I attended Art Wolfe’s Photography as Art seminar the day before leaving for a Charleston springtime photo trip.  He covered many topics but I worked on finding and defining the negative space in images (rather than just concentrating on the subject) that he discussed.

Normally I shoot the live oak alley with all the azaleas at Magnolia Plantation (and I did those too) but actually like this different view.  I found a shape between the trees that reminded me of a temple and moved to frame the 3rd live oak.

I found my photography going along an exciting path while in Charleston working in this way.

Keep being inspired and learning from others!

Opaque Vase

Glass Vase

Flower Arranging – one of the ongoing issues with flowers in vases is getting them to stay where you want… and not flopping over.  You can use flower sleeves that come on long stems like daisies and tulips at some vendors, but magic water gels work much better in my opinion.

Magic Water Gels

Magic water gels come in a variety of colors and are inexpensive. The only downside is they take about 4 hours to expand for use. They come in a small tube and 2 tsps of the beads grow into a full vase of colorful beads.  They are lightweight and easy to move around. They hold even fragile stems in place.

In a glass vase you see the color. They also come in clear.  You can layer the colors too.   They may appear cloudy after being with flowers for a long time but you can rinse them.

They are fun to photograph on their own too to create abstract patterns.

In an opaque vase you never see them. I have tried all kinds of ways to hold stems in place but like this the best by far!  Here is a link to one of the products on Amazon but there are many available.

Finished example.

Template you will receive for each month. Add photo and change Color spot if you want.

I had so much fun using 2 Lil Owl’s templates that I decided to create a couple of sets for my Etsy store. Each product has 12 5×7 files for each month next year.  These are the instructions which also come with the digital download from my Etsy store. (recently started!) The cost is $15 and it’s a direct download to you.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/557836210/2018-calendar-template?ref=shop_home_active_1

2018 Calendar Templates

1. Open your template.
2. Open and crop a favorite image to 5 x 5 inches at 300 dpi.
3. Drag and drop the photo in the layer indicated in Photoshop.
4. You can change the Color spot to any color you want.
5. You can also change the month’s font. Only the monthly dates cannot be changed.
6. Flatten your file as a jpg for printing if sending off or print yourself.

I like giving these with a 5×7 acrylic magnet for any metal surface but you can give the sheets and people can put them on their refrigerator without the nice acrylic frame.  I order the magnet frames from www.pfile.com for about $3 each including shipping.

SmartPhotoEditor effect on Iris image

Great news!  I posted a blog entry this week with work from SmartPhotoEditor which has over 7,000 effects and a great interface to create beautiful images.

This site has an incredible variety of ways to improve your images from basic cropping and vignettes to very fun, artsy effects.

The program is a great deal at $29.99, but now you can get another 10% off with the code below. This program works as a standalone or you can use as a plugin to Photoshop.

Website:  http://www.smartphotoeditor.com/

Discount code: LL1914

Enjoy!

SmartPhotoEditor effect on Iris image

Great news!  I posted a blog entry this week with work from SmartPhotoEditor which has over 7,000 effects and a great interface to create beautiful images.

This site has an incredible variety of ways to improve your images from basic cropping and vignettes to very fun, artsy effects.

The program is a great deal at $29.99, but now you can get another 10% off with the code below. This program works as a standalone or you can use as a plugin to Photoshop.

Website:  http://www.smartphotoeditor.com/

Discount code: LL1914

Enjoy!

I have been designing some 2017 calendars and took this one a step further to adapt to a greeting card. The image with its “frame” made in my previous blog entry are on the front of the card. Then I took the quote and moved it to the back of the card. Gives you two reasons to put these together!