Road Trip

Click and hold . . . That's what happened many times on the bus ride home from the Road 2 CA Quilt Show. Once the sunset started, I pulled my camera out and the fun began. This is when my quilt show experience became very different from all the rest of the passengers on the bus.

Each photo was considerably different than the one taken before. Some exposures were long and some were short. It just depended on how many lights were present in the background.

If you look closely at this photo, you'll see vertical lines caused by the bus hitting pot holes during the exposure.

This light dance happened while passing a car lot.

The only lights available here were from the passing vehicles. If you look carefully, you can see the outline of several cars.

Strip malls always have great lights. As Lora said, "In-N-Out Burger never looked so good."

I took photos of the quilt show too, but those are for my own enjoyment. I've never been comfortable posting other people's quilts on my blog without their permission. I emailed photos to a couple of people that don't live nearby and they appreciated receiving them. We had a nice time, saw some great quilts and I took some great night shots too. 

Digital Collage

Digital collage is the perfect way to combine mediums. You can create your image entirely on the computer OR you can dye or paint the background then put it through the printer to add the final digital image OR you can print the digital image on the fabric and then add to it afterwards with screen-printing or stamps. There is no right or wrong way and it's fun to try them all to see what you like best.

I love photography and I take a lot of photos. See me in the shadow?

One of the best things about digital photography is the trash can. You can take a zillion photos and if they don't work out the way you planned, delete them. I think a lot can be learned by trial and error and I never shy away from an experiment; sometimes the experiment yields the best result.

I've always been intrigued by the branching structure of trees. Once the trees lose their leaves I grab my camera and start taking photos. I really love the lines and shapes created by the branches but I thought it had potential for something even better.

This is how the photo looked straight out of the camera. Yes, the sky really is that blue. We are having record breaking warm winter in southern California and could use a lot of rain.

This is what the branches looked like once I converted the image to black & white and removed the background. There are several ways to remove the background, but I like to use the magic wand and the background eraser.

Here are the branches inserted onto two different backgrounds. Both are lightened photos of my hand dyed fabric. Doesn't the branch look much better on beautiful background?

I've been playing around with several ideas of how I could incorporate line into my work and this type of exercise is helping me sort though my thoughts.

Final Question: Is this a photo of something that exists in the natural world OR is it a photo of fabric that has been painted, dyed and/or manipulated in some way?

Fantastic Sunset

After a really cold week and several nights of frost, mother nature delivered some warm weather and a beautiful sunset.

 I'm taking these photos from the pier in Goleta Beach. Campus Point is the whole area of land that extends into the ocean in the background. That is where the campus of UCSB is located. It's a great location for a college. Whenever I see clouds like this, I know it's going to be a great sunset.

The colors gradually begin to shift, but within five minutes, the change is dramatic.

I took this photo after the sun had completely set using a long exposure.

 It was completely dark when I shot this photo of the campus lights. It's a fun little experiment that I continue to play with whenever I have my camera with me after it gets dark.

Inside Out: Hormones is on its way to Houston!

Yippee, Inside Out: Hormones was accepted into the IQF Festival in Houston! And I'll be going with two of my girlfriends too.
It'll be my first time at the Houston show and I'm totally prepared to be overwhelmed. I've attended PIQF in San Jose in the middle of October for many years, and two large quilt shows in one month is just too much for me. This year, I'll skip PIQF and will go to Houston show instead. I signed up for a quilting forum and an HQ quilting class and didn't get into either of them. So, now I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I might sign up for a raw edge applique class with Ann Johnston, but haven't decided. Will any of you be there? If so, let me know and we can set up a time to meet somewhere. It would be a lot of fun to meet some of you in person.
Fibervision will be having a special exhibit at PIQF again this year. I forgot the name of it, but you'll find it in the program. Here is a preview of my quilt that will be in the PIQF exhibit. "Ancient Artifacts" incorporates a photo of an old gas station that I shot in Los Alamos, CA. It was printed on cotton fabric on my Epson printer and is combined with other unique elements from this rural area.

One Day Left to Guess

I'll announce the winner tomorrow night. So far, the guesses range from $20.00 (my husband guess - haha) all the way up to $800.00.

Mike came back from Greece with 550 photos. He's never taken photos before, so I'm really impressed with the outcome. I've chosen a few to share. Hope you enjoy them.Here's Casper. Guess he's know all over the world!This is a very cool angle to shoot these columns. It really makes them dramatic!How would you like to live in this house? If you have extra paint mixed, you can embellish your house.

This photo of the islands is very peaceful. Love it!

The Getty Museum

Mike and I drove to Los Angeles to visit the Getty Museum. It was built on the top of a tall mountain. You park your car at the bottom and take an electric tram to the top. Most of the art is very old; J. Paul Getty was not a fan of modern art. My favorite painting is Van Gough's Irises.

All of the buildings are made with stainless steel and coated with white paint or white Travertine clipped onto the steel. There is an abundance of glass everywhere. The result is a museum with very geometric lines and reflective surfaces.

The setting is fantastic; on a clear day, the 360 degree view is amazing. The weather was perfect for spending a lot of time in the gardens. The photo above is of a circular garden in the middle of water. The photo below is a shadow from a very unusual sundial in the garden.

I came home with a bit of a tan and totally exhausted from all of the walking. I took a lot of great photos. It was a wonderful way to spend a Friday.

Photo Sphere

A friend of mine wants to insert a photo into a sphere and distort the perspective. I played around in Illustrator for a little while and came up with the photo below. I like it. I think I need to spend a little more time exploring the possibilities. Hmmm . . . so many ideas, so little time.

Goleta Beach

The weather was glorious Saturday, so Mike and I went for a walk at Goleta Beach. The tide was really low, so we walked to the point of the UCSB campus to explore the tide pools. I'm glad we went out when we did because it rained the next day. The temperature dropped 15 degrees in one day!

Photography

One of my hobbies is photography. My newest camera is a Canon, Rebel XT. I love the quality of the photos and the camera is easy to use and fairly lightweight. Here are some recent photos.