Versions 2
Posted on May 22, 2013
Versions of Caroline
I am back to working on “versions.” For these images, I use one source image and alter it with textures, composites, collage, and painting in photoshop. I have been doing more composites with Caroline’s versions. Both of the backgrounds here are photographs of mine and then I paint in textures. The colored image has three different textures. The black and white has two textures. I use various blend modes with the textures to get different effects. I am just fascinated by the idea that I can create numerous images from one source image. Of course, by the time I get done I am really using several images. I used a portrait of Breanna in my first experiment with versions. I ended up making 15+ versions and narrowed it down to nine.
Versions of Breanna
Tomorrow I am photographing Christina. Hopefully I will get a shot that I can use for my next set.
An Angle
Posted on May 21, 2013
Today, I am photographing the rose gardens of a historical property for a book about the property. I am not sure how the book will be used, maybe for architecture or tourists. I went there yesterday, but it was heavily overcast. It doesn’t look much sunnier today … The rose garden is beautiful. Dozens of colors and varieties of roses. I don’t know exactly how big the garden is, but it stretches across the side of the property and is as wide as a house itself. Anyway, I am hoping to catch a break in the overcast today. Go figure, the weather has to become totally uncooperative just when the roses are all in bloom. Here is one from yesterday.
Cuddles: 10 Months
Posted on May 19, 2013
Many of you know the story, but for those who don’t …
Last August, two puppies were found in a ditch near my house. Their eyes had just opened. There was a male and a female. The pups were extremely sick and dehydrated. The boy pup did not survive, but the girl pup continues to thrive, and her name is Cuddles.
Recently, I bought Cuddles a pool! She loves it. She tries to swim in the pool, but it is not deep enough. Still, she enjoys splashing around and it cools her off. North Carolina summers can be fierce, and Cuddles likes playing outside, so the pool was well worth it.
Sunbathing
Swimming
Drying off
Ready to play
Cuddles is pretty well trained for photographs. I have been working with her since she was four weeks old. She knows it’s photo time when I grab the camera and call her over by the window. She sits, stays, looks at the camera when commanded, and now we are working on turning left and right. I reward her with regular dog food for commands she already knows, but I give her special treats for new commands. I add new commands as she masters old ones. Here are a few of our recent photos, taken in the past few days.
I will be working on a 2014 calendar for Cuddles this fall. I am hoping to use the calendar as a tool to bring more awareness to animal rescue. It will have photographs of Cuddles from when she was first found up to her 1 year birthday.
Ancestry
Posted on May 17, 2013
The other day, a friend and I went on a wild goose chase looking for her ancestors. There was a rumor that her family had a cemetery dating back to the 1800′s, and her father recalled going there as a child, but he wasn’t sure if it was a real experience or a dream. The cemetery was supposedly on private property where people were living. The directions to the cemetery were pretty entertaining. We had to travel to the end of a country road where we would see a caved in house next to a brick house. Then we would see another brick house and a “trailer in a hole.” The cemetery was located next to this “trailer in a hole.” We missed it the first time. Turned around, missed it again. Turns out the “trailer in a hole” was actually more of a shack on a downward slope. We had also been warned about the people living there. They were described as being like the people from that movie, “Deliverance.”
My friend and a monument of the family cemetery, listing the names. It was placed sometime in the 1900′s. It was hidden next to an old stable/shed, facing in the opposite direction of the cemetery and out of view.
We knocked on the door and asked about the cemetery. The woman who answered was very friendly, helpful, and willing to let us walk around. She told us the cemetery was located on the side of the house. It was literally 5-7 feet away from the side of the house, hidden under immense brush and trees. The fenced in part was extremely small, maybe 6×20. The headstones were very close to to the iron gate surrounding it. The stones closest to the side of the house were very well preserved, perhaps because it was also well covered by trees, sheltered from sunlight and weather. Most of the graves were not in this small, enclosed plot. They were scattered in the area and traces of headstones appeared, or so we thought, walking around, trying to guess if a piece of slate buried in the earth or a strange looking rock was a marker. I would like to go back and reshoot. We didn’t really know what we were going to find the first time. There are certain details and scenes I would like to try again …
After our adventure, we stopped at the dam. We met in an art class. Christina paints, sculpts, and works with found objects. I plan on photographing one of her sculptures soon. Anyway, we will be collaborating this summer for some photographs, so you will be seeing more of her. 
New Hair-Do
Posted on May 14, 2013
Bigger bangs, highlights, trim. Now I need a tan and a nice sundress.
