Hello my lovelies, I am back from my sojourn to the internet free zone and as such will be hosting Sunday Selections myself today. I am also in full blown procrastination mode as I have all this new work in my head that is demanding to be made and the studio needs a darn good clean, so I should get around to visit you all today.

The Blurb

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

The Photos

I spend a lot of time down at the river, fishing, fossicking and photographing the birds. I adore seagulls and I take endless photos of them. The Spouse calls them rats of the sky but he will also interrupt his fishing and  throw bread into the water for me so that I can photograph them on the wing.

On the drive up to Burnie last week as I came over the crest of a hill just before Devonport, I was smacked in the soul by the ocean. I giggled and squealed like a child and drove down to the beach, took off my shoes and walked barefoot on the rocks. I have a post half written about the impact seeing the ocean proper had on me.

On our last night in Burnie, three of us went down to the ocean with our cameras.

The Blurb

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy.

The Photos

I adore ladybirds, I remember being fascinated by these little insects as a small child and the fascination has not waned. I have hundreds of ladybird photos saved in various folders in my computer and I still go out to the honeysuckle and snap away for ages.

These photos all have something about them that appeal to me. They are not technically correct photos, my images never are, but I think these photos all have soul.

You often end up with deliberately blurry photos.

I had a photographic epiphany yesterday.

The Spouse and I went down to the river for a bit of a fish and it was bloody freezing. The wind coming off the water was icy and I spent most of the time hiding  in the car messing about with my camera.

I was using my standard 18-200mm lens on the camera. The lens was was set to auto focus, I had zoomed the lens all the way out, whilst I was sitting in the drivers seat and focusing on the rear view mirror. I had been messing about with a series of semi obscured self portraits when I took this photo and I was immediately struck by how interesting The Spouse looked in the background of the shot.

So I took another photo through the windscreen of the car. I extended the lens all the way and  focused on the floor of the car, I then reduced the zoom a bit and took the shot. When I saw this image I nearly wet myself with excitement. I love this image. It reminds me of something but I cant remember what it is.

I spent the next hour happily experimenting with how far I could reduce the zoom before the lens clicked into focus, I also accidentally took quite a few photos of the carpet on the floor of the car. I ended up with some beautiful images that I am really really pleased with.

Once I came home and saw that the images looked as good on the computer as they did in camera, I emailed the images to my daughter and Veronica as pragmatic as ever said, Mum, “if you set your lens to manual focus you can do the same thing.”  I then felt a bit silly and thought, “of course I could have done it that way, why didnt I think of that.” *doh*

But whichever way I captured the images, the images have captured me.

It is the smallest moments in my life that give me the greatest  joy.

Splitting wood is meditative work, the physical act of chopping the wood into bits is satisfying and time up at the woodpile is always time well spent.

There is always something to distract me once I am outside  and time slows down and becomes fluid, as the birds hop about the woodpile looking for their breakfast.

Dusky Robins and Grey Shrike Thrushes have learned that we mean food and it only takes three or four loud thwocks of the axe biting into the wood, to alert the birds to the fact that an easy meal is up for grabs.

Within minutes I have an audience, perched on the fence and on the handles of the wheelbarrow, all waiting for the insects I will disturb.

The Dusky Robins are the bravest and one little bird has become so fearless that yesterday morning I had to gently shoo her off the log I was trying to split.

I have filmed the Robins and once time permits I will pop up a short little video.

I can feel the subtle vibrations emanating from the corner of the room.

The pulse of a forgotten heartbeat.

Visions of lasagne and dark sourdough bread, rich chocolate cake and lemonade scones.

Oven dried tomatoes, charred capsicums. Osso Bucco and Milanese risotto.

The magic is returning.

I feel like cooking.

Last weekend I spent an amazing four days in Deloraine attending Woodfire Tas 2011. I met artists from all over Australia and overseas and my head is full of ideas. Someone also very kindly gave me a cold that has decided to settle in my chest so apologies in advance if this post is a bit rambly, as it is hard to keep a train of thought happening when I have to stop and reach for the tissues every five minutes.

I am trying to reflect on what I got out of the conference and to put it simply I received confirmation that I am on the right track. When I meet new people I am often a bit flippant and will fall back on terse one liners which often do not accurately represent me at all. By chance I was having lunch with one of the presenters at the conference and in passing I said I was too lazy to be a woodfirer, as the conversation progressed she commented that lazy wasn’t a word she would use to describe me and that I must stop using it.

I thought about her words for a bit and decided that she was right. I really need to banish those whispering ghosts once and for all.

My work  is all about economy, economy of effort, economy of resource and most importantly, economy of time.

I have a strong sense of place here in the  Tasmanian hills. I am influenced by my landscape, by drought, by early frosts, by the cold and by the heat. I need my work to reflect that sense of place.

When I am digging local clays to use in glazes I need these glazes to reflect where I am. There is no point using a clay gathered from a coastal region if I am trying to illustrate the tensions of living inland. Though it could be argued that Tasmania is so small that nowhere inland is far from the coast but that is a topic for another day.

Economy of time is of critical importance as often the ideas are fleeting and I need to make the piece all in one go. Grab the clay, make the pot, decorate the pot, put it aside and move on to the next piece.

Demonstrations and talks by Steve Williams and Graeme Wilkie helped to reinforce the ideas that had been swirling around in my head. Graeme Wilkie makes wonderful large work and he talked about working intuitively and finding the quiet space within yourself that allows the clay to direct the work.

Steve Williams says that, “To come back to a form when it has firmed and rekindle a relationship to turn and decorate is for me an ‘alien’ process”

I don’t like to come back to the work either and that is one of the reasons I have been thinking about the raw firing process, so that I only have to mess about with the pots once.

This is some of the beautiful work that was in one of the exhibitions, curated by Ben Richardson.

To finish here is another photo, I took when I was on top of  Mount Wellington. I cant see the mountain from my home here in the Southern Midlands and I fretted for a long time. Even though I can see her when I drive down the hill, it isn’t the same as looking out of your window and watching her change through out the course of the day.

My daughter Veronica told me last night that her partner Nathan proposed to her yesterday.

Veronica accepted Nathan’s proposal of marriage.

I never actually gave their relationship much thought before, it didn’t bother me that Von and Nate weren’t married.

But do you know what my dear internetz?

Ever since Veronica told me the good news, I have had this excited feeling in the pit of my stomach and I keep on having a quiet little giggle.

Squee.

My little girl is getting married.

I am thrilled to bits.

Is that I can buy pretty,spinny, twirly things that make me smile.

I always get a thrill when I see a pair of Eagles soaring high in the sky.

So you can imagine my excitement when I am able to take photographs like this next one.

Or this one.

I have been trying to go for a walk up the road every morning.  Here are some photos that I have taken in the past couple of days.

I have just finished Robin Hobb’s latest novel from The Rain Wild Chronicles and every time I read her work, I see Dragons in the sky for days afterwards. This was the sky this morning at about 5.40 am.

This sunrise silhoutte was taken Thursday morning, I love the way the light moves through the leaves of the gum trees.

I like the shot in black and white as well.

I was photographing the reflections in a dam.

When I disturbed a pair of black mountain ducks.

I like the texture of the bark peeling away from the trees and I am not sure which of these photos I like the best.

Other than that, I haven’t got a lot to say, time is moving along at a cracking pace and I am constantly surprised by how fast the days are slipping through my fingers.

How are things with you?