Getting in gear!



"Sand dollars and sand swirls study" by Hilary J England, oil on canvas panel, 8" x 11"



I am getting geared up to go live with my http://www.indiegogo.com/ campaign to fundraise for the Florence Biennale.  It was hard work, and there is still alot of hard work that needs to be done, but I am up to it. 

First and foremost, was making a video under a deadline.  Making a video was like trying to take a crash course in Chinese...certainly was not an easy thing to do!  Shooting the footage was easy enough, but when I got it into Photoshop to edit it--what a nightmare!  I had never used the Photoshop Premier Elements before (their video editing software), and it is NOT user friendly for a novice.  I was literally ready to rip my hair out of my head by the end of the sixth hour!

As time wore on, and other tasks started to press on me, I had no choice but to abandon the Photoshop in search for a more basic program that didn't require a Master's to operate.  I settled on good ole Window's media player, but, to add to my frustration, the video footage I shot was in Quicktime, and was incompatible with the Window's program.  At this point, I put up my white flag, and scrapped the whole thing...I had to make this deadline, and had to do it with some degree of sanity and at least a cohesive video.

I decided to go with a good old, albeit it somewhat simple way of communicating the video....slideshow format of the work, interspersed with on scene photography, background tracks, and viola:  the video was done in about an hour and a half.  Whew! 

So, when Indiegogo goes live, I will post the link!  I am excited to work on this project, and look forward to the positive end result of it...

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my study of sand dollars...I've got the beach studies out to keep up the warm vibes!  Maybe Spring will come early after all.