My Blog Has Moved!

Hey guys! If you didn't know yet, I'm now housing my blog under my domain, www.valerieleek.com. Blogger has been a lovely place to write notes about life, but it has been a goal of mine to have everything under the central hub that is my website! This page will be deactivated soon!

P.S. You can still see all of my old posts on my current website. Thank goodness for Wordpress plugins that allow you to import blog content!

Incoming Storm

Panorama shot from the alleyway behind my apartment building in Chicago. Click image for larger view.

Like Home

Here and there.

My CMYK Magazine Feature

I'm so excited to share with you guys my feature in CMYK Magazine's Top 100 New Creatives, Issue #52.  This small feature is a big and exciting deal for me!  I love being able to share my work on a bigger scale (I'm already having a higher increase of website traffic)!

Right before each section: Design, Illustration, Advertising, and Photography, they have a feature about the judge who selected the pieces to be in the magazine. I'm so excited that my piece was selected by California based photographer Marc Piron.  Here is his critique regarding the entire photography showcase (quoted directly from CMYK Magazine):

" 1. I am not a big fan of HDR; it was fashionable for a while. One can argue, I guess, that it's artistic, but I find it gets brutal, harsh, and boring quite quickly. The trick with HDR is to use it to an extent where it's not obvious at all, where things look a bit sharper with more contrast. However, if one has any doubt that HDR has been used, that means it was used too much. I suggest toning it down. Along the lines of that same argument is exaggerated use of Photoshop in photography. My advice is to use it only to the extent that one can't tell. And the same goes for flash photography.

2. Find a balance between technically proficient photography and some distortion; find a balance between clean and dirty, but have both; introduce a number of components in one image, but balance it. I found there to be a high degree of creativity in most of the images, a lot of risk-taking, and I was very pleased to see that."

-Marc Piron, Photography Showcase Judge, CMYK Magazine Issue #52.

The part of Marc Piron's showcase critique that stuck out the most to me was the part where he discusses our use of Photoshop: "My advice is to use it only to the extent that one can't tell." I felt my heart flutter a little bit, because THE WHOLE POINT of my assignment was to use Photoshop to create a "constructed reality."  Meaning, although the image is stitched together in Photoshop, the piece should be so seamless that the viewer starts to question reality.

Kevin O. Mooney was my instructor that set the constructed reality assignment.  This assignment was really a big taking off point for me because it was then that I realized that I loved to stitch images together to create this sort of impossible scenario.  I was making the impossible seem possible by Photoshopping 10... 20... sometimes even 30 photos together to get the perfect image. I used the constructed reality technique for many of my projects: Anomalies, Unthinkable, and Constructed Realities.

Thanks everyone for being so supportive and just as excited as I am about this!  It's exciting things like this that make me want to continue to make good work.

Sea Glass

Okay, okay... this smoothie has nothing to do with seaglass, but I made this for breakfast this morning, and I think it's by far my favorite smoothie combination: strawberries, bananas, blackberries, and spinach.  Add a splash of apple juice and some dollops of your favorite lite yogurt, and you've got yourself an awesome serving of energy!

And yes... that would be my Christmas tree in the background... still going strong.

So today, I decided to avoid the gym and go for a brisk run along the lakeshore path.  It turned out being a beautiful day despite the chilliness.  The winter darkness has kept me cooped up in my apartment most of the time, but now that the sunlight is staying out a tad bit longer and the temperature is getting more bearable, I'm excited to become reacquainted with the lake.  I mean common, it took me 5 minutes to run from my apartment to this spot.

Then my run turned into curiosity on the way back.  I started walking closer to the water line and found myself picking through shells and rocks that have washed up on the beach. I have to say, Lake Michigan has an impressive production of sea glass (or... uh... lake glass in this case). I kind of have this weird hobby of collecting sea glass... it's literally just chunks of glass that have been smoothed out from enduring harsh water and sand particles, but there is something that I appreciate about the process the glass has gone through.  Plus, when you collect a lot of pieces, they look great in a mason jar.  :-)

Some other weird things ended up in my pocket.

So You're Engaged?

Oh love is in the air.  It seems like almost every other day someone that I know, or a friend of a friend is getting engaged.  Wasn't it just yesterday that we were all kids ourselves?

So for those of you who are currently planning out your big day, I wanted to do an engagement and wedding photography bundle. (If we have spoken in the past about my pricing, you will notice that things have changed a bit).

Some words of advice for those of you planning out your engagement/wedding photos:

• Don't be afraid to dream big with your photos.  A lot of people are using Pinterest right now to bookmark dresses, accessories, decorations, and photos that they want to use as inspiration for their big day. Share these ideas with your photographer!  This allows me to know your style and what you want the most out of your photos.  Don't be shy... sharing inspiration helps us out a lot!

• Consider getting crafty and making props for your engagement photos.  Trust me... I'm the queen of using props in photos.  For example, see my Anomalies series from my time in BFA photography.  These will make your photos more unique!

• Plan for best light!!!!!!! (I even note this in my contract).  The more light that I (or any photographer) have to work with, the higher the quality of the photos.  Window light... outdoor light... anything.  *Note: The best times of the day to shoot with outdoor light is early in the morning, or late in the afternoon.  During these times of the day, the sunlight is softer, and not as harsh as noon-hour sunlight.  Soft light is flattering, and you'll be way happier with your photos.

Happy planning to all of you!

CMYK Magazine Publication!

I'm so excited to share with you guys that one of my photographs has been selected to be featured in CMYK Magazine's next issue in February!  The photo that they selected is one from way back when, titled "Unaverage Joe." I have found that over the years, this seems to be a favorite with the general audience (it was also selected to be published in Canvas Creative Arts Magazine, a student-run art magazine at Indiana University a few years ago).

Things like this sometimes surprise me.  I've found myself spending hours and hours trying to make a photograph conceptually sound, but even with all of the time spent to develop a conceptual photo, it might not resonate with as much of a crowd.  This particular image was created with more of a focus on the technical skill rather than the concept of the image.  My photography instructor at the time, Kevin O. Mooney, set a constructed reality assignment for our advanced digital class at Indiana University.  The assignment was to merely stitch photos together so well that it appeared to be reality, even though it wasn't. For this image, taking the photos was the easy part, but the stitching to make the photo appear seamless took hours of editing.

This image was created when I was sort of on this fairytale craze.  I was working on creating my Alice in Wonderland images around the same time.  Apparently editing myself to be really small was something I was fond of at the time.  I'm fairly certain I was inspired by a mix of Thumbelina and coffee shop art I'd seen. Who would have thought that finding the world's tackiest tea cup at Goodwill would turn into this?

I'll keep you posted as to when the issue hits stands in February!  Thanks everyone for your kind words of congratulations and encouragement!  It's stuff like this that keeps me going.