Photoshop Fun!

Sometimes one can have just too much fun playing in Photoshop..and then one can wonder why one is not actually completing anything for their upcoming show but would have an entire, complete range of incomplete works if that happened to be the theme for one's upcoming show.  Well, it's not the theme (our theme is actually mixed + media, click here for Munich Creative Group's upcoming show, March 13) and I have always wanted to create some Munich, or other city, collages whether it be true mixed media or collaged in Photoshop.

I live near this monument, Peace Angel, perhaps you have seen it elsewhere on my blog as it is one of my favorite subjects to photograph (not only is it convenient but I think it's just beautiful).  You may also know of it as 'Friedensengel', which has a nice ring to it I think, whether or not you understand that it means Angel of Peace.

So here are my results from spielen mit the Peace Angel..should I continue down this path or get out of Photoshop and get my hands dirty with some paints, collage, transfers and who knows what else?!  hmmm...

Maybe its a bit too much like a graphic poster for something?

 If you look close enough you can see the text is mirrored..oops, I need to change this.  I originally thought I would do a photo transfer with the text.  Too busy?

OOOOOO fun in Photoshop...posterizing!  Somebody stop me...no, don't I'm just getting warmed up!

We're Having A Show!

Oh, do stop by!  The (in)famous Munich Creative Group will be holding our first 'Pop-Up Gallery' on Saturday, February 11 (see our Facebook Page for more details on this and about the group and to see the logo I designed:)  A variety of fine art photography, painting, mixed media, and more exciting stuff like musical performances and some creative writing from some very talented local artists.

I will be showing some of my photos from chilly early mornings and even chillier late nights (see my post on my other blog for a sampling) as well as a couple of abstract watercolors.

We are a diverse, international group telling a variety of stories through a range of media.  Some, but not all, of the art work will be for sale.  Come by between 2 pm and 8 pm to have a look, for more details, see our poster:

New Year...New Soup!

So I did mention that this year I would..eat more healthy, now on Day 5, I am ready to begin (burger, check..pizza, check..chilli, check...schoko muffins, tarts, check check)  Ready for some yummy and nutritional soup!

I love soup...ever since I moved to Germany about7 years ago.  I eat it more months out of the year than not here.  Takes a while for me to get tired of it but it certainly doesn't hurt to expand my soup repertoire once in a while.  Enter the sweet potato..why haven't I thought of this sooner? (Perhaps because I was inspired by a friend's soup recipe using sweet potato!  I'll have to try this sometime too!)  But for now I had to get by with what I had in my fridge:

• 1 large sweet potato
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• Chopped garlic (about 1 clove or 1 spoonful of pre-chopped)
• 1 parsnip (a key ingredient in most of my soups)
• Parsley
• Ground ginger
• White pepper
• Vegie or chicken bouillion
• About a cup of Lentils

Peel and slice the sweet potato, carrot(s), and parsnip.  Saute chopped onion and garlic until translucent, then add chopped carrots, sweet potato and parsnip.  Allow to cook about 10 minutes, or until soft (allow to carmelize a bit, but careful not to burn!)  Add herbs and spices (you can experiment with this, I did!)   Add appropriate amount of water for amount of bouillon, bring to a boil and add cleaned lentils.  Simmer for 10 minutes, or longer.  Add some salt and freshly ground pepper, and voila...
Of course, in Germany, we always serve soup with bread (not pictured here)...Guten Appetit!

You can leave it chunky...

...or puree it

Got a favorite soup recipe of your own?  Share it!

Practicing Photography in chilly London

 Happy 2012!  I'm back, with so many ideas for posts in 2012 I can hardly stand it!  I will start with my most recent photography lesson.  I've been practicing here and there for a while now.  I've always enjoyed it when I got lucky and managed to grab a great-to-good shot with my camera, never really having the patience to stop and try to be in control of my aperture settings in combo with shutter speeds, ISO, and all the other stuff one can play around with while the perfect shot is slipping away under your nose...but alas, those day are coming to a grateful (nonetheless challenging) end.  I recently snuck off to London for an instructional photography 'tour' with a small company called Hairy Goat as well as a Christmas Lights workshop that same afternoon...what a full, but fun day! 

I am only posting these photos as part of my own learning process, not because I think I achieved any extradordinary shots here, but this has been, and continues to be, a learning experience for me as I try to put to an end to the days of flying by the seat of my hosen (I was reminded often by my friend in London that 'Pants' are what you wear under your trousers:)  So here are some sample studies:

 Panning:  After countless attempts, this was the best I got with my nearly frozen hands at this point!  Doesn't make sense here to compare to any others since the settings were all about the same and the trick was 'simply' to move the camera in sync with my moving object, Corinna.  She did suggest in order to blur motion, to use a shutter speed of about 1/2 second (or slower).  So all of my panning shots were 1/2 sec, and ISO 100, f/29-f/36. 

Practicing 'pannig' with my morning instructor:  Corinna

Zoom bursts:  I thought this would come a little easier and would have stayed there all day determined to get one shot had it not been so cold, but this is all I got!  Daaaang, this was supposed to be a confidence-booster!  Oh well.  Maybe we should have set up the tripod for this one.  Anyway, it was fun and I really could have spent the rest of the day zooooma zoom zooming around town.

It's about time to wrap this up for now but I will continue analyzing some photos from this trip in another post.  As I begin to grasp more and more the individual settings, what takes me longer to process now is the relationships between these settings and the many variables involved each time and place you take the camera out. 

Couple shots from the Christmas Lights evening:

One interesting note was that the morning instructor advised using Aperture Priority settings (which has actually helped me learn and see the relationships between settings), but the afternoon instructor advised shooting entirely in manual and only in black & white for a while, while learning (reminds me of my graphic design days back in school...if something doesn't work in b/w it sure isn't going to work in color!).  Ok, I get that, but why not use the AP crutch?  Well, instructor #2 says because it washes out a lot of your contrasting highlights and shadows, hmmm.  One would be able to tell this more easily by looking at the histogram on your camera (which I never did on cameras, but have in photoshop so that made sense).  I just hope my subject isn't going anywhere for a while, because shooting in manual was taking me a looooooong time!

***Please, if anyone has comments, advice, or tips on anything I have mentioned above, or anything photography-related feel free to share! ***  Thanks!

Get it? Got it, good.

I recently started, and stopped, maybe just paused, working at a small contemporary art gallery in my neighborhood. I was brought in to help more with the graphic design part of the business (and to help me get back into the business of graphic design) than the gallery side but they are physically located in the same space. So I've had contemporary art on my mind lately when I stumbled upon Shea Hembrey's TedTalk, "How I became 100 Artists."


Just as entertaining and engaging as this TedTalk is to me, is the debate about contemporary art that follows in the comments, so be sure to check this out too if you're interested in further reflecting on contemporary art. Is Shea making a statement about contemporary art? Is what he does brilliant? Ridiculous? Does he even 'get it'? Is anyone supposed to 'get' contemporary art?
For me, this was a humorous, clever and inspiring act. How multifaceted are individuals? How many personalities exist in one person? How many could I come up with (or even better/scarier, how many am I)? It was fun to think about all the identities one could fabricate and where they would even come from.
Also, on the topic of contemporary art, are there or should there be any criteria? What do you think?

Who stole November?

I guess that's that for Creative Every Day month in November! whah.

I got sidetracked with my 3 weeks of subbing hormone yoga in German..that's a good excuse right? I did study a lot for that. But I also did play around with a few projects, mostly just some fun in Photoshop. Found some new brushes from a magazine I discovered at the library called Docma (don't bother unless you can read German, if you can there's some great freeby stuff like cool brushes and good tips and tricks. I get easily side-tracked, have I mentioned that?

I miss Photoshop. It seems like as soon as I say/think I want to paint or draw, I'm pulled back to the computer and have this urge to explore Photoshop. So I went with it, although it was really with the intent to spruce up some wedding photos since our 5 year anniversary suddenly popped up (ya that's right..5 years already? no way:) and I didn't have one single photo framed or printed from this special spontaneous Monday night on Ft. Lauderdale beach where we tied the knot!









Oh, and it was my nephew's 10th bday so I did his invitations and made a little collage card of all the photos we have from him over the years.. that was fun. The collage was started in shapecollage.com which you can download for free, but you'll want to upgrade (I didn't, just cheated a little) so you can adjust photos and not have their logo blasted across your collage.

I will say that I finally have a nice little set up in my spare room with a desk to actually sit and play at, and I don't even care if it gets ruined! So I'm looking forward to more creative time, even if it isn't every day.. but that is always inspiring to read about (and see) what's happening at the Creative Every Day site and others who participate! Thanks!

Alexie pastel experiment

So I have now a whopping 2 entries for Art Every Day Month so far..no pressure to do something e-v-er-y day right? Anyway, it was fun experimenting, although I got a little lazy or something after a short time (maybe, frustrated?) with the pastels, but as I reminded myself that I'm not doing this to create anything great..or even good..I'm just experimenting for fun!

I've also been juggling this AEDM with a new endeavor, teaching yoga. I successfully completed a 200-hour intensive YogaWorks program in August, here in Munich (and boy was it intense, but a great experience!). September and October was spent either with visitors here for Oktoberfest, or me visiting places like Budapest, Cinque Terre and Lake Garda in Italy with friends and 'mein Mann' and so I am just now beginning to continue what I have learned in the yoga training and actually begin some teaching. Starting with 'hormone' yoga at my fitness studio, with the added challenge of teaching in German (also a first for me:) We'll see how that goes this Friday for my first class..

Meanwhile I will juggle yoga learning with art learning - every day or every other day..or so! But I'm enjoying both so that's what matters right?!