Photographer Profiles

Frozen Beauty

The source photo for this beautiful image by Kathy Beal is from an iceberg she captured off the coast of Greenland in 2012. “Most of my images start with a base photograph, where I shoot for form, color, and texture,” Beal explains. “I then post-process the photograph in Photoshop, using a variety of tools and techniques. The Warp tool is one of my favorite tools, and I’ll warp, layer, flip, duplicate, combine, and resize the layers, using various blend modes to fine-tune the image until it’s done.”

Beal likes this image because it’s almost a straight shot from her camera.

“The ice and its intricate details really shine,” she says. “I love the abstract quality and depth of this original photograph and used minimal post-processing tools to bring this image to its final stage. I have always loved abstract art, and before I picked up the camera again in the early days of digital, I spent a number of years as an abstract painter.”

Recently, Beal has been transforming some of her images into designs for printing on silk, which she makes into scarfs. “With today’s digital technologies, intricate designs can now be printed onto fabrics, using fabric dyes, with results that match a photographic print. I’ve always loved silk and it is very exciting for me to now be able to print my designs onto luxurious fabric and open an entire new market for my art.”

You can see more of her work at www.kathybeal.com, and her scarves at www.kathybealsignature.com.