Soulstrings

A Dogswood

2011-07-09T15:08:00.001-05:00

I'm in the (slow) process of making an "official" website for myself with SmugMug. I decided to put the coding on hold for the moment in order to get some content up on the site to work with, which means I've been going through a lot of photos, particularly the batch from up north taken last fall. There are a ton of forgotten treasures in the batch, so I may start posting a few here to whet your appetite, as it were, for the launch of my site!

Ideas Reborn: Mythic Strides

2011-05-16T22:50:00.001-05:00

Last winter I went through a major "itch" to be more serious about my painting. Since college I really haven't done any, mostly because it's hard to find the right kind of space here at home to allow for 1) undisturbed open storage and 2) ventilation for paint and turp fumes (as I prefer to work with oil). I started a large pastel piece last fall but beyond my initial sketch my ideas aren't meshing well and I've been too stuck on it to proceed. On that front I probably just need to grit my teeth and dive in, but that's perhaps a discussion for another day.

I found my shoe box of horseshoes and started thinking about them. Because of their size, they are fairly easy to work on in a limited space setting. I wouldn't need an easel or much else besides room for my paintbrushes, paint tubes, a small palette, and the shoe itself.

I also wanted to continue my previous artistic trend of working with mythology. I love mythology--anything other than Greek mythology, to be more specific, only because I feel it's a tad over done and I never much identified with the culture to begin with. Norse mythology is my absolute favorite, as is anything to do with Norse (and Scandinavian more generally) folk lore. When I was young Norse myths were my usual bedtime stories.

Some way or another the idea struck me. Horseshoes are very important artifacts in many cultures' folk lore--they bring in good luck, protect homes and doorways, prevent the mal-influence of faeries or gremlins (or creatures of a hundred different names). As a horse-owner I'm always fascinated by the worn shoes of my horse. I like the character of them, the story they tell of the horse who wore them, the worn toes from pawing concrete aisles, the dents and twists from throwing shoes off in the pasture or during a ride, the natural grinding of the nail grooves of the metal...I always found there was an energy to them. No wonder the cultural mythologies of so many groups of people assigned spiritual significance and power to them. It occurred to me that I could combine those ideas--mythology and the folk lore of horseshoes.

And so my series, "Mythic Strides," was born.

I immediately churned out two sketches. I decided that I wanted to represent Norse deities or specific moments of Norse myths (and eventually other mythologies as well) through abstract representation. Given the small workable surface area of a real horseshoe, abstract designs would be key. Nothing too fancy. Nothing too detailed or scenic.

My first sketch was for a shoe devoted to Thor, called "Thor's Stride". Keeping to the simplistic, abstract and representational depiction, I chose to use a knot version of Mjolnir (Thor's mightly hammer) at the center of the shoe's toe. At the left heel of the shoe I decided to place the rune þurs, on the right would most likely be the rune algiz/eohls. The background would be a the marble of thunderclouds--plums and navies and grays, stricken with lightning bolts.

Thor himself was not only a fierce warrior in Norse mythology, associated with strength, lightning, thunder, and storms in general, but was also widely accepted as the protector of mankind. It felt only right that I paint a horseshoe for him.

My second sketch, titled "Stride Between Moon and Sun" features the chase of Sol and Mani by the wolves Skoll and Hati. It is by far my favorite idea for the series so far. As well as a shoe that will likely prove to be most complex to paint the way I intend. I hope to do a progression of sky for the background, though that will largely depend on how I depict the moon and sun through paint. At the center of the toe lies the rune dagaz/daeg, the rune of day as well as personal breakthrough and transformation.

As of yet, I haven't painted either shoe, but I am well on my way. I decided that I wanted to paint a "practice shoe" with acrylic first, just to see if I would find it more suitable for painting on the shoes. Especially because some of the designs in my moleskine are particularly suited to the strengths of acrylic.

I also fully intend to make shoes of this series available for sale, though I might make "Stride Between Moon and Sun" for myself. I really want to explore the connection of personal and cultural mythology and merge it with the folkloric significantly of horse shoes as spiritual objects. After a few I might even target horses in various mythologies first for horseshoe-paintings. We'll see. There are plenty of possibilities with this series, and I'm more than excited to dive into them.

Coming soon...Muse's Web: Practice Shoes & New Directions

Horseshoes and Dreamcatchers: The Beginning

2011-05-15T12:37:00.000-05:00

I've been wanting to post about this stuff for a while, but things have been crazy busy lately and I just haven't gotten around to it! So, rather than put everything in one post, I thought I'd "do it properly" and post about the projects from the beginning.

Back in my college Intermediate Painting class (I don't even want to think about how long ago that was!) our Prof gave us the assignment to chose alternative surfaces to work on. His only stipulations were that it had to be something other than canvas or regular paper. A lot of people worked on wood, one or two on newspaper or metal. One inspired chief painted on a wooden cutting board. I can't quite remember all of them, but I remember floundering for several days trying to think of something. Luckily he'd given us the assignment well ahead of time, so we could think about it and search for materials over a holiday weekend or something of the sort.

The idea came to me at home. I've always liked to collect Toler's old shoes when he gets new ones put on, and I have various old shoes from many of the other horses I've ridden over the years. I just thought it would be fun to do something with them someday--get them welded together or made into hooks or photo frames. Painting on them just never entered my mind. Until that weekend.

My project emerged pretty quickly. I decided to do a series, intending it to be a larger 6-10 shoe series, though I only painted two for the class assignment, exploring the imprint of place on horse and rider. I titled it, "Strides of Truth and Dream."

The first shoe, called "Lace Strides" painted with oil. This shoe depicts the memory of our favorite field, always carpeted by lush grass, clover, and thousands of Queen Anne's Lace. Rides through it were always more than just gallops; the field and its nature became part of us. Part of our bond, our memories, our dreams, our experiences, our realities.

The second shoe of the series, called "Ocean Strides" prepped with acrylic granules, painted with oil with varnish finish for the water. This shoe depicts a dream of galloping against the waves, in and out of surf. Hoof-print left on the shore, this is the conceptual remainder of that ride that not even the waves can mask.

After college I had seriously intended to continue with the series. But there was a practical limitation--the surface space of each shoe was just too small to depict the types of scenes I imagined. So, painting shoes fell by the wayside for a while.

Coming up... Ideas Reborn: Mythic Strides

Cloudrange

2011-03-02T09:59:00.000-06:00

The clouds make me think of mountains.

Run as the Rains Come

2011-02-28T11:33:00.000-06:00

A Distance I Have Wandered

2011-02-25T10:52:00.002-06:00

Another (barely) faux-HDR I did, mostly because I really wanted to preserve the radiance around the creek as well as the red lens flare on the lower left border.

Seem to Grin

2011-02-24T11:15:00.000-06:00

"There's a house across the river, but alas. I cannot swim
And a garden of such beauty that the flowers seem to grin
There's a house across the river, but alas, I cannot swim
I'll live my life regretting that I never jumped in."
-Laura Marling - "Alas, I Cannot Swim"

Softer than a Chime

2011-02-23T16:45:00.000-06:00

Asparagus foliage in the autumn.

In processing this one, I loved the vibrancy of the yellow and the deep blue of the sky behind it, but it still looked dimensionally flat. It needed something to help it "pop." So I employed a technique known as "boom vignetting" in the digital world--something many high school photography students are probably familiar with (though it's much easier to do digitally). In the darkroom, students like myself in our ~~lunacy~~ creative genius quickly learned that holding quirky-shaped papers above the center of the exposing paper produced a much more dramatic vignetting effect than the traditional corner-burning method. If you finessed the technique, it could even look natural. I can't say I've heard anyone speak about it with very serious tones, but I still wouldn't recommend underestimating the effect.

Using a cartoon-ish "explosion" shape in photoshop (or really any interesting shape/brush), you simply cut the shape out of a layer copy of the base image, use Gaussian Blur on that layer, select layer mode to "multiply," and scale back the opacity as needed. The result is a dramatic vignette effect without the obvious "vignette corner" appearance.

Solitude, Found

2011-02-21T10:49:00.001-06:00

When one finally arrives at
   the point where schedules
are forgotten, and becomes immersed
   in ancient rhythms,
one begins to live.

   -Sigurd Olson

Keebler

2011-02-20T22:46:00.000-06:00

Keebler, a pony who joined the stable this last winter. I've had this photo for a while, and just kept forgetting to post it! I really can't get over how perfect the name "Keebler" is for a pony, though.

Silkweed

2011-02-18T21:57:00.000-06:00

(Common) Milkweed, also known as silkweed. Milkweed sap can be applied as a remedy for poison ivy or to remove warts, and it was common to use as a clotting agent for small wounds. After being properly cooked, chewing the roots cures dysentery, and infusions of the roots and leaves was used to treat typhus fever, asthma, and to suppress coughs. The floss, which is hypoallergenic, is superior to down feathers when used as insulation. As an added surprise, the floss is evidently six times more buoyant than cork.

There is a section of trail that edges a field and cow pasture before the path retreats again into the woods, and it is home to hundreds of milkweed. When we walked through there in the fall, we caught the majority of the plants at their peak seeding time. Hundreds of seed pods, some not quite open but cracked, others splayed like wounds of fluff, and a few merely empty shells. The way the light hit the silk was simply splendid; I just couldn't stop taking photos.

Now I Wonder

2011-02-17T12:37:00.000-06:00

This image was actually taken out the window of the car while we were driving around up north. I had to spend some time removing a few small dirt/dust spots. I focused on bringing out the sky (a little bit of saturation and a boost of highlights and lights with contrast) and as the foreground darkened I knew I wanted it to be a silhouette. A little black clipping and it was already there. A vignette completed the effect which, because of the car window, reminds me a little of a holga or lomo.

Never Elsewhere

2011-02-16T02:00:00.000-06:00

A faux-HDR image I just finished. In truth, it's hardly HDR if compared to some of the hardcore HDR images out there, but that's just how I like it--grounded and not velveteen.

It came about mostly because I realized tonight that I no longer knew how to create a faux-HDR image myself with my photoshop program. PSE5, which I used to use, is very different from the PSE9 I have now. I'm still sorting everything out. For instance, I just realized that I can now do Photoshop Actions, albeit PSE-friendly ones. More importantly, I can streamline my photo work even more by creating my own Actions. =)

Lashes

2011-02-13T09:42:00.000-06:00

While this image didn't come from the reject pile, I never got around to processing it because I initially thought it was a bit too much on the "alien-looking" side of equine eye shots. But I do love her eyelashes here.

Foalhood Dreams II

2011-02-12T09:32:00.000-06:00

I decided I didn't want to wait to post this one. I used the same unconventional technique on this one as I did on Foalhood Dreams I, and I think it's pretty obvious what a difference it made on this image.

Perhaps it's the sunbeams in front of Andromeda, but the noise reduction here adds an entirely different level of texture. The grass looks more windswept but still have a necessary touch of sharpness, and the trees look like something out of a painting without looking painted themselves. And I still feel that the only real photo-shopping I did on this image was to remove an unsightly fencepost in the background by her nose.

With this image, I feel more like I've taken an unconventional photoshop filter and made it into a workable artistic tool, which is kind of nice.

Foalhood Dreams I

2011-02-12T09:21:00.000-06:00

Another photo originally from the reject pile. I cropped it a little bit and decided to leave in the scrawny tall tree on a whim. I still can't decide if it's distracting or simply properly balancing, though.

I processed this one on the under-exposed side of things, dropped saturation level, and boosted the black clipping for a silhouette. A touch of extra brightness to give it that sunlit glow.

And then I did something a little crazy--something I've never done on a photo before. I decided there was too much detail. Too much sharpness. So I used noise reduction technology to give the pixels and the colors some softness while keeping the edges crisp. I'll admit that I *love* the effect of that on the trees, but I'm still trying to decide if I've crossed some invisible line into digital art-photography I'd never intended to cross.

Kelpie

2011-02-11T23:54:00.000-06:00

I've been going through a few older equine shoots with the mind to dredge up some of the "cast aways" and give them some life. (Or find gems I'd forgotten about.)

This shot was sorted into the reject pile on several occasions, but when I saw it tonight something in it gripped me. There's a lot wrong with it technically--the blurry focal point (the eye), the extremes between the overly dark throat-latch and the nearly over-exposed face. But all of that did something for me this time. Combined with the color tones in the mare's coat and her liquid-eyed stare I thought immediately of the Kelpie. The black river horse. Mysterious but breathtaking. Her song is quiet but haunting. Irresistible. The lost pony, ever found.

Fae's Ladder

2011-01-30T12:29:00.001-06:00

Autumn Alfalfa

2011-01-28T23:31:00.000-06:00

Taken on one of those perfect fall days.

Can you smell the leaves?

What We Find

2011-01-15T09:11:00.000-06:00

Not feeling particularly verbose this morning, so...Bonus photo!

Forest of Light

2011-01-10T09:59:00.001-06:00

I almost deleted this one. I took it before thinking to readjust my exposure settings so things wouldn't be quite as overexposed. Then when I got home and looked through all the photos I'd taken (all 1000+ of them...), I liked this one so much more than the properly exposed versions. I just love the presence of light in it.

Not deleting photos "on scene" is actually a rule in digital photography, and this is precisely why. Until you can see it on a screen bigger than two thumbs put together, you just don't know. (Truth be told, I do still delete photos on scene, but only when something thoroughly disastrous occurred, such as it being obviously blurry or obviously ruined in another way. I probably shouldn't, but I do just for that extra bit of card space.)

Down by the Creekside

2011-01-08T22:31:00.001-06:00

One of the new features on my (finally) updated photoshop elements is the ability to merge photos. You can merge two photos in terms of matching their tonal quality, colors, exposure, contrast, etc. Or you can merge photos by way of stitching them together to make panoramas, which I think is beyond awesome, mostly because it takes something that can be done digitally by hand in ~2 hours? and condense it into a simple one-minute, two mouse-click operation. It even corrects lens/angle distortion and, if desired, attempts to fill in any gaps around the edges so you don't have to crop it down a whole lot.

I haven't experimented with the color match aspect yet, but I have made a few panoramas. I'd taken some shots up north with the idea to display them side-by-side, like in those three-photo horizontal (or vertical) frames. Instead, I processed them in Lightroom and then stitched them together in PSE.

I was *really* excited about posting them online.

Except everywhere I upload them automatically down-sizes them because they're so wide. I don't know what to do about it, either. I spent most of a whole day trying to get it to cooperate, and I have nothing to show for it. Well, that's not entirely true...

~~See? It's frustratingly tiny. =( It is marginally bigger at its source url, but not a whole lot. I'm still trying to figure something out, though.~~

I got it to work (for the most part) over at DeviantArt. You'll just have to view it there. ;)

Until then I will simply post non-panoramic things. ;)

Ebb

2011-01-05T18:07:00.000-06:00

Hello fellow readers! Remember me? I wouldn't expect you to, to be honest. Yes, I've been away for a rather long time. I didn't really even keep up with my reading list, and for that I am doubly sorry.

The ol' family desktop died on us at the end of December, but I was lucky enough to get a new machine. A very fast, gorgeous one that has yet to leave me anything other than amazed.

I'm finally getting back into the swing of working with my photos, and I must say, it's much more rewarding now that I don't have to wait for some aspect of the program to load every minute and a half. I also bought a new version of Photoshop Elements, which has me highly amused right now as well. (Forthcoming post on that tomorrow.)

In short, I'm back. With "new" photos to post, even.

The creek in the North Woods. I desaturated most colors except for blues, purples, and magentas so I could really bring out this tone. A little extra black clipping and punch, a touch of extra highlights and I love its strength.

I hope everyone had an excellent holiday season, and the new year has treated you well thus far!

Little Dog, Little Dog

2010-11-05T17:01:00.000-05:00

This one's for you, Carol. = )

While up North last time, I had the great pleasure of the company of two dogs (three for two days). So, guess what I took a LOT of photos of? XD I haven't had a whole lot of time to work on photos from the North yet, though every time I get restless working with priority photos, I get them out. This has become one of my favorite shots. Whether it's her eyes or her cropped doggie grin or the colors, I just adore it. Between Bailey and a dog at the stable, I officially love Heelers. (I still adore Huskies, too, though!)

Autumn Run

2010-10-26T10:28:00.000-05:00

I've managed to catch a cold. And whenever I have a cold, my motivation plummets to negative twenty no matter what. But today I'm going to soldier on and work on riding clinic photos.

I worked with this image a bit more than usual in Lightroom. I tweaked the exposure to be more of a silhouette (the export lost some black, but as I've mentioned, I have negative motivation to do anything about it right now). Then I peeled things back and worked with the colors. I wish the export color space wasn't being particularly party-pooper-ing because the colors looked amazing in Lightroom and I just don't love them here. But, if you click on it and view it larger, the effect is still there.

Stoic

2010-10-21T19:44:00.000-05:00

The lighting and sky was perfect when I was out taking photos of the filly, so of course I photographed Toler when I went to get him from the paddock. He was rather unenthusiastic at the prospect of going in--he and his buddies were in the far corner flirting with the mares.

I did very little with this image in Lightroom--I desaturated it and burned in the corners a little, and punched up the contrast just a hair. Sadly, photos like this lose quite a bit of vibrancy once I export them. I'm sure it's because Lightroom's in-program color space is a custom model of a color space that is not offered in the export options, which gets annoying. Besides all that, though, this image is really starting to grow on me. I was also surprised that despite the huge amount of dust out there (it's really awful, actually), you can't really tell in the photos, which is nothing short of awesome.

Andromeda Skies

2010-10-21T10:22:00.001-05:00

A snapshot of the filly I took and wound up really liking. I think it's the combination of her mother falling asleep behind her and the small lens flair by her eye, but there's just something about it.

This is what Andromeda wanted to do while I was trying to photograph her. She was much too friendly and sweet, so I had to half-heartedly scare her a little, after which she started galloping. And then she realized that she wanted to gallop and really got moving.

There was a moment that I almost smashed my camera on purpose, though. So in the paddock they're in, there's a "mountain range" of fill that just never got smoothed out before the grass came in, I guess. Anyway, I was standing next to it looking towards the trees in the background, and Andromeda came running up from behind me and jumped the fill. It was the PERFECT shot. The perfect angle, the perfect baby jump, the perfect background and lighting. I was following her with everything in focus, I had the shot lined up, and the second I released the shutter, my camera chose that second to inform me that the battery was low (not out) and thus DID NOT TAKE THE PHOTO. I was absolutely infuriated. There I am, standing in the middle of the horse paddock with the filly galloping around, swearing at my camera at the top of my lungs. Haha, oh, man.

Cloud Atlas

2010-10-20T10:09:00.000-05:00

Taken yesterday at the stable. I went out to take some photos of the youngest filly because it occurred to me that I haven't taken any photos of her. Obviously needed to be remedied. Anyway, the sky was so gorgeous I couldn't help but do a skyscape. (Cloudscape?) I pushed the blue saturation levels on this so you could see the levels of feathered cloud better.

Back to working on riding clinic photos!

Big Falls

2010-10-19T11:56:00.005-05:00

It has been a while since my last post. I went up North for a fabulous week and forgot to post before I left. That's becoming a trend, I think. Oh well!

I took about 1200 photos up North! (Though a generous amount of those are fun doggie pics.) We also went to Big Falls, so I took quite a few photos there, too. That place is beyond gorgeous. I have to work on some photos from a riding clinic before I can get to my vacation photos, so I thought I'd better post a teaser!

Taken at Big Falls, this image kind of begged to be HDR. I think I could process it in Lightroom for an equally catching non-HDR shot, but I didn't have time to fire up Lightroom this morning (only because I knew I would start fiddling with a bunch of photos that really need to wait their turn).

In conclusion, I am very much alive and well! More soon!

Corpse Plant

2010-09-24T10:24:00.003-05:00

Mushrooms found right by our cabin, not edible of course. Still kind of a cute, spooky little bunch. There are always a ton of different mushrooms hanging around our neck of the North Woods, so I like to photograph them when I come across them. XD Kinda reminds me of that one episode of BBC's Midsummer Murders, if anyone watches that show.

Thankfully I have friends who aren't as lazy as I am when it comes to looking things up!

Meet Monotropa uniflora, also known as "Indian Pipe," "Ghost Plant," and/or "Corpse Plant." Spooky, right? Really, I should have recognized it because I described Indian Pipes in one of my novels, and I usually retain that sort of information well. The corpse plant (now one of my favorite plants), is a parasitic plant that feeds on other plants, usually fungi mycorrhizal with trees. Thus, it contains no chlorophyll and can grow in the darkness. Usually completely white in appearance, it can have black flecks (like the ones I found), have a pink coloration, or even a deeper red coloration (which would look awesome, in my opinion). Apparently they're even part of the blueberry family. See? Awesome plant.

I've been majorly behind on my blogs. Partially just because I've been busy in general. The horse was injured for a little bit (nothing too major, but it did require some spoiling by way of daily massages from his two-legger), I've been working on a fairly hefty project, and then my laptop died. Yep, died. I spent half a week first trying to repair it, then trying to confirm what I thought the problem was. The hard drive has too many bad sectors to function, so essentially, it suffered hard drive failure. Luckily I've been going between my laptop and family desktop so much that everything essential was already backed up. But, still, it's been a journey.

It's finally feeling like fall here (it was, and then we had a few days of disgusting 80* heat and humidity), so I do plan on getting the camera out to the stable at some point. It also occurred to me that I've hardly taken any photos of Andromeda, this year's filly. So that needs to be remedied.

All in all, I'm hanging in there. I hope everyone has been well (better than me, at least), and to my blogger friends: I'm way behind on my reading. But I'll catch up this weekend, I think.

Over the Banks

2010-09-12T10:22:00.003-05:00

The creek I mentioned in my other post. These were taken on the other side of the bridge I talked about. When I was younger the creek here used to be bigger--you can kind of see the space it used to occupy closer to the trees. It's been so low and trickling for so long the grass invaded the banks.

I lowered the saturation levels of the green and green-blues a bit for both of these images. I liked the vibrancy of the browns and pale yellow-greens. It probably makes it seem more like fall than mid summer, but that's fine with me.

Shared Dreams

2010-09-10T10:40:00.004-05:00

I was going through some old photos and found this in my archives. Taken at the 2003 Kentucky Rolex, it features Jan Thompson and Shared Dreams. I can't remember how they fared at that Rolex, but I remember liking Shared Dreams a bit. Anyway, so there you go, a photo taken during my sophomore year in High School. Haha, if I thought that out right. XD

I do theoretically have a photo CD of all my Rolex photos, but I'm not sure where they are. I went to the Rolex several times in High School with my stable friends. We always had such a blast, granted I was a major shutterbug the whole time, but I do remember everything well. Definitely need to go again sometime! Anyway, my point was that this image was scanned, and while I went through and killed the dust, I wasn't terribly patient with it. So, forgive the slacking quality. ;)

Free Flowing, Again, or...Finally

2010-09-08T11:25:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned, I used my fisheye attachment quite a bit with my Lensbaby up North. Here's one of my favorites of the creek. When I was young, I used to wade and swim in the creek that went past the cabin. There was a deeper pool next to a bridge we used to fish at, too. But in the past ten or so years, there has been a drought and the creek was at a standstill for a long time. Just exposed rocks and tadpoles and mosquito dens. There is no greater sense of time than looking at the changes of nature. A favorite spot from twenty years ago you remember better than yesterday's breakfast, so unfamiliar now it has become a ghost. Land becomes a part of us, part of our identity and personal mythology, the magnetic pole for our compass. No matter how far we stray, in the end we're looking for a reincarnation of that spot and the way it made us feel alive.

Down from the door where it began

2010-08-25T20:49:00.004-05:00

Haha. A photo of a Hobbit house someone up North built down by their mailbox. It's just so cute with the little rocking chair. The whole thing is maybe two feet tall (to the top of the hill). I kept swearing I was going to stop and take a picture of it, and we finally did one morning. Title from Tolkein's poem "The Road Goes Ever On" (referred to as "the walking song" by Frodo and Bilbo in LOTR, I believe).

The Road Goes Ever On

The Road goes ever on and on
   Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
   And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
   Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
   And whither then? I cannot say.

                                        -J. R. R. Tolkien

Definitely one of my favorite poems, so I had to quote it just in case not *everybody* had heard it before. XD

Brûlée

2010-08-23T10:45:00.003-05:00

Doesn't the center of the top of this mushroom look like a perfect Crème Brûlée? Granted, the mushroom itself is poisonous. But still. Gorgeous caramel colors. I should have burned in the light spot on the left edge of the photo, though. Hmm.

A Tender Twist

2010-08-22T16:34:00.002-05:00

Personal Jungle

2010-08-21T23:43:00.002-05:00

Broad-leafed plants always make me think about what life would be like as a small creature. Like a chipmunk. (Especially a chipmunk. They're so cute. Maybe it's because I watched a lot of Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers as a child. Anyone remember that show? Haha.) I would definitely make a little hideout under plants like these. It'd be like a personal little jungle.

Anyway. This is the first photo I have ever processed with Lightroom's "Direct Positive" preset and actually liked. Usually it's just far too much for me and I'd rather make subtle changes with color saturation myself. But for this image, and one other that is very similar (same type of shot, but with a different plant), it wasn't overwhelming. Just radically vibrant and "popping." It's always nice to finally appreciate a style of processing.

Dusk Rolls In

2010-08-20T22:27:00.003-05:00

Taken up north while I was out for a walk with my grandmother. Of course, the mosquitoes were starting to come out, so we didn't stay out long. Just long enough to walk to the end of our gravel road and see the moon starting to peek through. The sky was a gorgeous lilac, almost an opal. The color even bled into the fog.

Of course, all this was a bit hard to capture on my camera, considering I had no tripod with me. But I managed it. In the end, I desaturated the grass a bit and brought out the pinks in the sky. Quick tweaks with a lot of subtle punch.

Little Creek

2010-08-19T08:35:00.003-05:00

Mister (Your Pantaloons)

2010-08-13T11:21:00.003-05:00

I don't post photos of either of my cats often. No particular reason. But I took these several weeks ago and liked them because they turned out more like studio portraits than I would have previously thought. Window light, however, is the best kind of light.

This is my cat Mister. Named because when we adopted him, we'd been told that he was female. So, he obviously needed a name to make up for his bruised masculinity. These days I call him just about anything. Mister Fuzzy. Fuzzers. Pantaloons. Mister Fuzzy-Wuzzy (I have a song that goes with that one). The list could go on, but I'll stop.

He does have quite the kingly personality. He'll sit on a chair at the dinner table while we're bringing our food to the table, looking over the plate in front of him as though he expects to eat like us, too. Since he was a stray he does have a taste for people-food, and because he's thin no matter how much he eats, he does get to sample our meats and gravies.

He yowls. Yoddels. Echoes in stairways and bathrooms. Knocks cups into sinks for water. Insists that my bed is merely borrowed ("Don't you see the litter? That's clearly my bed."), carries beanie babies around the house (a ducky, an orangutan, and a black bear), sprawls across my desk just as I'm starting to write, thinks brushing is a torture devised just for him, and steals my pillow from under my head whenever possible.

But it's okay. He's my fuzzy. And that spot just behind his ear? The softest fur ever.

Simple in Red

2010-08-11T21:05:00.003-05:00

Feather-Dusted Sky

2010-08-10T23:10:00.002-05:00

While up North this last time, I made quite the effort to take lots of photos with my fisheye optic. I think I should have toyed with this one more pre-shutter-release; I think it would have been fun to have a smaller "eye" and make it more globe-like. But I do really like how the sky turned out with this one.

Swan Dive

2010-08-10T09:44:00.006-05:00

Unfurl'd
Our legs like swallowtails
Are we like those--
Fear the sun and dive
For shadow
Does not burn in the deep

Haiku

2010-08-09T22:53:00.005-05:00

I just finished with a small batch of photos. =)

I have a confession to make with this one. I was really excited about it after taking it because I knew I just loved the basic composition of it. The little mushroom habitating a little cliff formed from a root in the steep slope of a creek's bank. I loved the debris and reflection and texture of the creek in the upper-left corner. I loved the root defining the edge between bank and water.

And then I had a full-out spazz attack when I got home and realized that I must have moved the focus ring while taking the photo. It was blurry, but in an almost distorted way. And I hadn't taken a second picture. Usually all I need is one, but I have to admit that always using a digital camera has made me into a shutter bug--these days I usually take two or three shots of even a simple photo. Simply because I can. I have the card space, and it's not hard to delete an image after I upload it to the computer.

So, here I was with a shot I'd loved the idea of, and it was practically unusable. At least at first. Then I thought about it for a while. And GIMP popped into my head. Specifically my Lomo effect plugin.

Lomo to save the day. I mean, it's not perfect. I would have prefered the picture to have turned out without digitally manipulating it. But at least this way I can still be happy with it. =)

Aquaglow

2010-08-02T13:05:00.006-05:00

Taken last week while I was away for a family reunion. This is the "centerpiece" of some gorgeous woodworking inside a church. I won't go into much more back-story here, though.

I take a picture of the woodworking every time I go there, and this time I decided I wanted to put a new edge on it. I wanted something more striking, more complimentary to the design. Usually the lighting is very difficult to work with (as is the case in 99% of churches), so even if you calibrate it right, you generally end up with some glaringly ugly contrast issues or the "eggshell white" effect where every bit of white is a slightly different shade of white.

I must admit I got lucky on the lighting. It was just the right minute of the day where the natural lighting was best for that little church. I even forgot to switch to RAW mode. (I switched to JPEG only because I was worried about card space. Contrary to popular belief, I am a digital photographer who only has a 4GB card and a 2GB card. Most photographers carry at least one 16GB card, and usually several 8GB cards. Next time I have ~80 bucks on me to drop, I hope to reconcile that a little.)

Anyway. Post-processing was fun. I loved the slight tinge of aqua on the bottom-center of the image, so I dropped all color values other than aqua and green, and moved up their saturation values a bit. All that was left was getting the contrast and highlighting on the woodworking just right. Of course, in Lightroom, I was in love with a version of this photo that had considerably less contrast. It was a bit brighter because of that. I don't know, but everything always looks better in Lightroom. As soon as I export it to Photoshop so I can add my watermark, I think, "Oh. That's...flat." And I wind up boosting contrast levels. Oh well.

Puppydogger

2010-07-09T10:43:00.003-05:00

Photos of my close friend's Australian Shepard, Zoe taken during my week away last month (wow, that long ago already?). I stayed with C., as did our friend V. We all went to college together, so needless to say there was a bit of hilarity and craziness. Especially since we hadn't been all together like that since graduating. Zoe is such a great dog. V. and I became her adopted Worshipers and Entertainment while we were there. Not to mention trusty alarm clock (though really, compared with the way my cats wake me up, I would much rather be woken up by a happy, face-licking puppydogger). I took quite a few pics of Zoe, and embarrassingly, not much else while with C. and V.--we were having too much fun. These are my favorite of the shots I took, and really, she's too cute not to share!

Tasseled Green Waves

2010-07-08T09:49:00.004-05:00

I've been a bit slow going through Toler's photos. Well, any photos for that matter, but particularly Toler's. I like going slowly with them, though, it's a bit like savoring them. Or hoarding them, I suppose. The other reason is that I've been concentrating on other artistic endeavors, namely a new pastel piece. I'm going to describe it here, simply because I think my descriptions of it make it sound lame. That, however, is barely crawling along so far. It doesn't help that I keep laying down an underdrawing, waiting a day or two, then deciding I don't like it and erase it so I can start with a new underdrawing. I hadn't originally wanted to go ahead with the idea for this piece, mostly because it felt too advanced for my current level of experience with pastels, but haunted me and then I just had to start on it, at the very least. I have a feeling, though, that once I get past the sketching phase, it'll be easier than I thought. Hopefully.

Anyway. The first photo here was an experimental shot. I really liked the idea of using a natural filter. Really liked it. The notion behind it is that you simply take the photo while holding an object in front of the lens, like a flower or, you guessed it, grass. If you've ever tried to take a picture of something outside through a screened window, you'll understand what I'm talking about--the object (in this example, the screen on the window) is so close to the camera and the subject is so far beyond it, that the object lies outside of the image's depth of field, rendering it so blurry as to be undetectable. I've seen fabulous images using this simple technique before and thought it would be an excellent way to add a bit more unique flair to my equine photography, as I have yet to see any equine photographer use natural filters like that.

So I tried with Toler. The above picture was "the best" of the bunch I'd taken, and it doesn't really give me the effect it was supposed to. It was windy that day, so the seeded grass I was holding up in front of the lens was probably getting blown forward a bit. I do plan on trying it again, and again--essentially until I master it.

As for the photo below, I have only one thing to say about it: Look at Toler's topline! Lo! I see muscle! =)

Dragon Fruit

2010-06-26T09:19:00.003-05:00

Well, my lovely readers. I completed my first piece with pastels. It was just a "learn as I go" piece, so nothing terribly special or fancy, but I'm still pleased with the results--except for the background, which I hate. A week ago (well, half a week ago maybe) I decided I wanted to get into pastels. Mainly because I really miss painting. Alas, as of yet I still don't have a suitable space to set up my easel and painting supplies. Particularly a place that would not quickly become a certain fuzzy cat's new favorite local. I'm thinking cat hair isn't the proper way to build up a surface. ;) Painting "plein air" (outside, on location) would be ideal, but so far the weather hasn't been terribly ideal. Either it's raining or it's so freaking humid *I* would melt, no mention to the painting process.

I have always enjoyed and appreciated pastel pieces, granted some more than others. Though, I do reject the trend of calling pastel pieces "paintings" but that's probably just because I'm a snob about such things. So, I went out and got a very cheap set of soft pastels--24 basic tones and 12 earth tones. I soon discovered I should have bought the 12 gray tones as well, but now I'll wait on that. If I get into this hard core, I'm going to want nicer pastels to work with anyway. (At which point I'll also want to get a set of pastel pencils.)

As soon as I had the basic supplies, I dove in. A few mark experiments on a test page, a little fooling around with blending and layering, and I started the piece now posted above. It was fun. I kept a little photo-and-note record of the progress, from the sketch stage to each leaf. I do think I should have gotten pastel paper, or at least something with more tooth, but that'll be the next stage. I have four sheets of watercolor paper, which has a lot of texture to it. Learn the materials, find a basic method, then start to work with the paper. I'm excited though! And I even have a series brewing in my mind.

Tri-Purple

2010-06-23T21:21:00.003-05:00

Another from my week away. You probably can't tell, but I actually toned down the green quite a bit for this one, so the purple of the flowers would pop more. The grass was *so* green.

Sway

2010-06-22T12:29:00.004-05:00

Maybe you remember the old barn from our cottage? Well, I took a ton of photos of it when I was up there a few weeks ago. From just about every angle I could think of. There was a wonderfully atmospheric dark, brewing sky (it rained pretty much every day we were there), so I took a lot of shots with the intention of turning them black and white. Oh, I so miss the Hasselblad and its rich black and white radiant capture capabilities. But these turned out pretty well, I thought. I would have liked more contrast, like I got out of We Who Enter Here. But, the gloomy darkness of the above shot really works for me.

This one was wonderfully vibrant in color, but that didn't translate very well into b/w. I pushed the color levels on it, though, especially the yellow and orange, and now I'm fairly happy with it. There aren't any real highlights in it, though, which is why it feels much flatter. And you know, when I was taking it, I thought I wouldn't like the tire tracks leading into the field. But it works out all right; gives it a little extra depth and curve into the frame.

Deep as an ocean

2010-06-14T10:02:00.002-05:00

I was out of town last week. I was going to post a "I'll be gone" post, but blogger was down every time I went to do so. Oh well. I do have a ton of images to go through now! (No, really, I have hundreds of photos to catch up on, like the ones of Toler I did two weeks ago as well as a few older shoots, plus now the ones I took last week. It'll be all sorts of fun and new. XD

Son of Icarus

2010-06-04T17:41:00.005-05:00

I did a photoshoot with Toler the other day. =) Got him all cleaned up and took him to one of the resting paddocks to turn loose. He was so excited about the long grass (all to himself), he wasn't sure if he wanted to prance around or eat. So, he chose a combination of both. (See the chunk of grass in his mouth? Haha.)

I didn't do a terribly good job picking the time of day and weather, though. The sky was all over the place, lighting between really dark and rainy-like and too much direct sunlight. And, because I was out there on my own (meaning I had to both direct the horse via lunge-whip and man my camera), I knew I wasn't going to be able to cater to the lighting for every shot. Welcome Sensitivity Priority Mode.

So, I have a ton of shots. Of course, because they are all of Toler, I like every single one of them. Even if they're ridiculous or photographically awful. This one, however, is currently one of my favorites. It's the only one I've had time to work on yet, and I gave it a bit of extra attention for an added punch. I wanted a near-HDR look with it, with lots of radiance, contrast, lights, darks, and most importantly, I wanted to keep the sky. I ended up giving it a warmer temp treatment and then splicing two versions of it together in GIMP (a photoshop-like program). I used a brighter version for Toler and the grass, and added in the sky from a darker version, and smoothed it together. All of that work makes me really miss the dark room and custom-made dodging and burning tools. Sooooo much simpler. XD

Art of Braiding

2010-05-11T10:16:00.003-05:00

Lately I've been braiding Toler before I ride, mostly for practice as I haven't done it in years, but also because I thought it would be a good way to strengthen my hands. That, and braiding is tooted as massage-like for horses, which I would tend to believe, depending on the braiding being done.

I finally found a method that's easiest (to do and on my hands), and even stays in better while riding. So, I took my camera yesterday and took some pictures. This one was taken after our ride, and you can see it's a little looser, but still hanging in well. I had to do some photoshop here, adding a duplicate layer in watercolor effect than blending it in with the original photo to add a little richness to the details, and a bit of extra weight to the blacks. I just thought the wrap-around composition was cute for showing off a braid.

I'm doing a little blog-meshing today, so if you want to see more braided-horse photos, check out Not Quite Hercules. I'm on my way to post them right...now.

Genre Frontiers

2010-04-27T17:22:00.002-05:00

For the past few months I've had a character and plot brewing in my mind for a science-fiction novel, a genre I've never written in (a genre I don't read a whole lot in, either, at least not yet). It's definitely going to be a rather dark novel with a villain type as the main character. I'm actually rather excited about the character, and I do have quite a bit formulated in my mind.

I'm just having a much harder time than usual bringing anything out to the page. So far I've only been able to write sketch-scenes (more like exercises and such). Usually I don't have that sort of problem. The first sentence is the hardest, but as soon as that's down the rest just comes as it wants. That's usually my way of things--my stories and characters really write themselves. I very rarely have any inclination to outline or do exercises or take notes--with the exception of the saga I've been working on for several years, but that's only to keep things straight, especially as the characters and basics have been through some rather extreme changes.

So now I'm trying to figure out if I'm having trouble starting with this because it's a different type of story than usual, or if that's just the character's style. He is rather nefarious, so, I wouldn't put it past him, but still. It probably doesn't help that I generally prefer to write one thing at a time, and I'm still working on the re-haul of the first part of the saga. So, there's my ramble for the month. XD

Spirit

2010-04-27T10:40:00.004-05:00

I love this sellenium toned version because of the foggy effect of the background near her ears. I couldn't get it to turn out that way with any other processing, though. One more for you, same mare:

Back in action

2010-04-23T01:12:00.002-05:00

I'm officially back from my unannounced hiatus. I just felt like I needed to take a step back from the blogsphere for a while. Nothing big; I just needed to take a break. I did miss all my blogger friends, and I probably have a lot yet to catch up on. Progress, progress.

At least I come bearing news and fresh photos!

A few weeks ago (the end of March, actually, I think) I went with a barn friend to watch our young riders at a jumping schooling show. I used to take Toler to those shows all the time, but hadn't been there in five years or so; it was nice to see how the place had (or had not) changed. Our girls did *great!* They placed well in nearly all their classes and we even had some division awards. =)

Here's a photo of one of the girls on Talisman, probably the cutest pony I've ever met. They make a really cute pair out in the show ring. Talisman's got an unmistakably flashy spunk to him. I was able to take a lot of cute pictures of them.

And now for my bigger news...I started a new blog! It's an equestrian-specific blog chronicling the (re)training journey of Toler and myself. It will probably be a bit equine-terminology-heavy, but I welcome everyone to follow it if you're interested--even if you're not a horse person. I'll be doing day-by-day (or event-by-event) training posts, sharing exercise diagrams, general horse talk, tack and bitting talk, equine nutrition and health, and general equestrian theory and book discussion.

I present Not Quite Hercules!

The Moose and I

2010-03-20T18:43:00.004-05:00

Off post-topic, but...You know what makes me happy? Finally finding the tea I loved after looking for it for *two* years. Not only that, but 4 oz. of the loose leaf blend came in the mail today. A grin to anyone who can tell me what I'm drinking right now. =)

This photo was taken at Toler's first show. ( Fall of '03? I can't quite remember.) It was a dressage show, and we won High Point for our division (earning a big neck ribbon that only just barely fit around Toler's neck). Somewhere we have a video of his first test--though I can't bear to watch myself ride. It was a pretty perfect day. We don't have many photos of it, sadly, and the photo CD we ordered from the roll of film seems to have started to (horribly) degrade, as all the images have huge amounts of noise and speckles on them. So, I did some PS doctoring on this shot to make it at least presentable for my Awesome Photoblog. (=

But this post isn't really going to be about that photo, or even that first show, really. See, ever since that first show season we've done nothing but recover and return to the basics. Injury, retraining, injury, retraining. It feels like a never-ending cycle, which my being away for college didn't help.

Most of the time I wonder where we would be if none of those setbacks had happened. If I had gone to college here, in town. I'm not really sure. Maybe we'd be jumping 3'6" without a fault. Maybe we'd be finessing tempi changes, the passage, reworking canter pirouettes. Maybe we'd be old pros at the training-level three-day events, which, honestly, had always been my riding goal. Cross country over big, wide, solid fences. Over drops and water jumps. The sport of trust, endurance, athleticism, and a dollop of insanity.

After our latest setback--our jumping accident two summers ago--I'm not really even sure I will ever complete a cross-country course. I typically feel fine about the prospect of being an eventer. Enthusiastic, even. But then, in the saddle, counting strides to the base of a simple 2'3" oxer, I get caught by nerves and doubt, a tiny corner of my head pondering the worst. I find, after over ten years of riding, that suddenly *I'm* the one needing a boost of confidence, the one feeling wobbly and insecure. Like the roles have changed overnight. Somehow I've become the cautious rider. No longer the ambitious "crazy" of the barn, the one nicknamed (until I got Toler, at least,) "Velcro-Butt." I tell myself we're healing.

Toler does his best these days to instill my confidence in him. And, really, he has matured so much in the past few years. So much, in fact, that my mother can ride him quite comfortably. He has to hold his own jumping, now, no longer relying on me to hold him over every fence or correct his striding and balance. Not when I'm focusing so much on confidence. Sometimes I think he has decided that he let me down that summer. I hold his nose close to my body, kiss the soft hair between his ear and forelock.

I think the worst part of retraining isn't the repetition, the boredom of the old and already-(once)-conquered. The worst part is learning, again, to trust. Completely. Without question.

Trust.

Overlook

2010-03-15T10:32:00.003-05:00

It has been one of those low photo-inspiration weeks. I get really excited for art and photography this time of year, then everything gets muddy and ick and while I feel excited to go out and take photos or something, I can't get over the "yuck" factor. Now it's starting to warm up a bit more, the sun is shinning, the mud is a little less suck-your-boot-off-your-foot...It's even 50 degrees outside, which to me means t-shirt time. (Unless it's windy, then I'll stick with what I've been wearing for the past month, which is a t-shirt with a long sleeved shirt underneath.) Haha, you may think I'm crazy, but that's okay. Viking blood in my veins--warmer than rum, almost. *big grin*

All right. I told myself I would write this morning. (This technically counts, yes?)

Into Light

2010-03-08T09:40:00.003-06:00

We've entered into the "tween" phase of spring. There's still enough snow left on the ground, but everyday it recedes more and more from the edges of the lawn, from the street and curb. At the stable, that means only one thing: Mud. Deep, wet mud that squelches under your feet and attempts to eat your boots with every step. The horses, for the most part, don't mind it. For one, they can get dirty. A favorite passtime, not unlike how dogs love to roll in whatever smells foulest for their two-leggers.

It's around this time of the year, when the air is warming but still chilly, when the snow fades but never melts completely, when the whole world feels like a giant puddle of mud, that it seems nothing green could ever grow from it. It's a silly feeling considering there are already hints of life stirring from under the snow crystals over the flowerbeds.

So, here's to that forth-coming first shoot, the first glimmer of green in an otherwise monotone world, the first bud journeying into light.

Somehow we stay

2010-03-01T10:52:00.004-06:00

This is evidently Toler's current girlfriend. I can't think of her name at the moment, but maybe one of my barn chicas will think of it and let me know. ;) Anyway, as soon as the geldings quieted down (:cough: Porthos :cough:), the mares came over and socialized with them over the fence. This mare wouldn't leave Toler alone, haha. She was perfect for getting some nice eye shots, though. This shot was color treated (amped up the blues and purples to get a richer non-dingy black) in Lightroom.

And here, have some noses:

Antics and Blanket-Wedgies

2010-02-26T10:12:00.003-06:00

Oh, Porthos. The not-so-elusive but very photogenic troublemaker. Much to Toler's dissatisfaction, Porthos wouldn't leave me alone while I was taking pictures. He seemed to think that I had grain in my camera bag. Magical grain that appears out of thin air. It just needs to be "activated" by diving one's nose into the falsely empty bag an undetermined number of times.

When that plan failed, it was his job to hold onto Toler's lead rope, something that Toler, his alpha, did NOT approve of. After this plan failed, there was only one thing left to do--interrupt every photo he possibly could. Hence how I discovered that the hair of Porthos' star is longer than the rest of his hair. It probably just has yet to shed, but I thought it was amusing.

But, Porthos' main antics in the paddock involves riling up all the other horses so that they can all thunder around the paddock, particularly when The Ladies are nearby/watching. Now, this is a job that circulates among two or three of the horses, and each have a different way of going about it. Most of them, however, just try to irritate the other horses by getting too close, instigating petty biting rows, etc--a plan easily thwarted by Toler, who hates being pestered and needs only turn his back on them. The prospect of getting kicked by Mister Giant isn't all that thrilling, somehow.

Porthos, however, has developed a better tactic, geared specifically towards the colder weather:

Yes. Blanket-wedgies. In the beginning of my "shoot," I watched him employ this tactic three times. He'd quietly and oh-so-innocently sneak up behind a horse, then grab their blanket at the top of the rump and jerk. Typically hard/high enough that the hind leg straps (which criss-cross between the hind legs to help keep the blanket in place) draw tight and create the desired, highly motivating wedgie effect.

Sometimes I think I need to buy a digital camcorder and create a web-documentary. Really, you just can't make this stuff up.

No Pink Polish

2010-02-25T18:42:00.003-06:00

And this is why Toler is such a good boy: I'm out in the paddock taking photos, and suddenly it dawns on me (in that photographer's idea sort of way where no thought actually occurs) that it would just be "so totally awesome" to get a macro shot of his hoof line. So, I give Toler (standing very statue-like in the middle of the hay) a pat on the shoulder and crouch down on the hay with my face (and expensive camera) not three inches from his hoof where I proceed to fuss with the exposure settings and focus. Any other horse probably wouldn't have noticed that I was down there and smacked me. Toler? Nope. He acted as though it were the most usual thing to do. (Though, at the end, he did decide that I had treat on my back. Tricksty two-leggers and their complex blanket-skins, but there *had* to be a treat somewhere on my back. Maybe hiding behind my ponytail and bandanna. No? All right then.)

Anyway. I'm not sure I like how the shot turned out, but, at least it was fun to take. XD

Can't help falling

2010-02-23T12:16:00.003-06:00

And look at that; a new photo to go with the new blog-look. =) I took this yesterday with my lensbaby. I took a ton of photos--the horses were being quite the group of characters. More on the way. Like, tomorrow, probably.

Quasi-New Layout (Logo!)

2010-02-23T12:12:00.003-06:00

And here it is, folks--the new face of Soulstrings. I changed up the header, added my new logo to the top of the sidebar, added some matching links (including a new Bio page) and tweaked a few other things. Hope you like it!

(Sometimes) they grow too fast

2010-02-14T16:26:00.017-06:00

Well, my lovely readers, I haven't been posting much recently. Instead of working on photos, I've been designing a logo, new header, and link buttons to minorly overhaul my blog. I finished the logo last week, which I'll unveil along with the rest of it hopefully by the end of this next week. I want to make this blog a little more website-like. It seemed to be the perfect solution to my needing a website, particularly because I was having a hard time designing one I liked when confined to those website builders.

Before I continue, I want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! <3 I am posting today in celebration of an odd breakthrough. Today, for the first time EVER, Toler peed *while* I was in the saddle!!! In celebration, I give you baby Toler pictures!!! (Captions and details of each photo at the bottom of this post.) NOTE: None of these photos were taken by me!

I know, this probably seems like an odd thing to get excited about. See, ever since we got Toler, he had a strange aversion to peeing anywhere other than his ultra-private stall. He wouldn't pee in the paddock, even if he really had to go, and he certainly wouldn't pee in the arena or even in semi-private areas. (If another horse was present, forget about it.) Yes, he was very shy. We thought this very unusual, because up until the few weeks before he came to us from Canada, he lived outdoors day in night.

Staying in one place, this unusual behavior probably would have been fine. So long as he was brought inside for the evening on a fairly regular schedule, he was just like a dog waiting for Mommy to come home so he could "go out." It became a problem, however, because Toler is a show horse. We would load him up into the trailer and take him to shows, using temporary stalls that typically weren't fully boarded in the sides, if he had a stall at all (in which case he'd be tied to the side of the trailer). Obviously, there's no privacy to those accommodations. Toler just simply wouldn't pee, then, and if I were unfortunate enough to have a class after his bladder was full, he would (understandably) be extremely grouchy.

Something had to be done about it. Toler couldn't go on peeing only in his stall. He had to overcome his "shyness" and grow up. The solution: train him like a racehorse. Many racehorses, because they have to undergo urine tests throughout the racing process, are taught to pee on command. Usually by whistling or clapping. Thus began our training.

We started by whistling a specific tune every-time he stretched out to pee in his stall and rewarding him with pats when he was done. Then we took him outside his comfort level--into the arena. We would stand in a corner of the arena (then the corner occupied by a sawdust pile, which greatly helped the stall-to-arena transition) and whistle. We'd stand for hours if necessary. If he had to pee, we stood in that corner of the arena and whistled until he gave up the ghost and went, usually with a very ashamed and pouty look.

It has only been in the past half-year that Toler would pee as a result of our whistling, and even then, only if he had to go. A few months ago he started to pee in the paddock all by himself. Within the past month, he will try to pee if I whistle, finally conditioned enough that the whistled tune makes him want to pee.

And now, today, for the first time ever, Toler peed while I was in the saddle. All of his own accord. (I was so stunned, I couldn't even manage to whistle.) The behavior most horses wouldn't even blink at, has taken Toler two years.

Photo 1) Toler at 3 months old. All legs! (And those cute little ears and tail!) I believe that's his mother, Little Mary, being grumpy on the right side.

Photo 2) Toler standing next to his mom. Again, he's only 3 months old here--and just look at the height difference between Toler and his mom! (His mom is 16.3 hands tall.)

Photo 3) Toler, 3 months, with his mom and a paddock buddy. We met the other guy when we visited Toler in Canada (the day we bought him), who was in the private run next to Toler, and very curious about the whole meeting--moreso than Toler was, to be honest.

Photo 4) Toler at 1 year old, just starting his incredibly gawky growth phase. See, most breeders offer photos of warmbloods (esp. Hanoverians) to prospective buyers of the horse as a 3 month-old (unless the horse in question is already fully matured) because adult warmbloods look most like they did as 3 month-olds. Between 3 months and ~4 years (4-6 for some Hanoverians) they do a lot of filling out and "catch-up" growing. Hence why, when we expressed interest in Toler, we were sent not only a relatively current video of him running around, but also photos of him as a 3-month-old. Sadly we never got newborn photos of him. :(

And who is this? Photo 5) Toler's full sister Ilea at two months old! (I'm not sure if that's Little Mary next to her; I can't see the only marking I know her by.) We got this photo maybe a year after we'd bought Toler, and were told that she'd already been sold. (Elaine, who bred Toler, said Ilea was just as affectionate and sensible as Toler.) I wish I was still in contact with Elaine to hear how Ilea's turned out--it would be interesting to hear how tall she is. Maybe I'll have luck finding Elaine's address again.

We could run for miles

2010-02-08T10:08:00.003-06:00

This has become one of my favorite photos from this last summers' foal shoots. I color-treated it in Lightroom to bring out that sunny radiance, but otherwise didn't touch it. Taking it was one of those moments, looking through the viewfinder, I thought "well, one silhouette shot can be okay..."

Today I'm going to sit down and finish processing all the amaryllis photos. (Haha, this little shutterbug took 90 of it. Some were macro lensbaby, though, and with that you kind of need to shoot like crazy.) Then I'm going to fiddle around with Lightroom's web-gallery module.

Beloved readers, I'm thinking about making a website. I found some free flash builders I like (Wix and Moonfruit), then I thought, maybe I should just look into webhosts (I'm thinking I like iPage) and build one with a custom domain name. Ideally, my website would include a few photo galleries, pages on my writing/painting/composition, a general bio, contact page with network links, and a feed of this blog. I don't want to stop blogging with Blogger. I've grown too attached to my little Blogger circle. The only problem is that I don't really know anything about building/maintaining websites let alone what one should look for in webhosts. *le sigh* I kind of feel like my university should have made a basic web-designing course required for graduation. It would have gone so much further than their required freshman studies courses...

Amaryllis

2010-02-07T10:21:00.005-06:00

I'm sorry I've been away for like a week. I've been concentrating on writing and doing some drawing, plus my daily "required" reading (I hate having time limits like library due dates for reading). So, I haven't had a whole lot of time to work with photos. I have some new ones of my grandparents' gorgeous amaryllis from two weekends ago.

This shot, taken with my normal camera lens, was tweaked with GIMP. For those who don't know GIMP, it's a free program like photoshop. My own photoshop, which is widely outdated, has begun to do odd things. Namely not actually activating the tools I click on. It doesn't happen all the time, but, as my version of Photoshop was the original, I'm getting paranoid that it's becoming uncompatable with the system. (I suppose it was only a matter of time. ) However, like anyone can actually afford to get Photoshop these days? (Adobe, if you're reading this, there is no way you need ~600 dollars of profit from every program, list priced at 700 bucks.) So, long story short, I'm trying to get familiar with GIMP, which might be more of a pain than anything else in the world.

Anyway. So. This photo. I used a "lomo" script to simulate the look of a plastic/toy camera, just for kicks. Here's the original. The only thing I don't like about the lomo script is that it includes a slight blur mask, which means you lose that little bit of focus. Otherwise, it's kind of fun. =)

Dreamers

2010-01-27T10:06:00.002-06:00

I hate when I don't have new (as in from a new shoot) photos to share. Yes, there are tons of photos you guys haven't seen. Matter of fact, I might just track down some older (~2008) photos and start posting them, just for something "new." There's a bunch that I had up on my Uber gallery when Uber died and I lost my pretty gallery and site. (Uber was a really slick build-your-own website geared towards artists of any kind. I gathered quite a few artist friends on Uber, some of whom I still see on Facebook (where we fled after our online palaces were destroyed, mostly because nearly everyone already had a Facebook profile.) Anyway, my point is, after I lost that online gallery, there were a bunch of photos I just never dug out to put back online. We'll see. I have a bunch of reading to catch up on today, and a horse to run around. (I'm going to be evil and make him work his "mooscles" today.) Just one more photo for you before I go:

And they say horses don't smile. =) (Now, really. What did you think it was? Mwahahaa.)

Needle Nocturne

2010-01-25T14:31:00.002-06:00

I really encourage you to click on this one for the full-view. Color treated in Lightroom to bring out the marbled texture and colors brought on by the lensbaby +4 macro effect on the background. I have several versions of this photo, each with a different color treatment (plus the original version), and I still haven't decided which I like best. For instance, I like the color best in this one. The original does have it's charms, but I love the light and dark patterns of the selenium toned version, the "twinkle" effect of the aged version, and the mood in the sepia version.

Frost

2010-01-23T18:42:00.003-06:00

The days have really been blending together on me this past week or so, but today felt like a surge forward. Last night I got a solid few pages churned out on my novel, I'm two days ahead on my daily reading (library book), and I also actually rode my horse for the first time in practically three weeks. Long story short, Toler had a bizarre, very delayed reaction to a vaccine he got in NOVEMBER. He's finally back to normal, albeit with a bit less muscle and a lot more belly. I feel like I'm finally on the right track--mentally, creatively, and spiritually. And that, my dear readers, is a wonderful feeling.

Looking back

2010-01-22T16:19:00.004-06:00

The past few days I've been going through some very old photos of horses at the barn over the years. Some of them have grown, some of them have passed, and some seem to hardly have changed.

This photo was taken in 2001, of Porthos, who has been featured throughout the blog: here, here, here, and here, for instance. Porthos is extremely photogenic. Has been his whole life, obviously. He is also probably one of the oddest horses at the barn. For one, he is probably the only horse I know that would prefer to be inside all day. If he is enjoying his paddock-time, it is only because he's running around like a madman (madgelding?) trying to rile everyone up. He's the trickster, the pest, the goof. He also snores in his sleep and has very active dreams. When he was a foal, it was commonplace to see him "cantering" in his bed of straw.

Blustery

2010-01-22T13:48:00.001-06:00

Sometimes Voices Lie

2010-01-17T11:23:00.004-06:00

Sometimes Voices Lie was my first real photo series. I'd had big plans for the series (done for a photography final in college), but I was lucky enough to come down with pneumonia the month I had for working on it. I fluctuated between being healthy enough that I only coughed quite a lot to not being able to walk down the hall. So. Instead of finding subject matter outside, I found everyday objects to transform through my Lensbaby (2.0) with my +4 or +10 macro lens-attachments. I then decided that I would pair every image with a line from my novel in progress. The idea was to push the boundaries between what you saw and what you wanted to see after reading the quote.

This image, called Vardøger, had the following quote paired with it: "Naessa followed the whim of a laugh through the dream-forest, the laugh weaving between the trees like a whir of light."

A fire was in my head

2010-01-16T11:16:00.002-06:00

I had some excitement last night: perhaps you remember that Lensbaby call for submissions I answered in December? Well, my image Give, Take is an Honorable Mention!! There were so many gorgeous photos submitted that I can't believe my good fortune. I encourage you to go check out the images selected for publication as well as the images in the Honorable Mention gallery. =)

I am working on making digital copies of some Lensbaby b/w macro abstraction prints I did as a series last year. Hopefully I can get one up sometime today.

Other, unrelated news: I may be good with software, but I'm an idiot with hardware. What I mean to say is that the hard drive replacement didn't happen. Yours truly ordered one with the wrong kind of drive-to-motherboard connections. I didn't even know there were other types, but that's what happens when you're keeping an "older" machine alive.

To reward you for reading my newsy-post, here's the sister image to Give, Take, which I don't have a title for yet:

Whorls

2010-01-12T21:59:00.005-06:00

Some more equine macro for you, taken the same time as the previously posted ones.

These are images of whorls (not sure if there is a technical term for them)--spots on a horse's coat where the direction of hair changes. Not all horsemen(/horsewomen) realize, but whorls are like equine fingerprints. There are general locations for them, but every horse's whorls are unique. In exact location, in shape, in size. I had thought it would be fun to go through the horses at the barn (some of them, at least) and do a macro series on their individual whorls. I still might do that; just have to work out a notation method and get around to it. We'll see.

In other, completely unrelated news: I might be a little scarce for the next few days. The replacement hard drive for this machine will (hopefully) be arriving. So, I'll have that to install and an entire system to rebuild. I've been going through all the files on here, so that should be taken care of. Still, it's a lot of work getting a system back up and running, as I'm sure at least a few of you are aware of. I do have a laptop I could post from, but something tells me I'll be too busy to think about it. (Well, to think about anything other than checking email, which I'm compulsive about...) I'll see you soon, beloved readers! Until then, fare thee well. =)

Invisible Cities

2010-01-09T13:13:00.002-06:00

Ooh, aah! Two posts for one Saturday! I bring you another feature, this time of my all-time favorite author, Italo Calvino.

Calvino is often exalted by the postmodern literary crowd for his novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. Indeed, that was my first experience with him, and at first I wasn't all that thrilled by him. I had to read the postmodern gem during the summer preceding my freshman year at college, for an experience known only by other Lawrence University survivors: Freshman Studies. But, I shall not regale you with the stories from my Alma mater. (Nourishing, indeed.) "If on a winter's night...," or "That book," as most of us now refer to it, wasn't really as bad as we all make it out to be. But really, what else did they expect us, freshly graduated high school students eager to "shake loose" during our last summer as adolescents, to make of it? (The blurb on the back of the book reads: "If on a winter's night a traveler turns out not to be one novel but ten, each with a different plot, style, ambience, and author, and each interrupted at a moment of suspense. Together, they form a labyrinth of literatures, known and unknown, alive and extinct, through which two readers, a male and a female, pursue both the story lines that intrigue them and one another. They are the true heroes of the novel, for what would writing be without readers?" I think you see my point.)

To be honest, I don't remember why I thought to pick up another of his books. Or even why I decided to discover that he had written other books. But I did. And that book was Difficult Loves. And I was hooked.

My love for Calvino is nearly indescribable. I love him for the way he makes me feel when I read, the experience I have absorbing every line. He is not really a postmodern literary author. I mean, he is. (Was.) But he is far more than that: he is magic realism. He is Borges unrestricted. He explores the magic of childhood, stretching reality only the way children can. Or love can by lovers. He explores the endless stream of the universe and time through a character that defies our definitions of life and form. He maps every city imaginable. It is from his novel Invisible Cities, a stream of meditations and dialogues on cities, memories, inhabitants, form, and absence, from which I have selected my passage for you:

Whether Armilla is like this because it is unfinished or because it has been demolished, whether the cause is some enchantment or only a whim, I do not know. The fact remains that it has no walls, no ceilings, no floors: it has nothing that makes it seem a city, except the water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out horizontally where the floors should be: a forest of pipes that end in taps, showers, spouts, overflows. Against the sky a lavabo's white stands out, or a bathtub, or some other porcelain, like late fruit still hanging from the boughs. You would think the plumbers had finished their job and gone away before the bricklayers arrived: or else their hydraulic systems, indestructible, had survived a catastrophe, an earthquake, or the corrosion of termites.

Abandoned before or after it was inhabited, Armilla cannot be called deserted. At any hour, raising your eyes among the pipes, you are likely to glimpse a young woman, or many young women, slender, not tall of stature, luxuriating in the bathtubs or arching their backs under the showers suspended in the void, washing or drying or perfuming themselves, or combing their long hair at a mirror. In the sun, the threads of water fanning from the showers glisten, the jets of the taps, the spurts, the splashes, the sponges' suds.

I have come to this explanation: the streams of water channeled in the pipes of Armilla have remained in the possession of nymphs and naiads. Accustomed to traveling along underground veins, they found it easy to enter into the new aquatic realm, to burst from multiple fountains, to find new mirrors, new games, new ways of enjoying the water. Their invasion may have driven out the human beings, or Armilla may have been built by humans as a votive offering to win the favor of the nymphs, offended at the misuse of the waters. In any case, now they seem content, these maidens: in the morning you hear them singing. (Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities, 49-50.)

And to answer your unspoken question, no, I have not yet reread That book. (Yet.)

Cities within eyes

2010-01-09T12:49:00.005-06:00

Okay, so you have Judy to blame for more horse-eye shots. Just teasing. I love'em, and realized I hadn't posted these two yet. Note to self: add labels "equine eye" and "macro" to appropriate posts.

I would really like to do more with horses and macro. Not necessarily with eyes (I was informed that some people, not necessarily my beloved readers, but some people find eyes creepy?) but there are lots of possibilities. And to my knowledge, not many equine photographers have thought to add macro to the list. I also want to do more with natural filters, because I was reading DIY Photography post on the subject and was totally inspired.

Inflection

2010-01-08T10:14:00.002-06:00

I missed yesterday. Whoops. Well, folks. It looks like the hard drive on my desktop is dying. It's got some bad sectors that will spread. So, now to decide on what to do about it. I have one final ray of hope this morning, a diagnostic checker from the hard drive's manufacturer that *could* repair the sectors. We'll see.

Anyway. That's a photo of Porthos, who's appeared a few times on this blog. He's the bonefied nuissance in Toler's paddock. Likes to try and rile everyone up. He's also the only horse I have ever known who does not like to be outside. Yep. Exactly.

Flock

2010-01-06T21:22:00.003-06:00

A lensbaby pinhole optic shot. I have to do more experimenting. I'm not actually sure what controlling the "lensbaby" effect changes. Maybe it doesn't affect anything. Like I said, I need to do more experimenting with it. I have noticed that doing pinhole with an slr-shaped camera is much more difficult than with a box pinhole camera. Seems counter-intuitive.

And because I can't simply leave you with that, unimpressive image, I will leave you with this (hopefully at least slightly less) unimpressive image:

Phalaenopsis

2010-01-05T17:57:00.003-06:00

My mother's orchid, of the phalaenopsis genus, has been particularly prosperous, giving us all seven blooms--the most she's ever had. So, I was "encouraged" to photograph it. Not that I needed much "encouragement" to get out my camera, but there you have it nonetheless. I did the whole shebang--used a curtain as a backdrop and got out two big lights. Yes, it would have been better with a darker backdrop, but I didn't think to pin a black cloak to the curtain until the end of the shoot, when I set up my tripod and did some pinhole and zone plate lensbaby optic photos (which I'll probably post examples of tomorrow).

I'm not the biggest flower and potted plant person. I appreciate them, and enjoy them in houses--even kept two plants in my dorm room, though that was short lived because one died and the other was infested with fruit flies, which drove me completely homicidal. Er--planticidal?

Anyway, I do like orchids. Granted I don't know many people who dislike orchids, but, that's beside my point. Mostly I like the cultural and anthropological connections with them, which is also what I enjoy about other plants, flowering or otherwise. (Though good "stories behind the name" aren't always easy to come by.)

For instance, the name "phalaenopsis" means "phalaena-like" referring to the genus phalaena, or a group of large moths. (Note the phalaena genus of moth is an outdated name classification.) This is due to the apparent resemblance between a phalaenopsis orchid and a moth in flight.

We Who Enter Here

2010-01-03T09:40:00.002-06:00

Another one I'd sworn I'd posted here. This is a photo taken of the homestead of what is now my grandparents' cottage. They've pulled numerous relics from it, including a Norwegian bible and newspaper clippings. The little "cabin" is genuinely tiny. Most houses these days have bigger bathrooms. It is hard to imagine a family living in such a small space, let alone a single farmer. The structure isn't sound anymore (naturally), so it clings to its spot in the backyard in near silence.

Brand New

2010-01-02T09:39:00.002-06:00

It's totally going to take me at least a month to adjust to writing "2010" or even ".../10" on things. Haha.

Anyway. Not much new here. Gearing up to watch the latest Doctor Who installment tonight. I'll have a box of Kleenex at the ready. It's the last episode with David Tennant, so I will likely bawl my eyes out. *le sigh*

Earth Angel

2010-01-01T11:38:00.003-06:00

So. There are a whole bunch of photos I'd sworn I'd posted on my photoblog, but if I did there appears to be no record of them. I put them on my DA account, so maybe I'm just thinking of that. Anyway. I might be posting some of them here for the next few days, mostly because I really like them, but my apologies to those who have already seen them.

Also, for this post: my goals for 2010! I don't really do resolutions. I find them generally rather pointless. But I decided that, this year, I would outline things I hope to do. I'm not necessarily resolving to do them (all). I'm not posting them all here, mostly because this is my photoblog rather than my personal journal (I have an LJ for that), so I'm just posting a few writing, art, and riding related goals here.

Complete the overhaul of my fantasy novel, preferably by the end of March.
Start working again (finally) on my Norse literary/magic realism novel. It is *long* overdue.
Perhaps start working on a sci-fi novel. The ideas are there, and the MC is getting very persistent. Poor guy has a rough road destined for him.
Design and start to shoot a non-equine photo series. There are a few things I'd like to do. Some technical problems will have to be resolved.
Work out the technical kinks involved with my pinhole/zone plate optic, such as a good light metering system, lighting concept for indoor and outdoor work, shutter (I have to learn how to use the bulb setting, really, as there isn't a setting for long-enough exposure times I need).
Find space to paint. I miss it.
Ideally, I'd love to start saving to buy a used Hasselblad. I really miss working with it. My old photo profs claim you could find them on ebay for between 50-100 bucks. Perhaps they have super powers for finding such deals...I have had no such luck. Unless I'm remembering it wrong, which seems more likely.
Retrain The Moose. Again. Ideally for the last time. Or else I shall bubble-wrap him.
Finish teaching him the half-step so I can start training the piaffe. Might be a long-shot, considering the causes leading to the need for goal #8.
Start jumping again. Some of my readers know about the jumping accident my moose and I had two summers ago--while we're jumping small stuff, we're not even back to jumping 2'3" yet, and I see no reason for this. It will even help with goal #8.

Well, I figure I've blabbed on long enough. ;)

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T18:03:00.003-06:00

To get you thinking about fresh starts, and warmer weather. =) I wish everyone a wonderful New Year.

Regardez-moi

2009-12-30T17:05:00.003-06:00

I thought we needed a break from winter photos. Here's a shot from a *long* time ago. As in, I was in high school when I took this. I haven't really done on any work on the image, if I did I would probably correct the slightly yellow color cast, make it a bit cooler. Anyway--kind of fun to look back on things.

Crystalline

2009-12-29T12:08:00.002-06:00

Glaze

2009-12-28T18:00:00.003-06:00

New photos! I've had them stewing in my camera for a week or so, and finally got around to uploading them onto the computer. I've gone through quite a few of them, so I'll start posting them. Some will go here and some will go to my DA account.

Between Yule and Christmas we had a freezing rain during the night, glazing everything with a layer of ice. By the time I finally made it outside, the ice was starting to fracture, melt, and fall off the branches, which made it fun for me. Lots of cold drips on the top of my head.

This photo doesn't have the best of focus--looks almost like I took it with my lensbaby, which I didn't. I think the lens got a little "frogged" up when I wiped a drop from it. Anyway, I just liked the range of colors in this photo. Whoever said winter was just white couldn't be more wrong. ;)

Contenders

2009-12-28T10:11:00.002-06:00

Just submitted my photos for the Lensbaby "contest." You can view them and all the other entries--hundreds of photos!--here. Voting doesn't take place until Jan. 1-7, so I'll keep you updated. Cross your fingers for me!

Now to go let the muse out of the box... I've been developing a sci-fi/fantasy in my mind for the last few months and the main character is getting rather loud lately. I'm not going to start working on his story--I like to only work on one novel at a time--but I might allow him some leg room with an exercise. Otherwise it's back to my other novel. I'm determined to have it completed by spring--maybe even edited by then. We'll see. I guess being unemployed does have a perk: time to write! (And ride, for that matter.)

Fugitive Paths

2009-12-27T20:56:00.005-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday week--not too much stressing, and so forth. I had a good one myself. =)

This'll be a bit of a hodge-podge post. Another wintry trail photo for you, in case you're still enjoying the mood of wintry festivities (like me). I did a bit of temperature adjustment with it, to make it a little more warm. I really miss walking in those woods with my college friends (the property and its lodge are owned by my now-old university, so I don't expect I'll really ever see them again).

Anyway. This week I'll be submitting two photos to Lensbaby. If chosen, they could get published in a Lensbaby book, which would be very exciting. I'll be submitting Atone and Give, Take. If there's a public vote, I'll be sure to let my beloved readers know. ;)

Lastly, I thought it would be nice to bring a highlight to some authors I enjoy. They are artists, after all, and as I like to feature my favorite artists, I decided they should be included. (Being a writer myself, this only seems fair.)

To do this, I'm not really going to give a review or synopsis, maybe just a comment or two. Mostly I'll just quote a passage. In writing, like how I view the world, I am drawn to the tiniest details, the images that glitter through the page, the moments and lines so perfect they can be tasted, touched, cupped in the hand like water--beheld for a second, but never captured. In reading, I am undone by these things, put back together again only by that final period. Like a dreamer turning over. When I edit, I try to push for these things, try to peel back the layers of ink so the language can breathe, leaving a wake of marks covering every line and margin. Perpetually desirous. Perpetually optimistic.

This first passage is taken from Anne Michaels' Fugitive Pieces, a novel I never would have picked up had it not been for one of my best friends at college. She'd been reading it herself, left it on the window sill while she left me alone for a moment. I read only the first paragraph, and I was captured. Not just hooked or intrigued--really, it's not generally the kind of story I go for--but Michaels' language was perfect, vivid. When I finally got my own copy, I read it with a pencil in hand and underlined the lines I loved most, the images I wanted to rub from the page and claim for my own. Looking through it now, 75% of the book must be underlined. It is haunting, mesmerizing, lyrical, and groping. Never have I read anything with such a sense of the dead.

I ran and fell, ran and fell. Then the river: so cold it felt sharp.
The river was the same blackness that was inside me; only the thin membrane of my skin kept me floating.
From the other bank, I watched darkness turn to purple-orange light above the town; the colour of flesh transforming to spirit. They flew up. The dead passed above me, weird haloes and arcs smothering the stars. The trees bent under their weight. I'd never been alone in the night forest, the wild bare branches were frozen snakes. The ground tilted and I didn't hold on. I strained to join them, to rise with them, to peel from the ground like paper ungluing at its edges. I know why we bury our dead and mark the place with stone, with the heaviest, most permanent thing we can think of: because the dead are everywhere but the ground. I stayed where I was. Clammy with cold, stuck to the ground. I begged: If I can't rise, then let me sink, sink into the forest floor like a seal into wax. -Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces

One more, just because it took me nearly an hour to select a passage. XP

I fill my pockets and my hands with stones and walk into the river until only my mouth and nose, pink lilies, skim the air. Muck dissolves from my skin and hair, and it's satisfying to see floating like foam on the surface the fat scum of lice from my clothes. I stand on the bottom, my boots sucked down by the mud, the current flowing around me, a cloak in a liquid wind. I don’t stay under long. Not only because of the cold, but because with my ears under the surface, I can’t hear. This is more frightening to me than darkness, and when I can’t stand the silence any longer, I slip out of my wet skin, into sound. -Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces

Spaces

2009-12-22T09:24:00.002-06:00

Like the space between words, I contemplate the cracks of sky.

Happy Yule!

2009-12-21T17:22:00.004-06:00

Wishing everyone a happy, blessed Yule!

Not much is going on here...Did some "last minute" shopping, went to the stable and spent time with the moose--er, horse, came back to find the tree strung with lights! Let the light shine. =)

I was going to share my favorite Norwegian folk tale, but I can't find my book...I shall search sometime this week, perhaps, and get back to you. ;)

Check in the box

2009-12-20T23:14:00.002-06:00

A very dull post for you.

I managed (finally) to add a working contact form box to Soulstrings. So, if anyone needs/desires, they can now contact me privately via the form. A permanent link to the contact form is now at the top of my side panel for easy reach. =)

I also backup-ed this blog for the first time! For those fellow bloggers who don't (yet) backup your blog, you should! You never know when something will happen and suddenly every post is gone. I used Blogger Backup, a free downloadable program that backups posts and comments to your local hard drive. In the event of a wipeout, there's even a button to restore all posts and comments.

In other news, I promise to get something more interesting posted in celebration of Yule/Xmas/insert-holiday-of-choice-here. I was going to tonight, but now I'm awfully tired. I want to do a little writing yet, of course. ;)

Courting

2009-12-15T00:52:00.001-06:00

Another poem for you! And the story of its creation...

I hear music through scenes in my mind. That is, when I listen to a song, I see a narration in my mind--images or characters or movements and colors, all expressing every musical phrase and note. This little quirk came especially handy in Music History classes, when my prof would ask us to write down our impressions of the pieces we were required to listen to every night. She never really cared what we said, so long as we put the listening experience into words. Some people described the music, the players, the instrumentation style. Some people tried to frame it in the historical context of the previous lecture. Not I. I wrote down little stories, adding in references to specific moments in the pieces. Once I wrote about a little girl with a red umbrella, dancing in the rain in her white ballet slippers. The narration of the piece followed her as she explored a world of rain, a world departing from her own. I can't remember the specific piece that inspired it any more, but I believe it was one of Haydn's. At the end there was a rather dramatic tonal shift, which became not only the end of the downpour, but also of reality stripping the little moment of magical splendor the girl had enjoyed.

My point is, that is how this poem came to be. Not from my music history notes, per say, but its images came to me through song. (Unfortunately, my original file containing the piece's information was corrupted two years ago. Luckily I'd written the poem by hand and still had it--on three post-it notes, no less.)

Courting

Sun-caught espresso
The color of your hair
As you ran through the grasses,
Tall as your chin, golden and seeded
Low whistles when the wind pushes them back
Bending the stalks but never breaking
Just as you always bend my thoughts,
Curling them around your thumb
Like a stray wisp of your silk-threaded dress.
We've spent hours here
Before this pond,
All the while dipping our toes into the cool,
The ebbs of shadows and flickering sky reflection
Upon your face, a dance of light
And I wondered what brush the artist would use
To capture the curl of your bang
Or the feathered gleam of your smile.
You leave me always crawling,
A star with no north to
Guide me,
And so we swim in the wilds,
Leave our clothes on the grassy bank
And pull leeches from our feet as the air pimples
Our skin.
We've come a long way from home
But I know afternoons never fade--
In some heart of time I know there is no present
Because there is no constant tock
From which we drag ourselves.
Even peering into the wrinkles of our faces I
Will see you as I see you now
And not the hollow of your eyes
Staring back at me without thought
Fingers straining for the hand that never came to
Hold them and bring you back to air.
Yes, sun-caught espresso
The color of your hair
As you ran through the grasses,
And I wondered so long
Trying to capture the flicker of your soul,
And now here is all that is left,
The seeded gold grasses and prairie and oak,
The weathered wood rowboat tied to shore
Of a pond whose leech-gray waters have been so still,
And when I look into them no ebbing of light do I see--
Like a stray wisp of your silk-threaded dress,
My will also breaks
And the silent waters ripple once again.

When stars fall

2009-12-11T09:05:00.004-06:00

Yay, more blizzardy photos! ;) Just outside the back door we have a triangular trestle, and a gigantic monster of a thorny plant growing around it. The creature is far from contained, but it never fails that a few birds make nests in it before we get around to pruning it. The snow got so heavy on the thorny branches that, not only did it resemble something you'd see in a forest (think curtain of doom), but it had toppled over the very sturdy tressel.

Somehow the snow was kinder to our little apple tree. I think the lensbaby emphasizes my point a little. ;)

Also from the Monster Plant. It's a bit out of focus, but I was more attracted to the effect of the branches anyway. Alien grapple-hooked appendages, anyone? XD

Wonderland

2009-12-10T17:24:00.004-06:00

Yesterday we got over 17 inches of snow. We'd already gotten a fairly good amount by the time I went to bed the night before, and I practically had to tear myself away from the window. Huge flakes falling, covering everything. We even had some thundersnow, which was pretty awesome. (One strike sounded like it was right on top of us.) Waking up was almost surreal--everything was white. Solid, blanketed, laden down, white. Branches touched the ground, bushes looked like twiggy cupcakes, and you couldn't see the difference between lawn and street.

Everyone in the neighborhood was home, and by 9am, stood outside with shovels and snow-blowers while the handful of smaller children chased each other around in the street. We got suited up and headed out ourselves, brushed snow off bushes and freed branches, watched the younger guys up the street try to shuffle cars in their driveway so one could get his mini-bed truck out. He barely made his way around the corner, fishtailing more than driving straight. I got my camera out and set about "exploring," then helped shovel.

Just after everyone had gotten things cleared out, the plows came down the street for the first time. They say dentists are the most hated among all professions. But I'm not sure they ever considered the plow driver. The poor guys work all hours making the streets drivable, keeping entire cities from shutting down completely, and yet every shoveler curses them for the foot-high wall of icy, compacted snow they deposit along every driveway, for blocking in cars left unwisely on the street.

All the magic of a snowday melts away the moment the street is cleared. Even with driveways and sidewalks uncovered, there is still a feeling of being cut-off, isolated like an island, hidden and detached from the ordinary, everyday world. For a few minutes before the plow, we can pretend that the world before us is new. Undiscovered. Transformed into something just beyond reality.

Stablelight

2009-12-07T00:02:00.004-06:00

My first real foray into texturing photos. I've done photoshop work with layers and such many, many times before, but I never really ventured into the "texture photography" or "digital art" realm of things before. I've thought about it. Sometimes I really like textured photographs, but I am very picky about it.

As such, I would really enjoy feedback on this one. Initial reactions are totally fine, even (and especially) if you don't like it or aspects of it. Should I try more like this?

For comparison's sake, here's the original (untouched photo, which I almost deleted because lighting is bad, etc):

To go from point A to point B, I introduced and messed with five textures, playing with transparency levels a lot and then going in and manually tweaking areas between layers. It was fun, and actually a lot quicker than I had anticipated. It probably only took two hours, not including the search for free, usable textures.

Hazy, without you

2009-12-05T22:13:00.002-06:00

I had to make up for icky-quality photos. XD

Silly boys

2009-12-05T10:16:00.002-06:00

Some not-very-good pictures for you--but they're of foals being cute, so I figured the subject matter would make up for the bad quality (they were taken when my camera was not listening to me because it was confused about aperture).

The little guy with the wide white blaze here is Caspian, and he's quite the character despite his standing as the lowest rung of the herd. (If we had a million dollars for horses, we probably would have bought him when he was two days old, haha.)

The grayish filly is Isis (her nickname, actually--I don't know how to spell her full name), and she was the little girl who lost her mom not to long ago. It was hard on her--having her and her mom's stall all to herself, but she got through it. For a while she was turned out in the outdoor arena with one of the younger "ponies" for company, but now that the other three foals are weaned she can go out in the paddock with them. This went over *very* well with her. She now spends her days chasing the two colts around, particularly Caspian, who she chases and bites on the butt. It's very cute.

I'm ashamed to say that I forgot the other colt's name. It's on the tip of my tongue but I can't quite recall it. He's been quite the rockstar--as soon as I was out there with my camera he was fighting with Isis for Prime Spot (aka in my face). As Toler's masseur says, "this is myspace, not facebook." (Go ahead, say it out loud; you know it's going to be your favorite personal-bubble comeback.) XD

On the other hand, I guess the boys like facebook better.

No cure for medicine

2009-12-04T22:53:00.002-06:00

A random title, I know. Just seemed like a "trippy" photo, so it might suit it? This is a shot taken with the "zone plate" optic installed in my lensbaby. I've hardly used it yet (successfully), mostly because it requires slow shutter speed which means I need to use my tripod. Considering I don't know what sort of shots I want to use it for yet, that means I've been pretty limited with my experimenting thus far. The other problem with it is that I have to make sure I have my backup battery with me--having the shutter open for a long time depletes the battery *very* rapidly. The last time I had everything set up, I was also using the "pinhole" option (same optic as zone plate, but with an aperture setting changed), which requires *SLOW* shutter--i.e. like 30-45 seconds if the light is fairly bright. So, between the two I got six photos taken before the battery I had in my camera died (I had already been using it the past week, so it wasn't fully charged any longer). So, I called it quits for the day.

Long story shorter: the zone plate optic acts a little like a pinhole. That is, it uses a very small aperture, which means depth of field is very big (close to infinity focus). Because of this, and the long shutter time, photos have a softness to them. They're in focus but shifted (unless the subject is moving at all, in which case it/they will be blurred), hazy. With the zone plate, it amplifies that haziness and bleeds light and color, creating a very atmospheric and moody image.

Put it simply: if pinhole photography were contemporary classical (think film) music, zone plate photography would be a Pure Moods CD. Okay, kind of a dodgy analogy, but I think you get the picture? ;)

I am really interested in the possibilities this will open up and I already have a few things in mind. I just have to get the setting right and figure out how best to do them. =)

I'll be at home

2009-12-03T22:36:00.003-06:00

The first real snow of the year! Technically it did snow a week or so ago, but it was really wet mush flakes, so I didn't count it. It didn't collect on the ground at all, after all. But tonight, we got our first ground-covering snow. At least an inch of it!

So, me being me, I naturally grabbed my camera and rushed outside. Used my new lensbaby, of course. Though, I had a bit of trouble because the snow was falling onto my camera and leaving little wet "kisses" on the lens and screen, so focusing was nearly impossible. Plus I think I got a little steam on the camera at one point. But anyway. I like the mood of the shots. =)

I left the first and last with a little blue saturation, mainly to bring out the little blur of light more in the first image (a back porch light, actually), and the streaks of snow coming down were more pronounced with a bit of blue for the last one. For the middle, I desaturated mostly everything except for a bit of green, magenta, and a touch of yellow. (Essentially a modified version of the "aged photo" setting I like so much.

Now if only I could convince the Nissen (Norwegian house "gnomes") to do the shoveling tomorrow morning...