UW-Parkside Arts & Crafts Show Dec. 5

Sorry, I was unable to make the show today. If you went to the show to find me, I apologize. I hope that you look for me again in 2010. And I am offering free shipping to anyone to orders from my Web site.

Thank you for your patronage

Busy Three Days Ahead

Friday night
Exhibit Opening 5-9 pm
Copa Third Juried Show
Walker's Point Center for the Arts
911 W. National, Milwaukee
I have 2 pieces in the show

Saturday
Arts & Crafts Show
UW-Parkside
Kenosha, just off of Hwy. 31
I have some new images to display

Sunday
Purloin Studio, Menomonee Falls
teaching photography

Weather the Weather

We've had a great November so far. I hope you got out with your camera and took some photos. The next few days will be dreary, but don't put the camera away. This is a good time to take moody photos. I like to go down to the beach or into the woods when the weather gets like this. I bring my tripod along so I can keep my ISO low and still get photos without blur. In the fog, you don't need a tiny aperture (f/stop above f/16). A nice fog photo can be found without a broad depth of field.


Here are some fog photos. I always use my tripod. Even if it's not needed to take the shot I want, the tripod makes me slow down, think about what I'm trying to capture. (Think about light, composition, camera angle; anything obstructing my focal point? What's in my background?)

These were taken at other times of the year, but November is still a great time to get out with your camera.

Live Your Best Life Today

OK, that sounds cliche, because it's true.
Here is a link that a friend sent that you might enjoy.
click here

Mental Exercises for Your Photography

A friend of mine from CoPA likes to take classes to explore her photography. She learned a long time ago that photography and the creative process needs to be stimulated. I don't know if this was for a class, but she asked the group if they ever photographed a pun.

The creative photographer thinks about what he is doing and trying to say with an image. Finding exercises like this one could be fun and get the brain cells moving, I thought.

Since I'm known to be a punster, I was intrigued by this idea. How would you go about photographing something like this? I suggested that she look at cartoons for ideas because they do this almost every day. Quips are all over the Internet. Jokes on Web sites and on e-mail flow into our digital mailboxes.

I'm going to see what I can do. I already have one called Angry Knob. It's a play on words, and I've had people look at the photo and start to laugh. Mother Nature and Forest could be called puns also where you look at an image and you see into it or beyond it. Many have looked at Forest at shows and seen letters in it. Mother Nature is intriguing also. I named it Mother Nature because it resembles a uterus. But others have seen faces of animals, which I didn't realize were there when I created it. So the jokes on me.

Let me know what you consider a pun and what you might have photographed.

More Options for DSLRs

Here's an update to a recent posting on beginning DSLRs.
This Web site offers many reviews of cameras and other options for digital photographers
Digital Photography Review

I also have many links to other sites for students and digital photographers on the links page of my Web site.

Juried into CoPA Show

Every year CoPA has a juried show for its members and photographers from surrounding states. (Coalition of Photographic Arts) I submitted 3 images for their show juried by Paul Ha. To my surprise and delight, he selected 2 of my images to be included into the show; Raindrops, which wins again, and Light Waterfall, a new digital image from my series on light.

My idea for this image and others in the series was to come up with photo montage that still looked like painting, but traditional oils and acrylics might not be able to imitate. It is also from a series that I did the morning before I learned that Nick died. All of my images from that series have a spiritual meaning for me. So I can't be more pleased to learn that the image was selected.

The opening for the show is Friday, Dec. 4, 5-9 p.m. at the Walker Center for the Arts. The show will be up until the end of December. Hope to see you there! Both of these photos are posted on my Web site. Raindrops can be viewed by clicking on the link from the main page. Light Waterfall can be seen by clicking here.