Papilio Thoas

New image uploaded to Zenfolio.

Buddha Light

Now the background for this image is transparent so it is interesting how it shows up.  The colors are semi transparent.  But the black background does not overwhelm it.

New butterfly photos on Zenfolio

I uploaded 6 new butterfly photos on Zenfolio last night. I am working on a new set of photographs for my luv's Mariposa of Austin. They are to be used for greeting cards and to help identify butterfly products that she is working on. 5 of the photographs are for that project. While the other one is a photograph I showed here before

David Hockney using the iPad as a art medium

Watch the video and then read the article.  David Hockney is a famous British artist who has a new art expo in Paris using the iPad as a art medium.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11666162

  To grow on his idea, my additional thought is to have a group of artists sending drawings back and forth quickly as they sketch them.

Ballunar Festival, Houston

We are at the Ballunar Festival in Houston selling Mariposa's butterflies. The first night had a great little show with the hot air balloons.

black and white birds

Atmospheric shot with an old-time feel on Half Moon Caye near The Blue Hole. Photograph was taken from an observation platform looking over a nesting area. The white birds are Red-footed Boobies.

Conch Shells in Belize

While we were on Caye Caulker, Conch season opened (Oct 1st). The local variety is the Queen or Pink Conch. While walking along the beach the first day, we came across some fishermen and stopped to talk with them. These are some some of the shells they had already removed the snail from.

Wooden

lunch life

Sometimes our tools or toys like retrocamera allow us to reopen our vision and see with a fresh eyes. Even something as mundane as the remains of lunch.

Butterfly Photographs

My luv and I did these photographs a few weeks ago. She and her partner Phyl get all the credit for the design and staging. Phyl had the great idea to use pages from wallpaper sample books to create backgrounds. My luv found these backgrounds and staged the photographs. You can find most of these butterflies for sale on their site, Mariposa of Austin.

Soap Bubbles and Macro Photography

Simply Beautiful. This guy is doing some incredible work. I have to try this soon. Creating a soap bubble film, lights and a colored background. Then take some macro photography.

http://2photo.ru/en/post/19381

Mission San Jose in San Antonio, Tx.

Oscar Wilde on Artists

The moment that an artist takes notice of what other people want, and tries to supply the demand, he ceases to be an artist.

Butterflies and Retro Camera

Here are some more photos taken with Retro Camera. I really like how these photos came out versus the building ones from yesterday. There is one with the instant poloraid effect and two Pinhole camera ones. It's too bad that these images are actually very small. I would like to be able to make prints from them but at 648 x 648, we are talking a little over 2 by 2 inch photo at 300 dpi (dots per inch) or a 4 by 4 inch photo at 150 dpi. My phone camera is 5 megapixels but the little app doesn't use them all. I do like what it does do though.

6

Retro Camera, Buildings and Pinhole

Here are a couple houses taken with Retro Camera's Pinhole setting.

 These two are from 801 Pine Street, Bastrop Texas, next to the County Courthouse. 

These two are an old house on 71 outside of Bastrop.  Not very good but they definitely give an old time, almost creepy feel. (Don't be going in, might not be coming out!)

Android and Retro Camera

I have a new toy on my T-Mobile phone, a Motorola Cliq. It's an Android based phone.  The little app from the Market is called Retro Camera.  It has a special set of filters that match the style of older cameras like pin hole cameras and poloraids so that when you take a picture with the phone's camera, they come out looking like they were taken with these special cameras.  I'll post some photographs that I have taken, mainly with the pinhole camera setting.

New Photographs on Zenfolio

Two new images added to my Zenfolio site. A artistic one and the original.

Lost Original

I really wish I knew what happened to the original file for this butterfly. This is a smaller scaled file from the original digital photograph.

zenfolio and mpix

Made an print order of several of the images I have on my Zenfolio site.  The main printer they have for the USA is Mpix. The photographs came back great.  I really wanted to make sure that they were going come back with the correct colors and brightness.  I shouldn't of worried.  They were recommended to me by others and now I see why.

There was one little thing.  And it was user error.  I had ordered wide cards that came with envelopes for the seashells (2nd one) photographs I have.  I thought I read that they were "cards" with envelope.  No, they were a wide print with a matching envelope.  Very nice print, but still a print with a matching envelope.  Looking back at the description helps explain my confusion.  They say the "free" envelope is to help you if you want to make a card from the photograph.

I am happy with the quality of all the photographs.

Butterflies gone bad

Group of Mushrooms

This image is available from my zenfolio site.

Butterfly Lousia

Floating Cupped Heart

Green Pump

14 Set A

July's almost over and no Post!

Well we can't let that happen.  My, how time flies.  There are a couple irons in the fire right now.  The Roadside Memorial project continues.  Starting up a Zenfolio site to sell my photographs.  Along with a few misc stuff.  Will post some more of of my digital art over the next couple days as well.

Hope everyone is having a great summer.

New Project - Roadside Memorials

I have started a new project called Roadside Memorials. I want to document the crosses and other symbols placed in memory of lost ones along the side of the road. These are temporary pieces of history. Either by neglect, weather or rules that demand they be removed after a specified amount of time, they too become lost to history.

Many monuments and memorials across our country remind us of fallen soldiers, great leaders or dramatic events. The crosses and shrines that we see along our roads are much more personal. They memorialize friends, families and loved ones. People who may not be as visible to the general public but are definitely not forgotten by the people who knew them.


I have started a blog called Roadside Memorials where every week I will be presenting a new memorial found along the roadside.

Spirit Orbs

Box of Crayons

Give a guy a box of crayons, well, a really cheap set of oil pastels, a sketch book and he will find some time to play.  Oil pastels can get a little messy.  With little pieces all over the place and the surface easily smudged onto your fingers, clothes, etc.  Though they are NO WHERE near as messy as chalk pastels.

Iron Bolts

If you thought all I was selling was those cards, there are a couple of images and photographs that I have and will be adding. This one I have printed out as large as 20"x20". If you are interested in getting a print of this image please let me know.

Forgot about my Twitter account

I had forgotten about my twitter account that I created when I created this blog. Just remembered today when talking to my love about her latest message on Twitter and I said I did not have an account.

My "graphic workstation" is toast

The workstation I have been working on to use for my art crashed. And it is messed up so that I cannot install any of the software that I need. Ugh. And I had just finished getting Vista installed in VirtualBox.

Kinda like a lava lamp

A Tiger Swallowtail?

I think we may a couple Swallowtails here.  The false eyes are a giveaway.  Caterpillars do change color as they go from the egg to cocoon.  I found some very similar ones for a Canadian Swallowtail.  Only problem is that the butterfly does not get down this far south and I have two of them.  So I asked the friendly folks at the Austin Butterfly Forum and they told me that it looked like the caterpillar for the Tiger Swallowtail.

A quick search confirmed it.

A friendly face?

Another visitor to our yard. A thick hairless caterpillar. He is kinda cute. Those false eyes really give him some personality. It's like he just reared up and tried to say "Hello!"

Two tried to go into the garage. One a little more brown and one a little more green.