Early Start to CREATIVE ARTS THREE-DAY WEEKEND ~ March 22, 2021
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Heading to the mountains tomorrow morning, and, as noted in the past, with internet connection unpredictable up there, I'm posting this week's article tonight (Thursday).
It's officially Spring according to my recent time in the woods. Proof below.
© A. Mac/A.G.
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New painting.
© A. Mac/A.G.
Great new painting, Mac. Bright, cheerful, and even playful. Good use of spacing as well. Very well done!
Was the photo of the trees taken with a fish-eye lens?
With a wide angle 10-20mm opened almost to the 10mm which is why the photo is somewhat "leaning-in". I like that effect although it can be taken too far for some tastes.
It would be difficult to take a photo with these guys, but a photo of them is certainly in the realm of possibility.
They would be Lens Eye Fish! As opposed to "Fisheye Lens".
Or as they are popularly known, ''Bubble Eye'' fish
They look almost like fish in a "Nemo" movie. Very different for sure. I have never seen any fish like that before. Mother Earth is truly a wonderment of awesome species.
I agree with Raven - a very colourful and cheerful painting, in which I can determine quite a few images.
I like how the white background appears to be almost blindingly brilliant. Not sure how the effect works, or how the eyes get tricked, but it's pretty cool.
I really like the colors you used in that one, too.
oh yeah, nice.
Post any time.
All photos taken at Stone Creek, Ocala FL.
A Sandhill Crane looking for a handout.
The calf is less than 24 hours old. Mom gave birth late yesterday afternoon.
A hazard for golfers. They have to wait till mom, dad and the four goslings get off the green.
Captions:
1. Somehow I don't think I can fit in that house.
2. Whither thou goest, I will go.
3. Don't worry about that golfer, he'd be lucky to even hit the green.
The cattle picture is amazing.
Here is a photo of mom taken the afternoon before the birth. Ranch hands will ride out a check on her from time to time. We have a lot of coyotes in the area and mom is defenseless for a period of time as is the calf to make sure that coyotes don't attack the ranch has two cattle dogs whose job it is to protect mom and the calf during the dangerous time. One is a 80 lb pit bull and the other is a 100 lb rottweiler. Their protective instincts are amazing. They will stay their distance but circle constantly to give mom a very big protective area. They will stay with mom and the calf until ranch hands come out to get them. If mom and the calf start moving (walking) the dogs will stay with them.
A farmer here counted cows in the field and came up with 196, but when he rounded them up he had 200.
Wow, that crane is one tall bird.
There are two types of Sandhill Cranes, the lesser Sandhill and the greater Sandhill. The greater when full grown will be 4.5 and 5 ft tall. This is the greater Sandhill and the fence it is standing next to is a bit over 5 feet high.
Boston Harbor
Nice compostion - balancing a sailboat with a rainbow.
Thanks, Buzz
Nice shot, G. The frame really works for it, too.
Thanks, Dig.
We're on our way!
Have a great time and enjoy yourselves...love the Spring photos as we head into Autumn.
Temperature dropped to 13oC on Tuesday just to give us a taste of the coming winter.
The thought of it is more than a koala can bare.🐨🐨🐨
Oh my, did someone mention snow, not here I hope.
Morning Kavika...got a Fozzy bear out the front at the moment. Could see the gumtree leaves moving so took a closer look.
One big blob in the fork of the tree... mowing the leaves into his/her mouth like a conveyor. Lovely photo of the koala..🐨🐨🐨🐨
"A mist makes things wonderful." (Oscar Wilde)
Shanghai on a misty day.
It can provide a depth of field.
Form a backdrop for a subject...
Mountains appear more distant in increasing mist.
Sometimes China gets REALLY misty, or smoggy.
The moon can appear really spooky on a misty night.
"The old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front." (J.R.R.Tolkien)
Cool photos.
All I can say is that when we went to China the air pollution was terrible, everywhere. Very unfortunate. I hope they can improve the situation.
There still are a lot of pollution "hot spots" in China but it is slowly improving. It's not always polluted everywhere and all the time, so you were in China at a bad time. China is known to meet its long term goals, such as their success with eradicating extreme poverty within the stated time, so I believe they will meet their stated climate change goals. I've taken lots of photos that show clear blue skies but Chongqing has a few nicknames, one of which is The Misty City. Perhaps being surrounded by mountains leads to certain weather conditions, like the fact that besides known as The Mountain City, it's also known as one of the Three Furnaces of China because of how hot it gets in the summer, perhaps because the mountains block cooling breezes and winds.
Nice photos, Buzz. I've never been there, but China often looks hazy in the pics and videos I have seen. I don't think I'd enjoy that. How often do you have nice, clear days where you live?
I live in Chongqing which as I pointed out above is nicknamed The Misty City, but it's not ALWAYS misty, and for example it would have been impossible for me to take this photo of the moon, which I not long ago took from my balcony, if it were:
That is a nice, clear shot.
It may be officially spring, but winter had one last gasp here this week. These are all from that freak snow storm that swept across the Midwest on Tuesday. I took them later in the day, after some of it had already melted. It was followed by 2 nights of sub-freezing temps. Good thing I'm running late in the garden this year.
Young maples in front of snowy cedars.
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The woods.
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A backyard oak with snowy branches, and spring greenery below.
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A yellow-rumped warbler among snowy oak catkins.
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Wild yellow rocket (wintercress).
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This just looks wrong, doesn't it?
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Snowy redbud tree.
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Alyssum.
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Tulips.
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And one of the first irises of the year for me, on the warm and protected south side of the house. The more exposed ones elsewhere in the yard are budding, but haven't started opening yet. I hope the 2 freezing nights after the snow didn't damage them.
An excellent photo-essay of a late-to-the-party winter. Where I grew up in Ontario, it was normal to have snow from November to April - when I was a kid, winter was 6 months long. But I think global-warming has since eaten into that tradition.
Nice photos DIg. The snow passed us by. Just a few flakes in the air is all.
Beautiful photos, Dig.
BRrr I feel for the flowers !
I went around and checked this evening. Looks like everything's okay except for the apple blossoms. The freeze killed them and now they're all brown. I hope they were already pollinated.
This photo was taken in the early hours this morning by a neighbor.
It's the SpaceX rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.
Very cool photo!
Wow...
Awesome
A great catch! A very surreal look in the sky.
Old shuttle launch from Cape Canaveral taken years ago from my front yard in Melbourne FL.
The dark spot at the end of the vapor trail up may be actually a bird ?
Here's a close up of it.
I didn't notice it until afterwards in the picture ?? So I don't really know.
Even closer up..
Very cool steve.
Thanks Kavika,
Here is another shuttle take off this one I took from my roof.
Awesome! Were you close enough to hear the rumble?
Yes, it was cool.
I'd watch the launch on TV, step outside to see it gain flight then go back inside and watch the close up long distance footage on TV as they gained altitude.
The ground would shake a little as well. Lots of POWER !
And lots of Rumble !
I heard a couple when I didn't even know they were launching and still caught watching them because I had heard them enough I instantly knew what it was. So I'd turn on the TV and check outside.
It was one of the cool things about living there. That and the water sports, lakes, rivers, ocean take your pick.
Long sunny days because of water on both sides, plenty of time to work and play each day.
Great place except for these: Fuckin hurricanes !
A month after I bought my home this came at me.
Missed us by soooo little.... 155 MPH 600 miles wide
Later I got out while I still had everything I ever worked for.
But I loved Florida for a while.
Thanks Kavika, I'll always wonder whether that is actually the shuttle or a bird. ?
Yeah, hurricanes are nasty and dangerous, and far too frequent in some places. I don't blame you for leaving.
Cool about the shuttle launches, though.
I say bird. It looks awfully big to be a shuttle at that distance, doesn't it?
But what an awesome coincidence for it to be right there in that shot.
I was OK for years, till I went and saw Homestead after it was leveled. That day I started planning my exodus.
I had worked too hard for too long to end up like this.
Play time was over.
LOL... Yeah, I was kinda pissed when I saw it. Now I think its cool.
Here's another great coincidence shot.
This one I was aware of at the time.
Reminds me of the Joplin tornado in 2011. Devastation like that is heartbreaking.
We were in Joplin a couple of months after the tornado, the destruction was unbelievable. I've seen the aftermath of a number of tornadoes but nothing that was as bad as Joplin.
My brother and I inherited a golf condo at Hollybrook, west of Hollywood, Fla. that we kept for a number of years, but since we only used it for vacations when the weather was shitty in Canada we never had a hurricane problem, there was never any damage to it - your photos show a real disaster.
Yeah, it was horrible.
I didn't take the pictures Buzz I got them off the internet. But in real life it was a real eye opener and much worse than seeing it in pictures.
Those poor people had their lifes destroyed. The ones who stayed were left living on a pie of rubble waiting for their town to be rebuilt while everyone scrambled for materials and labor hoping their job will also return.
PS: insurance never covers all the loss.
It was too much for me. I started making plans to move out of Florida, that day.
That could be pretty scary for someone who didn't know what it was.
An alien invasion, Buzz.
Oh, man. What a great shot!
That reminds me, I need to set my DVR to record the docking early tomorrow morning.
The white pelicans have returned again during their spring migration. They don't stay long.
Love pelicans..get very few where I live. Mainly live in eastern Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland... get the odd one and far as I know they mate for life. For a few years a pair would roll up and a single one..always sad to see he or she by themselves. The pair would never associate with it.
Our pelicans come in December and leave late March or early April.
Very nice photos, EG. We have California Brown Pelicans hanging out by the ocean. I love watching them.
Nice !!
That is a SUPER pellicollection.
Those are really great shots, EG. Years ago I used to see HUGE flocks of pelicans flying up from the gulf in the spring to breed in the protected wetland areas around the Osage River in western MO.
The following were all taken at a local park, where my kids and myself will ride our bikes to on occasion. That's my "new" old Schwinn I bought at a flea market. I took the photos with my iPhone. I really like how they turned out. These were taken a few years ago.
Pretty, Cool old bike too.
Lovely floral decoration for a beautiful vintage bike.
Random gargoyle. I have lots of them.
These were in Kyoto, Japan. I thought you might like them.
Very interesting yard displays, G. Very interesting indeed.
Can I guess that the one on the left is a female and the one on the right it's male spouse?
Because she appears to be yelling at him?
LOL. You got it.
That is a very unusual artwork, Hal. The color variations really add to the artwork. And it is very well displayed with complimenting greenish background and frame. A great artwork!
You could probably charge admission for tours of your colleciton.
Spring flowers
A beautiful image very nicely presented.
Thanks, Buzz
Beautiful. Is that a rose?
Thank you, Dig. Yes, it is a rose. A very small one.
Cool. I just planted 2 new rose bushes up by the garden last week. I ordered them from Gurneys, the red Double Knock Out variety. They're supposed to be one of the best bloomers, if not the best, so I hope they look good. They were bare roots but have already started sprouting new growth, so I had to cover them with buckets when it froze a few nights ago. It looks like they made it through undamaged, though. I don't know if I'll get many flowers in the first year, but I sure hope so.
A couple more pieces from the Pop Art series I have been creating.
© G. Gam 2021
© G. Gam 2021
That's California pop art.
Well done.
Thanks, Kavika
Very effective!
Thank you!
get real at ralph's. ha ha ha, cool.
I'm not much for Pop Art, but, your version is really quite interesting and enjoyable.
Thank you for the nice compliment, Raven Wing.
Looks carefully and skillfully done. Very pleasing picture thanks for sharing it. I especially like the price sign coloration... still realistic and readable.
Very Cool Qsquared !
Thanks, Steve! I'm very glad you like them.
Excellent technique - they could be commercially viable, i.e. something for your retirement that is fun, productive and perhaps even saleable.
Thanks, Buzz. I have been working on quite a few of them and having a lot of fun with it.
That is one of the most important parts of creating artwork. While it can be taxing and time consuming, it is also exciting to to see the finished artwork that has been created by you. That, as well as using your imagination to come up with the idea of what the artwork should look like. Start to finish it is all fun. And to see the finished artwork is very satisfying as well.
Being as I know how much work goes into creating such artwork, I have a deep respect for those who also enjoy every step forward, and at times, a step back to get things just right.
Another fun part is sharing your artwork with others for them to enjoy. It makes all the hard work and long hours so worth it. (smile)
Cool, G. I get a festive, Caribbean feel from them.
Thanks, Dig.
I am so very sorry you are another victim of the dang Default Hat, G. . There has to be a way to stop this from happening. I know we are not alone in this mess with the hat, it has happened to others as well, and it is really infuriating.
You're referring back to Gsquared's pop art (comment # 13) but you may be the only person who sees his images as the default hat, because I don't.
I see it fine, too. No default hat.
All I see is the default hat. I saw and commented on them when G first posted them and they were fine but now they have morphed into the hat.
Strange. I don't understand that.
Nor do I.
Bizarre to say the least, Dig.
It's your song. Sing it how you like!
Too cute.
Nice.
Wonderfully clear shot. That's awesome.
The first flower on our magnolia tree for the season.
Beautiful Kavika. I love the Magnolia blossoms. And the aroma. My Maternal Grandparents had a big Magnolia tree in their backyard, and every summer we kids would visit there for two weeks and I always loved to pick one of the blossoms to carry around with me. That is, until I found a big white spider in the middle of the one I picked one day, and after that I enjoyed them in place on the tree. (grin)
Magnolia blossoms are so beautiful but unfortunately have too short a lifetime - good to have captured its brief perfection.
The tree is covered with flowers in different stages of opening. I would guess that there are at least three dozen that will be blooming over the next month.
You are correct their bloom doesn't last long, but it is stunningly beautiful.
A Navajo Spirit Guide display.....
Lots of "Spirit" displayed in that image.
Thanks Buzz. Native Americans are known to have a lot of Spirits and Goddesses, and each Tribe has their own list of them, even though some are similar to those of other Tribes. These are just a few of the Spirits of the Navajo.
Beautiful. Reminds me of some of Matisse's art.
Thank you very much for your very kind compliment, Pat. I truly appreciate it.
Beautiful, RW.
Do you have a personal spirit animal?
Thank you very much, Dig. Yes....I have a Totem Spirit, that is one that a child has when they are born and it will last them throughout their life. Unlike their Totem Spirit, their Spirit Guide will change throughout their life, and each new Spirit Guide is based upon merits they have earned, special events, and/or their contributions to their Tribe as a whole and their people.
My Totem Spirit is the Falcon
My current Spirit Guide is the Wolf
I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I only know about them because of Star Trek Voyager. The Chakotay character was supposed to be a 24th century Native American, and he had what they called in the show an 'animal guide'. He also had what they called in the show a 'medicine wheel', which was a hide with some kind of circular artwork painted on it. Your post above reminded me of it. Their version might have been total fiction, though. You know, TV stuff.
Here's the actual prop from the show, listed for the Christie's Star Trek auction back in 2006. I guess it's supposed to have Aztec and Mayan influences. Does it look like anything you've even seen before, or did the props department just completely make it up?
It has the appearance of a Mantra.
I don't recognize any of the symbols on the chart, however, I am not fully aware of all the medicine wheel of all the Tribes. Also, Hollywood has a very good imagination when it comes to the future which no one can predict or see in this year 2021.
Here are the two medicine wheels I am most familiar with at this time:
The Anishinaabe Medicine Wheel....
And the Cherokee Medicine Wheel.....
The chances are that they will remain the same in the future as they have over the thousands of years before.
Here is some information on the Medicine Wheel. Most all have four directions and four colors.
Medicine Ways: Traditional Healers and Healing
The Medicine Wheel and the Four Directions
The Medicine Wheel, sometimes known as the Sacred Hoop, has been used by generations of various Native American tribes for health and healing. It embodies the Four Directions, as well as Father Sky, Mother Earth, and Spirit Tree—all of which symbolize dimensions of health and the cycles of life.
The Medicine Wheel can take many different forms. It can be an artwork such as artifact or painting, or it can be a physical construction on the land. Hundreds or even thousands of Medicine Wheels have been built on Native lands in North America over the last several centuries.
Movement in the Medicine Wheel and in Native American ceremonies is circular, and typically in a clockwise, or “sun-wise” direction. This helps to align with the forces of Nature, such as gravity and the rising and setting of the Sun.
Meanings of the Four Directions
Different tribes interpret the Medicine Wheel differently. Each of the Four Directions (East, South, West, and North) is typically represented by a distinctive color, such as black, red, yellow, and white, which for some stands for the human races. The Directions can also represent:
Thanks for the info, RW & Kav.
That medicine wheel of stones in Wyoming is awesome.
I forgot to add that this one is quite famous and is at 10,000 foot elevation and is named the Big Horn Medicine Wheel. It's only accessible part of the year due to deep snow and cold.
Thank you for adding more information for the Medicine Wheels, Kavika. They are truly interesting and informative. A great addition.
© A. Mac/A.G.
This week's article is takin' off … and I thank you all for making that the case!
A perfectly timed shot - can I assume you used burst mode?
I've been trying to catch some of those flying over in their V formations, but I haven't succeeded yet.
A somewhat large, black-looking bird with an elongated neck was flying around here this evening. It was making weird, grumbling, burp-like calls. Any idea what it might have been? Too bad I couldn't get a picture of it. I was building trellises in the garden, sans camera.
Maybe it was a black swan.
Thanks, but no. The neck wasn't that long. It wasn't short like a crow's or a raven's, but it wasn't that long.
It's really bugging me now. I wish I could have gotten a photo.
It wasn't a Canada Goose ?
Nope. It looked to be about the size of a hawk, darkish colored, with a neck longer than a regular bird's, but not as long a goose, crane, or swan's. More like duck length.
My best guess for the moment is that it was a cormorant. Here's a pic from the Missouri Conservation Dept.:
Cormorants are waterfowl, and there isn't much water right around here, but I guess it could have just been passing through on the way to one of the lakes or wetland areas.
I just looked up their call and it sounded kind of like what I was hearing. I bet that's what it was.
A/noon Buzz...If it was he is way off course..They are only found in Australia, unless introduced else where...They make a high pitched trumpeting call, not grumbling burping call...I like our Black Swans more than the White ones..
Might be a Brant, a small Goose.
The idea of a black swan was imbedded in the neurons of my brain. Back in the early 1960s there was a coffee house in the city in which I was born and grew up where young fledgling folksingers would play on weekends, where I spent many happy evenings and became friends with the owners Jim and Harry - called The Black Swan.
I believe that it's a cormorant, Dig. There are quite a few of them around Lake of the Ozarks and some at Table Rock Lake.
Beautiful photo, Mac. Those birds really are colorful.
One of my older artwork for Saturday.....hope you enjoy it, even if you may have seen it before.
A combination of Daniel Ridgeway Knight & French portrait painter, Ingres, & yet, it’s own’s wonderful original!
Just captivating.
Thank you very much, Mac. I truly appreciate your very nice compliment.
What man would NOT enjoy seeing one of your images of a pretty girl, even again?
Thank you Buzz. Some things seem to get better with age. (grin)
Moving towards Sunday.
Another of my favorite deep woods hangouts.
Hawk Run, Pocono Mountains
© A. Mac/A.G.
Feelings of nostalgia - there were such times for me too.
Two vintage photos, both of which I took within the past 5 years. LOL
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Fascinating aging of the photos and complimenting frames, Buzz. Well done.
Did you make them look that way, or are they scans of actual old photos?
Here's your answer, Dig.
.
Wow! That's an amazing effect.
I've watched tutorials on how to restore old, damaged photos, but I haven't seen any on how to do the opposite. That's pretty neat.
It was because of the photo-editing program that I had when I was on Windows 7, but now that I'm on W 10 it is no longer available to me. When "vintaging" a photo one should make sure the subject itself could be vintage. A "vintaged" photo of a 2020 Ferrari would be oxymoronic.
True but it would still be cool to see. lol
It sucks when programs upgrade and lose features we like.
I've had that happen as well. In fact it makes me rethink upgrading some of the programs I have like "Wondershare Video Editor" because that is one of the programs that changed a while back and dropped a feature I really liked and had use for.
Their upgrades did me no good and I lost one feature I did like and use.
Damn them ... lol
That is why I am sticking with the older version of Windows and MS Office programs. They both have just what I need for what I want and need to do, and there are no upgrades to worry about as they no longer support the versions I now have.
I have the Windows 8, 8.1 and 10, but, they are much too programmed to work with all the fancy Internet software and various devices, and I prefer to work with a software that is much more user friendly and to work with with just what I want and need my PC for.
I did as well for as long as I could. By time my old vista operating system finally crashed my only option for a new operating system was widows 10.
Now they own the software and can by law change it anytime they like. And they do.
Last night's sunset, Stone Creek, Ocala FL.
Another day, another great sunset. Hope it doesn't get boring. It just keeps raining here.
That has a very Spiritual 'feel' to it, Kavika. Beautiful!
Sunday it is, and another oldie that I hope you enjoy.....
Look who showed up today.
Perfection!
First come, first served. Beautiful, Dig.
Nice composition, good timing.
Full Moon tonight.
© A. Mac/A.G.
The photo of the moon was taken from my front lawn in Philly; I exaggerated its scale for dramatic effect. The sky and tree silhouettes were photographed on a ranch in Wyoming. The two photos were taken years apart, and, combining them as layers into a whole was done years after they were photographed.
Sometimes I just like to mess around to see what I can come up with; for the record, I frequently trash an hour or so of mess around time.
Thanks again for all of you who make the Group a winner!
I will lock this article down tomorrow morning.
Damn, I hope so !!!!
lol
Very pretty !
Obviously the moon isn't made of green cheese, but according to your photo it could be cheddar.
An atmospheric phenomenon, Buzz. When the moon, sun, or other celestial objects first rise above the horizon, light from those object pass through a longer distance of atmosphere and are thus both magnified and refracted. Since the red, orange and yellow parts of the visible spectrum are more easily transmitted, hence … cheddar over green.
"It could be cheddar."
LOL
It’s moonster cheese obviously.
Well, it's not a blue cheese moon, cause it didn't see me standing alone.