The Life of an Image

There are a lot of great images on stock photography websites these days. They are no longer just the kitschy, stale image selections they once were. This can sometimes mean spending too much time looking through hundreds, if not thousands of images! Other times, no matter how hard I look, I know my ideas are just too specific to find the perfect image. I've learned to pick a few that stand out to me and envision the potential to take them where I want to go, as it is with this photo. This is when I get to play around in photoshop. (These images will then become backgrounds for postcards, brochures, etc).

I find the key to combining images is all in the lighting (intensity, direction and shadows). In the photo to the left, the flowers may feel a little bright, but in this case they were meant add a playfulness and so I didn't mind. With an artistic eye, I don't think there is an absolute moment that two photos perfectly fuse together. I don't want to get caught up in fine-tuning it to death. Nature itself isn't concerned with composition and yet it's very successful at visually communicating.

This combination of photos is not about convincing the viewer that the fish are at that location, so the difference in lighting wasn't an issue. The image instead is more about creatively conveying a concept. The fun part is how one image can convey several ideas. In this case the image was used in a message series titled INSPIRED.

Mostly, as I look through the images I've worked on, it's the creative and fun aspects, much more than the believability, that I enjoy most. Here is an image that I got to add a VW bus and make look like an old photo.

Here I Am

When it comes to social networking sites I don't often write out my thoughts, divulge my emotions or interject my opinions much. While I do embrace that I in fact have some fun thoughts, big emotions and insightful opinions, these are more likely to come out when interacting with friends and family. I do however hope my life projects in authentic ways through my creativity, even on the world wide web.

This blog will often just be a glimpse of how my weeks are spent. When people ask me what I do, my mind spins with aspects that range from crazy to simple, from exciting to mundane... but I would love to be able to capture a little bit of everything here to share.

I began sewing when I was seven years old. In college I received a bachelor's degree in fashion, interiors, graphics and business... even my degree I was creative with! Yet, my creativity started long before I began sewing and reaches wider than my schooling. God put something inside me that I can't help but to let live out in my life. Now I am living and loving the self-employed life of creatively making ends meet.

Just as much as I love creativity, I love warm and sunny days. When I get the chance to take a bike ride on the path that parallels the river, I can't help but thank God for His love for me and to soak in the creativity of His creation. I also love to hang out with people and value the divine nature of living in community. If every day could be filled with creativity and sunshine and every evening filled with friends, Italian food and music....... ahhh, that could be my heaven!

So this is my introduction. More often posts will have fewer words. I hope to capture my life more through visual means than through words, but even words can be beautiful.

Love to you,
Andria Higgins