Christmas Eve Tidings

Just a quick entry from me as I enjoy my Christmas Eve with my family and loved ones.  I had a couple new features come out in the past few days, and I always try and post about them here as well as my other social media outlets.  It just seems like the polite thing to do when someone goes to the trouble of talking about my work!

Firstly, we have Slovak Art Magazine.  They ran a lovely feature on my work in their latest issue, #13.

There is some really outstanding artwork in the magazine, so it is well worth looking at on its own and not just to see my work 😉

Second, I’m really pleased to say that one of my images won a contest sponsored by Good Light! Magazine.  The theme was People and Water, so I thought one of my underwater images from my Glass Walls series with Katie would fit well.  Apparently they thought so too since they chose it as the winning image!

They wrote a feature about the image which was lovely and full of comments which make me want to blush, but I’m going to share it here anyway.

And as if that weren’t enough nice things they said, there’s also a short video where the judge talks about why he chose the winning images (and he has a lovely accent as well!)

I’ll just say that the title came first, then the image, not the other way around, but it’s easy to see how you could mistake it!

So no… this is not especially Christmasy, but I have not had a moment to put this together until just now!  And while I have thanked the magazines themselves, I think it’s important to promote it online as much as possible.  It’s just good photography manners.

With that all said, I hope all of you who are celebrating Christmas have an absolutely WONDERFUL one tomorrow!  Make sure you get to sleep early so Santa has time to leave you something nice.  And of course, the most important thing of all about Christmas… I hope it is filled with people and animals you love, that you’re able to express your love to them all and they say so to you as well.

Presents are lovely.  Feasts of good food are something we should be very thankful for.  But the heart of the holiday is sharing love with one another.  I hope you give and receive lots of it 🙂

Merry Christmas!!

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Last-Minute Christmas

Hello, everyone!

As I am just really starting my Christmas shopping today (and also birthday shopping for Geoff whose birthday is very close to Christmas) I thought I’d send out a short post to summarize my offerings for this holiday season:

Red Bubble Items.  Red Bubble carries a huge range of products, from stickers, greeting cards, laptop and phone skins, tshirts and mugs at a wide range of prices.  There is hardly anything you could want to put an image on which they do not offer, so give them a look!  And they also carry my favorite item I put out each year, my new 2015 Calendars!  These calendars feature 12 of my most popular images from the previous year, with no two being the same so they are great collector items as well!

Fine art prints.  These are NOT your regular photography prints.  I go on and on about the museum-quality of the prints quite a lot in my original post, so I’ll save you from the repetition, but these babies are all QUALITY and will last a lifetime.  Each comes from a limited edition run, signed and numbered and if you’d like a special message, I’m happy to put one on for you!  Use code MYTHIC2014 to get 20% your entire order!

And lastly, my online, eight-week, self-discovery through photography course INTROSPECTIVE: A Photographic Quest.  Use code INTROXMAS2014 to save a big 30% off the price of admission!!

Hopefully I’ll have a post for you with some new images soon… life has been especially complicated recently which has really cut down on my time to edit, but I’m hoping I’ll have a little break soon.

Happy holidays to everyone, and you have my deepest, sincerest thanks if you purchase any of my items!  It really does help support me being able to do what I do 🙂

 

Richness In Winter, a self portrait. © Sarah Allegra

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Purple Wednesday, Or INTROSPECTIVE

Originally, I’d intended on posting this around Black Friday/Cyber Monday but I was prevented by forces outside my control.  The week of Thanksgiving, Los Angeles was oppressed relentlessly by Santa Ana winds which are always a challenge to my body, but especially so this time.

With my recent sinus surgery (which I still need to tell you about!) I was already at less than my usual lower-than-average health and my sinuses just about lost the will to live once the winds started.  This meant almost a week of migraines every day, but even after the worst of it had passed, I was terribly behind on everything I hadn’t been doing while I was laying in the dark with an ice pack on my head.  Things fell behind.

This really has no connection to either Black Friday or Cyber Monday now but a large percentage of my sales happen around the holidays, so I hope you’ll indulge this post anyway 🙂

I have a perfect gift idea for anyone in your life (or perhaps you!) who is a bit artsy or introverted or just wants to develop their self-awareness.  INTROSPECTIVE: A Photographic Quest is a truly unique experience unlike anything else I’ve found.  I created this online workshop after searching for something like it, and not finding anything that resonated with me.  In the eight-week course, you will use your camera to explore your inner self, receiving a new assignment each week challenging you to delve into your secrets, fears and joys.

A Student’s Image

No photography experience is needed (although links to more technical information are provided for anyone who wants to learn more about it).  This is not a class about photography, it’s about you taking you exploring your inner self, making new discoveries and using art to document what you find.  It’s also an extremely therapeutic experience; I based the structure of the class on the healing I found in photography and self portraiture.

A Student’s Image

In a sense, you could say it’s a course about self portraiture since everything you create will be imbued with who you are, but there are no requirements to put yourself within the image, or even have any people in your images.  If you find that, say, tea leaves on a saucer express what you’re feeling, that’s just as valid as any other way of expressing yourself!

You will learn about yourself over these eight weeks and make wonderful discoveries.  The best, and most long-lasting, of these may just be discovering the profound healing power in art.  This is an eight-week adventure full of fun and joy in a safe, love-filled environment.  If you want to share your images with the world, you’re more than welcome to, but there’s no requirement to do so.  INTROSPECTIVE is about you, through and through.

A Student’s Image

With the new year and its resolutions quickly approaching us, I can’t think of a better gift to start the year off with!  Whether you take the class yourself or give it as a gift to someone, I can guarantee that not only will it be completely different than every other gift you or they will receive, but that it will do wonders for the soul of every participant.

To jump-start this for the holiday season, I’ve created a special promotion to receive $25 off INTROSPECTIVE!  That’s 30% off!  Just enter code INTROXMAS2014 when you check out, whether you’re buying for yourself or someone else 🙂

A Student’s Image

I’d like to point out that INTROSPECTIVE has not been hosted on Udemy for its whole existence; in the beginning, I hosted it on my site.  While Udemy shows that very few people have taken the course, the number is actually higher.  And somehow some of the reviews have gotten erased as well.  Sigh.  Luckily, I have another one I can share with you from student Aly, two of whose photos are right above and below!

“I have taken part in Sarah’s Introspective course twice, not because I missed anything the first time, but because her course offers the unique quality of fresh opportunity for introspection and growth, with each round. Much like a “Choose your own Adventure” book (but with far more substance, of course), the beginning, journey and end of the Photographic Quest are what you make it, with Sarah’s guiding topics, suggestions, questions and technical encouragement, to keep the journey on track. Through her course, I created several self portraits which spoke from my heart, of which I am very proud and thankful to have been guided toward. I absolutely recommend Introspective: A Photographic Quest, for anyone interested in exploring themselves through self portraiture. I’ve come from this course with much more confidence in my ability to realize self portraits, from concept to fruition, and of course, a closer understanding of myself, through this Introspective journey.“

A Student’s Image

Thank you, Aly!  Her review sums up what I want the class to be for everyone; something you can return to again and again, adjusting it for yourself each time.  And you can retake it at any time; the lesson outlines are downloadable, so you can go through the journey as many times as you want for the one price of admission!

A Student’s Image

With all that said, think about INTROSPECTIVE as a gift for yourself or a loved one.  It will certainly be a completely unique gift, unlike anything else they might receive!  And with the benefit of being able to repeat it at any point, it just keeps giving 🙂  On top of that, use code INTROXMAS2014 when you check out to get an entire 30% off!  I hope you’ll take the journey and go on an adventure!

A Student’s Image

I’d love to hear your thoughts about it, both as you’re on your quest and after.  And if you upload your images to the Flickr group for INTROSPECTIVE, they just might get featured here!

Be bold!  Go on a quest and return a deeper person 🙂

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