Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

LightNews

Ollie Fern

@whalefern.bsky.social

1.4K followers 280 following 1.8K posts

cyanotype artist, photographer, painter, and creature espousèd to @nemerevermore.bsky.social. Pike Place handmade artist! photos mine unless otherwise noted. no ai (ugh). if you see a pigeon tell it i said hi. art at https://www.whalefern.com

www.whalefern.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 3

OH YUPPPPP

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 3

the Nuthatch Intimidation Dance is a masterclass in chutzpah. objectively they are just pointy little anger puffs way outmatched by the average woodpecker, but BOY do they sell it. 🪶

white-breasted nuthatch rising up and spreading its wings to become big and scary

white-breasted nuthatch swaying back and forth with its wings spread, terrifying its enemies

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 3

micah referred to the bird feeder as “Ollie enrichment”

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 3

Back east, my mom put up a suet feeder, and the drama was incredible 🪶

a tufted titmouse chases a downy woodpecker off the suet feeder

a white-breasted nuthatch spreads its wings in an intimidating posture at a tufted titmouse, who screams back

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 3

It absolutely does! And your trial prints/misprints count toward the materials cost of the finished prints.

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 3

Anyway, it was a weird, exhausting holiday weekend, and if any of the handful of really nice people who stopped by my table are on bluesky, thank you for buoying my spirits.

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 3

In my case it’s a little like asking a woodblock printmaker how long it took them to make a print, but telling them not to include the time they spent drawing the design or carving the block, only the time spent on that individual print. (Though probably people do ask block printmakers that too.)

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 3

I never know what people are looking for when they ask how long a piece took to make. Some are clearly just curious about the process and want to chat (I’m happy to!), but often it’s asked a little suspiciously, like people want to sniff out whether a piece is really worth what I’m charging.

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 3

people keep asking how long a print took to make, *not counting the photography*, and going forward I think I will simply decline to exclude that from my answer. While I loved spending three hours in a frigid lake with <5 feet of visibility, the print wouldn’t exist without that effort.

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 2

YESSSSSSS

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 2

Thank you!

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 2

(My example prints are of wildlife because that’s most of my photography, but we can work with anything from family photos to landscapes to pet pictures 🐕🐈‍⬛🦜)

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 2

I’m really hoping I get to teach it again! Also, I’m hoping to visit SF sometime in the next couple of years (I have family there)

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 2

Cyanotype is a lovely way of creating something physical and one-of-a-kind from your photographs. We can work with any kind of photos, including cell phone photos. To keep the workshop beginner-friendly, I’ll make everyone’s transparencies ahead of time, then walk you through the process in class.

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 2

Seattle: I’m teaching a photo cyanotype workshop in October! After learning the basics, students will use their own photos to create fine art cyanotypes, and also take home their transparencies for use in future printmaking. The class is beginner-friendly 🦋. www.studiopianonobile.com/shop/the-cya...

cyanotype blue and white print of a flying gull reflected in still water

cyanotype print of a gathering of puffins on a rock in the mist

cyanotype print of a harbor seal surfacing, with a side-eye expression on its face

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Sep 2

okay now I especially want to see one of these magnificent dinosaur muppets in action

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Aug 31

A new piece from my recent freshwater snorkeling adventures! I could only see a few feet in front of my face, and I’m pleased with how the print conveys the eerie flickering light. Photo cyanotype on mulberry paper.

cyanotype (blue and white) print of a school of fish from above, in flickering underwater light

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Aug 31

watched it like “this is not going to go well for the butterfl—WOW”

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Aug 31

Ooh, not long at all for a heron! Seven to ten minutes in full summer afternoon sun!

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Aug 31

I did not know what zucchini could accomplish, left unchecked; incredible

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Aug 31

Thank you ☺️!!!

Reposted by Ollie Fern

EveryHeron 𓅣 @everyheron.bsky.social · Aug 30

As we say... If your Beak is a Spear then your tongue must be an Arrow!

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Aug 30

a four-second emotional journey from "the heron looks so lovely in the peaceful morning light" to "I guess I knew on some level that their tongues must be very long and pointy. but I didn't, like, viscerally understand it until now." 🪶

a great blue heron flying over a still lake with white water lilies

the heron flies closer, and it becomes clear that its beak is open, its tongue poking out

in the morning sun, the heron's long pointy red tongue seems to glow

closeup of the heron's open mouth, showing its long pointy red tongue

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Aug 31

pure poetry

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Aug 31

💙💙💙💙💙

Ollie Fern @whalefern.bsky.social · Aug 30

it wasn’t vocalizing and the weather wasn’t hot (and the bird emerged from somewhere in the shade). just seemed to be a case of tongue for tongue’s sake