Heartland Views

This old boy is really haunting me. I worked on him all afternoon. Hopefully it was worth the effort. This is one of my first attempts to find some hidden black and white treasures in my image stash. This is not as easy as I thought it would be. But then, most good things take a lot of work. The color version of this image is called “Sky Rider.” It is in my flickr collection. I think this version is fascinating. As I have often noted, if you look closely, you can see a man on a horse in this image. I tried to ride a horse once many years ago. That is the last time I will do that! From here on in, I will be happy just taking photos of these wonderful animals, even when they take on the look of a ghost rider.

Fidelity, originally uploaded by Heartland Views.

This is one of those good news/bad news moments. The good news is that I have finally managed to upload most of my photographs to Flickr. This is a wonderful photo sharing site that I ignored for far too long.You can find my Flickr photostream by just clicking on the photo badge to the left of this post. The bad news is this image is a very good representation of how my mind feels right now after uploading my photos to Flickr. If you have a chance, I would really enjoy hearing what you think of my latest venture into the deep dark world of social media.

It is hard to believe, but there was a break in the weather for two days in a row. I had to take advantage of this by shooting another sunset from my deck. This image, if you look very closely in the center, captures a jet flying high overhead. As one who has a well established fear of flying, it should come as no surprise to hear that this is my favorite view of an airplane. This image reminds me of my son-in-law John, who is an airline pilot. He is a first class individual, a man who asks for so little and gives so much. Who knows, maybe some day I might dig up enough courage to actually take a ride on his airplane. In the meantime, however, I will happily keep my feet on the ground as I look for a red-flight making its mark on the heartland skies.

I read an outstanding article recently on how one can find hidden treasures in one’s color archives if one is willing to work with the same images in black and white. After I read this, I went back to one of my signature color images and ran it through my favorite black and white conversion software plug-in. This is what emerged from that quick conversion. It looks like I have a lot of new images to work on in the coming weeks…which is wonderful news given the miserable weather we have had for the past couple of months.

Here are two quick thoughts. First, we had our monthly Second Fridays art event in Council Bluffs Iowa. As always it was a good time for all. I had the pleasure of meeting several good folks. In addition, my patrons were on hand, supporting me as they have for so many months. Once again, I would like to thank you for your generous and continuing support! Second thought, I read an article the other day stating that one should have a Unique Selling Point (USP) to help promote one’s artistic career. With that in mind, I came up with my USP which will be on my new business card. Here is a preview of my new card and my new USP. This USP is an homage to one of my favorite characters. My wife could not figure this out. I thought it was obvious. Hopefully you will read well between the lines…the top two lines…to know what I had in mind when I designed my new card.

Greetings from the snowbound. I am writing this on yet another day of day of moderate snows, cloudy skies, and an overall sense of the madness one must experience when the weather becomes a prime cause of frustration and depression. There are very few minuses associated with living in the country. But being trapped for days on end by a never-ending blanket of snow and ice is one thing that will drive a person over the edge. So, as a way to break out of this funk, my wife and I went to our local grocery store when a break in the weather appeared. As soon as I got there, I went over to the flower bin and began my search for something to shoot. I found this bunch sitting silently behind the annual rose petal price gouging plants all arrayed for Valentine’s Day. As soon as I saw this bunch, I knew I had to have it. Now a day later, I believe I made a wise selection. It was a real treat to work on this one. I am not so frustrated after making this image. You might say that I satisfied my “Desire.”

At long last, Second Fridays is back on February 12. We missed the January event because of bad weather. Hopefully this time we will get a break. I am really looking forward to this event. There is nothing so fine as hanging out with some of my artist friends and on a Friday evening. I will be the 109 Pearl Street building. If you have a moment, I know that we all would enjoy seeing you. I am attaching the official poster for February. I wish I had shot this myself. I really like the image. And if you think Jeri’s necklace looks good here, you will really be impressed when you see it in person!