Laughing Ravens

Ever since I started growing Siberian irises, I have been captivated by the range and intensity of colors possible within the group. There are so many wild, rich, saturated colors available right now. (Ironically, there are fewer and fewer places to buy or even see, Siberian irises, but that is a topic for another post).  Seedling from seed donated by Marty Schafer and Jan Sacks. But it wasn't always this way. In fact, this is a very recent occurrence.  So how did we get here? All the way up into the early 1090's, Siberian irises came in various shades of white, purple, lilac, blue-ish, and (after 'Butter and Sugar' was introduced in 1976) even yellows. Everything changed rapidly after the introduction of a few key irises.  It can't be overstated how one iris introduction (every few decades) can cause dramatic changes for the possibilities of color and form. In 1957 'White Swirl' was introduced by Cassebeer. Now, virtually every Siberian iris in commerce tod...

  Color seems like a simple thing, right? A color is a color. Kids know what blue is.  Blue is always blue. There's something very concrete about color. Until it isn't.  As a little kid I learned that color is complex. First through paint, mixed with my fingers, where yellow and green made mucky brown. Then Playdoh taught me that yellow and blue didn't make green... but more of a vomit color. This was not looking good for my little color wheel. (I went looking for photos on the intertubes that would illustrate my childhood frustration, but apparently Playdoh has changed to remedy that frustration, so that now the colors do blend together according to the color wheel... but they sure didn't in the 1970's. Also of note in my search were the number of sites which offered homemade versions of Playdoh because apparently that's a thing.) At the same time, I was trying to understand how light changed color. My mom found these educational toys at a garage sale one weeke...

I've often wondered if I have a collection of odd hobbies and interests or if I am simply distracting myself. Being ruthlessly curious has pros and cons. Knowing that my brain is wired differently is much the same. When I was a kid and would come home from school, it was: Grab a snack, deal with homework, then my time was my own. College messed with the format, but others around me still found time off on the weekends. I always found myself drawn into other projects that consumed my weekends and non-classtime. Eventually, I found clay and the next twenty years vanished in the blink of an eye.  Clay gave my curiosity a place to play and explore, but it also demanded a level of attention that one of my college girlfriends saw as invasive. She referred to clay as my mistress. From her perspective, I could see it. I would get up in the middle of the night, drive half an hour to the studio, just to monitor a kiln. I frequently showed up to our dinner dates with bits of clay stuck to my ...

Communicating is a complex thing. Talking is one thing. Dialogue is another. Writing and reading seem much the same; similar but different. You would think that video and photography would be the same sort of deal. Not yet, at least not for me. I've been taking photographs since I acquired my first little Instamatic that took 126 film cartridges, had no focus or shutter control. It was the epitome of a camera for the proletariat.  Until I started writing this post, I never really knew how this camera came into my hands. As I went through my dad's old scanned files, I found a photo of him using it. Obviously pre-dates his using the Pentax 35mm which I think my mom gave him as their first anniversary present.   image from ebay.com My dad, on his honeymoon in 1971, using the Instamatic, that I would inherit 8 years later.   I started working in video when I was a teenager, eventually ending up working with Miami Springs TV production... while simultaneously working for ...

 More than anything, this was just a chance to test out new gear and see how it felt to try to narrate and shoot at the same time. By and large, I am finding the videography part much harder than my usual photography. If I had to guess, I think my attention span is affecting a lot of the process.  Part of what I was testing last week was the new wireless lav mic I picked up after Christmas... which should allow me (and potentially another person in an interview setting) to talk, and have that audio recorded directly to the camera. I know the rest of the world has been doing this for ages... but for me, this is a whole new world. Tons to learn and tons to play with.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on how this video came through for you. I wish that Blogger had a way to store videos without having to go through YouTube, but from what I can tell, that's the only path for videos longer than a minute or two. If you know of other places I could host videos, please let me know....