The sculpture, which is being created by renowned Scottish artist Andy Scott, will be nearly 33 feet tall and 88 feet wide, depicting a loon taking flight.
Giant loon sculpture to be installed in United Village development next summer
This photographer uses light to capture the power of nature. Here’s how he does it
This photographer uses light to capture the power of nature. Here’s how he does it
Visual artist and photographer Kevin Cooley harnesses the four elements — earth, air, water and fire — to showcase our relationship with the planet.
9 Photography Gifts on a Shoestring Budget
While it’s easy to assume that meaningful photography gifts come with a hefty price tag, this article is here to debunk that notion. In this guide, let’s explore nine photography gifts that are not only thoughtful and creative but also friendly on the wallet. From DIY projects to budget-friendly accessories, these ideas prove that meaningful gestures don’t have to break the bank. Time to discover how to gift on a shoestring budget.
Create a personalized photo album on a budget by utilizing materials you already have or can easily acquire. Collect printed photos, magazine cutouts, and any other memorabilia. Craft a unique album by binding these materials together using simple tools like a hole punch and twine. This DIY photo album adds a personal touch and allows you to curate memories without spending a fortune. You can make this yourself, of course, or you could also pick up an inexpensive version online and then take some time to decorate it outside or start to fill it with some images for starters.
Give the gift of organization and memories with a homemade photo calendar. Use free online tools or templates to design a calendar with personal photographs for each month. Print the pages, bind them together, and voilà, a practical and sentimental gift that can adorn any desk or wall. The options you choose here are only limited by your own creativity and time. You can spend a lot of time perfecting, or you could also pick up a blank version online and then start the customization yourself.
For the photography enthusiast with an appreciation for nostalgia, consider finding old, non-functional cameras at thrift stores or flea markets. These vintage treasures can serve as unique decor pieces. Clean them up, arrange them on a shelf, and let the aesthetics of classic cameras add a touch of retro charm to any space. Of course, these items do not have to be original relics. They don’t even need to be a camera as such; artwork, wall art, books, or even film can all form the feeling of vintage gear.
Put your crafting skills to use and create handmade accessories for the photographer in your life. Whether it’s a DIY camera strap, lens cap holder, or a personalized lens cleaning kit, the effort you put into crafting these items will be appreciated. There are plenty of online tutorials and templates available to guide you through the process. If you are not good at making items with your hands, then you can pick something up that has been made by hand locally or online. The choice is yours, and the options are vast.
Transform a plain photo frame into a nature-inspired masterpiece. Collect twigs, leaves, or small stones and use them to decorate the frame. A simple coat of paint can tie the elements together, creating a rustic and charming photo frame. Insert a meaningful photograph to complete this budget-friendly and nature-infused gift. Alternatively, there are many options that have been made by others already. Perhaps you want something that resonates for whatever reason. Search and you will no doubt find one pre-made online.
Craft unique bookmarks using photographs and laminating sheets. Select favorite images or snapshots that hold sentimental value. Trim the photos to bookmark size, laminate them for durability, and add a decorative ribbon or tassel. These personalized bookmarks are not only practical, but also serve as a constant reminder of cherished moments. If you do not want to go down that route, then you could always pick up some photography-related bookmarks from a store.
Repurpose old, non-functional camera lenses into stylish keychains. You can find inexpensive, non-operational lenses online or at thrift stores. Attach a key ring to the lens and, if possible, include a small tag with the lens type or brand. This budget-friendly gift adds a touch of vintage flair to everyday items. If you haven’t got access to old items, then going online will surely solve the challenge, with a huge range of small plastic items to suit even the lowest budget.
Transform ordinary coasters into personalized works of art with DIY photo coasters. Select meaningful photographs, trim them to coaster size, and affix them to plain coasters using decoupage glue. Seal the surface with a clear varnish to protect the images. These custom coasters are not only practical but also a wonderful conversation starter. Of course, you do have the option of purchasing ready-made blanks that will let you then just pop your images in and be done.
Create a memory jar filled with handwritten notes, each recalling a cherished moment captured through photography. Ask friends and family to contribute their favorite memories or include your own reflections. This heartfelt and budget-friendly gift is a timeless way to celebrate the importance of shared experiences.
The joy of photography doesn’t have to be reserved for those with deep pockets. By embracing creativity, resourcefulness, and a dash of DIY spirit, you can gift meaningful and thoughtful photography presents on a shoestring budget. From personalized albums to repurposed vintage finds, these ideas demonstrate that the most memorable and cherished gifts are often the ones that come from the heart, not the wallet. As you embark on the journey of creating and sharing these gifts, remember that it’s the sentiment behind the gesture that truly makes the moment last.
Have you any other examples of photography related gifts on a shoestring?
Designtex’s New Digital Studio Platform Allows for Easy Customization + Fast Turnaround
Beauty, utility, and sustainability are the three qualities Portland, Maine-based Designtex hold close. For more than 60 years, the brand has been designing and manufacturing applied materials for the built environment using what they refer to as “material intelligence.” By definition it’s Designtex’s knowledge of how materials are best applied in different settings and environments combined with their commitment to research, and belief in the power of improvement as a means for systemic change. And now, with the release of the Digital Studio tool, the brand has launched a one-of-a-kind digital design platform that enables designers and architects to create and customize a solution for any environment in a matter of minutes with a fast turnaround time.
Simple, intuitive, and waste-free, the Digital Studio encourages experimentation with color, scale, materials, and imagination. With an ever-growing collection of curated patterns, including designs by artists local to Portland, you can quickly and easily create custom textiles and wallcoverings – and receive samples within a week. Everything specified within the Digital Studio is produced at Designtex’s digital printing facility, which is primarily staffed by working artists. There they’re able to produce at an elevated level of detail and craftsmanship, just as they would their own work. The pride they have in the final product is evident.
[embedded content]“There is a joy to being hands-on with the making of materials,” said Karen Gelardi, principal designer and collaborations liaison, Designtex. “We have that here at the print facility and hope that designers will feel a direct connection to the production process through the Digital Studio tool, like this is their factory and we are facilitators.”
So, how do designers benefit from Designtex’s Digital Studio? To quickly and easily create custom textiles and wallcoverings for projects, choose a pattern. You can then tinker with the color palette until satisfied before utilizing the 3D visualizer to see your personalized design applied to different products and in different scales. Easily make any adjustments until it’s to your liking, or choose to save your work to revisit later. Once you’re ready, a single click places an order for a free sample – or several – that will arrive within a week. After that, a full order for a project can be received in only two weeks time.
Designtex’s substrate offering includes two durable wallcoverings, three multi-use fabrics for upholstery or panel, and a high-performance upholstery with a silicone stain repellant and fluid barrier. Staying true to their commitment to sustainability, there is also a circular, multi-use textile and a vinyl-free wallcovering. All substrates are SCS Indoor Advantage Certified and have HPDs. The wallcovering inks are Greenguard Certified, the textile inks are OEKO-TEX Certified, and Designtex offsets carbon emissions from their Portland factory. Products and samples are produced on demand, so there’s no waste in the production process.
Champ by Elizabeth Atterbury
Last month, I had the chance to experience Digital Studio at Designtex’s Portland facility for myself, and can vouch for not only the platform’s ease of use and quality output, but the level of thought and time that went into perfecting it all. The technology, selected designs, and user experience have all been pared down to an artful, mindful level that can be appreciated by all who interact with Digital Studio. Choosing a pattern, customizing the color palette, deciding on the scale, and finally choosing a substrate took me less than ten minutes – though you can easily spend more time experimenting with all of the options available. The big takeaway: it’s not an overwhelming experience, but rather a simple one that includes your personal touch and delivers.
“The ability to offer just-in-time production options to our clients is so exciting. Designers and architects are juggling evolving client needs and, as always, tight timelines,” said Oriana Reich, VP of Marketing, Designtex. “With the launch of our Digital Studio, we’re equipping them with a tool that reduces their time to customize and produce materials, and we’re helping everyone within the design ecosystem maximize creativity and efficiency.”
Budding by Christopher David Ryan
Champ by Elizabeth Atterbury
Collective by Jenny McGee Dougherty
Drypoint by Anna Heplr
Double Stripes
Ground Cover by Karen Gelardi
Fleur de Tachee by Rachel Adams
Studio Oxford
Studio Scene
Photo: Kelly Beall
To learn more about Designtex’s new Digital Studio, visit designtex.com.
Mining for meteors using Adobe Bridge and Photoshop
The Geminids meteor shower is the quintessential time for capturing the streaks from the heavens. This year, it was clear and the show was spectacular. I photographed from 9:15 PM on the 13th to 5 AM on the 14th of December. Then the fun begins gathering the strike images for blending. The image illustrating this article are the meteors in place before rotation to show the origin point.
Mining for meteors
Why do I call it “mining for meteors?” Well, out of 1,230 images captured, there were only around 40 containing visualized meteors. Eventually, only 27 made the final cut. Every photo needed to be examined to determine if it was usable. It’s a long process but worth it. I found that Adobe Bridge was a big help after I figured out a couple of things to make it easier to see the images.
Adobe Bridge tips
I’m a certified ‘Bridge-a-file’ as that is how I work with managing my images. These techniques can be applied with Lightroom as well if that is your jam. First load your RAW images into a folder. In Bridge, navigate to the folder. Here’s where it gets better for finding small changes in photos. Highlight the first image in the sequence. Tap the Space Bar. Now the image is being shown full screen. Much easier to see what is going on!
To navigate through your files, use the Right Arrow key. When you see a meteor, tag the image with a number or color. I just use the number one and it adds a star. There are five stars possible. If you would like to remove the number from the image, type zero. If you are more color-oriented, the keys six through nine will give your image a color tag. Six is coral, seven yellow, eight green, and nine blue. If you want to remove a color tag, tap the number again. Want to change a color tag? Just tap a different number.
Gathering the images
Once you have mined all the photos, they will be intermixed among the non-meteor photos. All you need to do is go to View > Sort > By Rating. They will all gather together at the end of your files. Once you have processed the images in Adobe Camera Raw, select the first of your rated images, then Shift Click at the end so they are all selected. Go to the Menu and Tools > Photoshop > Load Files into Photoshop Layers. All your files will be opened into a single file stacked on top of each other.
Post-processing
There’s a lot more to processing the meteors you have mined from the sky. I’ll have another article dedicated to that shortly.
Yours in creative Photography, Bob
Abraham Lincoln statue vandalized
Part of the sculpture has been missing about a week.
Winterfest brings impressive ice sculptures and frosty fun to Seattle Center
A group of renowned artists gathered at the International Fountain this season, transforming ice into captivating sculptures that set the stage for{a href=”https://www.seattlecenter.com/events/featured-events/winterfest” target=”_blank” title=”https://www.seattlecenter.com/events/featured-events/winterfest”}{ }Winterfest{/a}. This festive month-long event at Seattle Center promises to be a feast for the senses with seasonal decor, a winter train and village, lively weekend entertainment on the Armory stage, and a spectacular New Year’s Eve celebration to ring in the new year! (Photo: Elizabeth Crook / Seattle Refined)
A winter wonderland and dervishes dancing : photos of the day
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Supporters of the president of the DRC and leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress party, Felix Tshisekedi, cheer during a campaign rally at Place Sainte Therese in the Ndjili district. Forty-four million people are registered to vote in the presidential, parliamentary, provincial and municipal elections scheduled for 20 December in the central African nation of about 100 million people
Photograph: Arsene Mpiana/AFP/Getty Images
In ‘Body Politic,’ Antony Gormley Traverses the Human-Built Landscape
“Resting Place” (2023). Installation view of ‘Body Politic’ at White Cube Bermondsey. Exhibition photos by Theo Christelis. All images © Antony Gormley, courtesy of White Cube, shared with permission
Since the 1960s, British artist Antony Gormley has used the language of sculpture to examine relationships between human beings, nature, and the cosmos. If you’ve driven the A1 or taken a train past Gateshead in the U.K., you’ll have likely seen the “Angel of the North,” a public work made of weathered COR-TEN steel installed on a hilltop in 1998 that depicts a figure holding out arms that look like riveted wings. One of his most recognizable projects, the work was met with controversy at the time but has since become a beloved landmark.
For decades, Gormley has featured the human form in his work, often using his own body as a starting point for large-scale installations in which abstracted figures wander through outdoor spaces or convene in enigmatic arrangements. In Body Politic at White Cube in Bermondsey, London, the artist investigates our relationship with industrial environments and the tension between migratory impulses and the need for refuge.
In “Test, Bind” a single figure inhabits the center of one gallery, extending long, iron latticework to each wall and the ceiling, simultaneously supported by and supporting its surroundings. And in another room, 244 modular figures made from fired clay sprawl across the floor in “Resting Place,” evoking a gridded urban landscape. As visitors wander through the maze of prone and splayed bodies, the work summons a tense uncertainty. Some appear relaxed while others express discomfort or pain, stirring associations with the risks migrants and refugees take to escape conflict, along with a lack of resources and the effects of the climate crisis.
Installation view of ‘Retreat’ series in ‘Body Politic’ at White Cube Bermondsey
In a series titled Retreat, blocky concrete pieces, which Gormley refers to as “intimate bunkers for one,” form a single-file line through the corridor of the gallery and into the courtyard. Cast to the scale of the artist’s body, each figure compresses and contorts into different postures, with a small opening at the mouth that reveals a human-shaped void inside. “The only place where we can find true freedom is within the infinite darkness of the body available to us once the body is still,” Gormley says. “These works both evoke and embody the space that we all enter the moment we close our eyes.”
Throughout Body Politic, Gormley wrestles with ideas of interiority and external influences, vacillating between human introspection and the inevitability of outside forces. If you’re in London, you can visit the exhibition at White Cube through January 28. A solo show of his work will also open at White Cube New York this spring.
Gormley also has a solo presentation at the Musée Rodin in Paris titled Critical Mass, which remains on view through March 3. Find more on the artist’s website.
“TEST: BRACE” (2021), cast iron, 175.6 x 48.2 x 75.7 centimeters. Photo by Stephen White & Co.
“Test, Bind” (2023). Installation view of ‘Body Politic’ at White Cube Bermondsey
Installation view of ‘Body Politic’ at White Cube Bermondsey
“Stand” (2023). Installation view of ‘Body Politic’ at White Cube Bermondsey
“Retreat: Tuck” (2022), concrete, 81 x 61.5 x 108 centimeters. Photo by Stephen White & Co.
Installation view of “Resting Place” (2023) in ‘Body Politic’ at White Cube Bermondsey
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Minimalist + Monochrome: Favorites From Art Basel 2023
Exploring the relationship between the physical and physiological, Jesse Wine often experiments with anthropomorphic forms in his work. Crafted from a multitude of materials including ceramic and steel, this piece also exhibits an oxidized copper finish with limbs emerging from a chunky bed-like structure, transitioning from a static to kinetic force.
Influenced by the irreverence and cheekiness of pop art with a minimalistic approach, this sculpture was designed to emulate a calligraphic or typographic symbol – designed from individual lipstick capsules crafted from aluminum and finished in a bold yellow polyurethane paint.
Photo: Courtesy P.P.OW Gallery
Executing textural and sculptural art often exploring political and cultural issues affecting the Latinx community, Pepón crafted this anatomical heart from crepe paper to emulate a piñata – the installation both sonically and visually conveying characteristics of a human heart, even designed with speakers playing the artist’s own heartbeat.
Photo: Courtesy Casey Kaplan Gallery
Designed by hand and incorporating primarily basswood, artist Matthew Roney manipulates this sole material with various tools to produce an abstract sculptural design, revealing a deconstructed artful anatomy which was inspired by American folk art and influenced by a tradition of non-western art.
Photo: Ramiro Chaves
Crafted from Carrera marble, Claudia’s oeuvre typically incorporates biomorphic forms utilizing industrial technology processes. Comte’s main muses include waves, sonar, and of course cacti – which she playfully reworks to embody a more ecological influence.
Photo: Courtesy Mennour Gallery
Conceptual artist Daniel Buren is known for his minimalist mirror motifs. Created with a geometric pattern exhibiting a color block design, this mirror is crafted from 16 aluminum prisms and blue adhesive opaque vinyl, creating an optical illusion of striped rectangular prisms depending on which angle the reflective artwork is orientated.
Photo: Courtesy Marianne Boesky Gallery
Incredibly rich in both texture and color, this artwork is reminiscent of a bird house crafted from driftwood washed up on the beach. The artist assembled and reworked various pieces together to make the bird house look like a natural form, then beautifully embellished the piece in an ultramarine blue hue.
Photo: Tiffany Harrison, courtesy Schwarzwalder Gallery
In a showcase titled ‘Just Shut Your Eyes Tight, from the ABCs of everyday humanism,’ these neon-hued sculptures are inspired by the mundanity of how we typically experience nature, yet with a contemporary and artful twist. The statuesque green sculpture evokes resistance and stability, and the smaller ones also incorporate similar organic shapes, citing building blocks as a muse.
Photo: Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery
Carol Bove’s work is composed through the experimentation of modern metal sculpture. Influenced by industrial construction and architecture, and like many of her artworks, these monochrome blue sculptures are crafted from stainless steel and finished with a coat of urethane paint.
Photo: Courtesy Mennour Gallery
Working with varying juxtaposition of materials including granite, stainless steel, and concrete, Kwade’s work explores the connections among science, space, and time utilizing geometric and linear forms.
Photo: Courtesy Mennour Gallery
With a playful approach to creating sculptural art that is universal yet also intimate and relatable, artist Valentin Carron makes figurines depicting anonymous human forms that are crafted from children’s modeling clay in vibrant color schemes, baked in his own oven, and then carved in wood or cast in aluminum.
Photo: Lance Brewer, courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery
Jammie Holmes is a self-taught painter whose work is inspired by his childhood growing up in the South, often depicting domestic scenarios and everyday life. Crafted from powder coated bronze and acrylic, this monochrome flower pot is one of his first experimentations in installation art and features floral motifs that have appeared in other recent works.
Tiffany Harrison is a multidisciplinary creative who is skilled in visual + literary storytelling. She immerses herself in artful endeavors with creative direction + design, drone videography, and prop styling. Tiffany’s work is super conceptual and is inspired by contemporary art, which she is truly passionate about. You can connect with Tiffany on her website and Instagram.
