Tuesday morning-

I am sitting at Doc's Sandwiches trying to wake up and wrap my head around another day.

The weekend at Augusta was a challenge for me.  It started out well-with a sunrise shoot with Rox and Sarah at the Lolo flower fields.  It was stunningly beautiful out there and I know I got some good abstract images.  Getting up at 4AM isn't bad, and I think that I may try to do it at least once a week while I am in Montana.  The mornings in the country are peaceful and serene, with as many opportunities to photograph as I have time to do.

Rox and I drove to Garnet Ghost Town (http://www.garnetghosttown.net/) on the way to Augsuta.  The town was celebrating "Garnet Days" so it wasn't great shooting, but it was fun to walk around the town and scope it out.  There are a few buildings filled with interesting artifacts to photograph; the tack room, the hotel and some of the houses.  Because the town is fairly accessible by car (only 1 hour from Missoula) there are many more tourists than in a place like Bodie.  However, Garnet has been kept in it's native condition, which to me is a saving grace.  I want to go back at night and shoot here.

We stayed in a town about 30 minutes from Augusta called Fairfield at a B & B with 5 rooms. It was overtaken by RMSP students and staff! The town has more grain silos than I have ever seen in one small place before. It was beautiful to me! The huge metal silos all lined up all in a row with the sun shining on them-amazing. I took shots of the silos in the daytime, the early evening, the late evening and the morning morning. They change in the different light and I wanted to capture it all. I think that this was my favorite part of the weekend!

Augusta is a type small town in Eastern Montana, and the town was geared up for the Rodeo when we arrived. Cowboys/girls, horses, cattle, manure, dust & lots of drinking. It was all good or me until I was actually at the rodeo-than something shifted in me and I became acutely aware of the distress of the animals. I am not sure why I noticed it. Perhaps it was the calf roping cowboy who was kicking the calf with his boots. Or maybe it was the blood and sores on the bulls and the calves. Or the cramped conditions that they were housed in. Whatever it was, I got a strong visceral reaction, so strong that I felt as if I would start to cry. I left the rodeo and returned in time to catch some kick-ass barrel racing. Now that was fun.

I am not sure how quickly I will return to watch a rodeo-perhaps never?  I posted an entry on the Facebook Page stating that sometimes I am too sensitive to the pain of the world.  I did learn sometime about myself, which is always a good thing. 

Photos from the past few days

It's Friday, which means a two day weekend! Yippee.  Most of the RMSP students are headed over to Augusta for the rodeo.  Me included.  I am looking forward to getting out into the country and experiencing the rodeo with all my newly gained photography skills.  Rox and I are heading out tomorrow so we can stop and shoot at the tractor museum along the way to Augusta.  The place is supposed to be amazing-full of ancient farm equipment all in different stages of decay.  A rust lovers paradise.

Here is a photo of the sunset last night.  I am calling it "Big Sky-Montana Style".

Trains in Missoula & Some F-Stops Are More Equal Than Others

Some F-Stops Are More Equal Than Others

Photo Studies 9 with Neil this morning.  He talked about wildlife and stage photography and the possibilities in each of these fields.  Although I enjoy a beautiful broad landscape photo as much as anyone else, it is nothing that I yearn to re/create myself.  The small & seemingly insignificant things are what fascinate me.  However, there are more tiny possibilities in a broad landcape to capture than my mind can possibility wrap itself around.  


Stage photography can be anything from concerts, theater, dance, to talent shows.  I have never thought of this type of photography before now.  Something to ponder...

An easy day, after a long Monday

The sun came out, I had a great ICEM (image/capture/edit/management) class and a productive lab session.  Tonight, groups A/B are meeting for dinner and calibrating our cameras and lens, so that all of our equipment is in tip top shape for the Augusta Rodeo this weekend!

Today was a very long day, but after the Reiki training yesterday, I seem to have found my mojo again!  I feel better than I have in a couple of weeks, and hope that this feeling will continue.  

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and had a new vision for my big project for Photo Studies class.  My shift may work out, and after speaking with Tony about it this afternoon, I think that I can pull it off.  Particularly if I keep in mind that my way of looking at the world is uniquely  mine and not anyone else's vision.  I have to keep that vision in mind and not pay attention to anyone else. 

Catch-up time

It has been over a week since I have found the time to sit down and update my blog.  t really was my intention to try to write at least a few times  week, but clearly that is not happening right now.

The past week has been an emotional one for me-mostly because I am so tired.  It is difficult to explain the intensity of the program unless you are actually experiencing it.  The classroom lectures, the weekly assignments and now the studio lighting class all blur into each other and sometimes I can barely remember what class I have on any given day and when what assignment is due.  I have given up on trying to be a "A" student (a hard one for me) and am just trying to absorb as much as possible and turn in my assignments on time.

Last week we learned how to "ghost" an image.  It is fun & oh so easy to do. For one of my assignments due today, I used Max as my model ghost.  Max is a rambuncous golden retreiver who lives here with me, but managed to settle down for 5 seconds so I could complete my assignment.

Here is Max, fading into the couch.

and here I am

This past weekend was a busy one for me.  A couple of the women in my group and I decided that we were going to shoot the sunrise at Lee Medcalf on Saturday morning.  Because the sun rises early this time of year, we left at 4AM and, after geting a bit lost along the way, arrived in time.  However, the weather was not cooperating &, instead of a sunrise, we had a fogrise.  It was OK, beacuse I got some interesting foggy images and we all still had fun.  Afterward, we treated ourselves to breakfast and a visit to the local flea market, where I found a great "quippy" doll for $5.00 to add to my doll collection.  

I was wiped out the rest of the day, but it was worth it!

Sunday I, along with 12 of my fellow RMSP students, had an all day Reiki training session with Neil.  It was magical.   The day went by so quickly, that I wanted to slow down time and make the day last a few hours longer.  We learned the proper hand positions and worked on one another on and off all day.  Our longest session was 30 minutes (of giving and receiving) and I was amazed to discover that giving is just as healing and powerful as receiving.  That is also true in life.  I loved the day, and it also gave me the opportunity to meet some people outside of my group.

Today I have class from 9-1, 2-6 & 7-11PM.  Wish me luck!

It's Friday

and the end of week two already.  It is hard to believe-I feel as if I have been here forever and that my life has always been filled with photography.  Every day is filled with pertinent facts  relating to-cameras, software, hardware, the business of photography,- that it is hard to properly process it all, but I am sure doing my utmost. It has been 18 years since I completed graduate school, and I don't think my brain has had such a workout since that time.  I don't want to miss anything.  Maybe it is because I have wanted to be here for so long, but the lectures all seem important to me. 

The teachers & the staff are 100% supportive of the students, and have an amazingly high level of enthusiasm for the art and business of photography. It is very clear, otherwise they won't be at the school. There appears to be a wonderful symbiotic relationship going on at the school between everyone, which will prove to be invaluable as the summer moves on and the work becomes harder and much more personal. I had the same teacher all day today (from 9-1, 2-4 and 4:30-6:30) and was neither bored or distracted. Astonishing.

I get to play with a Canon 7D and a 24-70mm 2.8 lens all weekend! By the time Sunday night's lecture on Bear Safety rolls around, I am sure that I will be in love with both.

The Canon Rep arrived

After a 10 hour rest last night, I woke up feeling with a brand new woman!  It was wonderful, especially so because I had the morning off.  A luxury not to be taken for granted.

What could have been a very long afternoon, sitting in a conference room at the Holiday Inn listening to the Canon Rep talk for 4 hours, was anything but boring. Mike Gurley was enthusiastic, informative, funny and engaging. He isn't a "sales" person-he is an educator with Canon-so there wasn't that hard sales edge to the afternoon that I felt we had with the rep who came to speak about tripods.

Here are some websites he recommended for us:

the stobist   all about off camera lighting

explores of the light    A Canon learning website

I learned that Canon has a business philosophy called  kyosei  which means living & working together for the common good.  How incredible.  

I asked a lot of questions and I believe that Mike answered me honestly.  Although I didn't like he answer he gave me when I asked him when the 5D III was going to be released (probably not until next year), I  got a great deal of good information about the different lenses and camera bodies.  There are many good reasons to wait until the 5D III comes out, rather than jump in and buy the 5D II.  Live view and video is in my future.  Also, the pluses of having a cropped sensor camera (in addition to a full sensor body) is getting longer every day.  Between the two bodies, and  a few great lenses, I could do anything!  My equipment wish list is getting longer by the day.

My Visual Studies class with Eileen is a perfect class for me. I have never formally studied art or art history before and am learning all kinds of information that will help me with me art & photography. Of course, I have heard of negative space before, but never had it explained as clearly as today. I knew that I have always had a love affair with lines and repeating patterns, but now I know the power that lines can have in art; creating tension, creating formality, moving your eye through the image.

I am already "seeing" differently than I was a week ago. What will the next 12 weeks do to me?

The Canon reps come tomorrow afternoon, with lots of lenses and bodies and accessories to tell us about and demo. Oh joy!