High Desert Autumn

Spring Fever

Happy Spring!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year

The new year feels fresh and I have been trying to get rid of clutter and begin new projects and exercise and all sorts of healthy things. I feel like winter is over and that I am ready for spring with it's new beginnings. Our winter has been very mild and we have no snow on the ground. Soon it will be my birthday, always a time for taking stock. Always, for me a time of turning inward and perhaps changing directions or branching out...My husband made me a beautiful portable easel for shooting some of my work that I have moved in front of the window. I am excited about all the possibilities of shooting with a different light. I still need to shoot some snow scenes for next year and I am sure I will have the opportunity as we can have snow any month of the year at 4,000 feet. But for now, I am getting excited about traveling and seeing fresh sights through my lens. I love to work, it is my passion and my escape. Like everyone I get frustrated when I don't get the "perfect" shot. But there is always tomorrow.

I chose these three images..because I am really liking white and black and pink right now for one thing. It is really still winter...but these look fresh to me....This is a lama that I shot during a snow storm...and it's face just enchants me...it's buckteeth and markings. The small feather belongs to one of my little white hens and it is very simple ..and unspectacular...but it looks so soft and downy......and of course valentines day is just around the corner..so I am preparing myself...

It's Still Summer Yay

This has been a super busy summer....I have taken 3 trips this year...and I am trying madly to get outside a little each day...we have such short summers where I live in Oregon.....It will be snowing before you know it...and I know people are already thinking about fall.....but my cherished peonies just bloomed....I have been trying to work on new products for Christmas..when all I want to do is shoot new work and read mysteries!!! I am excited to share that this month I have been featured in Poppy Talk's Handmade Market..which is quite an honor for me to be included with such smashing artists!
Here is a sampling of some of my new pieces.....

The Zen of Snowflakes

It has been very beautifully changing seasons here in the Pacific Northwest. I have been trying to capture...so many variations...the crisp fall leaves....which change colors daily for about 3 weeks...and then before you know it... gone! Each day the sky has so many colors....we are right next to the mountains...One day we will have fog.....drifting in mysterious shapes.....The next rain.....The next day breathtaking cloud formations....hiding all but one peak. And, then, without warning Snow....the first snow.

Last Sunday I dragged my husband out to drive me up toward the timberline to see if I could shoot any last bits of fall...in the forest....It was raining...it was a little before lunch...and I could tell he was bored..or annoyed? So often I go out..and don't come home with anything......It takes so much perseverance and patience...to create....

We headed back home...I was hoping for a nice mysterious fog to engulf us..and it just didn't happen....the fog was always just a little higher...the rain came down harder and we decided to head back for lunch...

An hour later...I looked out to see the first snow of the season....I grabbed my Japanese flute CD and my big old muck boots and my hideous gold ski coat....and camera and headed to the lake in a hurry...Because the flakes were big and soft and moist..and I knew they could disappear in a moment.

I thought I would leave my husband at home ....and that way I could make my way slowly up to the lake..stopping every other minute if need be..and see if I could find some deer or some magical occurrence. No pressure...and beautiful shakahuchi flute....accompanying me...

If you have read my blog before..and if you have bless you....for taking the time!! You will probably know I love haiku and have always wanted to go to Japan...so you can imagine my joy when I pulled over at the lake to see this amazing....zen like landscape....

I jumped out of the truck..and stood in the middle of the snow in absolute wonder...
It was one of those magical moments...outside of time ...when inner landscape and outer reality become fused. It did not look real...it was so still, peaceful, quiet....mystical.

When, I drove away, I passed by the boat launch..and there was the town's only Buddhist Monk in brown robes alone in the snow at the edge of the lake...We were the only two people there...

I remembered running with my dog in a torrential downpour in LA's Runyan Canyon.....there was only me and one other English man and his dog.. . As he passed me he said in greeting...."Couple of nutters we are..."

And, there you have it...the reason...I create...for that one mystical moment when time stands still And, the fact, that deep down...I really am a nutter :)

Another Day Another Poem

Today I processed and printed some ballet recital photos of my husband's grand daughter. She is 10 and a beautiful ballerina..I have used her as a model before and hope to photograph her again this summer. Now, I am off to photograph a one year old "baby" for a birthday portrait. I am so busy...getting ready to leave and take care of my father for a month..who is nearing the end of his life. So much going on....birth and death...so closely related....perhaps it is the poets who say it best:



What Issa Heard

Two hundred years ago
Issa heard
the morning birds
singing sutras
to this suffering world.

I heard them too,
this morning,
which must mean

since we will always have
a suffering world
we must also always
have a song.

by David Budbill
contemporary American Poet
written about the Japanese Haiku poet Issa