In the Zone

Right now the fun is never ending. I keep ignoring my Nature photos at the moment as Nature is teasing us with all sorts of wild weather.

I had a really nice compliment on a photo I did of Princess Sara in an email from a Lego Ambassador last week. I used a tutorial by FourBricksTall and tagged her in my write up on Flickr. I read that and felt inspired and had an AH HAH... moment.

I won't be a pro toy photographer ever or be hired by Lego any time ever. But I felt like my efforts of creativity and explorations were somewhat vindicated. 

Any...way...more about getting into the Zone. After that my head burst with all sorts of ideas. You know, the stuff that bangs around in that empty space of a brain. That echo chamber. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I first got this Lego minifig last Spring. I had her in my pocket in May while I was hunting fungi and other things as they came up from the forest floor. I decided her name would be Sara the Brave and she would be a Princess when I first set her on a mossy stump.

I really liked her but couldn't for the life of me figure out her 'Story'. Well, that is until I set up the photo I did a while ago. I plucked her off the shelf where she spent nearly a whole year and made her a central character in an adventure. 

Truly, I don't know where that adventure will take me, but I am glad to have Sara out and about. She makes an interesting character that wields a stick horse and a sword.

I walk around in the forest looking for cool things. The minifigs bounce around in their containers in my backpack. Some days I hike and never take them out. And then some days, things just click and I know that I found yet another clue in Sara's journey.

Of course she will find exotic looking plants and...

well...

it looks like those other forest critters may be watching her!
That looks like Big Foot is spying on them!

Will she meet some of those other fierce warrior women?
How about Ariel who also wears the blue knight armor just like Joan of Knight? 

She is an exceptional warrior who loves to fish.

Sometimes she even gets them to jump right out of the water!

 [Trick photography! I hot glued floral wire around the fish tail and pushed it into the stream bottom. I took the shot with the wire in the photo and took a shot without the fish there.👇]

I set the camera up to take 5 photos in a row while I threw rocks into the stream for splashes. 

The magic happens when you stack the two photos on top of each other and simply erase the wire. The photo in the second layer is just a shot of the Lego figure by itself. This was a trick I learned by watching a video by a Toy Photographer who goes by SirDork. 

While I was at it, I found another spot where Hannah the Hunter was. It seems she is looking for something in the forest also. 

Will all of these characters eventually find each other? I don't know. 

For now? Anything can happen.

One other note. Spring will be emerging all over the forest. I see the signs of Spring Beauty leaves poking up out of the leaves. I saw bluebells emerging too. It feels like this next snow/sleet/rain event is just telling us to be patient.

Suddenly Spring will emerge like a racehorse out of the gate.

But for now, I'm in the Zone... 

the play Zone.

Wendigo

The weather is warming up drastically and who knows what will wake up in the forest???

A Wendigo? It crawls out of a small rock cave.

...and makes its way to the creek...to fish for trout....

... good fishing

time for a nap...

***************

The Wendigo is a mythological creature that is an evil spirit according to Algonquin folklore. It is slated as a mythical cannibalistic creature. It sounds absolutely horrid and awful.

I found this 3D printed figure at the local flea market. It is said to be a Fidget Toy. It is loose and jointed and floppy. Seriously, you could fidget with it forever to get it to sit correctly and I thought it was bizarre enough to suit my taste. I think I'll sand it and paint it too.

There now I have a Fidget Toy to take on my daily hikes.

I think this Wendigo will be friendly and kind. I can't have horrible creatures living in my forest. Even my Dragons  and Dinosaurs get along with my Lego Minifigs. All my toys have to get along, you know?

A day at the Track

I got a text from Olive. She is an assistant coach for Track & Field at our local High School. Since she started coaching, she hasn't really been able to do our weekly hikes.

She invited me to come and watch a huge conference meet in town. It has been since ages since I've been around any Track & Field events. so I watched some of the Field events early after I hit the Farmer's Market in town.

I couldn't find Olive in the mass of people so I took my goodies home and made sure hubby had some fresh strawberry pie. He said he was fine with me going back to town to enjoy the meet.

But the possibility of trying out 'action' shots was too fun to ignore.

These kids were defying gravity in the most amazing ways. I was fascinated.

When I got back, I found Olive's hubby with their son Aiden. Aiden saw me and came running over with a handful of dandelions. They pointed out where Olive was. She came running to the fence and expressed how happy she was I came.

I pointed to my messenger bag and said I came prepared with my camera but I needed to find a good spot to see the action. 

And then a funny thing happened. She called over the other coach and introduced me as her friend and neighbor. She followed with "Hey, she can be our official school photographer for the day!"

I was inside the fence and ready for a new challenge. I sure hoped I was up to it. 

Why not try something new and out of my comfort zone of Legos and Fungi?

I think the hurdles were the hardest to get shots of. But as more of those races happened, I started to figure out where to stand and how to follow the action. It took me a bit to be able to pick out our home team's uniforms.

As kids came in to check in with Olive, she introduced me to them. An exchange student from Russia and I chatted. Her expression didn't change a bit when I told her the last time I'd been on a track and competed for a school was in 1976. She thought for a moment and then said seriously.

But you don't look like you're of that age.

I enjoyed her company and all of the others. 

I learned to appreciate all of the effort that Olive puts into to her charges. She was in constant motion, running back and forth across the infield to encourage her runners.

Below she is encouraging a runner to really push through the finish line. She is that tiny lady with red hair and boundless energy.

The girls and boys set personal records and although I didn't keep track of who won what, I was impressed with the crowd of people supporting their teams and the young people themselves. 

The weather couldn't have been more perfect for everyone.

I have many more shots of the girls running but haven't really done anything with them yet. I may just go through and delete anything that looks awkward and then make a file and put it on an SD card for Olive to share with the kids.

If asked to do this again, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Would I charge for it?

No, not at all.

The joy of being there would be payment enough.

Indoor Project

 

It happened again, an attack of the 'Creativity Bug'. I was walking in the last snowstorm and had seen the predictions for an extremally cold week following the snow. I decided to take a bag with me while getting the mail and find some things in nature to 'create' something with. I didn't even have any idea what I was going to do.

Sometimes creativity literally smacks me upside the head. I have to drop what I am doing and mess around to scratch the itch of imagination.

I had been reading some articles on toy photography that included all kinds of toys, but focused on the smaller posable toys. Did you know that is a thing? People photograph cars, model cars, model airplanes, Teddy Bears, and more. [I'm giving a nod to fellow blogger L.D. and his collection of old toy cars that he has been photographing in his new light box!]

I took a class in Still Life and enjoyed it. The variety of things one can do with Still Life is amazing and it doesn't cost anything really. It is fun and frustrating.

My journey in making things from weird stuff began when I wanted to do some Fairy Houses for my spring garden. I went to shops and was absolutely floored at how pricey a Fairy Garden could be. I decided then to make a non Fairy Fairy garden and some fun was born.

I wanted to go cheap. I wanted only materials I could find while on my walks. It is something I like to do when the weather is in the subzero range. It keeps my mind occupied and stirs my creative juices.

So here is 20 seconds of what I started, just for fun. You can skip it for sure....it is just some shots of the materials I used to get started.

I wanted to make a rope or perhaps a coiled miniature rug. So I even braided some dried grass. I learned something fun...
it braids much easier when it is damp. 

I gave up on going further as the grasses kept breaking, but I'll keep other materials in the back of my mind next time. I may collect some iris leaves towards the end of next fall to see if I can't weave something out of them.

I read about using plant leaves for weaving on another blog, thanks Boud!

Here is Maisie with her axe helping to build Acorn's new A Frame Home.

They decided to weave together some wild grass to use as a rope to pull more branches to the top of the A Frame.

Farmer Bob came by with a load of gnarly branches on his cart.

Hobby set down her camera and really got into the work!

Just add moss and more moss to fill in the holes and some bark...
it's messy work....

But it sure turned out cozy looking!

There he rests next to his little new house in the wild.

His friend Maisie heads out to the forest to cut some firewood.

All in a few days work!

[The trees were created from small scrub apple trees I found in the pasture. They really have character. 
I used clay as a base or in some cases medicine bottle tops. I took the cotton balls that came with the meds and dropped them in some paint and water then stretched it out to make something that looked like Spanish Moss. See photo below. It was messy, but fun.]

The project was cheap, easy, and mostly very cost effective. I only used items I had on hand.

See what happens when I'm stuck indoors? 

For my little pal...

While I was putting the elves in their clubhouse I thought...I'll make a little story for my neighbor's son, Aiden who is nearly 2 yrs old. 

What if Santa decided to try a truck to make deliveries in our area?
Gosh, what would happen.

Santa Gets Stuck...

A Good Samaritan Arrives

 That didn't work...so

they called on the Elf

with a magic sled...

Oh my, guess who

showed up to give a push!
And the Reindeer pulls!

Santa is on his way

thanks to all

the help!

I sent this series to my little pal's mom and she said he loved it! What child wouldn't?

Pigtails...

 

My son and his fiancé are coming this weekend to visit and so I made a hair appointment with the lady that cuts my hair. 

I begged her to do something! I wanted to look 'nice' or nic-er. Or 
something...

She styled it a few weeks ago after we did the funky color adventure. Sadly, by morning my hair had lost all the nice styling she'd applied. However, I loved it since I'd never had my hair 'styled' before. It DID look really nice! 

So this time I asked for a braid or something. A French braid looks pitiful and painfully thin. So she said...

What about pigtail braids?

Why not? It would be sporty even if it turned out thin and ugly. 

I told her that I'd be hiking on Saturday so a flouncy style wouldn't really suit me as I'd ponytail it up and stick it under my baseball cap.

She started as another stylist watched and we all laughed and giggled at the result. I loved it!
I told Andrea that the only thing left to do was to get some floral wire and make the pigtails stick out sideways and

I 

could 

be 

Pippy Longstocking!
Who was by the way, one of my childhood heroes.

Pippi was adventurous, kind hearted, and always so free and independent. She was my heroine.

When she finished I laughed and giggled which in turn made the other hairstylist laugh and giggle. I got up and twirled around like a kid.

The one lady said that she thought this was much more adventuresome than...
dying hair 'blue' and doing the weekly curl. 

I concurred. I felt joyous and fun.

No. I cannot braid my own hair this well. I like fun stuff. Normally I tire of long hair quickly and cut it all off.

But I may just keep the longer thinner hair that has beautiful silver streaks in it for fun. 

After all, I don't think I've changed that much since I was a kid.

I'm still that adventurer...

Pallet & Container Garden

Building this garden is turning out to be fun and a matter of using what is at hand to make things work.

The plastic under the pallets are old round hay bale covers that farmers used before they started to use the wraps. The old tubs have holes in them from being bashed around.

I added chunks of wood and a small bit of squished goat bedding to the bottom of each container. A tiny version of Hugelkultur gardening. The manure, leaves, sticks, and tiny pieces of wood break down in the bottom of the container and provide the soil with nutrients.

This is all an experiment afterall,...so why not?

The dirt. I am digging it from an old pile of Bull manure from the pen we kept our Dexter bull in years ago. Under the grass and weeds is a fine textured soil. It has been perculatin' for about 6 years, so it should be good for garden soil. It will contain weed seeds, but I am prepared for that. I haul it by bucket loads in the 4 wheeler's cart. 

Rich made a comment that I was going to use Bull-hit to make a garden.

😲

Rich also voted that I use the green bucket. It is ugly! I may go find a black lick tub that isn't so garish. I threatened to spray paint the green plastic tub but that would only make it look worse!

I'm sure I can find a black one that somewhere in the weeds behind one of the sheds. But in the end, it doesn't matter much about the container other than can IT hold dirt and can I grow a nice plant in it?

Sunday's project is to bring in two more pallets to have a fun little garden between the house and the LP tank. This is a pain in the arse to mow, so with the pallets, I can have flowers and walk through 'the garden' on the wooden slats!

It seems that my Lego People really like the pallet garden too. It is always good to have extra help.

Miss Molly dropped in [we never even heard her!] and jetted out to the shed where she promptly cleaned the rest of Sven's pen and then cleaned Lil' Richard's pen. 

Sweet! She and I fixed Sven's pen [say that 3 times fast] door so it would open properly. She visited with Rich and then helped him with the gates so he could dump manure with the skid steer and mow the one pasture we had made last week.

Today, if the timing works out, she'll come over and we will go riding together in the woods.

ON1 and Legos Imagination

Photography can be

the art of

what you 

envision...

ON1 is a photo editing program that I started to use a few years ago. I ended my relationship with Photoshop once they requested a monthly ransom for the use of their product. I purchased Corel PaintShopPro which allowed me to do some of the fun things I could do in PS.

ON1 kept developing their software. And truthfully the cost was much easier to take than the PS costs. The program has great tutorials on line and it is always adding new features.

One of the best things is not having to learn all about layers. ON1 makes layers for adjustments for you. You can use layers too.

The program seems geared towards Landscape and Portrait photography. They have cool things like textures presets, color presets, and something newer called Sky Swap. Oh the horror of Sky Swap! If you don't like your scene as you took it, add an aurora borealis or perhaps a magnificent sunset?  Okay. I am not into that at all.

However, I do like mixing things up and see exactly what I can MAKE the program do that it wasn't developed for. Pushing the edit envelope is a fun brain exercise for me.

Here is a shot of some of my Lego people. I set the figures on a black plastic board used generally for photographing items like jewelry. I set the works on my laptop and used the flat black of the laptop screen as a back drop.

Not very impressive, but with a bit of a touch up of the blacks and the highlights along with a crop and straighten, it is better. I totally love the reflections in the black plastic. Wicked...cool.

This was rather boring. White plastic for the back and black plastic for the figures to stand on.

But wait. 
What if?

I could change all of that?

How about cutting the backround out and replacing it with something else? With the old photoshop program this was doable but it took a lot of time.

I chose to color the figures green for keeping and the other areas red to get rid of them. This is done in a simple masking mode.

Once I had the figures isolated, I added a layer of clouds and then used a fun little thing called Sky Swap and added an Aurora Borealis to the clouds. I mixed up the opacity and went from there.

There was a bit of brightening to do and then I was done.

Why not make things easier on myself and set the figures up with an image in back on the computer screen?
Oh duh, who forgot to move their cursor???

Easily fixed!

ON1 edits of cropping, resizing, and some adjustments to bring out the figurines. Add in some cracked brushes to the edges to cover up mistakes and....

Note:

Experimenting with photography and graphic programs is my hobby. Think of it as a huge empty canvas that I can paint on or make my own strange art.

PS~ Did you know that there are actually Adult Lego Groups out there? 

LUGNET ~ Lego Users Group Network

AFOL ~ Adult Fan of Lego

I had Legos as a kid but they were the hard stiff bricks that only came in red I think. We made buildings for our toy soldiers out of them. And the Kitty Hotel, a home for eraser animals. 

I doubt I will become a Lego collector, but it is fun combining them with photography while stuck inside!