The Frosting is Sweet

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In my last post, I said that the show this weekend had already qualified as a success and any other positive developments would be bonuses. You know, the frosting on the cake. Well, lo and behold, when I went in yesterday to deliver the two final prints that had been waiting for their spot to be cleared, I got a taste of the frosting. One of my prints has pre-sold. Gee whiz. I even got to collect an early bonus. April 2009 has been filled with blessings.

I have been scurrying about working on some last minute materials for Lori and, in the meantime, stumbling into a couple more projects. Whew. If I weren’t already a wee bit of a dizzy dame, I would be by now.

Mulling Things Over

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I took things easy this afternoon. This morning I buzzed about finishing a printing job for my project and helping The Husband get ready to go to LA. He had to go down there for an audition and afterwards he had an appointment to shoe a horse in our old neighborhood. By the time I finished the printing for me, the stapling and general assistant for him, got him off, then drove into town to deliver some biographical material for Friday night’s promotion, I was feeling a little worn. Besides, I discovered that we are smack back into late winter again. Well, my idea of winter, anyway. I got out of the car and was hit by how cold and blustery it was. I had no will to make any other stops and came straight home after completing my delivery.

With the house quiet and feeling tired besides, I gave myself permission to ignore the to-do list and spend time instead relaxing and reflecting a bit on my experiences the last couple of weeks. I’ve been thinking mostly about this First Friday event and all my preparation for it. I have reached the conclusion that my participation in First Friday is already an unqualified success. I see those furrowed brows. How can I declare this a success when the event hasn’t yet taken place? Easy. This is clearly one of those cases where the journey was the destination.

First, by saying yes to this invitation, I said yes to a lot of work that I normally postpone indefinitely. When asked to bring in additional pieces, I said yes and embraced the challenge of more framing. Without external structure, I will shoot much faster than I can process—much less print, and forget about matting and framing. I frequently have pieces that I want to take all the way to that conclusion of the framed print, but I love shooting so much that I am constantly ahead of myself. Yes, my preparation for First Friday meant that I didn’t have as much time for shooting, but it prohibited my normal procrastination on printing and framing.

Another bonus was the motivation to get out and talk to more people. I am quite impressed by Lori (the shop owner) and want so much for this event to be a success for her. Her store is new; she has put a great deal of energy into her new business and has accomplished amazing things in a remarkably short time. I want to support her and thank her for choosing my work and for inviting me to be her first “featured artist”. It’s been easy to talk up the evening, because of my enthusiasm for her and her entrepreneurial spirit. So far, quite a nice number of people have said yes to my invitation to attend on Friday evening and I look forward to meeting still more people in my new neighborhood.

Just by committing to the event and preparing for it, I have already accomplished a number of things. Now, I can settle down and look forward to the pleasure of watching the evening unfold knowing that the experience has already been a success. Everything else will be a bonus.

Hanging Out With the Guys

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For a couple of evenings this past week, I spent some time out in the pasture hanging out with Lancer and Night. Friday, I darned near got frost bite it was so cold, but I have a several motivations.

Not only do I just enjoy watching the horses from a closer point, I certainly hope to get some shots that I like. My major motivation is getting back to a point where I am more comfortable shooting action. For many months now, I have been shooting landscapes and a little macro with very little action. I had gotten to the point of feeling totally out of shape for the demands of fast action shooting. The shots of the horses that I have posted recently were shot from safely outside the pasture, because I was still hobbling about on my abused ankle. I have finally reached the point where I feel relatively comfortable wandering about in the field—ground squirrel holes and all. The footing isn’t the very best, but, so far, so good.

One of the reasons that I need practice is that my best lens for shooting horses is far and away the 70-200 f2.8L, but the lens has two major drawbacks. 1. I foolishly saved money (this was done a couple of years ago) and didn’t get the IS version. 2. The weight. I call this lens Big Bertha. In the past, I used this lens only with a monopod. While I was never satisfied with that arrangement, I didn't feel confident without the security of the monopod. I put up with it, even though it is a definite hindrance. Most equine photographers handle that lens handheld for action, and I am slowly working my way up to some consistency with it. Of course shooting handheld will mean accepting some major disappointments with shots that would have been terrific, if only they were sharp. On the other hand, it means getting some shots that definitely would never be possible while lugging around a tripod and would most likely be missed with a monopod. I am going to go for the spontaneity and flexibility. I will have to live with the near misses.

My time with Lancer and Night is relaxing. Mostly they just eat their way along—not wildly entertaining; but I enjoy watching them do almost anything. Both of these evenings, however, the guys have put on a little show for me, and I thought I would share a couple of my practice shots. These are the antithesis of the glamour pictures that I will do more of as the weather warms—shots showing the horses “stood up” nicely with coats clean and shiny, eyes wiped clean, chin-hair trimmed sleek, hooves polished. Here, they are just being horses—and happy horses with room to play.

By the way, it may look as if Lancer (the chestnut) is standing still in the second shot, but he had just been crammed into the fence by Night, while they charged around the pasture. Night was playing the aggressor the second evening and was crowding Lancer, just for fun. They had a good romp, and I was treated to grand entertainment along with plenty of practice shooting fast action.

Apologies, Confessions, and Disclosures

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I owe apologies to a number of people for not having responded to messages and comments. My head is hung appropriately low. Please forgive my tardiness. The excuses and responses to some messages will appear under Confessions and Disclosures.

Filed under Disclosures:

I have been having a blast getting ready for First Friday. Hmm. That’s not much of an excuse, is it? Framing still isn’t my favorite task, but even that has been easier this round. (More about that another day.)

Mostly, I am so busy because I keep thinking of more images that I want to add to this display next Friday. (Yikes. That’s only a week from day! Time’s a wastin’). Sometimes I go looking for a picture that I remember and I get lost wandering around in old files. Soon hours have gone by because I find something I like and had forgotten, or something I meant to process and never got to. The next thing I know it’s time to go to bed and I am a little further behind on this project.

In the meantime, I discovered (with some advice and guidance) a new wonderful photo location—Oak Canyon Trail right here in Bear Valley Springs. As if all the other joys of the canyon were not enough, there are apple trees blooming at the head of that trail. That, along with a blissfully calm day with very little wind, meant a welcome opportunity to get out the macro lens. Thank goodness I am not limited as to how much fun I am allowed in any one day. Now, if I just didn’t have to waste time sleeping! Sigh.

The only serious drawback to all this merriment is that I still haven’t buckled down to focus on my SoFoBoMo project. Since the First Friday event falls on May 1 and I will almost certainly be immersed in that project through that day, it does look as if I will start my photo book a day or two later than the official start date. Last year, I was among the eager beavers who jumped out of the gate the moment the starting gun went off and I will miss not being part of that group this year. But, I should be up and running by May 3, at least.

I still haven’t pinned down my project theme, but sometime next week I will have to commit or be forced to start a week or two later. I know that I will stay close to home. I am increasingly comfortable with the fact that, while I enjoy traveling and discovering new places, I am most productive when exploring my own home turf. I will be shooting close to home.

Filed under Confessions:

Paul Lester has been kind enough to encourage me in my desire(?) to take more portraits. He even took the time to sent me a link to a post at Craig Tanner’s site. If you need any encouragement to ask permission to shoot a portrait of a stranger, this audio may well be that final push that you need. But, wait. There’s more.

It’s time for me to ‘fess up about my reluctance to ask people if I can take their photograph. Yes, I know I would feel a slight sting of rejection if the individual were to say “no”, but that isn’t the fear that stops me. There are two greater fears that hold me back.

One fear is that the person will say yes, I will shoot, and my results will be lousy. My fear is that I will have implied a promise of something, then couldn’t deliver. I will have said that I could, when I couldn’t. The second fear is that the person will suspect that my interest in them was less than authentic and I was angling for a photograph rather than being simply interested in them and what they had to say. Paul Butzi’s recent post on how sometimes a camera gets between us and the events around us resonated deeply with me. Sometimes, I just don’t want to put anything between me and the delicious experience of discovering a fragile link with a lovely human being who has opened up to me.

Sure, I know that my fears are just as foolish as the fear of rejection and they boil down to simple fear of failure. Besides, if any of my fears were realized none of them would bring about the end of the world. I would certainly survive either of the possible negative outcomes. Still I know the tree, mountain, flower, stream, will be much more forgiving of my intrusion and won’t even be interested in my results. I can’t be so certain about a person. What’s particularly strange about the first of my bigger fears is that I don’t have that paralyzing anxiety about photographing horses. I get a little anxious, but basically I have confidence in what I want to do and my ability to do it—even when the owners will be in the photos. All those years of working with actors has paid off when it comes to working with folks in front of my camera. Still, these are people that I know and we have already developed some sort of relationship. Furthermore, it is the person I am photographing who wants the photos. That, then, is a very different story.

My ambivalence about shooting portraits has spurred yet another project that is in an embryonic form. I am working on an arrangement with a new friend to shoot a series of photos that are just as much about the person as the animals. Still, you notice that I had to get animals involved. I move slowly, but there is discernable movement on many fronts.

Inspiration Italienne

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Saturday night, I read an AP story about Rita Levi Montalcini, an Italian scientist who persevered in spite of the oppression of Mussolini's Fascist regime eventually winning a Nobel Prize. It seems that Ms. Montalcini, who just celebrated her 100th birthday, not only continues to work, but says her mind is sharper now than it was 80 years ago. You can read her inspiring story here. By the time I had read the brief article, I felt twenty years younger.

What the heck! I think I should buy some of those lenses that I am craving, after all. Who knows how much longer I will be doing this? I could be participating in SoFoBoBo for decades.

Thomas Wolfe Had a Point

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Sometimes you can’t go home again. Same applies to Caliente Creek Road. While my little story here has nothing to do with Wolfe’s isolation from home, it does connect with his famous title. And, let’s face it, I can go back to Caliente Creek Road and, indeed, have already done just that.

Sadly, it wasn’t the same. Those magical late March flowers that blanketed the area and the extraordinary spring light that touched the trees just as they were leafing out—gone. There still is a great deal there to interest me; but, as is often the case with love at first sight, closer examination has shown the subject of desire to be a bit more ordinary than it initially appeared to be.

[Note: The photo above is from the March 29 visit.]

The Husband was in a mood for a drive a couple of days ago, and I never say “no” to the possibility of a scenic drive. He wanted to check out the possibilities of expanding promotion of his farrier business into that close-by area, and I happily grabbed camera gear, eager to tag along for the ride.

The fact-finding mission was a success, and The Husband will be asking for help sending off ad copy to the small local paper. However, the drive convinced me that my original idea about making Caliente Creek Road the subject of my SoFoBoMo project was ill-conceived. The flowers are almost all gone; the oaks no longer appear lavender in the evening light; and, the greens are downright earthly. As I’ve said already, there are still many more photos to take along that road, but it won’t be the location for my photo book. The light is terribly tricky on that twisty windy road through the canyon. I will need to study the area for quite some time to do it justice.

But, all was not lost. An unexpected bonus of the trip was our stop in the midst of the ranching country outside the canyon. We checked out the Twin Oaks General Store and Restaurant. The Husband had wanted to stop to ask about the local paper and to grab a cup of coffee—which, of course, meant a treat for him. He had the gall to choose one of my favorite treats, one of those packages of powdered donuts. (I know, not exactly a culinary triumph, but I still remember how much I loved them back in graduate school.)

What now serves as a general store and cafe is an old schoolhouse—complete with a chalk board that covers an entire wall. The building itself will be fun to examine more than once, but the most fun for me was meeting a gentleman at a table near ours. Partly because there were a few interesting photos on the wall and partly because the sight of those donuts was driving me crazy (I have mentioned that I have to maintain a strict gluten-free diet. Sigh.), I soon got out of my chair and wandered. Before long, I approached an elderly couple by the wall and asked permission to look over their shoulders at some fading black and white photographs behind them. I asked a question about the photos and we got involved in a conversation. It turns out that the fellow in one of the photos was the gentleman I was talking to and he had lived in the Twin Oaks area all his life. Indeed, with his well-worn black cowboy hat, dusty boots, and weathered face, he looked to be part of the land.

As usual I chickened out on asking his permission to take a photo. They were eating after all, and once he apologized for being difficult to understand saying that he had just had his teeth pulled. The meeting had seemed charmed. These strangers were friendly and only appropriately guarded, faced with a stranger asking questions. The man’s eyes twinkled, and he was quick to smile in spite of his recent dental surgery. I couldn’t bear the thought of having it all end on a negative note. Not to mention that I haven't explored portrait photography and know I couldn't begin to capture the fascination of this marvelous old character.

The couple left before we did and I watched them walk out, he stiff and seriously favoring one leg. As they disappeared, I resolved to revisit The General Store and some day I will take a new photograph of that friendly face—along with some of the other residents of Twin Oaks, I hope.

Oops, I suppose I have made the point that on one hand, the Caliente Creek road just got more interesting as her blinding beauty faded. Beneath the surface is a grand old gal with marvelous stories to tell—stories that deserve more than a month’s worth of exploration by an outsider.

Framing and Matting Blues

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I have barely begun the process of transferring prints into frames that will allow me to lower prices so I am more in line with the local market, and I’m already burned out on the job. As much fun as shooting is and as much as I enjoy and get lost in the job of processing, that is how much I dislike matting and framing. I need to discover some way to find real joy in that job. Yes, I do enjoy seeing the final product, but the work? Yecch. For the last few days, I have had a lot of other work to do; but today I couldn’t justify not spending some time in the salt mine. Finally, I ran out of wire. Thank goodness. Another excuse to do something else. After all, I will have to go into town to the hardware store, won’t I? I can’t get around that. Yippee!

Horses and Contradictions

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Yesterday at 5 PM, we had sleet along with an 18 to 20 MPH wind. One thing I have noticed is that precipitation here frequently comes at us on a diagonal—rarely straight down. Temperatures in the 30s, wind, sleet. So much for the imminent arrival of spring. Well, I can’t say that I hadn’t been amply warned.

At any rate, this weather proves that Lancer is a pretty smart horse. Lancer grew a heavy furry coat this winter and he hasn’t yet begun to shed. I guess he is getting the last laugh. Night, on the other hand, never grew as heavy a coat.

I think that I know some of the reasons for the discrepancy. (Mind you, this is not a scientific article.) First, Night was born in Idaho and lived there for the first couple of years of his life. Lancer had never lived anyplace other than balmy southern California. I am guessing that Lancer realized he was in for something early on with the first cold spell up here and his body went a bit nuts with the fur coat idea. The second thing is that Lancer is always a tad underweight. There is nothing wrong with him—well, nothing physical, at least—he is just hyper, even for an Arabian. He stays pretty much on the move. If he is penned up in his corral (currently a 24’ x 24’ space), he spends an inordinate amount of time weaving (shifting his weight rapidly from one front leg to the other). All he accomplishes is burning tons of calories, but he doesn’t see it that way. Still, it means that he doesn’t have much of a layer of fat to help keep him warm.

I have already mentioned that Lancer is from racing stock. While he has never seen a race track, his sire had quite a racing career. The result of the breeding is that while The Husband enjoys participating in endurance races, Lancer only gets the race part of that concept. His idea is to take off as soon a possible and cover ground as quickly as possibly. The endurance part means nothing to him. Because endurance rides are interchangeably known as endurance races, I suppose we can see where he gets confused. However, since the rides/races cover anywhere from twenty-five to one hundred miles, it is obvious that a horse who doesn’t “take care of himself” does not have the make-up for endurance. Lancer isn’t an endurance horse.

Night, on the other hand, is atypically lazy for the breed. Take note of that final qualifier. The gray would never be taken for a Quarter Horse, but compared to the chestnut he’s down right calm. He, by the way, is fine with endurance rides and sees no point in racing unless urged.

All this rambling leads me to my point about the photo above. When The Husband recently took Night out for a ride, leaving Lancer behind, I wondered what the show would be like. I was a bit surprised. While Night had remained agitated almost the entire time Lancer was gone, Lancer got over his abandonment issues fairly soon. He charged about madly for a bit, calling out to his buddy, and making a big fuss. But, before long, he began to notice that there was quite a lot of uneaten grass and after a bit, he would charge once around the pasture, pause to nicker plaintively, then take some time out from missing Night to nibble. Horses are a mass of contradictions.

Time Management

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The harder I work the behinder I get. What’s with this? I know that many of our faculties begin to fail as we age, but I seem to be less and less efficient at keeping up with my self-assigned chores.

My to-do list never shrinks. It just keeps growing longer and longer. Believe me, this isn’t happening because I spend my time doing admirable things such as keeping a pristine house and cooking three meals a day for The Husband. By the way, I love him enough to cook for him, but we both have rather strange eating habits. Because of my pesky digestive problems, I am forced to graze throughout the day eating tiny, strange meals that are the mostly the antithesis of what average folks would consume. The Husband is all about quick, easy and he, too, eats light. One advantage is that we don’t have weight problems; but our refrigerator and pantry certainly don’t look anything like those of the typical family, or even couple.

Furthermore, I don’t spend much time on the cliché girlie stuff. I hate shopping, don’t like spending time in that female haven, the beauty salon, and can’t think of anything more boring than spending a day at a day spa.

While I have been adding new projects, I think I just am less efficient. Part of the problem is that I have made an effort lately to stop working at around 8:30 or 9:00 PM. The Husband and I typically take about forty-five minutes to sit together and watch one of the recorded episodes of the few television shows that we can get through. The distraction is welcome and it allows me to decompress so I stand a chance of being asleep by about 10:30 or 11:00. In this environment, I find I rarely sleep past 6:30 AM (all too frequently, my eyes pop open at 6:00). These days, being in bed until 7:00 qualifies serious sleeping in.

Of course, I am spending more time currently on printing, framing, and publicity plans than I have in the recent past. (Here I have never posted my business cards, and now I’m spilling the beans that I prepared a postcard for the owner of the shop in Tehachapi. Shame on me.)

Whatever all the causes for the behinder syndrome, I post here about half to one-third as often as I would like. Moreover, I never have as much time as I would like to read other wonderful blogs. It goes without saying that I haven’t done my practice book for SoFoBoMo, and I still haven’t a clue what my project will be for 2009.

Enough. I’ll wrap up this whine and get on with today’s share of my to-do list. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just send brain waves to our blogs and skip the sit down at the keyboard part?

On to the Next Event

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The work from fifty-seven Bear Valley Springs artists will remain up at the Art Show through Easter. During the lull before picking up my work next Monday, I had planned to post pictures of what I showed and make a report on my education from that experience. (Much of that education centers around the prices here. After coming from a market like Los Angeles and some pieces that were sold by a contact in the Palm Springs area, I have a great deal to learn about Tehachapi and Bear Valley Springs. Perhaps the most important lesson that I have learned is that I must cut my costs considerably. Thus, I began almost immediately after the reception last Saturday to shop like a mad woman for frames.) A still bigger shift came when I got news that sent me scrambling and elevated my education to critical status.

A lovely lady, who coincidentally moved to BVS last year, had asked several weeks ago to display some of my work at her new store in Tehachapi. Now, she has been accepted as a participant in the First Friday Art Walk—the event that I mentioned in my last post way back last Friday. Has it really been that long? This week, I learned that I will be the featured artist at Lori’s gallery May 1. Of course, I am scurrying around shopping, digging through unpacked boxes for stored mattes, printing test prints, struggling with profit/loss sheets (ah, math my favorite pastime), and just generally having a hectic, but exhilarating time.

I will try to keep up, but anyone who has read my blog for any time knows that I am rather lousy at juggling a long list of projects—which makes one wonder why I inevitably insist on piling up tasks much like a chronic overeater at an all-you-can-eat buffet. I just can’t resist piling one more goodie on that virtual plate.

So, wish me luck. I hope to supply Lori, my friend and new partner in crime, with plenty of pieces priced to suit our new market.