Artsy Shark presents photographer Deb Booth as featured artist. Visit her website or catch a video of her work on YouTube to see more. Deb will be showing her work at Oasis Gallery in Harrisonburg, Virginia during March and April 2011. The opening is scheduled for March 4th.

 

I’m a 53-year old photographer/digital artist living in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, USA.  I began taking photographs in 2002, during a solo trip to Italy.  My husband bought me a printer so I could print out some of the pictures, and the printer came with photo editing software.  My son showed me a few tricks, like inverting colors . . . and I was hooked! I like taking what “is” and turning it into what it “could be”.  The actual taking of the image is only the first step on the journey for me.  I really enjoy playing with my images using Photoshop Elements to add new emphasis, or remove detractions, or change the image completely.  I tend to see things in a different light – hence the name of my studio.


This image was originally a lovely pink hydrangea.  I played with the hues and came up with something different… but still recognizable.  I like moving the editing program’s slider bars until my stomach tightens a bit, and I’ll utter an “ooh!” – then I know I’ve hit something exciting. I like to challenge myself to continue moving forward on my artistic studies – to try new things, and learn new techniques.  Along the way, I fell in love with fractal art, and began experimenting – ultimately taking a class using a free fractal program, Apophysis.


This image is a fractal, which is based upon repeating patterns – often found in nature.  Some of my favorite fractals are ones that are reminiscent of something in ‘real life’ – like this icy, windswept-looking tree. One of the other interesting things I’d experimented with was using a flat-bed scanner to take photos.  Do you have a scanner?  Then you have another camera – one that’s amazingly capable of capturing extremely small detail at high resolution.


This image is a rose laid upon the scanner with crumpled white tissue paper behind it.  I liked how the paper ended up looking a lot like a granite cave wall . . .  and how it looked hard and sharp, in comparison to the softly graceful lines of the rose. My favorite subjects tend to be flowers – I love using the macro setting on my camera to capture a super closeup of something people see every day, but tend to overlook.  You know how a band will do their version of someone else’s well-known song, and it’s called a ‘cover’?  Well, the way I look at it, I do covers of some of Nature’s greatest hits.


This is an iris – up close and very personal.


This image of a tulip is alllllmost abstract, to me.  It’s readily identifiable as organic… you KNOW you’ve seen it before… but where?

 

 

Here’s a beautiful, all-white peony bloom with the colors more saturated.  Aren’t those petals’ curves and ruffles gorgeous?  Like a dance, in flower form.


This was a beautiful confluence of lines and colors in a small garden center on a gray and blustery November day.  I loved how the fronds seemed enmeshed in each other.


This was a puddle in my driveway, right after a rainstorm, and the sky still had clouds scudding along, looking threatening.  I took the shot, and then came in and played with the colors… and suddenly, it looked like a night sky to me.  If you look closely, you can still see the asphalt in the upper and lower corners – and a stick that breaks the water line.  And those things that look like stars in the night sky?  They’re really just rocks in my driveway.


Here’s one of my beloved kitties, Caramel.  She’s no longer with us – we lost her a few years ago – but I still smile when I see this shot of her.  She was a lovely light in my life.

I’m constantly reminded that photography is a metaphor for life – the best, most dramatic shots are those that show a ‘battle’ between dark and light.  It’s the contrasts that make it interesting.

I offer classes in digital editing (one on one at my home, or online), and in creative sight (how to help yourself “see” more wonderful opportunities for creativity, no matter what your chosen creative outlet is – photography, stained glass, quilting cooking . . . everyone gets stuck sometimes. I have a few ways to help folks get UNSTUCK).

One of my favorite activities is creating slideshows using my images set to beautiful music . . . picking the perfect image for the crescendo in the music, and allowing it to change color, or mutate into another shot seamlessly, flowing gently one into another.  I began my first slideshow as a project for my mom, who is in end-stage renal failure.  She spends hours in dialysis each week, and I wanted to be able to give her a way to be somewhere else, mentally, while her body was a hostage of the tubes and machines that keep her alive.  I call them relaxation videos – or visual meditations.

The plan is to donate them to hospitals, hospice centers, patients and caregivers – and to sell them to the general public to finance those donations.  So far I have given away more than 150 DVDs, and would love to partner with a production company somewhere, or get a grant in order to reach a broader audience.

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