be still my beating heart

© Sybille Sterk

Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

I love graffiti, there's something immediate and spontaneous about it that is sometimes missing from other art, hearts are a special favourite. This was on a shiny sign reflecting the houses on the other side of the street. Lots of textures added and colour adjustments and, of course, the words.

The words are by William Mountfort Zelman (not Shakespeare): be still my beating heart.

Read my poem here

On Society6

Destiny

© Sybille Sterk
Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

This is a manipulation of several images and brushes. I took the bottom half of the image a while ago and because it had a plain and boring sky forgot about it for a bit. However, I came across it again yesterday and decided to play with it. It's another vartiation of my images on the future and the uncertainty of it and how our destiny waits just beyond the mist of time and still we walk blindly forward because there is no choice.

All images/textures/brushes my own or bought. Edited with Photoshop.

All my images are available on Redbubble, Artflakes, Society6 and Bluecanvas as prints, cards, posters, skins for laptops, Blackberry, iPhones and other phones (for the skins go to Bluecanvas). You can now also get most of my images on cushion covers (go to Society6 for these).

52 weeks in photographs - 2012

52 photographs, one for each week of the year 2012.

This was part of a Facebook project 1/52, which I joined at the beginning of 2012 (or was it the end of 2011?), and which I managed to carry through all year despite hitting the wall a couple of times.

The idea was to take one photograph a week each with a single chosen subject throughout the year. My subject was 'mirrors'. I started off with the obvious and took pictures of mirrors and did, what I feel I do best, manipulated my photographs.

The more the project went on, the more I had to start thinking out of the box and come up with different ideas. It wasn't just about the object 'mirror' any longer but what a mirror does and all the preconceptions, the magic and the concepts that surround mirrors and reflections.

The further along I came the more straight photography with less adjustments and manipulations I managed to do and I feel I've learned so much, from using my old camera properly to playing with my new one and the lenses I bought for it, to assessing an object through the lens and how to play with ideas and not go for the obvious.

It has given me some images I love and one that is my most successful image ever and some I am not so happy with and might revisit later again, just because. There is one extra at the end because I couldn't decide. So it's really 53. :-)

I've loved the project and the way it helped me grow as a photographer and the way it opened my mind to different approaches; which is exactly why I joined a new version of this project this time with 4 different set topics throughout the year, still with 52 images, one for each week though. Wish me luck!

If you'd like to see the images in detail, go here.

waiting in silence

 © Sybille Sterk

Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

This is an image I created for the 1/52 project (week 48). There are two photographs of the ice that has frosted over a water barrel in the garden, one a close-up shot (macro lens) of the ice at the front, the other a macro shot of the reflection of the rose bushes in the ice. I've added textures and colour adjustments and cropped it. There's a second landscape version I'll post tomorrow.

There is also a poem to go with it, which can be read here.

All images/textures/brushes my own or bought. Edited with Photoshop.

All my images are available on Redbubble, Artflakes, Society6 and Bluecanvas as prints, cards, posters, skins for laptops, Blackberry, iPhones and other phones (for the skins go to Bluecanvas). You can now also get most of my images on cushion covers (go to Society6 for these).

the universe next door

© Sybille Sterk

Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

I am still playing with the idea of natural mirrors. I used two puddles to show parts of a Victorian streetlight and to me the reflections looked like windows to an alternate universe. Inspired by Fringe, one of my all time favourite TV series.

All images/textures/brushes my own or bought. Edited with Photoshop.

All my images are available on Redbubble, Artflakes, Society6 and Bluecanvas as prints, cards, posters, skins for laptops, Blackberry, iPhones and other phones (for the skins go to Bluecanvas). 

Scent of Roses

© Sybille Sterk
Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

Image created for the Facebook Group/Project 1/52. This is week 34.

I combined 3 images of a reflection of a rose in a water butt and played heavily with the colours/curves, added textures (bokeh, ripples and scractches) and the barbed wire.

The idea behind this image is that some memories, no matter how beautiful are just too painful to remember, but sometimes something like the scent of roses will make you remember anyway.

I wanted the area behind the barbed wire blurred  and vague but with bright distinct colours to show the dreamlike quality of memories and the way they are distorted by how we felt at the time or feel now.

Edited in Photoshop, all my own images.

All my images are available on Redbubble, Artflakes, Society6 and Bluecanvas as prints, cards, posters, skins for laptops, Blackberry, iPhones and other phones (for the skins go to Bluecanvas).

Soirée

Soirée

© Sybille Sterk
Do not copy or publish this in any way, shape or form without my written permission.

All three images were taken at Sheringham. I was so pleased with myself as I managed to get really close to the seagulls. The tide was just coming in and I got wet feet but it was so worth it. I love the reflections of the birds in the wet sand. There was also the most wonderful sunset (more picture coming) that evening.

All photographs my own, edited in Photoshop. Background texture from Shadowhouse, Darkworld.

Jellyfish Triptych and Print

My latest project. 

 Three 20x20 cm canvasses, interlinked with rope which gives them an all over length of roughly 70 cm. Each of the jellyfish has been crocheted in very thin copper gunmetal paint coated wire. The canavasses have been painted with acrylic paint, matt and glossy varnish to replicate water reflections. 

This is a completely original work and available in my Etsy shop for sale.

 Jellyfish top.

 Jellyfish middle.

 Jellyfish bottom.

 Detail of bottom jellyfish.

If you can't afford the original right now, there's a diptych print of two of the jellyfish from the painting. You can get it from my Redbubble page.

Ripples

MCN: CA93Q-UDG8H-JXMNA 

Part of my new series of images for licensing on Arcangel-Images - use this code: SYST-0210 

In this image I tried to re-create the 'Natural Mirror' shot I did with my Hiptstamatic camera, it's not quite the same, but it comes close. I used two shots of puddles with reflections and ripples and overlaid them plus textures and colour adjustments.
It is also part of my 1/52 project, week 17.

There's something therapeutic about looking into a puddle and seeing the reflection in it change. I always imagine it to be a crack between (alternative) universes where I can catch a glimpse of what's happening over there....

Created with my own photographs in Photoshop, no stock used.

All my licensing images are available on Redbubble, Artflakes and Bluecanvas as prints, cards, posters, skins for laptops, Blackberry, iPhones and other phones (for the skins go to Bluecanvas).

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

MCN: CGNUF-F22F6-DU1MY

This was originally designed for the new FB 1/52 Project whereby we have to take one image per week of an everyday object. It doesn't have to be the same everyday object each week, but has to be the same object type, i.e. if the theme is glasses, then I can use beer glasses, wine glasses, tumblers, etc. The shot can be of the object as a whole, in part or multiples.

My theme is mirrors, not because I am so vain, BUT because I have a collection of unusual mirrors. To me they're all magic. :-)

This is also part of my new series of images for licensing on Arcangel-Images - use this code: SYST-0087

Created with my own photographs in Photoshop, no stock used.

I Want to Be - Photo Manipulation

Illustration to accompany the poem of the same name. In a way this is a self portrait - although it's more about what's on the inside and what I'd like to become than what I am. :-)

Credits:
Model, Dark Tree 1 by mjranum-stock, and M Ranum and Amber
Background, Stock 126 by UmbraDeNoapte-Stock

Brushes:
Cobwebs Photoshop Brushes by redheadstock
Butterfly Brush by PhoenixWildfire

Textures:
Grunge Texture 03 by goodtextures
Plaster Damaged Texture by goodtextures
Book Cover Texture by night-fate-stock

All other textures and images are my own.

MCN: CVASC-51XKW-19JCQ

Trips Number 3: Granchester Meadows

Just after Christmas and before the new year we had a little outing to Granchester Meadows which is round the corner from where I live (well, almost). It's very pretty there (even Pink Floyd thought so as they wrote a song about it). It's especially lovely in the Summer when you can sit either by the river or in the Orchard - a lovely place to drink tea and eat homemade scones with clotted cream and strawberries.

However, it was too cold to sit outside, although we did go for a walk and, of course, I had my camera with me. Here are a few of the snap shots I took:


This is a few up the river towards Cambridge, so is the one below. The light was really beautiful and golden.

I am fascinated by trees and I love willows. They're probably my favourite trees (next to birches).

The reflection of this willow in the water is particularly clear.

Then I went on to grasses and reeds.


The drops on the grass were so large and pronounced. Not like diamonds at all, they are far too round and organic! Here you can see how muddy it was. Muddy with a capital 'M'.

The sun set really early and it began to get dark at 3 in the afternoon. This is a view over the trees towards the sunset.

Here, a similar view of the river as the ones at the beginning but with light fading fast.

I couldn't resist playing with the next lot and applied several filters including a Sumi-E filter. I think it works really well.


The last two are of reflections in the water. The bottom one looks almost like some secret writing - hieroglyphs maybe...