In the Playground

finding edges

2011-12-13T11:44:00.000-08:00

I enjoy looking at the "find edges" filter in Photoshop.
I like to see things I wouldn't normally see - and it's all really there -if you just look at it differently.

2011-11-09T13:11:00.001-08:00

Mill Valley Click off 2011: Brilliance (Brainstorming) yesterday

2011-10-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

Mill Valley Click Off 2011 / Topic: Brilliance

2011-10-25T17:38:00.000-07:00

I have been playing around with ideas for my topic. I am going to post a bunch hear/here and would love your feedback.

I am Featured in this Podcast about photography

2011-10-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

http://connectedsocialmedia.com/5898/future-lab-better-photos/

Rope Drawing on Porch - same same / different

2011-06-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

View my book and even turn pages

2011-05-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

Click right here to go to the book.

Solo Exhibition - Through April 29th

2011-03-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

Structure - Crystal

2011-03-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

Feb. 20th 2-5pm Event

2011-02-18T20:15:00.000-08:00

Lately

2011-02-10T04:21:00.000-08:00

Hi,
I haven't been posting here as of lately and my friend Joe Bencharsky of www.webtraction.net told me that it isn't really called a blog if you don't post often and consistently, so I will be changing the name to Lab or something.
I will keep you posted.
Lots going on..

The Sensory Landscaping Event announcement is coming soon.
*Stefanie

Details

2010-10-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

Scale is one of the hardest things to get a sense of through viewing my work online. These are both details of the image below.

Publish Post

Guess

2010-10-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

All is Energy

2010-09-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

2010-09-29T12:20:00.000-07:00

Making Music Visual

2010-07-31T07:57:00.000-07:00

Bubbles in the Grove with Sterling Johnson and Timothy Surya Das and friends.

Snow

2010-07-31T07:51:00.000-07:00

This is TV Snow with Triple Crystal Vision.
If you want to learn more about Crystal Bill's Crystal Vision -
go to http://www.elegantcrystals.com/
You may not see anything about it there but you can ask.
I got a very Special Preview.
Check out his "Rainbow Secrets of the Crystals." 2 min promo video.
http://www.elegantcrystals.com/2-min-Promo-Flash.html

with Sterling Johnson at night

2010-05-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

In the Redwood Grove with Sterling Johnson

2010-05-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

Sterling Johnson is a bubblesmith who resides in Faifax, CA. He has been blowing bubbles with his hands since John Kennedy was president. He co-hosted the first international bubble conference at the Exploratorium in 2009. He has performed extensively in the Bay
Area, in Tokyo twice, Dubai, and the White House. He is most interested in helping people see bubbles freshly, to be in the moment and experience a true wonder that nature gives us from soap and water.

Roger Vosberg, a lawyer in my BNI chapter introduced us.
He had an inkling that we'd really enjoy meeting so he connecting us together.

Hear are some questions that Sterling answered about the bubbles.

1. What are the bubbles made of?

The bubbles are basically water and soap.  The soap is a mixture of 
detergents tweaked with some other things like glycerine to help the 
bubbles perform better.  When you see a bubble, what you are seeing is 
95% liquid by weight, 99.99% air by volume, and it acts like a solid.  
Nothing else quite like that around us.

2. How do you get the bubbles in bubbles

Bubbles inside bubbles: short answer: I blow at the side of the 
bubble, and if the bubble mix is sufficiently elastic, the force of the 
air will push the film of the bubble inward until the film, seeking a 
smallest  surface (which is also the lowest energy state), will find it 
better to form a separate bubble inside, with the hole that remains on 
the outer surface healing itself .  I know of at least 5 distinctly 
different ways to put a bubble in a bubble.  What allows bubbles inside 
bubbles and what makes bubbles try to be spherical is a wonderfully deep 
principle in natural things that they naturally try to find a lowest 
potential energy state; it is a way to understand gravity, chemical 
reactions, and lost more, and bubbles are the most beautiful example of 
concept.

3. What makes you do something so beautiful knowing it will disappear?

Evanescence:  Bubbles are like people: every one if different and 
everyone is mostly the same.  They all live too short of a time, though 
a few unexpectedly and often unexplainably live much longer than the 
others.  There can be a sadness at how quickly they leave us (bubbles 
and people), particularly for those which seem exceptional; but in the 
end, it is greatly more helpful to give real focus to them while they 
are with us, marvel at their beauty, and accept that  they will not be 
with us for long.  A really good reminder about a life well lived.  And 
besides, if the bubbles all lasted for years, they would get messy, pile 
up, accumulate and we would not treasure them so. That they are 
short-lived is really a part of what makes them special.

I'd love to hear any of your questions and will connect you with Sterling if you'd like to ask him yourself.

Perhaps he can answer them right here.

* Stefanie

At Play with Bubblesmith Sterling Johnson

2010-02-25T21:21:00.000-08:00

Things are Blooming at Kumara

2010-02-17T14:10:00.000-08:00

Coccoon of Light

2010-01-19T21:06:00.000-08:00

Mount Tam dressed in yellow

2010-01-19T20:59:00.000-08:00

Ice and Light

2009-12-04T00:07:00.000-08:00

2009-11-24T05:25:00.001-08:00

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
Carl Sagan

Henry Miller Quote

2009-11-11T23:26:00.000-08:00

One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.

Science is spectral analysis. Art is light synthesis.

2009-11-10T06:06:00.001-08:00

Karl Kraus

My Teacher Hummingbird

2009-11-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

Hummingbird will no doubt give you a flash of the spirit, darting here, there, and everywhere. Get ready for a strange new burst of energy, which may send your senses reeling.

The Medicine Cards

Light Experiments-dressed in red

2009-10-07T22:29:00.001-07:00

Light Experiments-TBD

2009-09-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

Name: TBD

2009-09-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

Light Studies -continued

2009-09-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

Light Studies

2009-09-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

Outer Space / Inner Space

2009-09-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

Kaleidoscope - painted with light

2009-09-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Detail of Above

Perception

2009-09-17T15:03:00.001-07:00

These are dried flowers. I guess it really depends how you look at it.

Painted by the Moon

2009-09-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

This image is painted with the moon.
What I mean by that is, I took my camera, I looked at the moon and painted and pulled that light.
I love moving light, shaping it, bending, swirling and dancing with it.

- Stefanie Atkinson

Tools
Canon Rebel (film)
Creativity
Light
Full moon

The tallest tree in the jungle

2009-09-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

We were hoisted up 100 ft. to have a lovely breakfast in the tallest tree in the jungle at the Manu Biosphere Reserve in Peru. We were well above all the other trees and this was the view above us.

- Stefanie Atkinson

Tools
Canon Rebel (film)
Adventure
Adobe Lightroom - love the color corrector

Left, Silently

2009-09-06T07:15:00.000-07:00

One evening I was walking back from the Estuary below our house. It was getting dark. My eyes were drawn to the top of a nearby pine tree. I felt there was something there, but I really could not see well enough to know for sure. Curious, I took a very long exposure.

When I brought my camera down and looked back up, there wasn’t anything there. Yet, I really thought I had seen something.

I went inside and uploaded this image. I had to crank up the exposure in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Sure enough, I had captured an owl and its trail.

- Stefanie Atkinson

Tools
Canon 5D
200 L series lens
Walking Shoes
Curiousity

Standing Bear

2009-09-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

We were at the twins’ club garage sale surrounded by a sea of double strollers, high chairs, car seats, and bouncy things when my cell phone rang.

The man on the phone told me I had won a trip to Alaska. I was one of six photographers picked to be part of a Grizzly Bear Photographic Expedition to the Katmai Coast leaving in a little over two weeks. I was chosen for my unique photographic style, which he had labeled “Naturalistic Impressionism.”

I would fly to Alaska, take a seaplane to the Katmai Coast, and sleep on a live aboard for seven days.

It was what I had been dreaming about. So I thanked him for the honor and accepted the invitation. At that moment, surrounded by my and other families, all I focused on was the honor of winning the trip and photographing birds in Alaska. I didn’t think about the Grizzly Bear part, at first.

But then, while still incredibly excited, I was a bit nervous before I left. Why do I want to photograph Grizzlies anyway? I know I like adventure, but it all sounded a bit risky.

It didn’t stop me though and before I knew it, I was standing 25 feet from the bear in this picture. It sounds strange, but the moment we looked at each other I felt safe. I was curious, grounded, my monopod in hand, my feet planted in the mud. It had been misting all day and my camera was under a rain cover.

For some reason, I felt the need to wave and say hello.

She rose.

We looked at each other.

In that moment, I felt we were equal. Until I remembered that that Grizzlies can run up to 25 miles per hour, stand at about 8 feet and weigh around 500 pounds.

But, I reminded myself, for all she knew I had a gun.

We were face to face.

Six photographers and a guides were with me, but all were looking the other way. The bear went back on 4 legs and all turned and yelled in hope that someone got the picture.

My friend Andrea got one. But she was too close and as she said, “That bear was looking right at you.”

The bear stands in front of me now, like a hologram.

She has been the topic of many conversations.

Those that live with her, who place her image on their walls, often tell me of her lessons.

To me she is a symbol of "Mother."

She is powerful, strong, protective, graceful, courageous, curious, and grounded.

And as a mother myself, I appreciate and honor those attributes.

* Stefanie Atkinson