Thursday, April 01, 2010

"like a fish in water"

from paul jensen's "like a fish in water" series of woven works featuring fish.

i spent my afternoon at paul jensen's weaving atelier. we waited for the sun to break through so we could get pictures of one of his beautiful rugs for the july issue of british home & garden. the sun never did come through, but we did get some pictures that i'm sure will be suitable. and i shot in RAW for the first time, which is somehow both thrilling and scary. when you're shooting for a magazine, you want the best quality you can get, right? i'm really excited about this for a lot of reasons, but the best of all is that paul gave me the beautiful piece above, featuring his upcycled fish. they're little bits of packaging--candy wrappers, toothpaste tubes, etc.--cut into the shape of fish and woven into pockets. and they're absolutely lovely. and i am so grateful that this one is now mine.  i hung it on the wall in the blue room, where i think it looked rather fetching. i hung it just long enough to photograph it and then packed it carefully away. i can't wait to give it a place of honor in the new house.

more about paul's beautiful work coming soon....in the meantime, do check his website if you want to know more.

11 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Great piece. Fantastic opportunity!!!!

Are you busy packing already?

Or getting ready to start your new job on tuesday?

e.

Jill C. said...

Looks great against the blue wall!

spudballoo said...

What a gorgeous piece, absolutely stunning. And what a fun assignment!

Shooting in RAW isn't scary, but the conversion/editing process can be I suppose. But you don't shoot in RAW for resolution purposes it's got nothing to do with it; you shoot in RAW for the ability to edit without losing data and with total flexibility over critical components such as exposure, WB, contrast, sharpening etc etc.

For magazine publishing, convert/edit the RAW file as appropriate, and save as a 300dpi jpeg at 100% quality, sharpened for glossy print once you're done. Or a PSD file.

Job done. TA DA!! Looking forward to seeing the published photo.

Magpie said...

So lovely and whimsical!

Anne said...

Beautiful!! Both the piece and the shot. And congratulations on the magazine gig!

So, are you a RAW convert? I love it, especially because my camera's idea of what's properly exposed is often a stop or two different from mine (and of course not consistently so). Ahem. You have Lightroom, yes? It'll take good care of you and your RAW files. Actually, I think even iPhoto supports RAW now.

Sarah said...

I love this wall hanging! It's beautiful! the photograph is just perfect. Congratulations!

I'm with those above, you will love working in RAW, I promise. :)

mrs mediocrity said...

Love it, so much like fish net...I always shoot in RAW...why not, I say!

Anonymous said...

What a lovely piece of work. I haven't a clue about photography, I just point and shoot mostly and will now have to go and find out what RAW is!

http://howtobecomeacatladywithoutthecats.blogspot.com said...

I love the fish in water! What a delightful piece! Can't wait to see where it lands in your new home.

Barb said...

I love the fish! I'm looking forward to seeing where you put it in the new house. Have a happy Friday!

Joanna Jenkins said...

OMG! I love that piece! It's perfection.
:-))))