The tidal wave continues...

Well it looks like I'm getting about 2000 views a week as my numbers are skyrocketing. Suddenly 70,000 views is around the corner. This next week I've got a completely full schedule so look forward to some interesting images throughout this weekend and next week.The weather may be the defining factor however......

Thanks for the reschedule.....

As I mentioned in my last note the weather was to be the pits today so luckily enough I was able to reschedule my shoot to yesterday and it went very well. The wind was a bit bodacious but we worked around it by being behind large wind blocks such as buildings, fences, and wooded areas. The light was fantastic as the clouds covered the sun basically acting as a large soft box with gentle light that was also directional. It work out very well. I did come across a wall that I found very interesting and would like to see some of this in Carthage.....probably could be filed in the never gonna happen file.
However it really struck me as something interesting and it is popping up all through our downtown area. I'll get it posted next week.

Potential rain Thursday...

I guess it's all in the life of a portrait photographer...I have a session scheduled for Thursday and rain is in the forecast..that could be good or very bad. Obviously water falling on a client doesn't ideally work well however the light just before, or just after, or during a break in the weather can be fantastic...

Hopefully I'll have great images for you to look at later in the week.

We passed 60,000 views and will have 61,000 by tomorrow !!!

Sorry I've been so invisible but it has been a hectic week. I had several deadlines to hit and was successful....but I was invisible to you all in the process. I hate that but business is always first. I closed the deal on the sale of one five foot by six and a half foot print plus a 40 by 60 inch print to the same individual. Big prints seem to be moving right now. I spent the last three weeks working on my "studio" outside getting everything planted into different locations to use as backgrounds. I have to use the whole area available due to the necessity of being flexible as to where the light is. If the light is best in one area I'll use it, if not, the other areas could be good. Same goes with the wind....some areas are better than others. I have a session next week and I'll upload some examples of what I'm talking about.  I love my job....

Solution......dumb us....

I had mentioned that we should probably put the "leaf guard" net up and was met with lukewarm response.......so I did it anyway.  We bought it in the Fall to keep the leaves from falling into the pond and took it down earlier in the Spring. It works great for keeping the leaves out, preventing their decomposition into sludge in the bottom of the pond. If the heron comes back he will have a hard time getting through  the netting for his daily brunch at Morgan Pond. It is strapped down solidly  on the edges so I think we have the loss of fish taken care of. If we have guests over for dinner or whatever we can move it for a better look at the fish. I was just about to name the backyard the "Valley of Death"...

As dumb as it sounds the fish seem to know that something has changed as they are swimming freely throughout the pond. Before I put it up they huddled in the deepest part of their ocean and didn't surface much unless I fed them. Even then it was an "eat and swim" situation. Dinnertime conversations became very limited. If I have photographic sessions out there I will also remove it for that.

Years ago Leon Kennimer gave a siminar I attended were he explained the advantage of shooting with the sun reflected from a pond. It's like adding a hot box lighting set up without electricity to an environmental portrait situation. I did that when I was in Carthage at Spring River and Morrow Mill but until we put in the pond I didn't have the capability to do it here. The parks in Tulsa and the Garden Center require a fee to be able to shoot within their boundaries and that just rubs me the wrong way. They are tax supported entities here in town. So Morgan Pond was the was to get around the problem.

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Bird must like NPR

Update !!! Looked out this morning and the damn thing was back. NPR was on the radio giving the news...we thought the radio would scare it away. No such luck.........it must like the news.

However, it stepped on one of the bamboo poles we have on the outskirts of the pond and it moved, scaring the bird off. Fed Ex should deliver the "Banshee Eagle Screaming Motion Detector" today and that may help. Of course then again.....all of our neighbors may vacate the area in a panic. Only in America...........

Lost fish.......

As many of my followers know we have had several Koi ponds over the years. Tulsa is no exception. When we bought the house it had a useless backyard...or perhaps better yet.....ski slope with no snow. We really hated it. Never spent any real time out there just mowed it. Back and forth...back and forth east to west, west to east. Over a four year period we started to change it up with no real plan....just get rid of the slope and perhaps turn it into an outdoor studio location. First was a patio with some precast concrete pavers... Expanded it the following year adding railroad ties to hold the backfill dirt in place. The next year we added a concrete wall to reinforce a larger patio pad and then noticed that there was room between the old deck for us to add another deck with a Koi pond. As we were doing this it seemed logical to add a lower deck to the one we were putting in with stairs to the lawn below.

As we did this-digging the pond-we had the railroad ties from the previous wall and a bunch of dirt from the excavation of the pond. We took the ties and put them to the south of one of our Bradford pear tree and used the fill from the pond to create a level area we deemed "the secret garden". A year later while Karen was at church I built another wall from stackable "pavers" south of the railroad ties.
Filling it with dirt I was able to hide the ties and we had another planting area. As one of the features
I added an architectural piece of stone I got out of a dumpster when there were redoing the Post Office in Carthage and added that as an area for a plant.

Needless to say the back yard is a great area to photograph clients in. HOWEVER !!!

We started with 3 Koi and several other exotic goldfish. Evidently fish have no morals as I hadn't seen any marriage ceremonies in the chapel on the bottom of the pond or any rings on fins of the fish and we suddenly had about 45 fish swimming in the pond. Most farmers will tell you never to name animals on the farm if you are going to eat them...kinda hard to have a friend for dinner if you know what I mean. Koi and goldfish are basically carp, we don't eat carp, so we named most of them. They all have personalities and we would look at them from the deck noting subtle changes and size growth.

Last week I thought that the numbers were different......didn't see a couple of fish we had named.
Buck was missing as was Golda. Golda had a habit of hiding under the water fall so not seeing her was not a big deal. Over then next several days as the rain kept coming down and the Arkansas River, which is a bout a mile west of us, started to get higher I noticed more fish missing. Mentioning it to Karen she looked and agreed. I looked out of my office down at the pond several mornings ago and there was a Blue Heron getting ready to snack on our babies ! I flew down the stairs, ran outside and as the bird flew off I was screaming in a provocative voice " Get out of here you Son of a B-------!! And don't come back !!! If the neighbors were out....they must think I'm crazy.

It's hard to count fish however they are straying in the deep part of the pond which is deeper than the bird can reach.....I think. We have the radio on next to the pond and that seems to be working. The bird hasn't been by since we put it out. Tomorrow we have a motion activated predator bird call arriving which will replace the radio. The neighbors may really think I have gone south when they hear a screeching banshee eagle call from the backyard. "What in the hell is he keeping out there
now ???"

Maybe when the Arkansas goes down the bird will leave us alone. When I think of the fish we lost I think it is appropriate to mention Leonard Cohen singing "Hallelujah". The fish were our "kids" and they will be remembered. Google Leonard and the song.....it just seems to fit. The bamboo across the pond is serving as another deterrent to the bird....why make it easy... The black tray on the left will be cut down and turned into a potting table. It used to be my darkroom sink. Click on the image and it will get larger.