back up are damaged? What about theft? (Although the idea of a thief taking a 2.5 year old desktop seems laughable, I must admit.) Or what if both internal hard drive and local back up fail, as mine did this week?

You need a remote or online back up. Which I have, through Carbonite. And it felt great, through this whole process, to know no matter what was going on locally, my data was safe. All those photographs… From Brandon as a preschooler, to our two years of travels in Italy, to all of my fine art photographs… They are safe.

So it felt really good to call this morning for data recovery, since I’m all out of options here locally. I’ll be getting a hard drive FedEx’d to me with 800+GB of my backed up data, and I’ll get up and running on my new hard drive in no time. No loss, other than a little time.

There are lots of online back up options, beyond Carbonite. You’ll want to look at the cost, size limitations, and file types. I chose Carbonite because it backs up all of my files, regardless of type, with unlimited storage for one price. Many photo back up sites only back up JPG files, which doesn’t help you if you use RAW. And a photo-only back up doesn’t help for all of those other types of files… Like documents and spreadsheets and all, which can be important to life in general.

And just like the local back up, you’ll want to ensure your online back up solution is backing up on a regular frequency, working properly and you can restore your files when you need them. I’ve done that in the last week, before starting on this whole hard drive project, so I know I’m in good shape.

Here I sit this morning, a little inconvenienced my computer is not working, but that’s about it. Can you imagine what a mess I’d be if I’d lost EVERYTHING? All of my photographic work to date? All of the eCourse and Workshop files I’ve poured my heart and soul into? All of my personal documents? I can’t even imagine how upset I would be. Non-functional, probably.

How about you? How would YOU feel, if you were in my situation? Would you be sitting calmly, drinking tea and writing a blog post, or would you be pulling your hair out?

That’s why I’m talking back up strategy with you today. It’s not exciting or fun, but it’s important. If you are not in a good situation with your back up, make a plan and work on it TODAY. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Because if you’ve not had a hard drive failure yet in your life, someday you will. It’s just a matter of time.

February 11, 2014 by Kat

Snowbound

We finally got a bit of the weather craziness that has been plaguing the rest of the US late last week, with fifteen inches of snow falling on Thursday and Friday.

Now, for those of you in cold, snowy places, fifteen inches is nothing. Having grown up in Colorado, I’m well aware of that. But fifteen inches in a place that usually sees rain year-round and has very few snow plows? Where the general population freaks out at a single snowflake? Well, kind of a mess. School was closed, and my workplace was even closed, which is a rare occurrence. Activities, including an opening reception for my latest exhibition, were all cancelled. The streets were deserted.

Suddenly, there was space in the schedule and a beautiful world outside to explore. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

You may be seeing snow pics here for a while…