Welcome to our farming update

Well sort of, we are a very small farm, more a hobby farm than anything else.

I haven't said much about the farm lately as March was the month of melts, snows, sleet, rain, melt, and the beginning of our mud season.

Our Dexters look great, seems the cold didn't effect them at all.

They spend their days chewing their cud and looking rather unconcerned about the rest of the world.

If Black Bart did his 'job' right away we'll expect calves from at least Valerie and maybe Annie in April.

Black Bart from Plum Creek Little Cattle Company:

He is quite the handsome fellow.

The girls are laying around and soaking up the sun.
I must say that Dexter meat raised on grass and good hay is something very divine.

I promised my husband that if we ran out of meat before the next time we fill the freezer, that I would NOT buy anything from the grocery store.

Sorry, once spoiled by having your own meat, you cannot simply bare to eat grocery store chain meat.

We finally got those trees off from the garage.  What a job.  Now the de-construction of the destroyed garage can begin.

I'm not looking forward to it.  I'd rather have a huge dumpster and just start chucking things.

The mules and donkeys are beginning to shed their coats.   
Opal is ready to go back outside.  She looks great with the weight gain she had this winter.  Her coat is lustrous and shiny.
Not bad for a 29-32 yr old mule!

The woods are still very slippery so riding down the deer trails is still not quite an option.

But if you look carefully in the woods you will find ferns that are still green. They obviously survived the winter under the deep snow pack.

The other day I went out armed with a set of nippers and a small camp saw to trim up my walking/hiking/riding trail.  It is an endless job to fight back the briers and prickly stuff.
I maintain it so that I am not ripped apart while riding or hiking as the season progresses.

Of course, Morris was along to help.

There is still snow in areas and ice on some of the north hillside deer trails.
But I am looking forward to spring now and all of the surprises that it will bring in the woods...

and the surprises that the Dexters will bring!

High Key Photography ~ my lesson

Our assignment for this week was High Key photography.

So I read up on it and was rather put out to find that most of this sort of photography was done in a studio with lights and things called softboxes, lightboxes, and other things that I don't own.

Never fear.
Some things can still be achieved by using natural light.

But I had to wait for the sun to shine.  That did happen yesterday, but I couldn't do the project outside as the winds were gusting to about 35 or more mph.

So I set up my little ugly wooden chair in the living room and put an old white sheet on it.

High Key=light ...upbeat, happy, bright...

Ohhhkay...

Well here is the 'home' fancy studio.

Not very impressive right?
I mean look at Morris's crate right behind it, the heater, the brick, the wall, and all of the distractions.

But...
Here is that red horse.

Items used.
Tripod.
40mm micro Nikkor lens, Nikon D5200.
Sunlight, bright sunlight coming in the window.  This reflected off the old white sheet I tossed on the chair, or should I say.... 'Artfully tossed' on the chair.

I had the sun at my back and off to the side.  The white reflected the sun onto the subject and into the camera.
I tried a few settings.  Manual settings were ISO 100, f4, 1/20th of a second.

I also used the setting on the D5200 of High Key.  
But because I wanted to learn how to do this, I decided to use the Manual settings.  I was able to over expose by .67, I thought it was +7 on the EV but the details say .67.

I took the photo in RAW, processed it to jpeg in CorelAfterShotPro and then used Topaz BW Effects in CS2 [I also was able to process it in PaintShopPro X6 the same way].

I tried the Topaz BW setting of Hi Key I.  It was close to what I was looking for but I moved the color filter towards pink to get the details to show up on the horse.

I like how this shot turned out.  Very high key.

I  used Topaz BW Effects on this one also.

But then I used another method of how to make a photo look like a drawing.

I finally settled on this shot as my presentation for the assignment.

I'd like to redo this shot and bring out the details in the wings more, but that will require another sunny day and a different mode of focus on the camera.

I'm not sure High Key is my style but it sure is a good exercise in photography.

Oak Leaves and Spring

March is the month of changes.  Winter still hangs on yet it keeps teasing us with hopes of Spring.

We get warm sunny days followed by cold frigid nights.  It is the way of March, yet it seems to surprise us each time it occurs.

The yard and the pastures alternate between sucking mud and frozen rough ground.  The mud and muck literally try to suck the chore boots right off your feet.

Then true to March's nature a warm day comes followed by ferocious winds that bring cold, snow and sleet.
A reminder that winter doesn't really want to loose its grip on the land quite yet.

There is snow still in the steep north facing hillsides and ravines.  But the robins have appeared singing their merry morning songs as if they know better than us.

Daylight hangs on just a bit more each day.

Yet the Oak leaves are still clinging to their branches in areas where they have been protected from our fierce winds.
They await spring buds to push them off.

April is here with predictions of thunderstorms and sleet for this first week.

Me?
I'm going to see when the oak leaves fall.
Then the oak buds are here...

and so is Spring.

I should what with my Hist-o-gram?

Histograms.
They are supposed to help a person take a better photo.

I never used them until the other day when doing an assignment for a group I belong to on Google+.

I knew what it was, I knew it was a graph 'thingy' that showed up in the camera if I hit certain buttons, and I know it shows up in Photoshop when I do editing.

So the other day I did a little experimenting on my own.

I shot with my Olympus Digital E-420 camera, it is light enough to use a wimpy light tripod with.  I'm not weighed down by it much and since it is one of my oldest cameras, I take it when things can get rough hiking.

However it sees snow as blue!

Here is one shot I took for the Histogram shot.

Well obviously the colors are way off.
I put it into my trail version of PaintShopPro X6 Ultimate and decided to check the histogram.


The top one is the histogram as PSP reads it.  There is a lot of info missing on the right which means this is underexposed.
Yes I bet it was, it was getting dark and the ISO was set at 100 for this shot.

Not only that, I was dealing with a flash flood from snow melt, so I wasn't taking the time to twiddle with the camera.

I know, bad me right?

But could I save this shot of the ice wall?

Above I tried to stretch out the histogram, but dang it, the color was so off that it wouldn't work well.

Back to PSP.

First I used AfterShotPro to develop the RAW shot over again, this time paying attention to the WHITE of the snow.

I was able to stretch the histogram to the right and get the nice white color I needed instead of the blue.

Not a perfect histogram according to some digital photographers, but this was going to have to do as the wall may well be gone on my next trip down.

This turned out so much better than I hoped.  The texture of the ice wall along with the streaks of brown from the clay and minerals came out quite nicely.


The snow is white, the shot was saved!
I can add it to my project about the creek!

This thanks to learning a bit more about the histogram.

I also found the histogram quite useful with this shot.  The original is in color but I converted to black and white.  
The white of the water was not showing white, it was coming up dingy grey until I worked on the histogram.

That said, I also liked the dark forboding color version of this shot.  
Histogram be danged and all that.

You see there is a 'lot' of info missing on the right side.  I say, oh well, I really like this shot.

So I'll do some more experimenting with the Hist-o-gram shortly, but there are many occasions that a photographer doesn't have time to set, reset, change EV values and then re-check the histogram while doing a shot in nature.

Well, maybe they do and I am just lazy.

But these shots were taken as quickly as possible during a mini flash flood, so I was 'capturing' the moment so to speak.

And if you want more reading on Histograms, try this article from Digital Photography school.

Using Graphic programs to creat art.

Over the past year I've met some incredible Fractal Artists that do some incredible work.

There is a group at Facebook called Mandelbulb Maniacs which was founded by Ricky Jarnigan.  
The group has people of all levels and skills with the program.

I've been working with Mandelbulb 3D for a few years now and it seems that I learn something every time I create 'something'.

I often mix up my media.

I like to use other programs such as JWildfire created by Adreas Maschke.  If you like flames and colors, this is mind blowing stuff.  Andreas is always working on ways to improve JWildfire and make it even more easy to create beautiful works.

This took a bit, but it really wasn't that hard.  I started with Daniel Eaton's parameters he posted on Flickr, March 18th.  I then created this piece with symmetry settings, and something called Layerz.

Lú Bendett is another artist I enjoy  following and interacting with.  He has Fractart on FB and his images area both JWildfire and Mandlebulb 3d.

Here is a fantastic fractal he created for today!

*Spring has Sprung in a Vase* 

One other thing I'd like to mention, these two programs are free.
Yes .... free.  Free to download and experiment with.

The FB groups are worth joining FB for just to get tips and ideas, as well as fantastic parameters that are shared.

I will mention one other program.
Incendia.

It is also free but the programmer has left a message that they are not developing it any more due to lack of funds.
There isn't a lot of extra help out there for the program and it is very resource intensive, however...beautiful things can occur when you mix your medias.

I used JWildfire as a backround IN Incendia and rendered the fractal flower into the image.

Here is a Mandelbulb used as a backround and Incendia used to create the final image...mixing the media is very cool.

So when the outside world is cold, damp, snowy, yucky, and you are looking for something to do, start playing with graphic art.

It brings color into your life.

My entry today for a 'spring like' fractal for Mandelbulb Maniacs was this:

 

No iphones, smart phone, playstations...how to have fun

When I was 'the mom' of kids we didn't have internet, phones were still in houses on walls, and...
we even had a two seater outhouse.

But that wasn't because it was a century ago.
It was in the 80's.

Kids on the farm used imagination to have fun.
They were not staring at a large flat screen, or plugged into a device.

They also rarely got bored when they could invent cool and fun games.

Sometimes the 'whole' neighborhood would get together and then it was time for even more fun.

What has happened these days?


We have to let them explore their boundaries and themselves.  
Not get 'connected' with the internet and let TV rule their lives.

They need fresh air and sunshine...and yes, mud too.  

Let kids be kids and have adventures.

If they don't live in the country, let them play supervised at a playground...take time to invest in their well being and future.
Let them experience life.

Let them be kids.

I wrote this after talking with someone about how they 'can't get their kids' to do anything.  All they want to do is mess with their phones and text...or play games on an Xbox.

Wow.

Really?

She is Insane! by Morris

Any healthy normal human or dog would not do the things she does.

Really?

She got her camera, her pistol, and her coveralls on and added a bottle of water to her belt.

I knew it was going to be a great hike, so I jumped back and forth, up and down, and literally begged to go with.

Geesh.
Was I nuts?

She took the big lummox Dixie with us.

She said 'We are going to go find Deer Antler Sheds.'

Okay, I get that, we look for antlers in the woods, she collects them and brings them home.
Sometimes she even finds cool skulls and stuff.

So off we went, the unlikely trio.  The big lummox, me, and her.
Dixie ran willy nilly through the snow jumping and gallumping.  She is a natural at gallumping.

Me?
I'm dainty and swift.  Dixie chases after me, I make a 180 under her nose and it takes her about 5 feet to turn around.
The chase game lasted about 5 minutes.

Anyway I sniffed out something wonderfully disgusting upwind of us.  I was surprised that Lummox did not.  Is she NOT a hound?
Anyway I found the first Antler Shed.

SHE was very pleased until she found out that there was a whole bunch of parts attached to it.  A nice high 8 pointer, she said.

I thought the rotting icky stuff was good.  She mumbled something about coming back without dogs [hah-rumph] and getting what she wanted.  Like the intact skull. 

We then went on our merry way.  Dixie at this time had settled down and was running trails and circling around, leaping through the deeper snow while I kept close to her.

If nasty coyotes were around, let them eat Lummox and not tasty little Jack Russells.

We finally made it to the 'camp' road and walked down to the creek.  She looked up at the sky and said it was going to rain so we should head home.

Fine by me, I was tired of trudging through the deep snow.

Then when she saw that the creek was up and running hard, you'd have thought she'd hit the jackpot or something.  She got all happy and pulled out her camera.

 
She said something about the snow melt and the big ravine...and something about the big snow melt that she'd been waiting for.

Dixie didn't have a clue that we were in the beginning stages of a big rush of water.  I however did.  I stayed away from the running stuff as best I could.
Until.
I got caught up in midstream on a rock and water all around me.

Did she help?
No.
She took a picture!
Of course!
Little dog in need?  Take photo, then help.
Idiot.

She claims that I was not in danger of being swept away.  She did pick me up though and put me on the bank.
Okay, so she isn't that bad.

But then we got to the ravine.  Dixie decided to climb rocks with her.  Dixie is too curious.  I've done this many times before and the roar of the water is too noisy.
Besides, I know the creek can fill up fast and get wide.

However, SHE says she keeps a careful eye on it.  She says it is not like a flash flood, it is a snow melt run.
Okay, tell me the difference.  Water gets deep, it runs hard, and makes lots of noise.

I must say though she does not dilly dally.  She gets in, takes her pictures and gets to the other side of the creek.
Last year the one snow melt was so fast she nearly didn't get back across. 

So The Lummox and her climbed rocks and she took some really cool shots of the water running.  The colors are from the red clay in the soil and look cool against the snow.

I think she would have stayed for a very long time doing pictures.  But she was worried that it was getting late and that we had been off in the woods for a long time.

I watched the water empty into the creek.  It wasn't coming from upstream yet so we were doing pretty good.

We moved on up the creek to see if any other ravines were 'running'.

Oh goody, the last one was!
In fact we climbed down a muddy steep bank [did I mention ice too?] and then climbed up more rocks...
all for a stupid picture.

Okay, she didn't think it was stupid.
But she did have a hard time with the climb back out of there.

Dixie and I scampered up the muddy slippery hillside and went on to play a little chase.

The thing is, we all got back in one piece.
I must admit, I do like our adventures even if the Lummox comes along.

And she does pick me up and puts me over barbed wire fences so I don't get harmed.

I wonder when the next antler looking thing is going to occur?