still more note cards, chapter 4: some favorites!

post #265
       It may be a New Year, but I have not yet finished sharing some of my cards. I have been saving a few more favorites for this post, chapter 4, as a way to celebrate bringing good things forward into a new year. I am not necessarily a fan of clean slates and resolutions.
      Many of the images are chosen for their titles.  When I showed the first one to a friend and neighbor -- in the country sense -- he said "Oh, groundhogs boiling coffee." What? Where did that come from?? I loved the expression, and I trusted that he wasn't making it up on the spot, though he could have. Even so, I did ask around to find out if others knew that expession as well. Many did! I felt enriched by learning such an evocative phrase through one of my photos.

        This next image happens every spring. These steps are located halfway between my home and "town" so I never forget them. I even remember the house that used to sit on the top of the hill and watched it be left alone and then taken down a few years later.
       I talked over possible titles with my friend George Ella, and she came up with "legacy," one word that describes so much. Yes!

      The power of the words is somewhat different for the following photo of some other friends and neighbors. The title "stripping tobacco" can't really describe the poignancy of what is happening. This job was something they had been doing together every December for ages; this year (2010) was the last year. The end. No more tobacco. I have always been grateful to them for letting me know their plan -- and grateful the counter didn't collapse when I stood on it to take the photo!

Hard to explain, but this next image is one I imagine I love for personal reasons. It is our creek, it is spring, I got the greens and the water to look like they really do look, and it doesn't look like this every day. But I was there for this day. I call it, simply, our creek in spring, or sometimes just spring creek.  Since I handwrite my titles on each card, I don't always have to say the same thing. I can therefore forget and redo or simply revise as I go along, an advantage of the extra work hand writing the titles takes.  

field, fog, and fence

      These two mourning doves never fail to fascinate, even though I made this photo with a slide early in my career when I was the photo-illustrator for George Ella's Counting on the Woods (DK Ink, 1998).  For the card's title, I use the words from the page they are on in the book: two birds, daybreak's words. I took it out my bedroom window, on a cloudy day (of which there were many during that long, cool spring). Doves, bless their hearts, actually LIKE to hang out together; I needed birds that would do that. Again, thank you, George Ella.

       There is not time to show all my cards, but I can't neglect to show the next two, both requiring the cooperation of animals. In one, showing off helped, and, in the other, take a look at the ears.  The showing off image is one of my most well known. It also sells well as a card.

Big Wheel

ear-winking mule

      For those of you who like the photos from other places, my most popular one is this street scene in Chipping Campden, in the Cotswolds of England. I have used many variations in the title, since I am never sure how much information to give without detracting from the image itself. If anyone wants to give title making a try, please feel free to let me know one for this image. Click on Comment, and sign in as Anonymous. That usually works. Thanks! (Now that I think of it, maybe simply "hanging in England" will work?)

 

        As soon as possible, I will add some samples of my cards with their colored paper choice.  I meant to do it weeks ago, though I have not yet done so. But for now I need to take a break from this fun time I give myself every week and do some actual real-life stuff. "Busy Day."
 

End of summers, many visitors during 15 minutes

post #211, and, I'm proud to say, the start of my fifth year of doing these weekly posts

       I have wanted to share what I saw in a brief period the afternoon of September 17, 2014.  It is part of that aspect of photography that celebrates paying attention.  Seeing.  Noticing the light and the moment.
      First, a photo at the pond, of a weed hanging over from the edge, gently touching water.  To me it looks like it is tiptoeing out, reaching ever farther.

       I then walk back to the house, passing the well and the "End of Summer" plants nearby.  A neighbor gave us these plants many years ago, and they never disappoint. She called them End of Summers, though I know other plants also can go by that name.  
      I stop because I noticed a single butterfly, but I end up filming many of the other visitors as well.  They just keep showing up.  I must have hit some kind of prime time!  Busy, busy!
                               

       I don't want to leave out the grasshopper who's hiding close by.  He looks kind of lost but also very peaceful.  Note: There are so many times when I am seeing stuff with my camera that I wish I had a biology degree. That was certainly true when I made the photos for Counting on the Woods by George Ella Lyon.  I had so much to learn back then, besides how to use a tripod and such. Even a single biology course in high school or college would have helped.  

     
      So, to finish today, one last insect I saw recently that might not find a proper home on some future blog post.  Location: on our chicken house outside wall.   Name: I have no idea but would love to know, as usual.  The shapes and lines fascinate me.  Enjoy its beauty:

milkweed tell-all, all told, part 5 of 5

post #183
      I have needed these five weeks to complete my milkweed exploration.  However, I suspect I will be finishing just in time to catch the early and late spring part of the milkweed story, since I didn't start this project until June 23rd last year.  Fear not, my plan is to give the blog a milkweed break until I discover all that I hope to see and learn this April, May and June.
        Actually, when I made the photos for Counting on the Woods, I had to find five nests. That was in 1997.  It is now 2014. I still look for nests.  What can I say.  Will I ever learn to quit doing it?
      

10/22/14

10/24/14, location #3

This looks to me like the inner workings of these pods are now finished being useful.

10/26/14, after an overnight frost

near the milkweed, a view that struck me as interesting...

11/26/14

windy day (11/6/14), beauty within

11/10/14

location #2, along our driveway

location #3 (see previous photo as well)

location #2, in January, resting, after a job well done

a country way to make room for the stuff of photography -- Sideway Gallery

post #148
      Since I am still away from home this day, I am dedicating this post to my gallery in rural northeastern Kentucky as a way to remind myself that I do have a place for my work -- all because three years ago it was the only way I could find to have room for my photo stuff!  It is located 4 miles from our home.  It is very much part of the photo life I have been sharing on these posts over the last few weeks.

      Here is the inside of the gallery, first floor.  What was once someone's living room is now my display area.  I show my cards and some of my framed photos.  I don't keep regular hours, so It has become mostly a work space where I can see what I have.

     The kitchen area is painted to match the rooster photo on the left.  I took the doors off the counter cabinets to make room for color and design.  If I can't see something, I often forget I have it.  So far I get by with a hot plate and a fridge, with no oven or stove.

      Next is the outside view.  Since this building is distinctive for this region, it is easier to locate the place by knowing what it looks like!

       This spring, the wisteria that was already established turned out particularly showy.  I grew up with some wisteria, in Connecticut, so it has been fun to have this amazing plant just appear on my deck.

      There is also a small pond, .  Please note it is NOT SAFE for swimming.  The first view is a winter shot, and the second is from summer, with the redwing blackbird population enjoying the collection of bullrushes here and there. 

    
      I'm now including a few of the early shots, showing my helpers -- my husband, Frank, my neighbor and friend Sandy (whose garden I have shared in post #146), and three loyal painting friends - Carolyn, Molly and Ann.  I had hurt my arm that spring in a fall, and I actually did hardly any painting.  THANKS AGAIN TO ALL OF YOU!!

I particularly like this photo of Sandy's granddaughter MaKayla, who was checking out some of the books I wanted to find homes for.

evidence of another visitor!

evidence of another season!

This photo was taken by a friend visiting from France, three years ago.  Today I happen to be wearing that very same fleece jacket.... 

.

    Time constraints had helped me think of a new way to do a post in parts.  Photos first, then, today, Tuesday, THE WORDS THAT GO WITH THE PHOTOS!  I hope this has not been confusing.  This last photo is an early one, featuring the gallery and my shadow.  I have felt so grateful to have this place for my work.  If you ever want to come by, though, give me a call ahead of time, so I can be sure to be there.  606 - 738 - 6119.  I have copies of Counting on the Woods, photo note cards and some framed photos and some other books for sale and show.  I have a bunch of photo magazines to give away. We have countywide fiber optic wi-fi -- though cell phones don't yet reach everywhere yet, including Sideway Gallery!  ( I love our hills even so. )  This has been the post for Views from Sideway on this weekly blog, which is called Sideway Views.... 

unavoidable one day delay, now over!

post #147
        Before I return to Counting on the Woods, here are three favorite photos from this past week that I posted July 21 since I wouldn't be able to do very much on this post until today, July 22.
 

This parrot's name is Baby!

snake skin in our garden wall

baby bunny at Natalie's

       

 And now, back to thoughts about and photos from Counting on the Woods:
    

      Here is Kyle in the sycamore tree, part of the two page spread in the book for the words "Eight trees, whose innumerable leaves" -- followed in the next spread by "clean the air for everything that breathes."
      This was the penultimate photo I made.  I had the help of my son and his girlfriend, since it was already 8:15 at night when we got organized -- and when the light was right.  I was using a tripod in the middle of a muddy tobacco field, as I have written about in an earlier post, and so I couldn't put any of my supplies on the ground.  Anyway, I love George Ella's choice of the word INNUMERABLE.  Isn't the sound of it just like a lot of leaves moving in a breeze?  

       I have shown ten photos plus the cover, about a third of the photos in the book.  The dedication I wrote in the book was to Elliott County, where I live in northeastern Kentucky.  What I didn't realize until the students in the local schools saw photos of the book is that  although this is very much a book with Appalachian photos, it is not what they are used to seeing.  I wonder how many readers of this blog realize how beautiful the area is where I live.  This book shows what I call the richness of Appalachia, but not because I am trying to make a point.  It is just what it is.
       The students in my northeastern Kentucky county also think that the waterfall in the opening pages is the same one they have on their place....  I always love to hear this. It's also true that these same students are often amazed to know that the book can be found in libraries all over the USA.  We talk about how these photos are what people are seeing about their place rather than the "normal" media images which often make them feel shunned or ashamed.  
      These thoughts are a bit of a digression about my photography, but learning from one's work is always a great thing.