(no subject)

Mums and pumpkins were purchased, summer flowers taken down.  The Fall wreath was retrieved from the attic and the chill has settled in the joints of my bones.  But it is still that time of year where you find yourself sweating on the car ride home and freezing on the way to work.  I hope the boys settle into their routine okay.  I was up at 4:30 AM again this morning, but only because I was panicked about finding clothes, my face wash, the hair dryer... basically everything I need to get ready this morning that still hasn't been unpacked.

(pause: Showered and found everything. Still running on time enough to finish this entry! Score!)

So, here's something that was exciting to me and got me thinking about art in a new way. I was featured on the InstagramHub beach tag by one of their editors. Here is the image that I had featured at InstagramHub:

From Drop Box

What does that mean? Visibility, I guess.  Last night when I went to bed, the image had over 50 likes on my personal gallery and 898 on the InstagramHub gallery.  This morning the like count was well over 1400.  That's 1400 people who saw this image and took the time to like it.  Countless more saw it and either didn't like it, didn't take action, or silently appreciated.  Many, many comments.  People asking where my images are available for *purchase*.  Like, someone wants to buy my cell phone photo.  For serious,

My Photography Minor heart laughs.  It feels *weird* to use my cell phone and call it 'art', you know?  I rolled film in a dark room on old-fashioned wire reels (sometimes getting to smooch and make out with Nicole in the black room! teehee!), shook canisters, mixed up developer and lived in an orange-tinted room for four years learning silver printing, neogtiating wtih enlargers and making test sheets.  How can I take this little piece of technology and call that art when it is so *easy*?  I laugh.  Well, I laughed until I realized what visibility it has.  And then I remembered that I also carried around a little plastic holga and made images from a toy camera.  I also carried around countless self-made pin-hole cameras and called that art, too - and there wasn't even a shutter involved except a piece of black electrical tape.

Cell phone? Why the hell not? 

Some of the photographers I watch on IG are amazing.  They all have methods, apps they use to create and control their images.  While I have a more Cartier-Bresson approach (not really a cropper), some of them will go to amazing lengths to overlay, chop, slice, blend... the images might go through a very extensive editing process, or not - like my image above.  It is completely untouched.

I let myself go into this vacation as a Phone Photographer and tried to suspend my judgement.  I took plenty of pictures of the goings on, but I also got down on my tummy and took some weird shots.  I have experiemented with camera apps (including a really cool HDR) and editing apps.  I look at my gallery and see something cohesive about my eye on the world.  I make choices about which apps to use and when, I control everything that I can about my image, I try to take the images with multiple apps when possible so that I can go back later and edit on my phone in the evenings while watching TV.  I internally think it is a little silly that this is a 'medium', much less becoming *my* medium.  But one of the IG masters I follow made mention in his feed the other day that this is the way photography is heading, in his opinion.  And in Canon's opinion, too.  Their new camera will have onboard Wifi and different apps to instantly share your images to a feed - so now your new and fancy DSLR is just an Instagram-ish Portal.  Immediacy and easy of sharing, community and feedback - that's where he thinks art - photography - is heading.

I'm going to keep trying.  I can't afford an enlarger and don't really relish getting my hands back into old-fashioned developing.  Nicole is the primary user of our bulky DSLR (it's her baby! Except for the fish-eye lens - that one is pretty much mine.) and I really enjoy the anonymity I can achieve as I covertly snap away.  Learn something new every day, right?  Maybe I better explore opening an InstaCanvas gallery so people can order some of my prints instead of laughing about how absurd it is that I took this photo with my cell phone.

(no subject)

Mums and pumpkins were purchased, summer flowers taken down.  The Fall wreath was retrieved from the attic and the chill has settled in the joints of my bones.  But it is still that time of year where you find yourself sweating on the car ride home and freezing on the way to work.  I hope the boys settle into their routine okay.  I was up at 4:30 AM again this morning, but only because I was panicked about finding clothes, my face wash, the hair dryer... basically everything I need to get ready this morning that still hasn't been unpacked.

(pause: Showered and found everything. Still running on time enough to finish this entry! Score!)

So, here's something that was exciting to me and got me thinking about art in a new way. I was featured on the InstagramHub beach tag by one of their editors. Here is the image that I had featured at InstagramHub:

From Drop Box

What does that mean? Visibility, I guess.  Last night when I went to bed, the image had over 50 likes on my personal gallery and 898 on the InstagramHub gallery.  This morning the like count was well over 1400.  That's 1400 people who saw this image and took the time to like it.  Countless more saw it and either didn't like it, didn't take action, or silently appreciated.  Many, many comments.  People asking where my images are available for *purchase*.  Like, someone wants to buy my cell phone photo.  For serious,

My Photography Minor heart laughs.  It feels *weird* to use my cell phone and call it 'art', you know?  I rolled film in a dark room on old-fashioned wire reels (sometimes getting to smooch and make out with Nicole in the black room! teehee!), shook canisters, mixed up developer and lived in an orange-tinted room for four years learning silver printing, neogtiating wtih enlargers and making test sheets.  How can I take this little piece of technology and call that art when it is so *easy*?  I laugh.  Well, I laughed until I realized what visibility it has.  And then I remembered that I also carried around a little plastic holga and made images from a toy camera.  I also carried around countless self-made pin-hole cameras and called that art, too - and there wasn't even a shutter involved except a piece of black electrical tape.

Cell phone? Why the hell not? 

Some of the photographers I watch on IG are amazing.  They all have methods, apps they use to create and control their images.  While I have a more Cartier-Bresson approach (not really a cropper), some of them will go to amazing lengths to overlay, chop, slice, blend... the images might go through a very extensive editing process, or not - like my image above.  It is completely untouched.

I let myself go into this vacation as a Phone Photographer and tried to suspend my judgement.  I took plenty of pictures of the goings on, but I also got down on my tummy and took some weird shots.  I have experiemented with camera apps (including a really cool HDR) and editing apps.  I look at my gallery and see something cohesive about my eye on the world.  I make choices about which apps to use and when, I control everything that I can about my image, I try to take the images with multiple apps when possible so that I can go back later and edit on my phone in the evenings while watching TV.  I internally think it is a little silly that this is a 'medium', much less becoming *my* medium.  But one of the IG masters I follow made mention in his feed the other day that this is the way photography is heading, in his opinion.  And in Canon's opinion, too.  Their new camera will have onboard Wifi and different apps to instantly share your images to a feed - so now your new and fancy DSLR is just an Instagram-ish Portal.  Immediacy and easy of sharing, community and feedback - that's where he thinks art - photography - is heading.

I'm going to keep trying.  I can't afford an enlarger and don't really relish getting my hands back into old-fashioned developing.  Nicole is the primary user of our bulky DSLR (it's her baby! Except for the fish-eye lens - that one is pretty much mine.) and I really enjoy the anonymity I can achieve as I covertly snap away.  Learn something new every day, right?  Maybe I better explore opening an InstaCanvas gallery so people can order some of my prints instead of laughing about how absurd it is that I took this photo with my cell phone.