What the Heck...???

Is a ghost picture? Here you are...

More Playing--Through the Viewfinder (TtV)

I've been meaning to mess around with this process for ages. Now seemed like a good time, while the kids are home and I'm doing more photography.

There's a great Flickr group for this process--you line up a photo through a camera that has a large viewfinder (this is an old Kodak Duaflex)--then take a photo of the image in the viewfinder. It's necessary to construct some kind of a box that blocks out all extraneous light. I didn't use the new camera for this--used my Fuji Finepix E550. All the dust on the lens is part of what's so cool, although I may try to clean it a little bit...

Playing

Joel's best friend spent the night the other night; he just bought a new camera for himself, so was interested in mine. We messed around with the camera for hours, making 'ghost pictures' by making the shutter speed very long, then, the next day, taking pictures of some flowers I brought home from the grocery store.

He emailed me this morning to say he figured out how to shoot in shutter priority mode on his camera, and sent me some pix of his mom as a 'ghost.' Very fun. Katie took the camera out for awhile the other day--if she says okay, I'll put some of her pictures up too.

Love this camera!

And Some More...

More Sketches

Something I've learned while I've been doing all this drawing during the past year: When things look awful, keep going. Not a bad mantra for life, either, eh?

Be Brave--Day 4 and 5 (?)

I'm posting this late, because I haven't been out to the studio for a couple of days--starting today, one of my acts of bravery is going to be coming out to the studio, every day. Whatever demons are out here, I'm sure it's better to face them.

Friday I had my four of my friends over with their kids. They brought stuff to grill and drink, I provided the grill and the pool. We had fun, but the hard thing about having people over is getting ready. I gave the house a good once-over, told the kids that they needed to do their chores, and decided that it was good enough.

Yesterday I was brave when I followed an impulse and called my sister. That doesn't sound big, but it is. I missed her and wanted to hear her voice, so I called.

She was taking a nap, so we didn't really talk, but it was good to heare her (albeit a little sleepy) voice. She said she'd call back today--fingers crossed.

I need to practice being brave even when it feels dangerous to put myself out there. My friends wanted to come over to my house, but still it's hard to say, "This is me, this is my house. Welcome." I don't feel secure and that has always held me back. I'm going to keep being brave. The worst that could happen--? I don't know, but it can't possibly be as bad as the fretting I do now.

The Be Brave Project--Days One and Two

I'm participating in the month-long "Be Brave" project, featured over at Jessie's blog--the badge in the sidebar will take you to the original post and explanation.

I did this before, and it helped me to make some important changes in my life. This time around I'm going to post about what I've done. Some of the time I'll just be taking baby steps, and I was going to apologize for how 'unbrave' I've been lately--but I'm not going to apologize. I can only do the things that I need to do, and I shouldn't be comparing them to anyone else's...(I do that all the time, compare, that is, and I'm stating here that I want to stop. I especially seem to do it when I know it will make me feel inadequate, and I know that there's no point in that. So I'm going to stop.)

Yesterday I called the gallery where some of my pieces are hanging. I don't know why this is so hard for me to do, but it is. I'm going over tomorrow with my friends Geri and Nancy, to see the pieces that are hanging at Cafe 225--I told them that if they drive us over in their Prius, I'll spring for lunch--and I wanted to make sure that that the seven pieces I took over last week are up with the others. Well, they aren't hanging at 225, only the original three are hanging there; the other seven are in the gallery and won't be going up at the cafe venue. She explained why, and I don't think that I'm getting the whole story, but I'm letting it go. They're all ten up somewhere, and that's what I wanted.

Today my brave thing was that I left the kids in the house and came out to my studio. I didn't say no about anything in particular, but it feels as though I've been tailoring my life to completely enable their social schedules. I've backed down on having them do their chores, and today I stuck to my guns. I'm not really explaining this very well, but I guess that the crux of it is this: If my art were a normal job, I'd still be going every day even during the summer. I'm lucky that it's not, and I can spend time hanging out with the kids--but--I need to continue making art. I NEED TO SPEND TIME IN THE STUDIO. And today I told the kids. They were fine with it, btw--probably even relieved to get me out from underfoot...

Last Night

Last night, just at dusk, I took the camera out around the yard and took some pictures. At this point I'm still experimenting, but thought I'd share with you.

A Rose by Any Other Name...

Taken last night with the new camera... Lynn, I haven't done any really closeups, but the focus with the telephoto lens is awesome...

Brilliante Premo Weblog (who, me?)

Kelly over at Kikipotamus the Hobo has given me this award (someone likes me! someone likes me!).

Here are the “rules” of accepting the award. (Please note: you can copy and paste these rules from my blog to yours. )

1) Put the logo on your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4) Add links to those blogs on yours.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

And the award(s) go to...

1) Lynn at Getting My Feet Wet--for sharing her adventures, her talent, and her wonderful joy in the good things this life has to offer....

2) The amazing Drama Mama at Like a Shark, who shares the intensity, ups and downs of raising two amazing children and the process of reclaiming her Self along the way...

3)Of course, feisty Sue at Sue Doe-Nim, who always says what she means and means what she says...

4) And an award to the nurse/mother/wife/woman who writes as OncRN--go, and read her posts from past to present--she writes so beautifully of the heartbreak of cancer, life and death--Oh my. I don't have the words. Go read.

5) Don't forget Jessie, who writes at Diary of a Self Portrait, and originated the Be Brave project in 2007. She writes about revisiting 'Be Brave' on her blog, and there's a link in my sidebar. It made a difference in my life last year, and I can't wait to focus in on being brave again this month. Check it out. Doing one brave thing every day is life altering.

6) An award to Dawn Houser at her Blah-Blah Blog! She's been racing down her own path of bravery and adventure, and shares it all in her beautifully quirky and insightful way. Plus she has great music...

7) Last but not least, I want to give an award to Maddy at Whitterer on Autism, who writes of life with her four lively and opinionated children with such humor and wisdom. She's describes herself as 'an ex-pat from the UK, middle aged, bifocaled and technically challenged'-- but she's so much more.

More Sketches

I recently found my Rapidograph technical pens. I filled them up with India ink, and voila! I have always loved these pens--the precision and delicacy of the lines they create. I had a set in college, but don't know whatever happened to those--they're probably in a box in the garage attic--

At the time I loved them because I could put white ink in them and write on dark colored paper. This was in the Dark Ages, of course, before gel pens and such.

I need to do some art today--take the new camera out for a walk, or work on some new paintings. I thought about coming out to the studio last night and working out here while everyone else was sleeping, but I was worried that I wouldn't function today. I do wish I was one of those night owl people!

Illustration Friday: Enough

...and the song--that song of body and soul--it is all he had. It was enough.

Illustration Friday: Foggy

Haven't done Illustration Friday for what seems like ages, thought I'd give it a go this week, try to get back in the swing of things...

A Surprise from the Hubby

As I said last week, I got my new Epson printer after years of saving for it. It's awesome, and all I have to do now is sell some prints on Etsy so that I can use it!

Richard surprised me with a gift yesterday--a new camera to go along with the printer! I have to say, I'd been drooling over digital SLRs lately, but thought I'd have to start saving again. But no!

The new camera is a Nikon D60. It came as part of a package deal that includes two lenses, so last night I played with it a little bit--here are some of the first set of pictures.

I'm going to repeat again how much I love digital cameras. A few years ago I even bought cheap little $20 digital cameras for the kids, because then they could take as many pix as they wanted to without incurring any cost (Highly recommend it to all you parents and grandparents out there--it was fascinating to see what they wanted to take pictures of when turned loose with a camera of their own).

So here you see funny Jenny and sweet Katie. I especially love the fact that because I used the telephoto lens for the picture of Katie, the junk in the background is all blurry...

A Happy Ending

Well, Dinah's back home where she belongs! After four weeks loose in Porterville, we got a call the other day from a woman who thought maybe she had our dog. She said, "Can you describe her?" and I said, "She's a big yellow-brown dog, solid muscle, jumps tall buildings with a single bound, and is a sweetheart in the house." The woman said, "Does she like water? Like sprinklers and hoses?" and I said, "Yes. Loves them."

Magic words: "I think I have your dog."

We went and picked her up as soon as Richard got home from work. She was glad to see us--that particular family had found her the week before walking down Main Street, dehydrated and really dragging. They knew she belonged to someone because she was so sweet, and took her home.

We offered to pay a reward to the woman, and she said, "Just pay it forward."

We will.

A Present for Myself

For almost four years now I've been saving my money to buy a wide-format printer. I love love love my Epson printers, so I was fairly focused on buying an Epson. Recently I saw that Epson had a refurbished Epson 3800 professional printer on their website, and I decided to go for it.

The printer will print on art paper/heavyweight stock up to SEVENTEEN INCHES WIDE!!!! It uses archival Epson pigment inks, and I will be able to print my own prints to sell. I am very excited--setting it up right now, and hoping I can get all the bugs out of the color management, etc. by tomorrow.

Photoshop Skills

Ever notice how, the first time you try something, you're completely in the dark, and then, after you keep struggling with it, you gradually make progress and actually learn? The older I get, the more I realize that it's not the 'try' but the 'try again' (and again and again) that leads to learning.

Took some of my sketches into photoshop and created line art from them, then messed around with 'coloring' them. I'm not there, yet, but I'm making some progress...

Doodling

I've been experimenting a little bit in my sketchbook. My husband says these people have personality--???

A Sighting

Got a phone call today--someone had sighted Dinah in Porterville. The vet's office is on the southeast side of town; she was spotted several miles away, on the NORTHeast side of town.

We went and canvased the area for a couple of hours; I spoke with one man who has seen her the past two evenings when he's gotten home from work. He said she always took off towards the fields to the north of his house.

Richard thinks she followed the railroad tracks, since the place where she was spotted last week is directly connected to this new location via the railroad line.

It's hot here during the day, and all the people who have seen her recently have either seen her early in the morning or in the evening. I'm hoping that she was just sleeping in the shade somewhere while we were looking for her this afternoon, and will hear us when we go back to look for her tonight. Keep your fingers crossed.

A Sad Tale

Like most families, going away for a week requires some planning. At our house the biggest thing is figuring out the animal situation. Our six cats live outdoors and have an automatic feeder, so they're no problem. The four goats just need a flake of hay every day. Three of the four dogs are easy as well, just needing someone to feed them in the evening.

But then there's Dinah, the big yellow mix of a mix of a mix--our two-year-old puppy who leaps tall buildings with a single bound.

Dinah goes for a walk with me every morning, then spends most of the day in the house. Our four-foot fence is not enough to keep her in, so when she's outside she's either on a leash or chained up on a thirty-foot lead. It's not ideal, but that's the way we deal with Dinah.

My solution (and I was so proud of myself!) was to have her boarded in town at our vet's office. I took her down the week before for her vaccination boosters, and on the morning we left for vacation, we dropped her off on our way out of town. I told the vet and the attendants all about her, and asked them to spay her while she was there, if they had time.

We left Cayucos early last Friday so we could make it back in time to pick Dinah up on our way through town. I left everyone in the car and went into the vet's to get her. When it was my turn, I said, "I'm here to pick up Dinah."

Three heads swiveled to look at me. Then one of the employees said, "Dinah. You're here to get Dinah. We have to talk about Dinah."

And I thought, 'She died under anesthesia,' but said, "What about Dinah?"

And the woman said, "Dinah's gone."

"Gone, as in...gone, like you...lost her?"

And the woman said, very fast, as though to get it over quickly, "She got away from us. We've been trying to find her, and oh, you'll have to talk to Lisa, I'll go get her right now and she can tell you all about it."

***

So the whole story, in a nutshell, is that within ten minutes of our driving out of the parking lot, they had lost Dinah. They took her outside to an area with a six-foot fence, unleashed her, and stepped back inside for just a second, coming back out just in time to see her clear the fence and take off.

She spent the first three nights she was loose in a big, junk-yardy kind of place, running away every time someone said, "Dinah?". The people from the vet's office took food and water over twice a day, but no one has seen Dinah since the fourth day she was loose. For the last four days, we have canvased a ten-block radius, walking, driving, calling her name, going up to everyone we've seen outside--but no luck. No Dinah.

One of the people who saw her was the guy who runs the Minit Mart near the vet's office. He told Richard of a dog he had ten years ago who got lost up in the mountains about 40 miles north of here, and showed up a month later at his house in town. So I suppose there's hope, because if any of our dogs could find her way home, it would be Dinah. Richard thinks someone picked her up, that she's happily living with someone else.

But--she's gone. And does it ever leave a big hole in our family.

Back Again, Finally

All my good intentions to post every day seem to have fallen by the wayside, and I'm not even sure why.

Richard's been on vacation for the last three weeks; he started his new job as principal as one of the local high schools today. He normally doesn't take much vacation, so that's been nice. Right after school ended I had some stomach problems as well as some school board problems (think maybe they're related? hmmm...). So, with everyone home and everything else that's been going on, I haven't even set foot in the studio since school got out.

I know it seems like being out of the studio might be a good thing, like a vacation, almost, but for me, the longer I'm NOT making art, the SCARIER making art seems. I think I'm better when I work every single day.

I promised some pictures of the mural--it's not completely finished, yet. I had each of the kids sign their name on a piece of paper; those will go around the edge as a border.

Do love how this looks.

I've got a very sad story to share, as well as tales of our vacation at the beach in lovely Cayucos, CA--so more soon.