Happy New Year!

From all of us at Mighty Imaging, thank you for your business in 2008! We would like to extend our best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous New Year. We look forward to fulfilling your printing needs in 2009.

Timm Chapman exhibit at Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Boyce Thompson Arboretum is a 32 acre oasis located due East of Phoenix in Superior, Arizona. Their goal is to instill an appreciation for plants through research, conservation, and education. They also have an active art program in their visitor center. Each month they feature the work of a new artist. In January, it will be the photography of Timm Chapman.

Timm's polar bear images entitled Lords of the Arctic will be on display the entire month of January. His shots are gorgeous, and also thought provoking. They highlight the beauty of these majestic creatures, and also their struggle for survival in a shrinking environment. Timm generously donates a portion of each sale from this collection to Polar Bears International.

Timm will also be leading a 3 hour 'texture walk' at the arboretum on January 17th. He will be talking about photography techniques and offering tips on how to improve composition and utilize the natural textures of desert plant life. Contact Boyce Thompson Arboretum if you wish to attend.

This month marks the first official start of Winter -- how appropriate that images of polar bears and stark landscapes will grace the walls of the visitor center gallery at Boyce Thompson Arboretum during January. Pinal County resident and professional photographer Timm Chapman will be featured with a solo exhibition, and he'll also teach a class January 17 for a dozen pre-registered students.

"The Arboretum show will feature a variety of my images including shots from the Lords of the Arctic series which captures the great Polar Bear on the tundra of Northern Canada," said Chapman, whose photography manages to encompass dramatic landscapes -- and also intimate spaces.

Happy holidays!

No matter what you celebrate, this time of year is a chance to reflect and appreciate the good things in life. From all of us at Mighty Imaging we wish you a happy, healthy, and safe holiday!

If you are in need of something to do over the weekend, Arizona Central has a listing of holiday light displays through out the Valley. Make sure to bring your camera!

Tony Blei featured in Southwest Graphics Magazine

We have known for some time that Tony Blei is an amazing photographer. Tony was one of the first artists in our Shop for Art gallery. We were happy to see that in the Winter 2008 addition of Southwest Graphics Magazine, they gave Tony the chance to talk about his passion for photography and some of the reasons behind his success. Tony has had a extensive career shooting a variety of subjects, including six U.S. presidents.

Southwest Graphics does not publish their magazine on their website. Excerpts of the article are available here.

High on Blei

Tony Blei of Tony Blei Photography has been in business for three years, but he's actually been photographing people for more than 20. Tony previously was a photojournalist, and he says that experience helped to shape his creativity.

"There's a beauty to photojournalism that often gets missed. The beauty is that you have a steady stream of people to photograph, but very little time to plan. It requires that you think on your feet and be creative," Tony says. "Photojournalists are incredibly creative people who have to solve huge problems on a moment's notice - with no budget."

..."I'll run through walls for my clients. I do whatever it takes to get them what they need. Period." Tony says, "I see my photography as an investment for my clients. The pictures they're hiring me to produce will be used to attract business or sell their products. They deserve a high return on their investment."

When he was a young photographer, Tony photographed an author. "I don't remember his name, but I remember the lesson he taught me: Unless you're at the J.C. Penny Portrait Studio, nobody wants their picture to look like everyone else's. I ended up putting a computer keyboard in the author's hands and posed him as if he were a rock star playing lead guitar. It was great! We each ended up with a picture we loved, and I ended up with a lesson that served me well for more than 20 years."

Gus Koernig's art added to Mighty Imaging

Gus Koernig started out his career working in front of a camera as a TV journalist. He now enjoys his time behind a camera as a photographer. He has some beautiful images of the West as well as from his journeys around the globe. All of which are now available in his gallery as part of our Shop for Art program. We are pleased to be able to offer Gus' prints to the collection.

Living in the western United States I am always surrounded by breathtaking images, just waiting to be photographed. I also have the opportunity to travel and take pictures in places I never dreamed I would visit. I spent several weeks in Australia, photographing the big cities and small towns, the seashores and the rainforests that are brimming with some of the most awe-inspiring images I have ever seen.

I was raised in a very big city and have lived in some very small, remote rural towns. These experiences give me a deep appreciation for the variety the world offers and my photographs reflect that variety. My galleries are filled with pictures of sweeping vistas of unspoiled wide-open spaces, as well as close-up photos of nature's most delicate handiwork. You'll find images taken in some of the world's great cities, along with photographs that capture the uniqueness of tiny towns in out-of-the-way places, and pictures of wide spots in the road where abandoned buildings silently hint at their history.

Add a little colour to your design

Colour Lovers is a site dedicated to color and its use in design, marketing trends, and art. They have over 160,000 users who post color palettes dissected and extracted from such subjects as crayons, national brand logos, and even fall leaves. They watch market trends of popular color usage in logo, web design, fashion, you name it. They even have a post that shows a side by side comparison of what a color blind person sees next to the original artwork.

Users post patterns and palettes inspired by vintage fabric, masterpieces by famous artists, or just a season of the year. Each provides the RGB number equivalent to be able to easily utilize it yourself. Many of the patterns available for download could be a great start in designing your own personal digital fabric or wallpaper.

It is a wealth of information and inspiration for any designer. Likewise, people in the marketing and advertising industry can learn what colors have been successful for other big name companies when developing their campaign or brand. A great site, worth spending some time exploring.

Vegetable art by Ju Duoqi

Ju Duoqi is a Chinese artist who uses vegetables as her models to recreate recognizable masterpieces by artists like Van Gogh, Picasso, and Warhol. She uses digital photography, with a little help from Photoshop, to recreate each scene. Her images are printed large to allow the viewer to examine the amazing effort and detail put in to each recreation.

Ju can be seen here with her work "Vincent Van Gogh Made of Leek". Her show entitled "The Vegetable Museum" is on exhibition at Paris-Beijing Photo Gallery II in Beijing until January of 2009. To see more of Duoqi's exhibit, take a look at this slide show.

Do you want peas with your Picasso? -Celine Chen

Her works, the Vegetable museum series, are on show at the Paris Beijing Photo Gallery in the 798 art district from November 23, 2008 until January 24, 2009.

Mixing everyday vegetables such as tofu, cabbage, ginger, lotus roots, coriander and sweet potato, and adding a dash of digital manipulation, Ju presents a puzzling series of vegetable compositions representing world famous paintings like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper by Leonard Da Vinci, The Dream by Pablo Picasso and Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol.

"In the summer of 2006, I bought a few kilograms of peas, and sat there quietly for two days peeling them, before stringing them on a wire and turning them into a skirt, a top, a headdress and a magic wand. I used a remote control to take a photo of myself in them, and named it Pea Beauty Pageant. That was my first work of vegetable art," Ju Duoqi said, recalling her first vegetable composition.

She began to find vegetables, normally associated with household drudgery, more and more interesting. The different types, shapes and colors of the vegetables, with a bit of rearranging, can make for a rich source of imagery. Fresh, withered, rotting, dried, pickled, boiled, fried, they all come out different.

Then she realized that as a photographer, she no longer needed models – she arranged her legumes and took photos of them. "I have found a way of life for women who love the home," Ju said, explaining the theme of her works. Anne Cooper Chen, an American visitor, commented, "These carry a great sense of humor."

Phoenix Art Museum showcases large photographs

The Phoenix Art Museum recently add Sara Cochran as their new modern art curator. As one of her first tasks in the position, the museum reinvented the contemporary galleries in the Katz Wing. One room of the five part installation is a gallery featuring wall sized photographs. Including this image "Untitled (House on the Road)" by Gregory Crewdson. It is exciting to see the museum recognize the power of these large scale photographs and introduce more of them to the collection.

To learn more about Crewdson's work, read this previous post.

Art museum galleries reinstalled - Richard Nilsen

The Phoenix Art Museum has reinstalled its contemporary galleries in the first-floor Katz Wing with a series of "mini-shows."

The large paintings and photographs from the museum's collection, with some loans from some local collectors make this 5-part installation a must-see.

Third gallery features monumental photographs. Unlike the snapshots you are used to, these photos are wall-sized. German artist Thomas Struth is the king of this genre. This is his "Pergamon Museum, Berlin" from 2001. Notice how in the gallery it takes up a good chunk of wall. These giant photos are something of a current fad.

Another giant photo is Candida Hofer's "Palacio Nacional de Ajuda Lisboa VII" from 2005. The genre favors images of large public spaces and incredibly sharp detail, so your eye can wander through them, fixing on this or that.

Another large photo is Gregory Crewdson's "Untitled (House on the Road)" from 2002. Although it is a photo, the subject is oddly mysterious and unreal. What is that house doing on that street?

Tim Lanterman goes to the dogs

They say never work with children or animals. Tim Lanterman decided to buck the system and ignore conventional wisdom. I would have to say he did an excellent job of proving them all wrong. Tim's latest exhibit aptly entitled Woof is all about dogs. Tim did an amazing job capturing the individual personalities of over 20 dogs he photographed for his series.

Whether you are an dog lover or just a lover of fine art photography, then you should be at the After Hours Gallery this Friday December 5th. The show starts at 7 PM and is part of the First Friday Art Walk in downtown Phoenix.