"In The Frame" a Potpourri of Stuff That I Think is Interesting and Want to Share
So many fascinating things are coming over the hill. At 90 MPH.
Good Sunday morning to y’all.
We are awakening to a beautiful, clear day in the desert.
Yesterday we built a protected area for our tortoise, who came out of hibernation hungry and a good 2 inches larger. He is having a blast in the tunnels and hills we made for him.
And he ate a good-sized portion of salad.
Our two new family members, Baylee and River, are behaving far better than any pups I have ever had.
That’s Baylee (Dawg) in the front and River in the back.
My wife and youngest daughter chose the name Baylee, and I will go along with that when we are all together. But I have always called my dogs, “Dog” (Dawg?) and this one is no exception.
They are mixed Blue Pitt and Healer, so they are, basically, cattle dogs. Both of their sires are highly regarded cattle dogs so we are hoping these little princesses will be smart as whips.
Before you ask; no, I don’t have any cows.
Some of us cannot get enough AI talk, and some of us are getting pretty bored with it.
However, there are a few AI tools out there that I have had good experiences with. So far, I have never even set up a MidJourney account. I’ll leave that alone for reasons far greater than I think it is turning out the next “stock photography” bubble. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m rarely wrong. Y’all feel free to bet against me. More images have been pumped through those things than were made by traditional photography since the first camera. And that is in less than a year.
So… Bubble.
But forget that stuff.
If you want to try a terrific approach to search, I suggest you give Perplexity a try.
This is search far differently applied than google. You will get in-depth results, related results, and links to sites that can help you dig deeper. No ads or purchased ranking, at least for now. It has a lot of interesting things that you can do with your search results, like create a library or create collections. It is free. Perplexity.ai
I stumbled across Pi through one of the newsletters I get every day. Pi is a chatbot with a totally different feeling. It is conversation, ideation, and development all in one.
As a challenge, I asked it about a difficulty I was having and the answers and ideas it generated were both refreshing and useful. Very useful. This is not a “create a book in one day” sort of experience, this is far more of a discussion and ideation tool.
Give Pi a shot. It’s free.
Desert Tombstones
If you have followed me for a while, you know I am totally enamored of the desert and the rugged and amazing plants that grow here.
The desert is full of life at every minute.
And it is also full of the absence of life.
Things atrophy slower in the desert.
Bushes that die will sit upon their stumps for years without decaying, simply to get so brittle that they will crumble under a stiff wind.
Buildings in the eastern portion of the country may be overtaken by growth within a few years, or even months.
But in the desert, those structures will remain for decades, even centuries.
Atrophy becomes a part of the slowly changing landscape.
Saguaros, those magnificent silent icons of the Sonoran Desert, seem mighty and indestructible when you first set gaze upon them.
But they too succumb to time, a lack of water, and sheer bad luck.
And I have been making images around the house that remind me that even the mighty Saguaro has its time.
The image above is of a cactus that apparently grew with two trunks. It must have been huge. You can see the fallen limbs on the ground around it, some more than 7 feet long. It may be decades before the trunks finally give out and fall.
Above, we see a saguaro bones tower, and broken branches of a tree in front. It looked to me that the tree and the cactus tried to inhabit that same spot of dirt leading to the destruction of both.
This bleached tower of saguaro bones seemed to bring its own backdrop for the session. The green of the trees and dark blue sky allowed it to stand out. Notice the subtle S-curve pose.
Painted Pony, Vermillion Cliffs, Arizona
I caught this little paint pony in the desert below the Vermillion Cliffs. If you have not experienced them up close and personal, you really should put it on your list of must-dos.
I am beginning to plan my motorcycle ride for late August. One of the ideas is to ride Highway 89 from its beginning in Ajo, AZ to the end at the Canadian Border near Glacier National Park. While I have ridden most of it, there are a few gaps that would be filled, and the road is simply spectacular.
Thanks for coming along on this little potpourri of stuff.
I will leave you with this version of my favorite song of all time.
Enjoy.
(All photographs by the author.)
The “Build a Website Sprint” is enrolling now.
We start on March 22nd, and by Monday, March 25, you will have a website, a template for additional sites, and the knowledge on how to create a functional and beautiful website for you and your clients. This is based on WordPress and a builder called Divi that I use every day.
(All times are Pacific)
Friday, March 22, 5 PM to 8 PM
Saturday morning, March 23, 8 AM - 10 AM
Saturday afternoon, March 23, 5 PM - 7 PM
Sunday morning, 8 AM - 10 AM
Sunday afternoon, 5 PM - 8 PM
I am limiting this to only 10 students, and there are only a few slots left.
LIVE - online building together, you will learn how to use Divi, a NO CODE development tool, and build a solid, well-designed website.
The value of the site could range from $1500 to $3500 in most places in the US.
When you are ready, here is how I can help you succeed.
Group Mentorship: a small group of photographers who meet to show images, work on their portfolio, and build their businesses with help from a wonderful group. Lifetime membership for one fee.
One-on-one Mentorship: You and me - working together in an intense 6-month push to get you on the way to over $30K in additional revenue. The work we lay down will help you increase and scale your business for years ahead.
The Creative Class: Expand your toolset and become a one-person visual agency capable of pulling in steady and repeated income. If you have questions, let me know, and I will answer them as fast as possible.
This ain’t no bull.
I absolutely need to share a Rainbow story. In college I drove through a snow storm in my VW bug to see Keith Jarret in Troy NY. c. 1984. The Troy Opera House was deemed at the time of its construction to be the most perfectly acoustic music hall in the world. I'm getting the syntax wrong, but you get the idea. I loved Jarret. I'd go on to see him in person another 3 times at Tanglewood and other places. He was always a free agent; sometimes he loved us in the audience, and sometimes he despised us. Once he played call-and-response with the pigeons in rafters at Tanglewood by crawling into the piano and plucking the strings with his fingers.
Anyway...at Troy, I moved in and out of consciousness with his improv. It was alternately sublime and confusing. But of course, well worth the death-defying trip to see him. But at encore, out came the opening chords of "Rainbow." A scattered, but obvious chuckle came out of the crowd. Seriously, Somewhere Over the Rainbow? WTF? Is he fucking with us?
By the song's conclusion, my cheeks were wet with tears; I don't think there was a dry eye in the opera house. And the night ended with a thunderous ovation. It was a moment I will never, ever forget.
I was heartbroken when he had his stroke and I read of his struggle with a brain that recalled the music but a body that can not respond. So nice to read this. So very nice.
DON'T QUITE KNOW WHY, but this is one of several songs that move me to tears every time I hear it/them. After Miss Garland recorded it for the movie, producers decided it didn't quite "fit" the movie, and they cut it. After plenty arguing, the song was brought back into the movie. We might've been >that close< to never hearing this all-time standard.