LACMA

While I pause on my Abbandonata project, feeling a need to write in Every Thursday more frequently again.

For about a year now I’ve been exploring various social media sites and posting photos mostly there, learning a tremendous amount from seeing the work of other artists, and connecting with them as well, which is tremendously important for me. The balance was tipped in that direction posting-wise for a while, but now I need to redirect the majority of my attention and my work here while I do some studies on my own to prepare for my next stage of mastering the camera.

So some thoughts about my experience this last year… :

I’ve been back and forth about Facebook. Ultimately, I’ve kept it around though I think I have finally figured out how to use it without driving myself crazy. And that is, as a place to stay in touch with my peeps. old friends, family, extended artistic family. To keep abreast of events, so I don’t miss them. To share interesting things I come across. And to have a point of contact in an area of the internet world that is heavily used and continues to be popular.

I’ve done the posting to various sites route over the last year. IPA (iPhoneart.com), Flickr, EyeEm, and a few others. IPA has an amazing community which goes on artistic adventures fearlessly, a group of very knowledgeable people in both the field of analog and digital photography, iPhoneography, and the easiest and most simply designed site to post discussions to. The responses are always helpful and honest. IPA remains my home for when I have burning questions or want to share discoveries.

Flickr is probably the most diverse and universal site for posting photos. I belong to a few groups but have been using it mostly for a specialized reason – practice in street photography. Now and then I have been posting something other than street photography, how that portfolio grows remains to be seen.

EyeEm is a site I tend to use for very eclectic work. I’ve gotten into photography with text written directly on it, whether in comic book style or not, and this site is quickly becoming where I prefer to post that kind of work.

The latest edition to posting sites is National Geographic (?!). I was introduced to this site by a wonderful photographer who had some great shots of the Endeavor space shuttle on its journey through LA to the California Science Center. The work that I have started to post there is straightforward practice in traditional photography, using apps like 645 Pro MK II, PureShot, Huemore and Hueless, ClearCam, ProCamera, and ProCam in addition to the native iPhone4 camera to get the most out of the camera my cell phone has. For night photography I will be using LongExpo, SlowShutter, and NightCap as well. I may also be working within the limitations of my Nikon Coolpix S8100 to see what I can squeeze out of it with manual control. The value of posting on this site for me is to get the discipline of traditional photography down, and to know the instrument I am dealing with. This will be a good exploration in conjunction with my analog journey, which is coming up in the near future.

I love filters and will continue to use them, in addition to the other apps I have which can heavily alter the original appearance of a photo. But as I am always eager to acquire versatility, and I think a grounding in the traditional techniques of photography can only broaden and deepen my abilities, I want to get that experience under my belt as well. Mastering the camera I have will be an essential skill for my filmmaking, which is where my heart of hearts lies.

And… as for Every Thursday… this very technical update will not be the standard for the kinds of posts I make here. Just for today, I wanted to share my thoughts about my direction, and revive this category of this blog again in the process.

Every Thursday