Old enough to try

Posted by on 9 May ’12 6 comments

Aging hasn’t brought me wisdom, merely a new (and often fleeting) freedom to try new ventures. When the app Paper appeared last month, my spouse even had a bamboo stylus to lend. No excuses. I like it so much that I might (finally) read Betty Edward’s book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and take a course. Or ten. And then practice, of course, as my sibling reminded me.

Bonnie writes, when I asked how she knew just where to end a line or curve,
“…practice, practice, practice. And being paid to draw eight hours a day for eight years at the Denver Post, followed by twenty hours a day as a freelancer…”

Plus, Bonnie majored in art at college.

But before college, I have memories of Bonnie, very, very young, drawing while spread out on the floor. Age four or five? Clearly genes and aptitude play a large role in talent, not merely practice. While that missing gene or aptitude has held me back from trying in the past, why not just play now?

Bonnie drew this for me when I asked for help conveying a desire to travel, yet feeling old memories of maternal restrictions:

©Illustration by Bonnie Timmons, on iPad and using Paper app

© Illustration by Bonnie Timmons, on iPad and using Paper app

And then my first attempts (while not at the level of my sibling nor David Hockney using the iPad nor the remarkable Katy Gilmore), what the heck, eh?

Nearsighted drawing, by Jan Timmons

Nearsighted and off-kilter

Lookee here for real artists using Paper.

Speaking of real artists, I’ve read laments by ‘real photographers’ about digital cameras and Instagram and iphone cameras and apps, and how so many photos look similar now, lacking the composition and attention to detail. I’ve allowed those laments to affect me. I wonder if genuine artists who’ve studied art and painting and trained for years will soon lament iOS apps similarly? Does doubt keep you from trying new things?

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Red

Posted by on 7 May ’12 4 comments

vibrant red, photos by Jan Timmons (click to see larger image)

Vibrant reds; photos by ©Jan Timmons compiled on iPad (click to see large image)


Where has this hue hidden for so many decades?
Photos combined using the ‘My Album’ app and Bamboo stylus on iPad.

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Beginnings and endings or endings and beginnings

Posted by on 26 Mar ’12 3 comments

Picnic table begins to bloom out of snow, photo by Jan Timmons

Picnic table begins to emerge after a snowy winter, photo by Jan Timmons


A picnic table in nearby woods begins to appear. (Slight crop, only.) With longer days of sun, the snow has begun to compress and buried items emerge. Snowfall broke all records this season with approximately 134 inches or 11.16 feet/ 3.4 meters — a remarkable sight and experience since so little of the snow melted during the past six months.

I’ve loved seeing and walking (where possible) in the clean, white snow all winter. Truly in my element. Spring will come when it does. We might have floods in some areas. A lot of the breakup won’t look attractive, but the wildlife will have an easier time foraging for food.

And, in my element, I find myself taking more photos, yet less inclined to post. Or to comment, I’m sorry to admit. Longterm friends, even virtual ones, shouldn’t be abandoned after all this time.

Most of all, I wish you well.

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Celebrating spring in Alaska!

Posted by on 19 Mar ’12 4 comments

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”
~John Ruskin (1819 – 1900) English critic

Spring poster, iphone photo by Jan Timmons

Spring poster, iphone photo by Jan Timmons

Daffies indoors and beautiful clean DEEP snow outside. A perfect spring. (Why grump about something over which we have no control, eh?) Joy. Peace (and some slight concern about where all of this snow will go when or if it melts). We set vases of tulips and the vivid daffodils in several rooms. Such vivid hues against the snow outside delight my eye and spirit.

Daffodils indoors, photo by Jan Timmons, Nikon D700_JAN1576

Daffodils indoors, photo by Jan Timmons


Nikon D700, Nikon VR 105mm f/2.8G, 105mm, f/3, 1/100s, manual everything, matrix, ISO 200 (native ISO for D700). Converted from RAW (14 bit) to jpeg using Nikon’s Capture NX 2.

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Imagine this

Posted by on 15 Mar ’12 2 comments

Imagine a photo of vivid red plump strawberries. Mouthwatering. Taken in bright natural light on a clear background—perhaps white.

And where is this photo, you might wonder. As part of an answer, you might peruse some 940 pages of strawberries photos on istockphoto. Or 49,400,000 results googling the word “strawberries” — photos of strawberries in all configurations.

Thus, why post the few I photographed? What could I possibly contribute that’s unique, different, or all-time best photo in the entire world? Where everyone gasps in awe! And yet, do I not post things here to please myself? Solely for my own satisfaction, since one cannot predict another’s response?

To ponder this, I took Tok for a romp in the snow. We found three kids trying to create a ramp for their bone-defying snowboard leap. Now that photo might have looked unique — if I’d brought my camera and if the grey light had lifted to allow a tiny bit of contrast and a possible action shot. A story, even, if one of the boys flew off the aluminum bench/ramp at an unusual angle.

But I headed home with the pooch, after asking one of the boys if he had a cell phone. I didn’t want to dampen their enthusiasm as the concerned adult, but the scene looked ripe for an orthopedist.

Thus, speaking of ripe, that’s why no strawberry photo, beautiful as they looked. How to convey something new?

Hmm, and yet I can can photograph countless fountain pens and notebooks, and enjoy looking at other’s photos.

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Sunset on the Chugach range

Posted by on 7 Mar ’12 5 comments

Sunset and the Chugach mountain range, ©photo by Jan Timmons_JAN1359

Sunset and the Chugach mountain range, ©photo by Jan Timmons


The vast mountain ranges of Alaska inspire me. Peace, quiet, and ever-changing light just out the front door. (Almost. Only a ten-minute drive to hiking distance.) Winter light thrills me. The luminosity (when the sun appears) makes me smile.

I balanced on top of a huge pile of snow while Tok waited at my feet for what seemed like seconds, but time slipped away–just one more shot..one more moment of joy.

Nikon D700, Nikkor 70-300mm, slight curves, f/11, 122 mm, adjusted white balance to lessen blue snow and make the shot appear as I saw it. Click on image twice to see at 1024 pixel width.

March 6, 2012

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“I love snow, snow, and all the forms of radiant frost.”

Posted by on 6 Mar ’12 1 comment
Redpoll fluffs up in the snow, photo by Jan Timmons_JAN0338

Redpoll fluffs up in the snow, photo by Jan Timmons

Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the major English Romantic poets, penned,
“I love snow, snow, and all the forms of radiant frost.”

I do, too. However, snowfall continues here into March and we look to break all records with 130 inches/ 330.2 cm (10 ft /3.302 m)of largely unpacked powder for the season (and that’s just in the city). I doubt this “Common Redpoll” (Carduelis flammea) and the mammals hunting for food love this much snow.

And I’m beginning to wonder where all of this snow will go once or if it begins to melt, frozen drains and sewers usually the last to thaw. I’ll buy 100 hair-dryers for the street drain near us.

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Evening letters on an antique Royal typewriter

Posted by on 3 Mar ’12 3 comments

Antique Royal typewriter, photo by Jan Timmons-7.19.2011_JAN5619

Antique Royal typewriter, pen, and Mark Twain compendium, photo by Jan Timmons



Our antique Royal typewriter, a Mark Twain book of letters, and evening light, with lots of shallow depth of field.

The following quote is often misattributed to Mark Twain (I know I have done so):
“I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had time to make it shorter.”

Apparently Blaise Pascal (1623-62), 17th-century French philosopher and mathematician, wrote this in a letter to a friend. The original French version was: "Je n'ai fait cette lettre - ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte".

Photo info: Slight curves on (Hemingway’s?) antique Royal typewriter, only, using Capture NX to lighten dark typewriter.
Nikon D700, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8, f/5.6, 1/250s, Manfrotto tripod, evening light, bounced SB 800 off reflector, and one softbox. Converted from RAW (14 bit) to jpeg using Nikon’s Capture NX 2.
(Someone asked for a smaller aperture in order to see more of the antique typewriter than the version I posted last August.)

A larger view of the color/colour version (with more shallow depth of field) is available now at Flickr.com.

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“What will I do when you are far away, and I am blue…”

Posted by on 29 Feb ’12 7 comments

Tok on stairs, iphone photo by Jan Timmons, 2.29.2012

Tok on stairs, iphone photo by Jan Timmons, 2.29.2012


“When I’m alone
With only dreams of you
That won’t come true
What’ll I do?”

Thanks to Irving Berlin’s 1923 song, “What’ll I Do?”, and the version that I first heard and that still haunts me, Harry Nilsson’s rendition, “What’ll I Do?” from his 1973 album, “A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night”. YouTube version

Do dogs mourn? Do they feel the loss of the dog with whom they lived? Is Tok sad? I know he feels the absence, or notes the absence of our older female Lab — the alpha female in the family.

We give him extra attention and try to give more walks, although the continuing snow and depth of that snow in many areas make walking difficult.

Oh, B. I miss you. I’m sorry you had to suffer pain.

And now I worry about Tok and spouse and everyone! Memento mori.

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“U.S. Health Care: The Good News”

Posted by on 24 Feb ’12 No comments

A recent show that aired on PBS gave me new hope about health care and health insurance in the US. The show, entitled “U.S. Health Care: The Good News | with correspondent T.R. Reid” might air again; I encourage you to check PBS listings, or you might be able to watch the video here.

Briefly:
‘One small community in the Colorado oil patch delivers the highest value-for-the-money health care in the United States. How do they do it? Could other communities do it, too? Correspondent T.R. Reid interviews health policy experts at the Dartmouth Institute before heading to Colorado and other places. All over the country, Mr. Reid finds doctors and hospitals who are working hard to provide excellent care at reasonable cost, and sometimes to nearly everyone in town.’

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Speak out!

Posted by on 23 Feb ’12 No comments

I'm a survivor. www.violenceunsilenced.com
February 2012 marks the third anniversary of Violence UnSilenced, thanks to Maggie Ginsberg-Schutz, a city magazine journalist and freelance writer based in Wisconsin. After her experience researching victims, she felt moved by the empowerment she witnessed when survivors spoke out, and the unexpected gifts that followed. She founded Violence UnSilenced to give survivors a public voice, and hopes to help eradicate the silence surrounding domestic violence, sexual abuse, and rape.

I am a survivor.

The end of May this year will mark the seventh year since my mother died. That means that I can speak out a little more freely. I didn’t want to cause unnecessary pain after so many decades. And my sibling’s story is her own. We don’t discuss this.

But I am a survivor. Not of rape. Sexual abuse doesn’t have to mean rape. Inappropriate fondling of a child and teenager is abuse. And an abuser places blame and responsibility on the child or teenager.

“I thought you liked it,” he said.

The silence and shame that caused still exists, and that’s part of the longterm emotional abuse. “Shhh, don’t tell your mother.”

Who would have believed me back in the ’70s? Or ’80s? Even in this decade, if you’ve not experienced any form of longterm sexual abuse (or short term), sexual assault, or domestic violence, chances are that you’ll want to avoid hearing or reading about it, or just can’t believe it.

Or so I’ve experienced.

Take care of your children! Take care of your own secrets! Speak out so that your experiences don’t eat at you, make you ill, anxious, depressed, and suicidal. Don’t let the darkness that surrounds sexual molestation continue — please!

Keeping the secret(s) for years/decades felt excruciating. But now I can speak. I hope this helps others, and those victims who will follow, inevitably. I know it helps me feel less alone, a little.

For resources, go here.

No comments necessary. (I understand.)

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Reflections on photography

Posted by on 23 Jan ’12 No comments

I discovered a wonderful photo site called PhotoReflect. The site, of course, existed long before my discovery.

Tony Boughen has much talent as a photographer, and in his blog of “Photographs and reflections from Lincolnshire, England”, shows and describes the sights and how he photographs them. Articulate, contemplative thoughts with a bit of how-to and exif data that I so enjoy.

Worth a look. And, if your memory and website bookmarks overflow with desirable places to return, Tony has added a “Follow by Email” widget/plugin. If only I had one of those for so many things in real life. Perhaps there’s an app for that — beyond writing notes on my hand in indelible ink.

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