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State of the Artist
Sep. 2nd, 2013 06:43 pmIt's been another week so it's time for the State Statement, eh. In some ways a lot more of the same, and yet there are other things this time around too. It is now September and while one manner of thinking may be totally psychological, the feel is real to me. Still just as hot as it's been, middle 30's and feeling like upper 30's. However, the quality changes; no longer quite so uncomfortable, no longer. The Dog Days of Summer are breaking, and cooler times are ahead.
Meanwhile, back at the Ranch I finished up a biddy box chicken tiller today. The top and bottom pieces of this I cut back in June, then other projects seemed to raise their heads and threaten us so the two pieces sat on the back deck of Studio. Wire fabric isn't much, you know, yet it does occupy space and it does create a barrier and there it sat. Now these two pieces are assembled with 60 cm high 1x2 cm wire fabric, with a top hatch in place.
This is for young chicks, those hatched out by Herself in her incubator, as they get bigger. Big enough to need more space, small enough to be at some risk to night-time and day-time predators such as fox, hawk, owl, even possibly coyote. The gap in the side walls is small, no paws reaching through. And while the gap in the top is larger, not so large to allow admission to any of the above. When the young birds are big enough that they could be reached through the top, it's time for them to move into a full-sized chicken tiller.
In the past two days we've also sold five goats, all young doelings. Four went to a gentleman who's wanted to buy some of ours before (he came by with a friend then, who did buy) but couldn't afford them quite yet. He is adding to an existing small herd, and very happy to do so. The fifth, today, went to a youngster starting 4H and she will be hand-raising this goat. Todays then is younger than the other four, still not quite weaned (though she is weaned from Mom now, eh) and so we also sent along some goat milk to help the transition.
LittleJon Deere needs a new front tyre, I suspect these may well be the original tyres on this tractor and while tread doesn't show much wear, sidewalls will and that's what failed. This tyre's been leaking since we got him, and I've been refilling him regularly. The last fill I did with stop-leak but that didn't help, or maybe it did and the failure point is a different problem. The failure is a tear on the midline sidewall, nearly 10 cm long, so a good sized tear. It's dead Jim.
A few months ago I mentioned I purchased an app for the iPhone to assemble photographs into a larger panoramic shot. The app is AutoStitch, and I've been experimenting with it somewhat regularly. The current OS level for the iPhone provides the means to do panoramas, but (and here's the key point for me) only in one plane. As in, a series of overlapping photographs along a single line.
AutoStitch allows me to do more of a mosaic of shots, if one will, adding height as well as width to the final concept. This intrigues me because neither the app nor the camera care what the mosaic is; I can photograph scenic panoramas or I can do a panorama of a bodyscape.
The app is fairly simple to use; take the photos either with the camera itself, or through the app. If done with the camera, choose 'Select Photos' to select the ones desired to assemble into the panorama. The default settings for resolution are fairly middle of the road, I usually re-choose a higher resolution and re-assemble the images. As it's working, it provides a brief overview and then tells you how many of the images were used in the final cut. Sometimes things just don't seem to fit so the app won't use those.
I've done some urban ones, but the two I'm going to show are both from here at home, just so I get to say Meanwhile Back At the Ranch...
Storm Over KP Ranch
Storm Over KP Ranch by *madshutterbug on deviantART
This one (actually, both of them) are single-plane panoramas. Storm is one of the first I did, out in the evening to feed the Cows making rounds with Houdini. We still had to feed the Horses & Truffles the Pig after the Cows, so there may be some wonder that I took time to shoot the three or so images that went into this panorama.
Spectrum Interruptus
Spectrum Interuptus by *madshutterbug on deviantART
Again out feeding, this time without so much overhead threat. Turned to the east away from sundown and saw... indeed, the spectrum interrupted across the top of the arc. I suspect heavy clouds between sun and that portion of the spectrum, I do.
Overall so far I'm happy with what I've done. Another step in the experimentation will be to compare the same set of images more or less hand-assembled into panoramas using Gimp yet much the same as when I used Photoshop.®
Both of these are hosted on Deviant Art as noted; I'm still contemplating whether or not I'll keep using Flickr. There's a lot going on there, changes in how the site presents, stores, charges. Not the least thing going on is the number of images I store there for viewing. That's another story and issue though, not for this week.
Meanwhile, back at the Ranch I finished up a biddy box chicken tiller today. The top and bottom pieces of this I cut back in June, then other projects seemed to raise their heads and threaten us so the two pieces sat on the back deck of Studio. Wire fabric isn't much, you know, yet it does occupy space and it does create a barrier and there it sat. Now these two pieces are assembled with 60 cm high 1x2 cm wire fabric, with a top hatch in place.
This is for young chicks, those hatched out by Herself in her incubator, as they get bigger. Big enough to need more space, small enough to be at some risk to night-time and day-time predators such as fox, hawk, owl, even possibly coyote. The gap in the side walls is small, no paws reaching through. And while the gap in the top is larger, not so large to allow admission to any of the above. When the young birds are big enough that they could be reached through the top, it's time for them to move into a full-sized chicken tiller.
In the past two days we've also sold five goats, all young doelings. Four went to a gentleman who's wanted to buy some of ours before (he came by with a friend then, who did buy) but couldn't afford them quite yet. He is adding to an existing small herd, and very happy to do so. The fifth, today, went to a youngster starting 4H and she will be hand-raising this goat. Todays then is younger than the other four, still not quite weaned (though she is weaned from Mom now, eh) and so we also sent along some goat milk to help the transition.
LittleJon Deere needs a new front tyre, I suspect these may well be the original tyres on this tractor and while tread doesn't show much wear, sidewalls will and that's what failed. This tyre's been leaking since we got him, and I've been refilling him regularly. The last fill I did with stop-leak but that didn't help, or maybe it did and the failure point is a different problem. The failure is a tear on the midline sidewall, nearly 10 cm long, so a good sized tear. It's dead Jim.
A few months ago I mentioned I purchased an app for the iPhone to assemble photographs into a larger panoramic shot. The app is AutoStitch, and I've been experimenting with it somewhat regularly. The current OS level for the iPhone provides the means to do panoramas, but (and here's the key point for me) only in one plane. As in, a series of overlapping photographs along a single line.
AutoStitch allows me to do more of a mosaic of shots, if one will, adding height as well as width to the final concept. This intrigues me because neither the app nor the camera care what the mosaic is; I can photograph scenic panoramas or I can do a panorama of a bodyscape.
The app is fairly simple to use; take the photos either with the camera itself, or through the app. If done with the camera, choose 'Select Photos' to select the ones desired to assemble into the panorama. The default settings for resolution are fairly middle of the road, I usually re-choose a higher resolution and re-assemble the images. As it's working, it provides a brief overview and then tells you how many of the images were used in the final cut. Sometimes things just don't seem to fit so the app won't use those.
I've done some urban ones, but the two I'm going to show are both from here at home, just so I get to say Meanwhile Back At the Ranch...
Storm Over KP Ranch
Storm Over KP Ranch by *madshutterbug on deviantART
This one (actually, both of them) are single-plane panoramas. Storm is one of the first I did, out in the evening to feed the Cows making rounds with Houdini. We still had to feed the Horses & Truffles the Pig after the Cows, so there may be some wonder that I took time to shoot the three or so images that went into this panorama.
Spectrum Interruptus
Spectrum Interuptus by *madshutterbug on deviantART
Again out feeding, this time without so much overhead threat. Turned to the east away from sundown and saw... indeed, the spectrum interrupted across the top of the arc. I suspect heavy clouds between sun and that portion of the spectrum, I do.
Overall so far I'm happy with what I've done. Another step in the experimentation will be to compare the same set of images more or less hand-assembled into panoramas using Gimp yet much the same as when I used Photoshop.®
Both of these are hosted on Deviant Art as noted; I'm still contemplating whether or not I'll keep using Flickr. There's a lot going on there, changes in how the site presents, stores, charges. Not the least thing going on is the number of images I store there for viewing. That's another story and issue though, not for this week.
