I’m finally back in the Kimberley… warm, dry, and totally inspired!

I don’t even know where to start with describing the wonderful time I had in Tasmania… I guess I’ll start by saying a MASSIVE “Thank you!!!” to Mark and Claire Walsh (aka Tinnieopener and ClaireBear) for organising the most fantastic week, and for whatever secret whispers they had with the Fagus to ensure that we were there at EXACTLY the right time!! (Their secret whispers didn’t work so well with the weather, unfortunately… but we’ll forgive them for that!!)

Basically, Bubblers from all over Australia journeyed to Cradle Mountain in Tasmania to enjoy each others’ company, share ideas, discuss photography (and RB) and take photos of this amazing area. Spec…

I’m currently in Tasmania for the commencement of the RedBubble meet-up at Cradle Mountain, so this is a very brief message to say hi and apologise in advance that I won’t be online much for the next week.

Last week, my mum and I had a delightful time traipsing around the North-West Coast with Murph (ie. David Murphy) who is an absolute Master of seascape photography… His work is fantastic and his gallery is amazing. We were joined on the last evening by Garth Smith – and again, his shots made me realise that there really is an art to coastal photography… I picked up a lot of tips and tricks from these two fellas, and now I’m itching to buy an ND Grad filter set for my Zeiss 21mm. The cokin set is just too narrow!

I arrived at Cradle Mountain on Thursda…

MY WORK HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR SoJie 20!

Cable Beach Cloudscape by Mieke Boynton

   Join me at the Juried Invitational Exhibition…
 

I am very excited to have my art selected, from over 73000 works of art, to exhibit in SoJie 20. SoJie 20 takes its name from the first letters of Solo’s Juried Invitational Exhibition. This month is only the 20th one, ever, and 91 other artists, besides myself, are represented.

Winners of the invitational will be announced on April 26th, when a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place will be awarded in three categories: digital art, photography, and traditional art.

Non members, as well as members, ARE welcome to view all of the work nominated. So I hope that you will click the show banner, above, and follow the link to view my fell…

In 27 sleeps, I get on a plane to Tassie for the very exciting Fagus Week Workshop near Cradle Mountain. I have been slowly getting myself organised… shopping online for thermals (none for sale up here!!!), toying with the idea of buying a new lens (no one seems to have it in stock though), daydreaming about the awesome scenery I’m going to see, and, of course, getting very excited about meeting fellow Bubblers whose work I have been admiring since I first joined this website in 2009!!

On Tuesday evening, I bumped into a friend of mine down at the beach. She was running… I had my camera in hand. We both agreed that we should probably occasionally do what the other was doing. So on Wednesday evening, I left the camera at home and headed to the beach with Banjo for a jog.

I know it’s really lame that I’m excited … BUT to see RB on my computer screen at home is AWESOME!!!

I have not had connection to RB from home since September last year.

From being a true RB addict and being online almost every waking moment, to then only having RB at work, to then not being able to access RB at all made me grumpy and miserable… and I suffered feelings of

1. anxiety (that I couldn’t moderate for my groups… and that I was missing out!),
2. disconnection (because so many of you are my friends… and some of you who I’ve never met have become familiar enough to call friends… and then you were gone!!),
3. annoyance (that RB couldn’t/wouldn’t fix the issue with their host server and that some of my customers were/are having

I’m so so so so very excited (yes, this included happy dancing in the kitchen with a glass of white wine in hand) with my International Loupe Awards results this year. I went a bit overboard with entries this year… but hey, I live in the middle of nowhere and can’t spend money on movies/clothes/books/music so I figured I might as well spend it on Competition Entry Fees!!

Anyway…

For the first time, I entered the Open Section, and my three entries received a Silver and 2 Bronze awards! (All images are clickable…)

Final Score: 86 (76 / 84 / 93 / 83 / 95)

Final Score: 79 (82 / 86 / 74 / 88 / 67)

Final Score: 78 (80 / 80 / 86 / 76 / 70)

And in the Amateur Category, I entered another nine (!!!) and received 4 Silvers and 5 Bronze Awards!

Final Score: 86

Final Scor…

I finally decided to “get with the times” and create a Facebook Page for my photography. I’m still learning the ropes (I am getting very confused about where I can put what and whether I’m supposed to reply to comments or whatever…) but according to the guidelines about creating a Page, the thing to do is to get people to “like” or “share” your stuff… so if you feel like having a look and “liking” my page, I’d be much obliged!

https://www.facebook.com/MiekeBoyntonPhotography

I can’t actually access RB from home at present, and haven’t been able to since September. Telstra has identified the cause as a “Bogon Filter” which RB has confirmed… but apparently can’t do anything abou…

I just bmailed a friend [who I won’t name and shame!!] who had asked for help in changing settings in his Collections (so that they will show up as Carousels under his photos).

I thought this might be of benefit to others (and he agreed), so I’m including it here:

How to create and re-order your Collections.

Go to your Profile Page.
Click on your “Portfolio” tab (second tab from the left, under your Avatar).
You’ll see a list of your collections on the left of the page. From here you can re-order the collections (Drag and drop) or add new ones (click “New Collection” at the bottom of the list).

How to Delete a Collection

Go to your Profile Page.
Click on your “Portfolio” tab (second tab from the left, under your Avatar).
Click on the Collection you want to delete. Then…

RB, please advise us how we can opt out of “Sharing”…

Tumblr doesn’t share, it steals! Just like Pinterest, lots of my work is on Tumblr without my permission, without acknowledgement of me as an artist, and without a link to RB. And what if I don’t really want my work on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter? Do I have a choice???

Everything else is awesome, but this is very bad news!

Response from RB:

“If you’d like to prevent people from pinning your item on Pinterest then you can change this setting in your ‘Account Details’ page.

The remainder of the share options aren’t able to be switched off I’m afraid. The ‘share’ button gives people who like and appreciate your work the opportunity to share them via these soci…

I just uploaded a new work, and after it loaded, I was suprised to notice a format I hadn’t seen before… It looks a lot more like a shopfront!

It shows your artwork (with a larger-than-ever-before preview if you click on it!) and then underneath, instead of the description and comments, there is a row of large thumbnail views of your portfolio plus rows of thumbnails showing any collections that your artwork is in. (The thumbnail images show up according to whatever you’ve chosen as the default order, which you can access via your profile page. Hover over the ‘cover’ of each collection and you’ll see a little cog/gear show up. If you want to fully customise the order, choose “Custom”, then go into the collection and drag-and-reorder your ima…