A New Life for an Old Camera

Wow! Look how much time has passed since I've written here. It is amazing to me that a couple...okay, a few years can pass and this blog is still sitting here waiting patiently for a little attention. Well, let's see if I can keep this blogging thing up a little longer this time. 

For this first post to restart the blog I think I'll talk about my old camera. I have a Nikon D100 that I bought new in, I want to say, 2002. It had been a loyal companion for many years but was put on the shelf when my last lens malfunctioned and a newer Canon was available for my use. The transition was not too bad since both devices perform the same basic functions with differing control layout. It probably helped that what I ask from a camera is less than a more dedicated photographer would, thus minimizing the learning curve.

Cathy, my lovely wife, is taking classes in photography at a local college and as an assignment brought home an infrared digital camera, a Nikon D80 comes to mind but I could be miss remembering.  Anyway, I played with that camera producing these photos,

and found that I loved the images produced in this format! 

My Nikon has been sitting around cooling it's heels for at least a year but now it will find a new life. I'm sending it off to have its sensor swapped, get a new appropriate lens and turn it into a infrared camera.

Stay tuned!

Gardening!

 I've been threatening to put in a garden for years. Well, looking at the mess we've made of our country and being pessimistic about our ability to pull ourselves out of this tail spin, I've finally started working on a garden so that we can at least feed ourselves.  Above is a photo of the location taken two days ago. I've put it on the hill to the north of the existing house. There's a lot of sunshine there and water nearby.  The next step is to fence the area off so that as my crops grow they aren't eaten by the local animals.


Today, I took a rake up to the garden and removed all the grass that the rototiller chewed up.  Tomorrow I'll drag enough hoses to bring water down to the patch and set up a sprinkler. After the ground gets a chance to rehydrate it'll be time to till in compost from the barn.

Of course, I had to rest after all that raking and what better way than to do a little sketching.

Spring is here!

 Yesterday the weather guessers reported a fifty percent chance of rain. Really? 50/50? To me this defines the word 'guess'. Now I understand why, when I showed up at the University with my Junior College transcripts and they asked what my lab science was, I said Meteorology and they laughed at me. They said "We mean something based in real research not crystal balls!"  

Anyway, it didn't rain. Which was fortunate for me because I needed a top down drive in the little white mini cooper as much as I needed to visit Mary and Steve at Wise Acre Farms for a dozen eggs and Cathy needed to visit The Red Barn Feed & Supply for dog and rabbit food. She also picked up bale of shavings for rabbit bedding. It is amazing what will fit in a mini when the top comes off!

 The photo above was taken from concrete slab that crosses the creek on the east side of our property. The car is sitting in about an inch of water flowing across the road. What caught my attention was the bright magenta bush growing all alone in the background just to the right of center in the photo. For years I looked at that cliff as the solid side of the hill beyond. Then I flew over it with Christopher and discovered that it is the thinnest knife edge of a hill almost gone.

Along the way I wanted to get some photos of the purple lupine and the orange poppies together that grow so profusely along Sand Creek Road in the spring.  Fortunately I had my old Nikon because a good friend recently told me never to leave home without it.This year will be a banner year for wild flowers if the increase in early spring flowers is an indication.

The this spring does seem to be missing the lovely orioles looking for nesting spots in our trees. I am hoping that it's just early for them.

This morning's suprise

This morning Cathy went into the dog yard with her whippets so they could get some exercise. As she stood out in the warm morning sun enjoying the cool morning breeze she became aware of an intense buzzing back the way she had come. Looking back at the gate she had just passed through she saw this swarm of bees on a low limb of the tree.

At first we thought that it was a hive as we both went out at different times to photograph it, but after awhile the swarm became airborne, moving to the west side of the house and into the olive tree. Fortunately, when the swarm moved all the dogs and we were in the house.

Just over a year ago, a beekeeper from Michigan had hives of bees near here for the winter. The bees all abandoned the hives, the empty hives were taken away and a very upset beekeeper went back to his home state. Apparently, if one intends to keep bees then they have to be tended to. No sign of masses of dead bees were found so it was theorized that they had just moved off on their own. I think that this is one of those swarms of bees who are looking for a new summer home. If they move farther from the house we will be so happy to have them as neighbors but if they want to live in the olive tree then we'll have to have them moved.

Brown Cow

Brown Cow, originally uploaded by Fred~Pitts.

A snowy morning on the ranch.

First sketch in a new book

This sketch was done while watching television last night. I used a lamy safari fountain pen with a fine nib and Private Reserve "Chocolate" ink in a Fabriano Artist's Journal on a dark yellow page. The book was a gift from two wonderful friends, David and Joel.

The paper has a texture to it that the fountain pen really didn't like. Each stroke was hit or miss whether the ink would flow and where. It took much longer to do the sketch this way and the feel of the pen was kind of grating. Like drawing on sand paper.

I'm switching to woodless graphite pencils as I think the tooth of the paper will work well with it. I will at some point try brush and ink also.

O.K. let's try this again.

ink and water colors done while on vacation in Sea Ranch with my very good friends Christopher and Annie Desmond.

More current sketches

When I reached the top of the hill where I intended to sit and sketch I found Llarry our Llama laying peacefully in the shade of a tree. Thinking that this would make a great pastoral sketch I maneuvered the jeep around to a good viewing position without disturbing Llarry which was tricky on the narrow tree covered ridge. Fortunately it was a hot enough that he wasn’t inclined to move. As soon as I settled down to sketch our other animals decided to come see what I was doing. Maybe lend a hand? Anyway, I found myself surrounded by two horses, two donkeys, and a pony all sticking their heads into the jeep looking around and generally getting in the way. By the time I pushed everyone away Llarry was up and the moment was broken but I had carved this few minutes out of my day especially to draw and this is the resulting sketch. Everybody kind of standing around with “what’s wrong with him” look, except for Cricket, the old mare, who just turned her back on me.

I'mmmm baccck!!!!!

I looked out the window this morning, saw this man sitting on the bench and thought it's a new month I think I'll do a quick sketch and start posting again. Now that I'm looking at the sketch I realized that he's sitting on half a bench! Is it still artistic license if it was an unintentional omission? The rest of the bench was boring anyway, you’re not missing anything. It’s ironic that most of the people who use this bench look like they have no visible means of support, this guy does and I leave it off. Maybe it’s my subconscious making a statement. Maybe I'm rambling. Maybe I should get to work.

More old stuff

This is a copper wire sculpture also done in 2003.

Really old stuff

This is a mild steel sculpture I did in 2003. It is also a desk lamp with a 12 led cluster in the dragonfly's head.

Continuing the sleeping dog theme

This is Cubit, or Cue for short. Cue was my replacement search dog for Keli. While Cue held great promise in temperment and drive, his legs failed him. They never quite grew to full length. The name "Cubit" comes from the ancient measurement, a cubit is about 18 inches which is how tall an adult male cattle dog should be. Ironic that Cubit never reached a cubit isn't it? Looking a Cue puts in mind a cross between a cattle dog and a pot belly pig. Nice dog, not search dog material however.

In this drawing I put the blackest black in the background and the lightest areas in the foreground. Reversed from the usual method of creating depth, but I think that the drawing still works correctly.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Grace the whippet lying on the couch. Conveying a brindle coat through value changes was an unsuccessful exercise I'm afraid.

Woods Sketch

Saturday was spent in the woods visiting with members of the canine search and rescue unit of which I was once a member. This sketch done while we talked was the result. Now that I look at the sketch it turned out better than I thought at the time. While the items in the fore ground are not as realized as they should be the back ground, I think, works well. It was interesting to figure out just how much to do to convey the density of the forest while keeping it generalized and light enough to remain in the back ground. I spent the most time on the stump in the front right and it's the part I'm least happy with.

February 15th

A study of light on glass. I'd like to rework the text to get its perspective right. There's those corner fence posts which keep turning up in my sketches.

Hands and Feet

Figure drawing classes with Sarah Mattson requires many, many pages of hands and feet drawings in your sketchbook. Above is my left hand depicted as a lazy bum by my right hand who was doing all the work....in charcoal.
I can't now remember whether these are my own toes in a mirror or someone else's. Anyway, I used a woodless graphite pencil.

Turtles at the Park

Turtle pond at the discovery park in Sacramento. Conveniently located on the path from work to school on sketch book day. It was really fun using contour lines to describe the shapes of the turtle, log, water.....as you can see in the detail of the drawing below.

Clock Towers

Two images of the Sacramento City Hall Clock Tower. The upper is woodless graphite pencil and the lower, which has been previously posted, is pen and ink technical pens with "shades of grey" felt pen washes. Each was drawn in a different season.

Captive Subject

Drivers don't move much, and
neither do TV watchers....perfect for profiles.