Tell us a bit about Nicole Sara the artist. Did you study art? Do you work in art? What draws you to the art world?
To start with, thank you very much, Robbie, for this lovely and kind invitation for an interview. It is wonderful when a fellow artist and blogger notices and enjoys my work.
I am a self-taught photographer and digital artist inspired by the beauty of the natural world but not only. My photography focuses on the way light, colors and texture or even patterns combine to create what we sometimes call a magical moment, or that serene stillness and beauty, that we often try to capture in our photographs. That is what has drawn me to the art world, and especially photography, ever since my very first photos taken with my Olympus film camera back in the 1990’s.
I have always been fascinated by the world of art, even since being still in school. I remember I used to take the thick volumes of A General History of Art (Istoria Artei) by Mikhail Alpatov from our family’s bookcase and keep browsing for hours, looking at the paintings and sculptures, taking notes… trying to classify and learn about art and artists according to currents, movements and trends.
Also, creating has always been an integral part of my way of escaping routine later on, as I have always felt art is about the good and the beautiful that we all carry inside, about hope and ultimately the joy of life.
Tell us a bit about the technical aspects of your digital artworks. What programme/s do you use? How does one go about creating digital artworks?
I have two Nikon cameras and 3 lenses which I use interchangeably. My favorite lens is the Tamron macro lens (90mm f/2.8), which takes incredibly soft photos with a creamy bokeh, a beautifully hazy background. Still, I never forget that I started with a small compact Kodak and then a Canon, the latter being a point-and-shoot family camera but which took wonderful pictures. We bought the Canon in 2014, after booking a holiday on Santorini that summer, and that was in fact the camera that made me fall in love with photography for good. It also determined me to create my first blog in 2015, to start sharing my photos, and then to brace myself and begin learning the technicalities behind it too, a bit later in the spring of 2016.
When I first took up learning photography, I looked for information and guidance on photo sites, and photography bloggers. I then installed programs on my pc to edit some of my photos, and have used a variety of programs ever since, except Photoshop. One of the best ones, and which I enjoyed a lot was DxO Photo Lab editing software, and later the Nik Collection from DxO. I also installed Aurora HDR on my laptop but used it less often. For the moment I tend to rely more on Capture NX-D image processing software from Nikon, as I only do minor adjustments to my photos.
I also love mixing media, digitally enhancing some of my images as well as creating computer-generated images, such as illustrations or drawings to use in my designs. I am also fascinated by the way cutting-edge technology and artistry can be wonderfully combined. Creating artistic images requires a blend of creativity, carefully created prompts, technical understanding, and a sense of artistic direction… a personal style. I also love the flexibility digital platforms offer these days, such as Redbubble or Fine Art America.
You have a passion for nature. What draws you to creating art about nature? What are your favourite pieces?
I do have a passion for nature, as in my poetry writing as well, and I especially enjoy floral photography. However, a lovely sky at sunset or sunrise, a bird, bee or butterfly… an elegant building or a street lined up with trees, foamy sea waves… or any other lovely thing or detail out there, no matter the season either, can be equally wonderful subjects which I try to take photos of as often as I can.
What fascinates me though is close up and macro photography. It feels like magic, to be able to zoom in on a flower petal or a beautiful bug, a delicate blade of grass… to enter their world, their realm, as if paying them a visit for a fascinating fraction of a second, immortalizing that scene, and then being able to admire it in that unrepeatable frame.
Are you influenced by any specific artists? Who is your favourite artist and why?
I love the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, but I also like Expressionist art, Cubism and Pop Art. As for photography, I have always been aware of the work of famous photographers such as Steve McCurry or Annie Leibovitz. Still, almost 10 years ago when I started, I remember that I followed a couple of blogs by experienced photographers, reading their posts regularly, looking for useful information and suggestions, easy to understand for beginners such as myself then.
Later on I also began checking Ken Rockwell’s site of Camera and Lens Reviews in order to compare different types of photo equipment and tips on how to use a DSRL camera. I am still learning a lot, or better said still teaching myself ways and techniques to achieve beautiful images, as much as it is possible for non-professionals, only if time wasn’t so limited these days.
Can you tell us a bit about how you use light and shadows in your work?
I love two effects that light creates, or that can be created using light. One is the dappled light effect, when light is splendidly filtered through a nice canopy of tree leaves, for instance, and the lighting feels soft, warm and cozy as a result. The other is the bokeh effect, that blurry quality of the out-of-focus areas in a photo. A beautiful bokeh can be created by using a shallow depth of field, quite easy to achieve with a fast lens (with a wide aperture, a low f-number like f/2.8) or photographing the subject from a distance, with light sources in the background (Christmas tree lights, for instance), which will create those soft orbs of light or “light sprites”, as I like calling them.
Thank you for this wonderful occasion, Robbie, happy to take part today and wishing you and your readers all the best! I will leave you with my bio and social links, in case your readers would like to follow up, and 5 images that are most liked on Fine Art America… but first with some beautiful thoughts from Helena Bonham Carter, which I can say have definitely influenced my way of being and creating,
“I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art.” – Helena Bonham Carter
Find Nicole Sara
Blog: https://starrysteps.wordpress.com/
Bilingual blog: https://doarnicol.wordpress.com/
Fine Art America: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/nicole-sara
Pixels: https://nicole-sara.pixels.com/
Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/starrystepsshop
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicoles.steps/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/NicoleSaraArt/
About Nicole Sara
I am a bilingual poet and photographer from Romania, with a Master’s Degree in Philology and American Studies. I find inspiration in the beauty and intelligence of everything around for my poetry and photography. I began by publishing my photos and writing poems in Romanian on my blog in 2015, and in 2016 I also started pairing the original poems with their translation into English. «Rhyming Dreams», my debut collection of poems accompanied by my nature photos, was self-published on Amazon in 2024, and I have recently published my second collection, “The Blues and the Beautiful”. My work also appears in the literary magazine SpillWords Press, in “Tranquility: An Anthology of Haiku” published by Literary Revelations and both my poems and photos are shared monthly on the Masticadores platforms. I am a nature enthusiast, loving to explore the outdoors and capture images to share on my blogs and photography sites, such as Gurushots, Photocrowd or Pixabay. You can connect with me on WordPress, on Fine Art America or find me in my stores on Etsy.
LatinosUSA 
Replica a Tandy (Lavender and Lime) Cancelar la respuesta