My First Magazine Cover!

Last month's Radish Magazine featured an article on violet jelly, written by Maggie, and included two of my photographs - including the cover! Very pleased :)

Maggie Feeds Fred

One morning after a big storm a couple of weeks ago, we found this little guy on the grass. He is an American robin, and was only a few days old. We took him in and made a nest for him in an aquarium. He did very well, and enjoyed the food we made for him, as well as worms. He has since gone to an official songbird rescuer, who had other robins. Latest reports are that he's thriving, and learning to be a robin.

Des Moines Photowalk

Maggie and I took our film cameras for a walk around town the other day. Here are some of our results:

Java Joe's coffee shop

Maggie shooting something on 4th Street. I wonder how her picture came out?

The Old Spaghetti Works building on Court Ave.

Old Glory and a cubie taking a break :)

Maggie and the big umbrella.

Java Joe's coffee shop.

All taken with the M6/Summicron 50 on 1998 vintage Tri-X, and developed in D-76. The only post-processing (if any) would be straightening, dust removal, and very slight cropping.

Maggie

I took this portrait at the fibre show on Saturday, just to finish off the roll of film :) I think it worked pretty well!

More Art Yarn

Maggie is making more beautiful art yarn for her Etsy shop. This one has vintage fabrics, rick-rack, thread, handspun wool, and buttons!

For more details, go to her store!

A Bowl of Yarn

Maggie and Becky are joining forces in a fabulous online giveaway next week. At stake is this collection of goodies that includes a yarn bowl, a skein of handspun yarn, a pair of wooden knitting needles, and six handcrafted ceramic buttons. They asked me to photograph the prize - here are my images:

Look out for Facebook posts from Girl With A Sword Productions and Willow Avenue Pottery for details of how to enter the draw for this cool prize!

Maggie's New Hair

Maggie's new do - powerful purple! She has done purple a few times before, but I think this is the best yet.

Thanks to Laura Hess of Roxy Seven Salon for her amazing work!

New Etsy Photos

We - that is, Maggie - decided that her products might sell better on her Etsy site if we - that is, me - took more pictures. I'm now doing five photographs for each of her handspun yarn listings, most of which will have some object (coin, wine bottle, etc.) in the image as a size reference.

Here is one of the first sets:

Cemetery Shootout

Though not quite of the scale as last year's event arranged by Ikonix Studio, Maggie and I went shooting in Adel Cemetery this evening. Most of our shots are on film, but I did a few Strobist pics with the Nikon D700.

Strobist info: Key light, SB-26 at 1/4 power in shoot-through umbrella camera right, triggered by Pocket Wizard, fill light,SB-900 at 1/8 power camera left, triggered optically; accent light, SB-26 at 1/8 power with red gel aimed at gravestone, also triggered optically.
Exposure: 2.5 seconds at f/8, ISO200.

Maggie

We had a quick photoshoot down on the farm today, to show off Maggie's new hairdo, complete with purple highlights and dreads. The "do" was done by Laura Hess of Roxy Seven Studio in Waukee.

The natural light was really hard, so I experimented with blockers and reflectors. I'm quite happy with the result.

Day 69

Maggie has been making costumes for St Patrick's Day. Here, she's trying on her new hair falls that she made from yarn, ribbon, beads and other blingy stuff.

Day 37

I finally finished Maggie's LED hula hoop. Here she is in action with it :)

Herb Harvest

Maggie has been very busy harvesting herbs from the garden before the frost that those nice weathermen promised us for the end of the week.


These beauties will be distilled into hydrosols, and made into other wonderful Prairieland Herbs goodies.

River Float

Yesterday was Maggie's birthday. We went on a canoe trip on a section of the beautiful Raccoon River. The weather was perfect, and we had a really wonderful time.

Maggie at Hanging Rock (Not the one in the movie "Picnic at Hanging Rock" - that's in Australia), a beautiful sandstone formation overhanging the river.

The expedition leader and canoe instructor, Chris Adkins, explains to us the importance of freshwater mussels as indicators of the health of the river. The main pollutant here is silt, washed down from drained cornfields. Man has cleared out all the natural prairie and wetlands, which served to hold the soil in place. Chris is a really cool guy who knows all about the river and its ecology, geology, palaeontology, botany, archaeology, and loads of other -ologies too!

Me relaxing on the river. It was clear and sunny, about 22 Celsius, with a pleasant light breeze that was behind us most of the time.

What a beautiful place! And they want to dam it and flood the valley!
We paddled eight miles in about five hours - a lovely leisurely pace. I think we may become addicted to canoeing!. Thanks to Chris and the other guides and to Dallas County Conservation for organizing such a wonderful trip.