Star Wars
I’ve always been a massive Star Wars fan. While the shows/movies have always been hit or miss, the universe that George Lucas created, and the Force in general, keeps me invested through the good and the bad.
I may make a few memes/jokes of SW from time to time. First is when Spaceballs 2 was announced at the same time a pivotal episode of “The Acolyte” premiered. The other is just something that sat in my head awhile, and finally took the time to draw it out.
Spiraling
I bought an iPad Pro years ago, in part to encourage myself to actually start drawing again. I enjoy drawing, but have always had creative block doing it. Once I start making mistakes, I hate going back and trying to fix it. But that was always with paper, by going all digital I hope it allows me to get past those blocks.
I’ve played around with a few different apps, but the one that I’ve started to enjoy is Adobe Fresco. It is free, and has a decent amount of tools. It may not be perfect, but it certainly serves its purpose.
The first thing I did was play with all the different tools and brushes. I never really had something in mind when I would start, it was really just to see what the different settings would do. For a brief time I was enamored with the chalk and smudge tools.
With these tools I would just start making general shapes and ideas with a few colors, use the smudge tool to the whole image with as big of a brush as possible, rotate the image and start a new idea based off what I was seeing with the new perspective. I would continue to rotate, add color and smudge until I didn’t think there was much more I could add without dramatically changing the images.
I call this little set “Spiraling”. See if you can figure out what are all the images I was drawing in each.
Street Photography: Stillwater, Minnesota 12/23/23
Stillwater is such a picturesque town at all times to the year. And it shows by the amount of photographer foot traffic it generates. Since it was the holidays, thought it would be a good time to stop by and photograph some of the lights and the historic Lift Bridge. For the walk we used the Sony GM 50mm 1.2.
Nature Photography: Lake Elmo Park Reserve 12/23/23
Landscape and nature photography is always something I’ve been interested in. I find random shapes in nature fascinating, but I’ve never taken the time to learn how to actually capture them. So I’ve decided to challenge myself and try to head out at least once a month to walk, enjoy nature and capture some moments. I also added to the challenge by limiting myself one type of lens.
On this first trip, I took my Sony A7IV, Sony 70-200 2.8 GMII, and a 2x teleconverter to Lake Elmo Park Reserve in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. The converter forced me to look for certain scenarios more than landscapes. I also discovered that despite the super sharp glass, the teleconverter never really produced a tack sharp image. It has me looking into other glass, and suffering from severe G.A.S.
