Falling into Autumn...

 This is just going to be a few shots and not much else. Fall is starting to show up and I am spending time just admiring the sun angle and the deep woods around our farm and on local trails.

Charlie sitting on a bluff.

Hiking...at the Reserve...

The forest that surrounds us... I got stuck on stuck leaves!

Much of the canopy is still green but slowly turning and in places the leaves are brightly colored on damaged limbs.

Many leaves were slowly drifting down from above in the forest making a noise almost like a rainfall.

....

And then I was stopped by this.

Light, dark, shadows, yellows and colorful.
Everything we look for in Fall Colors. 

Meanwhile

I woke up Monday to a dreary dreary day with an ice watch-warning. When I stepped outside to do the chores what looked wet was just pure ice.

The bird feeders were iced, the grass, the gravel driveway...all ice. Enough so, that I returned to the house and put on my Yak Traks. 

Hello winter weather.

After breakfast, Charlie and I decided to take a woods walk and get the mail on the ridge so we could check the gravel road.

I put on his bow tie so he'd be fancy while we walked. Of course he got it dirty and I had to wash it!

The ice was evident in most places and as I neared the ridge, it started dripping off the trees above us.

Some drops of ice/water reflected the trees above the branches.

We got to the mailbox and I met my new neighbor Cybil coming back from getting groceries. She told me that the gravel road was a bit slippery but the main roads were good.

I still opted out of going to the gym. I felt grumpy [so I should have gone!] and didn't want to share my grumpiness.

Charlie's bow tie gave me an idea.

He is getting much better at sitting down when I place him. He was such a good dog to let me do this to him....

The light was terrible, the setting was terrible, the white balance was awful and Charlie started to yawn as if he were too bored.

He was much more cooperative than he has been in all the past years though. 

I got creative with a puck light to try and light him up. He followed the light as I moved it around.

I don't have a flash on this camera and I learned quickly that Charlie would not look at the camera with a flash mounted on it.

Charlie: This is 
beneath me. Unless
cookies are involved.

What was I thinking?

Nope, I won't

look. 

I want
to get out of this 
embarrassing situation.

In the end, it was fun and I decided there was too much busy-ness around him for it to be a 'good' series of shots. I may try again. Or I may not.

I like his shots from the past years and it has always been fun. It is something I started when we had Morris. Morris sat and stared intently at me camera or no camera. He was Mr. High Energy.

Charlie is Mr. Chill.

If we get a better day for some light, I may try it again.

Meanwhile,....

back to the grind 

and kicking Grumpy out of my head.

Rain! Heat ...Stuck inside.

Maybe my heart is in creativity in all shapes and forms.

I am not talented in drawing or painting. However I can make excellent stick figures and cartoonish figures.

Cartoon I did for Mules and More Magazine years ago. See? I can draw a line!

I read some articles debating the use of AI Art and some other articles which discussed the positive uses for AI in doing graphic art and commercial art. 

I've experimented so far with two AI generators. NightCafe and wombo. Both are free, both can be done from your computer or your smartphone. 

These are the simple AI art things a person can do.

I like to delve even further into the realm of 'interesting-ness'. I admit. It can be ho-hum and sort of pretty in a strange way. But since I was stuck with evading the heat and humidity, I thought I'd dabble in another form of abstract art. 

I went on a Horse kick and got this:

I mean most of this looks pretty and abstract. So I decided to get creative.

I combined two 'creations' from a photo of my favorite box elder tree in the winter.

I typed in Tree Ents for one image and Tree Ents with cottages for the second image using the above tree as a base image.

I combined the two to create my own mystical Tree Cottage.

It looks like some strange house straight out of a story like the Hobbit.

I can see where an AI application like this could be used to create a book cover, an album cover, or even perhaps a poster. [Each of the sites do offer prints for a pretty nice price and offer a way to sell your artwork as an NFT.] 

I could see this as a book cover!

I really wanted to create something with a horse in it so I went over to Nightcafe and started experimenting.

This looked like freaky flying horses with red farts.

It was not something I wished to work with. The one below looked vaguely like Wrath Horses stuck in a Swamp of Sorrow. 

The one below involved the words: Horses, clouds, angels, wings, 

...and something strangely creepy, but it held my attention with a ... 

This IS It!

I wanted something more dark and strange.

This was the original.

Here is the final edit.

I stopped right here because this exemplified what I thought was the definition of 

a

Nightmare.

Okay, this is not for everyone at all. I mean it has a certain scary awful dystopian feel to it. It is dark and a bit frightening.

I like scary movies though and this really resonated with me. It was all created with just words and then run through Artificial Intelligence and a Neural Network.

Let's end on some happy and cheery doodles.

Steam Punk Flowers and Clouds

What the dashboard of creation looks like:

Tropical Beach Cheerful Lifeforms...
I don't see the life forms, but at least it is cheerful and in the rather fantastical and weird style of Kincaid paintings. The colors are pretty, but I don't see any beach!

Just wow

Last night's evening storms brought in heavy fog which is typical for our area.

NOAA  issued a dense fog warning. I was pretty pleased.

The wall of fog was so thick I couldn't see the mules in the pasture when I got up.

I grabbed a camera and headed out after sunrise. I usually don't pick up the mail on the day it is delivered. I generally save that walk for the mornings.

When I got to the ridge it the fog was thicker than thieves. The world was grey.

I mean there was nothing at all to see. This is a field of oats and generally you can see all the way to a horizon.

I wanted to wait around to see if the sun would break through enough to shine through the forest and create a magical atmosphere. 

Just as I was ready to give it up.
BAM!

The sun broke through.

It was time to get wet and wade into the forest. I knew where I wanted to go. I wanted to go see The Hugging Tree. [Sometimes I give names to certain trees I really like. I'm odd, okay?]

I started down the faint trail that is still there and headed into the forest.

And there is where I lost all track of time and just focused on the magic that was appearing before me. It changed each minute with the movement of the fog and the sun. 

I just kept moving around and shooting. One of the awesome features of the Olympus camera [aside from being very light], is its stabilization feature. 

I wasn't thinking about that, but was just mumbling to myself -- ohhhh...ahhhh...ohhh see that?...oh .. my...OH!

Oh!

The light kept changing and so did the foggy sun beams. 

Even after I walked into multiple spider webs, I was still marveling at the scene before me.

I was amazed that I didn't trip and fall over a log as I kept moving around. I couldn't keep my eyes off the forest.

Neither could my small friends.

I didn't want to leave the woods, but I knew I had to. Someone was sitting and waiting for me and would wonder what took me so long.

The sun rose a bit higher and the light beams started fading.

It was amazing while it lasted. I followed a deer trail out and got soaked from the wet leaves. I didn't mind. It was worth the little side trip. 

Once more I consider myself quite lucky to live in this area which presents such amazing beauty just a short walk from my porch.

Oh yes, I finally did make it to the Hugging Tree.

It is the tree in the distance with the arms uplifted.

[I have so many photos yet to look through. I am still just stunned by this one single foggy morning. Watch out, more to come?]

Like a Rock

The hike to the top of this bluff is always a bit tough and last night I had two 30 somethings accompanying me. Teri was my ex neighbor and we've been friends for about 12 years and her pal came along also.

We thought it would be fun to hike and sweat and get a cardio work out hiking to the Rock. Once there we shed our extra shirts and took up spots to watch the valley below us.

I have to admit, I kept crawling around the rock taking photos and chatting. 
Duh. I'd ID a bird call or point out the obvious. I guess it must have been  obvious that I don't get out often with others. Generally I just mumble to myself and answer myself.

We fell into silence for a long time and just enjoyed the view. [I think I was quiet for about 3 minutes.] I really need to shut up.

I've never been to this rock in the evening. I'm so glad I did. The skies were rather bland but as the sun sank lower, the oranges came out brighter.

There were no clouds but the river and valley moisture was becoming apparent. 

A two shot pano looking east to south.

I commented that I could sleep up on the rock so I could watch the night sky and listen to the night sounds. My friends said I was nuts and I'd fall off the bluff. I laughed. 
Can you imagine what an adventure that would be?

It was time to freak my friends out. I crawled to the edge of the rock as twilight came and took a shot straight down over the edge. You may be able to make out the trail below.

I think the elevation from the trail head to the bluff is about 200 feet.

There is not a lot of room to maneuver around but I sure enjoyed seeing the sights.

We headed down as darkness descended. 

We got into the forest and turned off our lights to listen to the night creatures. There was what we decided could be some kind of bird making some really odd noises.

I said it had to be a baby Sasquatch.

When we got back to where we parked we were amazed at the sheer volume of fireflies. They danced and whirled silently, lighting up and glowing, then darting here and there.

I set up my tripod and entertained my friends by showing them how to 'catch' a photo of them.

We parted after discussing another adventure we hoped to do this summer. Stars or moon watching from the KVR Dam site.

I talked about light painting and had shown them on the bluff how fun it was...example below...

We thought it might be fun to engage in some light painting on one of the covered bridges.

They took off and I started to leave but something made me stop.

20 years now
Where'd they go?
20 years now
I don't know
I sit and I wonder sometimes
Where they've gone
And sometimes late at night
Oh, when I'm bathed in the firelight
The moon comes callin' a ghostly white
And I recall
I recall....

Bob Seger [Like a Rock 1986]

I didn't linger long because I knew Teri would be watching for my headlights to make sure I was coming down the road too.

Like

a

Rock...

My hands were steady
My eyes were clear and bright
My walk had purpose
My steps were quick and light
And I held firmly 
To what I felt was right
Like a rock...