As I have done for the last three years, I again end the past year and welcome the new year with a Photographic Alphabet Post.  The very first one (2008-9) rhymed and had a Wisconsin theme. In 2009-10 I didn’t get my Alphabet post done until the second week in January, but I made up for the short post with a photograph that looks quite Arctic-ish! Last year I posted a single photo and wrote a short paragraph for each alphabet letter in four parts.

This year I’m featuring more photographs and fewer words, though something about the end and the beginning — it encourages my tendency towards verbosity. (See?) I’ll watch my word count…promise!

BO’S PHOTOGRAPHIC ALPHABET — 2011

A IS FOR ART AND ART FAIRS.

Art Fairs were a significant part of my life during 2011. Sherpa and I took Seeded Earth Photography to fourteen shows beginning  in February and ending the weekend before Thanksgiving. We did shows in six states – Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Arizona.

This was my second full year exhibiting my photography on the art show circuit. In 2010 I did local and area shows in Wisconsin, and learned the art business. By the end of 2011, after a total of 24 completed shows, I felt less like a novice and more like an artist. That was a grand feeling.

In a few weeks, I will be heading to Arizona. My upcoming shows in the Tucson area will be the first ones I’m doing solo. No Sherpa to grab a drink for me or tend the booth while I walk to stretch out muscle kinks. No Sherpa to help me set up the tent or the booth interior, or hang the art. I’m excited and nervous, both.

 

B IS FOR BOOJUM AND BOTANICALS

I love photographing botanicals. A boojum is a botanical. Therefore I love shooting boojums. But I would love shooting boojums even more if I could attach my camera to a crane, because the part I want to photograph with my macro lens is not in a convenient place.

 

C IS FOR CACTI AND CONSEQUENCES.

Ah, now cacti are also botanicals, and they grow in a more convenient size than the boojum. Or at least many of them do. There are many a saguaro or an organ pipe cactus that are far beyond my reach. But I still have plenty of macro opportunities with the smaller cacti crowd.

I love to take photographs of the mighty cacti, and the smaller varieties, too. But I’ve decided that the entire cactus family has been introduced into my life to teach me a big lesson.

They teach by consequences. Almost every time I photograph cacti, I am so focused on getting a photo that I inch closer and closer to the plant. And each time the cactus teaches me a lesson about their boundaries by poking me with a sharp thorn, or by attaching a cluster of spines to my clothing or shoelaces. If I didn’t have a camera up to my eye, perhaps I would learn the cactus lesson much quicker.

 

 D IS FOR DELIGHT AND A DOODLE-DOODLE-DOO.

It is quite common for people to imagine that an artist’s life is filled with creating and traveling and meeting new and interesting people. True, true, and true. I can’t think of a thing I would rather do than take my camera out on a photo exploration and I love to bring home the filled memory cards and watch the photographs ‘develop’ on my computer. And now I am adding what I consider to be the frosting on the photographs – post processing so that the vision I saw when I took the photo can be captured in my studio.

But I work long hours, many more hours a week than if I had a 9 to 5 job, and so I’ve learned to add delight into my day whenever I find it. These roosters, rows and rows of roosters on an outside stand, made me laugh so hard I could hardly hold the camera still. I was waiting for one of them to begin crowing at me.

It’s those bits of time that add the ‘extra-extra’ to the unpredictable life of an artist on the road.

And a doodle doodle doo to you, too!

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Today’s post has been brought to you by the letters A,B,C, and D.

Part II is brought to you by the letters E, F, G, H, I and J.