Talk Like a Pirate

I’m almost a week late sharing this, but a) it wasn’t quite finished on September 19 and b) I wanted to share it with my photo group before posting it. I took this photo at the parrot show at the Yavapai County Fair a couple weeks ago and knew as I took it that I wanted to create a painterly illustration of this wonderful pirate as he moved up onto the stage and stood in front of the rigging with his macaw (one of many birds he showed us). The image was a challenge for me to create, because there was a big awning thing and a motor home behind him, and getting rid of those distractions was a huge challenge for me.

Those of you who knew me before retirement as the teacher who held pirate treasure hunts every year will appreciate what a labor of love this image was to create! Aaaarrrrgh, matey!

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Kaleidoscope

This piece was so much fun to create- it came together quickly out of two photos layered in Photoshop and a fair bit of brushwork. My photo club’s theme this month is Prescott/Prescott Valley, and after re-editing a photo shot a few years ago, I discovered that the lake where it was shot was just outside Prescott, so it didn’t adhere to the rules. On the last day to submit a photo, I woke up with the idea and inclination to throw caution to the wind and create an abstract- so here is Whiskey Row Kaleidoscope, a whimsical view of our iconic street of bars, restaurants, shops, and art. My friend Debbie came up with the title- thank you, Debbie!

And. . . to my surprise, it won third place at the photo club!!!

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Photo Series

I have finished the series created for my Unity Church class on Stations of the Cross. I’ve been working on these for the last couple months, and, as I’ve said before, have been working way outside my comfort zone. Most of the images started out as photos from my archive which I combined or re-edited to create a personal interpretation of what we discussed in class. The teacher used metaphysical interpretations of the gospels, combining them to give us eight stations to interpret, based on the life of Jesus. I hadn’t looked at the Bible in years, so it was interesting to re-read and re-examine. I am the only photographer.

The stations in order: Creation, Nativity, Baptism, Healing, Miracles, Teaching, Triumphal Entry, Crucifixion/Resurrection. Most images are not easily interpreted- and a couple have meaning only to me.

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Nativity

Here is the second in my Stations of the Cross series- Nativity. I started with a photo taken of the sun rising from our driveway. When I started working on my image, I noticed a single star in the sky, which I had not seen when I took the photo. I replaced it with the “Christmas Star” (the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction photographed last December). In this photo you can just barely see Jupiter and four of its moons and Saturn with its rings blurred.  And then, I of course did some creative editing! 🙂

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Creation

I am taking an eight week class through my church where we all create art! There are painters, mixed media artists, musicians, and at least one photographer (!) coming together to have discussions based on assigned readings and then create art in response. Each week we share art with each other in our zoom meetings.

I had imagined this would be similar to contemplative photography, which I am familiar with, but it turned out to be based on Stations of the Cross, which is totally outside my experience. The class explores the metaphysical meanings of the stations as related to our own lives. This is way outside my comfort zone, but the excellent teacher and interesting classmates are making this a wonderful experience!

Week One- Creation

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Having Fun

On our visit to Flagstaff last week, we spent some time at the Arboretum. It was very enjoyable (even with the busload of second graders catching tadpoles at the pond), and we especially liked the view of the San Francisco Peaks from across the meadow. A frame is set up for picture taking, and of course we couldn’t resist taking photos of each other with the peaks behind.

When I got home, I had some photoshop fun with this photo:

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Whimsical

Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s all right.

                                                           ~George Harrison

Today our final project is due in my photo group. The topic is whimsical, which has caused a lot of consternation and debate among some of the members. Our teacher included dreamy in his definition of whimsical, but I chose to bring a not particularly dreamy photo which has appeared on this blog previously in a not so whimsical form.

Here is the original photo, taken at sunrise from our driveway.

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Rolling Rim Impressions

We were absolutely entranced by the view from the Mogollon Rim on our recent trip to Payson. The views of rolling hills and mountains seem to go on forever. This image started as an in-camera multiple exposure, which was then layered with another multiple exposure and edited in Photoshop and other programs.

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