Puppydogger

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

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

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

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

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

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

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