Moving pictures

Not only is this a fun and catchy tune we've got going in the work room, but I love the polaroid and contact sheet framing.

Mega pixel project

During some recent scanning work for a client, I noticed a fair amount of landscape photographs. They had amazing colors and lovely scenery and probably captured many memorable moments. (Say that ten times fast) I also have lots of scenic photographs without people in them: cloud formations, sand, rocks, water, mountain ranges. I'm embarrassed to show the many pictures I have of plain blue skies. But what to do with them?

Artist - and prolific photographer - Liesl Pfeffer makes incredible collages out of her photographs. I particularly love The Mountains Wait.

Of course, you can cut up original photos to create your own collage. But with digital images you can print your photos onto photo paper for glossy or matte finishes, card stock, or any other fine papers for effect. Manipulating the digital images to enhance a color scheme can also add to your collage work. Imagine using sepia tones to create a cinema-inspired project or adding hyper contrasts for your Warhol homage.

Pretty Paper

Last week my husband and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. Although I am very happily married, I have to admit that it can be difficult to think of an inspiring gift that we haven't done before--that also stays within our budget. After being together 17 years, married for 14, and our two children, we are usually running out at the last minute for something easy.

I was proud of myself this year because I'd gotten the gifts early (books), figuring I'd spend the extra time on the packaging. Inspired by this hand painted wrapping paper from amazing artist Geninne, I made some fun wrapping paper of my own.

Using photo booth photos we took the year we were married, I scanned the strip, copied it into Photoshop and duplicated it until they fit across an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper. Luckily, the vertical strip fit three times across. I had to print out two sheets and tape them together to wrap one book, but the tiling effect worked perfectly with the photo booth format. What a fun way to revive an old memory!

I had initially made a pastel-colored card, but once I saw the black and white wrapping on the books and found a black ribbon in my spare ribbon box, I knew a bright red heart would be the perfect accent. Please note that I am not ordinarily so completely coordinated - with clothes, home decor and especially NOT gift wrapping - but it felt great to use items at hand to create such a complete package. A photo-inspired one at that!

Back to the Future

When we talk about archiving photos, or even just scanning photos so we can use them on the web, sometimes it's hard to imagine a specific purpose. If you don't have an event like a wedding or retirement party where you're presenting yourself to an audience, it's easy to ask why you're taking the time in the first place.

I just love looking at pictures. Mine, yours, anybody's. I'm nosy. I like seeing how people or places change over time. I'm nostalgic. I like scanning in old pictures so I can see them on my laptop (the most commonly viewed screen of any kind in my home) or to pass them to friends or relatives.

Naturally, I was completely excited to find Photojojo's Photo Time Capsule. From the cool and fun Photojojo site, it sends you photos from your flickr account twice a month that were taken the previous year. It's like your younger self paying you a little visit. You can even post messages for your year-older-self to read with the photos! (A cool feature is that you can change your time capsule period to 1, 3, or 6 months or 1 or 2 years ahead.)

Now, here's where I have to make a confession: I probably have one photo in my flickr account. I just haven't taken the time to download my pics. Like many of my soon-to-be-clients, I keep thinking I'll get around to it tomorrow, or next week. But really, the time is now, isn't it? I'll start with one group of photos and send them out straightaway. How else will I get to see them again in three to six months?

Putting it Together

I know this video has been made the rounds already, but I keep coming back to it. (Not that Google needs any additional publicity.) I have always loved pointillism, especially in the art of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. I'm sure many of you have seen posters where the image is created from a number of other, smaller images. Looking at these images reminds me how important the tiniest speck can be in contributing to a larger, more complicated picture. I also love how a Bay Area artist has re-imagined Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

"She's just about the close up the LI-br-ary!"

I am a huge fan of libraries. That doesn't seem so far off, given the satisfaction I get from helping people digitally archive their photographs, does it?

But within the stacks of a library there's a promise of treasure, adventure, excitement. The long rows of shelves hold books that keep pages bound together that contain letters. If you're lucky enough to read those letters, you can string together words, paragraphs, epic journeys. Even the physicality holds allure for me. To know that an insurmountable variety of documentation exists in a specific space makes my neck tingle.

Which is why I was completely overwhelmed to find that one of (if not THE) largest library collections in our country has been digitizing photos and other memorabilia for online access. The Library of Congress has a pretty awesome website. But it looks like they began uploading photos onto their flickr account in 2008 with a notice to readers to add any particulars, wikipedia-style. Interesting. 

If you have some time, check out their pictures. I'm particularly enjoying the Lincoln sets, not only for the chance to look at some great pictures, but the tags are interesting, too!



*The above quote is from "It's a Wonderful Life." Watch the clip here.

Mutual Appreciation

I spend some time reading blogs. Okay, A LOT of time reading blogs. I follow quite a few here on blogger, as well as a few others I've got bookmarked. Though the topics vary from craft to food to writing to design to photography, I love it when the more personal blogs (those by every day people putting what they love out there vs. companies wanting you to buy their stuff) reflect exactly what's on my mind.

Andrea at Hula Seventy is one of those people I admire and fear. Admire because she's an artist and mom who seems like a great gal to sit down to tea. Fear because since I only know her through my computer, I wouldn't want us to meet and then find we don't hit it off. But I figure a gal who loves the Xanadu soundtrack and taking pictures has got to be a bosom friend.

This week Andrea is celebrating "'roid week," where she's talking a lot about Polaroid cameras and taking Polaroid pictures. Since we here at print>pixel have been pondering the notalgic merit of the new Polaroid 300 vs. the futuristically-interchangeable-lensed-video-capable Olympus Pen, looking at Hula Seventy's photos has been fun. Remember unbalanced color saturation? The white borders? The cool noise the camera made when the picture came out?
What did you love about Polaroids?