LOTS happened!

Ahhh, so much to say!

It's been a very busy few months, but the last few weeks especially have some major milestones in my creative career.

Back on the 18th July I joined the "Portobello Market, London" group of the Worldwide Photowalk. I had a brilliant time, photographing people as much as I could as it was an area I knew I was wary of. It felt much safer doing so on a day where lots of other photographers were off doint the same thing, especially in an area like Portobello Market which is PACKED with tourists and shoppers on a Saturday. My portfolio of shots from the day is found here on Flickr.

At the end, we could pick two images to enter into the associated competition, and each walk leader then picks one photo from their group selection which they submit to the next "round". Imagine my surprise when my photo was picked!

I was really proud of my photo, I call her "Purple lady". She was a stall holder, aware her photo was taken as it would surely have been hundreds of times a year by various visitors to London passing through. The instant I took it I knew I loved it. The composition and colours from the view on the camera just made me "know" it was my favourite, and luckily viewing it on the PC later didn't change that. Phew!

Well, some time later, and the winners were announced of the Worldwide round - nearly 900 entries, whittled down by Scott Kelby to 11, one overall winner and 10 runners up. I scrolled down his blog page and got the shock of my life... there was my Purple lady, a runner up! Hee made the following comments about it:

"When I look at this image, I just want to know her story. She looks like she’s led a fascinating life, and has amazing stories to tell. I love the flower in her hair, the look on her face, and the wonderful lighting. I even love the coffee cup—it all adds to the story. The colors work so well together and the composition is spot on. The shot, and the subject, have an awful lot of character. I wish I had taken it."

Ahhhhh!!! Amazed!

Surely that's all? Well no... on a slightly less grand scale, but equally important to me, I was contacted by a guy called Chad who was interested in using my Phoenix Rising From The Smoke image for his band's album cover. My image has a Creative Commons license, so although that technically gives permission for others to use, I love that people contact me too. I like hearing from others, especially if they're interested in using my work. Long story short, I'd offered my services to clean up the image and edit it to their album cover idea and so after a few weeks of emailing back and forth, we reached a result him and the band were pleased with. I really enjoyed working on it, frustrating at times, but exhilarating doing it for someone else. It meant a new dimension when looking at my work, it wasn't just for me, it had to fit the needs of others and I had to interpret the brief given.

I hope the guys go far, check out their Myspace page here - good luck Paradigm Shift, p.s. remember me when you're famous! ;)

Then, finally, there's the ongoing story from my last blog post about the DVD cover. Again, email correspondence to discuss the design and make a few amendments to better suit the product. All source images used were checked for commercial use, and only a few days ago through the post came my own copy of the DVD - complete with cover using my design.

It's been a very, very busy time lately! As a result I decided it was about time I fixed my site properly to make it a portfolio... and after weeks of struggling with a layout I finally reached a point where I could update the URL with the new version. Still needs the "projects" page - where I'll describe some of the progress with commercial endevours, but for the moment I'm pleased to have a better place to show off my work.

The new Sarahg.co.uk - available here!

Anyone else out there wanting to work with me? Please get in touch :)

Website v2.0

Since the last post I got my hands on a copy of "Serif Internet Design Suite 2009" to test thanks to a friend.  Perfect for testing on the old laptop which only has the power of a handful of hamsters and can't handle the big flashy fancy programs.   To test it properly I tried to recreate my first website idea from scratch.  Serif IDS 2009 requires no knowledge of coding or html, and works entirely on a DTP format to move and adjust images and boxes, and was quick to get used to and the results were impressive and looked sleek.  Once ready, you then "generate" the website by publishing it either to disk (where it saves on your PC as the html files and attachments) or direct to web.

I saved mine to disk, as I wanted to see how it all looks from the inside, curiosity may have killed the cat, but I'm human - just about.   The deisgn is clean, and very easy to use for someone unfamiliar with web design, however since I like to tinker with it all I found one issue.  It creates copies of all picture files, and names them with its own random alphanumeric code.  Should I want to replace an image I'd started off with called house.jpg, it would have probably been generated out as wp0177tu90.png.  Not a massive issue, but when it also generates every coloured background rectangle or shape from within the web site as its own .png, you quickly end up with so many image files you've no idea where to begin.

On the positive side, the resulting website is very fast to create and so I'm using the Serif generated site as the one linked to my domain.  Personally I want more control over the web design and I've not yet tested it in various browsers, but when viewing it on my mobile it has issues displaying all the image files which is a pity as it means the menu (which saves out as images) isn't shown.

For the moment, it's a good basic site maker with plenty of easy to use functions and certainly something I will play more with, but it isn't the permanent answer unfortunately.

The hosted site can be found here: http://sarahg2.atspace.com

Warm fuzzy feeling

Not much acitivity recently, I'm still working on my website and putting new CSS into practice in that special way where nothing visibly changes but all the source code is different.

I wanted to post something positive from the Mini Space contest mentioned a while ago. I think it's fair to say I've got absolutely no chance of getting anywhere with the competition itself, I didn't really expect to so this isn't a "toys out of the pram" blog with added tears, but I really appreciate the few votes I've had amongst the thousands of entries. PLUS - and this is the bit where I get all warm and fuzzy inside - a couple of people have been kind enough to send me comments saying they like my work. Nothing amazing, but that people who have an interest in Graphic Design more closely linked to a current career (I'm guessing from their profiles) would take the time to say they liked my work is a nice little boost in a world that is otherwise so very competitive.

Must get back on track with it all soon!

Life 1, Photoshop 0

Bah. I've not had the chance to really get down to some PS for a few days now.  Destractions have included creative endevours of a regular type (pen and paper... the shock!) as well as a large dose of life getting in the way, but it's not been forgotten.

The artwork 'offline' counts, I think.  I'm trying to do a taster diploma course in Graphic Design to get a feel for the whole thing, see if I'm comfortable following it further in life or if PS should remain as more of an enjoyable hobby.  I'm hoping the former, but we'll see. Long way to go yet.  My first "homework" is to practise quick drawing by making sketches from a TV programme.... at least 5-8 in an episode.  Am therefore trying to find something that lasts longer than 30mins and doesn't always show people on screen... my most awkward of sketching moments!  I've so far got it to about 3, I get distracted by the show and the realisation that my sketch looks absolutely awful and requires a heck of a lot of cross hatching to cover up the imperfections.  Still, I'm going to try and keep it all whether it's good or bad so hopefully I'll see progress soon.