Art is where you find it!

On sunday 9 June I hit Art Bazaar in Maitland looking for a BIG piece of art to go over my bed.  It had to be landscape aspect, with warm pink/autumn tones. Painting, oil or acrylic, it didn't matter or it could be pen and ink or any combination of the above.    I had a couple of hundred bucks cash set aside for it and a credit card if it was what I wanted but more dollars than I had in folding.  I was keen!

I drove to Maitland. It's a nice run on a sunny sunday, even in a twenty year old rust bucket.   Got a great park, most unusual for me and wandered into the market.  There were people EVERYWHERE. All rugged up in hats and scarves. Winter dress.   I probably didn't dress appropriately. It was short sleeves for me, but it was only cold in the shade.   There were between 50 and 60  stalls there. All with an artistic bent, mostly members of the Hunter Art Network (HAN).  I browsed and wandered and browsed some more and I found........ nothing.   Well nothing unless I wanted a beanie knitted to look like a goldfish or a light fitting made out of an old bottle. Fantastic pieces, but just not what I was after.  There were some mosaic house numbers and kids attire, some glass work but the busiest stall by far was the coffee van.

There was one dude selling original paintings and drawings and he had ONE image I liked.  The right tones, interesting egg tempera paint (egg mixed with powdered pigment) and it was of a seed husk, repeated over and over.  I liked it.  BUT, and there is always a but.  It was too small and portrait aspect.
I considered framing it up with the matte covering his signature and in a BIG frame to get the size I wanted, but....well I just wasn't right.  So I took his card, but left the work there.

Disappointed I came home and decided to look for an image or my own to have made into a canvas. Now you would think that with over 2000 images on my flickr page it would have been easy to find a shot. Yeah..Nuh!  I looked at shot after shot and saw nothing I wanted on my wall.  I already have 2 originals oils in the bedroom and one mixed media modern painting.  So the decision was even harder to make.

My good buddy KB suggested I take a pic of the bedroom and she would work her graphic design magic to make my chosen image appear in situ.  That was so sweet, but I didn't take her up on it......and maybe I should have!  KB is a working mum with her own business as well, so the last thing I wanted was to impose on her weekend with a work related enquiry. Even though I know she was cool with it!    Eventually I found and image I liked and thought would work.  Next task was to find a reasonably prices canvas printer.  KB uses an overseas based company that is the bees knees, but I am a bit of a "keep it in AU" kinda girl.   I do have one canvas in the hallway. It was printed at Domayne about 6 years ago when they printed canvas on site and you stretched and sealed it yourself. It's held up well, obviously due to my excellent stretching and sealing skills!!!  Sadly they no longer offer that service.

I called on the knowledge base of Rebecca, or Farmer Hamby as she is often called.  She has done a few canvasses and pointed me in the right direction.  Eventually I found a 100% Aussie company that had a zillion different sizes to choose from but most importantly fixed and reasonably priced delivery.

Uploading was easy, choosing the type of border was harder. Order placed with a 10 day turnaround.

                                                          Here is the image I used.

And here it is hung.

What a monday brings......

Enjoying the extra day off, that delightful monday of a 3 day weekend, I pottered about the house and achieved very very little!

I did take some photos though.

I dragged out the pocket wizards last night and then today wanted to add the softboxes into the mix.  Of course nothing is easy when you want it to be.  I busted the hinge on the cupboard door where the gear is stored and then realised the shafts on the softboxes were too short for the flash heads AND the PW's.  BUT...... being determined I got myself onto You Tube and watched a tutorial on how to fix the hinge problem and then I did a bit of sneaky stuff to get the flash heads and the PW's to fit into the mouth of the softbox.  So set up and ready to roll I needed to find something to shoot.

Tiger lilies of course!

Tomorrow is a different story though. Blood tests and then work AND then the dentist at lunchtime.  How lucky am I!!!

Photos?  Here they come!

3 day weekends!!

I love the weekend.

I work a nine day fortnight so every second weekend is a long one, which I love MORE than a normal weekend.  Fortunately the planets have aligned and I am now enjoying my THIRD three day weekend in a row!  Hallelujah!!!

Being back at work after being crook is still a struggle,  I'm not enjoying it and I am finding it very draining, but these 3 short weeks are helping.  This weekend I am in a position to catch up on some of the stuff I have let slip over the last 12 months.  I don't mean just around the house, although that is a big part of it. I mean taking photos, heading out for a bit of social activity and filling the freezer with decent meals ready to nuke on those nights when I get home late and couldn't be bothered whipping up something nutritious and tasty.  So this weekend I have managed to do a fair bit in the garden, attend an exhibition opening and still found time to take a few photos.

And here are some....... oh and I grew the chillies!!!

Car Show Pony

I seriously love a car show!  I know very little about cars.  I own and drive a couple of old rust buckets. Simple, easy to fix, easy to replace daily drives.  I have over the years driven a few classier cars too.  The odd BMW, Mercs and some classy classic models too.  I toyed with buying a small convertible earlier in the year, but I took my mechanics advice and saved my dollars.  But I do LOVE a car show!!!  Sunday was Euro Car day at Lambton Park.  Happens once a year, run by the local MG car club as a fundraising event and there are some great old cars there.  Now the bit I like best about older cars is the hood ornaments.  The Rolls "Spirit of Ecstasy" is probably the most well known, but there are a more.  These oldies have a great history and beauty to them.  Designs were often shrouded in mystery prior to an official unveiling, books have been written about them, beautiful women modelled for them and great artists designed them.  Me, I just like to take photos of them.  

So here are a few from sundays show......

The Art of Blogging

I can't believe there are American magazines on the blogging.  What's more, I can't believe I buy them!!!  "Artful Blogging" is my favourite but is as dear as poison to have delivered in Australia.  In the days of "Borders" you could pick them up for a mere $40 an issue.  Even though I was pumping as much money as I could into Borders they still went bust! Maybe I didn't buy enough copies of "Artful Blogging"!!!

Its funny cos I don't read a lot of blogs.  I find it hard to find a really good blog I keep going back to.  Searching for something is a bit of a mystery to me, but word of mouth is the best way for me to hunt up a good read.  I have my absolute faves and I have some I visit from time to time, but I do enjoy knocking up a post and sending it out into the ether.  Strangely my fave blogs fall into just two categories....photography and home gardening.  Go figure!!!

One of my fave blogs is by a rough and tumble West Aussie bloke called Dodgee Bruce.  His blog is called  "Dodgey Dealings"   and you can find it here  http://dodgeydealings.blogspot.com.au/    Its all things cars and photography and a really good read.   I "met"  Dodgee Bruce online.  He's a top tog and an all round good bloke.

Another is called Everyday Miracles http://theeverydaymiracles.blogspot.com.au/ . It's a photo blog too and I think I might have met this chick at a flickr meet once, but really I know her more from the blog.  She takes the most DIVINE images, often florally bases and writes so well about her life in old cold Tassie.  Her images have a super soft quality and I look at her stuff and go..... man, wish I had taken that!

There is another 'tog blog' I rate and that is Just Stunning Photography.  Now the blog is currently undergoing a bit of an upgrade, so if you don't get straight thru, go back in a few days.  http://www.juststunning.com.au/blog/.  I think you will be surprised to learn I met this dude at a car show. Go figure... in real life!!!   He shoots cars and glamour and tends to use super expensive artifical light sources.  He is actually a techo wizz and I rely on him to explain stuff I should already know. I think he thinks I am a dinosaur!!

On the home garden blogfront there are a few they I really enjoy reading.  Rebecca Hamby has just had a tree change moving from a suburban coastal block in NSW to 5 acres in mid Victoria.  In the coldest part of mid Victoria I might add!!!  Farmer Hamby now has chooks! Chooks and foxes and the biggest chook fortress you will ever see!   The farm already had productive fig and fruit trees and Rebecca has become a dab hand at preserves and jams!  Having personally enjoyed her Caramelised Onion Confit i can recommend reading Hamby Home(in)stead. Clicking on this link will take you there http://hambyhomeinstead.blogspot.com.au/.  She is a great writer, top photographer and a wizz in the kitchen!  There is a funny story about how we met, but I won't go into that here!  Suffice to say EVEN THOUGH she is a Nikon user, I rate her as a friend!

Another home grown foodie is Mrs Homespun.  She writes Homespun Field and this link will take you there http://homespunfield.blogspot.com.au/.  She too has chookies and veggies on an average Suburban block.  I've seen her patch and she grows an amazing amount of produce from her yard.  She also does the Esty thing and is pretty talented in all handiworks.

Five blogs hardly seem enough.  If you know a great blog the send me an email or a link.  I need more! Books are so 2012 to me!

Now a photo.... what shall it be.....

The 'C' word....... Cured?

Massive week in my world.  Last thursday was the one year anniversary of finding Mr Lumpy Bump.  Wednesday this week is the one year anniversary of being diagnosed with cancer, later known to be a Papillary Carcinoma, although Mr Lumpy Bump is a nicer name!!! 3 operations, 6 admissions to hospital and 4 days in isolation glowing in the dark after Radioactive Ablation has lead me to today.  And today entailed heading off to the John Hunter Hospital again today to see the man of small stature with the enormous brain, my Endocrinologist.  He has a non descript ascent and hand made suits and all the answers I needed. Unusually he was LATE today. He is normally right on time if not early, a real rarity in the public health system.

He had all the answers today. The last 5 sets of blood tests, the 3 CT scans,  the 2 Gamma Camera scans and the geiger counter results held the answer. But the answers fell short of the "C" word.  Cured. What he did say was I had "no distant metastasis" which means the radioactive ablation worked  where it was meant to and from that he knows that at this stage there is no spread of cancer.  The Radioactive Iodine did burn thru three places in my brain and it was only supposed to be one, but Doc thinks it is all still ok up there!  He still says cancer will return, but it could be YEARS not months away.

So now I have ongoing testing (blood tests and ultrasounds and scans) on a quarterly basis for the next 3 decades or longer, depending on MY useby date!

My plans to resign and get my hands on my superannuation are out the window.  No buying an Avan and racing off around Australia for me!   Plan B is work on for another few years and retire happy and healthy.  So that's where I am at.  Blood and organ donation are still a big fat no, so if you are fit and healthy and aren't registered then give it some thought and consider signing up.  Organ donation really is the last thing you will ever do and it is a good thing ........  give it some thought!

So now it is time to celebrate.  I think a shandy is called for ...... oh yeah I really live it up!

Just a simple pic as a thank you for reading this far.

Anatomy of a photo shoot

Over 12 months ago I bought a beautiful gown. Long and flouncey.  Handmade with a fitted boned bodice and  5 layers of fabric in the skirt, yet it was unfinished.  It had never been hemmed. It had never been worn.  I saw it in an op shop when I was looking for clothing for the props cupboard.  Although it was expensive I HAD to have it.   Since the day I bought it, it has hung in my loungeroom window.  Almost teasing me, daring me to make the most of it.  Then, as you know, I got a bit sick and pretty much everything photographically complex was put on hold.  Seeking strangers stopped.  Duna Studios ground to a halt. Walking anywhere with the weight of a camera and lens became impossible and wearing a camera around my neck was just not an option.   Just a little desktop macro stuff  filled my flickr pages.  But nothing more complex or mentally or physically challenging.   Well I am starting to feel human again, having the odd good day in a week of bad.  I ran the idea past the Doc.  She isn't sure I am up for it yet, but agreed I could try.  So I decided it was time to photograph someone in the gown.  To set up a photo shoot from start to finish.

As all I had was the dress I needed a concept, a location, a model and an assistant.  Well the assistant was easy.  Josh is always willing to help out at this kind of gig and he is a genius with lighting and the technical side of the shoot.  I am sooooo not a genius with lighting or the technical stuff.  I rely on some  measure of luck and hope the artistic merit of the shot outweighs any deficiency in the technical component.  Then a concept came to me.  Middle European style,  "girl in a forest" was what my minds eye saw.  The long hot Australian summer kindly provided me with a location.  A bushfire provided me with a stand of burnt out trees and the shot was complete.  Well complete in my minds eye that is.  I was still missing someone to wear the gown.  And that I found was going to be harder to organise than I imagined.

I put a casting call on a model website.  I outlined the gig and said I was searching for a size 8 model with long dark hair willing to do a TFCD shoot.  TFCD means she provides her time freely and in return she gets both Hi and low resolution shots for her portfolio that she has a legal right to use for self promotion.  It is a contracted shoot. Complete with identity confirmation and a waiver.  I planned to shoot to take ONE HOUR.

Over 50 people read the casting call and I had 3 replies.  The first girl had chrome coloured hair...... yep a dull grey.  Not her real colour, just a dull grey.  The second girl wanted payment and the third girl lived 135kms away... but was willing to travel!   I opted for the paid model.  I knew what I wanted, her rates were reasonable and I didn't need her for very long!  She gave me her availability, agreed on a price structure and I set a time and date....... and then she didnt get back to me!  A no show, a flake!  Later I got an email saying she had gone to Sydney for the weekend, but was available "Anytime".

Soured by this I began hunting for a reliable local girl who would spare me an hour of her time.  If I was unable to find a willing model I did assess the viability of putting  my youngest nephew in a wig for the shoot!  He's always willing to help me, but he drew the line there!!!  I knew the look I wanted and contacted a friend of my niece.  I managed to convince a beautiful young lady to be a part of the process.  It took quite a few emails to win her over.   In the end Monica agreed to wear the gown and so in a few short hours we will try to make the image in my head an image on my sensor.

All batteries are charged, lightstands sorted, flash heads and triggers checked, reflectors packed and when I load it all into the car I will be ready to roll.  Also packed are pins and duct tape, just in case the gown needs some "adjusting".  The weather gods are smiling and fingers crossed it stays that way till about 4pm today.

Here's the gown that started this whole merry go round!!

UPDATE:

At 2pm the second model sent me a message on facebook that she couldn't make it.   Now I have no issue here as I know this girl and she wouldn't have canned the shoot without good cause!  I sent a mate a message that the gig was off and he made a call, then put me in contact with someone he had recently shot.  This amazing young lady came to the party and two and a half hours later we were shooting in the original location.  She was a complete delight to work with.  Here is one of the afternoon.