Photographers of Etsy Team Blog: Wandering Eye

Wall, David Hayes, 2011

My photo, "Wall" is included in this collection! I'm very excited by this to say the least!!

Photographers of Etsy Team Blog: Wandering Eye: Well hello, and welcome back! When we last visited, a couple months ago, the Wandering Eye had settled on Black and White images. This tim...

Before...and After....

I have received (and continue to receive!) so many wonderful comments about the pics I posted for the Stacking project that I thought it might be fun to do a quick post showing the befores...and the afters of each photograph. I'm not going to discuss how I did each...just they where all taken with a Nikon D90 camera (RAW files) and edited using Photoshop CS4 and layers...things like contrast, saturation, black and white, etc. No real "recipe"...mostly by the seat of my pants which is the way I like doing things....

Book 20

Book 20, David Hayes, 2011(Before)

Book 20, David Hayes, 2011 (After)

Book 21

Book 21, David Hayes, 2011 (Before)

Book 21, David Hayes, 2011 (After)

Book 25

Book 25, David Hayes, 2011 (Before)

Book 25, David Hayes, 2011 (After)

I feel that the "before" images have a beauty and power all of their own...just as do the "after" images....each showing the decay and change  that this book went through. Looking at each, I also feel that they stand on their own as a statement...different statements and impressions. Which is the power of photography!

I hope you like these....have a great week!!

The Paper Stacks Project

Seth Apter, 2011

Earlier this month, Seth Apter posted the above image on his Facebook page. A reader suggested that he should set up a collaborative project on his blog, The Altered Page, where those who wanted could share images of their "stacks".

Always one to oblige, Seth has done just that! Today, Wednesday, September 21st he is hosting "The Paper Stacks Project" where 70+ artists are sharing their stacks! As one of those who elected to participate, I went back to some of my "stacks" of images and pulled out these three. I had taken them of a book that I used for one of Seth's earlier projects, "Decomposition". The book had gloriously fallen apart after spending three summer months hanging outside...and as I slowly unbound the book, I took photos of what revealed itself. Then...I stored the book...and these images until a time when I could best use them.

The images were taken using my Nikon D90 camera and I always shoot and save at the "RAW" setting. What you see below is after a bit of Photoshop magic where I cropped, filtered, and layered to achieve the "moment" I was after. I decided to go after a mysterious, subtle feel...a change from the in-the-face grunge images I've been doing as of late. 

The Paper Stacks Project

Book 20, David Hayes, 2011

Book 21, David Hayes, 2011

Book 25, David Hayes, 2011

So there they are, my Stacks. While I see room for improvement in all three images, I'm pretty happy with what turned out. I might just put my iPhone camera down more often and pick up my Nikon!!

My thanks to Seth Apter for hosting this wonderful opportunity for all of us to share our works. Seth...you are the greatest!!

A Grand Obsession!

Self Portrait, taken and "processed" with Camera Genius

Earlier this year I traded my cell phone in for an iPhone4...and this summer I bought an iPad. To say that I have been "obsessed" with the photography and graphic design apps available for both these devices is an understatement! To fully understand my obsession you also have to know that I trained as a photographer back in the 70's...you know with FILM and chemicals and all that! For me to go over to digital much less iphoneography...well....

I thought it would be fun to start posting about the apps that I have found the most exciting...so this is my first post in what I hope will be a continuing series. My postings won't be reviews of apps...there are several great blogs that already do that and I'll share those with you in a moment. Instead, I thought I'd take a photo that I felt came out successfully and show what I did to it step by step. I will make sure that I supply links to all the apps and resources I give so you can check them out in more detail at their source...and if you like them...download them! (I get nothing from this...honest!!)

Before I get started with my first pic, here's some great sources on iphoneography for you to check out: 

Create Great iPhone Photos, by Allan Hoffman. This is a great primer on a whole bunch of apps and how to use them.

iPhone Obsessed, by Dan Marcolina. See, I'm not the only one! In this book Marcolina not only reviews a bunch of different apps, you can view videos of him using them by using the qr codes he provides.

You can get both these books at Amazon. 

Two blogs that I follow 'cause they give great reviews and notices about when apps go on sale or are offered free are: 

Life in LoFi: http://lifeinlofi.com

Appotography: http://appotography.com

Both these blogs are also on Twitter and Facebook.

Okay...now for my pic!!

Original shot

This first shot was taken using the standard iPhone4 camera. It was a quick grab at a farmer's market...I couldn't get close enough to take the pic I wanted but I decided to take it anyway to see what I could do with it later. Actually...this isn't exactly the original shot...I did do a little editing and cleaning up using the app Photo Studio which allows you do some great editing very quickly.

Second Step

After the editing and saving, I opened the pic in the app Color Splash. This is a fun app that automatically converts your image to black and white...and then allows you to "paint" the color back in using a variety of brushes. It's great to work with as it lets you focus in on the details if you want...down almost to pixel level. As you can see, I let everything but the scale remain in black and white...letting the color of the scale make it "pop out" of the pic. After I was done, I saved this image to my Camera Roll. (What's great about doing this is that each step is saved as a separate image so you could go back if needed.)

Third and final step:
"Scale", David Hayes, 2011

To finish, I opened the second image in the app, Pic Grunger. Now talk about a very cool app! This one allows you to apply all sorts of "grunge" filters and textures to your pic to give it that "vintage" look. You can do some adjusting of the intensity of the filters and textures, but not much. You can't layer filters with this app...there are others out there that you can. (I show you those later!) I played around with the filters/textures until I found the combination I liked...and saved it!

There you are! I'm really happy with the way this came out...and you know what? This probably only took me 15-20 minutes to create. Now granted, I've had a little experience using each of these apps, but I didn't spend hours to create this one! And....once I was done and saved the image, I used PicGrunger to post the image on Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter...all at once!! This took another 10 minutes...

I hope you liked this post! I can't wait to show you more of what I'm coming up with in future posts!!

Have a great weekend everyone!! 

QR Codes....

QR code - clearerreflections.blogspot.com

QR codes....they seem to be everywhere anymore...tempting me to whip out my iPhone and scan away! So far I've limited my use of these things...figured I don't need the information offered or to give up info about myself to some unknown source. Do use my reader from time to time and have found it to be a quick way to download without having to key in a URL.

Now...being a boy who likes to play with his toys...I was checking out all the features that my QR reader had to offer. (I have QR Reader for iPhone (Premium) by TapMedia Ltd.) Not only does this app quickly read QG codes, it also has a feature called "QR Creator"! This gives you the option to create your own codes from URL's, phone numbers, text, GEO locations, email addresses...and several more that I'm not sure about!! So...I just had to create some codes!!!  First...I created a code for this blog...that's the one at the top.

QR Code - etsy.com/shop/clearerreflections

This second one is for my Etsy shop, Clearer Reflections.....

QR Code - etsy.com/shop/reflectiveimages

and...this third one is for my other Etsy shop, Reflective Images.

Okay...so what do I do with them? Haven't quite decided. Probably put them on my business cards. Could work them into my collage/assemblage pieces. Maybe into my photography! (I'll have to try using Hipstamatic on them....this might just be cool!!!)

I'm open to suggestions....in the meantime, point your QR Reader at the screen...it works...I just tried it!!

Have a great Monday...and a wonderful week!!

Oh well...

A Moment's Thought, David Hayes, 2011

The long awaited finalist list for the Cloth, Paper, Scissors Artisan 2012 competition was published this morning...and I wasn't on it! Nuts!!  While I trying to be philosophical  about all of this...I'm still feeling a little down in the dumps. There will be next year's competition and I've already decided the pieces I just finished are stronger than the ones I submitted...so it just follows that anything I create from here on has to be even better! Right!!!

In any case, my hearty congratulations to those who did make the list. From those pieces I have seen, I know I was "beat out" by the best! If you'd like to see the finalist list, click here.

Right now, I'm going through my "stashes" to see what I have in the way of emporium...and finding lots of treasures!!! And I have a "Vintage Gentleman" project to start...and...and...and...so I really don't have time to feel sorry for myself, do I!!

New Works

50,000 feet, David Hayes, 2011(mixed media, 9x12)

I thought I'd like to spotlight a couple of mixed media pieces that I just finished...well actually these have been finished for about a week...but it was only today that I got around to photograph them! Both these pieces will eventually end up in my Etsy shop...I need to live with them a bit before I can sell them...

"50,000 feet" was one that I did for submission to the Cloth, Paper, Scissors Artisan 2012 competition...so some of you might have seen this before. However...I didn't get much in the way of good feedback on this piece and my wife, who is my go-to-critic, told me she thought it was too sick-green! Now that's a killer comment if I've ever heard one!! So...I didn't submitted it, but instead put it aside for awhile. I eventually repainted it with a green that was more to her liking...so here  it is!

This is a mixed media piece where I glued down bits and pieces of an old computer to a hardboard panel that was first coated with gesso then painted copper. The square, corroded sections are copper sheets that I  applied an "aging" compound...and then I discovered if I put pieces of aluminum pan on them, the aluminum would dissolve and adhere to the copper...really cool! The next pic is a close up of these sections.

Now I will have to admit that my accidental discovery wasn't at all planned....I had put the copper sections into one of those disposable aluminum baking pans and covered the sections with the aging solution. I forgot about them for a day...and when I came back I found that the solution had dried up but not before dissolve the entire bottom of the pan! What was left behind was what you see above. Fortunately this happened on my messy work table...which gained more "character" from all of this!!

Air Mail, David Hayes, 2011(mixed media, 9x12)

"Air Mail" was another piece that I started for the CPS submission, but it wasn't going anywhere fast...so I set it aside until I could figure out what I wanted to do with it. I knew I wanted to work with the photo of the airplane you see in the center left...this was a pic I shot using my iPhone4 at the Dayton Air Force Museum...and used one of my apps to alter it. (And...I forget which one!) The trouble was I didn't know where to go from there! Finally, it all started to fall into place.

The panel it's all build on is another hardboard to which I glued an old printing plate. I "distressed" the plate using various Ranger alcohol inks...then applied the "Battery Location" layer using a gel transfer. (Yes, this was from another photo I took at the museum...). Using a bit of foam core, I glued down some more of the printing plate, distressed it as before then glued a print of the plane to it. The clock is from a photo taken from an old pocket watch that was my grandfather's railroad watch...the stamp is one I had. The frame is 1x2" molding that I cut and painted before gluing it down. And there it was! Here's a close up shot of this piece:

Like, "50,000 feet", this piece will eventually end up in my Etsy shop as well. (With anything I complete, I like to live with them for awhile before finding new homes!)

It's the Labor Day Weekend...funny how summer always goes so quickly! We're in for a couple days of super hot weather, but Monday promises to be delightful! I hope everyone can enjoy this weekend!!