I did it!

Clint and his phone and computer.

I made the leap and created a website for my photography.

It's been an experience, but now I have a better way for potential clients to see how I see and get an idea how I think.

The site is "Mutt 'n' Vair Photography". You can reach it by going to: www.muttnvair.com

Comments are welcome. Honesty is encouraged, but please keep it civil. Thanks.

Thoughts on the new year and knee

It'll be a spectacular scar!

 

As most of my friends, family and Facebook fans know, I had my left knee replaced just before Thanksgiving. I tried putting it off by losing weight (I lost 70 pounds, and so far kept 50 from coming back.), physical therapy, braces on my legs, injections with various substances, changing shoes...the whole gamut my physician asked me to try before succumbing to the inevitable: My knees were in sad shape and needed serious repair.

My surgeon and I figure that if we do the worst side, the other--less bad--side can limp along a few years before it needed to be done as well. So far, I agree with that decision.

As it turned out. I am well ahead of the curve for recovery from this kind of surgery. My day job expects me to show up on time as the end of the month approaches. And my wife thought I'd be bored out of my skull by now! Hah!

Blizzard Drake and my holiday lights.

Suddenly, a whole bunch of projects I was hoping to do while recovering become shoe-horned in the last weeks of my convalescence. There were a bunch of little projects that are mostly taken care of (The last of these is the removal of the outside Christmas lights, but that always waits for a January thaw. Otherwise, I'd be fighting to remove rather delicate wires from ice-encasement.), and a milestone in my photography work has been accomplished: I had a portfolio review. (Thank you, Andy Manis!)

I needed this review so I can refine the photos that I will eventually post on a web site. I have a host provider picked out and their prices are reasonable. I just need to show my vision for those who would want to hire me to capture imagery. Cross fingers that I can get this done before the end of the month. It is a reasonable goal.

Another project is this blog post. Enough said.

My third project involves scanning a bunch of slides my brother-in-law has into digital format. I'll have to clean the dust as I go, because they were housed briefly in northern Arizona. The grit gets everywhere there. I haven't even looked a the scope of that project yet, but I will soon after I post this.

Last, but not least, is the organization of dances and music for dance ball to be held by my history club in May. It may seem a long way off, but the need to familiarize and practice some 20 new arrangements makes the intervening months all too short. Fortunately, I don't have to choreograph the dances, just select them and get the sheet music to the musicians. For this project, I am already late, but not too late to avoid the ire of my fellow players.

One thing that has changed over the course of the last couple months is my set of priorities. Part of that is temporal: Seasonal items, like school projects and home decorations for the Holidays. A big priority was and is recovery from my surgery. That includes daily exercise and weight lifting activities. I have close to 30 routines--just remembering to do them all is an exercise!

Now, the priorities shift to where I want to grow as a photographer, hence the portfolio review and preparation for a website. Part of what I also need to do is just get ready for the day-to-day grind of my day job, a new semester of school and getting a business presence so my customers can find me.

I also have to cook for myself this winter. My wife got a generous allowance from our HMO to take part in a boot-camp workout and dietary food program over the next three months. She goes in before work five days a week for an intense hour of weights and exercises. For two months, they provide all her meals, and the last month she gets home-sourced food on the weekends--she still gets their food on weekdays. It's been fun so far to match the suppers they give her with what we have on hand, so she doesn't feel like I'm eating radically different food than what she's getting. It's been reminding me to keep on my eating plan as well.

It's not that I can't cook--my parents made sure I knew how--I'm just a lazy cook. I'd much rather have ready-to-eat goodies out of the refrigerator than spend hours preparing something spectacular, at least most of the time. I have to remind myself that if I want bread I have to slice it! My wife did freeze ahead a bunch of entrees for use when I went back to work. I'm supposed to eat them for my lunches while I'm convalescing, too. I do. It is a little hard when faced with a dozen tubs of pea soup to keep picking from that pile. I just have to keep on, then.

Crystal Still Life at Poynette Antique Market

The biggest priorities are my lovely bride and our families. My brother has new digs that he'll need help moving to, and our other siblings and their children are so interesting that electronic scorecards are needed to keep track of them all. Life really is a lot of fun (especially with my family) when you look at it as an adventure to experience, rather than drudgery to endure.

Accomplishments

Tinney S. Heath

Meet Tinney Heath. Tinney recently published a historical fiction book titled A Thing Done (a delicious read, by the way). Among the many fabulous things she is and does, she just happens to be one of my music mentors.

Way back in my college days, I was just getting involved in the living history club I still enjoy today, and wanted to make music. I really didn't know what I was in for, but after foisting myself as a beginning mandolin player into an established recorder band, Tinney and the other band members (the Jararvellir Music Guild) welcomed me and the challenge of incorporating a plucked string instrument into the voicing of a previously all woodwind ensemble.

It worked. The Bug bit me bad. As the members of the Guild ebbed and flowed with new jobs, spouses and opportunities, I managed to stick with it for three decades(!). I remain the only active member that dates to that time, jokingly calling myself the "Memory of the Guild" as I personally saw and did most of the things the Guild took part in over the years. Now, I lead the remnants of the Guild with the hopes for a dance ball performance this upcoming May. More on that later.

Soon after I joined the band, Tinney became the Guildmistress. I learned a lot under her leadership, including the fine art of herding cats. (You don't drive cats toward something; you put something they want at your desired destination.) Unfortunately, she and her equally talented husband (Timothy, also a Guild member at the time) burned out dealing with what amounted to a lack of respect. I still don't blame them for not wanting to deal with it anymore. They became active in another music club, the Winds of Wisconsin. As the years wore on, keeping in touch became almost isolated incidents.

Fast forward to last year: Facebook, that time and attention consumer, helped Tinney find me, and we resumed our friendship on a quiet basis. This autumn as part of my coursework at Edgewood College I started doing photographic portraiture and needed models. What better place to rally/bully my friends to sit in front my camera than an announcement on Facebook? Among the respondents, Tinney had just found out she was to be published and volunteered in exchange for something that can be used for her publisher's website and the dust jacket of the book. Deal.

Now a copy of Tinney's smiling face and another portrait of her among her instruments adorn her publisher's website. Happy customers and a happy photographer make a good pairing.

Among the things I learned from my friend and mentor is the idea that it's okay to push my boundaries, better the status quo and don't give up something you believe in.

Thanks, Tinney!

Bringing Things Together

Edgewood Park and Pleasure Drive

A friend reminded me of some basic things that need constant, well, nagging: Practice, balance, responsibility and caring. I am notorious for being scattered, impulsive, often absent-minded, and usually procrastinating chores. However,...well, my accomplishments will have to wait for later.

There are times when a rather ephemeral idea keeps showing up in my head, and it's a good one, making me excited about it. The problem is the connections that led to that idea are fragile at best, so keeping that idea in mind isn't easy. What made it easier is a mild setback with my left knee.

As many of you know already, I've been fighting sciatica in my left leg, caused by a bulging disk in my lower spine and osteoarthritis in both knees. My recent weight loss has taken a lot of stress off of my joints, but the damage is done for my knees. Last October, my left knee "loosened" (my word, but it accurately describes the action) in the middle of a fencing bout and caused me to seek Urgent Care and physical therapy. The good news is that my knee should heal at least as good as it was last summer. The bad news is that I am more dependent on a cane for walking until the knee heals. I also have a lovely 20-30 minute twice-a-day (not counting swim work) exercise routine to rebuild the muscles around my knees and tighten up the joint. I also can't sit/stand/walk for more than a half hour before requiring a change in state. At least that gives me an excuse to refill my coffee or water while at the computer.

That was ten months ago.

The real joy is that the culprits are the cartilage pads (meniscus, menisci?) in my knees. They are best described as tattered. Beyond healing on their own. Come November, my left knee will be changed over to metal parts. The right knee, which was the bad one, should cruise on for years with a better leg to stand on the other side. With diligent physical therapy, I should be mostly restored to a pretty much normal life by early in the new year.

Meanwhile, I'm exploring more with my photography aided by new toy: the Pentax K-01. It's the less expensive mirror-less version of the K-5 I've been lusting after the last couple years. I'm having a lot of fun learning its quirks and how to manage my old (and the new two) lenses with it.

My lovely bride

Mattias and Seonag

The new tool is part of an experiment in portraiture. On the go: a 10x10 portable shelter, LOTS of blankets, even more spring clamps, a couple sheepskins, a couple stools, a bench and a handful of CFL and LED spot lights and a knowledge of stage lighting and away I went to two camping events photographing and printing portraits on site. I've yet to make back my investment, but this has proved interesting and fun!

Now that I'm taking portraiture at Edgewood College, I've already started to refine my techniques and strategies. I just need to keep developing my stable of models....

More next month. I promise!

Pending changes

Badger sculpture at Francis Street Mall on
State Street, Madison, Wisconsin

This is an exhausting and exciting time for me:

1) I've finally got the basics of doing a work flow of my digital pictures so that I don't lose them in the process. Now to process the previous six years or so of digitally rendered pictures on CDs stored in boxes below this desk.

2) I'm taking a new class at Edgewood College: Photojournalism taught by Linda Friend, a veteran freelance photographer. Already, in spite of the class mostly starting from scratch, I've learned a lot.

3) As I've mentioned, I've taken part of the DeForest Area Photographers' group. Hey, it's free and they fuel the creative juices. The picture at left is from the current project: State Street. I'll find out next week what the others saw and photographed.

There's more blog to come! I have to stop procrastinating and get my homework done.

Quick Thoughts



Enjoying a staple of the Wisconsin State Fair:
Cream Puffs!

There is something that everyone should make time for: Going to your County and/or State Fair. My wife and I made the trek to West Allis more times than not during our married life. Usually on the years we can't we go to the Dane County Fair. Every time we take in the talents and genius of young people from all over the state in the Arts and Crafts exhibits.

A resident Turkey Vulture from the Schlitz Audoubon Center
spreads her wings to take in the summer sunshine.

We also like to wander the vendors to see what is "new" and "exciting". Sometimes we'll buy it (like some spiffy brushes that clean out our dryer vent), but usually not (Multi-use scarves, anyone?). There are also safety exhibits and birds of prey, a nature preserve with a self-guided trail, and tons of entertainers from street dancers and musicians, to big name acts on the stages.

A team of the Budwiser Clydesdales usually makes an appearance. It's fun just to watch them hitch up.
Lest I forget, there are also some of the cutest farm animals in the state, exhibited by 4-H youth.
There is also every conceivable food you can think of (and some I hadn't ever dreamed of) skewered on a stick. For instance, two years ago I was introduced to chocolate-covered bacon on a stick. It wasn't half bad, but way too rich for one person. My wife and I shared one. We didn't go for the deep-fried Snickers bar on a stick. The new one this year was deep-fried butter (it was battered to hold it together). We decided to pass on that one, too. We never pass up the cream puffs, the grilled cheese sandwiches, milk (of course it's Wisconsin!) and the baked potatoes.

Grapevine at Weggy Vineyard.

The State Fair is a place where just about the whole state comes to you. Most times, you have go yourself to see stuff that special in your home state. Today, my wife and I took in a wine tour at a small winery near Muscoda. We learned some basic vineculture that I'll be using for my own grapes and a lot about this delightful winery. We had so much fun there, we decided to visit two other (relatively close) wineries and taste a few (OK, over two dozen) of the local vin. We brought home eight bottles of different types. We were happy campers!
One should experience Life. You can only do so much staring at the TV or computer screen. It's hard to savor the iridesence of a vulture's feathers, the taste of a cranberry apple wine, the soft fur of a rabbit, the rumble of 16 one-ton horses in harness, or get the smell of a cow barn from pictures that flicker before you. Go out and see/smell/hear/touch/taste it!
Portrait of me is by Mary A. Hoffman. Other photographs are Copyright 2011 by W. Clinton Hotaling

Crutches

Liquid Golden Sunshine - Honey!

Some of you may have noticed that I've been using a walking stick of some kind since spring. Most of the folks who know me know of my arthritis and assume the cane/walking stick is for my knees. If it were so simple.

A pinched nerve in my lower back creates phantom pain in my left leg usually far greater than the grinding pain in my knees. Fortunately, using a walking stick or cane in my left hand will take the pressure off the nerve so that I can walk long distances or stand for long periods of time on concrete--that wonderful stuff so many retail floors are made of.

Get me on turf or wooden floors, my back is much happier. I also have to remember to sit correctly: that is, straight and upright in a chair or car seat. Failure to do so results in pain, that fine teacher.

I do have to remind folks that just because I use a cane, doesn't mean I can't lift things, walk or even jog. The stick is there to let me have less pain. I don't need it for balance or to take weight off of one leg or another. In fact, I fence fine without the cane (although it can be useful as a rigid parrying device....). It helps me keep from wondering how long until my next break at work so I can get off my feet. It is most importantly a crutch to help me through my day at work.

Some crutches are better than others. Mine is just a stick I have to manage and keep track of. An annoyance (for me) at worst. It's just more annoying for me if I don't have it.  Some escape to their phones or rumor swapping. Some people resort to chemical help in the form of a pill or liquid that "makes the day go smoother". Those last are a menace to themselves and others. Fortunately, a very rare few of my co-workers are that stupid.

One crutch I rely more heavily on is coffee. Must. Have. Coffee. I don't care too much about quality unless it's truly awful. I do prefer light roasts. To me french roast tastes burnt. A little cream/creamer/whitener makes it go down smoother, but I don't otherwise sweeten my coffee. I inherited my father's ability to consume caffeine with few side effects. Like Papa, I can literally have a cup of coffee and go straight to sleep. Not having coffee results in caffeine withdrawal-manifested as a killer headache that lasts a couple days if I don't get some caffeine in me.

Morning Fog over the DeForest Bike Trail

Some crutches are truly useful. A monopod or tripod is that often overlooked piece of equipment in an amateur photographer's kit. Steadiness is one of the easiest ways to acheive sharp photographs. If you can't use a tripod (like in the conservatory), a monopod may do the trick. Anything to hold the camera still while it takes the picture. The photo on the left was taken with my phone, but I held it steady against my bike to get the shot. I used my bicycle as a crutch. The photograph of honey bottles was made at the Madison Farmers' Market. I could have only got there to see the picture and take the shot because I had my walking stick.

I'm also reminded of the adage: Good photographs are 5% the camera and 95% the photographer. Know the limits and capabilities of your equipment, and work with them to produce your magic.

All photographs copyright 2011 W. Clinton Hotaling