Both Ways

Roasting peppers

Ever since I was a child, I have loved reading about King Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot and the rest of the Knights Of The Round Table.  First it was simplistic story books for children, but I quickly moved on to the likes of Mary Stewart and her sweeping epic series.  My fondest memories of my trip to England at age thirteen are of my visit to Tintagel and Merlin’s Cave.  The last book I read about Arthur’s England was Deepak Chopra’s The Return Of Merlin.  Yes, that Deepak Chopra.  It is quite a good novel, actually, although it technically doesn’t take place in Arthur’s England, but instead in the England of today.

It has been a long time since I entered that magical world (Monty Python doesn’t count), so I am delighted to be embarking upon a fresh journey, thanks to Marilyn Hume, and Battle Of Kings, the first book of her new trilogy, The Merlin Prophecy.

In looking for this image, I found several more books set within the Arthurian legend.  I may become obsessed.

The weekly painting “lessons” continue.  I had so much fun watching Mila paint that I forgot to take photos until she was done.

Here she is with her finished piece last week:

We played with using tape to block out parts of the canvas and with using round things to make circles.  Here’s the painting:

This week was Kai’s turn.  We tried something i don’t really understand how to do, which is to use salt on watery paint.  I’m pretty sure one needs to have more time and patience than we did, in order to let the paint dry on its own.  Then we used the blow drier to push paint around the canvas and Kai finished up by enhancing and accenting with a brush.  Here are shots in progress and his finished piece:

We were dipping carrots in spicy hummus for a snack as we worked.  Also grapes!

And the finished piece:

Tucson, Arizona

This lubber flew past me as I was walking up to my gate.  I wish I could show him in flight.  He had a scarlet tail that fanned out under his wings.

Sometimes you make a mistake and something beautiful happens.  I had been shooting some musicians in very low light the night before I shot this, and forgot to change the settings on my camera.  Something about the overexposed image appealed to me, so I put it through camera raw, made it grayscale, pushed up the contrast, and voila!

Heavily edited

A great rockabilly band called the Outlaw Rebels played Locals Only at KXCI tonight.  While I was waiting to photograph them at sound check, I played around shooting closeups of the standup bass.