What is wrong with the picture?

When expectation does not meet realization. It was going to be a slam dunk. I would print thirty Alligator Park specific 5x7 photographs. I would mat them and place them in sleeves. I would title them. I would offer them for the low price of ten dollars. I would place them on a main traffic aisle.
And so I arrived at Alligator Lake Park Spring Festival at 7:45 and helped Katrina, Sandy and the other artist lady set up the tent and their prints. I then set my table with Holy Land head dress table cloth on the corner. I placed four photographs out of the basket. And I waited,and I waited. Folks would walk by, and walk by. Even Melanie walked by and said, Where are your photographs?
They would casually look,more of a glance. I think only Rick, Shelley, Jordon and Doc Bloodworth actually flipped through, and rather rapidly at that, not looking at the title on the back.We are adept at making snap judgements. We are way beyond ponder. Or, they just are pondering kind of photographs.
The festival was to last until three. I left at one. I was done, the lack of interest painful, uncomfortable. The lady next to me, having started watercolor a year ago, sold several note cards. Sandy the yupo artist and painter sold cards and a print or two. I am not sure if Katrina and her photography booth sold. I hope so for she was kind to offer the tent and time.
So much for expectation. Now the realization and all that entails. Do I just quit this venture called photography and trying to show? Do I simply do it for myself? I know I could save myself much time and money if I did. I have a hundred dollars worth of prints I sent off for enlarging. I am not sure if it is even worth ordering frames for them. More money. More expectation and realization.
As I said, I deleted the link to Facebook on this after eleven saw it.
It was not an indictment on Facebook, the fun and keep up with friends place. It was a indictment on me for sub par work. For overpricing work, even at ten dollars. I should have printed up notecards and sold them for no more than five dollars. That is what the one year old artist did. She had lots of note cards, prints and a few originals. Plus, it was a bad venue to try and sell, unless it was plants,seeds,birdhouses or environmental related. Live and learn.
Expectation and reality.
.

Square Gourd

This is the latest 6x6 for the Gallery auction upcoming in May. It framed perfectly from the photograph, the old gourds. I mod podged it onto the board. Had a hard time with the air bubbles though, having to stack bricks over the print with wax paper. I am thinking perhaps a photo spray may stick the photo better to the wood. Anyhow, I gave it several top coats, giving it the appearance of canvas. You can see the brush strokes. Thanks to the color theory class recently, I was able to mix a close purple, matching the purple tint of the photograph. This would be a good method to use for a series of squares, with one 24x30 photograph cut up. The rainbow forms each morning on the floor and JT was behind, watching me as I lay upon the floor, wanting food, not rainbows or photographs.

There are twelve gourds awaiting me in the shed to paint as well. I guess I am waiting for the weather to dry out the back yard and warm things up. I do not care for all the dampness and cool when working in the acrylics. I need light, sunlight. Lately a not common commodity.

The Alligator Park Festival is upcoming this Saturday. I would like to do several 5x7's in the minimum and show them there. Price them at 10.00. Another test if you will. Folks may go through and look. Time running out, but I do everything lately with time running out.

Limits

The experiment or punishment of the D3100 continues, confining it to only the 35mm 1.8. It reminds me of my beginnings in photography when the Yashica JP my high school physics teacher sold me for twenty-five dollars, along with the Sekonic meter, had a 135mm lens.
It certainly did not lend itself to vista landscapes. So I suppose that is some of the reason I am drawn to close-ups and tight focusing. The sapling was bent in that direction early on.
I do not mind the narrowed field of focus, it equates roughly to a 55 to 85mm lens on full frame. I would appreciate it if Nikon would offer a wide prime in the equivalent 24mm range, but I can manage with this 35mm.
These two shots were handheld toward sunset. Another advantage with the 1.8 fast aperture. It allows for handheld shots that otherwise would need a tripod.
I am thinking this combo, with the Canon S95 works for now. If I need the wider angle, the Canon offers that.
Limits are good. They force you do work within your parameters. This is turn frees you to be creative within those boundaries. I have long ago given up wishing for the grass is greener philosophy. That, if only I had a Canon Mark 3 I with L lenses, I would be as good as..... I will never afford such. I have what I have. It is paid for. I know it. I will plug away with it. There is much, much to learn from it. I have not scratched the
emulsion yet.

Another method of limiting oneself is likewise location. Often I will limit myself to the yard, the park or some other place, seeing if I can extract an interesting photograph from what would normally not be considering interesting. The other photographers are busy posting exotic and grand photographs from rare places, with sun and sky hopelessly doctored up by their post processing trickery or in camera filters and lenses.
This is fine and they are making a living awing us, I am just plugging away in the backyard wondering about it all.

Three Lilies

this was taken after the below, with the 35mm with the 35mm 1.8 lens. Very difficult time getting the fill flash not to over expose.

The caption was, her beauty lingered far beyond her beauty, or her beauty remained far beyond her beauty, or maybe the memory of her beauty lingered far beyond her beauty. These three Cana or Calla lilies from the front yard pond have been inside over the kitchen sink, formerly on the dining room table. Now they have returned outside. I find them more appealing in this brown and white state. In the pristine white state, they are much more difficult to get a decent photograph. Too much white. We all need some blemishes and flaws, it makes us much more interesting. White is bland.
I held these up by the stem in front of the Canon S95 on a tripod. I clustered all three as well, but the individual shots seemed better.

 And the cluster of three.
 Which do you prefer? Separate or together?

Go take a Clyde

Well, it looked good to me in color. It would look equally good in black and white. I would create a Clyde Butcher, that large format photographer. Wrong. Just because you set the camera to monochrome does not assure you a good shot.
When shooting monochrome, you have to do a great deal more thinking and observing. The rules of color are out. The eye in color, of which it is accustomed, will accept most of the tones and hues. It is a different animal in monochrome. What is bright light on a cypress trunk is color is a washed out white in monochrome,,,,what the heck...I just erased three paragraphs...I totally dislike this computer. I am not going to even try and retype all that....
Suffice it to say...it is more difficult than one would think trying to Go take a Clyde...geesh. sorry computer.

Irish

This morning the plans were to kayak Itchetucknee. The sun and overcast kept me from going. Then, fog set in. I could not pass that up. I quickly loaded up the Pelican with Logan and we put in at Alligator Lake. There was no real plan in mind, just a quick trip. We went to the far side of the lake and into the cypress hammock. There I tried to get the kayak to stay in one position long enough to get a shot. Composition is quite difficult from a kayak.
The contrast under the canopy was a bit too extreme and so there was difficulty achieving proper exposure. Expose in the shadow, highlights blown. Expose in the highlights, shadows blocked up. I took the 35mm 1.8 prime lens finally and set the color to monochrome. I set the exposure to manual with a wide aperture and an ISO of 400. It was a morning of experimenting. Not much was pleasing in that I thought, now that one sang.
All kind of just whistled or hummed along.
I would have finished up sooner but I lingered until the redneck drinking beer at the dock with his girl left. There is nothing more aggravating that some redneck making stupid comments while you try and unload.
Logan wanted to kick butt too.
By the way, last night we watched the Tom Hanks movie where his cargo ship was hijacked by Somalis.
What was it, Captain Phillips? The Somali called him Irish. Hanks did a bad Irish accent. Wimp movie too. Why did the crew not have guns aboard? Stupid.

This photograph was taken as we were leaving the lake. I also had parked in the handicap spot,with valid sticker of course, for when mamma rides with me, but never the less, I felt also the red neck would surely say something about that. I was prepared to say, I got a wooden leg bub... So I waited. The parking lot was full of boat trailers and trucks. I have never seen it this full before. The almanac must have said today was the day to fish.

I have noticed, as I predicted, that the Logan, Wolverine series I am doing is getting little to no interest.
I have likewise noticed in the past weeks a drop off in the amount of people liking and commenting. It never was anything to get excited about, it is less so now. I continue to attribute it to an over saturation of material from me, what with the several sites I maintain. Two, the material, if it is not awesome and beyond beautiful it garners little interest. And by the same token, it isn't shared. Sharing is the hallmark of a good photograph it seems. The high level of talent out there just causes folks level of interest to be way beyond just ordinary posts. I must learn to only post when something is really worth posting, not posting morning,afternoon and evening even if it is not worth the trouble.
What are your thoughts. Ha. I threw that in because...you guessed...no one bothers with my rambling on...

Curse of Sitidos

Sitidos was the name of Job's first wife, taken from The Testament of Job, a rewrite of the book of Job, written in the first person from his viewpoint. It is a post-Biblical Judiac work, possibly written in the first century, rejected as being non-Apocryphal by the Vatican but preserved by the Copts.
In the book of Job version we have, verse 2:9 translated as, Curse God and die. This version says, Bless God and die.
March 16 was a storming day as we drove to Raiford for her first interview with Union Correctional. She learned through the interview she would have to work night shift, drive the 26 miles, work with the mentally deranged inmates. She was optimistic, saying, if all else fails, I will take it. The rain continued all the way home. The next day they called, and she declined, hoping to hear from another job offered, having the hope of remaining at home doing what she had been doing. The offer fell. They were not going to fill the position at the time, having other hiring needing attention first. The next day, Columbia Correctional called. Union Correctional referred her. They had a day job in the clinic. It sounded promising. Only nine miles down the road from home. 7 to 3:30, no nights or week-ends. And so she took the job.
After the finger printing and background checks complete, yesterday, she began her 'prison stint'. Six o'clock and we began to wonder. She could take no cell phone in so calls went un-heeded. Finally, near seven, she came rolling in. First day they had an inmate emergency with a diabetic comma. She could deal with it.
What she was going to have a most difficult time dealing with were first, the constant cursing, second, they will eat my lunch if I remain nice. As a nurse, she has been attentive to kindness,empathy, comfort. All these are considered bad traits, exploitable in the prison culture. I told her she may as well forgo the make up in the morning and take on more of a butch appearance.
I know there has to be a large number of Christians working in these institutions. It only points out how as Christians we have no influence over the culture of our day. If we were truly walking in the light, I do believe the curse God and die culture would not rule the day. I think of the movie Shawshank Redemption where the warden quoted scripture but inwardly was a raving, cursing, sadistic, murdering maniac hypocrite.
Allison told her the best place to do job searching is while working. I trust the home job will finally decide to hire her and she can tell this curse culture to kiss her (&#)@! ((. Nicely of course. 

Curbs

Another attempt to break from the expected. And as expected, no interest, no understanding of the play upon words, the double entente of the buxom lady(curves) and the tiny dog concerned with making curbs when so small. An interesting juxtaposition to me. Taken at Cedar Key.
But some days, that it is the way things go.
At Lost in Florida there was the photograph of Palmetto Trail and Brett Fulton, the forestry worker who died in the Blue Ribbon Fire in June of 2011. I had taken his photograph in April.
Again, ho hum.
Today Melanie began her first day working at Columbia Correctional. Again, I posted, I was afraid it would come down to this, Melanie begins her prison stint tomorrow. And sure enough, taking me literally, thinking she actually was being incarcerated.
Then the April Fools photograph of the Blue Ferns. Again, many takers. Whats up?
Then the photograph of the Alfred Markham road. On the sign on the tree on the right, in tiny letters I put my initials. No one noticed. Pretty. Quick look. Be nice. Like. There. Done. Move on. Whats for dinner?
I again say, folks just want pretty. Folks just want beauty. Folks just want trivial. Easy buttons. Food stuff. Dirty linen stuff. Gossip stuff. I see no poetry, and probably for good reason. My poetry so called liking friends do not even comment any longer. Have they all just grown weary, jaded with the daily stream of stuff?
Slowly I am adding photographer friends, who, if they do not comment or like, at least I will see some compelling work and at least like what they do. I still harken back to the one person who said they did not like a particular photograph I had posted. That not like meant more to me than a hundred "pretty" comments, for it caused me to rethink the photograph and give it a critical eye myself. Otherwise, I may have just been content to assume it was just another pretty picture. Ho Hum.

X-Ray Day

Last evening meme Clara, my 85 year old mother, who is staying with us this week, slipped in the foyer and twisted her ankle. I got her up, gave her two Allieve and put her to bed. This morning, at 11:30 we got in to see her doctor, who sent us over to the hospital for an x-ray. After a long,long wait, we finally got the x-ray completed by 2 in the afternoon. We have yet to hear from the doctor if there was a break.
While in the room, as usual, I snapped various shots when the technician was busy. Always ready for an opportunity. Also, I was again able to view the wonderful photographs throughout Lake Shore Hospital of David Cavanah. Large, on torn, watercolor type paper, with a very ortinish look of wonderful oaks, palmettos in early sunlight streaming. Great works.

Keeping Carson

While Meme,sister,Allison,Melanie get nails done and various other lady things, I am keeping Carson for them. We have ridden the bike with the carrier, got out some old toys of Nathaniel and gone about the yard.
It is all a bitter sweet experience for me. I am afraid that I have grown rusty in the entertaining of a one year old.

Wolverine Month

A few months ago I made a photograph a day of the same tree, along with a line a day, to the same poem. It drew less and less interest as the month drew on, but I persisted. This month, I will post a photograph a day on Wolverine. It too will garner little, if any, interest. Nothing I ever do does, what is new. Like Wolvervine, what I do best isn't very nice. There is just too much social media, a thousand photographers, a million poets, a zillion critics out there who find too much too compelling and entertaining to stop and spend any time on a silly Wolverine toy.
That toy though, holds significance for me. It belonged to my only grandson Nathaniel, now estranged in Japan, who liked to carry it around with him. It was one of the many toys that was left behind, now stored in the shed, except for Wolverine. He goes about with me in my pocket, and when I see some danger or need for him, I pull him out, and he gets me through it.
So I will not ask you to bear with me, for you don't. I will post in the spirit of Nathaniel and think of him and I and Wolverine in our world of Logan and friends. Peace out bub.

April Who?

It only goes to point out, most skim past my posts without reading the content or the captions. I clearly posted this same photograph after Kentucky beat Michigan in the final 8 and told on this blog what I did, reversing the colors. Ferns are not blue, you are right, you have never seen this color. There are no Calipari ferns. If you were paying attention, you would have realized that today is what? and that all the words I used in the caption were words referring to March madness and the Kentucky basketball coach Calipari, and one shining moment, and one and done, referring to his method of recruiting freshmen stars who go on to the NBA after one season. But  since most do not read captions, you only give a quick glance before moving on,  the joke is on you. Sorry. Start paying attention is all I can say, and DO NOT believe everything you see on Facebook for Calipari sake.