Friday, March 4
by Karen Robert
I just came across these photos done by photographer Irina Werning. She takes old photos, has the subject repose in a similar way, then she tweaks it in Photoshop. It has an uncanny way of showing how you’ve grown and changed, though weirdly, how you haven’t changed. Check it out:
Here is what Irina says in her words:
“I love old photos. I admit being a nosey photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today… A few months ago, I decided to actually do this. So, with my camera, I started inviting people to go back to their future.”
To see more of her work go to: http://irinawerning.com/back-to-the-fut/back-to-the-future/
All Photographs © Irina Werning
Saturday, January 1
by Karen Robert
These holiday cards were just submitted by the Bale family and they are some of the best series of cards I’ve seen this year. I adore how this family really goes for it every year always with a creative sense of fun and flare. It helps that Dad is pretty skilled at Photoshop, though it should be noted that the photos for all of these cards are taken by themselves with a timer. I am in awe.
This was their card in 2007. It’s a fabulous Christmas card where they are helping each other get a star on the tree using in the style of “Cirque du Bale”. I’ve seen many cards with this theme. but this one is particularly imaginative in the way they lean against each other. Lori Bale (Mom) says that they did this in 5 shots all photoshopped together by Dad. The dog was separate, Mom and Dad were taken in front of a green screen, then one of Mom and her daughter, then one of the kids, and finally, the tree was added into the back ground as the 5th shot. This card is a huge success; it’s one of my all time favorites Christmas cards. It’s incredibly creative and incredibly well executed, a perfect combination.
This is the Bale family Christmas card 2000 of the family reflected in an ornament. This is a wonderful idea which I’ve seen quite a lot, but this one is very well executed. I think I may do a blog posting soon showing all of the ornament reflection shots I’ve come across.
Here is their card in 2001. Great Christmas card of kids inside of a snow globe. This is a fun twist on the snow globe card with the kids looking at it from outside as well as being inside. I did a posting on snow globe Christmas cards which this card would fit into perfectly.
Here is their 2003 Great Christmas card of two kids looking inside their fish bowl decorated for Christmas. I have never seen the fishbowl theme, I love the hats on the fish. I wonder if the line inside the card was “Fishing You a Merry Christmas”?
This is the Bale Family Christmas card from 2004 of a photo of their dog stealing a slipper of one of the kids. It’s such a cute idea for a Christmas card. I am curious if this was one shot of photoshopped together.
Here is the Bale family card from 2005 where each member of the family holds a blank card and they are photoshopped one within the other. Photos of frames within frames are another theme I may explore in another posting.
The Bale family Christmas card 2009 made with Sparklers with time lapse photography. See more cards using light and time lapse photography.
And here is their card form this year, 2010. I love it! They posed the family into a scene mimicking the Norman Rockwell painting, “Freedom From Want”, but with a modern twist. This reminds me very much of a card by Theresa Thompson mimicking the same painting. Notice the dog, the lizard and the rabbit at the table. I also like the original Norman Rockwell painting in the background.
And finally in honor of the day, here is a New Year’s Day card from the Bale family from 2002. On this one they photoshopped more confetti into the picture.
A huge thank you to the Bale family for taking the time to share these with me. I look forward to seeing what they come up with next year.
Happy New Year!
More Christmas cards are coming they are still coming in and I am struggling to keep up.
Saturday, December 11
by Karen Robert
A lot of people are using the “American Gothic” painting as inspiration for all sorts of things; holiday cards, wedding portraits, ads, and just for fun. There were so many images to choose from ,this is just a smattering of what’s out there. but I chose these to show you because they seemed a good cross section of different styes and ideas of how to mimic this historic painting.
This is the original American Gothic Painting By Grant Woods
Classic black and white image by Gordon Parks of Ella Watson is a parodying the American Gothic Painting.
The Beverley Hillbilly’s pose like the American Gothic Painting. This was perhaps a precursor to the whole fad?
American Gothic Christmas Card done by Brian Bowker, in the book “Merry Christmas From…150 cards you wish you’d received”.
See it at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bowkerhouse/2088605125/
This photo is taken by photographer, Tristan Spinski of his parents in an American Gothic pose for their Christmas card
This is a very well done photoshop job. Found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjameshall/371493809
A fun couple photoshopped themselves as the American Gothic Painting
Found here: http://oddguyart.wordpress.com/
Fun photoshopped portrait of kids posing American Gothic style
Created by Theresa Thompson at http://www.flickr.com/photos/theresasthompson/2210407036
Dog’s even get into the action in this American Gothic parody.
Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/katydaly/311448055/
Great picture of a couple posing American Gothic style.
Shot by Jackie Good at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakig/2651077624
Posted by jessica toney photography at
http://www.hallmarkhipsters.net/hallmark/hipsters/archive/2008_01_01_archive.html
This card is strangely similar to the Brain Bowker one above.
Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/15318056@N07/4457002279/
Beautiful bLack and white photo of a couple posing in American Gothic Style
http://www.flickr.com/photos/godkinphoto/4097491878/
Or you can use the American Gothic theme for a wedding portrait as shown at Utah Bride.
Also at Utah Bride : http://www.utahbrideblog.com/?p=2323
This bride also used the American Gothic pose for her wedding Portrait.
Shot by Dave Robbins http://www.etsy.com/storque/spotlight/etsy-finds-my-american-gothic-wedding-4288/
If you don’t have the photoshopping skills to make a photo like htis yourslef, you can cheat and get a costume with a frame, get it at :
http://www.costumecraze.com/HUMR153.html
Or you can have an image made for you with yor faces like this at findgift.com. What a fun present that would make to give your loved one for Christmas.
Go to: http://www.findgift.com/gift-ideas/pid-64670/
Thursday, December 9
by Karen Robert
I have a new favorite card designer, Jon Arnold. I just discovered his fun creative Christmas cards at his site photoshopfu.com where he shows off his mad photoshop skills. Here are his cards over the years and a brief description of how and why he made them in his words. I am putting all of these into the Family Christmas Card Gallery, I have deemed them very worthy.
Here are all of the Arnold family Christmas cards with an explanation in Jon’s words of how their Christmas cards style has evolved over the years and a bit of a lesson on how to make a great creative Christmas card for yourself:
Christmas 2002
I feel like this was the year we turned a corner with a pretty unique concept, and this remains one of my favorite Arnold Christmas cards. Perhaps what is most surprising to me is how little Photoshop work was done here (I just had to remove the camera from the reflection). And this was old-school film, folks; I didn’t have a million digital takes to get it right.Fun idea for a creative family Christmas card with a sofa photoshopped put of it.
Christmas 2003
That Christmas we were expecting our third daughter, so I went with a “this is the present we’re getting this year” idea. I still like the concept, but this has been my least favorite Arnold Christmas card so far. I think I did a hack Photoshop job, and overall it feels contrived. The only thing that gives it a hint of genuine charm is the pointing finger of my then-youngest daughter.
The lesson: Either 1) it doesn’t matter how great your idea is if it’s not properly executed, or 2) sometimes your ideas aren’t as great as you think they are.
The (life) lesson: Good photography is all in the lighting
Christmas 2004
I think this was a step up in our creative Christmas card endeavor, and also the first of a slightly subversive, anti-commercialism tone that would appear in later Christmas cards as well. This was also the year I finally figured out the lighting technique for a pure white background right out of the camera, so I was thrilled to get to use it here.
The lesson: Don’t get carried away. Keep your creative Christmas card ideas manageable so that the whole process stays fun.
Christmas 2005
This year we wanted to incorporate a little bit of family news into our Christmas card, so we made a board game. The descriptions on the game board corresponded with the events of the year. And yes, we even included game pieces. I had a lot of fun making all of this, but it took a long time and was starting to feel like overkill.
The lesson: Don’t get carried away. Keep your creative Christmas card ideas manageable so that the whole process stays fun.
Christmas 2006
This was the year our business, our family, and life in general seemed to have gotten hectic and complicated. It was a tough year, but I’ll bet no one outside looking in would have noticed. But isn’t that how we all are?…putting up a certain facade on the outside, but inside we’re a bit of a mess? Seemed like a perfect idea for a Christmas card, though! The “picture” on the front cover was actually cut out, letting the smiling family from the inside show through. Opening the card, however, one sees the complete picture. (I love those burning curtains!)
The lesson: Being real trumps being creative.
Christmas 2007
Ok, I’m not going to feign humility here: we nailed this one. And I don’t mean just the actual card, I mean the whole experience of making it. Our girls were old enough to participate and have fun during the photo shoots, and being a huge movie buff, I loved the whole action-movie metaphor of family life. It was a lot of work, but we had a blast making it, which I think gave us all an extra sense of togetherness and ownership in this annual Christmas card tradition.
The lesson: Think of a creative Christmas card idea that hits upon your particular interest, and you’re bound to execute it masterfully (or at least have a lot of fun working on it).
Christmas 2008
I got this idea from one of my daughters’ Where’s Waldo books, of course. Here we are acting out different events and details from the previous year, and the card itself included a poem of what to hunt for in the picture. I knew this would be a bit of a Photoshop challenge (here’s my overview) but it was fun and satisfying to see it all come together. The photo shoot was one of those fun family activities that I’ll never forget.
The lesson: Feed the kids first for maximum fun and cooperation. See that pizza? That wasn’t just a prop; that was dinner.
Christmas 2009
Time to take another shot at commercialism (the inside caption read “May your only excess be of peace and love”). Our photo shoot, unfortunately, was going nowhere. Everyone was a tad grumpy and it was showing, so we changed our strategy and made it into a game. With everyone lined up on the other side of the room, we set the camera timer for a couple seconds and then would run to the couch trying to get in place before the shutter fired. Just a few tries at this, and we got our shot. And had fun.
The lesson: Your best photos will come when you’re having fun, something no amount of Photoshop magic can fake.
These Holiday cards are great right? He has a great, fun sense of how to pull off a creative card. I wonder what their card will be for this year. Contact me to ask me for my address Jon. (Hint)
Thursday, October 28
by Karen Robert
Get out your cameras. It’s Christmas Card season and I’m raring to go. I have some fun cards to show you that I’ve found over this last year. So it’s time to start posting.
Here is one I found just today in fact at a site called wearheavyduty.com . This family has this blog where they post of all of the fun, creative things that they come up with. And they have a lot of funny ideas. This card was their card from 2007.
This shot was on the back
They made this card by laying on a green sheet effectively making a green screen so that it was easier to cut out their images in photoshop. 
Then they photoshopped the images all together and Voila! a very cool, fun, original Christmas card is born. This card is the first of the season to make it to my card gallery. Many more to come. I am hoping that I can do it on a daily basis. Eventually I may even get around to doing my own card….I’m as anxious as everyone else to come up with a good idea and to actually be able to implement it the way it looks in my head.
Sigh. I love Christmas. It’s good to be back showing you what inspires me, amazing Christmas cards. Stay tuned….
Friday, July 2
by Karen Robert
I found some great 4th of July Cards which are unique and inspirational. None of these are commercial cards by the way, all are people’s individual creative efforts. 
This digital collage is by Pamela027 on Flickr, it is so creative and inspiring.
I saw this on an ad for http://www.pasanellaandson.com, but I don’t think they created it. If so, my apologies to whomever made it for not giving you credit, it is a fabulous 4th of July message. I love words spelled out by sparklers, they are not that hard to do with a long exposure, yet so fun and creative.
This is creative 4th of July collage was again posted by Pamela027 on Flickr
This card was sent out as a shout out for the 4th of July by Daniel at DanielDunlapphoto.com
This digital art of a flag swirling around was done by Leoncillo Sabino and posted on Flickr.
This great dog (is it a basset Hound?) 4th of July card was also posted on Flickr by Komissarov
Oh why not post this one from OliviaMunn.com..she’s in the spirit of the 4th.
A 4th of July photo of a flag in front of the Brooklyn Bridge posted by Houry Photography on Flickr.
Audrey Elizabeth posted this 4th of July card on Flickr
And we will end where we bagan, with a sparkler spelling out “Happy 4th”, posted by Afaur on Flickr.
Happy 4th of July everyone.
Thursday, June 3
by Karen Robert
This posting isn’t necessarily about cards. In fact it has nothing to do with them. But pictures are often a component on many cards, so I am showing you a trick I learned in Photoshop. I know that in the past I’ve said that I am hopeless at Photoshop. However in the last year I’ve been working hard at remedying that situation by taking a series of Adobe courses. I must say, I ‘ve gotten quite good for a middle aged lady. Today’s lesson was on how to retouch photos. Our assignment was to take a normal photo of Clare Danes and make her grossly over-perfect. Apparently newer high resolution cameras take photos which are very detailed and the magazines and tabloids end up with pictures which have “too much information”. This is industry -speak apparently for seeing all of the lines and blemishes on a woman’s face. As I was doing this I thought that poor Clare looked so much better before I began and I started to feel sorry for all of these actresses. Silly me. My teacher, who used to retouch photos for magazines, told us that, on the contrary, many actresses have contracts with magazines which REQUIRE that their photos be retouched. Sigh.
Here is what I came up with; this is Clare Danes before:
And here she is after I retouched her. 
I deeply apologize to the beautiful Clare Danes for what I did to her. To accomplish this abberation, I made her hair more blonde, I smoothed and evened out her skin, I lifted her eyebrows, made her eyes bigger and bluer, I lifted her eyes at the sides, made her nose smaller, gave the nose more of a lift and I pumped up her breasts. I could have touched up her roots and done a more subtle job on her hair, but I ran out of time. I hate to admit it, but it was sort of fun to play God, and I am sure I went overboard. However, we have all seen seen many photos which are as extremely perfect as this one. Check out the website photoshopdiasters.blogspot.com which shows overly Photoshopped ads. Some of the work on this site makes mine look positively professional. Here is one of the Photoshop hack jobs they posted:
Obviously they were so busy removing her slight belly flab and perhaps slimming down her silhouette that they didn’t even notice that they had removed her bellybutton. Or perhaps they thought that a belly button was a blemish! While this is an extreme case of photo retouching, ads like this expose how much pressure our daughters are under to be perfect. They see photos of actresses with perfect skin, and models with perfect bodies and feel they can never measure up. How sad that our fashion and tabloid industry spend so many man-hours removing women’s “imperfections”. I wonder if they spend as much time removing men’s imperfections? In my opinion, moles, lines and a little belly jiggle are what make us beautiful in the first place. I earned that belly flab by being pregnant with my kids and I earned those lines worrying about them as they grow up and make mistakes. How is it that physical perfection has become the new norm?
As I write this, my young teenage daughter came in, saw my retouched photos and said, “Cool, can you do this to one of my photos?” Oh God, what have I done?
