by Rebecca Cornwell | Jul 8, 2012 | Showcases, Sunday Blues Edit
Rebecca: Every Sunday I see a variety of interpretations of “blue” in my #sundayblueedit tag on Instagram, which averages about 300 images. Almost since the birth of the tag I’ve had the pleasure of viewing the work of Glenda @butterflyblue. Through Glenda, I’ve been able to see another side of the world that I may never have the opportunity to see any other way. She brings the beaches near her home in Australia every day to my tiny phone. Her incredible, unending, vision of this place always thrills me. Each image brings a new mood and a new vision. I chose this image from last Sunday for its cool blue tones and the chill it seems to carry in the air.
Glenda: I have always taken photos, although not as many as I do now. I live in a very beautiful place on the east coast of Australia called Byron Bay and teach visual arts and photography to high school students 12 – 18 years old. I walk my dog every day along the beaches where I live. With iPhone in hand, everyday beach life takes on a new realm of creativity for me. I also use my cameras occasionally as well but I am more interested in different creative aspects of image enhancement. Images that conjure the beautiful and mysterious qualities of the imagination that can come from using a variety of apps and techniques.
I have been involved in posting images to share for a year now and it has become an enjoyable creative outlet. I have met (virtually) many people who share the passion of photography. Instagram is learning and supportive environment and it is wonderful to experience the many facets of this social phenomenon.
This image is showing a more complex view of my environment. We had very big seas and stormy weather, which eroded most of the beach. The overlaying of images increases the mood and gives the viewer more to interpret, unlock a story or perhaps a dream.
Please visit @butterflyblue on Instagram and EyeEm as well as at the following links:
http://followgram.me/butterflyblue
http://www.facebook.com/glenda.hubbard.39
http://instacanv.as/butterflyblue
by Rebecca Cornwell | Jul 1, 2012 | Showcases
As a regular part of Sundays, along with my IG tag #sundaybluesedit, each week I will select an artist to showcase on my blog here at the amazing WeAreJuxt. At Juxt we are interested in the artists behind the lens of their mobile devices. So my first Sunday Selection is from an IGer who is new to me. @cloud_dreamer posted this wonderful image to the #sundaybluesedit tag last week. I was immediately captivated by the peace and tranquility of this image but the longer I looked I became entranced by the colors and the pattern in the clouds that pull you into the image as if you yourself were the meditator.
I encourage you to check out her amazing feed on Instagram and be ready to be pulled into a beautifully meditative dream world.
From @cloud_dreamer:
Originally from California, I met and married an Englishman. We recently moved to England and I spend a lot of time at a near by beach resort because it reminds me of home. I saw this guy meditating, in a little world of his own and I tried to imagine how the world looked to him.
I’ve always been interested in photography, but it wasn’t until I got an iphone that I realized the potential of all those little apps. I discovered Instagram about a year ago but it didn’t work for me then. My husband encouraged me to try again. A couple of weeks ago I uploaded my first image and I was instantly hooked! Now I prefer to use my phone for photos, I can take it anywhere.
by Rebecca Cornwell | Jun 22, 2012 | Featured Articles
#sundaybluesedit by Rebecca C.
This is a story about how Instagram helped make me, and thousands of others, happy. I am not a scientist and I’m not going to try to prove a theory. This story is based on my experiences in life and my observations with my Sunday tag.
To start I have to get personal. I’ve waged a full-out war against depression since I was 19 years old. I’m now 43. I’ve won some battles, and have been badly beaten by others. I’ve watched members of my family struggle. I’ve read books. I’ve listened to and worked with psychiatrists and therapists. I’ve downed dozens of medications and medication cocktails. In 25 years I’ve learned not how to win the war, but how to cope with its existence by carrying better ammunition and wearing better armor. I know now that I can tolerate it as merely background noise.
At 19, I was also beginning to take my love of art more seriously. I went to college and majored in painting. The work kept me focused and grounded. There were assignments to complete and deadlines to meet. Feedback, common interest, social interactions, and sometimes praise were all motivators for continuing to work. I didn’t know this at the time but I do now: art saved my life.
Photo Credit: @redlilith
Statistics show that art viewing and art creating can improve many aspects of existence, especially those associated with mood. I recently heard a story on NPR about Alzheimer patients taking field trips to a museum with young kids. Just looking at works of art and being in a social group helped the patients speak and interact more. They came to life viewing and discussing works of art.
The creation of art is used in all kinds of therapy, from abused children to people with Down syndrome. It’s used in the therapy of children in war torn countries suffering from posttraumatic stress and patients with terminal illnesses. Basically, the making of art can be used to help almost anyone improve physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. So even in a layman’s world, that tells me that art is good for us.
Photo Credit: @mineowneye, Jamie Stewart
Although I had some concept of this, it wasn’t until I joined Instagram and started sharing my newfound passion with others that I realized how powerful this was.
I’ve had the blues on Sunday ever since I can remember. These blues were compounded by a feeling of guilt that it was the weekend and I should be happy and doing things that were not work. It’s also a day when I have felt lonely, regardless of the fact that I have 3 daughters, and don’t spend much time alone. Sundays filled me with dread and a feeling of hollowness I tried hard to shake. Over the years, I developed some Sunday coping skills, but for whatever reason, Sundays have always seemed harder than other days.
Photo Credit: @lou_askew, Laura Jennings
On one of these Sundays 15 weeks ago, after being on Instagram for 30 some odd weeks, I started a tag. For those unfamiliar with tags, in the Instagram world, if you add a # in front of a word it will drop your photo into a group of like tagged images. People use tags to have their work seen by others or to keep their own images together, to join groups or participate in various challenges. By this time I had a tag to join for every day of the week: Monday is #Decim8nday (a day to decim8 one of your images from your past 12), Tuesday is #Texastuesday, Wednesday is #blackandwhitegrunge, and on through the week. These tags helped me stay motivated and inspired even when my creativity was low.
At some point I decided I wanted to create a tag of my own. My biggest fear was that no one would participate. I dreaded my tag being a flop. I noticed a lack of weekend tags, which, in hindsight, makes some sense. Lots of artists take “breaks” on the weekends or have other routines. I, however, had already been posting to #bluesunday or #sundayblues, both tags which had already been created by someone else and didn’t appear to have any organization.
I noticed that when I would post a blue image to Instagram on Sundays, I would get support as well as empathetic comments from my followers. I wasn’t alone. There were others out there who were blue on Sunday too, and we were finding each other. It was then that the #sundaybluesedit tag was born.
Photo Credit: @elvisandme, Izzy
By creating the tag, I stumbled upon a sort of Sunday fix; only the fix wasn’t just for me. So many of the artists who participate in the tag say they “look forward to Sunday;” they feel supported and embraced by their fellow blue artists. They feel they can express themselves in a nurturing and understanding environment. Sundays were starting to look up.
I’m not going to pretend I had any idea what I was creating at the time. I was being selfish. I didn’t want to spend Sundays alone with my emotions. What I discovered then—and continue to find every Sunday—is that blues and creativity many times go hand in hand.
Do creative people feel more intensely than others? Is creativity just an outlet for emotion? I don’t know for sure. Is the moody artist just a stereotype? For hundreds of years the question of the link between creativity and the blues has been theorized. The speculation was so frequent that the idea has become a cliché. It’s true that humans make unreliable test subjects when it comes to subjective things like feelings and emotions so we may never have conclusive studies.
An article by Jonah Lehr in Wired magazine discusses this widely controversial issue. Lehr looks at the scientific literature that suggests depression not only gives us the blues, but also makes us more creative and may even help with focus. In his article, he writes about the research of a social psychologist at the University of New South Wales in Australia, Joe Forgas.
Photo Credit: @savagemoon, Luna
Forgas’ research centers on the benefits of negative moods. He believes sadness makes us more attentive to detail and more focused on our tasks, and that angst and negative moods promote “information-processing strategies best suited to dealing with more-demanding situations.” In his research, Forgas’ test subjects were better at “judging the accuracy of rumors and recalling past events; stereotyping strangers and made fewer arithmetic mistakes.”
So, according to some research, not only do creative types appear to have more of the blues, but also creativity can help ease the suffering that comes with it. Perhaps it’s this ability to focus and stay persistent in a task that allows people with the blues to be more creative? We know that statistically, underprivileged youth who have training and access to the arts have a much higher success rate staying and finishing school. We know that all kinds of art therapies help thousands of people express and recover from traumatic situations. For me, the mere act of focusing on the task of creating can ease the feelings of the blues.
I’ve been an artist for the better part of 25 years. I’ve made tons of art on Sundays and the focus and work did help some, but I was still basically alone, in a creative vacuum of sorts. Enter social media…the Sunday tag was the convergence of all the elements that were required to help move me through the bluest of Sundays… I was now spending my Sundays with artists, with or without the blues, from around the world. Of interest to me was that a majority of these artists were women.
Photo Credit: Deena F., @deena21
I don’t know the gender make up of the sundaybluedit tag following, but I do know that the most emotionally expressive in my tag tend to be women. And it is women who thrive under this umbrella of social media.
At the risk of stereotyping, many women spend lots of hours without other adult interaction, least of all with other creative people. This was my situation for many years raising small children. Now, with the invention of cell phones, 3G and Wi-Fi, social media can be carried around in your pocket or purse. You can shoot and edit pictures almost any time or anywhere. And you can “connect” 24 hours a day with other artist.
Instagram, and other photo-sharing sites that are likely to attract artists, allow the user to participate in social media in a way that shares ideas and emotion through image and not words. The user is not “checking in” or posting a “status” like on Facebook but with an image that speaks to how you are feeling or what you are creating. What better way to spend your blue Sunday than carrying around a pocketful of friends willing to listen, comment, and support anytime this creativity strikes?
Photo Credit: @jenntofriends, Jennifer Reeves
It is estimated that less than 1% of academic papers written on the subject of psychology deal with the creative process, but recently there seems to be more interest and studies on the topic. Although these studies still appear to have a ways to go before conclusions can be drawn to a link between depression and increased creativity, I have seen the surprising popularity of my tag on Sundays. I’ve also seen the support that social media elicits to people who are struggling with these issues allowing them to share ideas, images, and inspiration.
To say that Instagram has cured my depression would be an overstatement, but when I’m shooting and editing photos, I am fully engaged. There is no thinking. The little world in my pocket has brought me and many others true friendship, the return of my lost creativity, and a cure for my Sunday blues—pretty incredible for an iphone and an app.
Photo Credit: @antitheist82, Wade
Editors note:
Here are a few photos from #sundaybluesedit. Join in on this creative movement.
[instapress tag=”sundaybluesedit” piccount=”15″ size=”90″ effect=”fancybox” paging=”1″]
by Rebecca Cornwell | May 22, 2012 | Featured Articles
John Lujan: Creator of #HorrorClub and Storyteller by Rebecca C.
Rebecca’s Introduction
Many months ago I noticed some of my favorite artists tagging their more sinister photos #horrorclub. I will just tell you up front, I’m afraid of my own shadow. I can’t watch a scary movie and I see creepy in things most people don’t. I also live in a big old creaky house with and equally wimpy dog. It can be spooky. A few people have told me that they’ve seen ghosts there, but I digress. Let me just say it took some courage to even look at the tag. There were a few times I actually wished I hadn’t some of the images were so terrifying. At the same time some of the images were so elegant in their horror that I became fascinated with what horror meant to the different artists who participated. I also began to toy with the idea of how I might create a horror image. I tried a few times, flops, or rather, just not scary. Then bingo! I hit upon one that worked. It was selected as a feature image and I was hooked! It was here that I found the master John Lujan. Not only are the images he creates in the genre completely compelling but also his other work has a gentle narrative quality that is a joy to view. Here’s a little bit about the very talented and interesting John. Enjoy!
R: Rebecca J: John
R: As always, let’s start with the basics. Who is John? Where are you from? And what do you do outside of mobile photography?
J: Sometimes, the most straightforward question can be the most difficult to answer. I am a son of Bolivian immigrants, a husband to a loving wife, and the eldest brother to two young men. I call Virginia, Maryland, and DC my home. I travel through all three continuously and fluidly. To me, these streets, alleys, back roads, and highways that connect all three are parts of the whole. As cliché as it may sound, this region is a part of who I am. I am a son of this region.
I am also a former law student. So outside of mobile photography, I am studying for the Virginia Bar. Unfortunately, because of the time demands of that exam that is pretty much all I do. But I do have interests outside of mobile photography. Whenever I see a record, as in vinyl, of an artist I like, I must add it to my collection. I collect vinyl records and am, in general, a creature of music. I also love all things vintage. Photos, books, movies, etc. I see the history in a dusty book or crippled photo and smile.
R: I’m always fascinated to know how people discover and get into mobile photography. Would you share your story?
J: I discovered mobile photography the way most folks do, I think. My iPhone was surprisingly powerful, not just in its ability to capture an image, but, and perhaps more importantly, in its ability to alter the image. I have always loved photography, and this was enhanced when I was able to take a picture and edit it on the spot. Instant gratification, I suppose. A few years ago, I would take a picture and have to wait till I got home and upload it to my computer to finally edit it. Once apps like Snapseed or Camera+ showed me that I could edit it in ways I could not believe, my computer began to collect dust. It is now full of dust.
But this is only half of my story. Of course, once I found Instagram a year ago, I found like-minded folks that loved mobile photography. The feedback, motivation, and inspiration from these individuals made me try harder. I would see images that folks would upload, and it instantly made me want to improve.
R: I linked to your feed through Horror Club, more on this later, many weeks ago and I’m struck by the evolution in your work? Would you describe your style and can you talk about this evolution and who or what has influenced you?
J: I think what has changed for me is the focus on the initial picture as opposed to the focus on the edit after the picture is taken. Obviously, the edit is important, but I take greater care in the initial picture now. I feel a great challenge in capturing the image on my iPhone. Some of my favorite artists such as @_jenbeezy_ and @mineowneye are edit-heavy artists, but, and for whatever reason, I have drifted away from this. Without a doubt, @mrevidence and @tahaphoto have influenced me, and made me up my game when it came to this. To see the initial photo in geometric terms is now a source of entertainment and challenge. Also I try to tell stories with my images. Sometimes this works, other times I fail dramatically (ha!), but I enjoy that. @tahaphoto has also been an inspiration in this, but initially @lafletcher, whom I admire, made me realize the potential of the caption. The caption can change the entire perception of the photo. I love that.
R: Do you have favorite apps and tools for editing?
J: I always take the photo in the native app. I don’t know what it is, but I can’t shake the feeling that if I take the photo within another app, it will degrade the quality! Haha… I may be completely wrong, but this just makes me take the photo within the native app. From there I always go to what I feel are standard apps for most folks. Snapseed, Camera+, Picfx, etc. But If I decide to go to a black and white image, I will always go to Noir after the initial correction of saturation and contrast. I haven’t found an app that adds as much drama as Noir. @divasantanica666 really showed me the advantage of this app. Sometimes I will edit on the iPad, and when I do, I have used Laminar as well as those noted.
R: I have my favorites in your stream, but would you share a few of your works that you are most proud of and tell us about them?
J: One of my favorites is the one I took of metro trains in Washington, DC. My wife and I were running late for the Nationals baseball game. The DC metro system is dark and the iPhone generally takes very pixilated photos in the tunnels. We were running across the bridge over the metro cars when I saw the photo. The cars were standing still and the light above was, to me, awesome. So I stood right in the middle and framed it as best I could. I edited it really quickly in Snapseed and uploaded a few minutes later. Even though you can see some grain, I really enjoy that photo.
Another one of my favorites is from the previous Horror Club challenge. My boy @frankensinatra (who ended up winning the challenge, as chosen by guest judge @djbabuforeal) posted a killer edit. I loved his details and how clean the photo was. To get his photos is to appreciate the details. Horror Club challenges are straightforward. I find a base photo that I love. Generally this means from an IGer I admire. @djbabuforeal posted a photo that blew me away. He was cool with using it for the challenge. I did one edit for the challenge that I was happy with. Obviously, mine edits are not to win since I organized it. It was mostly to get the word out, but also because I love the competition of it. And so, when Mike posted his, I went back to the drawing board. I have a strange fascination with masks. I have seen how IGers use masks effectively, notably @jr_el_nota, and I think using these props in photos add to the drama of it. My wife would put on the Plague Doctor mask and walk around DC. With it on, with people staring, and with me snapping pictures. Its how we do. So I incorporated one of these photos into the base image for the challenge. Its definitely one of my favorite photos.
This last one is one of my favorites because of the negative space used. I really enjoy leaving much of the photo completely empty. I don’t do it often, but when I do, I generally enjoy it. These trees are actually in the process of being removed for the construction of houses. Before, everything here was a forest. Now, it is just empty, and I wanted my photo to reflect that. The picture itself was dull to me. Using Noir and Laminar, I created the foggy look with the dramatic lighting. I like how my mother could not recognize this, even though it was behind her house.
R: You are the creator and administrator for the amazing and completely terrifying @horrorclub. Would you tell us about the creation and ideas behind this wonderful gallery? How do you define horror in the context of mobile photography? And what makes a great horror image?
J: Actually, I am a huge horror fan. There is a thin line between an effective horror image and one that enters the realm of cheesiness. I find that line and those that become effective in horror images to be amazing. Back in December, I randomly turned myself into a zombie. It just happened. I was using Path at the time, and I posted the image to Path. Soon, my friends on Path such as @songkitty7 had interest in being turned into a zombie. So I decided to put together four IGer zombies that would have an accompanying story. When I posted, I realized there was no accompanying tag that fit. Tags are an important way for people to connect on IG, and I found none for horror. The generic #horror tag didn’t work for me. I wanted something specific. Something that people would find interesting. So I initially created the tag #horrorclub. Soon after I started the account to highlight folks that tagged their pictures. My friend @chattyowl helped me during the initial stages, finding crazy images and awesome edits. Quickly, I realized the amount of incredible artists on IG producing effective horror images. I found @tonydetroit, @jr_el_nota, @blaquira , @plague_doctor, @mineowneye and @_jenbeezy_ all artists that shared the same love of horror as I do.
I think the turning point for @horrorclub was the first challenge I put together. @_nazgul and @mrevidence agreed to judge an edit challenge. From there, it just kept growing. Part of it was the focus on the artists. To me, Horror Club is nothing more than the showcase for talented artists. The genre of horror is broad and it can encompass many facets of the human experience. From pain, to grief, to fear, to death, horror is a powerful medium for transmitting emotion and shock.
Now the tag has almost eight thousand photos and is continuing to grow. It has been fun. I look forward to seeing the tag and the account continue to grow.
Photo Credit: @__malcome on Instagram
Photo Credit: @frankensinatra on Instagram/ EyeEm
Photo Credit: @Noah_Fentz on Instagram
R: What’s in the future for John and do you have anything else you’d like to share?
J: The future for me in mobile photography is to upgrade my iPhone 4 (ha!). I am excited about the growth and the strides one takes in a craft such as this. I see creativity at the center of this art form, but I also see the work one puts in towards mastering a craft. I find that exciting. The limitations of the iPhone create opportunities to overcome, and I find these opportunities riveting.
We Are Juxt thanks you for your words and your art.
Contact John:
Instagram: @jlujan
Email: [email protected]
__________________________________
About Rebecca Cornwell
Houston,TX
I’m a single mother of 3 incredible daughters. A former painter whose creativity has been resuscitated by the discovery of iPhoneography. Fascinated by the possibilities within a machine we hold in our hands. Eyes wide, we march into this exciting new and ever evolving world of mobile art.
IG @repinsk
Email [email protected]
by Rebecca Cornwell | Mar 6, 2012 | Stories
image1 image 2
image 3
I have had a number of people ask to have the process of having an image come out of the frame explained.
I’m a self-taught editor, so most of what I know is through trial and error.
Here is the simplest way I know how to do this edit.
I’m using the following 3 apps for this tutorial;
Superimpose (you can also use juxtaposer, fitlerstorm, iris, blender or any other masking/merging app)
Squareready
King Camera (you can use any app that a crop, framing is not necessary)
I want to add these 2 floral images to this photo of a Vouet painting of Saint Sebastian, shown at the top.
Open Superimpose:
Click the pages icon in the upper left corner and select ‘background image’.
This will take you to your photo album.
Select image 1, the main background image for your piece. In this example, I’m selecting my photo of Saint
Sebastian.
Click the pages box in the upper left corner again and select the ‘foreground image’ option.
This will take you to your photo album again. Select the image you want to put on top of your background image. I’m selecting Image 2, of the first magnolia.
Your screen will look like this.
Next you will want to mask your first image. Click on the mask icon at the bottom of the screen and then the tool selector in the top right corner.
Your screen will look like this.
Chose the tool you want to use to mask your image. I usually start with the wand and finish details with the brush. (tip:: to enlarge the image for masking click the ‘transform’ icon and enlarge with the cross at the top. Then click the ‘color’ icon and double tap on the image where you want to magnify. Click back to the ‘mask’ iconand continue to mask using your selected tool. To return to the normal image, go back to the ‘color’ icon and
double tap again)
After you’ve masked your image, click on the ‘transform’ icon and move your image to the location and size
you desire.
Your screen will look like this (only with your images ;))
Once you have your masked image where you want it, click the merge icon in the top left hand corner to merge your images.
Click the ‘home’ and export your merged images to your photo album.
Next I open my image in King Camera to crop and frame. You can do this in any app you like.
crop
frame
Save the cropped and framed image to your photo album. Next open the cropped and framed image in Squareready.
At the bottom of the squareready screen there are 7 icons.
1. colors the border
2. fits the image, by cropping if required, into the square format.
3. Fills the square as much as possible but retains the image shape.
4. Creates a border around the image (this option has 3 border sizes)
5. Rotates the image.
6. Flips the image.
7. Centers the image in the square.
I choose the 3rd icon. I want to retain my framed image whole and still have a square format.
Save the image to your photo album.
Open the newly squared and saved image in Superimpose as the ‘background’ image.
(It will look like this)
Add your 3rd image (the image you want to fall outside of the frame) as the ‘foreground’ image.
Mask the second image as you did in the first masking (click on the mask icon at the bottom of the screen, then select a tool from the top right tool selector icon).
The 2 images above show the tools for selection in masking.
Mask your second image and then click on the ‘Transform’ icon to move the image into place, in this case, on the edge or outside of the frame and into the white area of the square.
Click the upper left merge icon to merge the images together.
Superimpose will let you hold up to 40 masks.
You must choose to save the mask BEFORE merging the images.
The library can be found by clicking on the ‘home’ icon then the mask with the up arrow to save and the down arrow to see stored masks.
To add a saved mask, click on the selected mask and position it by clicking the “transform’ icon and moving it into place.
By clicking the ‘color’ icon you can change the tones, color and exposure of your top photo.
When you have your images in place, save to your photo album.
Finished image.