black-necked stilts parade
on pink legs, slender yet strong,
in search of magic
hidden beneath the marshlands
in iridescent ripples
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Delicate
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The Buena Vista ponds are a great place to spot birds at Malheur NWR in Oregon. In the middle of this picture, you can glimpse three Trumpeter Swans foraging for food.
In the distance, you can see Steens Mountain. This 50-mile long mountain rises majestically over the Sagebrush Sea in southeastern Oregon.
Hope may be bright spots in the darkness
Or at the end of a twisted and turning path
Hope may be something we wish and pray for
Cedar waxwing birds are one of my favorite kinds of birds. This month, I’m showing a simple pen and ink drawing I did of one.
When you first see a cedar waxwing, you might think of it as “simple” looking. They don’t have bold markings. Instead, their markings blend together smoothly.
Their tail feathers are tipped with a yellow wax-like substance and their wingtips are tipped with red.
The dramatic cloud formations caught my attention in this Soda Springs scene.
Soda Springs is a small city in Idaho known for its geyser and mineral springs. The Soda Springs Geyser is on a timed release valve and it goes off once an hour. Yes, really!
This Mt View Orchards mural is located in Parkdale, Oregon. The plants growing around the mural make it blend into the background.
This is one of our favorite businesses to visit to buy fresh local fruit in the fall. You can pick your own fruit and flowers or buy what they’ve harvested. They also produce beer, wine, and cider. This beautiful 50+ acre site was featured on a Top Chef episode in 2021.
This business is part of the Hood River Fruit Loop. There are 28 farms open to visitors along the 35-mile route .
Here’s some of the fruit we bought last year. Yum!
Continue readingSeeing the softness of nature
Walking behind a wall of water of a woodland waterfall
Regarding a heron ruminating over rippling reflections
Spotting the strength of steel softened by a spring snow
The rocks I remember may rest on the slopes of extinct volcanoes
And show cryptic carved messages created years ago
These photographs show a winter tree near Bend, Oregon shown from 3 perspectives .
Western juniper trees are great to photograph. I show this one from a distance, looking up its trunk, and with a close up view of its rough and wrinkled bark. These trees’ unique characteristics are enhanced by a light snowfall.
When I process pictures, I think about how to enhance the beauty of the subject.
The natural features at the Red Canyon Overlook in Dutch John, Utah are beautiful, but so is the visitor center. The roof looks like wings swooping upwards. A fence with a modern design and a standing dead tree add to the beauty.
To enhance the architecture of the building, I used a cold filter and a dark vignette. I framed it with a simple white slide mount effect.
Today I’m sharing a coyote print & photo. I drew the coyote in pen and ink and printed it with sublimation ink onto special paper. Then I used a heat press to transfer it onto a fabric bag. I gave the finished product to a friend for a birthday present.
This was my first attempt at this type of printing. It turned out a little blurry. I tried transferring another one of my drawings and didn’t have the press hot enough. Maybe I should have read the suggested settings by the fabric manufacturer. 😉
What is sublimation printing? It uses heat to bind the ink and fabric together. A post on prodigi describes it as follows: “The inks that are used turn into gas when brought under heat, then combine with the fabric and permanently print onto the fabric.” They compare it to a tattoo.
One thing to think about if you are considering trying this type of printing; the printer should only be used with sublimation inks. Fortunately, the cost of the equipment is relatively low. I bought an Epson ET-2800 printer and an Offnova heat press machine for less than $300 total. Of course, you can spend hundreds of dollars if you want products with more features.
Continue readingNear the ocean’s shore, wind and water create ephemeral works of art
Ebbs and flows peel away the earth’s surface to reveal its hidden brilliance
A rough Painted Hills trail meanders ahead
Curving towards colorful hills of mystery
Cutting through foliage, shriveled and dead
Through an ancient landscape filled with history
Covered with ash spewed by Cascade volcanoes
Compacted, sculpted into hillside rainbows
Layered with varied stripes of red, green, and gold
Reminders of climates, hot, humid, and cold
Jo’s Monday Walk (JMW)
What’s so special about the metropolis of Thermopolis? It’s a great place to stay to see several amazing attractions nearby.
Thermopolis is a small city located in central Wyoming. In 2020, its population was 2,725. Its name means “hot city” in Greek. Here’s a view of it in the distance from Hot Springs State Park. Though I didn’t take pictures of the downtown, the sights within and near the city are very photogenic.
As you can see in the photo below, they proudly advertise their hot springs. “World’s Largest Mineral Hot Spring” is spelled out in big white lettering. Visitors can pay to soak in two commercial hot springs or soak for free in the state-owned State Bath House.
We stayed in our campervan for much of our recent multi-state trip, but our driver needed a break, so we stayed in a Thermopolis hotel for a couple of nights.
The view from a Badlands bench in Badlands National Park, South Dakota.
Why are they called the Badlands? The Lakota name for this place is mako sica, which translates to “bad lands.” Later, when early French fur trappers moved through this land, they called it les mauvaises terres a traveser, which means “bad lands to travel across.”
Hot, dry summers and cold, windy winters, combined with few sources of water, make this an inhospitable environment. During times of heavy rainfall, the soil becomes slick and sticky. The jagged mountains and canyons are hard to navigate through. Though evidence of Indigenous people hunting in this area has been found, it was used seasonally, not year-round.
We were at this Badlands bench scenic viewpoint in the beginning of June, early in the morning. Temperatures were already in the low 90s. It must get really hot in the middle of summer. The layered mountains are photogenic, probably even more so after a good rain.
Garden art may be realistic and small
Or tall and abstract, casting striking shadows
You may hear garden art bark from the shadows cast by trees
Continue readingIn the moments before dawn,
Light from a single star
Awakens the spirit
Hidden within
Slumbering winter trees
Today I’m sharing an apple drawing I did using the stipple technique with pen-and-ink. I used hundreds of tiny dots of ink to portray this red delicious apple.
Most of the time when I’m working on a final version of a drawing, I work on it from start to finish. However, when I’m doing a stipple drawing, I often take breaks. Sometimes I go back to it the next day. You have to concentrate on not overlapping dots in most of the drawing. If you’re too hyper or too tired, you will mess up. I was happy how this drawing turned out after working on it for a couple of days.
To go with the drawing, I’m sharing a photograph I took of a red delicious apple. For this portrait, I used the Food setting on my Samsung Galaxy phone. I like how it blurred the background. It reminded me I should experiment more with other settings on my phone.
Continue readingI was driving near my house early one morning when I saw this sight. It was a hawk eating breakfast on the road.
I had interrupted a Red-tailed Hawk while it was feasting on a rabbit or hare. The local Black-billed Magpies appeared out of nowhere to get the leftovers.
As you can see, if you zoom in, the magpie pictured below was moving at a speed of 0 MPH. 😉
The hawk wisely decided to move its breakfast off the road.
A colorful daylily trail in the Oregon Garden in Silverton, Oregon.
These perennials have showy, long-lasting flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Daylilies grow well in full sun to partial shade.
Here’s a closer view of violet purple daylilies with bright yellow throats. I’m not sure what variety of daylily this is, but I loved its ruffled edges.
Sounds of wild creatures, the large and the small,
Pulling our attention, leaving us enthralled
Small Black-throated Sparrows pause and perch high
Singing unforgettable melodies to deep azure skies
Large Wild Turkeys graze and promenade
Chortling calls rise, then fall in cascades
This handsome mule deer buck was searching for a sweetheart in my front yard.
Wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day, filled with love (and chocolate)!
Paddling beneath the clouds
Floating lacelike
Over lakes of lifegiving water
Puffs of pale exhalations
Follow meandering rivers
The spirit of a sea creature living on, forever guarding its seaside home
Fiery red maple leaves, trembling in autumn’s cool showers
The edges of never-ending books, revealing themselves on rolling hillsides
Continue readingToday I’m showing a few pen-and-ink vine maple drawings I created. Years ago, I took a Scientific Illustration course during spring quarter at the University of Washington.
The teacher had us take a cutting from a tree or shrub and place it into a glass of water. I clipped off a piece of vine maple, Acer circinatum, growing in my yard. Each week, we drew the twig using a different technique. The twigs leafed out a little more throughout the course. I thought it was one of the most clever teaching ideas I’d ever seen.
The first drawing shows a vine maple line drawing with varying weights of line. With certain nibs, if you press down the line becomes heavier. This is a view of blooms close up.
The second drawing shows the stipple technique. It takes a steady hand to do all those tiny dots of ink.
Elk sculpture in snow at High Desert Museum, Bend, Oregon with infrared processing.
a placid ocean
embraces rocky seastacks
sculptures of the wild
Today I’m featuring quotes related to snow next to snowy pictures taken in my yard. Winter has finally arrived here in Bend, Oregon.
A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder.
Susan Orlean
Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
