Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Last One



In photography class on Monday we all got to take self-portraits with the 4x5 View Camera and a batch of Polaroid film. The last Polaroid film at Lawrence. It was donated by an old photo prof. back in 1995, the year of its expiration date. Polaroid film greatly declines after its expiration date--because the fluid chemicals in its developing pouch start to solidify, thereby becoming unusable. The top right corner shows an undeveloped patch, even, where the chemicals didn't flow over the image. J&J (my photo profs) speculated that they would have been able to sell it online for over a hundred bucks had they wanted to, but they decided it would be far neater to let us shoot with it. We each got to take one photo of ourselves, some got two, and then we did a group shot with the last Polaroid film. This is that photo, scanned so that we could all have a copy. (Click on it to see it larger.) Maybe some group somewhere will successfully make "Polaroid" film again...maybe not, in which case, I've got a stamp for history.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

I bet you'll never guess who this is...


ME!

Yep! These were taken who-knows-when. Well, I was very little, that's for sure. I can't even remember that day. (And don't ask me what I'm doing there. I have NO idea.)


I clearly have "The Thinker" pose down. And without any classical training. I must be a natural!

I have more up at my lj, if anyone's friends with me there and want to check them out. (If you're not, or don't have an lj account, you could probably persuade me to post the others here with some begging.)

I couldn't really help but to post these two here. They're my favorites. They were taken at my grandma and grandpa's, in the backyard. My mother mentioned raspberries, so perhaps we all went raspberry picking (they have a gorgeous garden, with all sorts of delicious edibles). They even still have that red bench. It's not in the same place, but it's there. =)

I had my mom and dad dig these out for me because, for my next photo assignment, I'm supposed to mimic or re-create a photo from my childhood. I don't much like photos of myself, but these ones instantly popped into my head. So, here they are. Enjoy.

Green Tomatoes like Pearls



Because the other one went over so well. Though, that was because the color was neat. Oh well. I couldn't motivate myself to find something else for today...

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Carolina Shade



I took this one years ago while vacationing in South Carolina. My uncle lives there, so we used to go down to visit every other summer--see Charleston, hang out at the beaches, boogie-board (which I love), horseback riding on the beach in the early morning--one of these days (ha, like in a few years) I'll do that with Toler. It would be amazing. Anyway, lots of fun. I just wanted to share this because I came across it and just by looking at the picture I remembered exactly how South Carolina smells in the summer. It's nice--the sun, the sand and salt, the grasses. It's very nice. So, enjoy.

Silhouetted Longing



Several of my followers will probably recognize this image. I use a cropped version of it as an icon on various sites/forums/etc. But, not many people have ever seen the larger version (I don't think). So, I wanted to share it.

I also wanted to share a story about my very own Toler, written to me by my father. (He sent it to me in an email, and, well, I hope he doesn't mind that I'm using it here. I don't think so. Anyway. My own comments are in brackets.)

Last weekend was unusual. It was warm. Not as some would like to call warm, but as we in Wisconsin would call the end of January warm. It was 22 degrees. The sun was shinning and it was warm.

Your mother decided it would be a good day to ride Toler. So, off to the barn we went. Toler was in his stall munching hay. He looked up with disinterest and mild irritation. She pulled him into the aisle and the process started. With coat brushed, hooves picked, leg wraps applied, saddle and bridle fitted, it was off to the arena.

Abby [a boarder at the stable] had just finished lunging her mare. As we came in, she went down to saddle up. Your mother mounted Toler, but Toler did not wish to move. Finally, I walked past him and he took the idea and soon passed me by. Around the arena they went. Your mother tried to get Toler to trot, but not always successfully.

Abby returned to the arena with her horse, and started to work on walk/trot transitions in the middle. Meanwhile your mother had gotten Toler to trot. As usual Toler would pick his own time to break from a trot to a walk. All I could hear was your mother calling out "Trot..........Trot, Toler, Trot..........Trot". Sometime, at his decision, Toler would indeed trot. Soon I could hear Abby saying "Trot," and her horse would transition from a walk into a trot. After a couple of circles, Abby would say "Walk" and her horse would transition from a trot into a walk. As Abby's commands continued it became apparent that Toler would ignore the trot commands, but if he was trotting would follow her walk commands and transition into a walk, even if your mother had just started him to trot.

Suddenly Toler took some ones command to trot, and off he went. It was an extended trot. His head was in the perfect position. His feet were extended and he was really moving. His feet were touching the ground, but there was no bounce to his body. It was as if he was truly flying. I could almost read his mind, it was as if he was thinking, "This is what I was born to do." What a beautiful thing to watch. It was after the end and on the straight-away that I became aware of your mother. Her commands were constant and spaced about the same as they had always been, but something was different. Instead of the once "Trot..........Trot, Toler, Trot..........Trot". It had now been replaced with "Whoa..........Whoa, Toler, Whoa..........Whoa". As they hit the straight-away there was a deepening urgency to her voice.

Even Abby looked up at this. I watched as Abby took in the situation. I saw her mouth open as if to say "Wow". Then she too noticed your mother holding on to the strap you made calling out "Whoa, Toler, Whoa." I heard Abby giggle. That is when I almost fell off the mounting block where I was sitting.

I laughed pretty hard when I read this email, in the art studio as either paint or a photo was drying (I can't remember which). I give my mother a LOT of credit for riding Toler for me this last winter. I had kind of figured that she would never actually ride him--he *IS* a big horse (6 feet, or 18 hands, at the shoulder) and while he's well trained, he's not a beginner's horse. He's well trained for *me,* in other words. Anyway, whenever I come home Toler is always really excited for me to ride because it means he can do extended trot and canter--two things that my mother can't quite handle yet. (I personally think she would be just fine with his canter--it's his smoothest stride and he's very intuitive about it, but extended trot is another issue. It's a lot of movement, a lot of muscle to keep up with.) So, the image of her being shot around the arena by Toler as he's extending (he LOVES it) is really, really quite entertaining for me. Props to her for not falling off. A disappointed, motherly finger-wag at Toler for not being his usual considerate self. (Followed, of course, by a carrot because he's too damn cute to be mad at.)

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Ripen



Because every now and then we need a reminder that it's *not* always winter... =)

This was taken with my lensbaby lens last summer.

Urg

Yeah, yeah. I missed Tuesday, and I'm going to miss today. My excuse is that every time I've tried to get onto my photobucket account (yes, all two times minus repeated page-refreshes), it's told me that the site is under maintenance.

*grumble grumble*

Monday, February 2, 2009

Herd Dynamics V




The last image of the series! This is Toler's new favorite paddock pal (has been ever since Belle left the stable). Yes, he's missing his left eye. I was told the story of how it happened by his owner, Erin, and though I can't remember it very well, I'll do my best to retell it.

When Erin left for college (she graduated a few years ago, so this happened maybe over five years ago), she left him in the care of a friend. I guess while this was going on, he developed an infection or a parasite (something to that effect, I think). By the time it came to anyone's attention it was too far gone to save. I think they tried, but eventually just decided he would be more comfortable without it (especially since the eye was essentially a dead organ at this point).

He gets along quite well without it. Occasionally in his stall he'll bump the left side of his face against the wall, but never very hard. Erin still rides him and he works pretty well for her. He has some stubbornness issues, but I'm not completely certain it has anything to do with his half-blindness. It would make sense, though, as he obviously has to trust her completely when it comes to that side. All in all, he's a great horse and friend for Toler. They get in all sorts of mischief together, and sometimes I think they even share comand (I've seen him play "the enforcer" for Toler, especially when Porthos is involved).

In other news, as this completes my prepared series of images, and I have not yet gotten back any of my preliminary water color paintings, I'll be posting old photos for the most part.