Beautiful, colourful and atmospheric. If you love detailed images of nature: flowers, insects, seasonal flora and fauna, then take a look at Kathryn Stone’s elegant photography.
Kathryn also creates stunning digital art. Her ‘Four Season’ series of tree images are lushly coloured with warm reds and greens. Pink leaves blowing on deeply toned backgrounds.
‘Little Hummingbird’ has beautiful brushstrokes, colour, and light that creates a unique, ethereal quality to the artwork.
You can view and purchase Kathryn’s artwork on her website: www.stonecreekarts.com
Kathryn is also on Twitter
and Facebook
Please talk a bit about where you are from and where you live now….
I’m from Utah, USA. And I still live here : ) I grew up in Salt Lake City, but now I live in a cute little town that’s sandwiched in between the mountains and the great salt lake.
How did you discover your love for photography?
When I was little there was one whole wall in our playroom dedicated to books. They weren’t all children’s books either. Most were educational; encyclopedias, Time-Life books, and National Geographic magazines. Even before I learned to read, I would spend many hours poring through those books. The pictures fascinated me. I wanted to be able to do that myself. When I was eleven (way back in the 80’s), I got my first camera. It was awesome! It was the kind that had the flashbulbs that would blow out every time you took a picture. So I had to buy film and flashes : ) But I loved it! From there, things just kept going forward.
What artistic/photographic education have you had?
Actually, I’m pretty much completely self- taught. I took as many art classes as I could while in high school. In college, I studied geology. I know that seems weird, but I really love the earth. I loved learning everything I could about it. And that’s actually helped me quite a bit in photography. Now I know what to look for and I know better what I ‘m looking at. : )
What locations do you go to to find subjects to shoot and what is your favourite place for nature?
I’m lucky to have an acre of alfalfa growing in my backyard. That has provided bazillions of insect photography opportunities. Sometimes I’ll even see snakes or the neighborhood cats that come over to eat the voles. Flowers are easy to find. We have a lot of beautiful botanical gardens around here that I can just go walking through all year long. My favorite places are up in the mountains though. I love mountains. I can never get enough of them. : )
When photographing flowers and insects what equipment do you use? (i.e. lenses/camera & other equipment)
I’ve found that for little things like insects it’s best to use my longest lens. My camera is a Canon 70D. My longest lens is 300mm. I rarely ever use a tripod. I came up with my own stabilizer instead. I sewed up a piece of felt into a bag shape, filled it mostly with rice and then sewed it closed. I made a bunch of them in different sizes and shapes. They hold the camera really still and I can move the camera around on it with ease. The best part is that if I want to take a picture from my car window, I just pop my rice bag on the window and it holds my camera beautifully. No wiggling, yay!
Where do your ideas come from for your digital paintings?
I always get ideas from my photographs or from something I’ve seen. I usually just take one of my pictures and just start playing around with it. Eventually, the ideas start to flow. Sometimes they end up looking nothing like they started. : ) My four seasons pictures were a little different. I knew what I wanted to make before I started. I saw it in my mind. I love watching the seasons change and I wanted to create some pictures that showed that. So those were more challenging since I had to start from scratch. But I loved the results. : )
How do you create a digital painting…
That is an interesting question. Every one of them is different. I don’t have a set method. When I find a picture that I want to transform, I start by deciding if it should be a painting or more of a sketch. Then I do use software to prep the image. After that though, it’s all by hand. I get the stylus and drawing pad and go to work. It’s just like making a painting from scratch. It can take many hours depending on what it is. But it’s so therapeutic. I love it. It relaxes me. : )
Which of your work is your favourite and why?
Wow, that’s a hard question. I have so many that I love for so many different reasons. But I think my very favorite would have to be Spring to Summer from the four seasons. That’s one of my favorite times of the year. I like how bright and cheery it turned out. It makes me smile and reminds me of my childhood.
What goals and/or plans do you have for your work?
Eventually, I’d love to be able to share it with everyone all over the world. I try to create images that make people smile and feel happy. When people are feeling good on the inside, they’ll do good on the outside. The world can never have enough of that. : )
Kathryn Stone