Laura Oles presents Inside Photo Secrets for Authors, March 9 @ Sisters in Crime (Austin) – Free and Open to the Public

Posted on February 27, 2014 by M.K. Waller in Uncategorized

Inside Photo Secrets for Authors

Storytelling through photography has long been a powerful method of connecting people emotionally. For authors and writers, the use of photography can greatly assist in reaching and retaining readers. However, the digitization of photography has left the public largely confused about this new medium’s rules and regulations.

At Sisters in Crime – Austin’s March 9 meeting, member Laura Oles, a photo industry journalist and author of Digital Photography for Busy Women, will cover some current issues surrounding digital photography.

Topics to be covered will include:

Basic guidelines for using photos on your author blog & website
Creative Commons: What it is and why it matters
When you can and cannot use photos you find online
How to determine if a photo has been edited (for fictional story lines, etc)
What metadata is and what it tells you about the photo
How to use photography to strengthen your author page and blog posts
Tips for taking that perfect author headshot
Examples & resources for writers to find photos to use under license
General photography tips for powerful imagery
Why authors should use Pinterest & how to get started

Laura Oles was fortunate enough to have entered the digital photography industry long before Photoshop had become a verb. She is a founding team member of Pixel Magic Imaging, which was purchased by DNP Photo Imaging America in 2006, and has continued to advocate for digital solutions that improve the experience for shooters of all skill levels. She spent over ten years building and leading sales and marketing teams and understands the challenges of helping businesses establish a strong, unique presence in a crowded marketplace.

Laura has published over 200 articles in industry and consumer magazines and has been a columnist for Digital Camera Magazine, Memory Makers Magazine, Picture Business, PhotoInduced, ClubMom (now Cafe Mom) and others. Her book, Digital Photography for Busy Women, was named a photography category finalist in USA Book News.com’s ‘Best Books’ awards. In addition, she has served as an expert speaker for a variety of imaging conferences and conventions across the country. She continues to consult and write for the digital photo industry.

Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas Chapter (Austin) meets the second Sunday of each month at 2:00 p.m., at Recycled Reads, 5335 Burnet Road, Austin. Meetings are free and open to the public.

More on This to Come

Posted on February 21, 2014August 17, 2015 by M.K. Waller in Uncategorized

Hypotenuse

Posted on February 17, 2014September 12, 2016 by M.K. Waller in Uncategorized

What was I thinking? Obviously not much.

For a previous WordPress photo challenge (Object), I posted

Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas Chapter Book Swap, December 2013

I don’t know why. I’d already picked out several shots I liked better, such as

Shiner Beer truck parked at Valero gas station and convenience store, February 4, 2014

and

William putting his stamp of approval on my new Kindle, October 21, 2014

either of which is more interesting than books on chairs.

But at the last minute the books jumped out and said, Pick me! So I did. I was later appalled at how foolish the photo looked in comparison to those other bloggers posted.

On the other hand, considered as geometric shapes–two right triangles formed from a rectangle, their common hypotenuse composed of mysteries–the picture assumes a significance bordering on the semi-artistic.

Had I cropped more precisely, or had I posted before midnight, I might have observed that before now. But probably not.

You see, I didn’t discover the books formed a hypotenuse by studying the photograph. I saw it while composing this post. I wrote the word diagonal to describe the line of books, and suddenly saw triangles.

In other words, I didn’t know what I knew until I’d written it.

It sounds backward, especially to people who’ve been told they must outline before they write. Which is practically everyone who passed through an English class before the process theory taught by Donald Murray, Ken Macrorie, Peter Elbow, and other teachers was widely recognized. Writing as process allows students to use language to discover what they know and think before they try to organize.

(Ironically, most of those early outliners could have told their teachers that outlining with an empty head doesn’t work.)

When Gertrude Stein says writers have the daily miracle, this must be what she means: allowing language to lead, using the hand to stimulate the mind, being surprised by your own creation, discovering yourself through words you’ve written.

Thinking with a pen, or a keyboard, in hand works for anyone willing to put words on paper or pixels on a monitor.

Results vary, of course.

Stephen King starts writing and ends up with The Shining.

I start writing and end up seeing triangles.

On this day, triangles are miracle enough.

Love Poem for Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 14, 2014September 12, 2016 by M.K. Waller in Uncategorized

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat:
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
“O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!”

Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing!
Oh! let us be married; too long we have tarried,
But what shall we do for a ring?”
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the bong-tree grows;
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

III

“Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?” Said the Piggy, “I will.”
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,

The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

~ Edward Lear

***

Sharing

Posted on February 10, 2014February 10, 2014 by M.K. Waller in Uncategorized

I’d planned to post today, but Daily Awareness has something more important to share.

Daily Awareness

The Bright Field
by John O’Donohue

I have seen the light break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great prize, the one field that had
the treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush. To a brightness
that seems as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.