I am unemployed! I have been for 4 days. After working like a dog for 5 months I am more than ready for this change. I knew it was coming and so have been preparing to be more able to manage with limited resource. I have paid off all my credit card debt and put as much as I could into savings. I have changed all of my phone, TV, and communication accounts so that they are the smallest drain possible on my limited resources and am looking around to see what I might be able to do to add to my resources without taking too big a bite out of my expected sabbatical.
I am planning several photographic journeys and actually took photographs yesterday to please just myself - something I had been unable to do for many months.
I am unsure how to fill my time on a day to day basis. I have worked almost all of my adult life. I have plans to get things done such as a deep cleaning of my house and repair work around the house. Gardening that needs to be done and the dog could use regular walks - well so could the owner, but the reality of a daily existence without work is tough to wrap my head around.
I guess I will fall back on my standby comment - More will be revealed - just like that magic 8 ball always tells one.
Let the days unfold!

Life has been busy but.....

I just spent 90 minutes being educated about some hard facts. It is monsoon season in Arizona but it is not really raining. We are behind annual rainfal by inches - inches that are critical in a desert. I have been wrapped up in my small little life and needed to get a new perspective. I will be unemployed very soon - to some degree as a choice and as a nurse one I can make knowing I can get work when I need it. Perpahs after watching this I will rethink the work.
So spend some time watching this incredible movie - the photography alone is worth the watch and spend your own thoughts on what it means.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU

The Dragoons

I have not hung out in the Dragoons since the days of my misspent youth. I forgot just how incredible an area it is. I am planning to spend more time in those parts. There is so much to see and the rock formation are some of the most amazing in the area. I think it is much better for photography than the Texas canyon area.
Some friends and I went camping there last weekend. We had wind gusts in excess of 50MPH. I tried to think of it as free dermabrasion. We had a great time and everyone got some good shots. I had the opportunity to play with the IR camera. That process is getting better for me. I am starting to get the results I was looking for. Now if I can just figure out the false color swap thing!






The weather this weekend is predicted to be rainy and it is Easter. I am hoping to get back out there next week end. The Easter campers will be gone and perhaps the windy conditions that have been plaguing us for the last few weeks as well. As always more will be revealed

Just Coffee

I get up every morning and I heat up a cup of coffee left in the pot from yesterday - what can I tell you - it is my drug of choice and I am an addict. I am powerless against my addiction....Wait that's a different blog! I make really good coffee which is why drinking yesterdays brew is not a major hardship. While that cup is heating I wash out my filter, grind and brew the new day's pot. I occasionally buy fair trade coffee but in this economy, global as well as personal, I don't always spring for the responsible fair trade brand. But I now have cause to re-think that process.
I spent the day driving and photographing a bi-national project jointly supported by the Diocese of Tucson and the Diocese of Hermosillo. We looked at some rather thorny border problems including domestic violence, battered immigrant women, human trafficking, trade problems, and the social impact to the stressed Mexican welfare system caused by the flood of potential or failed immigrants living and seeking shelter in the border towns. It is a human problem to which the United States has attempted to apply military solutions. In my humble opinion - which I think is pretty valid having lived in the border area all my life- It ain't workin'
But there are some baby steps that are working. At times it feels like digging to China with a spoon and at others I am mindful of the saying 'every journey begins with the first footstep'. Yesterday was a mix of both.
One stop we made was at the roasting location for Cafe Justo. This is a network of coffee co-operatives that grow, roast, package and ship their own coffee. The process is very interesting and although I have had for sometime an understanding of how coffee is roasted this was the first time I actually watched the machinery that does the deed.





They have a website and online ordering. I just shot them an order and I'll keep you faithful readers (all two of you LOL), updated. Anyway here is their flyer, web site, and a shot of the roaster in process, I'm going to go have another cup of coffee.

http://www.justcoffee.org

One other stop we made was to the The Holy Family parish in Agua Prieta, Mexico, where we were served a very wonderful meal, after further talks by the group. The chilie rellanos were a 9.4 in my life long search for the perfect chili rellano, and that is no faint praise! But as usual I digress.

It seems so logical to go to the places where the help is being delivered to begin the planning process. I took this shot in a garden of the parish. The church offers limited shelter for immigrants, and in the common outdoor courtyard they have planted a display garden to help travelers identify the plants native to the desert that can hurt an unwary traveler. I think the title for this "Pattern of the Point" speaks not only to this image but a more broad view to these bi-national issues. We are applying a military solution to a human problem. We seem to think that works globally as well as around my little piece of the border.

IR and the graveyard

Celestial Row - The entrance to the cemetery

I have been meaning to go take a few shots at the Evergreen Cemetery here in Bisbee, but until yesterday it was a round-tuit project. I did manage to drag myself out early enough yesterday to get some good lighting and got some shots that are 'fair to middlin' in my opinion. The one shot that I really liked and thought would be the star had the truck in the background. I forget to really look at the background. I have gotten better at scanning the frame edges of the photo for distractions and objects that should be either included or excluded entirely, but those background objects still trip me up.
I like the look of the IR shots and hope to get more as the foliage returns with warmer weather


I call this Odd Man Out

Art auction

The Bisbee Fine Arts Council is having their annual art auction tomorrow and I have donated a piece to the organization. I can't wait to see if it will sell and for what amount. I set a price of $165.00. It is a framed piece - the photo is a 12x18 print and I framed it in an 18x22 mat black metal frame with a blackcore photogrey mat. I set it up as a bottom weighted mat and I think it looks very nice.

Seeing as I will be unemployed in the near future this is a bit of a test to see what the reception is for this photo. I am thinking of working the farmers market this summer to see if I can make some pocket money selling matted prints, greeting cards. and postcards. I am also hoping it will bring me some contacts for custom framing. If I can make a 100 bucks a week I can manage for about 6 months on my savings before I have to get back to work. The opportunity to take a break and spend some real time taking photographs is too enticing to resist.



This is the photo I put in the auction. Wish me luck!

Digital Days seminar

I was up in Phoenix this last weekend to attend an educational photographic seminar. I am hoping it will jump start me to get busy and start taking photos again as I feel like I am in a dry spell. Oh creative muse where art thou?
It was a good training session and the model shoot was an opportunity I would not otherwise be able to manage. Where I am going to be able to rent equipment needed to do something like this and in this economy - looking at likely being out of work in the next few months, not something I can invest in either. While indoor model shots are not my thing, all knowledge in and of itself has value.
Digital days was the name of the seminar. Info for their upcoming classes can be found at : www.digitaldaysphoto.com
The presenters were good. Engaging, knowledgeable, and funny.
At the end of the second session the presenter John Omvik spent time going over the functionality of Lightroom. I do almost all my PP work in Lightroom and was very happy to get some tips from his lecture. One or two of which I used in developing the head shots of this lovely young lady. I am pleased with how these came out.




The real story of my weekend in Phoenix is all about my motel. The seminar was held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Phoenix. Now the basic room starts at $299 a night so needless to say I was not going to be staying there. There seemed to be plenty of other motels and hotels in the area so after a bit of searching I found a 3 star place within a few blocks of the event venue and the price was right - just over a hundred dollars including taxes.
So about 5:30 on Saturday I find my hotel, pull into the parking lot to find a building that does not look at all like the picture on the Internet and the postage stamp parking lot has several parked off duty taxi cabs, and one old police cruiser with for sale written all over the windows in some sort of marker. That should have been my first clue. I go to the office to check in with more than just a little concern that this is not going to work out well. The office is minuscule and the clerk who is from India, obviously lives in the little apartment connected to the office. The smell of cooking curry fills the air and I wish I was coming to dinner, but I am not. He gets me set for a ground floor room but by this point my gut is talking to me and for securities sake I ask for a second floor room. No problem as he smiles, makes the change and tells me it will be less noisy away from the street.
I make my way up the stairs, under the 'newly remodeled' banner and unlock the door.
The smell of Fabreze and old sex about knocks me over. The room has a connecting door to the next suite, however the hasty repair on the door frame and the tiny brass hinge lock are not increasing my sense of safety. The half a dozen paper matches on the bathroom window sill tell the tale of the previous occupants drug habits and I realize that I need to walk off on this reservation and find a safer place to stay.
So I go back to the office and ask to use the 'business center' computer with WiFi that I recall from the Internet search on the place. The look of confusion, and well surprise on the clerks face was almost funny. So back to my room and the phone book. Lots of the yellow pages are missing in my phone book but not those for hotels and motels. Gideon's bible I discover has been stolen long since. It will not be helping poor Rocky recover in any event.
Two hours later I am armed with added information. It is peek tourist season. There are several conventions in town as well as tourist activities. Other than a room for over 350 dollars a night I am stuck in my rat trap motel room. So I decide to make the best of it. I run out and grab some fast food, grab my emergency blanket from the car, phone home, and settle in for the night - or so I thought.
Around 11 I get a neighbor on the other side of my room. Luck is with me as it looks like the connecting suite will be empty for the night. I however already have chairs propped under the door knobs of the connecting suite and the front door. My new neighbor is very busy. She showers at 11:30 goes out, returns, showers at 1AM, goes back out, returns and showers again at 3AM. At this point I am guessing she calls it a night. I, on the other hand, am not sure what to call it.
I was up and gone by 6AM, just happy to see the the truck was where I left it the night before. I head back to the Hyatt glad to spend almost 20 dollars on breakfast. What the heck the newspaper was free, and the story only cost me a night's sleep and a hundred bucks.

Polaroid play

I found a fun download today. It creates an effect of a shot having been taken on one of those old polaroid snapshot cameras that then spit out the photo which developed fully over the next few minutes. You can save the shot anywhere along the development process which creates some interesting effects.




Also spent some time playing with a new program Nik's 'Silver efex Pro'. I may spend the bucks and order it as I am thinking more in terms of Black and White. I set up the bulk ink tank system today which is a step in that direction, as it is dedicated to a warm tone B&W only print. I am wishing that I had a higher quality printer to put the system on but I've got what I've got. It was an investment that I made just before the war in Lebanon in the summer of 06, so it goes on a relative older model epson printer. If it works well I may retrofit the old wide planten epson that I have down stairs.

This photo is one that was a bust in color and although I don't think this version is this shots last stop, I think I like the effect and may work on reproducing it in a group of shots from this same area - perhaps IR.

Its a new year. Not much new in this year to note however. Israel is engaged in its last free act of genocide in Gaza - boy they learned that lesson really well didn't they? It is shameful that the US does not speak out about this crime against humanity but Bush is too beholden and stupid to see how well he has been played.
But on a better note. I am just home from the beach where I spent 2 full weeks out of touch with any of this. Gratefully so, now that I am back and there appears to be trouble on every front.
I took my grandchildren - well the oldest two with me to the beach. I think they had a good time and I hope they will be able to join us again another time. Not much time for taking photographs what with making sure they were fed, warm and safe - I had forgotten that single parent thing. It is a lot of work for just one person, although they were very helpful.
I love a good sunset. I have sworn off trying to get a good sunset shot but every so often I try again thinking I can capture the sweep of color, the warmth and sense of peace that is the sunset. And then I remember why I swore off trying the capture the sunset.
Here is my most recent attempt.