Missed Class. Been Sick.

 The second painting class was last Saturday and I woke up with a 101 degree fever, so no painting class for me!  When Kat sent out the class recap, it sounds like they did the one stroke per color, but in addition in her recap email she mentioned 37 brush strokes method.  On a whim, I did a google search and the best thing I found was this from the Painters Keys.  I also saved this with a bookmark.  When class is done, I am going to do this for 1 month and I am going to reread this letter.  It really spoke to me and it got me started.  The first few strokes were much more dynamic.  The finish was not, but I caught a glimpse and have something to strive for. That was the mug in the group below.

Here are some of things I’ve been painting.  I’ve been trying to paint every day, even if it’s only for a few minutes. 

Reflection

I have not been drawing or painting.  

This weekend, I am at a friend’s cabin, reflecting. 

Even if I am not currently drawing or painting, I am grateful that it has taught me a lot about looking and seeing.  

I also know that I’ll get back to drawing and painting, again. 

Found Another Good Teacher

Back in 2020, I became of aware of Eric Mueller when the Star Tribune wrote about his “The Family Resemblance Project”.  I must have signed up for his newsletter at the time, but only recently received one by email.  It talked mostly about his exhibit at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona MN, which is supposed to be a gem of a museum that I’ve wanted to go to for awhile, plus I do want to go see this exhibit, but it also mentioned that he teaches photography classes using your iPhone.  I have an Android phone and was able to translate to it easily, although I did have my iPad handy, just in case. 

I just got done with his class from today.  It was jammed packed with all types of info.  I learned about camera features on my phone, which I didn’t know I had, along with a ton of other tips.  About half the session focused on composition with specific “rules” (which can always be broken), along with a ton of examples, which really helped, especially since he showed a number of before and after examples.  

I’m glad that I took a lot of notes. I plan to refer back to them and practice, practice, practice.  

Still one area really stood out when I went back to look at some of my photos, immediately after class ended.  I need to start thinking about the direction of sight or action.  This compositional rule says, generally, that it’s better to have a subject facing towards the center of the frame or moving towards the center.  

It explains the mixed feelings I have about this photo.  Itwas one of the first ones that I thought of when class was done.  On the one hand, I really love it.  It was the magical, first time I went to the Crex Meadows Wildlife Area with a friend and this swan was part of the first group of water fowl we saw that day.  On the other hand, I think I also knew that there was something off about it, but I didn’t know enough to know why.  

This photo also came to mind.  I took this with my good, point and shoot from the top of a bridge close to home and I needed almost every bit of the 60x zoom.

Below, I cropped it to follow “the rule” and it works so much better.  It focuses and draws your eye in and through the rest of the photo.  It’s almost like it gives the rest of the photo a reason to be there.  

I am planning to sign up for more of his classes.  

Happy Holidays!

 Happy holidays from Hammett and me.  

A few days ago, a dumped out a tub of my hats, gloves, and scarves on the bench in the kitchen.  Hammett immediately jumped on the pile and went to sleep. Later, I decided it was time for Hammett to hone his hat-modeling skills. I've continued to torture him in this way for the past few days.    

I've been gone from this blog for awhile and I also have not been drawing or painting.  I'm getting back to a place where I think I'll be starting up all of it again, shortly.  

Drama in the Pine Tree

Yesterday, I was grousing to my spouse that I haven't felt like I have had the time to just sit and notice, lately. I am a little irked that the hummingbird feeder is out. I’ve filled it 4 times (we don't fill it very full) and I have yet to see a hummingbird. Last year, there was time to slow down and notice. It was one of the few gifts of the pandemic. For various reasons, the pace of life is picking up and I don’t want to give up the noticing, but it takes time and I haven't found the right balance. 

This morning, I went out start watering the flower and garden beds, but before I started I decided to sit and notice. 

In our 70 year-old pine tree outside the back door, I’ve been hearing loud, slightly annoying chirps and since there is an active cardinal’s nest and a robin’s nest, it was time to stop and look. The chirps were especially loud and shrill this morning. While it was hard to zero in on the exact location of where they were originating from, it was on the side of the tree where the cardinal’s nest is located.  

I spotted one and later a second baby cardinal in the tree. I think they are called fledglings at this stage. They blend in amazingly well when they aren’t moving. It’s hard to get a good picture. The little ones are starting to hope around the tree and, occasionally sort of jump/fly from one branch to a slightly farther one, which made me tense up whenever they did this. Many years ago, we saw a male cardinal tending to a fledgling on the ground under the same tree and I know these youngins have a much better chance of survival if they don't fall out of the tree. 

What wasn’t hard to see was the pair tending to them. They seem to be everywhere all at once, so it was not surprising that they both look skinny and a tad ragged. 

There was a certain level of drama with the various activities of the adult and young cardinals, which spiked to 16 on a 10 point scale when a squirrel tried to navigate its way through the pine tree near the fledglings. Until I talked to my neighbor this morning, I wasn't aware that squirrels will eat young birds. 

If you have ever seen small birds run off a big raptor in the air it was a bit like that, but it happened in the confines of the pine tree. The male cardinal sounded and kept up a distress call which brought the female, who also started yelling at the offender, and they more or less attacked and herded the uncooperative squirrel away from the fledglings. It was quite a sight to see and was very loud. Not long afterwards, a robin and another bird tried to land near the fledglings, so there was a repeated and very loud enforcement of a "no go" zone.  Later, subsequent violations of the "no go" zone (no stopping or standing here, just move along) were much less violent and loud. 

When things settled down a bit, it was time for a little food for the babes.

I am so glad that I took the time this morning to experience this and also to write about it. It leaves me in a place where I feel more rested and ready to face a busy day than when I first woke up. 

Takeoffs and Landings

Given that I have a gazillion pictures from yesterday at Crex Meadows Wildlife Area, I just have to post more.

Here are some takeoffs. 

Here are a couple of landings.

My dad was a hobby pilot and I spent a lot of time with him in a 4 seat airplane. From that time, the words "XXXX, you have been cleared for take off or XXXX, you have been cleared for landing" are seared in my memory.

Three Long Necks

Yesterday, I spent the day with a friend at Crex Meadows Wildlife Area in Grantsburg WI and took a gazillion pictures. When this was happening, I took as many as I could, so I think of them as a series. I have better, clear individual pictures, but this set draws me in. 

Maybe it's because of the closeness after all of the social distancing of the last 14 months. 

More Bird Pictures

Yesterday, I ventured out to Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area in Grantsburg Wisconsin with a friend to take bird photos. I got the chance to practice taking pictures of birds in flight. Obviously, I still need more practice since I barely captured either of these birds before they flew out of the frame.

These are the only photos I editing by cropping them. They looked slightly less ridiculous with some of the blank sky removed on the top, bottom and to the left of both birds. Although I will say that both photos do convey a sense of movement.

In truth, I did have a number of inflight pictures turn out and here are several of my favorites. 

We were not trying to disturb any of the birds and were always a fair distance away, so the 60x zoom camera was much needed. Even so, there were a bunch of times that we saw trumpeter swans in flight. The first time, I was looking to the south at a pair of sandhill cranes and I heard the movement of air behind me. It didn't sound like the wind and the sound wasn't that close, but the sound made me turn around to see a couple of trumpeter swans flying behind me. They flew in a large circle around and to the front of us. 

I took about 400 pictures yesterday. I am showing great restraint by not including a lot more of them.

I can't help myself. I have to point out that this next photo was post-coitus.

While there were also raptors, ducks, loons, and other birds, the swan pictures turned out the best overall. 

The Universe Is Sending Good Opportunities My Way

Yesterday, the hubby and I took a walk down to the Mississippi river.  It was a relatively short walk, but we saw an eagle when we are on the Franklin Avenue bridge.  When we got down to the river, we saw several mallards and this little screech owl.  On the way home, we saw the neighborhood albino squirrel and we also stopped to see another neighbor's chickens.  

Today, a neighbor alerted me to a barred owl in Matthews Park, so I headed over and took several pictures.  As of last summer, I had never seen an owl in the wild before, so I am grateful for the opportunities that the universe has been sending my way.

(Added later in the afternoon) - - As the day has unfolded and as I became more aware of current events in Brooklyn Center and elsewhere in the metro, I debated a bit about whether I should remove or change this post.  I decided not to, since this was my experience and what I was feeling at the time that I posted it. 

Who?

No, hoo-h'Hoo-hoo-hoo or at least that's what the internet says a great horned owl's call sounds like.  Yesterday a friend took another friend and I to see an owl's nest. Since the hubby is also interested in owls, I came home from my first outing and I left immediately with him to take him to see the owls. While I got good pictures during the first visit, the light was much better for the second visit. 

Here are my top pics. This experience made me so incredibly happy!

It's the same adult owl in the first 4 photos.

If you look at this one full screen, the very yellow eyes are more apparent.

I like the extreme turn of the owl’s head in this one.

I feel as though I am being judged by the owl and somehow not measuring up.

The other adult owl is in the photo below. It was hard to get a shot of this owl, both because it was easy to lose the owl in the trees and second because I kept getting pictures where a branch was across his eyes from the number of branches and/or the wind.

I'm still playing the same game with myself where I don't crop or edit my photos, even though the middle 3 would be even better if they were cropped.

There were people with some serious camera lenses, far beyond my lovely 60x zoom point and shoot. I'm sure they were getting even more incredible pics, but I am quite happy with my camera.

There Is Room In The Cosmos

There is room in the cosmos for cats in hats. 

A good friend of mine sent me this picture, yesterday, from when he was out and about.  

In other cat related knitting developments, I just discovered this pattern on Ravelry, which opens up a new world of possibilities. I'm not sure if I'll go there. 

On a different note, I almost wish that I hadn't mentioned the new job, because I quit after 1 week.  I've never done anything like that before,  However, the job, which was supposed to be 99.99% remote and had nothing essential which required being onsite, turned out to be not that remote and the the Covid-related protocols were perfunctory, at best, and not uniformly followed. Sigh.

Textures

It snowed last night.  I headed out with my good camera around 7:30 am and drove around taking pictures.  All and all, it was a good experience, except when I was at the park 2 1/2 blocks from my house taking several pictures of the plows clearing off the ice skating rink.  Even though I was only there for about 5 minutes, someone from the parks, not the park police, drove by, got out of her truck and demanded to know who I was and what I was doing.  Sheesh!

Here's my favorite shot of that, by the way.

I look pictures out in front of the house, in the alley, along the path at Nokomis Avenue where it crosses over the creek, and at Minnehaha Park.  There were a lot of ducks in the creek at Nokomis Avenue.  I took about 150 photos.  Yeah, digital!  I'm both trying to think about composition at times and also just shooting what captures my eye in the moment and figuring out later if it's a decent composition.

Today, the most magical thing was the falls in Minnehaha Park.  I haven't been down there this winter and it literally took my breath away when I first looked.  While I did take pictures of the falls and surrounding area, the photos I liked best were the ones where I zoomed in and took pictures of some of the textures.

I didn't crop any of these. 

I could just lose myself in these textures.  Why would anyone want to live where you don't get a real winter?