Category Archives: Judy Wood

A new foot forward

Another entertaining week on a number of fronts. The good weather has held on, with snow melting fast, so there is lots of water (and mud, depending where you are) underfoot with much more yet to come. I saw a flock of newly returned Canada geese in the field en route to Ebon stables last week, which seemed early to me, but is a definite marker of the changing seasons. I’ve been gathering up supplies for a couple of new art directions (one that will involve my photos, and one of an entirely different sort) and trying to research what to do and how to do it, a process I always enjoy. When and if I get anywhere with either of these directions, you’ll be the first to know.
One other thing of note in my personal realm was the installation of our new dishwasher. I’ve lost track of how old the previous one actually was. It was in declining health for a number of years, although it did get the job done, more or less. Many of the support prongs on the shelves had rusted out and were gone, the thing made a huge amount of noise (it did from the get-go so that wasn’t new), and the door seal had gone so that at several points during any given cycle it would release greater or lesser amounts of water onto the kitchen floor. Usually I would remember to place a bath-towel in a strategic location to contain the flood, but not always. Since I’d generally way rather spend money on things like new lenses, camera bodies, saddles, or almost anything other than household appliances, we put up with it for a long time, but new kitchen flooring has finally risen to the top of the list, and no way was I going to get new flooring while the dishwasher was still spewing water. So the short version is we now have a roomy, flexible, energy efficient, and blessedly silent dishwasher. Next stop, kitchen flooring!

Shot one was taken last week when I went to deliver some photos and have a visit with my Paint breeder friend. For once, I wasn’t out stalking the horses at her place, rather was very taken up with her interesting pack of dogs, especially young Gus, the star of shot one. He is about a year and a half old now, and has grown—a lot–since I last saw him when he was only a few weeks old. He is a Boxer-Brazillian Mastiff cross, and if I hadn’t been informed of the Boxer part, I wouldn’t have guessed it by looking at him. He favours the Mastiff side of his heritage in both looks and in his low-key approach to life, although there were a few tell-tale Boxer moves that I detected in the way he interacts with visitors and with the other dogs.


The next day I carried on with photo ops, this time with my more usual equine subject matter. I had heard from a couple of sources that there was a breeder of Friesian horses newly located in the district. Since this is one of the ultimate “artist” breeds for me, I was of course very interested in getting a chance to get them in front of my camera. With my new camera equipment and the weather finally consistently bland, I thought now would be a good time to start my collection of photos of these horses. I called the owner who was most accommodating and willing to share her horses and her time, and spent a very happy couple of hours out there on Saturday afternoon. Bonus for me was that in addition to her Friesians, she has a Gypsy cob stallion and a collection of Clydesdale mares, since she is branching off into breeding Drum horses as well as Friesians. Couldn’t be a better set-up from my point of view. Shot two shows her Friesian stallion in full flight in his pasture.
Shot three shows the mare herd (and one gelding mixed in for good measure). The Friesians are leading the way, followed by the “big girls”. It was interesting to note the self-imposed segregation of the two breeds, with the Friesians being quite unwilling to mix on an equal (orany) basis with the heavy horses, preferring as they do to stay in their own breed group with minimal interaction.

Shot four shows the two stallions play fighting. They are both very well-socialized young fellows, and have no problem sharing their large fenced area. The mares are quite far away from the boys in the pasture set-up, so they won’t feel the need to compete with each other for attention from the ladies. I’m always pleased to see stallions allowed to live like normal horses, and not confined and treated like dangerous beasts as can sometimes be the case.

Shot five takes us somewhere else entirely, which is to my feet in their new “Five finger” Vibram barefoot shoes. These have recently come to my attention, and when my daughter bought a pair that I could try on, I was quite taken with the whole concept. I’ve always enjoyed the barefoot feel, but never liked the grit my feet picked up (that could get me into vacuum cleaner stories, but I’ll spare you) or having chilly feet in winter. These provide a good work-around for those concerns, and are supposedly ergonomically very good as walking/running shoes. For any who have met me in real life, you’ll recall I’m the farthest thing imaginable from a runner (I’m built for comfort, not for speed) but I think these will be just the ticket for house wear, yard wear and for walking the dogs. Definitely *not* barn shoes, though!!

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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It’s March!

A new month, and for the moment it really feels as if winter is giving way. We’ve been getting temperatures up to the freezing level by day, and not too terribly cold at night. I keep forgetting to plug in the block heater on the car and it still starts the next day. The sun is higher in the sky and our hours of daylight noticeably longer. The snow is in retreat, and things just generally feel kind of hopeful. I know we will likely get a few setbacks between now and “real” Saskatchewan spring, which is usually a few weeks sandwiched in sometime in mid to late April, but for the moment I’m enjoying the process. I’m even contemplating switching over to lighter weight blankets for the horse and dogs. Mind you, I’m not going to put the heavier winter ones away for a while, just in case. March and April can be trying months here, since it really seems like it should be a lot nicer a lot faster than is usually the case, but we’ll take whatever little breaks we get and be happy for them.
We had a house-guest for a few days last week in the form of Mogo the mini-Dachshund. He is a pretty regular visitor at our “dog bed and breakfast”, and as you can tell from shot one, he settles in pretty comfortably on the couch (a forbidden zone for our own large dogs) and keeps an eye on the passing scene out the living room window. He and our grand-dog Arrow often coincide in their visits, and when they both go home, reducing the pack from four dogs to our own two, it seems like not that many dogs at all!
My husband went on a birding outing last week with one of his friends. He commented when he got home about the number of ravens they had seen by a riverbank area on the western edges of the city as they were returning home. I quizzed him about the location and time of day, and vowed to make a pilgrimage myself in hopes of photos. I hit the jackpot yesterday afternoon when I was able to view and photograph about a dozen ravens, plus various other species that were in the area. For the most part the ravens were a little far off, even for my new longer lens, but one seemed to be delegated to keep an eye on me and it would overfly where I was standing with the camera about every five minutes or so. The lighting yesterday was a bit marginal for the lens I had, and I want to have another go in brighter light. Today was a super day, with good lighting, but when I went over to the site in late morning, there wasn’t a single raven to be seen. They must all be foraging at the dump (conveniently nearby) for much of the day, so when I go back (I hope tomorrow) I’ll try for the late afternoon again. I’m up against migration patterns here as the crows will likely be back in a few weeks, and the ravens will be departing for parts north, so I have a limited window of opportunity. Next winter I’ll check this site a lot sooner and see if they are back again.
While I was waiting for the ravens to come a bit closer, I was aware of something coming in on my left, and got this shot of the passerby. I knew it was some kind of hawk or falcon, but didn’t know what sort. Jim (birder husband) says it is a Gyrfalcon . A beautiful bird, very calm and focussed in its fly-past. Small birds generally flee in panic and consternation when a predator of this sort appears in the area, but the large and formidable ravens and the gyrfalcon appear to have a “mutual exclusion” pact and just ignored each other completely. There was also a small flock of robins at this site that had wintered over–no migrating robins will be here for a couple of months yet.
A friend and I met at the barn today to turn our horses out together for a roll and run without blankets and as a photo op for me. Alpac turned out to be the one with the most ambition once they got going. Indy ran around a bit but was overall content just standing around watching. This is kind of funny since Alpac will be twenty this year (getting up there as horses go) and Indy is still a “single digits” youngster, so their roles really should have been reversed. Shot four is one of Alpac from today. Backgrounds aren’t as pretty as when the snow was deeper and fresher, but a lot better than it will be when it turns into a sea of mud and disgusting other “organic matter” that has built up over the winter. There are actually a few bonuses to frozen and snow-covered ground!
Shot five is of a cute young fellow I met at the barn today. There is a new boarder who was out checking on her filly, and as they were getting ready to leave, they made a comment about the dogs in their car. Of course I had to know what kind, and then I had to see them and get a few shots. The female is a French bulldog, and the male (pictured here) is a French bulldog/pug cross. What a cute pair! Visiting dogs are not allowed out of their vehicles at the barn, so they were on orders to stay in the back of the Jeep and not jump out to greet me, which was very hard for them to do, although they both achieved it. That’s why this young fellow looks a little put-upon in this shot. He really wanted to jump out and say hello! I hope to get more chances to photograph this pair in future.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Getting closer—

I had an interesting and ultimately pricey revelation this past week, on the “getting closer” theme of today’s post. Grandson Mark (with me days during the school break) and I went on a photo shoot at the zoo since the weather was quite reasonable and he wanted to try out his “new” lens and camera combo. In truth the lens was a quite venerable (but good) zoom that I had abandoned a couple of years ago, and the camera body (new to him) is my sadly abused Nikon D200, the one I have worked almost to death. Since the old zoom he was using didn’t work on the previous cast-off digital he got from me, this was his first outing with the “big” lens. It was also the first time ever that we were standing side by side taking essentially the same shots and both with zoom lenses.
I downloaded my photos when we got home, and they were about the usual. Then I thought I’d see how his looked. Big mistake!! I had forgotten how much closer you could zoom in with the old lens. It’s a 70-300 zoom (which on a digital SLR actually brings you even closer than the stated top end) while my fancy new zoom tops out at 200. Of course it is a much “faster” lens and has superior features, but darn it, I was jealous of his extra zoom power with the old lens.
What to do? My first thought was “I want that lens back” but really, I couldn’t go there as I had given it to him and he was so thrilled with it. Next step was to start researching what I could get in the way of a new lens. I knew I wasn’t going to be getting a 300 zoom with the same fast capacity as my 200, as I’d priced them out when I bought the 200 and at that time the 300 zoom lens was not only $5000 but so long I wasn’t sure about hand-holding it effectively. I kept coming across good reviews of a Nikon 70-300 lens that wasn’t particularly fast but that had uniformly good reviews on a number of photo sites, wasn’t heavy or enormously long, and was a relatively reasonable price. Even better, when I emailed my contact at the camera store I frequent, it turned out that not only was the price better than I was expecting, but it was on sale, hence an even better bargain. Need I go on to say that I am now the happy owner of this lens?
On to the photos. You’ll notice a change in format here (if you have wandered by this blog before). My husband suggested this might be more user friendly than my previous way of having all the text on top and the photos on the bottom. In truth, when I first started this blog a couple of years back, the “old” method was how it initially presented itself and I was too frightened by the technology to try to mess with it. Then I forgot about the whole thing until Jim mentioned it last week, so this time I’m trying for a more “integrated” approach and so far I seem to have a grip on it. I guess the only question now is whether the text that goes with each picture should be above or below it. My instinct is to put the text below the shot it belongs to, but if anyone out there thinks differently, feel free to make suggestions.
Shot one, unlike most of today’s, was not taken at the zoo, although some people who visit my house might beg to differ. This is my grand-dog Arrow, ready to be let in the back door after her visit to the yard. Most of the other dogs, resident and visitors, bark to let me know they want in. Arrow just rises up on her back legs and stares intently, often a futile effort since I’m not usually in the kitchen which is where this door is located. She got lucky the day of this shot as I was right on the spot, although she had to wait for me to find a camera and get my shot first. And no, she doesn’t end up staring forever if I’m not right on hand. She will eventually bark if she needs to.
Shot two is from the “revelation” shoot that Mark and I did together last week. This is as close as I could zoom in with the 200 upper limit lens.

This shot is one I got today with the 300 zoom. Lion is in the same location, as was I. You can see how much closer in this lens gets. I won’t get into the details of trying to shoot between the wires on enclosures at the zoo, an ongoing vexation that has to be worked around, not always in a satisfactory fashion.


I’m always entertained by magpies, and there were a pair of them working around these sheep?goats? today. I have a feeling they are some sort of European wild sheep, but didn’t note the name so I can’t say for sure. Actually now that I think about it the ram was definitely sheep-looking in the horn department. I watched this particular sheep and magpie for quite a while. The magpie was very busily doing something around and under the sheep, which stood like a statue the whole while, not moving a muscle. Eventually one of the magpies perched briefly on a sheep, but I was in the midst of relocating my position as that happened and couldn’t get focussed quickly enough to get that shot.

This is the “now for something completely different” shot of the day. I’ve been creating unicorns for the past while on an intermittent basis. I was sorting through a bunch of my horse shots for another project when I came across this Gypsy cob foal shot from last spring, and thought how cute he’d be as a unicorn foal, so here he is. I’m still working on this image and it will likely evolve a bit yet, but this is where he’s at for the moment.
I’m off to watch the figure skating at the Olympics now. Go, Canada!

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Still winter—




Mostly seasonal (whatever that is) weather continues in this neck of the woods. Down to minus 20s most nights, nicer in the daytime, variable windchill, some sunny days, some foggy and frosty ones–pretty well par for the course for where and when we are at.
I’ve been trying to deal with some outstanding concerns left over from last year, including such things as my every-couple-of-years eye exam. It always seems that my own health maintenance schedule call-backs coincide with those of the various dogs, horses and cat in my care, and while I am invariably prompt about keeping the animals up to date health-wise, I can only stand to make and keep a limited number of appointments, so my own usually get deferred. I have to give myself the pep talk that if I don’t keep myself in good shape, I’m not going to be much good to my animal dependents, and that usually gets me to make the call for an appointment–eventually.
I’m getting better (after decades of doing this) about the eye exam. I am *very* near-sighted and have worn glasses ever since I was in grade 3, and in fact should have had them a lot earlier than that. I’m not sure how I got to school in the early years without being hit by a car I didn’t notice until it was too late. Likely it was due to the fact that I walked with a friend who could actually see where we were going. I’m one of those people who, if I had been born in the days before corrective lenses were invented, would have been picked off by natural selection at an early age, either by walking into a predator or falling off the edge of a cliff. Ironic that I now define my role in life as an artist/photographer as being an “eye on legs”.
Due to some miraculous intervention on the part of fate, we had a road grader on our street early last week to level the deep and intractable ruts that we have been coping with. Funny how it happened less than two days after my letter of complaint to city hall. The universe works in strange and wonderful ways sometimes. Shot one shows this rare sighting, likely the last we will see for this winter on our street, despite the fact that the ruts are rapidly redeveloping.
I took shot two as grandson Mark and I were returning to the city from a horse photo shoot. I was attracted by the patterns of the snow and ice combined with those of the structural elements of this building. I’ve found myself noticing this sort of thing a lot more of late, so there will likely be more shots of this sort coming along in the future. I would have preferred this shot to be a bit higher key, but that was one of the snowy/foggy days, and there just wasn’t much light to be had.
Shot three is one I got as I was driving into Ebon stables, the day *after* the snow and fog had departed, leaving a sparkly covering of frost on everything. I actually prefer the more overcast days overall for “mood” photography, but the bright sun and blue skies are definitely cheery and a welcome change after a few days of heavy overcast.
Shot four shows the little Downy woodpecker who is quite a regular visitor to the nut feeders we have in both the front and back yards. This shot is from the front feeder, which is favoured in the afternoons as it is on the south side of the house, hence in the warmth of the sun. We also see a Hairy woodpecker at these feeders, although not as frequently as the little Downy. He isn’t quite as bold as the chickadees and nuthatches when it comes to sticking around for photos, but usually I can get a shot or two of him if I’m patient.
This morning I was on a photo quest in the downtown area, trying for shots of a large flock of pigeons I observed last week as they flew across the front of a large industrial building, casting very interesting shadows across the face of it. Of course that was the day I didn’t have a camera with me, being on a haircut and shopping outing at the time. I’ve been thinking about that missed photo op all week, so this morning I went to lurk in the area with the big lens. Of course the pigeons were not co-operating at all today, so this will have to be added onto my “to do” list of places where I hang out with my camera hoping for the payoff shot. I try to do these shoots on Sunday or holiday mornings (which today was, being “Family Day” and a holiday in Saskatchewan) when there aren’t as many other people in the area as on a regular work-day. With the current weird state of the world, people can get edgy about unexplained lurkers with large cameras, benign though most of us are. I can’t think why a potential terrorist would be taking photos of a prairie flour mill and its pigeon population, but on the other hand I don’t want to have to explain myself to some over-zealous security personnel either. Shot five isn’t of either the pigeons or the flour mill. After I gave up on that project, I found myself working my way home by a round-about route where I came upon the ice sculptures (or what was left of them) near the downtown Farmer’s Market, and that is the subject matter of shot five. I was amazed at the clarity of the ice in these works which was quite striking. Next year I’ll have to try to get some shots *before* the area vandals have had a go at them.




©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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And another one—





I am aware that another week has gone by, but I really don’t have a lot to report about it. Mostly because I don’t recall anything much, not that nothing happened. I seem to have mastered the art of living in the moment to such an extent that I really can’t recall what I did where or when in all my previous week’s moments, unless I have the photos to jog my memory. Guess I should be taking more photos, if only so that I know what I’ve been up to!
Actually, I did get out on a few shoots and it’s starting to come back a bit now. We had some foggy days that deposited beautiful frost coatings on the trees, and I got some shots of that. I have Sunday clearly in mind (mind you, it was only yesterday) since grandson Mark and I went out with the cameras to several locations. And then there was the flurry of email activity earlier in the week (no photos there) involving a lost dog in rather desperate circumstances, whose story now looks like it is well on the way to a happy ending.
One of my job descriptions seems to be as part of the pipeline for animals in need. I have a good network of diligent “friends of animals” who are the long-suffering recipients of the sad stories that I forward to them, and almost invariably one of them, or one of *their* contacts, will know someone who knows someone, and we are on our way to a good solution for the animal in question. I feel badly about inflicting these sad tales on my poor friends and acquaintances, but not badly enough to stop doing it as long as there is a hope that someone out there will be the savior for the animal in need.
Lacking anything else dramatic (or non-dramatic, for that matter) to comment on, I’ll move right along to today’s photos.
Sunday morning grandson Mark and I went to my favourite mixed herd south of the city so Mark could get some horse shots for a photo contest he hopes to enter. This particular herd is comprised of very low-key and friendly horses, many of whom are keenly interested in photography, or at least in visiting photographers. The palomino mare (shot one) who is usually my shadow abandoned me pretty readily to be Mark’s photographer’s assistant for this visit. She attached herself to him early on and trailed about after him for much of the shoot. At one point he had about three or four of the young mares giving his work close attention, which was quite entertaining to watch. Because I am very familiar with this herd and their calm temperaments, I am more tolerant about Mark being in their midst than is my general rule.I tend to be fairly aware of the hazards of working close to large and fast-reacting hoofed animals, and act accordingly unless I am confident that it is OK to get closer.
Later on Sunday, we passed through the Heritage Day festivities at the Saskatoon branch of the Western Development Museum to see some of the displays and check out a few of the new features of the museum. My recollection of this event from previous years was that it tends to be rather sparsely attended, but that certainly wasn’t the case this year. Our first clue was the large number of vehicles clogging the parking lot, complete with harried parking attendants trying to shoehorn cars into various obscure corners. Indoors it was swarming with activity, to such an extent that we decided just to do a quick overview of the displays and keep on moving out the door and on to our next destination. I climbed the stairs to the upper level balcony over the main-street general store in order to get this shot of some of the crowd. This prairie heritage museum is a great place to visit, especially in winter, and it was wonderful to see such a good turnout.
Shot three was taken at Ebon, after we had tended to Alpac (my horse) and were wandering around some of the paddock areas looking for more shots for Mark. I noticed the barn sparrows taking the sun in their little niche above some of the horse shelters. I love the way sparrows line up along any sort of suitable board that they can find. Sparrows are surprisingly hard to photograph as they are very spooky little birds who take flight very readily. Getting close enough to get the shot without scattering them is always a challenge.
I’ve been finding a bit of time here and there to play with some of my image collection, recombining various elements and making new images out of them, courtesy of the wonderful magic wand that is Photoshop. Shots four and five are two that I generated last week. Once I get the basics down, I like to work with variations on the theme. As these two images demonstrate, you can create an entirely different feel just by changing the colours.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Life goes on—





Another week of non-dramatic “life carrying on” in my part of the world. I eventually was able to get my car off my property (didn’t dare attempt it from Sunday noon until Tuesday afternoon due to the large amounts of snow dumped in the weekend storm of last week) without incident and could carry on with my daily activities. Driving is still a bit questionable on the side streets (including the one immediately outside my door), but if you can make it to the main thoroughfares, you can get where you need to go. I’ve started carrying a snow shovel in the car just in case, something I likely should have been doing in any event. Nothing like a good weather crisis to make us start behaving in a sensible fashion.
While I was trapped in my house I took the opportunity to deal with a few ongoing concerns, including dealing with my broken monopod. It broke on the second time it was used, and I tried the glue fix suggested by my camera store contact, but it broke again during the blizzard shoot at the ice rink. It came to me (as I was researching glue options) that I had actually never run this problem by the manufacturers, and that perhaps that would be a good course of action. I have to say they were very satisfactory to deal with. I emailed my complaint to the faceless “fill in the blanks with your problem” standard form on their website in the evening. By the next morning I had received replies from two different people, climbing the accountability ladder as they went.
Once I detailed my problem (complete with photos to show it exactly), I got the hoped-for answer that this was a manufacturing defect of this monopod and that I should send it and proof of purchase to them and I would receive a new one in the mail. I have done that and look forward to getting my new monopod in due course. I have no particular complaints about the initial failure. In this imperfect world, things will occasionally go wrong. What I can’t tolerate nearly so well is when the manufacturer/responsible party neither accepts ownership of the breakdown nor offers a satisfactory solution. Luckily for me, I was dealing with a company that offers excellent customer service and support, so all in all I am happy with how this has been resolved. Another thing that came out of this was my sudden recollection of a very good website for those occasions when gluing *is* the appropriate solution. It is This to That and well worth a look if you want to know the right glue for any adhesive situation. Comprehensive and user friendly. Can’t ask for better than that.
I’m still not doing a lot of photos these days due to the weather, but have managed to cobble a few together for today’s post. Shot one hearkens back to the indoor chute jumping event of a few weeks back. This was my first effort with the new camera for this style of shot, and I’m quite happy with the end result. These are the most challenging conditions I face in the course of a year, due to poor light, fast and sometimes erratically-moving young horses, and the technical limitations of indoor flash photos, so getting this quality in a “first shoot with this camera” gives me quite a bit of encouragement. I actually almost enjoyed the process this time, instead of heading in to it with the customary combination of performance anxiety and dread. That’s got to count as progress!
I enjoy night visuals, and got shot number two last week of the full moon rising in the east through a cloud bank. So far I have been limited to shots of this sort that I can get by hand-holding my camera, but when it’s a little less cold I would like to work with using the tripod and figuring out the optimal settings for this sort of shot.
Shot three shows some of the nicely sculpted snowbanks on the south side of the tree-break at Ebon. I’ll need to dig out my snowshoes to get closer to these some day soon.
Shot four shows the scene facing west along my street. The centre of the road is a deeply rutted ice chute that is quite difficult to navigate. If you inadvertently go too fast (more than about 20 km/15 mph) you can spin out on the ice and get thrown to the side of the street. It feels like the rut has grabbed the wheels and given the car a good fling, and comes out of nowhere. After a very nasty experience of this sort in a previous year ( I still have no idea why I didn’t hit the parked car I was being thrown at), I now proceed with extreme caution in this sort of “goat track”. You can see towards the top of this picture that the next block has had snowplows clear each lane with the snow piled in the middle for eventual removal. No such luck on my block!
I got shot five yesterday on the way home from the barn. This is the part of the young warmblood herd that lives down the hill from Ebon. They were milling about a little closer to the road than is usual, so were within range for my big lens. I found out the hard way that the snow in the ditches is a lot deeper than I expected. As I tried to get closer to the horses by traversing the ditch, I went from being in only a few inches of snow to being most of the way to my hips in a drift. I got my shots as the snow filled my boots, then slowly and awkwardly extracted myself as best I could and struggled back to my car. Guess it really is time to pack the snowshoes in the car.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Snow day (s)





Seems to me it was only last week when I expressed my readiness for more snow. In the classic fashion of “be careful what you wish for” we do have fresh snow now, and quite a bit of it. Enough that I’ve been essentially trapped in my house since Sunday morning, at least as far as driving anywhere goes. Even walking, should I be so inclined, isn’t much of a tempting prospect due to the heavy slogging through the rather dense fresh snow with its underlay of ice from the freezing rain that preceded it.
I had plans for a photo shoot south of the city on Saturday morning. I was hoping for action shots of the interesting herd I tried to photograph in early December, the day that my old camera finally refused to function at all. I’ve been sulking about that ever since, so this was going to be my chance at this herd with the nicely functioning new camera in tow. In a rare moment of sensible mental processing, I decided against this particular shoot in view of the snow and wind that greeted me on Saturday morning. That site is far enough south of the city to be very open, and I felt the visibility wasn’t going to be there either for taking the pictures or indeed for successfully navigating the narrow country road to get there. However, with my on-going mania for photographing horses in falling snow (apparently all the shots of this sort that I did last winter weren’t quite enough) I opted instead to pop out to the “favourite herd” that is much closer and in a more enclosed environment where the wind wouldn’t be such a big factor. The usual cold hands aside, that shoot was quite satisfactory, although I always forget how dark (or at least non-light) it is even in mid-day when we have a good snow happening.
It continued to snow and blow all Saturday, Saturday night, Sunday, and intermittently Sunday night and today. School buses have been discontinued, some city buses can’t do their routes, garbage trucks are pulled from service for the moment, and things are a tad difficult in general as far as day to day getting around goes. I didn’t even try to get to the barn yesterday to see my horse as would be usual, ditto for today, although Mondays are maintenance days at the stables and we riders don’t go Mondays in any event. I do plan to try for tomorrow. Must remember to put a shovel in the vehicle just in case. If I don’t get stuck backing out of my own driveway onto our street, I should have a good chance of making it.
So today’s shots feature—wait for it— snow! Shot one shows some of the brood mare herd hunkering in by their hay pile, with their tails to the wind. Horses always face away from the prevailing wind. The turnouts at Ebon where I ride are all on the west side of the stables, so if you have to bring horses in during a bad blow (either rain in summer or snow in winter) you are leading them straight into the wind (bad weather here invariably comes on an east wind), a situation they are never happy about, although once you get them into the warmth and cozy atmosphere of the barn they tend to cheer up right away.
Shot two is a close-up of the snow caked on the rump and sides of one of the mares. You can see by the wetness of her coat that the temperature wasn’t too cold–just a few degrees below freezing, although today it is dropping fast.
We walked the dogs as usual Saturday evening since although snowy and windy it wasn’t that cold, and I was taken by the image of the empty school playground skating rink all lit up and ready for customers. I returned to the rink after the dog walk, with camera and monopod in tow, for a less than successful shoot. The monopod broke, and I couldn’t get the camera stabilized on it. It was dark enough that I really should have had a tripod with me but that was going to take too much set-up time for the conditions I was working in. As I was getting back to the car, I took a couple of last hand-held shots. I had changed the setting on the camera and the flash went off for this one. Not what I had intended but I actually really like the effect of the bright light bouncing off and magnifying the effect of all the individual snowflakes. I’ll have to remember that for future night-time snowing photo efforts.
We have a thick clematis right outside our south living room window where the little sparrows like to cluster out of the wind when the weather is bad. This also provides a “kitty TV” opportunity for our elderly cat who enjoys getting on the plant table and watching the birds that are perched only inches from her on the other side of the glass, as documented in shot four. The “bird vine” is just behind her head in the window to the left.
Shot five shows the front of my house on Sunday afternoon. The large snow-covered shapes in the top half are my studio windows. Usually the snow doesn’t build up on the windows, but I think the freezing rain created an ice ledge at the bottom of the windows sufficient to prevent the snow from sliding off. I have a lot of houseplants over-wintering in the studio and they aren’t going to be happy about the lack of light. Since the temperature is dropping into the minus 20s for this week, I may be stuck with this situation for a while, as nothing is going to be melting any time soon. I don’t think I’ll make any comments on what I wish for weather-wise in the coming week. I’ll just keep out of it. It might be the safest option.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Putter mode





I seem to have achieved my usual eclectic mix of images for this week. At this time of year when I’m not shooting as much as usual, I sometimes wonder what I will manage to come up with for the weekly blog shots. Invariably something always bobs to the surface despite my occasional anxieties over the whole process. We’ve been a bit short on horse shots of late, mostly because I haven’t been generating many. The horses I have regular access to are either blanketed or muddy (yes! in January! in Saskatchewan!) and in very uninspiring surroundings. My main hope is for action shots, which they are singularly unforthcoming in providing. I’m hoping for a bit of fresh snow one of these days to make things look cleaner and brighter, and that might provide the impetus for me to get out to some of my regular horse haunts for some new shots.
In the meantime, we’ll work with what showed up today.
Shot one shows the chaos that currently has overtaken my studio. One of the side-effects of me not currently having any shows or particular time pressures for my photo work, combined with more down-time from riding than is usual (horse has a cough), has been that I have the leisure to get into trouble on the home front. I’ve been enjoying “putter” mode for the most part, doing selected small and mindless chores around the house, which has been entertaining in a low-key sort of way. Since “some day” seemed to have come for countless little jobs, I thought I’d better make some moves on the slightly bigger undertaking of a studio rearrangement that I thought up back in December when I didn’t have the time to work at it. This involved unloading and moving an extremely large, laden, and very heavy worktable, with the added regressive move of having to unload and move another largish storage unit that was full of many heavy items, to make room for the work table. I got the table moves done a few days ago, having displaced a lot of items in the process. I have a feeling I’m not done moving furniture around, so I don’t want to put away all the stuff that is piled on whatever horizontal surfaces I could find, since inevitably the minute I load them all into a storage unit, I’ll suddenly decide I want that unit elsewhere and have to reverse the process. So, until I have a clearer idea of what to move where as my next step, the piles remain. In the old days when I worked with other art media, this type of situation meant I couldn’t work until I resolved all the work surface concerns, which had the effect of keeping me at it, but these days I just walk past it all (averting my gaze if necessary) and head straight to the computer to do my artwork. I have a feeling this situation could last quite a long time.
We’ve been getting some nice frost effects due to the relatively warm temperatures that continue, combined with higher than usual humidity. Shot two is one I took of the pole bean remnants on their support, backlit by the rising sun. I like the organic linear lines of the bean stems outlined in frost, and the warm colours of the early-morning light.
I have a fondness for snowmen, and the weather has been prime for them of late, although the raw materials (snow) are a bit scarce. I drive by a schoolyard that abuts the highway as I go to the barn every day, where the kids have been building snow people overlooking the highway. One of the fun parts is the snow person changes on a daily basis. The first one I noticed was a quite shapely woman with a hat and purse. By the second day, she had morphed into a shapeless and lumpen one-eyed creature holding a garbage bag. Shot three was the creation of day three, which was Friday. Since school was out over the weekend nothing changed on Saturday and Sunday. I would love to get photos of each day’s snow person, but the highway is too busy for safe stopping on the shoulder most of the time. I was lucky to get this shot during a quick stop when the traffic was a little less intense than usual. The other poor part is that the snowman is facing north so is always backlit, which is an added photo challenge.
Primulas always make a welcome appearance at the grocery stores at this time of year, and I bought a couple (shot four) to brighten up the living room. They are nestled nicely in the interesting silver-coated basket (that needs polishing) purchased last summer for 50 cents at a garage sale.
Shot five is of my friend Murphy, the Ebon stables dog, taken last fall. Murphy is always happy to fetch whichever of his many toys is thrown for him. I love the way he fixes his gaze straight on me as he is coming in at high speed. This is one of the many “family and friends” shots that I have been endlessly editing for the past few weeks. I often think of myself as the “independent memory unit” for the family, friends and clients for whom I do photos.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Carrying a torch





If you sit here in the middle of the prairies for long enough, eventually some interesting bits of the world will come to you. That was the case today when the Olympic torch relay passed through our area as it wends and winds its way the length and breadth of the country, pausing at innumerable large and small towns and cities before it reaches its final destination of Vancouver in February to mark the start of the winter Olympics. This is the culmination of a huge effort of organization,official sponsorship and volunteer effort, and from the bit I witnessed today I’d say all the planning for this event has been wildly successful.
I don’t think I would have braved the crowds and the parking problems to watch the relay here in Saskatoon, but when my daughter (who is going to be writing an article on one of the participating relay runners) asked if I wanted to join her and grandson Mark in an outing to a small town an hour and a bit west of the city to photograph “their” runner, I was happy to go along. I always prefer this sort of event in a small town atmosphere, where things tend to be a little more intimate and grass-roots.
Our drive out was mildly stressful due to some uncertainty and changing intelligence on the actual time we should be there, and indeed at one point we were convinced we were already too late and had missed it. Luckily that proved not to be the case, as a half-hour break after the first two runners gave us the extra margin of time we required. The weather was very fortuitous for January, being right about the freezing mark, a nice change from the minus thirties of the last week. There was a fierce wind, but all in all you couldn’t hope for better for this event. Spirits were high amongst the “professional” torch people, the local relay runners, and the cheering observers, and a good time was had by all.
Today’s shots are mostly from, well, today. Shot one shows the wonderfully colourful sunrise off to our east as we headed down the road. We couldn’t take the time to stop for pictures so I did what I could out the window of the car. I don’t see a lot of sunrises like this as we are far enough into the city that by the time I know it’s going to be a good one, I don’t have time to scoot out to the country to get photos, so I was very glad that the one day I *was* in the open at the right time, it was definitely photo worthy.
Shot two shows the official “starter” flame that is used to light the various torches used by the relay runners. Looks to me a lot like a customized version of the Lee Valley Tools Welsh miner’s lantern. That would be fitting since Lee Valley is an iconic Canadian company.
Shot three shows “our” runner at the end of her relay leg, having just passed the flame to the next bearer. It was such fun to witness her participation as she was so enthusiastic and happy to be part of this event. I’m sure she’s been practicing her smiling and waving. She handled it all like a pro. At the “debriefing” for the participants back at the local arena, she insisted that we all hold the torch (now unlit, need I point out) and have our photos taken with it. The runners have the option to purchase and use (for the run only) their own copies of the official torch, which is why she still had it. It’s actually quite a good weight, but I’m sure the runners don’t really notice that while they are running, due to the general excitement of the occasion. They also had special torch-bearers editions of the official red Olympic mittens, with “grippy” maple leaves on the palm. The surface of the torch is a very smooth plastic, and you wouldn’t want it to be slipping out of the hands of the runners. I’m keen to get a pair of the “regular folks” version of these mittens, but they are almost impossible to track down, being the latest “viral” purchase this month.
As we were heading back to the city (via the ghost town that I like to visit, for some winter shots), we spotted what I took to be a largish herd of deer grazing in a stubble field. My daughter was driving and she is strangely indulgent of my need for frequent photo stops, so we headed down the grid road to check them out. I was surprised to see that they were not deer but antelope, and the biggest bunch I’ve ever seen. Antelope are a lot less spooky than deer, so we got within shooting range for my big lens before the dominant male decided we were a potential threat and moved the herd along.
Shot five is one of the end products of my Photoshop endeavors of last week. I’ve been creating unicorns and putting them in various environments, just as an equal opportunity thing so my winged horses don’t get too uppity. I do enjoy tinkering with reality!

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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New week, new year, new decade, same old, same old





Here we are, plunging into a new year and a new decade. I’m heading into the third year of this blog (!!) and somehow I feel that I’m in rotation mode with a lot of this stuff. Of course, that’s pretty much how life goes (mine in any event), but just in case some of you have been around for a while and think I’m covering the same ground in different ways, you’re right. Sorry. I just want you to know that I*have* noticed this myself. On the other hand, it’s a pretty pleasant lifestyle and it keeps me entertained, so don’t hold your breath waiting for dramatic changes.
As per usual, our little part of the family (husband Jim, grandson Mark and I, plus various dogs) saw the New Year in quietly. Neither Jim nor I even tried for midnight, but Mark did manage it. Not sure about the dogs. I’m not a “resolutions” person (this goes along with my general “no goals” mindset), so for me it’s just a matter of carrying on with the things I enjoy (art, horses, photography, in no particular order) and trying to tread water ahead of the tide of household chaos that always seems about to overtake me.
One of the things I undertake at each year’s end is the sorting, editing and burning to CD of the vast multitude of family photos amassed in the previous twelve months. I started with the grand-dogs, and shot one today is of Arrow, taken during a backyard play at her place late last winter. I love her intensity, sense of drama, and athletic ability.
Shot two is another one from the shoot of the previous weekend. This was taken as the sun was rising, which produces a very warm light. I had stopped by the small old observatory on the university campus for some shots, and as I got out of the van this flock of pigeons exploded from the roof of an old part of the university medical complex. I thought I had missed them until I downloaded these shots, as they were moving pretty quickly.
Shot three is of the “blue moon” of New Year’s eve. Not only not blue, but actually a very rosy red colour as it appeared in the eastern sky. I haven’t been able to ride since before Christmas due to a thrown horseshoe and a missing farrier, but I go out to the stables daily to check on Alpac and get my barn fix. Mark came with me on New Year’s eve, and we planned our trip to coincide with moonrise so we could get these shots. No tripod, and too darn cold anyway to mess around with equipment, but I did the best I could. I couldn’t get over how very large the moon was when it was low in the sky. Well worth the cold hands to witness this.
New Year’s day was when I opted (not a good idea as it turned out) to head down to the river weir to get some shots of the geese that overnight on the ice shelf on the water’s edge. It was thirty-four below with a wind chill warning that made it feel like the low forties, and in retrospect it was one of those “what was I thinking?” experiences. I can’t even claim to have taken great photos as the light wasn’t good, the sunrise being only of the “so-so” nature. Shot four is one from that outing. You can see the water dropping over the edge of the weir in the lower right quadrant, and the dark line of the sleeping Canada geese and a few ducks in the middle distance, outlining the meeting point between ice and water. The large buildings on the far bank are part of the ever-expanding and seemingly never finished complex of hospital buildings on the university campus.
Shot five shows one of the faithful little nuthatches that frequent our nut feeder. This has been an odd year for birds, with numbers of individuals and of species not what we have seen in other years. Other friends who feed birds report the same thing, so it’s not just us. We have two or three nuthatches that are “regulars” and they are relatively easy to photograph as they are quite bold and not bothered by people unless we get very close.
I wish I could show you the spectacular shot that didn’t happen earlier today. Since it was very grey and snowing lightly (and since I almost never see anything of interest on this daily drive), I opted not to take the camera with me to the barn. Bad move, since I missed the all-time best coyote photo op that has ever presented itself to me. Lesson learned, at least until next time!!

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Getting back in the groove





As per usual, Christmas has come and gone, whether we were ready for it or not. I was mostly ready and it all went off in quite a satisfactory fashion. I’m sure I’m a trial to my family when it comes to purchasing gifts, as generally if I want/need something (usually in theart/photography or horse line) I get it. If I haven’t yet got around to buying the item for myself, good luck to anyone who tries to get it for me, as my specifications will be *very* specific as to what I need, and there would be many ways for the unwary but well-meaning to go wrong.
This being the case, I was particularly pleased when Jim followed up on a random suggestion I made about a possible gift that I would enjoy, and purchased a wonderful crow artwork for me as my Christmas gift from him. It is second from the top here. I’ve been planning a corvid and tree “shrine” in the area over the fireplace mantle, and this will round out the collection nicely. Plus he gets extra points for actually paying attention to my suggestion.
It’s not often I complain about it not being cold enough, but now that I’m getting back into photo mode, I found this to be the case over the weekend.We were driving past the river weir just around sunrise on Christmas morning, heading to the town north of the city where our local daughter and her family live. I glanced toward the shoreline and spotted a wonderful photo op, but of course I had “Nikon minor” with the smaller lens for indoor shots with me, and it wasn’t going to be up to the job. Plus we were on a bit of a timeline and it was 33 below zero. I decided I would follow up on the visuals I wanted to get (a line of waterfowl along the rim of the ice right near the open water, with billows of steam rising from the water and the rays of the sunrise shining through) over the weekend. Sunday morning I headed off with both cameras (just in case) and got myself situated for the shot. Dang. No billows of steam backlit by the rising sun. Too warm at minus 11. I did get some shots but not the ones I wanted. Word has it we’re heading back to the minus 30s for New Year’s day, so I’ll try again then. Think I’ll get some better mitt liners before then, too.
That being said, on to the shots I did get. I’m starting to be a bit less cautious about the new camera, having spent the first week tiptoeing around it worrying about abusing it like I did the last one, and am relaxing and just going out and getting shots and familiarizing myself with its capabilities.
Shot one is my “grand-dog” Brodie on Christmas morning. He is enjoying his new hedgehog, a near-exact replacement of his “precious” of several years ago. Seems to be a satisfactory substitute for the loved and lost. As per usual, when I downloaded the Christmas family photos, I found I had far more shots of the dogs than of any of the family members.
Shots two and three are from the “warm” river shot day. I worked my way home from the river the long way, and my eye was caught by these trees on the university campus (shot two) and their shadows in the warm early morning light of the sunrise. Shot three is from the other end of that day. I headed out to visit Alpac at the barn in the later afternoon, and again went home the long way to check out a herd of bison that I had spotted earlier in the year. No good bison shots that day (light was fading and they were a bit far off behind some trees) but I like this shot of the road that goes past the bison ranch (shot three). This is not a busy road by any means, and in fact I felt if I got too far off to the side I could be in trouble, but of course as soon as I stopped, a farmer in a truck appeared and I had to account for my presence. He seemed a bit puzzled as to why I would be out in the middle of the road taking pictures, but after we chatted for a bit (me having to establish that yes I was a city person but I did own a horse that lived vaguely in the area) he seemed satisfied with my credentials and continued off down the road. My experience of shooting in the country is that no matter how remote the location (and this one wasn’t actually that remote) you are never really unobserved or un-noted, so you’d better be out in rural territory with good intentions, because someone is going to be watching you.
The final two shots are from this afternoon. Since it was still warmish at minus eleven today, it seemed like a good time to try my luck at the zoo. I am never sure whether the grizzlies will be out since it seems to me they should be hibernating at this time of year, but there they were. They have dug quite an extensive multi-room den or pit in their enclosure, and were at their leisure in it when I got there. One of these young bears has only grudgingly accepted his lot as a zoo bear, and he was sleeping in one area of the pit with his back towards the viewing area. The bear in this photo has always seemed quite relaxed and philosophical about his life. He makes good use of the recreational and entertainment options of his pen, and generally lounges about seemingly quite content with his world. Today he was in the pit, his back leaning against the side of it, and his feet up on a tree stump that he was using much like a footstool. He had a small conifer branch which he was manipulating and occasionally chewing on. You can see it as he holds it up in this shot. I have a particular fondness for this bear, who exemplifies a good-natured acceptance of that which he cannot change.
A pair of baby cougars were taken into the care of the zoo earlier in the year, having been orphaned in their native home in the southwest of the province. The only previous time they were visible when I was visiting the zoo was of course one of the rare occasions I didn’t have my camera with me. That being the case, I was pleased to see them out and about today. They have lovely plush winter coats, and were having a good time being teenage cats, exhibiting much the same behavior patterns that you would see with a pair of domestic cat siblings of the same age. No lions to be seen today, so it was good to have the cougars to represent the big cats.
It will be a new year by the time I post next week. New for our calendar system, and another notch in the belt for me, as tomorrow is my birthday. I try not to dwell on the passing years one way or the other, as there’s not a lot I can do about it, other than be glad that I’m still around to *be* another year older! Onwards and upwards.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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This is more like it





Things are much improved on the weather (and personal comfort) front since we have left the minus 30 and 40 degree temperatures of early last week. We even made it up to single digits below freezing on a couple of days. This has been a very welcome reprieve for all inhabitants of this province, human and animal. As always when things get as bitter as it was last week, I pondered with amazement how the early European settlers were able to survive their first years here (and by *early* in this province we are going back only a hundred or so years), or, going farther back, how the Native inhabitants were able to use their survival skills and hard-won knowledge of this harsh environment to keep themselves alive, all without the benefit of insulated houses, central heating, running water, grocery stores full of food, heated vehicles, and all the day-to-day things we “moderns” take for granted. I’m not sure many of us could survive the way our ancestors did, with the materials they had at their disposal, and “making it up” as they went along, often with little knowledge and few resources. It’s a testimonial to their grit, determination, and likely their level of desperation, that any of us live here now.
I was able to take advantage of the milder temperatures to go out on a first “date” with the new camera (a Nikon D300s, since a few people have inquired) and so far, so good. This camera seems mostly familiar to me since it is the evolution of my previous D200. There are enough new features for a bit of a learning curve for me, but not so many that I couldn’t pick it up, adjust the settings to my own specs, and go out and shoot. The unrepaired but still somewhat functional D200 has come back from its trip for diagnosis, and has been officially handed over to my grandson Mark, who is very pleased to have it. I hope it will continue to work for him for at least a while.
While I was without my usual camera I had a bit of “extra” time to play with existing images in Photoshop. That and the fact that it was just too darn cold to go out anyway. The first image in today’s lot is one of the results of that playing. I’ve been thinking about doing a series of “elemental” horses (earth, air, fire, water) and likely you can guess which one this is. Since I assembled this one, I’ve rethought the concept quite a bit, so this is only a beginning of what will end up being a lot more complex image. Then I’ll have to figure out the other three. After that, I’m contemplating “four seasons” horse images. That should keep me entertained for a while this winter, added in to all the other things I have in mind.
My photo outing of the warmish day took me to my favourite mixed herd south of the city, en route to Ebon stables to check in on Alpac. Shot two shows one of the young brood mares “hiding” behind a tree while keeping an eye on me. It’s been quite a while since I got out to photograph these horses, a situation I will try to remedy as the weather allows. In fact, I tend to go out there a lot more in the winter than I do in the summer, partly due to my quest for shots of horses when it is snowing. Mind you, we have almost no snow at all so far this year, so things will have to step up on that front to get me out there more often.
Shot three is one of the several barn cats at the same horse operation. I’m not sure how many cats live there, but the ones I see are all very well fed and in good shape. I think of this one as being the “ambassador” of the group, or maybe the “greeter” as he will come rushing up to purr, rub and visit the minute he sees you in the area. Getting photos of him is always a challenge as I generally have my big zoom lens on the camera when I am there, and he gets so close so fast that I can’t usually get a focus on him to get a shot. Right after I took this one he shot down the post and was soon wrapped around my ankles.
Shot four is one I took at Ebon when I got there that same day. I always smile when I see the barn sparrows lined up on the fence. They’re pretty skittish, so this was as close as I could get before they all took off. You can see from this and the previous shots that the day was very grey and overcast, although with the added bonus of beautiful frost on all the trees, due to the somewhat warmer and moister prevailing weather system.
In addition to spending time on the fire horse, I was in “card” mode last week. An online publication, the StableWoman Gazette, put out a call for images for e-cards, and I was happy to oblige. I’ve had a folder in the computer of suitable card images for quite a while, and just needed the nudge to get me to work on some of them. If you click on the highlighted link above, you can see the e-card area on the left of the home page.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Brrrr——





It’s hard to convey just how bitterly cold it has been here the past week. We’ve been well into the minus 20s and minus 30s all week, and when you add in the effect of the wind (aka “wind chill”) the net result has made it feel like the minus 40s. LOW minus forties on several occasions.
About the only positive note is that it has been nice and sunny, and the viciousness of the weather has made me feel less distressed about being without my main camera, since even I would have been hard pressed to go out and get photos in these conditions, although it has been known to happen in the past.
I’ve been reminded of some of the things that don’t work well in the extreme cold, such as the plumbing to my studio (high up on the house and on a north wall), and the water pipes at the barn, which tend to freeze up depending where they are located, and despite everyone’s best efforts to prevent this from happening. The seat cushions of a car that has sat outside in the driveway in these conditions acquire a certain distinctive ice-block-like consistency, with no give whatsoever. Ditto the wheels. Steering takes a while to function right, too.
At least the car is still starting, given enough time with the block heater plugged in. Other than necessary trips out for supplies and to the barn, though, I’m not going anyplace much, and I have developed a tendency to wake up in the middle of the night and worry about my poor elderly retired Thoroughbred. He has grown a good enough winter coat, has a shelter (if his “difficult” pasture companion will let him in it) and also has the option of a winter horse blanket and/or an indoor stall for the truly bitter nights, but still he’s a concern. Few remaining teeth mean he’s hard pressed to take in enough calories to keep his weight where it should be in the winter, so it’s all a cause for concern. He lives at the acreage of a friend who is a genius at managing the old boys in an optimal fashion, so there’s not much I can do other than hope for the predicted warming (and that’s a relative term) trend to come quickly. And worry in the middle of the night.
On the camera front, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that I have bought a new camera (picked up this afternoon) and the bad news is that I *had to* buy a new camera. The old one had so many things needing to be fixed (including a new shutter) that I just wasn’t willing to invest the money required to make it right. I admit to being very hard on my camera bodies, as I use them heavily year-round, usually in difficult conditions (heat, dust, cold, wind, snow, rain, you name it) and am just generally a demanding if not mildly abusive camera user. I’m going to try to be a better owner to this one, but don’t make any bets on my success rate at this. I do what I am able to in order to be nice to my cameras, but I’m not about to change my shooting style.
So far I have managed to attach the strap to the body (don’t laugh, this is usually the most challenging and irritating part of setting up a new camera body) and that’s about it. I’ll spend some time tomorrow sitting in the comfy chair with the camera and the manual and get it up to speed and set for my style of photography, then I’ll be good to go. Tonight I’ll try to cowboy up and install the software package that came with it. I tend to be quite phobic about any sort of computer installations, assuming (sometimes correctly) that it will all go terribly wrong and I’ll be up the creek without a paddle. I think I spent too much time with the old PC that was a nasty piece of work, and I still think of that as the default level of performance for computers. I now have a very lovely and compliant (mostly) Mac, but I still live in a state of mild apprehension that it will all go south with no notice and am consequently always amazed when everything goes well.
Since I didn’t take any photos this past week, I’ve delved about in the files for today’s shots, all thematically related to the season and the current weather. The first three shots were collected under very cold conditions in the past couple of winters.
Shot one was taken a couple of winters ago, at a get-together of drivers and teams on a day that was pretty much like today. It was well into the minus twenties with a seriously nasty wind. Despite that, a large number of drivers with many and varied types of horses and conveyances turned out for the event. I thought this fellow had the best set-up. He’s out of the wind, and to judge by the chimney in the front, he also has a heat source in the form of a little wood-burning stove. Now that’s sensible. Almost as sensible as staying home and not venturing out at all would have been.
Shot two was from a client horse shoot, which took place in the usual cold and wind, but with the added element of a snowfall thrown in for good measure. The barn cats were happy just to observe the world from the doorway of the barn.
Shot three was one of the mares from my favourite mixed herd south of the city. Yet again cold and windy that day. Judging from her shape, I’d say this was into the new year, as she was in foal and starting to show the effects.
I’ve been working away in the past while converting some of my images into card format. Some will be available as free e-cards on a horsewoman’s website (I’ll post a link once they are launched) and others I will print up for sale myself. Shots four and five show a couple of the card designs.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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It’s here





While I was busy doing other things last week, winter seems to have slipped in the back door and established itself rather firmly. Not much snow, mind you, just a skiff, but darn cold temperatures and not much different to look forward to for the coming week. Luckily I had a heads up on this decline into seasonable temperatures so I made time to run out to the barn on Friday after setting up for the Sundog arts and crafts show to put a warmer blanket on my poor horse. I blanket Alpac in winter to keep him from growing a really heavy coat, as horses can get pretty sweaty when worked if they have a full winter coat, then take forever to cool out. There are advantages and disadvantages whether one blankets or not, but I have always blanketed my going horses and have an extensive collection of equine outwear amassed by now. I’m sure he was grateful for it this morning when it was minus 31 at turnout time.
I made it through the show in relatively good form, and am happy to report that it was the last one for this year. Nothing on the horizon for me until well into 2010 and I’m content to keep it that way for the moment. Sundog was a good enough show for sales (could have been better but I say that almost invariably at every show) and was excellent for making contacts both for potential future clients and for photo shoots down the road.
I keep forgetting that I am minus my serious camera, and making plans to do shoots “next week”, or “in a couple of days”, then I remember I don’t actually have the camera that I need to execute these plans. Not so much of a concern right now as I’d really need to be desperate for a photo op in the current cold snap, although it has been known to happen. I’m trying to adapt my thinking to what I *can* do with the little camera and shorter lens, rather than mourning all the things I can’t do without my usual set-up. Maybe this week the big camera will at least send a message home to let me know if it is fixable or not.
Since I am shy on the usual number of new shots to choose from, you’ll be seeing a bit of a “mix and match” variety here for the next while. Now that I’m less preoccupied with show prep and with new photos coming into the system, maybe I’ll get some time to work with the ones I already have.
Shot one is an eye close-up, one of the things the little camera is actually better at than the big one. Not sure who this is–one of the many bay geldings in the driving pen at Ebon.
Shot two is from about a week or so ago and is also taken with the little camera. Would have been a differently framed shot with the big one, but it is still reasonably acceptable. I was wandering around outside that day, which was sunny and relatively warm for the time of year, when I noticed almost all the mares in the north pen were lying down in the sun and enjoying a quiet moment. You’ll often see one or two lying down, but it was a little unusual to see so many (about five or six) all down at the same time. This is Wendy, the big mare, eyeballing me over her shoulder to see just what I was up to behind her back.
Back to the summer for the next two shots. Shot three is one of a number of moving water studies I took at the weir. Water outdoors that isn’t solid already seems quite exotic to me, and just a distant memory. I liked the coloured reflections with the intense blue of the water, and the contrast of the smooth areas with the texture of the spray, also the rhythm of the movement in the water.
Shot four was taken on my back deck, showing the Clivia in flower, along with one of the larger cycads. All are tucked safely and warmly away in the studio for the winter. My studio is on top of the house and has large south facing windows, so is an excellent place for overwintering the houseplants and a few geraniums that I keep from year to year.
Shot five is a new photomontage that I found time to create last week. I call this one “The Doors of Creation” (even though that’s really a window, not a door or doors). It features my friend Pearl’s Canadian mare, with a medieval star chart laid in the background, among other things.
I have a few commissions and other odds and ends to get done for clients before Christmas hits, which really isn’t that far off at all. I’m kind of appalled at how unready I am, but as I have often told myself in the past, it will come and go whether I’m ready or not, then I’ll get another chance at it next year. One way or another, the world will keep spinning and the sun will continue to rise, so I’m just going to keep plugging away and not get too bent out of shape over the whole thing.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Two out of three





Two show/sales down, one to go, then I’m done for the year. Last night was the “Little Spaces” show at Persephone theatre. Seven artists set up just for the evening, in a nice space in the upstairs area. Not a lot of visitors, unfortunately, due in part to the Grey Cup football game which was on at the same time and which preoccupied much of the population of the province, the Saskatchewan Roughriders being one of the participating teams. As the saying goes. “timing is everything”. It always takes a bit to get new ventures noticed and established, but at least this one has had a launch, and we’ll see what the future brings for it. Friday I’ll be setting up for the Sundog show which usually draws about 10,000 visitors over several days, so that should be a bit livelier.
The local public health authority finally opened up H1N1 vaccinations to the general public last week, and I thought I’d better get my shot in time for it to do me some good before I spend three days shut up in a building with the above-mentioned thousands of people trooping past my booth. Despite wanting the shot, I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend several hours in line to get it, so I went during the supper hour last Thursday. Apparently this was a good move on my part, since it was busy but not grid-locked, and it took only about twenty minutes for me to move from the end of the line to the front. I was impressed with the thought and attention to detail that went into setting up the facility being used for the vaccinations, and also with the positive attitude and cheerfulness of the public health staff who were working there. One of the nurses told me the line-ups earlier in the day had been over two hours in duration, so I felt lucky to get in and out in just over a half hour total, including the fifteen minute post-shot wait.
As foretold in last week’s blog, my principal camera body and I have parted company for the moment. It is en route to Vancouver for diagnosis, and, I hope, a cure for what ails it. I wasn’t too distressed to send it off as I have the smaller back-up camera, although my hopes for an uninterrupted life of taking shots as usual were severely dashed when I went on a shoot on Saturday only to discover that my mainstay big fast zoom lens doesn’t work with the remaining camera body. That means none of my usual style of photos until I get the “big” camera back, which could be a month or two. Not sure what I’ll be shooting for the next while, but I’ll come up with some sort of plan, I’m sure.
As a result of this set-back, the Newfoundland pony shots I had hoped to feature today just didn’t happen the way I wanted them to. I have been taking a bit of time to work with some previously existing shots, so that’s what we’ll be viewing today.
Shot one is one I created from a very dark (almost completely unviewable) shot I got during the Gypsy stallion photo session. It was one of the worst of the “misbehaving camera” shots, of which I had way too many. Me being the way I am about these things, I was curious to see what if anything could be salvaged of the image, which as best I could make out was nice enough apart from not being visible. With a lot of massaging and Photoshop experimentation, I was able to pull the horse and a dim background out of the murk, then I merged it with one of my night sky images, since although it was taken in the daytime, it looked pretty much like night anyway. I quite like the end result, although I don’t think it would be printable due to the poor quality of the original shot. When I get time I’ll select a base shot that actually has some technical merit and try the same idea with it. For the moment, it’s in the “interesting concept” file.
Shot two would be from that same “interesting concept” file. This is another merged shot from one of the abandoned farmhouse series, with added and overlaid elements. Again, I think there is an idea here that I like, I’m just not all the way there yet with where this concept needs to go, so this version is just one of the stops along the way.
One of the things I’ve been meaning to do is to work up a series of images that I will print on greeting cards. Shots two and three are a couple that will end up in that format. I have lots of images that will work well for cards–ones that are too good to delete, but not quite right for larger format printing and framing as art shots. I’m enjoying thinking up captions for the more humorous ones.
Shot five shows my entry-area gargoyle in sunnier and warmer months. I bought him a couple of years ago at Hallowe’en and am quite fond of him. I never have liked his finish though, so today I decided I’d better extract him from his vine and drag him into the studio for a new patina, before he gets frozen in for the winter. I plan to “antique” him with (I hope) a slightly warmer hued stain. Not just sure how I’ll proceed, but at least I’ve got him indoors which is step one. For the moment he’s hovering beside the computer, waiting until next week when I have show season behind me and will be able to devote some time to more frivolous pursuits, such as gargoyle refinishing.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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One down, two to go





I’m not sure how far back in the week I can go this time round, as I don’t think I remember all of it. It’s been a bit of a gong show, what with trying to get the studio sorted out for the show/sale of this past weekend, an unexpected but always welcome photo op with the Gypsy cobs, a field trip with a couple of my “barn lady” friends, trying to keep up with the regular round of riding five or six days a week and getting some artwork done in addition. And then there are the on-going anxieties and vet visits with Mickey (one of my Boxers) who has been enduring a nasty and prolonged allergic reaction to some bodily insult, likely a bee sting. The short version of it is swelling of the head and neck, lumps all over the front half of his body, and breathing problems. Not anything either of us wants to be dealing with, although that’s exactly what we have to do. We’re on round two of the little pink pills which did an admirable job while he was on them, but as soon as we finished them up all the symptoms came back, so now we’re looking at another couple of weeks medication. Hope that will be the end of it. I am grateful that at least there is something that works for him, no matter how long he has to be on it.
I think I did an adequate job on most fronts, although by today we were pretty well out of eating options since getting to the grocery store wasn’t one of the things I could fit in, and I have to confess to not having seen my horse since Friday. Got the groceries topped up today and will resume riding tomorrow so my world will be back in balance again for the short term at least. Another show next weekend and the big pre-Christmas one the weekend after that yet to be dealt with, but if it wasn’t for deadlines in my life I’d likely get nothing done at all.
Shot one today is from the North Fork Gypsy cob shoot. I haven’t done many shots of their stallions, and I got a call to say that Tully, the new young stallion, was going to be turned out into his big grassed area and might give me some good chances at action shots. I got there a bit after mid-afternoon on Wednesday with nice conditions (i.e. dry and not too cold ) and not bad light. At this time of year the sun is quite low in the sky by four, so shadows are part of the equation, and you just have to work with them and with the nice backlighting possibilities afforded by the sun position. All this is assuming you have a camera that is willing to co-operate with you, which much of the time I didn’t. I’ve mentioned my intermittent camera woes before. I’ve been nursing my “big” Nikon along for a while, but this shoot pushed me to the limit of my tolerance and I will be sending it off for diagnosis and rehabilitation this week without fail. I did get a good number of nice shots of young Tully, but missed many as well due to mechanical problems with the camera. It kills me to be parted from my camera, but it’s overdue and at least I have the “baby” Nikon to keep me from going into the unpleasant zone of total withdrawal from photography. That’s Tully in the foreground of this photo, with the older stallion Tumbleweed keeping pace with him in the next pasture over. There is a no-man’s -land strip of several feet between the fence-lines of these two pastures so that the stallions don’t make direct contact over the fence but can still see each other and visit at a bit of a distance. Each stallion has his own live-in mare as well for company. I love to see stallions that get to live like normal horses with lots of space and with a companion. Such a simple thing in many ways, but a lot of stallions never get to experience either.
As noted in last week’s blog, I had several guest artists join me for my open studio sale. My grandson Mark was one of them, and shot two shows one of his photos of a daylily that was popular with the customers at the show.
Shot three shows part of the studio during the sale, with Mark enjoying a bite of lunch in the foreground, and Ric the sculptor in the background, possibly wondering what he would have to do to get some lunch himself. There were five of us in all, fitted into various nooks and crannies of the studio, and we had a good time and worked well together. We didn’t see the numbers of visitors that we hoped to, but we did our bit and the rest is really beyond our control. I do have to say, though, that despite the somewhat limited number of visitors we had, they were all a pleasure to visit with and I was certainly grateful that they took the time out of a busy weekend (and they’re all busy weekends at this time of year) to come to our event.
Shot four is one I have been working on intermittently since the last ghost town shoot. It is shot from inside the grain elevator towards the old store and other buildings. I had the idea of incorporating an old family photo into the scene, so used one of my grandfather (from the early decades of the last century) and his team as a “ghost” image on the grass area, and then threw in Arrow, my “grand-dog” to round out the picture. Also added an overlay of a fabulous “crackle” texture that I photographed in one of the old buildings of the ghost town. Those interiors are a treasure trove of texture and faded colour.
Today’s field trip was to Solar Gardens with a couple of my riding friends who hadn’t been there before. They are open weekends from now until Christmas, or by arrangement on other days, and Mondays are the only days we are all available and not at the barn. Shot five shows Dylan, one of the resident very large dogs, having a romp out by the greenhouse area. He had his beloved chicken in his mouth, and he really wanted the ball as well, but wasn’t willing to set the chicken down to get it. Sometimes we just have to make choices in life!
For Saskatoon and area residents, I will be participating in a group show/sale upstairs at Persephone Theatre next Sunday (the 29th) from 7-11 PM. Food and drink will be available in addition to the artwork. Hope to see you there. The following weekend (Dec. 4-5-6) I’ll be at the Sundog show at Credit Union Centre, upstairs.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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October, at last





Now that it’s chronologically mid-November, we are finally getting the weather we should have had in October. Seems only reasonable since we had November weather then. Back a number of weeks ago when we were experiencing snow, ice, and freezing rain, and driving was potentially a hazard, I got spooked into booking my snow tire installation. Guess everyone else was on the same page as me back then, as the earliest appointment I could get was for this coming Wednesday. I’ll of course follow through and get them put on, but goodness knows when I’ll really need what they have to offer with the mild and dry conditions we have settled into. This is not a complaint. I like snow and winter in general but I’m happy to keep on with the current weather status for a good while longer. Dog walking is so much easier with good footing, and the riding areas around the stables have finally dried up enough that the occasional ride outside is once again a possibility. The light of late fall is also totally different in years like this when there is no snow on the ground and I’m enjoying that aspect of it as well, not to mention the fact that I can keep up my photo endeavors without too much stress on either photographer or camera.
Speaking of camera stress, I’m actually working myself towards sending my “big” camera off for diagnosis of an intermittent but irritating and ongoing problem, which I sincerely hope can be cured with the usual administration of time and money (and the technical know-how of the Nikon people). Sending my camera away and being parted from it is a pretty serious state of affairs in my world. I had to do it once before with my first digital SLR a number of years back, and it was a traumatic experience. I’m handling the prospect better this go-round as I have the “baby Nikon” for backup, but it’s still going to take an act of will on my part to let the big one go. I keep trying to convince myself that the problem is either getting better or has gone away, but I had another go-round with it today and I know that a fix is required. Maybe next week.
Today’s shots are a mixed lot, representing a few of the activities of the past week and one of the week to come.
Shot one–I got a ” Mom’s Photoshop help-line” call from my daughter in Nelson BC to say that she needed some amending done to a shot she took of their “new” dental clinic building, which was to be featured in an ad in the local paper. This is a fine old heritage building built in the 1930s as a Scandinavian Church, and which has been through ups and downs over the decades. They purchased it a couple of years ago, and it has undergone extensive renovations in preparation for its new life as a dental clinic. The inside has been gutted and remade, but there are restrictions on how the outside can be dealt with due to the heritage designation, and I think they’ve done a great job on it. Haven’t seen the inside in real life since it was finished, but from the photos my daughter has sent, they’ve done a superior job there as well. My job with this shot was to remove some distracting clutter in the form of builder’s signs, street signage, roofs of the neighbouring houses, and adding some nice grass to the area in the photo where it was badly needed. She seemed happy enough with the end result, so that was one more job done.
This coming weekend I am hosting my annual open studio show and sale. This is the first of three consecutive show weekends for me, so by the end of the third one I’ll doubtless be fairly happy just to collapse for a while. In the meantime, I’ve got to get this studio pulled together which is in itself rather a daunting chore. I almost opted not to have an in-house sale this year, then decided that I would go ahead with it but would liven it up a bit by inviting a few other artists to share the space with me. This is a first for me with a studio sale, and assuming I can clear the area enough for them to display their work, it should be a fun weekend. Shot number two is the show announcement/invitation. Anyone in Saskatoon and area is welcome to come and take a look.
Grandson Mark and I went on a photo shoot to the zoo on Remembrance Day as he was off school. We did the usual zoo animal shots, but for me the most exciting part was the flocks of wild geese coming in to land on the open water areas of the zoo wildfowl pond. Wave after wave came in, all calling loudly, circling the open area, and jockeying for position and landing space. I got a lot of shots where they looked more elegant than this, but I was fascinated with the ones like shot three where they are in “touch-down” mode, with feet spread and outstretched, wings set, bodies all puffed up, and heads looking very tiny compared to the rest of them. Not pretty, but it gets the job done. I’d like to get back there again this week while there is still open water, if I can take the time from studio prep.
As shown in shot four, we finally have actual dust on the country roads, taking the place of the eternal seas of mud we have endured for the past couple of months. As long as you can keep your camera out of it, dust is the photographer’s friend, as when it is backlit it can transform the most ordinary scene into a thing of beauty. I was just leaving the stables in late afternoon last week when a car went down the grid road, send clouds of dust into the backlit trees and bushes. I’ve taken a few liberties with this shot, pushing the colours and levels to maximize what the camera captured.
Shot five is one I have been working on from the ghost town shoot. I took one of the interior shots of an old house, overlaid peeling paint texture onto it, and created a new view out the window. I’m working on several variations of this one, with different horses and landscapes outside the window, just feeling my way through the concept and its possibilities. That’s one of the many reasons I love Photoshop–it doesn’t have to be an “either/or” situation, rather one of exploring all the variations and possibilities, at least the ones I have time for.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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Ghost town, the sequel





Since the weather has finally settled into a steady and reasonable pattern (i.e. dry, sunny and not too cold) I have been happy to extend my usual outdoor shooting season. Granted, I do shoot year-round, but serious winter shooting is challenging and hard on hands and camera, so I’m quite content to carry on with what we’ve got for the foreseeable future.
I made a pilgrimage to the Gypsy cob farm on Friday, which was a ridiculously warm +17 C (about 62 F) albeit with an absolutely ferocious wind to temper things just in case we might actually start to enjoy ourselves. I love big winds so I was quite happy with the whole state of affairs anyway. Didn’t get quite the shots I hoped for as the stallions I wanted to shoot were not in their pastures due to construction work, but I had a great time nonetheless visiting the brood mare pasture and checking on the progress of the youngsters in the close-in turnouts. I think my best shots from that visit were of the young dogs, tussling and tugging on their pull-toy that I finally gave in and threw for them at the end of my visit. I’ve learned not to start a visit by throwing things for the dogs or I’ll never get as far as the horses. If you are interested in seeing one of the young mares in action, click here for the video of Violet’s debut at Spruce Meadows this past September. For a youngster with only three months of training, she came through like a trooper in surroundings that can intimidate even seasoned horses.
The unseasonably warm weather apparently brought out some unseasonable stinging insects, as when I got home that evening it was to discover that my poor dog Mickey had been stung by something and was having a nasty allergic reaction. This has happened to him before in the summer with bee stings, so that’s my working theory for this go-round as well. Odd though it is to think of bees being out in Saskatchewan in November, my brother-in-law reported seeing a bee in their yard that afternoon, so it does seem possible. Mickey’s neck and head were swollen and his head had lumps all over it. He was breathing OK, thank goodness, but couldn’t hold his food down (or the antihistamines that I had given him) and was generally a very pathetic creature. Luckily within twenty-four hours he was back to normal, but I did feel very badly for him in the interval.
Since the weather is holding for the moment, it seemed a good idea to make a repeat visit to the ghost town of the Hallowe’en day shoot, this time without the low clouds, wind, snow and freezing rain. A couple of indulgent friends came along with me for this outing, which we made today. We were able to get into several of the ghost town buildings, which for the most part seem sound enough underfoot and overhead, and in general had a good poke around. Second stop on our route was a return visit to the house down the road with the wonderful staircase and all the interesting peeling paint textures (it doesn’t take much to make me happy) to add to my collection. Since it wasn’t pouring rain this time, we made a third farm call to the one that we passed by totally last time.
This was an absolutely fabulous place for those of us interested in taking shots of old and decaying items. The workshop was full of stuff: tools, horse harness, bridles, metal things, you name it. The house was in really poor shape and not safe to enter (although my friend Donna *really* wanted to) but we could move around the outside and peer into windows. There were books and a child’s report card in one room, coats and sweaters hanging on the wall, tables and dishes in the kitchen, and in general it looked as if the family had just gotten up and left one day and never came back.
Then there was the machinery. All sorts of old grain trucks (every single windshield with multiple bullet holes), and one of the trucks with the keys still in the ignition. There were old wagons and wagon wheels, ancient combines, and many antique farm machines that were a total mystery to me (I am a city person, after all). There was even an ancient (relatively speaking) classic beetle-style Volkswagen out behind the henhouse. I don’t know how we would go about finding out the story of this place, but I’m sure there is one. As with our first two stops, this one definitely merits several return visits in other seasons and varying light conditions.
On to the shots for today. Now that the sun is setting so early (around 5 PM at present) I have been able to get some nice sunset shots on the way home from my afternoon rides at Ebon. Shot one was taken last week on my alternate route home from the barn. I was struck by the reflection of the sky in the water, showing around the edges of the ice in the middle.
The rest of the shots are from today. Shot two shows the back of the store with all its interesting roof angles. The orange snow fencing on the right of the building marks the open well. Good to know where it is!!
Shot three was taken from inside one of the houses (actually it might be the only house, as none of the other existing buildings seemed very house-like), showing classic “old farmhouse of the previous mid-century” decor, complete with an old TV in the corner.
Shot four shows a detail of some of the horse tack hanging in the shed of the last farm, and shot five is the interior of one of the old grain trucks, where you can see the keys still in the ignition. Poor exposure on the windshield, but not much to be done about that.
So far the forecast is for the weather to continue much as it is, so here’s hoping next week’s photos are still “late fall” ones, and not “early winter”, although we have had a taste of that already.

©Copyright 2009 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.

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