Tag Archives: photography

Past and present

November 17th, 2008 | By Judy Wood



My shooting schedule has slowed down a bit with the onset of winterish weather, added to the ever more rapidly approaching deadlines for various sales/shows that have me logging a lot of studio time, revisiting and reworking the many shots of earlier in the year. I’ve been getting my riding time in by sheer determination not to let anything interfere with it, but other than that, everything else gives way to photo editing these days.
That is, until an offer I couldn’t refuse came up for today. One of my horse artist friends, who also does website wrangling, suggested to a client (Mable Elliott) that I might be a good person to help out with some ranch-side shots for the upcoming ad campaigns planned for her business. Getting out in the country with some nice horses, both at liberty and under saddle, is generally something I can’t (and don’t want to) say no to. So this morning saw me heading out to the photo location, about a half hour north of the city.
It was a bit on the crisp and frosty side as far as weather went, but my client was up against a deadline for the photos, plus, November and oncoming winter being what they are, things aren’t likely to get any warmer, so today was as good a day as any. I found a nicely set-up and well-organized horse operation, which also offers guest accommodation and various “horse tourist” experiences for visitors of all sorts. It’s unpretentious and homey in the classic Saskatchewan way, with one of the cleanest barns you’ll find anywhere.
Also in a typical Saskatchewan way, there were a number of species in evidence, which is always an added bonus for me. I’m perfectly happy just getting horse shots, but when I have the opportunity to add in other species such as cats, dogs, miniature donkeys and goats, a calf, and and alpaca, as was the case today, it’s that much better. I thought I heard chickens somewhere in the distance as well, but I might be wrong on that.
The first three shots for today were from this morning’s shoot. You can see the herd (with the alpaca bringing up the rear) in the background of the first shot, with the added entertainment of a wild jackrabbit leaping through the foreground. Mabel, my client, was riding on her gelding just out of the picture, and she said that from her vantage point on the horse she could actually see five white rabbits scattering over the countryside as I was snagging this shot. We had just before this also spooked a small hawk out of the deep grasses, but I wasn’t close enough to it to get a very good shot.
Shot two shows the alpaca before he?she?? caught up with the herd, looking off into the distance after them. Then she (I’m being arbitrary here) took off at the alpaca version of a gallop–more of a fairly fast up and down canter–and joined up with the horse herd, with whom she is trotting along happily in the third shot.
Shots four and five are from shoots of earlier in the year. I’ve got a lot of white tiger shots that need a bit of playing with, and this is the result of some of that playing. I gave the tiger an interesting slightly menacing sky as a background, and I like the way the undulating shapes of the cloud patterns echo the line of the tiger’s back and haunches. When I have a bit more time I’m going to try to switch the wooden platform out and have the tiger lying on a rock, so the whole effect will be more natural (if you can use the term natural for an image that has been created in the computer!). The final shot is from a shoot I did in the early summer, in the back yard of my wildlife rescue friend. This was one of three little robins that she was hand-feeding and caring for, along with quite a menagerie of other birds and mammals. The dedication, knowledge and caring that wildlife rehabilitation people devote to wildlife in crisis is truly astonishing to me.

©Copyright 2008 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Judy Wood’s website.

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Not All the Art is Inside!

November 15th, 2008 | By Carrie Lewis

Do you ever have a day when you just have to say, “Man! I love this job!”?

I had one of those days, today. It was the third official day of Taste of Christmas in Newton. A bright, beautiful day with some gusting, cold winds, but excellent light. We had 70 visitors to the gallery, many of whom were participating in the ’scavenger hunt’ type puzzle promotion developed by the Chamber of Commerce for promoting the 39 local businesses that participated.

This is an annual event, but this year was the first year for the gallery. I thought I knew what to expect and turned out to be about 180˚ out of phase. Oh well! That’s why I’m not a weather forecaster and don’t bet on anything!

At about noon, after one group of six people had entered the gallery along with several individuals and smaller groups, I happened to look out the front window and saw this 1937 Buick Coupe in what looked like pristine condition.

Being a fan of old cars, I naturally had to get to the front and look at this baby a little more closely.

Imagine my surprise when I finally got to the front of the gallery and saw not one classic car, but three! All lined up perfectly in front of the Carriage Factory Gallery!

The other two cars were older than the Buick. As a matter of fact, the Buick turned out to be the ‘baby’ of the group.

Accompanying it was a 1931 Model A Sedan (center) and a 1929 Model A Roadster with a rumble seat (right).

Cool!

I immediately went back to the office for the camera only to realize before I got there that I had forgotten the camera. It was still at home. So I called Neal, who was also home planning menus, and asked if he could bring the camera to the gallery. It didn’t take much explanation of why I wanted the camera to convince him to bring the camera (he’s an old car buff, too, and recently acquired a 1987 Jaguar XJ6 to restore, but that’s a story all its own!).

He was at the gallery in just a few minutes and shot many of these photographs, as well as many others. Later, when I had a chance, I went out for some detail shots of shining chrome and interesting light.

As it turned out, the group of six people I had observed entering the gallery earlier had driven the cars, one couple per car.

They are members of the the Wichita “A”s, a Model A club located in Wichita, Kansas and they were out touring the area.

These last two images are the sorts of technical images that get the creative juices flowing. Light and reflections coupled with great color always catches my eye.

But I am not a technical artist and have never claimed to be one. Geometric shapes and I just do not get along. Circles are difficult enough. Ellipses and French curves? Forget it!

After we had enjoyed the work put into these cars and I had mentioned to Neal how badly some of those details were begging to be painted in the classical style, I told him that if he would do the technical drawing, I would paint the pictures.

I should mention that Neal is an engineer by training and, like most engineers, extremely precise in everything. Not only that, but he has the tools to draw all these very precise shapes and the knowledge to use them correctly. No mere ‘eyeballing’ something for Neal!

Anyway, he laughed and said he would do it! I can’t help but wonder what I might have gotten myself into with such a comment. Time will certainly tell!

But you have to admit that the deep red on this sedan is dying to be featured in a painting. And there are some interesting horses under the hoods of these cars, so it could still be considered equine art…

…Well, maybe not.

But it could just be an interesting 2009 Painting Challenge. I am, after all, working out my goals for the next year and doing something like this, even small studies, would certainly expand my artistic horizons. And how!

Man! I love this job!

©Copyright 2008 by Carrie Lewis. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Carrie Lewis’s website.

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3 in a row, horse photo.

November 12th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway
There’s something about this photo that catches my attention. It could be that I spent about three hours out in the horse pasture to finally catch three horses lined up like elephants marching!

I like the way their forms are repeated right down to the end. You kind of wonder what you’re looking at, then the tail on the last horse gives it all away. You can tell from that tail, these are horses.

And just for fun, here they are in living color. I go back and forth as to how I like to look at them best….Class, Bunch and Murphy, all in a row!
Donna Ridgway

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Donna Ridgway’s website.

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The Silly Filly, horse pictures.

November 11th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway

The Silly Filly is kind of flirty and coy. She’s exceptionally cute. Thought I’d share some of my photos of her today.

As it turns out, we took Daisy donkey back to the rescue where we got her from. She hasn’t quite worked out for us. She’s mean to Pedro and today she walked right through the fence to escape onto the road. Thank goodness she didn’t head for the highway. After the accident a while back, we didn’t want to be the cause of another one, so Daisy went back home.

Pedro leaves the fences alone and he minds his manners so well, it was hard to put up with Daisy’s antics for much longer. He doesn’t seem to miss Daisy, I think he was relieved to have the place to himself again.

Good thing is, Daisy returns to a place she’s well loved and we’ll probably visit her now and then.

The Silly Filly is one of Daisy’s old friends, so they’re united again.
Donna

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Donna Ridgway’s website.

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Not exactly to plan

November 10th, 2008 | By Judy Wood





Well, just as pride goeth before a fall, so apparently does optimism go before a really dismal show. Just when I was hopeful for this past week’s show/sale in Edmonton on the basis of my artist friends assuring me this was traditionally an “excellent” show for the artists, the management made a lot of ill-considered changes (need I say for the worse) and totally alienated both exhibitors and patrons, with the end result that the kindest thing I can say about my five day experience there was that I met some nice people at the show and got to visit with some old friends (as in long-standing, of course) who live in the area. As sales go, though, it tanked.

In addition to the customers being soaked for parking and entry fees so that they were pretty cross by the time they got in the doors (if they could find them) and not much in the mood for buying, we were also victimized by being set up in what was essentially a construction zone. The art booths were against what will ultimately be an inside dividing wall, but for the moment is acting as an outside wall. My booth area was so cold I had to borrow wool socks, sweaters and long underwear from the friend I was staying with, and even at that it was barely tolerable most of the time, and on a few occasions I thought a hard hat might be a good idea as well. The building that housed the show in previous years was a pile of rubble, having recently been knocked down, but there was no signage or anything to indicate to our customers that the show was actually carrying on in the new building, which was accessible only by following a long and convoluted set of narrow and twisting alleyways. Add that to virtually no local advertising for the show, and it has an impact of customer numbers. All in all, a pretty unfortunate experience.
On the plus side, though, by the end of the show the management representative that was checking in with us did seem to have a very clear idea of the ways things had gone sideways this year, and seemed sincere in his desire to make things fall into place again for next year’s show and sale. A lot would have to change before I’d consider doing this one again, but for the moment I’m not planning on burning any bridges, as the Saturday was actually quite good all round, and apparently that was representative of how the whole show has been in past years, so maybe it’s not too late to turn the clock back and make a recovery. I’m just peeved that the one year I chose to come was the one where it was pretty much a perfect storm of disasters for the exhibitors.
Since I don’t always read the fine print in the information packages, I made a bit of an error in my outward bound timing when heading north to Edmonton. I figured the set-up would be all day Tuesday, and knew we would need to be open for business on Wednesday. I got a good early (for me) start, and also had the advantage of “gaining” an hour during the trip as Alberta’s time zone is one hour later than in Saskatchewan at this time of year. That was all well and good until I made a pit stop when I was about two or so hours from Edmonton, and decided to check the set-up hours. We didn’t get access to our building until 7PM local time, which meant I was going to be arriving about five hours too early. The friend I was staying with wouldn’t be home from work until 5, or so I believed, so I had a few hours in which to do I knew not what. Then I remembered that Elk Island National Park was right en route, and I had always wanted to stop by and check out the bison herds there, but had never before had the time. So when we hit the park I turned off the highway and went in search of buffalo.
There was one good-sized herd off a side road at the south end, and I stopped for a while and got some shots. They weren’t as close as I would have liked, and while I am capable of mildly foolhardy things in pursuit of a good photo op, even I know better than to venture out on foot anywhere near a herd of wild buffalo. They are very fast when they want to be, and can be confrontational.
I decided to carry on farther into the park, reasoning (from the enormous amount of buffalo poop to be seen everywhere I looked) that there must be more than one herd in the area. I couldn’t see any as I tootled slowly along the unpopulated highway, but I did spot a very nicely coloured bush that I wanted to get a shot of. I got out of the van and was happily photographing my bush when a truck pulled up behind my van and just sat there. After a couple of minutes I got a bit nervous, as I thought maybe this was a Canada Parks truck and I was doing something wrong, so I got back in the van and carried on down the road, driving very slowly so they could pass me. They didn’t. They stayed the same distance behind me, also driving very slowly. Now I was getting quite concerned as to what exactly was going on here. After a couple of kilometers, there was another truck in view, this one coming towards me. The driver slowed as he approached me, making vigorous hand gestures and pointing to the south, all of which meant exactly nothing to me. By this time I was quite spooked, so I decided that at the first opportunity I would pull over to the side of the road, get out and ask the truck behind me what exactly was going on. My chance came, and I got onto the shoulder as best I could, then as I was twisting in my seat to undo the seat belt so I could get out, I realized I had parked right beside a small herd of buffalo. Now it all started to make sense.
The truck behind me stopped in the beginning because they thought I was photographing wildlife. The pointing man in the oncoming vehicle was trying to tell me to watch for the bison. Having figured all that out, I now felt quite free to go ahead and get my shots of the new bison herd without worrying that I was infringing on some sort of park rules. By this time the truck behind me had finally gone ahead of me and they had their cameras out too. I spent quite a bit of time with this herd, who stayed close by the side of the highway within a fairly limited area, until eventually they wandered off down the road.
Shot number one today shows the dramatic sky with a “personal” farm grain elevator, somewhere north of North Battleford in Saskatchewan.
Shot two is the nice orange bush that started the whole “truck following behind” incident, and the other shots show the small herd at the side of the road. It was a real treat to be so up close and personal with these guys. I think this is likely a young bull from the looks of him, with his small family which consisted of three or four cows and one baby from this year. He was very watchful over his little herd, and had the good fortune of one of his ladies appearing to be an older and experienced cow who would likely be the “boss cow” and titular herd leader, with the bull providing security service and general back-up. Both close-up shots are of the bull, whose horns are typically more curved and a bit stouter than those of the cows.
These are Plains Bison. Elk Island Park has both Plains Bison and Wood Bison, which are somewhat different from each other. I have learned over the years how to tell them apart by their different characteristics, but there is a local area joke where a nearby resident says to the tourist, “That’s a Wood Bison” and the tourist says “How can you tell them apart?”, to which the local answers, “We’re on the south side of the highway”–the joke here being that the highway divides the park and the Plains Bison live on the north side while the Wood Bison reside on the south side.

©Copyright 2008 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Judy Wood’s website.

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A walk in the woods.

November 9th, 2008 | By Donna Ridgway
Robert and I went for a walk in the woods, and came upon this eagle, landing on his nest. It was quite a gruesome site! Click the photo to look at his nest closely, he’s got deer antlers and all kinds of things in there, not counting the human skeleton. He was a pretty big eagle to be able to carry all that stuff into the nest!

We ran as fast as we could!

And I hope you don’t believe a word of it, because none of it is true. LOL. Someone in Lincoln, Montana set this up over Halloween, it’s sitting on main street. I just did a little photoshopping to take the buildings, power lines, roads, and solar panels.

Hope you liked the sculpture! :)
Donna Ridgway

©Copyright 2008 by Donna Ridgway. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Donna Ridgway’s website.

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Falling Leaves

November 8th, 2008 | By Alecia Underhill

Cheerio, my English Shepherd, is going to turn two years old this coming Thursday, and I thought I would celebrate her birthday by posting a recent picture here. We have a wonderful old maple tree in the side yard. I don’t know exactly what kind of maple it is, but it has smaller leaves than some of the others, and they make a particularly lovely carpet around the trunk when they fall off the tree. The color just sets off Cheerio’s coat beautifully.

Although she is nearly two and her “off switch” is much closer to being fully functioning, she still just loves to play, and our favorite game is to throw the jolly ball into the middle of a pile of leaves and watch her dive into the middle of the pile. She would emerge, leaves sticking out of the sides of her mouth with the jolly ball, reminding me of Linus jumping into the leaves with a wet sucker.

I’ve been spending all my painting time working on a large commissioned portrait, that I won’t be able to post here until it’s finished, and other studio time is being occupied by computer work. However, today was for more leaf raking. And what a day it was for working outside. It is so warm, I can’t believe it’s November. There is a small window of time to get the leaves raked before it snows. And I would rather not have to clean them all up in the spring. Growing up at my parents’ house, on their small wooded lot, the leaves would be ankle deep, and you could easily accumulate a pile four feet high from raking a small area. We would haul the leaves on a big piece of plastic sheeting and dump them at the curb and wait for the city truck to come and suck them all up. Our yard now, with it’s scattered mature trees, means I have a much bigger area to cover, and we tend to rake it in sections, depending on which trees drop their leaves first. At least our hauling method is the same, except there is no city truck to collect them. We just compost them ourselves along with the horse manure.

The big excitement of the day? Bluebirds! I saw a flock of five or six Eastern bluebirds in the yard this morning. I sure wish they would use the house I built for them, but I’m happy just to see them around once in a while.

And this last picture is my Morgan mare, Unique, looking cute wearing her fall “jewelry”. I found someone selling these at Equine Affaire last year, and I thought it was a wonderful alternative to the big, clunky hunter-beware bell that clips onto the saddle (that is, if your saddle has d-rings, which mine doesn’t, and those leather ties just don’t hold it securely.) So now Unique is fashionable on her fall trail rides.

©Copyright 2008 by Alecia Underhill. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Alecia Underhill’s website.

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Where’s Waldo? Post Halloween Edition

November 6th, 2008 | By Bethany Caskey

pb060151

Posted in Uncategorized   Tagged: Halloween, Where’s Waldo?   

©Copyright 2008 by Bethany Caskey. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Bethany Caskey’s website.

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Nov 6 - Aspens and Horses, 91.5% Finished

November 6th, 2008 | By Elin Pendleton

I got back to this one last night, and am glad I did. Jury duty didn’t last but a couple of hours, once they said they needed people for 18 days and I told them I was self-employed, an educator and a consultant. I don’t mind jury service–especially since they have free wifi in the courts, but three weeks out of my life would definitely impact my painting, lessons, and my teaching!

So, for teaching, let’s get to it. Can you see from my prior post how many of those “fuzzy” edges have been found again? The artist’s choice of which edges to leave soft (aka “transitional”) and those that are regained to a hard status is what makes an artist’s work unique. If you’re not already familiar with John Singer Sargent’s paintings, please go Google image him, and study his masterful use of brush strokes to lead and define the composition of his work. Wow. What a mentor for those of us looking to see edges handled by a master. And of course, there is the living legend in Richard Schmid, who reigns King of the Edges. He has a web site. But don’t go away to it just yet.

In starting with the reference photo of the aspens, we artists have to make choices. If we paint to the photograph too closely, what we do is take that “match” for the fire of our creativity, and it is still a match when we’re done. If we use that match (photo reference) as the starting point for our work, then the canvas can come ablaze under our hand. I did not stick with the reference photograph provided, but changed and bent the design to make what I hope is a better statement. One plein air artist I know put it well, “If you paint just what you see, you may not get good design in your paintings. God was planting bushes. You, the artist, might need to move a few to get a good design.”

I’ve been asked, “Elin, how do you get such good images of your paintings?” So I offer the image below to answer that question. This was the image that became the one above. I take my work out into morning sunlight (not in shadow or under the eaves as some people would have you do.) I lean it up against something, and this is VERY important–with the canvas tilted about 12-15 degrees off of true 90 degrees to the sun. We visual artists need to SEE this, so look at the rock I put in the foreground, and see how the shadow isn’t quite parallel to the bottom of the canvas, but “leans” a bit toward it. No glare, GREAT color, and true values.

Also note that the edges of the canvas are parallel to the sides of the image. That’s very important if you don’t want to learn how to “skew” and “distort” in photo editing programs. I know how, but prefer an easier path, so line up my sides of the work with the sides of the viewfinder.

My camera is a Canon digital, an ancient D30, but I also get great images with my newer Canon PowerShot A590. I’ve found it’s not the camera, but the angle and sunlight that make the difference. Of course, I always photograph work without frames or glass.

You can see my entire blog here.

Color System information can be found HERE.

If you need to email me directly, please click here.

©Copyright 2008 by Elin Pendleton. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Elin Pendleton’s website.

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Joy Comes at All Times

November 6th, 2008 | By Carrie Lewis

When I left the gallery last evening, this is some of what I saw. This view is from the landing of the outdoor stair that climbs to the rear entrance of the classroom area. The foreground is the roof of the neighboring building.

A strong wind had been blowing out of the south for most of the last two days and thunderstorms were forecast for the overnight period. I’d watched clouds sailing northward most of the day and had been aware that the sun was ducking in and out most of the afternoon, but I didn’t expect this.

The colors were breath-taking and this shot doesn’t begin to capture what was visible to the naked eye. It was enough to make an artist want to break out the paints and get busy!

What a beautiful way to end the working day!

In the previous post, I mentioned the fact that work has been arriving at the Carriage Factory Gallery for the 2008 World of Small & Miniature Art show.

First thing this morning, the docent for the day took the two pick up slips I had and went to the post office. I’m glad she went first thing because she came back with six packages! The clerk who waited on her saw who she was picking up for and handed over all of them!

The clerk also asked what was going on at the gallery because this shipment was as diverse as the rest have been. Minnesota, Arizona, California and Australia, to name a few points of origin.

I also had the opportunity to meet with a beginning painter from the western part of the state who is interested in entering the art market with lithographic reproductions. He works in watercolors and paints the western scenes of horses and horse people that surround him.

For someone who has been painting for only three years and is doing watercolor (watercolorists truly amaze me with the way they can coax believability out of such a recalcitrant medium!), his work is remarkable. He had one painting of a paint horse that continually drew my attention throughout our visit.

It’s always encouraging to me to be able to offer encouragement to others who are a few steps or a few miles behind me on this particular path.

And that seems to be an important part of this life.

©Copyright 2008 by Carrie Lewis. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Carrie Lewis’s website.

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Sheep / Goats and Llamas

November 5th, 2008 | By Juliet Harrison

Wondering what I have been up to?

Most of my time lately has been spent organizing the Ex Arte Equinus II equine fine art competition. Art Horse Magazine is sponsoring this show for the second year and I was honored to be asked to be the show director. Fine Art using the equine as subject has been entered from all over the world. Entries were accepted in Drawing, Painting, Sculpture and Photography. All the images are now off to the judges for them to make their decisions. The show is published in Art Horse Magazine as well as in a book. You can see last years show by going to http://www.arthorsemagazine.com/art_competition_2008.html
In addition to all that administrative work, I have been holed up in the basement printing for my show next year at the Silo Gallery in New Milford, CT. Keep coming back for more updates on that show as they develop. I can tell you that the theme of my work for the show is White Horses and I am contemplating putting together a book to accompany the show and that will be available for sale.
And here is a peek at some proofs from the recent NY State Sheep and Wool Festival that was at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds a few weeks ago. These may come out in boxed sets of cards. Or at least that is what I am thinking right now.


©Copyright 2008 by Juliet Harrison. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Juliet Harrison’s website.

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Ready or not

November 3rd, 2008 | By Judy Wood

Well, tomorrow I’ll be hitting the road for the show in Edmonton, ready or not. Despite having known for a while (not as long as I’d have liked, given how late they were in getting back to me that I had made the cut for this show) exactly when I needed to be ready, I’ve been doing my usual frantic last minute preparations to get out of here tomorrow morning.

The van is mostly packed, I’ve *almost* stopped creating new versions of my images in Photoshop and printing and matting them, and yet more business cards are coming out of the printer as I type this. Thank goodness for all these details that can be handled “in house” now. I remember the days when such things as business cards had to be ordered well in advance from the printer’s, and if at the last minute you decided you needed more, too bad, you’d be going to the show with your pathetic few and would have to ration them.
I have no idea how many photos I *should* have for this show. It lasts five days and according to my Alberta artist friends who are regulars, it does have enthusiastic shoppers, so I’m going with what I feel is quite a bit of work. Since this is the launch of my show/sale season, if I don’t move a lot at this venue, I’ll have a good head start on stock for the rest of my sales. If I do sell well, I’ve still got time enough to generate lots more, doubtless at the last minute yet again! Can’t say I’m not consistent.
Part of my problem with all the above has been the ongoing lovely fall weather we’ve been experiencing. If it had been dark, cool and wet (as it is today) in the past month, I’d have been logging a lot of studio time, but since the weather has been so outstandingly lovely, I’ve just carried on with outdoor activities and with getting yet more of those “fall light” shots. We don’t always get into November with such lovely browns and golds and no snow, and I have really been grateful to work with this type of light in my photos. Once the snow has come it will be a whole different ball game as far as the visuals and the light are concerned. I love winter shots, but they pose a lot of technical challenges with the brightness of the snow. Now that I’m shooting manual all the time, I’ll have to puzzle out the best way to handle it when the time comes.
The first three shots today demonstrate the kind of light I am talking about. It is very warm and contrasty–what is referred to as “chiaroscuro” in the world of painting, although come to think of it that’s likely the photography term as well, unless there’s a specific technical one that I don’t know about. My background is in art for the most part so that’s where my terms tend to originate, for better or worse.
Shot number one is the yearlings at a friend’s place, spooking off into the distance in a cloud of dust and golden light. I got a whole series of images of this event, but this is the only one I’ve had time to work with. Actually I did very little–had to adjust the levels a tad but that was all. This reminds me of the feel of Renaissance paintings with the strong contrast and warm antiqued colours. Shot number two is of part of the mare and foal herd at the same place, standing by the hay piles and backlit.
Shot three is a close crop of my friend Darby, sitting on a bale at doorway of the barn where our retired horses live. The vets were out to do herd health for the old boys, and Darby’s job is always to hold Mogo, the mini-Dachshund who belongs to my horse vet and friend, Sue. Mogo has Darby very well trained to cater to his every wish. He tries hard to train the rest of us as well, but some of us have a bit more resistance than Darby exhibits. Again, we’ve got that strong contrasty light, although some of the highlights are a bit blown out.
Shot four is of the little pup I wanted to photograph in my last post, before I got blown off track by Alpac’s herd health experience. I did make it out later in the week to get a whole whack of shots of this lovely little guy. Most of them were taken out of doors, but I liked this one of him cozying up under a chair in the kitchen while we were enjoying a coffee break. His dad is a Boxer, and Mother is a Mastiff (one of the South American mastiff breeds, can’t remember the name) and Bloodhound cross. To me he looks pretty strongly to the Mastiff side of things. Even with my Boxer experience and obsession, I’m hard pressed to see much Boxer in there. That holds true for temperament and energy level as well. This is one calm and deliberate little(ish) guy, not a fast mover or one who is going to get very excited about anything. Definitely not a Boxer, of the sort I have come to know and love, anyway.
Today’s final shot is one of the wolf series I got in the past year. I have a lot of shots of various wolves from Wolf Echo Valley, but as is so often the case, have had limited time to play with them. I did want at least one new wolf image to take to the upcoming show, so I produced this one earlier this week. This is Eco, and you can see Paradox, another of the resident wolves, faintly laid into the background. You can learn more about her and the other wolves I have photographed by checking out the Wolf Echo Valley website.
Guess it’s time to do the final bits of wrapping of the bigger framed pieces and start to sort out my personal packing. Jim and the dogs will have to fend for themselves while I’m gone, as Scout the cat is the only female that will be left in the house, and she’s not much given to catering to others. Usually various family members take pity on Jim and feed him a bit when I’m away, so he does not too badly for himself. He’s kindly taken it upon himself just now to run out and buy me a map of Edmonton, as I tend just to point in the direction and go, then when it’s too late, I realized that I am lost and don’t really have a clue how to get where I need to be. Not that I read maps well either, but at least if I have a map there might be some hope for me.

©Copyright 2008 by Judy Wood. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Judy Wood’s website.

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