Old Barn in Berea, Kentucky

On the way back to Lexington, the sky had some really nice clouds, but being the middle of the day the sky was a little washed out. While driving in circles on the back roads, trying to track down a location on my GPS, I spotted this old barn and silo and knew it would look great in infrared. I circled back and pulled out my infrared modified Canon 30D and fired fired off a couple shots, actually a series of images that could be stitched together as a horizontal, or vertical panorama, or as just a standard 4×6 aspect photo.

I loaded it to my laptop that night and made a few quick edits, and came up with the above image. This image is actually a stitch of 3 images from top to bottom. I think it turned out pretty nice.

The Wyoming Art Show is Greater Cincinnati’s premiere juried art show & Competition.
150 Artists from 7 states show & sell their art under the tree-lined streets of historic Wyoming, Ohio.
Over $4,500 in competition prizes awarded.
FREE parking, FREE admission, FREE children’s art activities.
Food Court featuring local restaurants

Above is one of the prints I delivered. It was shot early last year during one of the small ice storms we had. At the time I was recovering from a back injury, but the potential for great photos was too high for me to pass up. I almost had to crawl to get the shot. Needless to say, it was a very cold night and the freezing rain was still falling when I arrived at the Union Terminal. The ground was covered with ice making walking difficult, but add to that a herniated disk, a bag of camera gear, camera, a tripod, and the loss of the ability to balance myself and then you’re really having some fun. I ended up using my tripod as a crutch and managed to make my way from where I parked my car on a side street, along the fence, across the front of the grounds and to the driveway where I took this shot.

After about an hour, I managed to make my way back to my car safely though I was wet and covered in ice. I only fell twice if I remember correctly. I found out it was less painful to just fall down than to try to “catch” my balance which hurt my back. I had on enough layers of winter clothing to cushion a fall. Like most photographers, I fall with my hands up to protect my gear, so i wasn’t too worried about damaging my camera. I think the shots from that night were worth it.

This image recently was given an Award of Excellence in the Java Jazz ‘n Art competition in New Richmond, Ohio. internationally acknowledged master of wildlife art, John Ruthven was the juror for this show, so this award takes on a special dimension and a huge honor. I grew up in Brown County, Ohio admiring John’s work, as he had a gallery in Georgetown, Ohio. http://www.johnruthvenart.com/

At art shows, I have had others compare it to my favorite artist, Charley Harper. This is a statement to the beauty in it’s simplicity, which was Charley’s forte. His graphic art reduced nature images to their simplest form, yet maintains the character of his subject. He called it “minimal realism.” He would say “I never count the feathers in the wings — I just count the wings.” Again, being compared to this great artists is a huge compliment, and one I don’t take lightly. http://charleyharperartstudio.com/

At art shows around Lexington, this image became quickly known as “Go Big Blue!” as the UK Wildcats fans pointed out that the Blue Jay has all those Cardinals outnumbered. . .

The image was shot at Cincinnati Nature Center early this year. My next popular image was shot just a few feet away, and could be called the rest of the story. “Fox in the Hen House” shows what all those Cardinals were waiting for. . .

Karen Deime mentions my work on her blog “music and art move me…” specifically my panoramic image of the Cincinnati Subway. Check out her blog from the link below:

music and art move me…

A nice photo of visitors browsing my print bins in my booth at Hyde Park appears on this blog:

Queen City Survey

And speaking of blogs, in case you haven’t found her yet, Sara Pierce is now doing double duty with 2 art blogs of her own:

Art 513

Craft Lust

Last week I submitted 4 prints to the NSS Print salon at the 2008 Convention in Florida. I was unable to attend due to the Kettering Art on the Commons and the Woodland Arts Fair on the weekends before and after. A friend delivered the prints for me and picked them up afterward. During much of the time Salon was going on, I was working on prints and artwork for the shows and didn’t have time to think about the competition. Friday, saturday, and Sunday were spent in Lexingto at the Woodlan Arts Fair, away from my computer. By the time we got home on Sunday night, I just crashed and didn’t go near my computer.

Monday morning I finaly got around to checking my e-mail and found out I won Best of Show in the B+W Print salon with my image “Cathedral Chasm”! My image, “Ick! Oil and Water Don’t Mix” received an honorable mention.

Though it did not place, my favorite image was a portrait of fellow caver, Bill Addington, called “Grizzly Addington.”

My image, “Caves of the Mind” was entered in the color Print Salon.

Just as our veins keep vital nutrients flowing through our bodies, cave systems function like that for out planet, allowing water, that sustains our planet to move from place to place below the surface.

An just like our bodies, garbage in equals garbage out.

Visually I am searching out and exploring these exciting comparisons, using images of caves and overlaying medical and structural images of the human body. The prints before you are using MRI images of spinal vertibrae and cranial scans overlayed cave passage shots.

This is the beginning of a series of images, to promote conservation, but not just for caves, but also for the whole planet. By making comparisions to something the viewer is intimately familiar with, their own body, I hope to promote personal awareness to their own impact, and the impact of those around them.

I had 3 prints accepted to the B+W Print salon, and 5 Prints in the Digital Print Salon. I’ll post more images as time allows.

Sunday at the Wyoming Art Show I won the “Best in Class” award for the Graphics, Photo, Print, and Mixed Media category for my photo, Darkness Rains. This image is from Buddha Christian Cave and was shot a few years ago.

It was a great show, with nice weather, and good sales. We met a lot of people and a got lots of great comments. I’m looking forward to Summerfair next week.

This was also the test run for our new booth design, after a lot of trial and error, we came up with a nice, functional design that showed my images very well. Several other vendors asked where they could buy one.