Macro Sun-Seeking Daffodil

Shooting an early daffodil from multiple angles.  There is a bit of wind movement + a small fly made an appearance on the tip of one of the petals in images #2.  Each shot is 5 to 6 images with
Nikon D750 and Zeiss Macro Planar 100mm ZF-2

February Berkeley Beauty

There are fabulous photographers, like David Maisel and Mishka Henner, who show in their incredible aerial photos how man is destroying our world.  I choose to focus on the beauty that remains, so we are reminded of what we need to protect.  The UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley is one such place with its incredible variety of plants.

Plant Friends

Sage and Cactus, side by side at the beautiful Berkeley Botanical Gardens.

Sherman in the Garden on a Gray Winter Day

It was cold outside, behind the thorny rose bush, but that didn't stop Sherman, a recycled metal and bicycle parts bunny, from peering happily out at the new growth.

Camellia Focus Stacking Photo

Experimenting with Photoshop CC photomerge/auto-blend features versus Helicon Focus Software to merge various images of the same picture but with different focus areas.  Helicon wins, but not by much.  This image would have been even clearer if I were more systematic in what I focus on and in what order.  

Bugs in the Garden

Testing a new lens and I discovered some bugs having fun in the Helleborus.  The world is full of big and little creatures living life, and we are probably only aware of .0005% of it at any time.

Oak Tree

Today's version of a tree of life, a neighborhood oak with new vector background.

Looking Through The Window

Rainy day photo composite.

Bird of Paradise

Loving the in-camera double exposure feature of my Nikon D750!

Valentine Rose Magnolia Crab

Romance can be a mixed blessing!  Beauty and crabbiness mixed, with photography and pen & ink illustration.

Freehand Drawings of Various Well Worn Running Shoes

to be printed on fabric and sewn into daughter's in-process marathon race-running quilt, composed primarily of Ts won at a multitude of races.  In fact, there are too many race Ts for one quilt, so I'm having to be selective, but I also want to personalize it, hence the Asics,  Newtons and Nike's above.

Tutti Frutti Snow Maiden

Having fun on a cloudy day

Snow Maiden

#4 in my "People Plus Nature" double exposure photo series: 1965 Santa Barbara Lucy meets 1977 Frozen New York Niagara Falls.  There isn't much snow at sea level in California but there was so much snow in January of 1977 in New York, the Niagara Falls nearly froze.

Elsa On Glass

#3 in my series of People Plus Nature: Two versions of 1965 Elsa in a Photoshop CC double exposure attempt with E.A. Autrey's magnificent stained glass picture of the sun shining.  A bit of a stretch on the concept of "nature."  Which works better, top Option #1 or bottom Option #2?

Running Into Spring

#2 in my series of "People Plus Nature,"  fine art photography features the Taylor Twins running down a hill in Discovery Park in Seattle in December, 2015, towards a pink blooming tree I photographed at Skywalker Ranch in March, 2010.

B&W Lucy in Red and Gold

Working on a series of Fine Art Photography I'm calling "People plus Nature."  We humans live in a world of incredible beauty.  Sometimes, we just aren't aware of it.  When we do notice, we tend to take better care of the world we live in.

Starting The New Year Out Right

Playing with the multiple exposure feature of my Nikon D750 and 35mm lens.  Top to Bottom:
1.  Mirror image with a photo of my art wall (sorely neglected since I've turned my short attention span to taking photos).
2.  The famous sculpture head of E.A. Autrey in my backyard, superimposed by a shot of winter succulent flowers in my garden
3.  Another mirror image, this time with a shot of a fabulous ceramic mask by Bill Abright
4.  Final E.A. Autrey head with winter oranges.

Ten Favorite Photos of 2015

My New Year's resolution is to improve my photography in 2016.
Past favorites from 2015 top to bottom:
1.  My neighborhood, November
2.  Photographing blur, September
3.  The Golden Gate Bridge during my first photography workshop, August
4.  A composite of shots taken in my backyard during the eclipse of the moon, September
5.  Portrait of Wilson Taylor in Seattle, December
6.  Portrait of Cole Taylor in Seattle, December
7. Inverness at dusk, during my 2nd photography workshop, September
8.  A neighborhood tree, November
9.  A neighborhood oak tree with dry hills, November
10. South Beach, newly edited RAW file now that I have Photoshop CC, April

Multiple Exposure

With 1965 photo, cold wax painting and photographs of 2015 Christmas cactus apples and Pyracantha berries

Memories - Of The Way We Used To Be

Winter gives one plenty of time to reflect on the past.  I used to wish I could lay down in a field and have everyone I was ever friends with walk by and say hello.  Since that wasn't possible, in 2009 I made a "It's a Party" video to digitally gather folks together, including those already passed, to the extent I had photos of them.  The photos from that video make a great background collage!  This year I celebrated my 40th wedding anniversary, thanks to the fact Sam and I have been living separately for nearly half of the 40 years we've been married.  Going through my father's old negatives today, I came across this old 1976 photo of a much younger Sam and me.  It looked like it was just waiting for a background of memories.

I Think I Look A Lot Like My Mother

Based on this portrait of me (top) by 6-yr-old Wilson Taylor, painted this December, as compared to the portrait he did of my mother (bottom) done on Thanksgiving last year.

Holiday Snaps

Rather than put up a Christmas tree, I spent the day taking photos of some of my vintage ornaments.
Top to bottom:
1.  My replica Tucker car, given out in 1988, on release of the Lucas/Coppola movie "Tucker: The Man and His Dream."  Great movie, great Joe Jackson soundtrack album.  I shot this holiday vignette on top of my dusty piano.
2.  Antique, chipping off paint, ornaments, I probably bought at a garage sale.  The backdrop is an unfinished painting.
3.  Nearly every year of my career at Lucasfilm, I was gifted unique ornaments at Christmas.  This wooden angel is one of them.  For some reason, he is carrying a watering can.
4.  I've been a major Mad Magazine fan since I could first read and have always loved this Alfred E. Newman ornament.  It wasn't until after I took the photo, I remembered Alfred somehow lost one of his hands a few years ago.  If you look closely, the ornament looks strangely like ex President Reagan.
5.  More antique ornaments against a fabric backdrop.  The piles of fabric I have oozing out of every corner of the house are crying out to be made into something.

Star Wars - I Feel Lucky

Sadly, I'm going to miss my invitational screening tonight to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens due to a bad cold.  But I feel lucky I was around when the original Star Wars movie was released in May, 1977, and even luckier that I got to work on it.  In fact, I feel really lucky to have been born when I was in a period of time in history which experienced an explosion of heightened creativity in cinema, music, and the arts in general.  I'm glad the little movie I typed the script for has continued to impact generation after generation in a good way.  That impact has certainly been more profound than that of any of the scientific papers I typed for an old boss at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, a job I had before joining Lucasfilm in 1974.  I actually wish scientific papers did have some of the same importance as movies and social media personalities do today.  We would be a better nation for it. I admired George Lucas for being able to take serious topics and distill them in a way that made them understandable.  So, watching a George Lucas Star Wars movie meant you weren't just being entertained, you were actually learning something, even if you were unaware of it.  That made working in the Star Wars universe constantly interesting for me over the course of my 35 1/2 year career at Lucasfilm.  Knowing that I was doing something that wasn't just entertainment, or money making, but was actually educational was a plus.  I'm not too sad I'm missing the new movie, since I can't help but feel how really lucky I was to have been there at the beginning!

Funky Shoe Font Put to Good Use!

Recently, Zsuzsi Mcdonald, an elementary teacher in Livonia, Michigan who works at a Leader in Me school with students who do community service projects, contacted me to see if her students could use my Funky Shoe Font (posted on my blog last year http://autreyart.blogspot.com/2014/12/new-funky-shoes-font-alphabets.html#links)  for one of their projects.  Of course, I said yes.  I love it when my art is used for educational purposes. 

Here are the details of Zsuzsi's request:  "A group of 30 students collected gently used shoes during the months of October and November. The shoes were sent to Funds2Orgs, they ship the shoes to developing countries, where they repair and sell the shoes.  Monies from Funds2Orgs are donated to the local Kiwanis of Livonia, who will donate 50% of what they raise to Child Life Services at four Michigan children’s hospitals and 50% to the Eliminate Project, a joint project between Kiwanis International and UNICEF to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus worldwide."

Once I sent my font to her, Zsuzsi sent me the above photo showing a picture of the students with one load of shoes ready to go.  She said their leaders will be using my font for their title for their Youth Making A Difference board.  I'm thrilled!

Fireplace Selfie

Added Photoshop CC to my laptop, so now I can play with it nearly everywhere.  This might not be a good thing if I want to get anything else done.

So Many Photo Options. Which Would You Choose?

Photography used to be a lot simpler.  You had to worry about what ASA film to buy, whether B&W or color, slide or print, and a few other things when shooting the picture.  Usually a lab took it from there.  Now there are an explosion of options from what you select on your DSL camera, when taking the picture, to a thousand things you can do in post production.  Above is one picture as shot (top), slightly manipulated in Lightroom (middle photo) and more manipulated in Photoshop (bottom).   But which one is best?