I am so busy! I've overloaded my credits to make sure I fulfill all requirements for graduation in the spring, plus I have a deeply involved internship, then work-study in the library. Somehow, I still have time to come over this way and make a post! So on to it...
I had to step away from leading the Art Club. There was just too much on my plate and I was starting to buckle under - something had to give. So after a long discussion with the VP of the club, I turned over all my documentation and started concentrating on my projects. I still have some first years come up to me about the club, and I let them know I am not leading it anymore - but they are more than welcome to participate (just watch for announcements). The other club members get it - we've all been struggling this semester with the workload, COVID uncertainty (still), and an otherwise sense of rushing things again. I'm glad I stepped aside - my stress levels and sleep improved some. I accomplished resituating this academic club and feel confident in the leadership of these young people to take it forward.
One of the things I am enjoying immensely is learning the digital camera. All these years of tweaking images in photoshop for print or digital output, I would question a photographer's use of light, color balance, contrast, and especially saturation. Now I have a deeper understanding and appreciation for the photographer's perspective. On one hand, I want the biggest bang for my images with the richest of colors and best details while my composition draws attention to the subject. I want there to be a moment of awe in the viewer - and tweaking the settings of my camera (
actually I'm pushing it to do things outside of the instructions for a project) for creative impact gets my heart going. Meanwhile, my brain is softly whispering that I might not be able to get this image published on a website for the detail will be utterly lost; or the colors are just so rich there is no way it would ever print like I see and capture it. As a graphic designer, I used to complain about photographers - I sincerely want to apologize to them now.
Photo Display Conundrum
I want to share my images, but finding a way digitally to do them justice is challenging, and expensive. Money is somewhat of a unicorn for me while I'm in school (another post for all that later) so I have to make do with the freemium services out there. Alas, disc space is the big issue. I did discover a "new way" to have images up on the web for better display, but that is a purely Google thing with WebP format. Photoshop hasn't quite caught up with the tech for producing that format yet. So basically, I still have to save my image in JPG or PNG format (losing image quality and data from the RAW format) then convert it to WebP. And the converter is still in development so there isn't a GUI for it. I just don't have the brainpower to deal with command line stuff right now. Going through my images and tweaking them a tad is enough for now. I do have a new respect for artistic photographers. Show here are a few images that I did not submit for critique or grading, but I like them. I am still hunting for a better way to display the images in some sort of portfolio or catalog format, but the brainpower is stuck in academics for now so it will have to wait. Meanwhile, enjoy.
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| Light of Knowledge |
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| Georgia Sunset |
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| Amigurumi Squishy |
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| Water Striders After Storm |
