I took this last night, at sunset. The colors weren’t very interesting, though, so I decided to play around with it in Photoshop. I ended up desaturating it, adjusting the curves, and adding some graininess.
Category: Photography
Easy-peasy Monoprints
I sometimes use this method to create backgrounds. It can also be used to create full-blown works of art.
Start by laying down a sheet of freezer paper, shiny side up. Secure it with tape. Then, apply acrylic paint to the freezer paper “plate.” You can move it around with a brush, fingers, etc. This time, I used a credit card to smooth the paint and mix it slightly. When you have the paint where you want it, lay your paper face down onto it and burnish gently with your hands. Be careful not to move the paper, or the design will smudge and smear. Gently pull the paper away and lay it flat to dry. You’ll need to re-“ink” the “plate” with additional paint between pulls. If you want to change palettes, you can scrape and wash the remaining paint off the “plate” or you can just toss it and start over with a fresh sheet of freezer paper.
Harriet Brown is a Sleepy Goose
I love it when Harriet tucks her nose under her “wing.” She makes such a compact bundle. I would’ve wrapped her up in her binkey, because she was obviously a little chilled, but she was lying on it and I didn’t want to disturb her.
So, I stopped on the way home to get gas (only US$2.25/gallon!), and had an odd encounter. First, I nearly got creamed by some asstrumpet in a Camaro who cut through the Bigfoot lot to avoid the traffic waiting in line to turn onto the main road. Can we say rude and illegal? Yep, I thought we could.
Then, when I tried to use my card at the pump, I got a message that blinked “Panic Code 013.” WTF?! I went inside to inform the young man at the counter that his, um, equipment was taking A Tone with me. His response? “I wonder just how panicked we should be?” Smartass! I ended up pulling around to another pump, which worked fine. As I was leaving, I saw that another car had pulled up to the Cranky Pump and that there was an enormous pool of gas all over the pavement. Yikes! I didn’t hear any explosions as I drove off, so I assume all’s well that ends well.
It’s a good, good day
I don’t usually get to see the morning Belt of Venus, because I live in a valley and the view to the west is obstructed by a ridge. I happened to look out the window at work, though, and saw a beautiful pink blush in the western sky. Mmmm. It was delightful.
And, more crepuscular rays. Sorry to keep going on and on and on about them, but the clouds we’ve had recently have created some gorgeous ray action. This photo was taken at the intersection of Starnes Rd and Reeves Rd, near Ellettsville.
In other photographic news, I found some pretty straightforward instructions for making a pinhole camera, using a 35mm camera body. w00t! That means that the film can be commercially developed, which is important, as I don’t have easy access to a darkroom or a way to dispose of chemicals. I’m going to play around with it this weekend, weather permitting.
Trying Harder to Suck Less
My apologies for being lazy and letting multiple days go by without posting. I’ve been busy, though, you see. I finally managed to get all the text information from the old website moved to the new gallery. Wheee! And, I’ve deleted all the old files. Now the only things left are some miscellaneous photo directories, and the main index, gallery, blog, and writing page. Talk about a tedious pain in the behindermost. Of course, now that I’ve deleted everything, I’m sure to find that I’ve missed redirecting a whole bunch of image files, which will leave big, gaping holes wherever I’ve linked to them.
We’re suppose to go to a diversity workshop (more like a presentation, I’m betting, which I’m sure will involve the dreaded Power Point. Oh, how I loathe Power Point.). It came down from on-high that everyone is supposed to attend, which means it’ll be packed and hot and airless. I’m so not looking forward to it. Not to cast asparagus upon diversity awareness, mind you. I think the world could use a metric assload of it right now.
Speaking of work, there’s something immensely gratifying about pulling your hair out trying to assign subjects and a call number for a book that nearly defies categorization, then checking the shelf-list to find that you placed it in Just the Right Spot.
Have y’all seen this video?
Holy crap! I’m funny about my T-shirts. I like them folded into nice, small, rectangular parcels. It’s not that easy to get them uniform and tidy, though, so I’m going to have to give this trick a try.
And, while I’m sharing links, remember the rock star feet website? The one with photos of Nick Cave’s shoes? Well, brace yourselves, for Il Mustache lives and breathes. Lordy! I know I’ve said before that–Nocturama aside–Mr. Cave can do no wrong, but now I’m not so sure.
Okaythen!
Here’s some more crepuscular ray action. This was taken on January 31, on Woodyard right after the Smith-Curry Pike intersection (for those playing along at home). The photo is pretty bad, but it illustrates another form crepuscular rays can take. I have a ~40 minute commute, and the entire ride home I kept being teased by gorgeous cloud-sun views. I was unable to get any good shots though. Either I was unable to find a good spot to pull over, or the clouds shifted and the picture-perfect moment was lost. Hmph.
Stop Grovelling!*
I took this photo last Wednesday. It’d been gross and cloudy, but the clouds started to break up right around sunset, producing some nice crepuscular ray action.
Also called Buddha’s Fingers, Sun Drawing Water, and Ropes of Maui, crepuscular rays occur when an object (building, cloud, tree, etc.) interrupts the sun’s light, casting shadows and creating rays. The same phenomenon can occur when something blocks a portion of a car’s headlights. If you’ve ever been in a forest and seen rays of light streaming through the trees, those, also, are crepuscular rays.
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*(Pardon me while I have a Monty Python moment. Crepuscular rays have that effect on me.)
A New Book and a Happy Accident
The ink and paper I ordered still haven’t been delivered (they should’ve been here on Friday), so I’m sort of stuck for journalling. I’ve got pens a-plenty, but I’m really preferring working with a dip pen. Hrmph. So, I worked on some backgrounds. The first one is just plain old stamping, using a carved eraser and a wine cork with cheap acrylic craft paint.\r\n\r\n
The second one was less involved, but I think more interesting. I started with diluted blue acrylic paint. After it dried, I sloshed on some super diluted gesso. Because I was working on a slanted surface, the gesso ran all over the place, including onto the carpet. Yikes! So I grabbed my roll of paper towels to blot the mess, and noticed that they left lovely basket-weave lines in the blotted gesso. I like the pattern, and it should provide guidelines for writing. I can’t write level to save my life, so I’m happy. Yay for serendipity!
I also bound another book this morning. It’s small and chunky and terribly cute: 3 x 3 3/4 inches and 48 pages (12 signatures of 4 pages each), Coptic bound with linen thread. The pages are Cartiera Magnani hot press watercolor paper, which is yummy.
The covers are made from denim from an old pair of my jeans, cut twice as wide as the width of the pages and a little taller. I ran them through the wash cycle a couple of times so the edges would fray. I was careful to keep the original seams at the centers of the fabric pieces, so that when I folded them in half around the boards, the seams would be along the spine edges. I then glued them to the boards (actually, two pieces of watercolor paper, because I wanted flexible covers), weighted them, and let them dry overnight.
A cap of lead across the sky
I woke up this morning to the sound of some sort of unholy wind keening through the trees. And hail. Lots and lots of hail. Only, when I looked out my front door, I couldn’t see any hail. Hmmm. I thought maybe I was imagining it, but then, when I looked out one of the back windows, there was a layer of white covering the ground. It was hailing on one side of the house, but not the other. Very weird. It’s been gross and rainy and windy all day, so I haven’t wanted to do much of anything but curl up on the couch with a book.
The sun tried to make an appearance, bless his heart, but the clouds were just too heavy.
Because it was such a horrid day, I didn’t think there would be much in the way of a sunset. It wasn’t as spectacular as it could’ve been, but I managed to catch one of my neighbor’s horses grazing on the crest of the hill, silhouetted against the golden sky.
This is why I had to velcro my computer speakers to the top of my monitor. Some old cats think they should be allowed to sleep wherever they want, and who am I to argue? I love the way her little paw is folded under.
The first-born lash of dawn
There are some fringe benefits to dog ownership, aside from the obvious companionship and entertainment value of living with canines. This morning, I slept in a little later than normal, because last night I’d stayed up way past my bedtime. Harriet, who will usually sleep in as long as I want to, woke me up at 7:30. I had a headache and a sore throat, and could’ve slept a little longer (and eventually did, because I went back to bed), but I’m glad she woke me when she did. When I went outside with her, there was the start of a gorgeous sunrise.
Silly Saturday Dogblogging
For some reason, Harriet has a thing about oatmeal. It’s one of only a few foods she’ll actually lose her brain over. Because I’m a big meanypants, I teased her with my flying oatmeal spoon while I got pictures of her brain implodiating. She’s a ridiculously funny dog, but she has very little sense of humor about some things. Like food. I suspect that it’s a Very Good Thing that I’m the one with the opposable thumbs and not her, because she does not look amused. But, not to worry, she was handsomely rewarded for being a good sport.
red paper boat 
