This is JK from Saturday’s photo shoot.  This young man said he doesn’t like to smile, so I felt priviledged and very lucky when I was able to get a laugh or smile out him.  As we were shooting and talking, I asked him what he was going to do after he graduated and he’ll be going into the Marines in July.  Luckily what he’ll be doing will require about a year and a half of schooling before he sees any active duty.

I learned a lot from this experience.  One is that I need to get a bigger memory card.  Two is that another camera body would be extremely nice to have so I wouldn’t have to fiddle with changing lenses as often.   Three, start a bit later and work a bit faster.  Four, bring water for both of us.

I also quickly learned that I needed an extra person to hold the reflector (his mother was sick and not able to come), so it was abandoned early in the shoot.  It did put a nice glow back on him, but I couldn’t maneuver the reflector and handle the camera at the same time.  If you remember, I said that I might try spray painting the flip side of the reflector with shiny gold paint, which I did do.  It didn’t stick, though, and flaked off when I tried to fold up the reflector.  The paint can directions said for an application like this to prime the surface first, and I do think that would have helped, although I wanted some of the silver to show through.   I might go back to the store and take another look at the sun shades available.  Although, I can just order a real one now to have in case there is a next time.

I’ve whittled down the 400 images to about 100, using a very critical eye.  If there was any softness in the focus at all, it was flagged as a reject and deleted.  I want to narrow down the remaining images even further to give them only the best.  More images to come over the next few days, although there will probably be a break in between for other things.

Once a little sugar ant made up his mind to roam-
To fare away far away, far away from home.
He had eaten all his breakfast, and he had his ma’s consent
To see what he should chance to see and here’s the way he went
Up and down a fern frond, round and round a stone,
Down a gloomy gully where he loathed to be alone,
Up a mighty mountain range, seven inches high,
Through the fearful forest grass that nearly hid the sky,
Out along a bracken bridge, bending in the moss,
Till he reached a dreadful desert that was feet and feet across.
‘Twas a dry, deserted desert, and a trackless land to tread,
He wished that he was home again and tucked-up tight in bed.
His little legs were wobbly, his strength was nearly spent,
And so he turned around again and here’s the way he went-
Back away from desert lands feet and feet across,
Back along the bracken bridge bending in the moss,
Through the fearful forest grass shutting out the sky,
Up a mighty mountain range seven inches high,
Down a gloomy gully, where he loathed to be alone,
Up and down a fern frond and round and round a stone.
A dreary ant, a weary ant, resolved no more to roam,
He staggered up the garden path and popped back home.

~ C Micheal James Dennis

Not a great shot of the ant, she just wouldn’t hold still for me.  Happy Wednesday!  I don’t know about you, but I’m counting down to the weekend already!

This work is by Roger V. Thomas, who is well known for his birch series.  I saw this at Gallery 114 in Portland’s Pearl District.  Check out more of his birch series here.

Melanie Rowe’s piece, Phylly, is available for purchase at Gallery 114 in the Pearl District in Portland – just a few short blocks from the Bullseye Gallery.  Melanie is from Canada, as is her twin sister Leslie Rowe-Israelson.  I don’t really know Melanie (I’ve met her, though), but Les is very special.  Les is also a glass artist and her work is very different from her sister’s.

Also at the Bullseye Gallery in Portland is the work of April Surgent.  She does some amazing wheel engraved work in glass and she is SO young!