Blue Ridge Juried Nature Exhibit

Since I love nature photography so much and direct Nature Undisturbed in the spring -- when I found out about the Blue Ridge Mountain Photographers Juried Nature Exhibit -- I had to enter.  When I found out -- with about 3 days left in the call for entry period -- I had to hustle through my photos to decide which three I wanted to send in.

Doing the 365 Project is really building a reserve of great images for entries.  I poked around in my daily photo file and came up with a nice reflection photo.  

One of my favorite photos -- not a daily photo -- but taken in a set -- was a for sure entry.  This photo is so nice in black and white.

And finally -- another photo that was not the photo of the day but taken in the set one day -- was my third choice for entry.

I think the last one is my favorite of the bunch.  All three of the photos were juried in the show.  This is the first year for this photography exhibit.  The opening reception is September 4 from 5 to 7pm.  The show hangs through October 8.

From the Barefoot Files...

While going through the files this morning I noticed this photo and thought that I had not posted it before.  I really like this one a lot.

This is my father's father's older brother and his wife.  The photo was taken at a studio in Washington, DC sometime in the early 1900s.  He looks very stylish with the bow tie, hair cut, and glasses.  He could be in style now.  She looks very period with the dark dress, collar, pin, hat, and tie at the waist.  She would not fit in with present fashion.

I love the chair and the backdrop.  This photo reminds me a lot of another old photo I have of my mother's mother's father.  I featured it on the blog showing the progression of cleaning and "restoring" an old photo.

One of those weeks...

OK -- so I have spent the better part of the day (or at least those times when I was not running errands) trying to locate a photo I wanted to use for the blog today.  I am thinking it is on a CD....somewhere.....in the basement office...which needs a purging something awful.

The photo was of the little church where I got married 27 years ago today.  When I find it I will put it on the blog.  So, yes today is our anniversary.  Last year I did a blog on it.  I planned to mention it today and show the photo of the church for the Barefoot Files post of the week.

This is a lesson in keeping up with technology.  Digital photography is wonderful.  Digitizing your images is an awesome thing to do.  But, when you move beyond one form of storage to another -- you need to move everything along or some things get missed.  Not too long ago I had to purchase a floppy drive (plugged into the USB port) so I could get some files.  All of these things we have that work by simply plugging them into the USB are awesome -- BUT -- what happens with the USB port is obsolete?  Remember the Iomega Zip Drive?  Yeah, we had one -- I think we had two -- they died and then what?  

Makes me think of that commercial -- can't remember the product (that is bad -- for them -- isn't it) -- where the people in the office say, "It's the Elder, he who speaks of floppy disks."

Oh and did I mention these two dogs are wild?  Not to mention I have a week's worth of photos a day to catch up with -- read process them, post to the blog, yadda yadda.

Meet Iris

A couple weeks ago my husband relented and I got a second dog -- for Sadie to have a friend and for me.  There are so many great dogs in shelters -- I wish I could bring them all home.  This is Iris.  My husband chose the name, as he did for Sadie.  I like it.

Iris appears to be a tall beagle which makes me think she is more of an American Foxhound mix.  Where Sadie is the stalker -- slowly moving inch by inch to sneak up on a rabbit or bird -- Iris is scrambled eggs.  Iris plods along right into the middle of Sadie's stalks.  But Iris is a tracker and a sniffer.  You can tell when she gets a scent.  That is, unless there is thunder and then she is under the bed.

Sadie has been mentioned a lot in the blog in the little over a year since we brought her home.  She has also appeared in many photo shows.  She is a very photogenic dog.  I think Iris is too.  Iris seems to not mind having her photo taken -- with the little point and shoot.  If I pull out the big camera she shys away.  

We compare and contrast Sadie and Iris a lot.  Sadie seems to have had a good life where she lived prior to ending up at the shelter.  We think Sadie just got lost.  I think Iris also got lost -- she is a runner and proved it just days after we brought her home -- she shot out of the yard and we were lucky to get her back home.  But we also think Iris did not have a happy home life prior to being in the shelter.  She cowers and is very timid.  The least noise and she tries to run and hide.

She was not injured or hurt.  She was and still is very thin.  We thought, due to a scar on her belly, that she had been spayed.  We later found out that she had not been -- but last Friday our vet took care of that.  Sadie loves to play with Iris -- they run and race through the house.  Iris is kind to the cat; but the cat is not very kind to Iris.  I don't think she was used to being in a house very much -- but she is getting there.  The strangest thing is that she does not go up or down the stairs to the other floors of the house.  Our best guess is that she is two years old -- so that makes Iris and Sadie about the same age since we guessed at Sadie's age too, who knows?

From the Barefoot Files...

Yesterday I was talking to a friend and she was talking about vintage clothing.  We got on the subject of old coats and it made me think of this coat I brought home from my grandmother's house.  I love this coat and plan to wear it.  I have worn it a couple times in the past -- but not often.  It really has a nice vintage look and is in great condition.

I wanted to give this photo a vintage look.  It is not an old photo from my collection -- but an old piece of clothing from my collection.  I converted to black and white with Silver Efex.  I also added the pale vignette around the edge of the photo to help soften it and give it a little "age."  To really make it look old -- I could have distressed the photo -- but I did not want to detract from the coat.

Yesterday my photo of the day was a close up of this coat.  I guess the hot hot hot temperatures lately are making me want for cooler weather. 

Lensbaby Workshop

Saturday August 14 -- 9:30 to 4:30 I will present a Lensbaby Workshop at the Serenbe Photography Center.  The cost of the workshop is $125 and this includes lunch.

I will have on hand demo Control Freak lenses (Nikon and Canon mounts).  I will also have many attachments -- macro, wide angle, tele photo, and the creative aperture disks.  Also, I will have the new super wide angle lens accessory and the fisheye optic.  The complete optic swap system will be available for demo -- single glass, double glass, plastic and the pinhole/zone plate drop in optics.  You can try out my personal Composer lens (Canon mount).

During the workshop I will show you how to use the Lensbaby lens for a variety of shots.  We will look at the application for this lens in macro, landscapes, still life, portraiture, and abstract.  

This photo was taken at Sams Lake.  The photo at the top of the blog was taken in my front yard.  The photo below was taken sitting on my kitchen counter.  The flowers were purchased for a baby shower.

If you have any questions about the Lensbaby or the workshop -- feel free to email me.  For more Lensbaby images you can check my Lensbaby set on Flickr.

From the Barefoot Files...

OK -- Who remembers those hair dryers that made you look like a little mushroom head?  Here I am drying my hair and looking oh-so-stylish.  

This photo is from a slide.  Rather than scanning the slides -- I simply set up the slide projector and one at a time shot the photos on the wall.  I also had my camera set up on the tripod and shot a photo of the projected image for each one.  I think they came out pretty good.  If you have a bunch of old slides and would like a digital file of each image -- don't worry about getting a slide scanner or about paying someone to scan them for you.  Shoot photos of the images!