Barkeater Workshop by Aaron Hobson in the Adirondacks

On August 12th Karen and I arrived in Saranac Lake, New York so I could attend a photography workshop by Aaron Hobson (The Cinemascapist.... a link to his work and a link to his blog to the right. The blog is "I Shot Myself, They Did To")

Here is the link to the Barkeater Workshop + Exhibit

http://www.barkeaterphotography.com/

The journey started about 6 months ago when I was about 2 months into my obsession with photography. I stumbled across his work and was drawn to it like a fly to fresh dog shit (that in a good way of course). A couple of months go by and then I find he is doing this workshop for 8 participants over 3 days culminating with a showing in a local art gallery. Whoa!

If nothing else I wanted to learn about the person behind the work. I could see he worked outside the box and I kept going back to look at his images.

I was a bit intimidated since the application process required sending him a sample of my work. This almost kept me from applying. I had told Karen about it and she pushed me along and told me to go for it. I did.

I won't go into any lengthy discussion of the 3 days. It turned out there were 5 of us. Aaron led the way with discussions of his work and other artists work. There were a couple of hours of time spent on post processing demos and even a trip to his fathers house where we could view some of Aaron's work in the flesh. Turns out Aaron's father (the Landscapist.... link to his blog to the right) also did the printing of our work to hang at our show at the 7444 Gallery. Of course there were trips to multiple sites for shooting pictures.

Aaron led the troops with 2nd in command, Todd Smith. Todd runs the gallery and was there every step of the way with coffee and bagels in the morning, technical support, discussions of anything and everything and of course the use of the 7444 Gallery as home base. They both put in a lot of work before we ever got there. There were adds in the paper and I think even some radio announcements of the show.

Working as 1st assistant to Aaron was J.C. A year ago J C tracked down Aaron and made arrangements to come all the way from France and spend a couple of months with Aaron as his mentor. J C speaks very limited English (well... don't we all). He was great fun and a big help and was also a very willing and cooperative model. It seems his favorite drink is rum and pineapple juice. (must be a French thing)

The first day Trixy was with us as a model and wound up in many images. The 2nd day Pat came along to the shoot in the abandoned pulp mill (built on the site of an iron ore mine/forge once owned by Benidict Arnold)

What a time! The link to my pics includes smattering of images with both outtakes and snapshots as well as more serious attempts at something artistic.

The show on Saturday night was a blast. There was wine and cheese and later rum and pizza and in between about 60 people came through. While neither of my two pieces sold there were two others that were snatched up by collectors.

More to follow........

Finally off for two weeks and I feel like crap...

But enough whining. It's summer. Good things are happening all around.

I've got a new computer. I had it custom built by my father. He also replaced the dead hardrive in my laptop.

I'm playing around in Photoshop CS4 using functions that stitch images together. Taking from 2 to 20 images and then combining them to create one larger image can be done to create panoramic views and other craziness.

I'm looking ahead to the middle of August when Karen and I are heading to the Adirondacks so I can attend a photography workshop. Aaron Hopson is an artist I've been intrigued with and I feel fortunate to be one of eight attending.

http://barkeaterphotography.com/

http://aaronhobson.com/

There is a link to the right with new pics.....What a Stitch!....

Later,

Richard

Bugs and Fishing

Taking pictures of bugs that is....

This week I've spent more time with bugs than ever. I probably shot about 1000 images to get these. What can I say... It was a lot of fun. There is a link to your right with the slideshow.

And for the fishing report:

6/11/09

David, Michael and I left my house at 630 AM. The plan was to run out of Kiptopeake and spend an hour or so catching some live bait and then set up for a slack flood tide at 930.

First stop was at the local Quicky Mart where Michael loaded up on Pringles, Honey Buns, Oreos and Ho Hos. Second stop was Chris’s Bait and Tackle. We got a flat of frozen bunker and an assortment of tackle and off we went.

There were only about 6 other trailers on the parking lot at Kiptopeake on this beautiful day. Is the economy that bad? We were soon on our way with a Southwest wind no more than 10 MPH. This made just enough chop as we headed toward the high rise to make me want to keep my tabs down and speeds down to around 22 mph.

We went on under the high rise and tucked in to 15 feet of water on the west side of Fisherman’s Island. We trolled small Clark Spoons on planers and inline sinkers and picked up a perfect size bluefish and a nice Spanish Mackerel. Michael tried a cast net over some schools of bunker by my net wouldn’t sink fast enough to get any. David got an itch to go set up.

I put us right on the mark where last year in early June we caught cobia. We could see two other boats and that was it. We were in 25 feet of water between the south end of Latimer Shoals and the green can. There was still some ebb current but not much. Before long we had out 4 lines. I was getting surface temperature readings of 75.

Slack tide came and went and the very slow flood current with the winds cooperating made it very easy to keep our lines just right. We did not chum today. About 930 we had a mystery pull that could have been a cobia but for some weird reason a brand new 80lb leader broke off at the swivel. We battled a few giant rays and a shark or two until around 1030.

At first the rod tip was showing a typical bounce of a shark. David was right there on the starboard corner and picked up the rod. He gave it line for about 30 seconds and it wasn’t moving fast at all. When he set the hook he had some head bobs that made us think shark. Then it did a smooth hard pull and we thought it was a ray. A few seconds later it came to the top and we saw one fin…. Just one. We saw it again. One fin. Not two of a ray but one. Cobia!

Michael and I cleared lines and watched. The fish never aired out and didn’t make any blistering runs but it was strong. David said it was a small one. I was convinced it was bigger than small.

We were fortunate it didn’t run around the boat. It did make one run as it got close to the boat for the first time that seemed like it was trying to cut the line on the motor. It went down a couple of times. Then we got a good look at it. David saw the corner of it’s mouth and the hook and got a little nervous. He didn’t like what he saw. Just about then it made a turn and a twist back on the leader that nobody likes to see a big fish make. It all held together.

David got it to the boat and I plunged the net once and the fish cooperated. Into the boat it came and grins all around with a few chants to the Cobia gods.

We tried till noon to do a repeat but nothing happened except for a ray that acted a little like a cobia and had us going for a few minutes.

We stopped back at Chris’s and weighed it. I had guessed 53, David 52 and Michael 51. The scale told us 56.3 and the tape was 53 inches. A fat specimen indeed!

Back at the yard we took these pics. I’m developing a superstition that I catch bigger fish when there is no camera on the boat.

A Walk Through the Yard.

Spent about an hour in the yard looking for things to shoot.

The link is to your right.

Fishing Report... and some Birds....

It feels good to post a fishing report after a long winter. I’ve been working too much I think and I haven’t been out this spring except for a boat ride.

I didn’t make it out Sunday as I had hoped for, but today was perfect. I had spent the night in Norfolk last night so that I could deliver Karen to the airport at 510AM…. Ouch… not only was it outrageously early but it cut into turkey hunting. I got a couple more hours sleep after dropping her off (she went to NJ for a conference) and then on the way home stopped in at Chris’s Bait and Tackle for some chowders and hooks for drum and some 3 ½ inch 12 gauge 2 ounce #5’s for the turkey I hope to shoot in the next couple of days.

I’m not sure what time I left Willis Wharf other than “close” to 3. Low tide was listed as 440 at the Machipongo Inlet. I had a pleasant ride out to the fishing spot.

There were one or two boats there when I arrived and I dropped anchor and had the stern in 15 feet of water. I started rigging some rods that had last seen striper action in December. One by one I got 3 lines out.

I had picked up several sharks during the next hour and broke off a couple of leaders that shouldn’t have broken. Turns out I was using some dry rotted 80lb leader material that had probably died a slow death in the sun. I retied all my hooks with some fresher material. I’m glad I did.

About the time the water was starting to flood around 540 I had a run and set the hook. At first I thought it was a big shark the way it was running and shaking its head. But…it wanted to stay down. That rod was on the light side and I had 30 lb mono and a questionable leader so I didn’t want to muscle it. I finally saw brown!

I got it in the net on the first scoop and boated my first Black Drum of the year. It measured 38 inches. It had swallowed the hook so it was my fish for the day. If I had lip hooked it I might have thrown it back and fished for a bigger one but all in all I was very happy. I had plenty of time to stop and take some pictures and get back home to hose the boat down in daylight.

From the looks of things this is just the beginning. There should be some big ones on the way.

I know... I'm not posting enough....

I've been away from home since April 11th and won't be home till the 26th. I hope to bring everything up to date then.

I'll get some more pictures of added to the Nashville, Asheville and points in between.....

Later,

Richard

It's been 13 days since my last entry....

I've been working a lot and not taking pictures. I've been through Nashville again when it was rainy and dreary and didn't touch the camera.

Today was a sunny day and I got out to make some images while Karen was working in the garden.

The pictures are in the slideshow titled, "March 18th in the yard".

Richard