At Play in the Gardens of Dawn

June 7, 2010 By

This is my 714th post.  I have been playing n the gardens of dawn with words and images for over two years and much to my surprise–to the tune of over 1500 pages, including comments.  How do I know the page count?

Over the weekend I used a free service called Blog Booker (donation suggested) which can convert a blog from WordPress or LiveJournal or Blogger and make it into a PDF book which you then can take to Staples or Kinko’s and they’ll do the rest. The instructions involve using WordPress’s export file which can be accessed on your Dashboard.  My Table of Contents turns out to be 19 pages alone!  As my lovely cousin-in-law would say, “Holy Crap!”.

I had been thinking for the past year that I should have a hard copy of this blog and didn’t like the built-in PDF format within my Apple OS Print option.  I also didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars for the Adobe product even though I prefer their PDF presentation above all the others I’ve seen.

I had no idea I’d have to fell a forest to print these past two years out but they are now on my dining room table in seven three-ring binders waiting for the answer to “Now, what?”

This is only one area of my life that I am trying to organize, sort,  clean out and review.  Last week, I had 1-800-GOT-JUNK truck come to take items from my basement and garage, leaving only “stuff” to be sorted that I ultimately can add to my weekly trash pick-up.

Wait….I’ve got some empty space now in my garage shelves!   Perhaps, that’s where I’ll put my Blog Book (s).

And, so it goes, bloggers.

You have been as much a part of this dawn bloomin’ blog book as my words and images.

©Pat Coakley 2010

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**Select photographs from this blog

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Filed Under: Bloggin, blogging, Blogs, Organization, spring and life cleaning Tagged With: , , , ,

National Society of Newspaper Columnists Contest Winner

July 3, 2009 By

NSNC2009AWARD

Long time readers know that I am not a marketing genius but even I, after reading this commendation that came this morning in the mail from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, know that my next call goes to the FDA.

I knew I registered this blog name for a reason.   I just didn’t know it was to submit it as a new cholesterol lowering blog column with zero side effects.  My goal used to be to have a column in a newspaper but since that industry is un-employing some very talented people every few days, I’ve got a new goal thanks to Mr. McLeod, judge of this prestigious contest.

I now want to be the first cholesterol lowering blog to get FDA approval.

The Generic name of my blog will be LESSANX.  Long time readers will recognize this, some may even have received a card I made from this post back in September, 2008 when the world began collapsing.  Read it HERE.

Thank you, National Society of Newspaper Columnists and you, damnably insightful Mr. Michael McLeod,  for this honor and for pointing out yet another reason why I named this blog, Single For A Reason.  I have a new name now for, well…ahem..some chronic dating “issues”.

Suffice to say that “Eloquent irritability” is hardly ever call girl training,  (You wanna do WHAT, Mr. Spitzer??) be they high class or low class call girls, nor is it on any top ten lists for housewives of  “How To Please Your Man”.  Go ahead, Google it and see for yourself.

But, if you want a girl to rip you a new one with a good vocabulary?

I’m your girl.

Now, your award winning girl.

Somehow knowing that I’ll never be the soulmate of braying Governor Horses’s Asses of South Carolina has just made my day.

Thank you, NSNC.  I’m honored.

No, really.

©Pat Coakley 2009

PHOTOGRAPHY CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

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Visibility Check List

June 4, 2009 By

iamhere

I am here.  Do you see me?

Let’s call it my “invisibility” handicap or tic.  I have a default position of being invisible.  I think all artists have it in one way or another.

Bloggers, too.  Oh, yes, bloggers should definitely attend the annual Invisibility convention held in an undisclosed location of course.  (The better to be “unseen” in for heaven’s sake)

In fact, the gnarly, knobby blogger types (we know who we are) who kvetch and moan are the Grand Marshals of the annual Invisibility parade, parade route undisclosed, of course.  (We’re invisible, people, how many times must I remind you?)

We need stats to prove we are seen, however.  Which is a problem if we are in an undisclosed location.  We need comments to prove we’re being heard.  Again, if we are hiding, how will they find us?

Friend, Razzbuffnik, pointed out lately that WordPress is counting statistics differently and, consequently, our daily stats may have dropped significantly.  Yep, that would be me.

Here’s a quiz.  Put on your thinking cap, class.

What do a lion’s roar, improvised exploding devices, or any keystroke of a blogger have in common?

Tick. Tock.  Tick. Tock.  Time’s up.

A desire to be heard and seen.

It can be a lethal drive of self expression as in planes flown deliberately into the World Trade Towers on 9/11 or the birthing cry of a newborn.

President Obama is in Cairo today and giving a speech.  As I write this blog post, I know he has given his speech but have not yet heard it.

But, I do know that his speech is being translated simultaneously into more languages than any previous speech by a US President in order to reach as much of the listening world, and specifically, the Muslim world, as possible.

Talk about stats?  He’ll have them.  Comments?  Oh, I think a few billion at minimum.  I’d classify this as a birthing drive to be seen and heard, wouldn’t you?

Now, I can tell you two true things:  his opportunity to speak to the world sends chills up my spine.  And, two–and I say this with rare confidence, as rare as the calm I imagine he has approaching the Cairo podium:  President Obama did not wake up this morning and go through a pre-day Visibility check list that the rest of us, knobby, gnarly bloggers with visibility issues do each morning, rain or shine, at least single ones without dog, cat , geckos or tweety birds.

It is typed out and hanging on my bathroom mirror.  It goes like this:

Awake?                                       √

Alive?                                         √

Here?  Yes, of course, HERE…you goofball.                  √

I am HERE, right?  Yes, H.E.R.E.                          √

Of course.  Pinch my arm.  Ouch!  OK, HERE.                 √

For god’s sake, you annoying goofball.                      √√√

Ok.  Ok.   Brush my teeth.  Now, GO.  For Heaven’s sake…GO!        √

Begin.  Again.                                  √

Ok.                                          √

But.                                        √

But, what?                                    √

I have to drink my coffee first.  There.                      √

I’ll begin with a photograph.                            √

Click.                                          √

And, then, a keystroke.

Click.

There.  I exist.  I am here.  Do you see me?

So far, no one has seen me or commented.

Hopefully, they are all listening to President Obama and will discover me later.

©Pat Coakley 2009

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, blogging, Blogs, Creativity, Humor, Invisibility, Personal, Photography Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Creative Helix Series

January 9, 2009 By

carwaslight3

Recently one of my favorite bloggers and painters, Bonnieluria, called our impulses to make art, a creative helix. She is as good with words as she is with paint.

Now, I love that phrase and the spiral ascending chain that it conjures.

This coming week, starting today, I am going to be trying to ascend the helix without any guarantee that it’s going to work.  Here’s my thought.

I love photographs of car washes, behind the car wheel vistas, rain, snow, wind as primary tools of my images.  Living in New England, weather becomes your ally if this is part of your creative muse.   So, I am going to see what cloning them might look like.

That’s right.  Take a little car wash image mix it in the Photoshop petri dish with a rainy stoplight and a few blends and see what we get.

This is exhibit A in that petri dish.  I’ll make no judgment just yet on whether I like the individual images or not because trying something new sometimes needs stages and room to explore.

Anyway, more to come.  My raw material are images that I have liked for one reason or another but did not feel stood alone.  I’d like to find the photographic equivalent of what I find true about the creative process in general,  “the whole is more than the sum of its parts”.

What I like is the process.  The outcomes we shall discover together.

I like that part, too.

©Pat Coakley 2008

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Filed Under: BEHIND THE WHEEL SERIES, Blogs, Creativity, Life, Personal, Photography, Photoshop Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Every Day Not Every Other

December 14, 2008 By

12_14_08bluesunset5

Some days I go out to shoot at the very last minute.

Daylight is fading.  I have a window of perhaps 20 minutes.  I think about not going.   I just shot some beautiful sunset photographs yesterday, I say to myself.  I’ve worked all day.  It’s freezing cold.  A bitter wind is announcing a new weather front arriving.

But, I get my coat.  I know the secret of whatever talent I have.  It is the every day that brings me blessings not the every other day or just the days I feel like going.

©Pat Coakley 2008

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Now Playing

December 10, 2008 By

cleavagefinal

The theme for SPACC this week was from one who says he likes to stir things up: the challenge was”Cleavage” but specifically no chest shots.  Say, what?  What else is there?

So, I took the spoon and stirred to an alternate meaning more to my liking:  “separation” “distance” and “fissure”.  To separate from reality is my take, a subject more or less visible most of the time in creative people.

My first petty thought, however, was to take the low road and respond to what I thought was a needlessly cumbersome challenge with a photo of my toe cleavage because I have one nasty looking big toe.  (Yeah, I’m single for a reason, people, not all reasons attributable to the “other” by any means.)

Then, vanity and better angels of judgment (do “gotcha” games ever really contribute to contentment?) nudged my creativity to where it should have been in the first place: focus on whatever nuance of the word does spark my imagination.   This freed me to turn off low road onto creative road (which was the goal of  the pot stirrer in the first place) and I just chose a meaning that had resonance with me: separation from reality.

So, early Sunday migrainy morning, I went in search of anything quite frankly that would make me feel better.  I was not thinking of this challenge.

I passed this long abandoned Drive-In movie screen, drove on about 500 yards, and then turned around.  The SPACC photo radar had beeped.

I believe I had me some fissure and reality separation.

It is now pretty much deserted but off to the left of the screen was some earth moving equipment and piles of well…earth.  Perhaps, the beginnings of a new place of business was underway? I decided to park in front of the screen as if I had come for a movie as we used to do “back in the day”.

The movie I remember seeing for sure at the Drive-In (We would see first run movies at Drive-Ins all the time in the fifties for you kids out there) was Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” with Janet Leigh, a mammary delight to be sure,  if I recall correctly.  We had a full car so some of us sat along side the car in lawn chairs.  This photo would be better in my mind if there were some lawn chairs.  If I had Annie Leibovitz’s budget and assistants I would have snapped my fingers.  But, alas.  Reality bites.  No lawn chairs.

I left the car running for a sense of presence,  the “reality” part of the separation.  “Now and Then” came to mind.  The  immediacy with the brake lights and the exhaust fumes seemed a natural way to suggest “now”.  The expressionless gaping white screen, pock marked, battered by years of weather and lack of use, was clearly “then”.  So, frissure and separation elements complete.  Check. Check.  Somewhere outside of the car and beyond the screen lay the truth.

Fissure Feature Top frame (for me) is this: here we have someone who is waiting for a show to start that is so not going to start ever again and yet here she sits: waiting.  ( I think I feel that way about the stock market, too–but let’s not get started on that!)

Fissure Feature Bottom frame is this (again, for me):  when reality fails you, use your imagination.

Perfect for the arc of this challenge, me thinks–and a slap to my tousled head to keep my eye on the plus sign, not the minus.  It’s what you had in mind all along, right, Mt. Brooks?

There are two shots and two blends of black and white and color because, of course,  this is a Freakin’ Double Frissure Feature.

Say that three times fast.  It sounds like cleavage.

©Pat Coakley 2008

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Here are other participants:

Mt. Brooks

Conni

Renee

Smack

Russ

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Filed Under: Blogs, Creativity, PHOTO BLOGGING, Photography, Random Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Octopus Wash

December 9, 2008 By

carwashoctopus

Oh, now, people!!  Motion Madness in a car wash??!!!

Why did it take me so long?

Is your car dirty?  Go to your local car wash and post your photos.

Yea!  Another series, called “Octopus Wash” because my then five year old grand niece upon going through her first car wash experience yelled out at the exact stage this photograph is taken, “Pappy, an octopus is eating us!”

Now, why didn’t I think of that?  All due respect to Jules Verne, that’s exactly what it looks like!

©Pat Coakley 2008

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Get In. Let’s Go. (The Series)

November 7, 2008 By

dailyshoot_01

C’mon, get in.  Let’s Go.  Close the door, for God’s sake.  Put on your seat belt and do you mind if I put my camera bag in your lap?

I go out every day photographing something.  Here’s a link I’m starting today of a gallery of photos some of which don’t deserve the light of day (a self portrait gone wrong) and others that are experiments and part of my learning curve (the motion shots) and others that simply are what I took on that particular day.

Here’s the link.  Bookmark it and you can follow along.

Daily Shoot

I’ll be adding to it every day whether I like the photo or not so you can use this link to follow along.  Email me your thoughts and don’t spill coffee in my car.  Only I can do that.  Is that a glazed donut in your hand?  Mmmm….hand it over.  Let’s Go.

©Pat Coakley 2008

(Apologies as I am continuing to have issues with this Blog template with respect to color matching and navigation arrows disappearing magically.  In some cases, you many need to go to upper right and click on “archives” in order to see past posts.)

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Sad Witch

October 31, 2008 By

Witches have toil and trouble, too, you know.

 

©Pat Coakley 2008

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Halloween Tree

October 30, 2008 By

I took Razz and Chris’s advice and went out experimenting yesterday.  In search of motion, I took a full 4GB card worth of images on a intermittently sunny but very windy day.

I parked along side roads and took photos of cars.  I parked above roads and took pictures of cars.  I parked looking up at an interstate and took pictures of passing trucks.

I took me some motion photos, people, but My Motion Mastery (The 3 M’s)  is no where in sight.  This is hard to do.

About 500 yards from my house, I stopped and took the last shot of the day out my side window of this tree.  Did I say it was a windy day?

As it turns out, it is the only image I am keeping from the whole day but what I learned would fill a chest.

If you want to follow along with my motion mastery efforts (at this point, I am a master blur-er):

Master Motion Folder

You can check with this link periodically as I update this folder when I have a new image.

#1 thing I learned so far is that it would have cost me a bloody  fortune to “learn” motion photography in the old analog world.

I am going to two Halloween parades tomorrow morning.  One is 8 years old and the other is five years old.  Their respective classes will be marching around their school in their Halloween costumes.

Another test of my motion mastery coming up.

©Pat Coakley 2008

PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

PS.  My Monotone template is not working (!) and in order to view past entries you have to click “Archive” on the top of this page.  Apologies.

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