I was so nervous about giving my very first photography master class in the Miami Beach Botanical Garden a couple of weeks ago, but it went very well. The garden received very good feedback and asked me to schedule another class. It will be the same class but given in the evening, after the regular opening hours so we can enjoy the beautiful soft light for the photo practice.

   The class will include an overview of basic principles of photography and a Q&A session, as well as a photo critique. We will walk the Garden at this magical time of day practicing the principles just learned. Bring your camera or cell phone, questions, and desire to take your photography to the next level. A glass of wine and a snack will be included.

Target Audience: Beginner photographer

Objectives:
– Provide an overview of basic principles of photography
– Guide you through making a photograph, not just taking one
– Get inspired to learn more about photography
 

To register, please click this LINK to go to the Miami Beach Botanical Garden Website.

Be well, my friends, and stay safe! 💙
 

1. Daily themed photo project that lasted close to 6 months and eventually turned into an exhibit "Daily Voices: a Photographic Introspective" and earned several press publications. More information about this project can be found here. 

2. Coloring books based on my photographs.  They include my photos, coloring pages, and fun facts about the subjects of the photographs. Over the course of the year I made three books - Little Lizard Love, Being a Butterfly, and Bugs and Beyond. They are available on Amazon and have been doing pretty well. 

3. International Online Art Collective was not my initial idea, but I have become one of the creators and founding members and remain very active in this project. It's a group of artists from around the world, diverse in their backgrounds and art forms, who came together united by desire to inspire, provoke and heal using their art. More about the IOAC can be found here. 

Inspired by my accomplishments of the last year, I have set many creative goals for this year. 

Cheers to many more achievements in 2021!! 

http://www.amplifiedartnetwork.com/studio-conversations-inna-malostovker/

What is your work about?

I am a nature and fine art photographer and digital photo artist. I capture landscapes and wildlife images from Brazil to Singapore and anywhere in between. I also create macro and abstract compositions and enjoy sharing the beauty of the world with others.

Do you have a studio routine, strategy or ritual that helps you get in the creative zone?

No, I don’t have a routine. Beauty is everywhere and I always feel motivated to create more images.

How has the pandemic affected your art practice?

In the beginning of April, a stay at home order was issued in Miami. Since I couldn’t document the beauty outside, I started a daily photo project to create the beauty inside. Every week, I give a list of themes to a small group of photographers and we do our best capturing the theme and share the images with each other virtually for constructive criticism. We are currently in the fifth month of the project. Also, to avoid excessive procrastination and tv binge-watching, I started writing daily to-do lists. This helped me get organized and stay busy. As shocking and depressing as the pandemic is, it has actually been good for my creativity, and I’ve been able to produce plenty of images I am proud of.

What is your greatest reward, memory, accomplishment or proud moment as an artist?

Over the last ten years I have received numerous awards and recognitions for my photography. The one that I treasure the most happened last year, when an editor from Outdoor Photographer, a prestigious photography magazine, asked me to write a behind the scenes article about one of my images. The article occupied a two page spread of the December issue.

What is one thing you MUST have in your studio?

My two cats. They vigorously “assist” me with setting up every composition.

What would you tell your future self about being an artist right now?

Everybody has a cellphone camera nowadays and can take pictures. There are also a lot of very good photographers. It is very difficult to stand out in the crowd. I am trying to create images that are artistic, unique, and bring joy and color to others.

What is the best art career advice you’ve ever received?

Not everybody is going to like all art. Believe in yourself and keep creating.

The exhibit is a selection of artwork from a daily photo challenge undertaken by four Miami photographers during the time of quarantine - Inna Malostovker. Cilia Rodriguez, Marta Cubillas, and Pilar Geada. Please see the tab Daily Voices of this website.

The artwork is on display in the I&M Gallery of the Futurama building located in the heart of the historic Little Havana in Miami from November 1st till December 30th. 1637 SW 8th Street, Miami, Fl.

The main objective of the exhibit is to share our joy and optimism with the world and to show the artistic side of isolation.

More than just a coloring book, Being a Butterfly is a fun and educational book for young nature lovers that introduces children to the wonderful world of butterflies.

The Being a Butterfly book includes:

• Professional photographs of butterflies taken in parks and gardens
• Coloring pages created based on the photographs
• Fun butterfly fact on every page
• Large images easy to color
• Single-sided coloring page placement to avoid bleed through

If you know a child that loves butterflies and wants to learn more about them while having fun, order your copy today.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08C8Z8ND9
 

This is a link to Amazon.com. It is also available on Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, JP, and CA.

Stay tuned! I am working on the next book already.

The concept is simple - artists post to Instagram artwork they are willing to sell for under $200. When an artist reaches $1000 in sales, she pledges to buy $200 worth of art from someone else.

I have been participating in the pledge on Instagram and sold several photographs. I decided to expand my pledge to my website.

Here is the special deal for the pledge until September 30th: $25 for 8x10" (20x25cm) print with mat or 11x14" (28x35cm) not matted. Free shipping in the US. International - I'll have to check on pricing. This applies to any non-square images.

Message me if interested in this or any other print sizes.

More than just a coloring book, Little Lizard Love is a fun and educational book for young nature lovers that introduces children to the wonderful world of lizards.

The Little Lizard Love book includes:

• Professional photographs of lizards taken in a natural environment
• Coloring pages created based on the photographs
• Fun lizard fact on every page
• Large images easy to color
• Single-sided coloring page placement to avoid bleed through

If you know a child that loves lizards and wants to learn more about them while having fun, order your copy today.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089CS58HC
 

This is a link to Amazon.com. It is also available on Amazon UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, JP, and CA.

Proudly sharing the lounge of the International Online Art Collective of which I am a member of!

The International Online Art Collective brings inspiring art to art lovers worldwide. IOAC is a showcase of art from around the world: paintings, graphics, photography, mixed media, drawings, sculptures – all from the beautiful to the thought-provoking.

Please check the Facebook page to see the artwork created by the participating members, including, of course, Yours Truly!

https://www.facebook.com/IntOnlineArt
 

Here it is for those of you who do not have the print issue of the magazine.

Bismarck, North Dakota, USAWinter scenery in North Dakota.

I live in Miami, FL because it is as far away from sub-zero temperatures as I can get without leaving the country. So when work took me to Bismarck a few winters ago, the fact that North Dakota tops the list of coldest states in the US had not escaped me. It’s not that I hate the cold; the problem is that it only ever triggers an irresistible desire to curl up in bed and hug the covers all day. Add to that a forecast of cloudy conditions for the duration of my stay, and it didn’t look like I would be taking too many photographs on my trip.

But the lure of fabulous fresh snow proved harder to ignore than my aversion to its side-effects. Foregoing my preferred photography hours of sunrise and sunset, I ventured out in the middle of the afternoon in temperatures that, to a Miamian, felt like a hundred below (likely not quite that far below freezing). I went to the Sertoma Park—also known as Riverside—a large municipal park along the Missouri River, home to an amusement park, the Dakota Zoo, the Lewis and Clark riverboat, walking trails, picnic shelters and a number of other recreational activities. Normally filled with visitors, the parking lot was deserted with the exception of a lone polar explorer walking his dog. Surrounded by towering snow piles and with my Nikon D7000 and my go-to lens for travel, the Tamron 18-270, at the ready, I set off down the Riverfront Trail.

Everything around me was bland and white: the ground, the trees, even the sky. But the frost on the tree branches was gorgeous; to emphasize it, I decided to fill the frame with nothing but trees. There was not a lot of variability in my subject, so I found a composition that showed the most perspective and depth and set my focus to about a third of the way into the scene. This technique works well when the scene as a whole is the subject. I set the aperture to f/11 to allow for good depth of field for the first few layers of trees with some blurriness toward the background. Shutter speed was set to 1/160 of a second to avoid worrying about any camera shake while handholding. ISO of 200 eliminated noise in a crop-sensor camera.

Usually, when I’m out shooting, cold or heat bother me much less, but it didn’t take long before I started to lose sensation in my fingers and toes. My face felt like it had been commandeered by Madame Tussauds, and I could feel myself working my way up to one of those borderline panic attacks warm-weather people suffer when they become convinced that frostbite and lost limbs are the only possible outcome of their winter wonderland hubris.

Satisfied I had already scraped together more shots than I had dared hope for, I fled to my car and retreated to the nearest purveyor of warm beverages. I later processed my RAW file as HDR to bring out more contrast and then added a low opacity layer of vertical blur to smooth out the trees and emphasize the frost-covered branches.

There is even an article that was written about it (in Spanish) in local press:

https://telocuentonews.com/site/una-exposicion-virtual-de-color/
 

Lots of people like rainbows:

Kids make wishes on them,

artists paint them,

dreamers chase them.

It features in one of my favorite songs

and just looks pretty.

I hope you like it too.

A series of 14 abstract images sized 8×12″, two for each color of the rainbow will be released this Friday, November 29th. The series celebrates the emotions we experience when we see a rainbow as it is often a metaphor for hope, new beginning, and acceptance.

The photographs look great individually or as a set and would add a beautiful splash of color to anybody’s life.
 

Please see the press release about this: http://www.amplifiedartnetwork.com/rainbows-from-the-lens-of-photographer-inna-malostovker/

Here is the link and the article:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/family-trips/everglades-florida/

Spindly cypresses rise from a swamp in Everglades National Park, home to many plants and animals found nowhere else.

PHOTOGRAPH BY INNA MALOSTOVKER, YOUR SHOT

TRAVEL

Exploring the Everglades

See trip details for Everglades National Park, one of 30 suggested family trips from National Geographic.

Occupying an area of land larger than the state of Delaware, the Everglades National Park was dedicated in 1947 to protect the landscape, plants, and animals in the area. The Everglades is home to over a dozen endangered species, including the Florida panther. The park provides visitors with the opportunities to view wildlife, fish, bird watch, canoe, and hike. If you’d like to spend your days and nights out on the water, rent a houseboat from the Flamingo Marina and navigate the Everglades on your own.

Rent bikes and take the Shark Valley Loop. This flat, easy trail provides your best chance of seeing alligators; if you prefer to walk, you can view the reptiles from the Anhinga Trail. For a more up-close-and-personal experience with the park’s water wildlife, take a canoeing or kayaking trip along some of the 99 miles (159 kilometers) of marked waterways between Everglades City and Flamingo.

For fish sandwiches and key lime pie, head to the Rod and Gun Club in Everglades City. Request a seat on the screened-in patio and watch the boats plying the Barron River.

For information about rentals from the Flamingo Marina, call 1 239 695 3101.

The Gulf Coast Visitor Center in Everglades City (1 239 695 3311) also offers boat tours and canoe rentals.

Here is an excerpt from the gallery announcement:

"Please mark your calendar to stop into GALERIA ADELMO on Friday night, April 26 for a marvelous exhibition of fine art photography. Inna Malostovker solo show, Visual Ruminations, will awaken and arouse you with incredible images."

Recently, I decided to move pass social media only exposure and joined the ranks of artists exhibiting in galleries. Of course, there is no guarantee that my work will be "discovered" this way, but with no exposure, there is a definite guarantee it won't happen. Of course, printing and framing photographs takes time and money, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

These are local collective exhibits I have participated in (the last two are still being shown).

Flamingo Gardens selected the following photos:

Broward College currently has these images from Cuba on display:

La Mano Hispana exhibit has the photo named "Prayer to Maximon":

I am now working on a solo exhibit. Will keep you posted.

- $5 one card of 5 for $20

You can get them at my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LittleLizardLove

Or drop me a note here, on my contact page.

    Focal length 340mm, f/10, 1/320sec, ISO 400                                          Focal length 190mm, f/13, 1/160sec, ISO 400

    Focal length 450mm, f/8, 1/640sec, ISO 400                                              Focal length 320mm, f/8, 1/500sec, ISO 400

     Focal length 500mm, f/8, 1/250sec, ISO 400                                               Focal length 420mm, f/8, 1/1000sec, ISO 400

We are asking for donations to help make this project happen. Every donor will get free copies of the book.

https://www.gofundme.com/ILoveHavanaPhotoBook

I could see how much the cats and dogs I saw in Cuba wanted human attention. Having two cats at home, it hit me hard. 

Several of the dogs I saw wore collars with tags on them. I was very happy to realize, those dogs were actually taken care of. Some state institutions are giving dogs these tags, medical care and shelter. This tag says: "My name is Cortico. I am a pet of the Plaza de Armas. I've been neutered. Don't hurt me." 

I created a series of photographs "pets in the city" to show the beauty of these animals.  This is only a small part of the series.

Here is the link to the gallery: http://www.exhibitionswithoutwalls.com/strong-powerful-finalist-exhibition/

Sheikh Zayed Mosque, Abu Dhabi, UAEColumns in the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Pantanal, BrazilSunset on the river in Pantanal, Brazil

https://issuu.com/thephotoartisticlife/docs/issue18-final/76

We waited around till it got dark enough for the street lights to be turned on, got out the tripods, and had fun photographing the lights. Small aperture (f/18, f/22) allowed for long shutter speeds to capture the car light trails and created the starburst effect.

Last year in their contest, one of my photos (Bridge over the Mississippi River) was selected by the judges as a finalist for the Viewer's Choice Award and another photo of the Bayview Bridge won the first place in the Small Town Bridges category.  These photographs were included in the 2016 calendar.

Bayview bridge, Quincy, IllinoisBayview bridge over the Mississippi River in Quincy, IL