A new tradition

Well a new tradition was started this year for thanksgiving.  Our friend Ed invited us over to share in a feast centering around wild game that was taken over the course of the year.  This gave us a great time to share the Dove that we were blessed with this year during our first dove hunt. Though I don’t personally eat meat, I always enjoy getting together with this crew and watching them enjoy the fruits of our (yes I do help clean and cook the game) labor. It was a great night full of wonderful company and tasty food (or so I heard)

Here are some highlights.

Anytime there is a fire involved I am in… we had a lovely hobo fire to keep us warm while we waited for the food.

I had fun playing around with the camera while we waited too.

First to be done was the bacon wrapped dove breasts.  Even the non game lovers Loved these… they didn’t last long.

Next up was the bacon wrapped venison tenderloin bites.

Even the veggies were not safe from the bacon wrapping…. our chefs are obviously bacon fans.

And our friend’s HWV is a huge fan of “Uncle Chris”

Wild Turkey Breast rubbed in a little cajun seasoning love and cooked with a fancy Infrared cooker thing.

Venison tenderloin served with goat cheese and balsamic reduction. Seriously this was like a top chef wild game cook off.
Ed has quite a few pictures of food that I didn’t capture  as well as a great (as always) write up of the event. Check it out on his great blog.   I also made a new mac and cheese recipe featuring Brie, Havarti, Sharp Cheddar and Fontina cheese, all topped with a garlic butter ritz cracker crumb on top… that was my main course and it was quite delish too.

Bourbon pecan pie and pumpkin rolls was dessert… I did not try the pie but I did have 3 slices of the pumpkin roll. Apparently I was too busy eating it to take a pic of it. Next time 😉

Benney Family Fun

I had the pleasure of taking some photos of the Benney family recently. They had great faith that I not only would be able to get photos of the 4 humans, but also include the new family dog Fezzick.   Some of you may know Fezzick from my Instagram feed, as I trained him earlier this year and have seen him back for boarding and daycare several times since.  In any case  I was totally up for the challenge.

Simply too easy, even got the head tilt from Fezzick. A beautiful family

Who live in a beautiful place, seriously I said I would come move into their backyard.

Love reflections, so I just had to do it.

Their property is also full of wooly bear caterpillars.

And has lots of room for this boy to run, which is a very good thing.

And these boys too!

 

Gotta have a sense of humor with this many boys. Love this

“Fish face” turned into kiss fest. Too stinkin’ cute!

Sometimes weird requests by the photographer can result in some cute shots, I LOVE  this one.

When all else fails just carry them like a sack of corn everyone, sure to make every boy happy.

Paracord Inspiration

So photography has been on the back burner lately. Anyone that knows me knows I have quite a few rather eclectic hobies. So long as I am being creative in some way I stay happier, combine that with being frugal and you have my latest endeavor…. paracord collars. Why? Because I am too cheap to buy one from someone when I could make one.

Here are just a few photos of some of my recent creations.

Many of you already saw this one if you visited Luna’s blog to read all about our first official Dove hunt. It is a great blaze collar for our hunting season, whether actually hunting or running the woods, I like that it adds extra visibility especially since Luna is kinda deer colored.

(on a side note, blaze is apparently a really hard color for the camera to capture accurately)

A training client of mine got wind of the collar I made Luna and asked for blaze ones for her pups as well as a steeler themed one.  Took a little thinking to figure out how to get 2 colors going but I love how it turned out.

We went with a King Cobra pattern for a beagle friend, and I am so glad I ended up reworking it to get an edge in black… it had too much yellow before, now it’s great.

Naturally I had to make Luna pose with the collars too, who knew they would make a good crown?

(PS. I think I see a hint of some grey under that chin Luna… noooo)

Here are some I made and sent to Luna’s family down in texas

Luna’s half sister Birdy was especially excited to get a new yellow collar as yellow is such a hard color to find.  We hope to add more to her stash soon.  The blue one went to Luna’s littermate Gunnar.

I’m about to make an order for more colors so I can make more for Vizsla family members.
More colors and pictures can be seen in the paracord album on my facebook page.  I end up taking quite a few with the phone to share. Hopefully I will get some pics in of the customers wearing them.   Probably a good thing I am making them for others as Luna has far too many collars already.

Oh and I revamped the website after creating a new one for my mom (she breeds and sells canaries btw). Way overdue for both, but hey at least it’s done. Well work is done, so off to make a neon green collar for Whisky.

 

Equine love

For those that follow my AKG Inspiration page on facebook you probably saw the equine photos a while back.  I had the pleasure of attending a horse show with a friend to ride, and she gets to do something I have always wanted to do more of… JUMP!  She also does cross country which just blows my mind because most of those jumps are way bigger than I even am.

Here are some shots from the day.

Dressage started everyone off.

Then off to some practice jumping and ground work.

Then the real jumps.  I could really get into horse show photography, wish I had more friends that rode.

Such power

Then it was off to cross country. I didn’t know where to be watching from so didn’t get many good photos.

Being a horse show, Luna was allowed to tag along. Lots of dogs there and bikes and cars driving around. I was surprised how bomb proof the horses were around the bikes as that normally scares many horses. But I guess it’s much like dog shows, they start it when they are young and over time they just get used to it all and it’s no big deal.

I had hoped to go to another show this weekend, but it doesn’t look like my friend will be riding.  I will have to find something else to do outdoors to enjoy the weather.

Henna Jam

My poor neglected blog, I never seem to find the time to blog about all the things I have been doing… Maybe that’s because that just takes up more of my all too precious free time.  But I thought you deserved to get a glimpse into one of my photography gigs.
A dog training client turned into a photography client when she asked me to take some photos for her Henna business… never one to turn down an opportunity to take photos for someone, not to mention learn more about a new craft/art, I was more than happy to help.  She in turn shares her Henna knowledge with me.  Here are some shots from a recent Henna Jam (Basically henna enthusiasts get together to hang out and do henna), this one had a bit of a maternity henna theme.

My friend working her Henna magic

Can you believe this artist just stated doing henna like 2 weeks before hand?

Such a great belly!

Love me some 35mm bokeh

She added some colored glitter accents at the end.  Now I need to find time to do more Henna practice myself, not easy to let it set for an hour or more around here.

Carnival lights

When my friend Ed asked me if I wanted to go do a photo safari (aka go take pictures) at a local carnival, I was all in.  I have a photography bucket list, full of different subjects and and settings I want to take pictures of/in, and taking pictures at a fair is on that list.  Having a friend walk around and shoot with you is always way more fun than going by yourself.

Here are a couple favorite shots, I didn’t feel like lugging a tripod around so these were shot freehand.

Space was tight as this was quite a small carnival so compositions had to get creative.

 Probably one of the most “daring” rides at this little carnival. This is the one that keeps you against the wall with centripetal force.

Love the colored shots, but can’t help but love the movement in this BW shot.

  We got there in time to do some dusk shots which proved kinda pointless as there wasn’t enough space to have a good foreground setting, but we lucked out and got some lovely color in the sunset.

All in all, it was a fun night with friends, and the lovely sunset was icing on the funnel cake (which we all ate.. along with some cheesecake on a stick)

We’re having an art show!

Introducing my first art show, shared with my wonderfully creative family.

Here is the postcard we came up with. If anyone happens to be local and is looking for something fun to do come on by the gallery and have a look.
Here is some info about the artwork we each will be displaying.

Photography x 4 

Gary P. Bergel is showing a selection of “SkyStones,” recent digital and word image explorations of the varied stone outcroppings near and within a 25-mile radius of his home near Charles Town in Jefferson County, WV.  

He also currently has works in “A Dip in the Blue” exhibit at Touchstone Gallery in Washington, DC (www.touchstonegallery.com) through June 3, and a suite of floral studies on display at The Bridge Gallery in Shepherdstown, WV through June 9th (www.bridgegalleryandframing.com).  

Gary holds a BS Degree in Biology and Secondary Education, and an MA Fine Arts Degree / Mixed Media and Ceramics, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  He is a founding, exhibiting member of the Washington Street Artists’ Cooperative in Charles Town, WV and is a teaching artist on the faculty of Blue Ridge Community and Technical College, Martinsburg, WV.  Gary works in photography and mixed media, exhibits widely, and is represented by Bridge Gallery, Shepherdstown, WV, and at Touchstone Gallery, Washington, DC. Before moving to the Metro DC area in 1981, Gary founded Space Gallery and taught a live Arts and Ideas Curriculum in the Humanities Department at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.

Joseph P. Bergel is presenting a sequence of recent “a-historical” larger-scale digital images documenting “Areas of Discontent” and other lived in “social sculpture” spaces, based on the premise that the role of artists is first to “re-present” the world around them.

Joseph graduated with a BFA  Degree in Visual Studies from the State University of New York, (SUNY) Brockport, and earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Photography/Critical theory from SUNY, Buffalo.  He is the co-founder of Play Therapy, an artist collective that seeks to act as a societal speed bump for everyday life.  He lives with his wife and family west of Toronto, Canada in New Hamburg, Ontario where he has his studios and operates New School Photography.   Joseph will be visiting and presenting an installation and “North of the Border Artist’s Talk” at the Slant Factory Art Space in Charles Town later this year.  

Anna K. Gibson is exhibiting a selection of portraits, genre and art digital photographs captured in Morocco, Togo and Benin, Africa.  Her love of people, animals, and nature are reflected in these moving digital images.   

Anna holds an Associates of Science Degree from Northern Virginia Community College.  She is a member of the Washington Street Artists’ Cooperative in Charles Town, WV.  Anna also specializes in wedding and pet photography, shares a lot of her photography at www.akginspiration.com, and breeds and trains bird dogs with Brave Heart Kennel in Point of Rocks, MD.       

Nathan X. Bergel is hanging a suite of small, intimate B&W gelatin silver non-altered images printed by the photographer.  His studies are about natural order and reflect his interest in finding beauty in the ordinary, in solitude, and in how weathered surfaces document nature’s process of reclamation. Two of his images were recently selected and published in the 2013 “Currents Art and Literary Magazine.”

Nathan is a recent graduate from Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Virginia, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology and a minor in History.   Nathan has been exploring Black & White 35mm film photography, is an accomplished downhill skate boarder, and enjoys reading Leo Tolstoy and other Russian authors. 

Here are two sneak peaks at what will be at the show. I am largely going to have color shots, but couldn’t resist working up some BW shots too. I will try and blog after the opening to show you how it looked at the gallery as well as additional images. One day I hope to have a book together too for these images.

Hop on over to the gallery blog and view the blog post they created for our show..  It has a sneak peak photo for each artist.   I am so looking forward to this show, it hit at a very busy season of work but it will be great to see these photos in print, hanging on walls… being viewed by people who may never have a chance to visit a place like Africa.