It's been a week of young things for me, one way and another. I've been to three different horse establishments getting shots of foals, and the front yard here at home has seen the launching of a number of baby birds (mostly various types of sparrows) as they emerge from their nests and/or bird houses and start to learn how to handle the big world. I haven't managed to get any photos of them yet, but there will be more coming along soon, and they are the less spooky chipping sparrows so chances are good I'll be able to snag some shots of them. We will see baby wrens making an appearance in the back yard as well, if the sounds coming out of the wren house are anything to go by. I'm so happy to have wrens back in the yard after they gave us a miss last year that I've been steering clear of their tree for fear of offending, so my photo ops with them have been pretty well non-existent. Riding and yard work take up most of my waking hours these days, the ones that aren't occupied by lurking at horse breeding establishments or horse shows, at any rate, and the days are whizzing by alarmingly. There is a big "double spread" whiteboard at the barn that has two months at a time detailed with the various events that will be occurring, in some sort of hope that everyone will actually know what is going on when. I experienced a feeling of sinking dread last week when the somewhat optimistic "June/July" spread switched over to "July/August". August! Oh good grief. Right after August comes September. That's pretty well the beginning of the end. I might as well wash the heavy winter horse blanket now and be done with it. Sigh. I *really* hope winter takes as long to arrive this year as it did to leave. Anything else would be too unkind, even for Saskatchewan.
First photo today is one I was playing with this morning in a Photoshop moment. I took a close crop shot of an old barn when I was driving home from working cowboy camp a couple of weeks ago. I've cropped it a bit more, worked the contrast, and thrown in a nice ominous looking sky/background. When I get time I'll likely stick an owl or cat in that window, or maybe have the moon shining through it. Or all of the above (not all in the same shot!). That's the fun of photo manipulation, you don't have to choose from amongst your options. You can just duplicate the image and try out all the possibilities.
Shot two is of a sky I didn't get to see. This was taken by my grandson Mark a couple of weeks ago. He asked me if I had managed to get shots of "that sky" and I had to admit that not only did I not get shots of it, I was in the house at the time and didn't even see it. When he showed me the shots he got from the front lawn of their house in a small town a short distance north of here, I was very jealous. Even when I am aware of a good sky, I can't usually get far enough out of the city fast enough to get the photos. Where they live, it's a simple matter. I've asked for his permission to use his cloud shots in some of my photomontages and he has agreed, so this sky (minus all the town clutter) will be appearing in some artwork at some stage of the game.
Shot three is of my friend Laurie and her mare Annalise (I *hope* that's the correct spelling, but am never sure) from a shoot I did last week. Laurie and I trade services every so often and this was in exchange for her altering an oil painting she did of my gelding Alpac when I first got him. He has changed shape so much since I got him (almost ten years ago now) that the original painting doesn't really look all that much like him. Laurie kindly agreed to muscle him up in the artwork so that it matches the real-life version. You can check out Laurie's website here. I love the almost-silhouette effect of Laurie and her mare backlit by the sun as they move through the foliage.
Shot four shows one of the above-mentioned "young things", a Gypsy cob colt, having a heck of a good time zipping around the pasture and trying out his new legs. Shot five is also from Northfork Stables, home of the Gypsy cobs, and shows one of the stallions having a quiet moment with one of last year's babies.
I have a couple more links to throw in this time round. The Neighbourhood Express, a local publication, requested that I do an article on my life with horses (or at least the 800 word version), which I was more than happy to do. This is a nice publication that comes out twice monthly in Saskatoon and is what I would call a "lifestyle" paper, by which I mean it runs articles on a variety of interesting topics, generally with a local focus, and always with a positive slant. I'm always happy to bring it in from the mailbox as I know it will divert and entertain me without leaving me discouraged and depressed, which is more than can be said for the daily "hard news" papers (although I am well aware they too have their place in our day to day lives). The link above will take you to the current issue. My article is on page 32.
And lastly, the Creativity Portal has the latest (I've lost track of exactly what number it is!!) of my on-going series of articles "Riding Lessons for Artists". So that's it for this week. Dressage show at the barn next weekend. Hope it's not rained out like the last one was, although goodness knows we need the moisture!
