Lisa Call

A Mess of Images

In early 2005 I bought my first ever digital camera, an SLR Nikon D-70. I love the camera and it takes amazing photos. Over the past 3 years those photos keep multiplying and they have become rather unruly and unorganized.

I’m currently in the process of decluttering my house and life and cleaning up these images is on the list of jobs to tackle. It’s a big job.

First step was to figure out what to do with them. I want to share them, I want to print them, I want to organize them. And most of all - I don’t want them to be a hassle. [note - I’m not talking about the images I have of my artwork - that’s a whole other mess - but photos of everything else].

An Effortless Solution

Instead of researching and hunting around for the perfect solution I decided to take advantage of someone else’s research (my dad’s) and I’m putting my photos on SmugMug. It’s not free but it’s only $40 a year, a small price to pay for storage of all of my images. And because there is a fee there are no ads. It’s a really nicely designed site and so far I’m quite pleased with it.

I’m doing a weekly upload to smugmug and by the end of the year I will have everything organized and sorted out. Along the way I am sharing the pictures with the folks I promised I’d share them with (sometimes years ago). Yay! As I take new photos I am uploading them in a timely manner.

After putting the images on the website I am deleting the images from my computer. SmugMug keeps 4 backup copies of the files in 3 different states. I can’t come close to that kind of redundancy without a lot of effort. I get unlimited storage/bandwidth and I can print the images from the site (as can the people I share them with).

Definitely hassle free.

I love the idea of deleting them from my computer. I’m throwing away all my negatives from my print pictures also. It’s so freeing to get rid of this stuff I will never do anything with.

I’m going to be printing some of them, family ones for albums, inspiration ones to put on my wall and be inspired by. I’ve rarely (as in maybe once) printed my digital images in the last 3 years so this is a new exciting thing for me. Okay - I admit - learning technology sometimes prevents me from doing things - printing digital pictures was hurting my head - but no more! Yes I’m a software engineer and hand code the html for my website but I don’t know how to text message on my cell phone.

SmugMug Details

You can check out my smugmug site. I’ve got some public galleries in the inspiration category (some photos from Arizona and from North Carolina) and a few images from a show out in Arizona last year.

If you want the marketing stuff about SmugMug it is here. If you want to sign up you get a $5 discount if you have a coupon from a referral - you can put in my email address or use this code ZnhmaNpn2n1mk . Not required but $5 is nice. I get $10 off on my next renewal if someone does this so that’s also nice.

Above Image

The photo at the top is a close up section of one of the pictures I have on smugmug - it’s an aloe plant damaged by frost.

I’m so happy!

 
The road to the Bend of Ivy Lodge, where I attended the Great Big Dreams Retreat last weekend, makes a slight curve to go around this old barn. I love these old barns and had to stop and take pictures on my way home. What lines and shapes! Incredible.
 
 

 
This is the front side of the same barn. What a beautiful design.
 
 

 
This barn was on the same road but I couldn’t find a safe (close) place to park my car so took pictures from the road. I suppose this could be a self portrait in the sideview mirror.
 
 

 
My apologies to those of you reading my blog posts from feedblitz. I know the images no longer show up for some people after I turned on hotlink protection. I am able to see the images fine from feedblitz using thunderbird.

Could those of you that can’t see the images leave a comment or send me email with the name of the email program you are using? Could be the web based email readers are the problem and if so I can probably do something to fix that.

Blue Ridge Mountains
 

Definition of Success

It’s the time of year to write my art goals for the year - to think about what I can accomplish this year towards my goal of becoming a successful artist.

Problem is I’m not completely sure I can define what that means for me today.

Four or five years back I thought I had a pretty clear definition of what I wanted with my art career and I’ve worked very hard to reach that destination. As I’ve worked towards those goals I’ve found that some of them no longer feel right and it’s time to reevaluate.

Now that the final destination is no longer the same (or maybe it is and I just need to think about it some more) I am going to set only a few goals, the first 5 are a result of commitments I made last year that I want to keep.

My art goals for 2008

1. I complete the new Markings pieces that I need for my solo show at the Macky Gallery in February by February 14th.
2. I frame my plains drawings by February 14th so they can be included in my solo show.
3. I create new Structures pieces for my solo show at Lux art center by March 15th.
4. I complete all paperwork and provide requested materials for both solo shows and the show I am curating at the Lux on time.
5. I ship all artwork for upcoming juried shows on time (Materials Hard and Soft, Art Quilt Elements, Artist as Quiltmaker XIII at Firelands Association for the Visual Arts).
6. I determine with crystal clarity my definition of success for my art career.
7. I write goals for the remainder of the year that will lead me to the success I define.

 
Even with just a handful of goals I can see I will still be very busy over the next couple of months to get all of that new work completed. No surprises there but since my kids are in Europe I have a lot more free time than normal so I’m optimistic I will have plenty of time to get the artwork made and also spend time working on getting very clear about what I want, not just with my art but in all areas of my life.

Inspiration

The photos in this post were taken at the Bend of Ivy Lodge last week in North Carolina. We had some rain and fog but it didn’t diminish the beauty of the place. I absolutely loved all of the tree skeletons covered in a light green moss.