by successfulbob | fine art photography, fine art portrait, photography, photography creativity, photography education, tuesday painterly photo art
Tuesday Painterly Photo Art – Arica Dorff
I met Arika when she was on a road trip creating images for her pet photography business. She was passing through Sedona, and I had the pleasure to make her acquaintance and discovered her pet art painting. I love the expression of her pet portraits and the feel of her art. I think you will too!
Here’s Arika.
“I got into digital pet paintings using Corel Painter after I sold my pet photography studio in Las Vegas, Nevada. I had my studio for nine years and always wanted to offer my clients the option to have their portraits enhanced to a painting, but I never had the time to devote to learning the art. Specializing in painting pets was a natural decision for me since working with domestic animals, and their awesome owners had been my niche for my entire photography and teaching career.
Had to put this photo of Lola right up front! Check out the bling! © Arica Dorff Photography
Lola before. Arica is often working from cell phone images supplied by her clients
Getting started I reached out to two well-known pet painters whose work I admired and I had the opportunity to train with them one-on-one. Their process of turning a photo into a painting is completely opposite of each other, and I quickly realized that, like any other art form, there is no right or wrong way to do things. Working one-on-one with artists you admire, along with online tutorials, is what I recommend to anyone wanting to learn Corel Painter. Painter is much like Photoshop in the sense that they are both incredibly powerful programs but not something the average person could sit down and use with ease without some training and understanding of how the software functions. If you are a Photoshop user, I’m sure you can recall your beginning stages of learning and how you wanted to throw your computer out the window because you couldn’t accomplish what should have been a very simple task. Or maybe you accidentally hit something on your keyboard, and now nothing is working properly. I’ve been there too. So save yourself a headache and invest in training and tutorials when learning Corel Painter and getting started will be fun!
Tasha – Makes you want to say AWWWW. © Arica Dorff Photography
Tasha original capture.
As portrait photographers, we make decisions every day regarding lighting and how we want the light to fall on our subjects. But when I started painting I realized that shadows were something to which I never gave much thought. I would just light my subjects the way I wanted, and the shadows were naturally just wherever they were. Well, when you hand paint a background in like I do for most of my paintings (as opposed to enhancing the current background in the portrait) your full-length subjects would be floating on the background if you didn’t anchor them with a shadow. Such a simple concept, but not something I ever gave much thought to until I had to create my shadows.
Painting also forced me to pay more attention to the direction of where light was coming from, which is useful when creating dimension and depth in your backgrounds. Notice how most of my backgrounds have a lighter area near the animals face, this lighter area always coincides from which the direction the light is coming. The opposite side of the painting is always a darker shade which represents the natural fall off of light.
Emma – Great expression © Arica Dorff Photography
Emma Before.
Pets eyes are my favorite part of every painting (okay wispy stray hairs might be an equal favorite), but the eyes are what makes the paintings come to life. When doing digital paintings, I often use the existing photo and just enhance it with detailed brush strokes. But not with eyes, I always paint in the eyes freehand. Step 1: Paint in the eye color. Step 2: Paint in the black pupil. Step 3: Paint in the white catchlight – make sure it’s on the same side of the eye where the light is coming from! Step 4: Paint in the counter catch light area with lighter highlights to bring the eyes to life.
Since I’ve done some teaching in the pet photography world, I’ve had a lot of people asking me to train them on digital pet paintings. I currently offer one-on-one screen sharing training sessions, and I’m working on putting together a downloadable video tutorial. For the photographers who don’t have the time or desire to learn to paint, I offer a wholesale option where I send them the digital artwork for them to brand and print for their clients (as opposed to my retail customers who I present with canvas gallery wraps).
Cooper – © Arica Dorff Photography
Cooper – Before.
Digital Pet Paintings have been an awesome way for me to stay connected with the pet photography community, pet owners who I love to create cherished art for, and I get to do it all while hanging out with my pup and working from home!”
Check out more of Arica’s work. aricadorff.com
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – If you are someone who is creating Painterly Art with photography as a base, or know someone who is, and would like to be featured here on Successful-Photographer get in touch.
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by successfulbob | landscape photography, Lumix GX85, Lumix Lounge, photography creativity
Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge – Part Three
The refuge is quite beautiful in and of itself even without the birds. I made sure to capture images of the landscape as a subject all of its own. Here are a few scenes from the area.
Even though there are Cranes in the foreground, this is more about the landscape than the birds. Made with the in-camera panorama feature of the Lumix GX85.
Sunrise just after the Sandhill Cranes made their ascent leaving the pond for the day to forage in the cornfield.
Lots of layers in this landscape.
Reflection in the bend.
Reflections of sunrise among the grasses help tell the story of the environment.
I always try to tell the complete story of an area even if the main reason for the trip, in this case, was for the Sandhill Cranes and other wildlife of the Bosque del Apache.
Follow the previous posts here. Part One.
Find Part Two here.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
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by successfulbob | photography - art quote
Sunday Photo/Art Quote – Georgia O’Keeffe
I’m a fan of some of O’Keeffe’s iconic images of flowers, southwestern landscapes and of course flower studies. I don’t like everything she created which I found out when tracking down her images in various museums and books. But that’s OK.
Heck, I don’t necessarily like everything I create!
The fact that there are sections of her work that don’t do anything for me shows is that she was not afraid to experiment and try new techniques and explore new ideas. My guess is she would not have created the iconic pieces if it were not for her pushing through her boundaries of comfort.
“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I want to do.” Georgia O’Keeffe
Fear can keep us from being successful.
How?
In Sales, being afraid to ask for the order.
In art, being afraid of what other MIGHT say.
In life, worried about what MIGHT happen.
Our minds are trained and conditioned to play out worst case scenarios. It’s a defense mechanism that served humans well when we lived in cave-man times when fight or flight was essential to the survival of the species. We have moved beyond the need for that type of thinking as a species.
Push forward. Try something new. You never know what you might accomplish if you push through negative thinking.
This advice doesn’t mean you should ignore the ‘little voice’ that warns you of potential problems. That can save you lots of grief. Take the voice with a grain of salt and don’t let it paralyze you.
Here’s one more quote to round out this post from, I believe, Michael Jordan. “Don’t be afraid to fail, be afraid not to try.”
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
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by successfulbob | bird photography, Lumix GX85, photography gear, wildlife photography
Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge – Part Two
You can take a peek at part one on the Bosque Wildlife Refuge shoot here.
Made four total trips into the refuge which included a couple of sunrises and sunsets. Here’s a tip I’ve found to be handy when photographing in the same location multiple times. Download the images you capture as soon as you can for review. When you have a look, you can tell if any settings need adjustment. Nothing worse than making the same mistakes two days in a row and not finding out how you might have improved until you get back home. I’ve been a pro for over twenty years, and I still find slight improvements can be made when making images in the same location on subsequent days.
Let’s look at some tracking flight images captured handheld with the Lumix GX85 and the Lumix 100-400mm lens (200-800 35mm equivalent) Most were with the lens fully extended.
Sandhill Crane in flight over the corn stalks.
Flying into the corn field getting ready for landing.
Wings are flared to slow ascent.
Opposite synchronization of wing position. Mountains in the background with just a streak of sun add interest to the image.
Taking off from the cornfields heading toward the nighttime gathering area in the pond.
There are many ways to capture a different ‘look’ to a wildlife photograph even though the subject matter is the same. In this case, the subject is Sandhill Cranes, but all the photos have a different feel. The different look is accomplished with a change in position of the subject. Using a different background. Changing the crop can make quite a difference also.
I’ll be sharing more options and possibilities for differences with the same essential subject in subsequent posts. I look forward to hearing your thoughts as I move through this series of with the Sandhill Cranes.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
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by successfulbob | bird photography, Lumix GX85, photography, photography gear, wildlife photography
Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge – Part One
Talk about a target rich environment! Possibilities for incredible wildlife photography abound. The scenery, a variety of birds, and combinations of the two make for a great time photographing in this wildlife preserve about one and a half hours south of Albuquerque, New Mexico near Socorro. Learn more about the Bosque here.
This was my first visit, and I already look forward to returning in the future. Sandhill Cranes are a favorite bird for me to photograph. I have worked with them on the Gulf Coast of Florida. I’ve never seen groups this large. Since they are tanking up from traveling, they are pretty relaxed. They are chomping on rows of corn grown for them. The ponds are just the right depth for them to overnight and makes for interesting photographs as they fly in and out at dawn and sunset.
Let’s take a look at the photos.
This was one of the very first pictures I made when we got to the refuge. I am always trying to show the behavior of the animals when making images to add interest. Because I had previous experience wit the Sandhills, I recognized that this bird was about to leap. The fact that the other two birds are at the end of its wings was serendipity. Not the best time of day for photographing but we were checking out the area.
Jumping Sandhill Crane
Sandhill Crane on a flyby through the field.
Sandhill Cranes in the corn field planted for the migration as a feed stop.
Getting ready for landing in the corn field.
Bob Coates (hey that’s me) Original photo made by my shooting partner on this trip, Dennis Chamberlain. Dennis is an incredible photographic artist. You can see some of his work here. (PS – I arted-up Dennis’s photo so don’t blame him for how it looks!)
Here’s some feedback on the gear that I used. I was testing out the Lumix 100-400mm lens with the Lumix GX85 to see how it would hold up to not being on a tripod. I’ve always tended to photograph birds in flight handheld because I could track their movement better but would often end up with more tossers than keepers due to blur. The dual image stabilization rocks! Total change with this gear. I’m very excited about the number of images I got that were keepers with this rig. You’ll see more of those in the next couple days.
Yours in creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography
Tip – Target Mode Macintosh Computer
Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “T.” The first three people who get in touch with me with the number of “T’s” that appear in this post get a 1/2 hour coaching session on the subject of your choosing.
When on the road I download images to my laptop computer to check on photos especially when experimentation with new techniques is involved. Such was the case this past week when I photographed sandhill cranes at Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Preserve in New Mexico.
When photographing wildlife, especially when tracking birds in flight, you can be capturing lots of frames from testing shutter speeds, focus, and experimentation for special effects.
Upon return from a shoot like this, rather than download all the images from the camera cards all over again I start the computer up in Target Disk Mode. When in this mode the laptop is recognized as a hard drive when connected via a Firewire, USB, Thunderbolt, and transferring the files can be done pretty quickly. Saves extra time too as I’ve already been culling the duds and misfires and lightly processing some of the images.
Here’s what your screen looks like when it is Target Mode. That little icon rides around on your screen.
Target Disk Mode is easy to do. Click the “Startup Disk” icon and click the Target Disk Mode button to restart your Mac in Target Disk Mode. You can also enter Target Disk Mode by rebooting your Mac and holding down the T key as it boots. Connect your Mac via a Firewire or Thunderbolt cable.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
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