"Bias: a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation.”

We are biased when it comes to our own work. Now this can be a good or bad thing, just as one can be overly positive or overly negative in life. For me well, I enjoy my work when I’m creating it and for a short time thereafter. My portfolio is currently made up in my opinion of 2 or 3 great pieces and the rest are okay or garbage. The longer it has been since I worked on a piece the more I find wrong with it when I look at it again.

Take my design work or even this website as an example. I’ve redesigned this site 3 times in a year. It’s impossible for me to be finished with anything it always needs something more or less. I can’t seem to look at my work and see an artist’s work all I see is my work. Is this a normal problem for other artists out there or am I the only one who thinks this way. Tell me what you do to get around this, if it’s indeed a problem. I’d love to hear your suggestions.

Cris

Well here’s my summer theme photo for the week. Its been crazy busy so sorry for not posting much. I took this photo yesterday on my usual run around camp, it reminded me of my days as a camp counselor. A rewarding job but quite an exhausting one as well. Sometimes you just gotta take five whenever possible, enjoy!

Cris

I’ve thought long and hard about this one and didn’t want to do the obvious. My wife and son, of course they make me happy they are the reason I get up each and everyday. It sure as hell isn’t my job, not yet anyway someday hopefully. So I thought what is happiness to me, what is it other than my family that I can capture in a split second and today when I saw the babysitter posing for the camera it hit me. What else would make a photographer happy but “ a pretty girl with muscles” posing for the camera. Lets face it being able to pick up my camera and take photos of life and all that lies within it makes my life complete. So I think this piece is appropriately titled in this week’s Photo Friday theme ( which I’m late for as usual) “Pretty Girl with Muscles”, enjoy! Hope to hear your comments on this piece I did kinda put it together at the last minute hope you can’t tell.

Cris

Finally, I got around to this image. When I first saw that this weeks’ theme was sticky the first thing that came to mind was my son. He finds a way to make everything he eats sticky so what would express this theme better for me than my son going to town on a big lollypop. Of course no image is complete without a little photoshop magic, here I proceeded to borrow an idea I found online and traced the image to create this drawing kinda look. I have to say it didn’t turn out quite as well as I’d hoped but here it is for your viewing pleasure. I’d love to hear what you think of the image and the technique.

Cris

Sorry for the craziness over the last few days. I’ve been trying to update this blog to a more my style look and feel within my CSS abilities, and let me just say it’s a very limited ability. I believe everything is working now as well as one can hope after tearing it all up. UPDATE: I never use Internet Explorer and have never viewed my site on IE, well that is until today and it looks terrible. I guess it’s safe to say that if you have IE this will not be a pleasant experience. I’ll do my best to improve upon this little mishap but in the meantime I’d suggest Firefox or for those maclovers out there Safari. I’m also working on a couple of new images I hope to put up before the week is up but in the mean time here’s a few new touches on an image similar to one I’ve posted in the past. Looking forward to some comments on this piece. Happy 4th of July to everyone!

I’ve been playing around with a few new images and some new photoshop techniques and am quite pleased with some of the results. I’ll be posting a few of these photographs over the next few days for your viewing pleasure. This particular image today was taken behind the Parks and Rec. building when my wife and I took Aiden to play in the playground, good times. It’s a bit straightforward but the color and shadows really win it over for me. I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Cris

I’m a little late but I came across another fun challenge and thought I’d give it a world. The Photo Friday website works just like the Illustration Friday website, they come up with a theme and the creative minds around and about give it a world. The only difference I can see is that the PhotoFriday.com site actually picks 6 of the best from week to week to highlight on the front page of the site through links. These six are actually chosen through voting by the web surfing public. This Friday’s theme was “health” and here’s my take on health in my life at this very moment. I actually tried to think about it and tried to avoid this subject and try my hand at something different but It kept coming back to me. It was stupid of me to pretend I didn’t see it, my wife’s pregnancy and my new unborn baby have to be healthy what could be more important in the coming months. Well here’s my take on the subject, all comments are welcome and much appreciated. I really enjoyed working on this piece!

Cris

As an artist I’m always looking for a new way to express myself and as much as I love every aspect of photography, I’ve been trying to break free and try new things. So I found this little place on the web called illustrationfriday.com were artists, mostly illustrators get a theme every Friday and submit an image for the fun of it. Here’s mine, a bit rough but fun to put together none the less. I’m no illustrator, but I’ve always loved abstract and sketch like images so I gave it a shot. I think the more of these I do the easier it will be so I’ll try to make Friday’s a photography/illustration day and combine the two for a unique and fun composition. I’d love to hear some comments on what you think of the image and its execution, all comments are welcome.

Cris

Cris

Here’s two photographs I’ve been playing with today and would love some comments on. These images are photographs of some roses my wife had received which I talked about and photographed in an earlier post. These roses are at the end of their existence. I have to say I enjoyed photographing these, I actually have quite a few more images before and after I have not shared. I hope to save them for later collages or I may play with them and pick out a few of the best ones. Things have been very busy at work the past couple of weeks and I expect they will continue to be just as busy for the rest of the summer. Maybe I’ll have some fun summer photos to post in the future. I think I’ll be able to post something at least once or twice a week if time permits. As for now, I’d love to hear what you think of these two pieces. I personally think the black and white version is a bit dark and needs a little more contrast, so I’ll be working on that. The color piece seems to be a beautiful contrast for the earlier photograph of the flower at full bloom, maybe a diptych, I’m sure its been done but I do love the contrast between the two. Well comments are always welcome and appreciated, leave one

Cris

I wanted to share the following with you, I came across the blog of a fellow Etsyer a bit a go and she’s currently holding a lottery to raise funds that will go to the RSPCA - The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. I’ve owned my share of pets since I was a child and have currently acquired a kitten. I have seen cruelty towards animals, it’s no laughing matter so participating in this lottery is my small way of helping out. I’d like to direct everyone who reads this post to at least take the time and see all the various items that you will be able to win by just buying a $1 lottery ticket at www.allthosethrees.etsy.com. There’s currently 7 handmade pieces that will go to one lucky lottery winner, including one of my signed archival prints (pictured above), So go and check them out and please donate by buying a ticket its just a dollar, much less than gas. Only 6 days left of the lottery.

Well today was my wife’s first real “Baby Doctor Visit”, everything seems fine and we’ve even scheduled the first ultrasound for the end of the week. On top of that my job is really gearing up for the summer, summer starts next week, and the kids will start arriving on Sunday so I’m busy, busy, busy. I hate not having the time to work on my images but I do enjoy how much time I spend behind the camera this time of year. Anyway, I went ahead and put together a quick image today with some photos I took around the house. I hate to say it but my son drove me nuts today at the doctor’s office. He really wanted his mom, but she was being examined and the doctor was trying to find the baby’s heartbeat and it was just nuts. So my little boy and I had to leave, so I was a bit disappointed about that. Luckily my wife sent for us when the doctor found the heartbeat, WOW! It was really going. Luckily it all turned out well I got to hear the baby’s heartbeat and Aiden got his mommy. Getting to the point, this image is a little something to express my son’s energy and his temper these days. I love that boy, but some days I just have to take some deep breaths. - Comments are always welcome -

Cris

I photographed some roses my wife received from her students for a new piece I’m working on. I haven’t been able to work very much on it since the summer is getting started, with staff training and such I haven’t had chance for my own work. Camp is rearing up and the kids are arriving in a week, so my job has been keeping me extra busy. Hopefully things will die down a bit in the next week or so. This image is my starting point, it has just enough life in it to be enjoyable on its own. Comments are always welcome!

Cris

Well looking through some of my portfolio this weekend I came across this shot of an old court house in Nevada. I thought it was a fun image, it reminded me of my days growing up in a tiny town in Mississippi. I swear everything looks old, the history in these old walls make you wonder what interesting stories they could tell. I figured I’d share this image with you since I enjoyed it hopefully you will too. It might just remind you of place in your past, please tell me what it reminds you of, I’d love to hear about it.

Cris

Here’s a kind of dark piece, a bit too much red for my taste. I was playing around with some of my sons books he’s been asking me to read to him over the last few days and well I started taking some photos. It started quite differently and I’m not sure how I feel about it. In all honestly I usually love about 10% of all the images I create, tough critic I guess. What I was seeing in my head isn’t exactly what I’m presenting here but that may or may not be a good thing. I do enjoy how part of the image seems to be blurry or on fire, an interesting effect. I have noticed an interesting phenomena that a lot of my work lately has been based around my son and his toys and other items that all tie right back to him. I suppose my life is really based around his life and his wants and needs. I imagine all parents can relate to that. When you sit down and look around your life is somehow engulfed by “Little People” and “Noggin” at least for the parents of toddlers. Well enough ranting, here’s a new piece to pick apart, remember comments are always welcome and appreciated.

Cris

Another Week, Another Monday. . . Here’s an image I shot of a cute little flower my wife got from some of her students after I accidentally killed it.(oops, sorry) I killed it on accident I swear, reaching over it to get something I somehow broke the stem in half. Well here’s my attempt at trying to save it . . . hope you like it. Comments are always welcome.
Cris

Well I gave this image a shot and it turned out a bit dark. I tried to just tackle this piece without much thought other than create an image that was visually pleasing to me. I kind of like it, in some aspects. The colors are mild and not too wild and there’s some texture to the image that I like. Overall I don’t think it matters what it is but it’s a step in the direction I want to go. The image is actually made up of about 4 or 5 total images. Some I used for color and textures, if you look closely you might be able to make some of the other images out. I hope to have some more simple concept images to post in the coming days. As always your comments are always welcome, feedback is very useful.

Still working on the bunny, but I wanted to drop a quick line about this book. I was looking for my wife’s old pregnancy books since she’s getting her motherly urges now that she’s pregnant again, anyway back on point, I found this book called Art and Fear that I had bought when I was in college. It was actually recommended to me by my old life-drawing professor. It’s a quick read only about 120 pages and full of really interesting content on the types of things that hold most of us back from really going out and being artists. It has helped me through some tough times and it’s funny that I ran into it today as things in my creative life are in my opinion looking better than they have in quite a while. Here’s a quick little excerpt from the book that I find quite amusing - ” Talent is a snare and a delusion. In the end, the practical questions about talent come down to these. Who cares? Who would know? and What difference would it make? An the practical answers are: Nobody, Nobody and None.” - Art & Fear p.28
Cris

Today was kinda crazy, a very busy day. I finally got around to putting some of my prints on my Etsy shop so stop by and take a look. Anyway work was crazy today and then I got home to try and do some of my work. I’ve been going at it for a while, anyway I’m posting this image I shot today of a bunny. I’m hoping to do something interesting with it over the next few days but I thought I’d post the work in progress starting with the first image. Well I’m off to a late, late dinner. Comments are always welcome, bring them on.

This is a piece from a few years ago, I thought I’d put it up for fun. It’s one of my favorites!
I’ve been considering putting up some prints of my work up on the etsy store, but I’m not sure. I usually only make prints for myself of my digital pieces since they are meant to be seen through layers with back lighting. However I’ve had some interest for prints of these pieces. I was thinking I could do a small run of 25 prints of my Conceptions Series. Maybe I could also put up some black and white prints to try it out. I’ve also been considering getting back into handcoloring, I haven’t done that in a long time and I always had so much fun with it. Well any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Here’s an image I worked on the past couple of days. A colorful combination of elements that seem kind of inviting. My son growled at it when I was working on it, I guess he likes it. Comments are always welcome, thanks

My son was a little upset today over having to come inside. I hate to take advantage of his little moment of unhappiness but creativity was calling. Anyway, I had a little fun with it - not my usual way of portraying an image but I wanted to step away from my typical images. I think it turned out alright, the hair was fun but I’m not quite sure if it’s a bit too much, some blatant photoshop filters but sometimes they work. I like the use of the outlandish colors here it seems to contrast what is actually happening in the image.

A piece I worked on this weekend, just a little photoshop fun. I like the colors on this one, it was a nice relaxing piece to work on.

Well, this is a little better. Not always a fan of cropping but it does come in handy to remove the not so great portions and leave the useful ones. I like the contrast between ligth and dark here, more interesting this way. It’s still a bit too much for me, too much information and it doesn’t say anything. Strike one I guess, back to the drawing board.

I started taking some random photos yesterday and tried a few things. I wasn’t too happy with what I came up with so I’m not even going to post it. However today I gave it another shot, not extatic with this but it’s a little more interesting. I’m not too happy with the computer graphics colors but I do think there’s some hope still. Let me think about this. . . .

I’ve been working on this piece for a few weeks and it resembles a bit what I’ve done in the past. I feel like I’m doing the same thing over and over again. I’m having a hard time moving away from repetition. I’d like to move in an entirely different direction over the coming months, maybe something more traditional. Anyway here’s the image I’d appreciate any comments. I do like the image somewhat but its just not strong enough.