I am an artist
and an illustrator—not a photographer.I
spent most of my adult life in an office behind a computer during the day and
doing something creative at night or on the weekends. I was never fortunate enough to devote myself
fully to my art. Over the years, I probably
have experimented in just about every aspect of the creative arts—both visual
and performing arts. However, I have
never dabbled in photography until my husband’s daughter gave him (what I
called) a “real camera” as a gift for Father’s Day back in 2016. He graciously let me "try it out” and, poor
guy, he never had it in his possession since then.
After retiring and moving to North Carolina in
2017, I really had (for the first time in my life) an opportunity to devote my
daytimes to pursuing my creative gifts; and, like most things that I do, I gave
it my all. Over the past five years, I
have taken and catalogued over 200K nature shots from our backyard alone. It is from those photographs that I create my
images.
I have not only learned a little about
lighting and timing when it comes to photography; but, also a great deal about animal
behavior; and, last but not least, gotten pretty good at photo editing and digital
art.
So there you go! The truth is that my photography is just
so-so and there are plenty of great nature photographers out there with really,
nice photographic equipment. I am in no
way trying; nor do I want to, compete with them. I feel what I do takes an entirely different
skill set than straight photography and not everyone can do what I do.
As I mentioned
earlier, I am an artist and an illustrator—not a photographer. I simply use my photographs like I would paint
in order to create an image from my own childlike imagination. The photographs
are all mine. Many of the images I post
are straight photography; but, the majority of them are photo art images that
take me hours to create using all different methods. Interestingly enough, not only do I not have
a “professional” camera; I also do not use Photoshop. I am truly “old school” in many ways. I use Microsoft PowerPoint photo
editor and Paint 3D to create my artwork. Why? Well
because that was what I had on my desktop.
Plus, if I downloaded PhotoShop, I would lock myself in my little
art room until I mastered it and people already complain that I am way too much
of a hermit as it is!
You might have
already guessed that I have been accused of trying to “deceive” people by not
telling them when something that I post is a composite image; and then, I upset
a different group of people when I attempt to accommodate the first. The good news is that most of my faithful followers
don’t want to know. They have informed
me that they prefer the childlike experience of just enjoying the moment! Maybe we all need a little bit of that in our
adult lives these days!
Follow me on my Facebook
HERE:
Comments
What is most amazing to me is that you are not using Photoshop. Since that program was released, I have attended numerous events, in St Petersburg, Tampa and even Orlando. It does provide the ability to do what you are doing. But the fact that you used older programs, most of which I also use for various purposes, and created the outstanding photo art you create with them, just says how truly talented you are.
So ignore the naysayers, and just keep creating. You are a truly talented artist!
I am a wildlife rehabilitator of rodents. I was so excited to see this friendship between 2 different species. It's something we excitedly discussed. I shared it on all my wildlife groups and many also shared it thinking it was a real life situation.
I just feel like there should be a tiny clause to keep the art from being confused with real life situations. I certainly don't consider myself a naysayer but I hope you can see the conundrum. The only reason I found out it wasn't true is on one of my shared posts, someone said sadly it's photoshopped. I did read your whole post about not using Photoshop. But the important thing is it's not real and before sharing anything I do normally make sure it's what I'm seeing. I was so sad when I found out it was not what I thought it was. A good analogy would be, when you read something or watch a movie, no matter how beautiful the artwork within, we all want to know if it's true because then the movie or article takes on a whole different meaning. That's why of course that they will start the credits with "Based on a true story."
Since you seem open to discussing, I just wanted to give my thoughts on this.
I agree with your followers you are very gifted.
Lucy
I am a super skeptical person by nature and so have made it a practice to never assume anything that I was going to share with my groups was legitimate until I contacted the source and got confirmation prior to sharing. I have found that to be a good practice no matter what it is. There simply is too many false ads, photoshopped images, etc. to assume anything these days.
You might consider adopting that practice. I have found it very helpful in my own life. If you had simply messaged me personally and told me what you were planning on doing, I would have fully disclosed that these were photo art and we both would be better off.
Thank you for reaching out. I am sure my reply doesn't "fix" things; but, I am not sure there is a fix that will make everyone happy.
Dianna
You are an amazing photographer!