Working Title

Smoke Illusions. I decided to make the book 80 pages, adding about 10 poems/haiku and blank pages in between. I'll be uploading and ordering my copy soon. Not sure if I'll make it public until after I receive my copy.

I'm tired and feeling kind of achey tonight. Think I'll make a cup of tea and light a fire.

Smoke Illusions

I started working on this book a few months back and slowly beginning to think I might publish it as is. Not that my other books have been successful in the shop but those that received my Wild and Scenic Shores as a gift enjoyed it. This book is smaller (40 pages) and won't cost as much. If I could test print with any accuracy, I'd be much more confident. I just want to make sure that it prints with good clarity. Before I can upload and make public, I have to keep an eye on my travel dates and make sure that I will be home to receive it.

I'm also contemplating a book featuring coffee and perhaps a second Polaroid book much smaller but the images will be all new (never published in book form).

It's not easy placing an image for sale let alone a book. So much of who I am goes into each image that it can feel like a personal rejection when the sales are less than stellar (or non-existent). I'm coming to terms with how silly it is to hold that opinion, after all, they are just images and sometimes words and the vastness of the Internet doesn't know me personally. If I don't set them free in some form, for others to perhaps own a piece, the part of me that is in the images will forever stay caged. Life is about taking appropriate risks and setting aside our personal fears to live a full life.

Monday

The meteor shower met with wispy clouds and light pollution resulting in few meteors seen. Sleep got the better of me and I gave up around 1am. Sometimes, I really miss living outside city limits, where the sky is so dark and the stars so bright you'd swear they were lighting the way. When was the last time you saw the Milky Way (and not the candy bar)?

Short of nothing but a black sky, I thought I'd share a smoky image with you.

A New Day

Took some time to set up my little incense smoke studio such as it is. Nothing fancy but played around with the flash and adding plastic wrap with different colors over the flash. The result was pleasing and resulted in the smoke being colorized in camera. For my smoke images, I will continue to use both methods as Photoshop still gives the most flexibility.

Speaking of smoke, our new smoke detector is acting up. After a night of weather radios blazing and the sky booming, I finally fall back asleep and wake up to the smoke detector blazing. It stopped immediately and upon a walk about the house, nothing amiss but it made for a restless night and strange dreams. The Mister decided to mess with the battery and chirp..... chirp......chirp..... chirp..... chirp. The Wonderdog does not like the chirping and neither do I. It's quiet for now.... and I don't know why as we're out of 9volt batteries.

Listening to a playlist with Brandi Carlile, Colbie Caillat and Sara Bareilles shuffled (I do like iTunes). Some great stuff here.... and not country. ;) Enjoying my coffee and hoping that the chirping is done and no other rude awakenings.

For those interested, tonight is the Perseid meteor shower. Head out between 9 and 10 pm and watch for those beautiful streaks. Normally, I see very few here as it's just too dang bright or it's cloudy. Hoping for the best tonight.

Untitled

Thanks to all of you who have already cast your vote in the JPG Magazine. Just a reminder, today is the final day of voting. Go here to see my submission and perhaps cast your vote. Final decisions rest with the editors of JPG Magazine.

The photo is comprised of several different smoke images. The clouds and stars I added.

Music Man

When I was isolating smoke, the shape of the brass/golden swirl reminded me of a saxophone. Not content to have just the sax, I hunted for a swirl that was loosely, human shaped. This is the result. Music Man playing his Smokin' Sax.

Untitled

Experimenting with smoke.

More Smoke

More colorized smoke for your viewing (I hope pleasure).

Twelve days of voting left on my JPG submission. Lots of entries in the Embrace the Blur theme so any help you can give, I would greatly appreciate it.

And Sometimes

the smoke is all about form.

Sometimes I See

Sometimes I see shapes in the smoke and wonder if other people see the same thing. I'll hide my thoughts on this down below so as not to influence your eyes.

To me, I see a mythical horse. What do you see?

Memories

I call this colorized smoke Memories as it reminds me of a seashell and time spent at the beach.

I am in need of a caffeine jolt and my coffeemaker just beeped. Have a loverly day.

The Dance

Colorized smoke (incense). Click photo for a larger view.

I Don't Know

"Learn to say 'I don't know.' If used when appropriate, it will be often." ~Donald Rumsfeld
And I don't know. I don't know nothin' about nothin' except that if you wait around long enough, the weather will change.

Peace

"I believe what I said yesterday. I don't know what I said, but I know what I think, and, well, I assume it's what I said." Donald Rumsfeld

This smoke/incense reminds me of a peace pipe. Perhaps I should have rotated it but it is as it is for now.

BTW, I'm not political but Donald Rumsfeld sure did say some funny things.

Also, while watching the news networks last evening, I couldn't believe how often opinion made it into a news story. Maybe I'm old school, but I grew up with anchors that were not to show emotion and were to report the news. If an opinion were expressed, it was done with a disclaimer. That's all I'm sayin'. News is not opinion or at least it's not supposed to be opinion. And that's my opinion... That's all I'm sayin'.

Known Unknowns

" There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unkowns. That is to say, there are things we know we don't know. But, there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we don't know we don't know." Donald Rumsfeld.

This was perhaps my favorite quote by Donald Rumsfeld. I chuckle everytime I read this quote.

This I know, today the President announced that Rumsfeld is stepping down. He had a way with words.

As this in not a political blog, I return you to your regularly scheduled programming....

What were you expecting?

The First Cut

I know, it's a stark image coming from me. I was playing around with objects in the smoke stream and came up with this idea. Seems fitting after election day.

I've finally found a system to hold my flash in the proper location to create more successful smoke images. My Gorillapod attached to a chair that puts it level or just below my table. You see, I do not have a studio unless you count my kitchen table. ;) I work with what I have.

Speaking of which, I've had a Canon 10D for years and notice that one of my batteries doesn't hold a charge for very long. I'm wondering how difficult it will be to find a replacement battery.

And I notice that the Flickr/Yahoo merger is nearing a completion and I will eventually have to merge my accounts. I do not want to merge with my yahoo account as it was not originally a Yahoo account. It was Ameritech DSL that merged with SBC that merged with Yahoo (for Internet purposes) and is now part of AT&T. If a move happens, I'm not sure what will become of my Ameritech account. I suppose if we move to a market that has AT&T Yahoo/Ameritech, all will be fine. I just worry as my old, free Yahoo account disappeared. I couldn't even find my user ID. Just Poof! I couldn't find my personal question to see if a new password could be sent and they weren't of much help. So, to merge my Flickr account with Yahoo doesn't appeal to me on many levels.

I've rambled on and I need a coffee refill. Have a beautiful day.

Smoke

A challenge for myself, to see if I could take smoke (incense) through the viewfinder. I had to use my 10D as it's the camera that I have an off camera cord for my flash. I was successful with this photo. You can see the incense stick and I left the ash, too. A TtV image shouldn't be too perfect.