Ramble Ramble

As a little treat, how bout some pictures today? We haven’t had enough of those around here lately, due to my extreme laziness about photo editing, but I finally made myself sit down and pull out some of my photos from Christmas. Wait, wait! Before you run off, no they’re not Christmas photos. I know everyone’s pretty over the holidays at this point.

Instead, they’re photos of things like horses and cats and tractors (but in the abstract). My mom has married into a ranching type family–they raise and train quarterhorses, have some cattle, goats, etc. Apparently there’s even a bull who’s calm enough to be ridden like a horse?? Anyway, these shots are from that world, one much different from my Southern California city-fied life.

This makes me think of the pushmi-pullyu from the old Dr. Doolittle movie. Anyone remember that movie?

This one isn’t totally in focus, but I loved the composition of this barn cat against this bright blue background. I just wish my skills were better to truly make this shot.

This was one of many warning signs around the place. I dunno, they kept telling me the bull was pretty docile, but frankly, those things are huge and ummm, this sign didn’t do much to calm my nerves.

Another barn cat, though this guy apparently doesn’t do as much work in the barn as some of the others. Honestly, most of the time we saw him he was asleep…asleep on the lawn, on the roof of the car, under the car, in the bed of the truck, on the front porch…well you get the idea.

Something about this image is so cool to me. The colors, the rust spots, the cracks in the paint, the faded lettering, plus the composition just sort of make it really interesting to look at.

And finally, an ode to my mood as of late. This cow did NOT want us hanging out in her pen taking pictures of her and her friends, and she did not waste any time in telling us. Her ornery response was to tell us so in no uncertain terms. I’ve been feeling a bit ornery lately myself, so I thought she should have a place on my blog, even though the photo isn’t all that special (not that I want you all to go away! I love you all! I just wish some of the rest of life would go away).

I’m going to get back into the swing of photography things around here soon, I promise. Hopefully posting these photos will be the kick in the pants I need to make that happen.

The newest Exposaroonie Challenge is up, and this time they were asking for our favorite photo of 2008. Um, just one?

2008 was the year I got into photography. It was the year I got my camera. It was the year I started shooting everything under the sun. I have a lot of favorites, for so many different reasons, that I thought it was going to be hard to pick.

But in the end, I came back to this photo. It’s probably not the best one I’ve ever done. I know I’ve got photos with more interesting subjects, better composition, etc.

But this photo was taken maybe 2-3 weeks after I got my camera, and I remember being amazed that I got such a crisp, tight macro shot. The colors on this photo haven’t been adjusted, I didn’t crop it, this is SOC. What you see is what my camera captured, exactly, on that September day.

And so, in the end, I chose this photo because it was one of the very first photos that gave me any kind of confidence as a photographer: confidence in my ability to use the camera, confidence in my ability to see interesting colorful subjects, confidence that I may have picked a hobby I might be ok at.

You should head over to Exposaroonie and check out the other submissions–there are some stunning photos. Of course, I’d love if you voted for mine!

This holiday is totally kicking my ass. I feel like everything sort of rushed up and caught me off guard about this Christmas, and even though I have my Christmas shopping 99% done, I’m still kind of overwhelmed by it all.

Add to that a general lack of Christmas spirit, and it’s been a weird holiday for me. I’m not normally this bah-humbugy. And frankly, it’s kind of bothering me.

So last night, I made N.C. take me to the San Diego Wild Animal Park to check out their Festival of Lights (courtesy of passes from the darling Single in San Diego, who is no longer in San Diego). This is the last year that the park is having this event, so it was a double win–a last chance opportunity for something kind of cool, and something to hopefully kick start my holiday cheer.

For anyone who hasn’t ever been to or heard of the San Diego Wild Animal Park, it’s a different kind of zoo. Most of the animals have enormous enclosures to run around in rather than a typical cage. There’s a whole area where giraffes and rhinos and gazelles and the like wander freely over about a 2 mile “enclosure”. A 3 acre area for the African elephants. 2.5 acres for Asian elephants. You know, that kind of thing.

So the weird thing about the Festival of Lights was wandering around the park after dark. Seeing the glint of the lion’s eyes, even though you can’t really make out their bodies. Seeing 3 cheetahs maybe 20 feet from you…separated by a narrow ditch and about 2 feet of rope…in the dark! Hearing the gorillas, but not being able to see them at all since there were no lights in that area of the park.* As N.C. kept saying, there was something a little Jurassic Park about the whole thing. But it was definitely cool.

This photo is horrible, but I still feel compelled to share it with you all.

It was also very cool to see all the stuff they set up for the kids–face painting, sand art stations, make your own Christmas wrapping, toasted marshmallows (Um, yeah, we totally got on board with that one), etc, etc. Seeing all the kids running around, and all the lights definitely helped my Christmas spirit.

That’s not to say some of the lights weren’t hysterical.

Like this one.

Because nothing says the holidays like a giant tarantula.

Or an elephant shooting sparks from its trunk.

But that’s ok, because the S.S. Santa was festive enough for everyone!

*I tried to get pictures of the animals but 1) I have no tripod and 2) the animals were too far away for my flash to do anything other than illuminate their eyes in the creepiest way and 3) I suck at taking photos at night, with or without my flash. I’m working on it, but kind of feel like until I have the tripod, it’s a wasted effort. So yeah, these photos all kind of suck, but at least they’re something!

I liked the photo of the rusty screw so much that I’m submitting it for the December Greeblepix contest. I’ve checked out some of the other work and OMG, there is some talent over there, so I have no delusions of winning the fantastic prize. But still, I like this photo and it needs a home on some other challenge page, so there you go. But really? You should go check out the other fantastic entries–there’s some awe-inspiring work being shared!

Well, there was a CLEAR winner in my poll about which photo you guys liked for the Texture challenge at Exposaroonie:

I must say, I was a little surprised…N.C. and I were sure that the rusty screw would prevail, so it was interesting to see how thoroughly this image whomped that one. In looking back though, there’s soooo much texture in this shot that you guys have swayed me that it is the best choice for the challenge. Be sure to head over to Exposaroonie sometime soon and vote for your favorite!

Today will be spent prepping for, and having, the big sale at N.C.’s studio–it’s our first sale in a while, so there’s a lot lot lot to do! Basically we’re offering up pretty much every piece of art on some sort of discount, which means there are about 50 fine art pieces (some of which you can see in the link to his site), and countless drawings, prints, sketches, small watercolors, etc. We’ve been in pricing hell all week, so here’s hoping it pays off.

*brief interruption for shameless sales pitch here* We’re offering the holiday sale pricing on N.C.’s work to everyone online also. We don’t have the prices up on the site (frankly, I just couldn’t get around to it with everything else that was going on), but we seriously have works available from $10 (sketches & drawings) and up. If you are interested in any art for your holiday gifts (or yourself), just email me at ginger (at) rambleramble (dot) com and we can talk pricing. A large chunk of the work available for under $50 isn’t on the site, but if that’s your price range, email me and we’ll work something out. Just email me names of some of your favorites from N.C.’s gallery, and we can figure out what you’d enjoy. *end sales pitch*

Oh, and if you live in the San Diego area, feel free to come out to Distinction Gallery from 6pm-11pm tonight (Saturday) and check out all the art–there’s a new show opening and 13 other artist studios which will all be open–it should be a good night! Plus, I’d love to meet you!