Photographing Reflective Paintings

Many of you have seen this painting before. It is 30"x40" gallery wrapped canvas (staple-less) in acrylic. The first layer of paint is black, then I dry brushed a layer of acrylic pearl. The other paint which what poured, dribbled and flung also had a bit pearl acrylic blended in. I call this painting Considering Pearls. You can imagine the difficulty I have had in photographing this surface with all of the reflective paint. The image above was taken without a flash. On my computer it looks pretty good, but it is darker than the actual painting and the colors are not as vibrant. I also hand held my camera which is heavy, so I may not have been as still as I could have.

Now I have a new strong tripod and a flash diffuser. The photograph below was taken in the same location with the same natural light conditions. I used the white diffuser (there are also a green and a yellow) over the flash to spread that burst of light about. Clearly the tripod held the camera more steady than I could. The photograph below is the result:
These came out very different, although I still do not have the lighting right for these reflective paints. The diffuser seems to create a darker edge to these large canvases with that burst of light (although not glaring) towards the middle. The edge of this painting does have a bit more of the black appearing through the pearl, however it is not as pronounced as this shows it.

So an exact image this is not. I think it shows some of the details a lot better, however. Do you have ideas about photographing these highly reflective surfaces? Do you think I need to purchase a very expensive, adjustable flash for my camera or do you think a couple of lamps would do the trick to adjust aside from the camera?

I love working with these reflective products (including the heavy clear glazing), but I feel I do need to be able to photograph them better.

I do highly recommend a good tripod (even if you have a light camera). I also feel I will make very good use of this flash diffuser, although I wish it had of worked better for this particular painting. Maybe it is a matter of the size, so I will keep trying and keep sharing what I learn here. Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions on this subject, though.

I also wanted to let you know I will be doing a very special Conversation soon with Dianne McNaughton from Cape Town, South Africa. She has some beautiful and exciting things to share with us. So stay tuned for an exciting first Conversation of 2009!

A Little White...A Little Blue...

On Saturday night we had our first snow fall of the season. I was not at home, but my son grabbed a few photos for us. The snow was only a dusting where I was, but it was pretty anyway. I have been waiting for a little snow to fall... and this was a little.Of course the sky was beautiful and blue when the snow clouds had passed the next morning. That clear sky also meant it was a little nippy and with the wind blowing, it was pretty cold for here. But it was nice to see a little winter arrive and enjoy a fire.
Now, this blue reminded me to share with you something I have been working on little by little. Do you remember the canvas bit I had painted and wondered what in the world I might do with it? Babs recommended possibly matting it with a large mat to provide emphasis, and Andrea thought maybe I could work it into another work on canvas. I decided to combine both with this idea.
There is more work to do on this as I want to create some kind of vertical element to it, even if subtly. I thought, however, you might like to see the progress this little bit of loose canvas has made. At least now you can still see it was created as a separate piece. I have not decided if that will stay or not. I just have to see how it all evolves. Do you have any thoughts for me on this progress? Any direction which seems to jump out at you?

I hope everyone is off to a good beginning this Monday morning. I will be making my rounds to your blogs later today. Are you making plans for the holidays?

Have a Lovely Day!

Abstractions

I have said I often get things in my head and I must do things to get them out. One night last week I woke up and had these line faces in my brain. I knew if I did not draw them, I would not get back to sleep . Does your art keep you awake or wake you from sleep?I ended up drawing about 10 of them before I could put the sketchbook down. As you can see, they are nothing but very quick line drawings which were quite simplified.
They are just ink on sketchbook paper. I know I will make more of these, and I have no idea what will come from them. The thing is this is kind of different for me in a way. I was thinking about abstractions and abstract paintings. Some paintings come purely from emotions. As you know I love doing those a great deal and they mean a lot to me. Other abstractions are simplifications of recognizable images. Clearly, we can find examples of a combination of these abstract techniques, but I am wondering if you are attracted to one form of abstraction or another? Do you find you gain more, personally, from one form of abstraction over another?

I still have these faces in my head and you will probably see more of them. Andrea keeps encouraging me to keep my sketchbook going on a daily basis. Often I will mire myself into greater detail when I sketch, so this might be something I am exploring to keep this sketching going on a more regular basis. Do you sketch each day? I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Happy Monday to Everyone!

Photography

Note: these three photographs were actually shot by my son, Jonathan. See my response to Kate in the comments for more information.

One of my first (among several) artistic loves is photography. But I learned to love the dark room a lot...that is where the manipulation of the images took place. The dark room was where I could make the image my own, so to speak and I could do so even without a camera. But in these so many years, I have continued to use photography to inspire my other endeavors. When digital photography came about, I was somewhat reluctant to give in, but once I realized I could use the computer to manipulate my images, and without the chemicals, I was sold.

The little cameras which are so easy to carry around are very enticing, but for my photography work, I prefer my digital SLR. I like to be able to change the lens and manipulate the shutter to suit my needs. How much control do you like with your photographic experiments?

Lately, we have talked about how gardening is such an artistic inspiration and being able to capture those beautiful gardens with the camera is ever so delightful. When we lived in England the gardens were like nothing I had ever seen before in the US. I have shared a few of those photographs before. It seems as though flowers just love that environment and everyone seems to have a green thumb there, too. Now these photographs don't show those gardens, but they are some photos taken from the upstairs window of our cottage out over the back garden.

This is a rising moon in the evening sky. If you look closely, you can see the top of a tree in our garden. But what is that green light? We have never been able to figure that out. Any ideas? I have another photograph with the green light closer to the moon.
Obviously, this was taken earlier in the evening. It is looking toward the Channel Coast. Isn't the sky beautiful? We saw many sunsets like this. I also love the way the vegetation presents itself as black against the softly colored sky.
This is a similar photo taken to show the horizon as more defined.

I love these photos and find them inspiring. Photography in this house always brings a smile to my face, though. My husband, and his family, cannot understand photography beyond the human image. In every photo there has to be a person! No matter what! I find that so interesting...of course it is totally what inspires them.

What does photography mean to you? Do you use it as inspiration for your work? Is it mainly useful as documenting your work? Or are you just rarely without your camera and have your computer filled with photographs? Do you find it difficult to delete images because there might be something there you could use?