Category Archives: fine art

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Swish & Sip: Jewelry, Art & Wine

January 22, 2008 – 11:12 pm

Wow, I meant to post this exciting piece of news weeks ago, so hopefully I’m not too late! One of our good friends, Christa Jansen, designs the most beautiful modern jewelry, and she’s having a show … this Friday! It’s being held at Theo Chocolate in Fremont, Seattle, and there will be live jazz by Dina Blade, lots of wine, a DJ (my husband Josh) and photography by yours truly. What fun! Oh, and of course Christa will be showing and selling pieces from her current collection. Please let me know if you plan on coming along as we’re trying to keep track of numbers.

If you want a sneak peek - or if you can’t make it on Friday - check out the Swish Jewels website. I had a session with Christa in December and my photos are slowly but surely taking over her site. And if you’re just that impatient, here are a few photos of some of my favorite adornments.

By Kate McElwee | Also posted in commercial, fun | Comments (0)

The other thing that I do …

October 11, 2007 – 10:54 pm

When I’m not busy shooting weddings, engagements, boudoir sessions and portraits, I really enjoy self-portraiture. It’s been a while since I’ve done any, and I really miss doing photography ‘just for fun’. So, starting today, I will take a self-portrait (SP) every day for a year. Am I crazy? Probably. Will I learn much? Oh yeah!

My main reason for doing these daily SPs is that they force you to really learn more about your camera, your technique, and especially your lighting style. It’s a lot harder to get it right when you don’t have someone there as your subject, modeling the light and providing a point of focus … but it is so rewarding when you finally nail it. You have to learn to pre-visualize how you want your shot to turn out.

So, here’s to a fun year of SPs! I’ll post my favorites here, maybe once a week or so. And if you like what you see, let me know so that we can recreate the look for your portrait, boudoir, engagement or bridal session! Here’s my photo from Day One (today):

By Kate McElwee | Comments (2)

My First Fine Art Sale!

May 28, 2007 – 12:15 pm

I just got a voice mail from the fabulous Dean at Gene Juarez saying that they’ve sold one of the three pieces I have on display there. I’m so excited to find out which one! We’re hoping that any photographs sold will be left up on display until the end of the exhibition rotation (each rotation lasts three months), but I may need to choose a replacement piece if the buyer wants to take it home immediately. I’m thinking that I may replace it with this one - it’s the first self-portrait from the series, and its working title is Twins.

By Kate McElwee | Also posted in news | Comments (0)

I’m Exhibiting!

May 11, 2007 – 3:03 pm

I’m currently exhibiting three pieces from a series of 11 self-portraits at Gene Juarez, downtown Seattle. They’re black and white fiber prints, and it’s really nice that after putting in so much work they’re out there for the world to see (naked butt and all, might I add!)

The idea behind the series was to explore a woman’s time on her own - and the various moods and states that she finds herself in. I also wanted to utilize the idea of creating art through obstructions (the idea came from the movie The Five Obstructions by Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth - which I highly recommend as a piece of art and humorous documentary rather than a straightforward movie). My five obstructions were: (1) use all manual settings; (2) obtain no help from outside (for example with focusing); (3) use only a 50mm lens; (4) shoot indoors; (5) use natural light.

Anyway, here are the three images currently on display:

By Kate McElwee | Also posted in news, personal | Comments (1)