Great Writing Conference London GW:

Great Writing:  The International Creative Writing Conference 2016
After 2 days of attending the Great Writing Conference at Imperial College in Londen my head's full of new ideas how to connect creative writers with... creative writers! Wouldn't it be great to combine Fine Art with Writing?

On Nicole Cooley

She put down her glasses

Creating a moment of peace

In her dazzling world of words

Photo Poem by Melanie E. Rijkers © 2016.

Scholarship

In the Netherlands we can't study Creative Writing so it seems. Bummer. I am curious if it would be possible to get a scholarship to study abroad. What I learned from the conference is that all lecturers were very driven to share their thoughts, papers and projects. I wonder, after you get your degree, what's next?

More than once I heard someone say: "Pity I cannot land myself a teaching position in Creative Writing". In the future I would like to see Academies of Art hire inspiring people like these to teach Creative Writing to art students. Writing is changing. Art is changing. Let's collaborate!

On Hyde Park: Face

Staring down

Stuck in place

Tiny feet touching his head

Flying off into space

Photo Poem by Melanie E. Rijkers © 2016.

Photo Poem: a new Short

Nicole Cooley's talk Tiny Texts: Flash Fiction, short poems, one minute plays raised questions like "But what if someone wrote a brilliant piece of 300 words, and the assessment says 2000?" At an Academy of Arts they'd know what to do. Also the digital era is here. Graphic Design, Arts and Writing are all in it together. A photo and a text are only ordinary until an artist puts them together brilliantly.

During Nicole's inspiring talk I wrote 3 pieces of what I call Photo Poetry. Being a visionair, working with Miksang Contemplative Photography and teaching Eyespiration, this is my answer how I'd like to combine the art of photography with the art of creative writing. 

On Hyde Park: Fountain

In the air I fly

Having landed I slide

Blending with family

I watch people walk by

Photo Poem by Melanie E. Rijkers © 2016.

Thank you Nicole, your talk was the last piece of information I needed to accomplish my writing goal. I was also inspired by Daniel Juckes and many more speakers, and will tell you more about Great Writing in my next blog!

#Eyespiration: How to get blue sky in photos

When you are on holiday you want your photos to show the local beauty of the place you're staying at. But sometimes on a sunny day it seems you can't take a photo of the blue sky, the sky turns out pale, white.

How to take photos with blue sky:

- Position of the sun. The most important advice is to make sure to have the sun behind you when you take a photo. The more you are facing the sun, the paler the sky will be

- Contrast. Put e.g. a white or light colored object like a building in the front of the composition. Your camera will automaticly adjust the sky into a darker blue

- Morning or evening light. All colors are more intense at this time of day

- Polarizing filter. With using a polarization filter on a mirror-less or an dslr camera lens, the blue and other colors deepen

- Instagram. Photo editing apps and other retouching software will make colors come out better

If you turn your camera in the direction of the sun, you'll see a change of the colour of the sky. The more you turn towards the sun, the paler the sky. Buildings turn out sallow and grey. Especially in the middle of the day, when the sun's at her highest point, the light is very bright. Try to take photos early morning or later in the day, when the light is softer.

Blue sky: sun in my back, building in front creating more contrast

Blue sky: turning towards the sun the blue gets paler

Blue Sky: opposite of photo 1, the sky is pale, white and buildings grey and dark

We all want to take photos showing the best of our holiday. What's more beautiful than walking through a town and take photos of little, white houses against a dark blue sky? Blue sky is the ultimate holiday image, like a photo of the sea, feet in the sand or a selfie with a cocktail in our hand.

With your smartphone you can always adjust photos in an easy way. There are a lot of apps and even when posting a photo on Facebook or Twitter you can adjust the photo before posting with just one click. My favorite is Instagram. Ofcourse you can always use professional software afterwards, but wanting to retouch all 500 holiday pics might be a bit much.

Polarizing filter

With using a polarization filter on a mirror-less or an dslr camera lens, the blue and other colors deepen. Disadvantage: when bringing more than one lens, you'll need to buy more filters, as often lenses don't have the same diameter. Advantage: all colors look better, e.g. green is greener and especially a blue sky with white clouds will look dramaticly darker, a special effect coming out great with landscape pictures. Another advantage is the reflection in windows will dissapear when you use it, though I do like using this reflection in my photos. 

Backlight

Though sometimes using the sun in the back can create a beautiful photo. Backlight photos, photos taken towards the sun showing mostly shade of the subject, are fun too!

Clouds will enhance the dramatic appearance of blue sky over a landscape

Published in Dutch on Vakantieboulevard.nl 

San Francisco & Yosemite #Instagram

San Francisco by Melanie Rijkers/Artstudio23.com | Blurb

This book is also available as affordable app for iPhone & iPad!