It’s been more than two weeks since the beginning of the 2020 Spring Nature Artists’ Guild “Encounter”, There’s No Place Like Home.  So now it’s time to share!  Participants in the project are invited to submit up to three images of some of their artwork created over the last two weeks.  Depending on the total number received, one, two, or all three of each artist’s images will be shared on this website in an upcoming post.

Some quick tips for photographing sketches –

• Lighting –  While entire photos can be lightened fairly easily, glare, shadows, or uneven lighting make the process much more difficult.
• Color Casts – White or cream paper frequently acquires a blue or yellow tinge when photographed. The temperature or “white balance” setting on most smartphone cameras is fairly easy to use for corrections.
• Cropping – Cropping is one of the simplest photo-editing processes and the background behind the artwork in the photo can easily be removed.  Making sure the artwork is not skewed is more important than trying to control the background.
• Pixels are free (mostly) –The saying, borrowed from photographers, means that there is an advantage in taking multiple shots of the same subject.  One of the shots is likely to be better than the others, and unlike in the old film days, it doesn’t cost extra to take more, keep the best, and delete the rest.

Learning to take good photos is becoming increasingly important for today’s artists, and smartphones make the process better and easier then ever. Learning a phone’s settings for photographing and editing is well worth the time spent and photographing sketches is good practice.

The Nature Artists’ Guild is not necessarily looking for perfect photos or even finished artwork in There’s No Place Like Home.  It’s about sharing successes and works in progress, quick sketches and finished pieces, and interesting attempts at something new.

Images should be e-mailed to Denise Fisk, whose contact information can be found in the Nature Artists’ Guild’s Yearbook.  A one-sentence description of the medium, inspiration, or subject matter may be included with each image, but is not required (and may be edited for brevity). There will also be opportunities for participating members to share their work in the Nature Artists’ Quarterly (a member’s only publication) or at a future meeting of the Guild.