Treasures come in many forms. I took a photo when Florence in 2007. For the past years I kept it. When ever I looked through my files I paused to re experience the moment. I also knew this image was special – it had a story to be told, it was to be special. It was only recently that I knew what this image was to become. I painted it. This lady will never know it but now she will live forever as a very special piece of art.
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Happy Painting. W
It was the scheduled photo session for Dee Cappola’s photos session and she chose Lisa and Frank Phipps’ farm and Gardens for the session. What a beautiful venue it is – not only the setting but the borrowed view as well as the unique structures, planting areas, and unique structures throughout the 10 acre property along with the her favorites the chickens and her dogs.
A Golden Polish Top Hat~
The chickens are looked upon by Lola with great interest.~
Lola wants chicken for dinner!!~
Funny Sign – Favorite Friends~
Spencer
LOLA~
Lisa with Dee Coppola relaxing.
Photographer Winifred Whitfield: Successful fusion of art and business
February 1, 2011 @ 11:11am | Rodika Tollefson
Winifred media
Women In Business
Photographer Winifred Whitfield: Successful fusion of art and business
February 1, 2011 @ 11:11am | Rodika Tollefson
Winifred WhitfieldWinifred Whitfield has no trouble reinventing herself. The Poulsbo-based photo artist has followed several paths before finding her current niche — creating fine art photo portraits of women — but they all have one thing in common: complete dedication.
“I want mastery. I want to do it really well. I’m not a dabbler, that’s for sure,” she says.
Whitfield launched her boutique studio gallery, Intimate Portraits for Women (www.bigvalleyphotoart.com), when she discovered she enjoyed creating soulful, sensual portraits of women using the disappearing art of classic portraiture. She was doing wedding photography and when she found the possibilities of digital photography, she saw it as a way of returning to a childhood passion: painting.
“People want to do work fast, put a tag on it and get it out the door. My niche requires time intensity to develop these products,” she says. “It’s not fast at all.”
The product starts with a photo session where Whitfield uses techniques such as lighting and the subject’s own feelings. She says a good photograph needs a context, a person’s emotions, whether that’s sadness or joy.
“I tell women to concentrate on their thoughts and what they project. I need content because it will come through the camera,” she says. “There’s a feeling to the images, a calmness, and that’s the difference. When people are ‘not there,’ there’s no feeling.”
With the photos complete, Whitfield’s work is only beginning. She will take the raw image and digitally turn it into fine art, brushstroke by brushstroke, using two different software programs. “It’s very engaging and it’s a lot of work but it’s not boring or tedious,” she says.
To achieve her level of mastery, Whitfield studies constantly — everything from composition to lighting in other artists’ good work — as well as dissecting her own work to see how she can improve it. She also focuses efforts on the technical aspects, such as experimenting with her digital brush strokes in order to build up her toolkit. “You have to work at it, it’s not intuitive at all,” she says.
Her work has become renowned around the country and abroad. Whitfield, who also does photography in New York on location, has won various awards for her work and has been in demand for classes — as recently as January she went to London for a week to teach workshops. She also was recently invited to do beta product testing and be a spokesperson for X-Rite, a global leader in color science and technology.
Whitfield enjoys sharing her knowledge with other photographers, and she’s even conducted a tutoring session for a renowned photographer friend via Skype: As he worked on a photoshoot in Australia, she guided him in using her techniques.
The business aspects are generally challenging for the artsy types, but Whitfield says she has disciplined herself to do the work that comes with being self-employed. “If you don’t do it, you perish,” she says.
Using that side of the brain, of course, is not new to her. In her former career in New York City, she was in charge of bond ratings at Standard & Poor’s. But one day she decided she was done with Wall Street and with life in the big city, so she set off for the Pacific Northwest to start a new life. She had been to Bremerton before and liked it, so the Kitsap Peninsula became her destination.
As she continued in the financial sector for a while, assisting colleges and other entities to structure their financing, she had acquired lamas and turned her focus to breeding. After she landscaped her six-acre farm and designed beautiful gardens, she found her property in demand for weddings, which, in turn, brought her into photography. (She has since put the farm on the market and moved to a much smaller home in Port Ludlow.)
“It’s not tough to reinvent myself. I’ve been told I have the gift of fearlessness. I know I will land on my feet and do well,” she says. “It’s because of the mastery. It’s an inner thing — not having to overcome fear and the drive to learn new things, be creative and do well.”
She says if she had to change careers again, she could easily do it, but she’s content with the niche she has found, especially in an industry that continues to grow. “The best part is the satisfaction, the tears that come when I deliver the final product. Women like to see themselves expressed beautifully.”
Working for herself has worked out well for Whitfield, who likes to do things her way, and she doesn’t see going back. “I’m very happy on my own,” she says,” as complex as it gets sometime.”
Some wise person ~ I forgot who ~ said to ” stay in motion”. Some might think this includes just “spinning your wheels, digging deeper and going no where, but I have never found this to be the case for me. I think Peter Crabtree would agree. He stays in motion also. A friend of mine, Bonita Doerkson suggested that we have a glass of wine one evening. “Let’s go to ChocMo” she said – “it’s just opening.” For a glass of wine – no problem for me. I entered this new space – only open for 3 days at the time – at least as the newly expanded and renamed place that is is. Many know the previous and smaller version CBC. I never really knew what it was. I knew it had something to do with chocolates but this is not one of my addictions – as it is for most. I found this new environment lovely. It was elegant. I liked it’s spaciousness, the textures and color of the wood used and the color of the walls and furniture. It was so me!
It was a quiet evening so we had the opportunity to visit with Peter Crabtree, it’s owner. I also had the opportunity to hear his story and his vision for this altered and expanded venture. Many know the story of Peter’s beginnings with chocolates in high school only 6 years ago. He was taking a culinary class and had the opportunity to make chocolates – the kind with the hard outside and the soft center. Peter was immediately fascinated with this. He began to make and sell chocolates after school, then at the farmer’s markets, then had the small retail space just next to the State Liquor store in Poulsbo … and now … introducing ChocMo.
The much bigger, much fancier, expanded version of Peter’s dreamNow it is much more than chocolates. I ask Peter that night what he was going to do with all of those blank walls. “I want to feature a new artist each month” he replied. Well, we figured this out in only and instant and he did not have much longer that that before his “Grand Opening would occur about 10 days away. If I can respond at all, I can normally respond at great speed. I brought one load of my beautifully framed portraits back that night, and the next load a couple of days later. Creating a professional looking installation of about 30 large pieces was another matter and for this I went to Derek Gundy, quite and excellent artist himself who manages Artist Edge in Poulsbo.
Winifred’s portrait exhibit and the environment Peter created are beautiful together.The portraits will be in place through the end of May. They will then be transported and exhibited in Columbia Bank in Port Ludlow, WA during the month of June.
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A good and a very delicious time was had by all.
Submit Your Best Efforts in Print Competition
A week ago I sat with a panel of judges at the annual Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) print competition. In this competition, each photographer at a very minimum would like to receive an accolade acknowledging “good professional quality work”.
There are many prints which for various reasons do not receive this accolade. It is saddest however, when an entry loses points solely because there is an off color cast to the image or the flesh tone, or the image is too light, or too dark, all of which is reflects a lack of professional color management in the photographers work flow. The image otherwise might have been quite acceptable.
There is a solution to this. X-Rite is the global leader in color science and technology and as such serves a range of industries, including printing, packaging, photography, graphic design, video, automotive, paints, plastics, textiles, dental and medical.
X-Rite includes in it’s mix devices designed specifically to solve color management problems for photographers. These devices include the Color Checker, to create custom profiles for your camera and ColorMunki and the i1 extreme to calibrate your display, and create custom profiles for your printer, so you can see EXACTLY what you are going to print. Even if your work is printed by a professional lab, the cost of your production is decreased significantly if the lab does not have to color correct your images. Simply by calibrating your display you will able to view the colors, and densities you are actually working with. The ColorMunki is very simple to use. Within minutes the wizard will walk you through the calibration process. Your images are now ready for your final touch before going to your clients – or to competition.
If you are going to spend the money to have prints prepared for competition and pay the entry fee on each one, I would hope that you are submitting the best and most professional images you can create. It will be very difficult to do this without having a professional color managed work flow which means at the very least a frequently calibrated monitor.
For more information on the color management devices available to you, go to: X-Rite.com
I traveled to London January 12, 2011 to conduct workshops at the annual Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers Convention and trade show.
Exciting enough as that was, it was also the day that I finally closed on the sale of my Poulsbo, Washington farm. It had been a 3 year process.
I guess London was what you might expect – beautiful and raining. On this trip, however, I ventured
a bit further from the convention center than I had the prior year. This trip was special because
Michelle Rumney met me and guided me on my adventure. Michelle is a fine artist painter and has a coaching business
Room at the Edge. She currently lives in London.
Michelle RumneyPortrait painting of Michelle Rumney, lit by natural light coming from the courtyard of the Westminster Abbey,
London. January 13,2011 She ask me what I wanted to do. I told her that on this brief trip, if I could only visit
Westminster Abbey, I would be happy. So, that was our point of destination.
Westminster AbbeyArmed with my Canon G9, I also set about taking photos like any self respecting tourist.
It was painful to be in the magnificent Westminster Abbey and not be allowed to take photos.
Hence, I tried to soak up the experience with my thoughts, my feelings – my soul.
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Lunch at Westminster AbbeyIt was special at the end of our tour and headed out of the Abbey to see this long row of
school children in uniform eating their lunch.
I knew instantly that ti would make for a interesting fine art image.
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London BusAn image of a big red London bus was a must have. The vivid colors were inspired by
a workshop I took from fine art digital artist Marilyn Sholin – which is one of her trade marks.
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SILENCEI saw thss display in a small park and was fascinated by it. these figures are made of stone and
the display is called SILENCE
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Ferris Wheel in LondonYou have no idea just how high this ferris wheel loomed in the sky. it was stunning!
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As I returned from London, I was in the Vancouver BC Airport when suddenly before me
was a large tank of brightly colored Jellyfish. I think they were performing a ballet.
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I also got to visit with other friends in London, David Hunt, a very talented internet media designer and
who designed this very website OKSO.com and also and Claudia Crawley, owner of Winning Ways Coaching.
It was s solidly good trip which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Port Ludlow Art League – January 19, 2011
Corel Painter is professional digital software engineered to simulate painting with traditional paint media.
On January 19th Winifred displayed many of her large painted canvas portraits and
demonstrated how she used Corel Painter to paint then.
Winifred solicited the assistance of Derick Gundy, who paints in several media, to experience painting digitally. Using a stylus and WACOM tablet he created an image.
There was a great deal of interest from both photographers and traditional media painters following this demonstration. Winifred was ask immediately if she would be available for a second presentation.
This was part of Winifred’s art work on display for the Port Ludlow Art League
In the July issue of Rangefinder Magazine a body of my work was featured. I will post that link as soon as it is available. The following interview was conducted by Scott Sheppard, producer of Rangefinder Radio, as a supplement to the feature article.
http://www.rangefindermag.com/storage/articles/RFRadio_WinifredWhitfield.mp3
no images were found
Hello World!
This is me more than 99 percent of the time. I am positive energetic, creative and believe the sky is the limit.
This does not mean that everything goes my way or that I do not have challenges – but rarely does it get me down and for not very long. I pay attention to my thinking and try to stay away from negative thinking, limited thinking and judgment. These type of thoughts get us in trouble. When one thing is out of my control, I direct my attention to things I can control and attempt to have positive impact there. When the economy slowed and I had less business, I used it as a time to create my book. Hence I remained focused, optimistic and fully engaged with an activity that was important to me.
I also engage consciously in positive self talk – you know, that little voice we hear all day long giving us feedback. That voice can be trained. It can be trained to tell you things you need to hear to move forward. It can be trained to offset the negative voices which may be part of your past – which may be holding you back – really it can. It is amazing how much I like to hear myself praise myself for doing really good work. I can feel a what feels like a separate being within me just “glow”. I like to feel that I am in charge of how I feel and how my life goes. If something is not working no matter how hard you work at it – well, it just may be that you need to let it go and to move in a new direction. Sometimes we just need patience.
This image was taken by Pete Snell from Victoria when group of us were in Vegas for WPPI and went to the desert to a ghost town to do a shoot. The environment was so beautiful and I had my fabric with me to use for the models so I complied when the guys told me they wanted to photograph me. This is a fun image so I am glad I allowed it to be created.
