A Little Better All The Time

Thirteen years ago, I received a Canon DSLR as a birthday gift (I did ask for it). I wanted the camera to capture life moments of our kids participating in sports. I did use the camera for that purpose for the first five years or so. Later, when the kids were grown, I started experimenting with my camera and trying to make art. I liked to draw and paint when I was younger, so I thought this could be something I’d enjoy.

At first my shots were more of the “snapshot” variety, you know the pictures I talking about. You see something happening and you take a quick snap. Gradually, I started to learn more about the camera settings and began to see in my mind’s eye what I wanted to capture.

Of course, visualizing your shot and actually achieving it are two different things. Over the years, my skill improved and my processing of each photo also improved. One thing that helped me improve was doing a 365 project, which I did back in 2012 (and yes, I should do another one). Having to take a “decent” photo every day really gets your mind thinking! I’ll share a link to those image below.

The second thing that has helped me become a better artist (with my camera) is the Photography Scavenger Hunt. This group of wonderful photographers gets together online every couple of months to share their creations from a list of given Hunt words. The Hunt is currently on round 30 and I have participated since round 2 (It’s hard to stop!). I have met many of these scavengers in person, first local folks then later by going to their yearly meetup. Everyone in the group is passionate about photography and willing to share and help newcomers as well as veterans. A very welcoming group and tons of fun!

Another way I have improved my photography was learning to use post processing tools. Of course, there is still much to learn, but I love to make my image the best it can be! I currently use Lightroom, Topaz plugins, Photoshop and a few other programs to edit my photos. Recently, I’ve gotten some recognition and more and more people have told me they love my photography.

My 365 project from 2012 is here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wadebrooks/albums/72157628260820863

Here's one of my favorite recent images

Cheers,
Wade

Highlight Story For My Firm's Intranet Site

311 Gallery Showing in Raleigh NC Some questions and answers for an upcoming story about my work and current gallery show. 1. How long have you been a photographer & artist, and what made you get started with this? I started getting into photography in 2006 when I purchased a Canon digital DSLR to document my children's sports activities. I learned a lot taking images of those activities. I think the artistic side of photography came later, around 2010, when I started participating in a photography scavenger hunt. I've also always loved to draw and in college I did some oil painting. 2. Can you talk about the image that will be displayed in the gallery and what the inspiration behind it? As a kid, I loved toy cars and Lego, so I was drawn back to these toys when thinking about scenes to photograph. I have a photography project called TheToyCarProject where I have over 300 images of toy cars, which I try to photograph as if they are real full size cars. This gallery

Gallery Show Prints

So I wasn't sure if I would like a metal print or a paper print, so I printed both for the gallery show. I decided to use the metal print as it was much more vivid. Of course, now I have a 20x20 framed print of the Mod Rod which I'll have for sale. And I'll have the metal print in the show at the 311 Gallery coming up next month. I'll be adding both the print and metal options to my new Etsy shop, plus you can always contact me for limited edition prints. The 311 Gallery show starts this Friday and runs through December in Raleigh, NC. https://www.311artgallery.com/ I also have the image available on my art site (Square format): https://wade-brooks.pixels.com/featured/1-mod-rod-wade-brooks.html and here (Rectangular format): https://wade-brooks.pixels.com/featured/mod-rod-wade-brooks.html Cheers, Wade http://www.ArtByWade.com

Poetry and the Midjourney AI

I have been testing out the Midjourney AI for a while now and have loved exploring what it can create from a simple prompt. You can see my creations and prompts on Instagram at @artbywadeai . Recently, I tried feeding the AI two of my poems and was very impressed with the results. The first poem I gave the AI was my Sunshine Reaching one. Go take a look and then check out these great images. The prompt I used for the Midjourney AI was the text of the poem with the parameters --chaos 25 --ar 3:2 appended at the end as shown below: With rays of warmth, he embraces her soul. Arms, iron strong, surround their love. Sunshine reaching, fills the room. With feathered whispers, they embrace the day. --chaos 25 --ar 3:2 Here are the first images returned. From these, I choose the second and last to render as full size images or upscale. Here are those results. After this experiment, I gave the AI my Strength poem and was very pleased with those results. Here is the full prompt for Strength:

Art by Wade

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