If your day was an empty canvas, a blank slate, even an old wall…and you were encouraged to create your own picture upon your own day, what would it look like at the end of that day? Would you paint what was or would you paint what is? Would you paint what you thought it SHOULD be? Would you paint what you hoped it would be? Would you paint what you believed it could be? Would you paint at all?

Atticus cried briefly for his lost family last night. I put a sock filled with warm rice in his cage and he snuggled up to it and went to sleep. He slept through the whole night without a peep. He ate and pooped well today. (As anyone who has ever reared a baby of any species well knows, what comes out is as important as what goes in.)

I should have gone to get my allergy shot today. I didn’t.

We had an impressive thunderstorm at work today, and it appears, at home too. Had a second one after I got home. I love stormy nights…as long as there is no disturbance in my AC, cable TV, and other conveniences…and there wasn’t, so I’m still content.

I wore a Walmart shirt today. Walmart clothing is so distinctly cheap looking. Even cheap clothes from other stores don’t look as cheap as Walmart clothes. It’s disgraceful that I should think so little of myself I suppose, but as ugly as this Walmart shirt is, it’s really quite comfortable.

Tonight was supposed to be my lower body workout…legs. There is something dreadfully wrong with my right knee, as was made apparent during my last lower body workout. I can’t do squats and I can’t do lunges…the two most perfect lower body exercises that you can do…and I can’t do them. I COULD do some old-fashioned Jane Fonda leg lifts instead, but I HATE that stuff. I haven’t made up my mind yet if I’m going to be disciplined and do SOME form of a workout, or if I’m going to be a fat slug. Either way, I’m blaming it on the barometric pressure. Hence the explanation for today’s picture. At least SOMEone has been working on their body building today. If only changing my OWN shape was as easy as wielding a hammer and chisel.

I have 32 spam comments in my spam folder…WHOA! I love Akismet. Well, I DID have 32 spam comments. Now I have none. Heh. I suppose it’s better to have unwanted comments than no comments at all…maybe?

I was unable to attend the Farmer’s Market yesterday afternoon…too busy at work. RATS. (Dontcha just love the way my mind flits from one subject to another?)

I’m going to the basement and plunder through my art supplies. It’s been a long time since I used natural media, but I find myself inclined to experiment with it again with this new Sketchbook Project coming up. I have some watercolor pencils that I’ve never used. I think it’s time…

It’s been a while since I’ve written. There’s been things turning over and over in my head, just been too busy with other things to put it all into words. Busy with things like cleaning house, working on websites, working out. When I think of the things that take up so much time in a day, I’m struck by the amount of time and effort I put into temporal things…things that, in another world and time, would mean absolutely NOTHING to anyone.

If we were hit with some manner of disaster of apocalyptic proportion tomorrow, no one would care that my house was clean, or that my living room needs painting and the floor, refinishing; no one would care about my pedicure. My quest for fitness might prove a worthy endeavor in helping me survive, perhaps a bit longer than otherwise, but no one would care about all the pretty pictures I devote so much time to… or WOULD they?

Pictures document the progression of our lives; they not only preserve the moment that has passed, but the emotion evoked by that moment in time. Pictures of family, friends and loved ones become all the more valuable when that person is taken away from us, whether by the change of direction in our paths, or the finality of death. If an apocalypse fell upon us tomorrow and our present way of life and the blessings that we so glibly take for granted today were lost to us…perhaps forever…would not every image we held in our possession take on a whole new meaning to us?

The creative arts aren’t some frivolous pursuit – the creative arts comprise the expression of all that is in the human soul. Music, dance, films, writing, imagery, fine art and photography in all their myriad forms and applications emerge out of who we are and what we have experienced…what we are experiencing now…and it touches that place in the souls of others that resonates with our own place in space and time – it brings us together in one moment of experience. Sometimes, to partake of the creative expressions of others allows us a peek into worlds and experiences that we would likely never have access to, or even KNOW about, if not for the creative expression of some eccentric soul.

Imagery, whether stirred by what we hear or by what we see, enables us to experience things we might not otherwise experience; it causes us to remember what was and gives us hope for what could be. Remembering is not always a bad thing…not if we allow ourselves to learn from our mistakes and from the mistakes of others, and not if we allow ourselves to be enriched by the discoveries and accomplishments of others. The creative arts gives us the ability to do both. The creative arts are an integral part of the fabric that weaves not only humanity, but all of creation, together, reconciling all the scattered pieces into the ONE life that is the source and essence of all that is. Just as all that we see around us in this material world is but an expression of what IS in a very real but unseen realm, so art gives expression to the very real but unseen realm of all that is within Man, both good (enriching) and bad (destructive).

I began this day thinking that perhaps I spend entirely too much time fiddling with images. But after giving the whole subject a bit more consideration, I feel both proud, and also rather humbled at the same time, that I have been entrusted with such a gift. I have been given the power to document, inform, share, invoke memories and emotion, to join souls together, through my own creative gifting. It is my firm conviction that there is a spark of the creator in us all. What is YOUR special gift? Are you faithful to nurture it, to grow it, share it?

Perhaps they are right…all those people in my life who often accuse me of ‘thinking too much.’ Watching movies like The Road and The Book of Eli probably don’t help…

Try as I might, I could not figure out how to get to that boat without violating the trespass signs, so I drove back up to the highway, parked on the side of the road, and ran back down the exit ramp to the place where I’d first glimpsed this find and shot with my zoom through the trees.

I got several peculiar stares, but I did, after all, have on my photographer’s vest, so perhaps between that and a big zoom lens, that made me look professional enough for them to dismiss my bizarre behavior as some crazed paparazzi, or maybe they thought I was a private detective. (My ex-husband once said I had quite a knack for detective work…he should know…such said talents played a big part in why he is my EX-husband…) Whatever the passers-by thought, I got my UNIQUE shot without being flattened into a road pancake by a semi. After all, how often is it that you see a boat afloat in a field of wild flowers?!

I deduce that having reached a stage in my pursuit of images, that I’m willing to risk life and limb…and PRIDE…to get “the shot,” I now declare myself a PRO.

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Sometimes when something seems old and outdated and seems to no longer serve any useful purpose, perhaps it has simply adopted a NEW purpose. This old truck no longer hauls hay and feed, no longer takes teenagers to drive-in movies or to get ice cream on a hot day. But it CAN reflect the play of the light and shadows around it; it serves as a nice backdrop for a tangle of tall grasses and creeping vines. As the integrity of the old metal gives way to the ravages of rust, passersby who take a moment to stop and look, can enjoy the varying textures and colors of the process of oxidation and decay. Whooda thought destruction could be so charming?

Too bad I can’t look in the mirror at the ravages of time as played out on my own carbon unit, and appreciate the process of aging as aptly as I can in this old truck. Wrinkles, freckles, age spots and cellulite just don’t come across as quaint and beautiful as rusted metal. But I CAN lose myself–in all my inglorious imperfections–behind the lens of a camera, as I continue to seek out and reveal the surprising beauty of unlikely places.

It was my original intention to write something inspiring or insightful to accompany this image of an old wooden box of bottles I found tucked under a board in an old abandoned barn. But when it was done, I thought…BLEH.

What I wrote wasn’t entirely bad…nor was it entirely good. Not sure if it’s the value of the content of what I wrote which is lacking, or if it’s just my somewhat sour mood that makes it seem so, but sometimes, perhaps it’s best to simply present an image and let the viewer’s imagination provide the background story.

Maybe no story is necessary at all. Sometimes, just viewing something interesting is, in itself, enough to soothe the restless soul…or at the very least, provide a temporary distraction.

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This is actually a re-work. I had originally posted the original shot when I first set up this website…it was my first post. This version was processed with Photomatrix and tonemapped to bring out the depth of texture and tones in the dramatic sky. This is one in a series I’m currently working on putting together for a grouping.

(Click on the pictures to view a full-frame version, and to see picture title.)

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It’s snowing in South Carolina! I haven’t felt well this weekend but HAD to take the camera out to seek out a shot or two of this uncommon southern rarity before it disappears. Shooting this outhouse during the snow gave me pause to be eternally grateful for modern indoor plumbing!

Another thought…is always a good idea to have someone watch the door for you when you use a public facility…

This is an old antique tractor that sits on display in a neighbor’s field. The background of the original setting was not horrible, but neither was it very interesting. So I start plundering through my collection for some background images that needed a little something extra to make THEM more interesting.

An old shot of another neighbor’s donkeys seemed a PERFECT fit for this old tractor. I had actually put the tractor on 3 other backgrounds too…all of which I like, and may post later…this one just turned out to be my favorite. It’s almost as if the donkeys are checking out the tractor as the “new guy” in the field…”So he thinks he’s a hot shot…sitting over there with his big rubber tires and loud motor…PFFT.”

(Click on the preview above to pull up a FULL VIEW of the picture.)

I’ve been wanting to work on this piece ever since I shot it but haven’t been able to find the spare time to do so. I captured this old antique car on a recent excursion to the mountains with friends to see some autumn color. We had actually stopped for a car accident that we happened upon, while one of our party assisted the victims until the rescue teams got there. The accident happened in front of a couple of old country stores in a stretch of road called Echo Valley, so I got out with my camera and started exploring. This old car was parked out by a shed behind the stores in a fenced lot that hosted an interesting array of ducks, geese, ostrich and other assorted critters. I had to shoot through a hole in the chain link fence, and was limited in the angles I was able to try because of the fence and the layout of the scene. In the original photo, there was a tangle of chain link directly in front of the car, and an old metal bar round pen in front of a lean-to off to the left of the car. My exposure wasn’t great and neither was the background scenery, sooooo, I CHANGED it up with some elements from some other photos in my collection. The shed behind the car seemed dull somehow, even after all the editing and effects, so I added an old weathered coke sign to it. Ahhh, yeah…just right! Too bad the ugly things in LIFE aren’t so easy to change and improve.