Virtual Brush Box

State of the Blog: TYFR

End-of-the-month commentary on blogging. [State of the Blog]

At the end of last month, I started new habit. I end each post with

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

At end of the audio CD of Pacific, the author/narrator Simon Winchester says, “Thank you for listening.” How nice, I thought. I should do that. It’s entirely possible that I have read this in tens or hundreds of other blogs over the years. For whatever reason, the Pacific CD is the first time it registered. (If you are wondering, audio CDs in the car, Audible on my phone everywhere else.)

Pacific CD

It’s the right thing to do, since you were kind enough to share part of your day with me. However, it has the added marketing advantage of getting my name on the screen and injecting a personality into the post. I struggle with this. Decades of journalism trained me to do the opposite. Keep my opinions to myself & present the information. [Identity]

Also, I fiddled with subtitle again. [Subtitle History]
~~
Show today, but not for me. No biggie. I don’t usually go to this one: long drive, no third riding class, & no separate adult division [Quietude]. The last time I went to this show was 2013 [Report: ETSA Spring Classic].

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Foto Friday: Syllabus

My photography teacher, Meg McKinney [Meet Meg], has sent the outline for our classes. She says the syllabus is subject to change. I predict this will be more true than she knows. I predict she will be appalled at how little I understand the workings of my camera.

I’m not being coy. I’m clever. My brain is good for a lot of things. Retaining technical detail is not one of them. I have taken the 160-hour volunteer firefighter training course. I have spent a weekend at the fire college taking an apparatus-operator course. I still cannot perform the most basic operations for the pumps on the engines. I remember standing in front of our old pumper, listening to Chief explain the mechanism, and feeling the information drain back out as he spoke. But I digress.

Welcome Meg.

I thought we’d cover f/stops in the first class. They’re essential, and once you “get it,” you’ll wonder why you didn’t before.

You can count on homework from each class, which you will need to bring to the next class to show — on a thumb drive or CD. We will look at the images on my laptop.

What is the model camera that you have? What lens(es) do you have? I want to look them up on the Nikon website, http://www.nikonusa.com/en/index.page .

Do you have the camera’s manual? If so, please bring it to class.

Class 1: What is your camera? lens – f/stop? shutter speed? ISO? photo books, and more.

Class 2: Shutter speeds, more about lenses, composition, tripod.

Class 3: Light – types of, do’s, don’t’s, more on composition — a never-ending topic.

Class 4: Strobe light (the kind you attach to your camera), settings for strobes, practical uses, etc.; filters, and animals – creatures: how to photograph.

If you have additional topics you’d like covered in these classes, be sure to tell me what they are.

This is going to be fun — Meg

~~~
A Foto Friday with no fotos. Ah, the irony.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Meg head

Website
Facebook
Instagram

A Look Inside My Head

Seize the day! Seize the fucking day, already! Get off your sorry ass and do something. Anything. I don’t care what. A load of dishes perhaps. Or, I don’t know, maybe one of the 600 things you put on those To Do lists you are so fond of making.

Do you have any idea how lucky you are? Sure, you say so, but I’m not seeing any actions to back that up.

Do I have to put this comic in front of you again? Yeah, that’s right. One day, you will be dead. One day, you will have run out of time. One day, you will have wasted the precious opportunities that have been showered upon you. One day, it will be too late.

Don’t tell me to shut up. You know I’m right.

Awww. Is oo feeling poorly? See these two fingers. This is the world’s smallest violin playing the Sympathy Sonata. I don’t want to hear about whatever tiny ailments you think you might be suffering from. What if you had real responsibilities? What if you had kids? Or a job? What if you had a job you hated but needed to keep in order to pay the bills? You could get going if you had to.

Clearly, you are not sufficiently appreciate of all the good in your life. It’s time to get out the gratitude club. You should be grateful for …

… two beautiful horses.
WHAM
… space and time to keep those horses at home.
WHAM
… leisure to indulge whatever fancy crosses your mind.
WHAM
… food security. Food that you don’t have to shop for or cook.
WHAM
… better health than you deserve, given the amount of time you spend getting fit.
WHAM
… escaping the horrific tragedies that occur every day in headlines and down the street.
WHAM.
… the ability to simply move and breathe.
WHAM

WHAM

WHAM
=====
Anyone else ever feel this way?

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

The Sassy Equestrian

Saddle Seat Wednesday

My newest ASB t-shirt.

The Sassy Equestrian Glitter Saddlebred Back design — The Sassy Equestrian
Glitter Saddlebred
Back design

From The Sassy Equestrian, http://www.thesassyequestrian.com, Etsy, Facebook

Sassy Eq

Shirt sayings include

Southern born & Saddlebred

Saddleseat, We Don’t Jump.

Top 10 things yelled by trainers in a show arena.

(Nope, I ain’t telling. You’ll have to go look.)

Products include t-shirts, totes, & onesies. They will print a custom profile of your favorite horse from your photograph.

They were the ones who gave out the Team Awesome shirts at Pro-Am [Report].

Taken by a helpful member of Team Awesome.

Disclosure: Yes, this is a blatant plug. However, I do so for the sake of friendship & from appreciation of their product, rather than for cash. The shop is run by a family at the barn. The blue shirt I bought as a regular customer. The Team Awesome shirt was free for being part of Team Stepping Stone.

One of the principles of The Sassy Equestrian wrote Why I Ride by Katie Wood.
~~~
Blue & Arthur helped with the photo shoot.

TSE cat 2

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Melting Milton

We finally replaced our microwave, so I can start heating the horses again.

Milton melt 1

Milton approves.

Milton melt 3

Milton is good for 20-30 minutes. Then he’s done. He’ll stretch, pick his head up, and look about. He’s still happy but he loses the out-to-lunch look.

Milton melt 2

Rodney continues to be part lizard [Piling on the Therapy]. He stands in a heat stupor the entire time.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

Roping Rodney

rope 2

New longlines for Rodney’s groundwork [Progress]. Since I’m working closer to the horse, standard lines left too much in my hand with too much potential for tangling.

rope 1

A friend recommended APS New England Ropes Salsa Line. Nice rope. Nice sailing rope. My initial reaction is that, for barn rope, the material is too slick and the diameter too narrow. It’s here. I’ll try. I could be wrong. I may have found an exciting new source for horse gear.

Either way, I will probably trim off another foot or two. When I say close to the horse, I mean CLOSE.

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott

n,a