SEFCC Arts & Crafts Show, January 28 and 29, 2012

I will be selling my photography, jewelry and art this coming weekend, the 28th and 29th, at the

South East Florida Chamber of Commerce (SEFCC) 2012 HOME SHOW

at the Fort Lauderdale War Memorial Auditorium. 

The Home Show is a combination of Arts and Crafts, Home and Health and Fitness Expo, so there should be fun stuff for everyone.  Best of all there's free admission, although I think there might be a parking fee.  There will also be a raffle each day for a $2,500 shopping spree to be spent on any of the vendors there. You could be the winner.

If you are in the South East Florida area, come by and see me. Tell me you are either a blogger reader, Twitter follower, Facebook fan or friend, or an etsy person and get a free postcard of your choice. If you buy anything, get a free ACEO (in stock) of your choice.

For more info visit Art Sunny Side Up.

The Amazing Liquid Art Photography of Markus Reugels

Here's another in my 'thinking outside the box' series.

If you were impressed by newcomer Heinz Maier's water droplet photography, take a look at the work of Markus Reugels who happens to be the father of the genre. A fellow German living in Scheinfurt, Reugel's spends his days laying parquet flooring for a living, and playing with his photography in his spare time.

With elaborate setups, a lot of patience, an enviable imagination, and his Sony A700 and 300 cameras, Reugels uses high-speed photographic techniques to take exquisite photos of everything from soapfilm, to colorful liquid sculptures.  He creates these 'sculptures' by placing a black balloon over a bass reflex tube and places it on a speaker.  He then places a spoonful of water in the middle of the balloon, adds acrylic paints to the water, switches on some technomusic (bass only) and the music does the work.  He's still experimenting, but what he has so far is phenomenal. Here is his setup. I'm sure the process is a messy one, but well worth the results.

His latest endeavour is capturing planets in water droplets.

Most of his work can be seen on his Flickr stream, and his photography website where you can purchase his colorful work.

If you want to try your hand at high-speed photography, here's a great site that explains what it's all about, and how you can create your own.

Amazing Examples of Toroidal Vortex Rings

The video below is an amazing example of toroidal vortices.

What is a toroidal vortex, you might ask:

A toroidal vortex, also called a vortex ring, is a region of rotating fluid moving through the same or different fluid where the flow pattern takes on a toroidal (doughnut) shape. The movement of the fluid is about the poloidal or circular axis of the doughnut, in a twisting vortex motion. Examples of this phenomenon are a smoke ring or a microburst. Vortex rings were first mathematically analysed by the German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz, in his paper of 1867 On Integrals of the Hydrodynamical Equations which Express Vortex-motion Smoke rings have probably been observed since antiquity since they can easily be blown from the mouth.

Don't worry, I had no clue what they were either, but surprisingly it's something whales, dolphins, volcanoes, hydrogen bombs and man can do, and it's a pretty fascinating phenomenon.

If you want to learn how to make your own, the Surfing Scientist tells you how. All you need is a glass, water and some food coloring.

I need to do some shopping!  This would be a fun photography project.  I'm trying to think outside the box. And here.

Fotoshop by Adobé- Jesse Rosten Spoof Video Skewering The Beauty Industry

This is a brilliant video commentary/parody skewering the beauty industry by Northern California filmmaker/commercial director Jesse Rosten.  According to Rosten he was inspired to make the video after some channel surfing one late night:

I was watching TV one sleepless night and stumbled upon an infomercial for some beauty product. The commercial showed before and after portraits, that to my eye, looked like the same photo just photoshopped. I laughed to myself. Then I made this video.

At least the industry watchdogs are doing something about ad campaigns with excessive photoshopping. A Covergirl Natureluxe Mousse Mascara ad was recently banned in the U.S. as was a Julia Roberts Lancome ad in the U.K. last year.

It is amazing what Photoshop can do, but .....

Truth in advertising, folks!

 Fotoshop by Adobé

Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Green On The Road, Etsy Treasury by Fancy Pansy Crafts

Green is one of my favorite colors, and this lovely green treasury "Green On The Road" was put together by Slovakian doily maker Marie from Fancy Pansy Crafts.  Marie featured my 5x7 'Scandinavian Farmhouse'. I was delighted to have sold an 8x10 a few days ago. It's my most popular capture, and of all my photos has been featured the most on the front page.

Breathtaking Aurora Borealis Timelapse Video For Visit Finland

I love to travel, and have been very blessed to have lived in and visited many extraordinary places.  A few years back we journeyed to Scandinavia where we spent some time in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. We never made it to Finland though, which technically is not considered Scandinavia but rather part of the Nordic countries along with Iceland.  But some day my dream is to make it to both Finland and Iceland, my cameras in tow.

One appealing thing about those northern hemisphere countries is they get to experience God's light show in the form of the northern lights, aka the Aurora Borealis, exquisite natural light phenomenon.

An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae) is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere (thermosphere).

But to see the northern lights in Finland you have to go there when it's pretty darn cold, autumn or winter, because the long summer days (and nights)  makes it almost impossible to see them.  Apparently they are best observed in Lapland during the winter.

But if you don't have the money to travel there, or prefer not to freeze your butts off, you can experience the beauty of those lights right from the comfort of your own computer.  Flatlight Films, a production company based in Finland, created a magnificent timelapse commercial of the Aurora Borealis this past winter for Visit Finland (the Finnish Tourism Board), with the goal of enticing people to go visit. They certainly hooked me.

They shot in several different areas of  the Finnish Lapland using several Canon DSLRs with remote pan/tilt heads and the timelapse technique.

Digital Photography School has a tutorial on how to make your own using your DSLR.

Enjoy the breathtaking  beauty!



Aurora Borealis in Finnish Lapland 2011 from Flatlight Films on Vimeo.

Photo Credit: Timelapse Films

Elephants- An Etsy Treasury Curated By Kim Hambric Fiber Art

Kim Hambric curated this wonderful Etsy treasury full of elephants and my abstract Reflections In Water On Asphalt.  The tree is actually a reflection in a puddle of water. 



Kim is a fiber artist who creates beautiful, earthy art quilts, wall hangings and collages. Here's her blog, and for more of her work, check out her website.

Turn Your Facebook Timeline Cover Photo Into A Collage

I'm going to be honest, I loathe the new Facebook Timeline and I refuse to switch over. Facebook will have to do it for me when that time comes. It's not because I don't like change, some change is good, but this new Facebook change sucks.  Frankly, looking at it gives me a massive headache.  I know many of my friends and colleagues love the new layout, but I can't quite figure out what's to love. Aside from the whole privacy issue, the page is a major mess- cluttered and lacking a point of focus. As an artist that really bothers me. There are 2 columns and I still haven't a clue where I'm supposed to look. That's not  good.

But, since it's free and it's Mark Zuckerberg's sandbox, he can do whatever he wants with it.

But for those of you who will miss the five photos at the top of your old page, you can actually create a collage of any album of your choice, not courtesy of Zuckerberg, of course. In my opinion it would just make the page busier than it already is, but Photojojo (which has all sorts of fun gadgets for camera buffs), has some wonderful DIY projects including one with a link to a free editing tool at http://www.picscatter.com/  where you can turn your Timeline main photo into a collage, so you're not just stuck with one.  You need the latest flash 10.3 and active javascript, but it looks pretty interesting with some nifty filters and the ability to choose an album, friends.  Needless to say, I have not yet used it so I'm not sure how well it works. For fun, Photojojo also links to some very creative Facebook photo hacks.

Have fun and go create.

Gold and Turquoise Etsy Treasury- Curated by Olga Tarasova

Here's another beauty curated by Olga Tarasova who has a beautiful shop of felted and silk scarves and shawls, with some lovely felted sketchbooks. You can find her blog here. The treasury includes my abstract "Pieces of My Life".

Etsy Treasury List "Green Grass, Herbe Verte.." by Soudane

Here's a beautiful green treasury "Green Grass, Herbe Verte.."  that included my water lilly photo. It's beautifully curated by Soudane, who makes cute clothing for dolls.

Converting Nikon Film Camera Lenses To Fit DSLR

Since I have a shop on etsy.com, I belong to the Photographers of Etsy (POE) team. It's a wonderful forum for photographers to ask questions, share information, add our latest listings, and sometimes to just commiserate.  Since there are often many interesting things people share, I thought I would go ahead and start sharing them here, as well. 

While perusing the latest forum postings, I came across one of the photographers sharing how jazzed she was about finding someone to convert old film lenses to fit DSLR cameras.  She had been wanting a macro lens for a long while but didn't have the money to spend on one. Suddenly her husband remembered he had a box of old Nikon F film camera lenses in a box and there was a macro lens. They had also heard about someone who converts film camera lenses to DSLR, so off went their 55mm Nikkor macro lens, and just over a week later they had a lens to fit their digital camera for only $41.00. She was absolutely thrilled, and was raving about how tack sharp it was.

The only problem is he only converts Nikon lenses (and I'm a Canon gal), but for those of you who own Nikons, he might be worth a try if you have access to old film lenses. I personally can't vouch for him, but the photographer who used him was delighted.

John White's website  http://www.aiconversions.com/ is nothing to look at, and the camera clicking sounds are rather annoying, but he's offering a great service for Nikon owners at what looks to be a great price.

Famous Digitally Altered Photos- From Kim Jong Il's Funeral To A Beirut Bombing

It's not just fashion, wedding or celebrity photographers or major ad campaigns that resort to photoshopping to make a subject more appealing. The news media outlets have also been guilty of embellishing or erasing something or someone to further their own agendas.

The Telegraph UK has a compilation of some of the most famous photos that have been digitally altered for various reasons, with explanations. All very interesting.

However,  Reuters is probably one of the worst offenders when it comes to fauxtography. Manipulating a photo to make something look worse than it is, in an effort to garner sympathy, is unconscionable.  This website shows the many ways in which Reuters digitally altered news photos to make Israel look bad, and sometimes even staged a photo for special effect. That's not what photojournalism is about.

The badly cloned photo:

The original below:

It's just sloppy biased journalism.