Digital Art Gallery

Moscone Center West, LIVE Zone, 2nd Floor

The Digital Art Gallery features digitally-created art work from artists through our online submission process.  We are pleased to be able to showcase several creative pieces designed using a variety of different tools.  Additionally, below you will find information on our gallery’s 2013 Featured Artist, Craig Abaya.

Can’t wait until the show?  Check out these amazing pieces, all created using Mac products.  This is the type of work you will see at this year’s Digital Art Gallery:

Macworld/iWorld 2013 Digital Art Gallery featured artist:

Craig Abaya

San Francisco artist Craig Abaya is a concert photographer who also films musical artists in performace and conversation. His works have appeared in print, theatrical release, on the web, television and dvd.

He has been merging his passion for music and visual media for decades, taking up photography and filmmaking at age 9 and playing music professionally at age 17. He earned his first television screen credit from footage he shot when he was 12. His concert stills have earned him the admiration of such luminaries as Sir Elton John who displays some of Craig’s work on the walls of his home. In addition, Craig is the recipient of 10 Billboard Magazine Awards in songwriting.

At home in the the Bay Area, Craig serves as the director of Digital Media & Entertainment programs at SF State Extended Learning, as Digital Media Specialist for The Bridge School and video producer/director for Stern Grove Festival.

CRAIG’S JOURNEY FROM ANALOG TO DIGITAL

The Dark Ages

As with anyone who’s been doing media work for some time, Craig started in the analog realm, shooting stills and movies on film and recording audio onto analog tape. But he found the process tedious and time-consuming. “I didn’t have the patience for darkroom work nor the post-production film process. I also hated analog artifacts like tape hiss, film grain and generation loss. In those days, we spent a lot of time on workarounds.”

Transition Period

It took time for professional still cameras to become affordable and for resolutions to become acceptable. Craig continued to shoot with 35mm film but would scan his images into the digital domain. Likewise, he digitized analog video into the Mac and mixed analog recordings to digital audio tape. This “hybrid period” progressed to multitrack digital audio tape, miniDV video tape and compact digital cameras for casual use.

Full Digital

Today, Craig photographs, films and records digitally every step of the way. What was once film or tape are now memory cards and storage devices and, of course, all of his post-production work is done on the Mac. “Digital is not without its own flaws but, for me, it solves a lot of problems and speeds up the process. Essentially, digital is taking the place of analog for most practical use and analog photography, film and recording are moving into the category of fine art. This echoes how photography gradually supplanted painting. There is still a place for oil painted portraits and landscapes but it’s not the medium of choice for everyday purposes.”

CRAIG’S TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Photography

Canon EOS 5D Mark II & 1ds and assorted lenses

Apple Aperture, Adobe Photoshop CS6, Apple Preview (for quick fixes)

Video

Panasonic compact HD cameras, Canon and Panasonic dslrs, GoPros

Apple Final Cut Pro X & 7, Adobe After Effects, QuickTime 10 & 7, Apple Compressor, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, MPEG Streamclip, DVD Studio Pro

Audio

Steinberg Cubase, Apple Logic Pro, Apple Garageband, Izotope RX, Ilio Ivory, Audacity, Apple Soundtrack Pro, Avid Pro Tools

Macs

MacPro, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Mini