Claire Mather’s Leopard.
Bill Brennan
Claire Mather has fun taking snapshots with her Canon point-and-shoot camera, an SX280HS, and making her keepers into Fine Art Photographs; all electronically.
The camera is so good that the eyelashes on a leopard from an African Safari are clear and sharp. A fellow traveler with more complex and more expensive equipment was puzzled as to how she was able to capture such good images with her point and shoot.
In addition to setting her camera on Auto, Claire’s set-up includes an Apple iPad, an Apple Camera Connector Kit and free Apps for editing her photos.
With Claire’s set-up there is no need for weighty cameras, lenses, Photoshop or Lightroom. She is on the leading edge of the next shift to a simpler approach to photography.
Her workflow, at home or traveling, includes well-conceived, composed and creative snapshots of friends, relatives, landscapes and other unique subjects. Usually the day’s photos are transferred to the Photos section of her iPad using her Camera Connector Kit.
Then the photos are examined, culled and edited slightly to determine her keepers. All editing is completed on her iPad with a click and a touch. When traveling she is able to share her photos the next day with her fellow travelers who are interested.
Claire uses two free photo editing Apps the most: Photo Booth and Snapseed. Both Apps free her creative spirit. She uses the touch screen on her I-Pad to select templates that do virtually all of the work in making her snapshots into fine art photographs. In seconds Claire can boost the colors, intensify the clouds, convert to a vintage look with sepia or black and white, make an abstract, plus many other creative adjustments.
In addition to photography, travel, fine art and her family, reading and volunteer work are important to Claire. While she is working at the DesertView Library she will play a slide show of her most recent photographs to share with interested visitors.
The photographs from Claire’s most recent journey, from Nice to Paris with a side trip to Monet’s home in Giverney are available for viewing now. And before year’s end, there will be a gallery of photos from her cruise on the Adriatic Sea with stops at Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro.
When not taking photographs while traveling, Claire visits art museums because she loves fine art. She is an active member of the Digital Imaging Group SaddleBrooke (DIGS)
For more information about DIGS visit the website: www.digitalimaginggroupsouth.org or come to a meeting at 8:30 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month in the Coyote Room on the lower level at HOA 1.