Take Photo

I'm pleased to present the next featured artist in the Painterly Mobile Artist Series - Cathrine Halsør. Please visit our Flickr Group to view the work of all the members and if you're inclined to edit mobile images in a painterly way, please join us.

I'm Cathrine Halsør - enjoying a simple life by the sea in Son, Norway. I'm an artist and image-maker.

My interest in photography started when I was 12 and has stayed with me on and off throughout my life, but my passion for iPhoneography started late 2012. I enjoy it immensely, and I hardly use my other cameras anymore. What I love most is the creative freedom. To shoot and edit, whenever and wherever I am. The more I discover in the world of editing, the more joyful the work gets.

I have a BA in Communication Media and a great fascination for words and images. I have a preference for photo editing apps over Photoshop or other Mac-based editors. I find it a much more intuitive way of creating. I've been working freelance making book covers, teaching students in graphic design, making cards from handmade paper. I've sold from galleries and held workshops in paper-making.

I love to transform the ordinary into something poetic. I visualize my thoughts, feelings and memories. I also practice mindfulness, and for me photography is a wonderful way of focusing on details and becoming aware of my surroundings.

I was thrilled when Geri asked me to participate, and I knew right away which image I wanted to use. "My heart is a thousand years old" is a photo of my oldest daughter. We'd just finished a photo shoot for her blog, and she was about to change her clothes when I asked her to sit down for a few minutes. I shot some pictures of her, with her sunglasses still on.

I ran to catch my train home and immediately started my editing on the train. This is how excited I get! I always make numerous edits, running the image through different apps, saving it every time I switch apps. 

I continued editing the next day. The image is taken with an iPhone 4 and edited both on the iPhone and my iPad mini retina, which I bought two months ago. First I used Snapseed, changing it into black and brightened the background behind her. I added texture both in Pic Grunger and in Repix. I also layered one of my own textures in the background here, with Image Blender.

I decided to add a heart to the picture. So, I cut a heart in some red fabric I found and used a white background when shooting. The background was actually one of my own handmade white papers, so it had its own inherent textures. I then edited the heart in Repix and Snapseed and finally layered the two pictures in Image Blender. I always find text to go along with my images. To me, they are incomplete until I find the right words. The quote I chose is: