Karin Elizabeth's blog

So. I started art school a few weeks ago. It's an adjustment, and my feelings are 50/50 at the moment, but I think it's part of getting used to all the new people and the new routine more than being at school itself. In other words, school is fine, I just really have to get used to everything.

Yesterday I started to become active at JPG magazine. Profile is here. I wrote a story on one of my projects here so check that out if you have a minute :)

I'm hoping to focus my attention on taking some chances and getting my work out there. JPG seems like a nice start, though I have been trying other things...

Yesterday I also took some photos for a toy tractor miniature collectors' magazine. My BF collects miniatures and is in the process of writing some articles about them and I'm doing the photography. It will get published in print, so that will be nice.

And finally I have something very important to me to share with you. A group of 44 ladies, myself included, have published a book via blurb.com about self-portraits. More details at Blurb. We worked on this book very intensely and we're so very proud of it. I am hoping to buy my own copy within a few weeks; I have a job (yay!) but I haven't been paid just yet haha.

First of all, you can buy prints now at my red bubble account. I'm working on adding more work :)

It's been quite a while since my last update. Recently I haven't felt like any of my work was 'good enough' for an upload here; I see ipernity more as a selective home for my photos. That, and I have been touring through New Zealand for 4 weeks, I only got back just recently. It was an amaaaaazing trip, what an experience! I have a lot of changes coming up in my life before 2008 is over. I'll write more about that when the changes arrive.. Meantime I'm looking for a job... eh wish me luck in that area, it's been difficult especially since I've been out of the running for a while due to that NZ trip. How have you all been?

Hello! Through a friend I made my way back to ipernity. It's been a while but I must say I love how Ipernity is progressing thus far.

A few updates:

* I graduated in October but couldn't find work in my field (psychology). This was stressful and one of the reasons I slacked off on everything except maybe flickr.

* But I'm finding other temping jobs, unrelated to my field, but a way to keep busy and bring in some money. Tonight I'm finally ordering  a new laptop, so working in some way is definitely "paying off"

* And this temping, I'll be doing for a while... I decided to not be a psychologist anymore (because I won't work for free and that is the only way I can get any work here in this field) but instead focus on my photography... so I am in the process of applying for an art school here in my country. My assessment day is on June 5th. I'm scared and nervous... but happy that I'm trying. Taking action!!!

* My boyfriend Wil and I are still together, our 1 year anniversary is coming up in 2 days. Yay!

 

How have you all been?

Sorry for my absence! It's been a little busy lately so I tried keeping up a little with flickr at least but I failed to do so at ipernity. I'll make a little more time to check out your photos from now on!

I graduated last week with my master's in psychology, so I've been celebrating and I took a little break over at the farm (with the boyfriend) after that. I'm looking for work, but as it is scarce it could take a while longer. But it's a matter of hanging in there and keeping an eye on the ads. So I'm not worried :)

I have a small job on the side since 2 years, I'll probably work about 6 more hours until I do find work, to make some money - but mostly to keep busy and have a routine.

I got several new cameras! A vivitar ultra wide and slim (35mm film) and I also have a Kodak Duaflex II now which I will use for TTV. Also got a small 110 film camera, but I don't know if I'll try that one out.

Either way, life is good. I've been working on my photography more, I started another project and I'll probably paint a little more now that I have the time. I have a lot to look forward to.

Hope you're all well, and see you around here on ipernity (and sometimes, some of you on flickr).

- Karin

Of course I immediately jumped on the opportunity to create a few groups myself:

- lomo
- san francisco
- books

I'll get busy on organizing them when I'm home from work! :)

Meanwhile, here are three other awesome groups I have joined:

I'm sticking to the few that I can join. I can't seem to add my photos to any group yet though, but I assume that's just temporary! :D

- polaroid
- selfportraits
- food photography

10 is not a lot of groups to join, and going pro is out of the question at the moment - I don't have the money for it now and flickr is still my number 1 home... I'd rather spend money to stay pro there. Maybe later I'd go pro here, it all depends on if I'm still visited enough etc.

Have a good one! :)

ps - I do ask that you refrain from inviting my photos to groups - don't worry, I'll add them to the groups I've joined :)
And if it ever gets to the whole 'group image' thing like at flickr (which has gotten so out of hand, it's one of the downsides to flickr in my opinion), do NOT post them in my comments... Thank you.

Woke up this morning and checked ipernity (of which I'm growing more fond by the day) to see my page has been visited over 1000 times. Thanks everyone who has stopped by, read the writings here, commented andfaved, I appreciate it!

My blog has been updated again by the way.

Re: printers: for now I decided to just get my work sent out by someone who knows what he's/she's doing. I'm looking into finding some decent printshops, ask photoclub members for some addresses maybe. Later, I might invest in a quality printer (when I have a job = money). For now, doing it like this :)

Thanks everyone for their input on yesterday's blog and helping me realize that this is the best way to go for the time being!

Also, thank GOD "talk like a pirate day" is over. I was getting kind of sick of seeing that stupid pirate flag all over flickr and seeing all those pirate photos in explore. Eh.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good (but not too expensive) printer that will get my photos printed? Paper advice as well?

I'm starting an online shop to sell prints, so it would be handy to get a printer - would save me the trouble of constantly getting photos printed, and I would like to print photos myself for my photoclub from now on (I usually get them printed at a shop).

The shop I'm starting soon will be located at Etsy. Does anyone have any experience with that so far? Any tip/advice is welcome!

I am working on the new portfolio, which will be located at karin-elizabeth.com (no need to visit it yet, there's nothing there)! I bought the domain last week and now I'm trying to figure out how to present my best work as neatly and organized as possible. (Without losing my individuality.)

In the meantime I did manage to get a blog up. After several years of not blogging, I missed it. Now I feel like I have something to share again besides photos. Whereas on ipernity I usually stick to photo/ipernity stuff, on this blog I write about daily life as well.

Anyway, view the blog here. I only have to work on adding blog archives and some links. Feel free to comment with your URL here and I'll add your link as soon as I get the page for it ready.

Sorry I've been away; I've been finishing up my university stuff. (I'm graduating with a master's degree in psychology next month.)

In the meantime I've been really thinking about my photography future and decided first of, to close down my portfolio as it used to be, at phantomato.com. It's purely about wanting to start fresh at a different location with a whole new site and attitude. I'll let you all know when it's finished.

I've also been trying to let go of my current self doubt regarding photography. It's something we all go through, I think. But still, this week it's been bothering me a lot that maybe I'm not as good as I want to be. But at deviantART today I posted an entry and my reply to a friend's comment is what I'll post here:

"That made complete sense, thanks so much for you encouraging input. It's like you say actually... I don't want to stay in a safe zone anymore but move on with new ideas - but I'm a bit scared it won't actually WORK. That I'm putting a lot of effort into new work and that it won't catch on. It discourages me before I even try it and that's what I need to change now... just try and see if it works before already assuming it won't. Because who knows, right?"

So, I'm going to try and not worry about not being good enough and go back to enjoying photography purely for photography itself.

Hey everyone! I'm home again - in case you missed my previous posts, I was in the States for about a month traveling around with my boyfriend. We were in the southwest part (California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Colorado).

I'm off to Portugal on the 22nd for a week to hang out with my close friend Mariana. We'll be in Porto and Lisbon most of the time! Looking forward to it, I've never been there and I really want to see Mariana :)

I'll be more active online when I'm back from THAT trip - right now I need to chill a little and get the jetlag out of my system before heading south.

Take care and new contacts, welcome! Thanks for adding me - I'll check out your work soon :)

I've been in the USA with my boyfriend since July 20th, so I haven't been around here much! I'm home around the 17th. I've been uploading photos to flickr when possible >> USA 2007 set. See you soon and take care :)

I see people around ipernity blogging about their equipment so I'm doing the same.

I haven't been a photographer THAT long, I started really having a lot of fun snapping photos of just about anything in 2004. I think mid-2006 turned things around for me; I started being more critical and I created a more solid portfolio. My current cameras:

• Canon EOS 350d
• Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 (a.k.a. kit lens)
• Canon EOS 300 film camera which I'm only just working with (kodak or ilford film)
• Canon EOS EF 50mm f/1.4 (my fiddy!)
• Polaroid one classic (takes 600 and 779 film)
• Polaroid Colorpack II camera (takes 100-type film; haven't tried it yet
• Olympus SP500-UZ (trusty P&S)
• Panorama wide pic film camera
• And I take TTV's through my polaroid camera or an older 35mm camera

Now that's what I have. What I WANT... well... too much to list here. I'm going to explore lomography next. Start with a Holga and look into an LC-A after that. 

Then for the second half of my title: tomorrow I'm going on a little trip until July 2nd. The trip being an awesome music festival in Belgium (Rock Werchter) which I'll be attending for the full 4 days with my friend Greet. So many great artists are performing, kinda didn't want to skip it this year! I'm looking forward mostly to Tori Amos, Snow Patrol, The Killers, Bloc Party, Incubus, Muse, Pearl Jam, Rufus Wainwright, Air and Damien Rice.

Can't wait! Now my BF is coming over so I better hurry and get ready :P

So. Ipernity.

I'm at flickr usually with my photographs and while I personally feel very much at home there, I do like the idea of having a fresh (and small) start somewhere else, too!
Somewhere that has a blog as well. Livejournal isn't what it used to be, neither is deviantART - and my own blog website got 1400+ spam comments since my last post there. I'm sick of it.

But I like to talk about photography and related topics. Ipernity gives me that, with the added bonus of it being small still, so there's more room for networking without needing groups or popularity to get noticed. I feel flickr and deviantART both lack this - though naturally I've met amazing people at both (including my boyfriend and several people that I found here at ipernity).

The point is, while flickr will always have my preference (despite the yahoo take-over and the way the german filter situation was - not - handled), ipernity appears to be a calm and manageable alternative with interesting features and to-the-point networking options. It's enough to keep me at both flickr and ipernity. Why not? :D

Anyway, feel free to add me, I'll add you back. Don't feel obligated to comment back to me if you find a comment I left you - I just like to browse and 'discover' new people - drop a line when I can. But in case you do visit me and drop a note, thanks a lot for taking the time to do so. It's always appreciated.

Gotta go study a bit now. Duty calls.