Imaging with Intent

Linking Up

2008-08-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

Looks like the readership is up to 7 now. The latest comment mentioned that someone had made a link to one of Larry's images. We're happy to see that folks want to show his work to others. We'd be grateful if you'd let us know if you do that -- for the encouragement factor. Our email addresses (also on the web site): lhuns or joyce at IntentImages.com. Thanks much. (jsh)

The Road to Nowhere

2008-08-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

On a hot Sunday in August, we went to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near Bryson City, NC. In spite of the drought, Deep Creek and Indian Creek are still running steadily and quite a few hikers and picnickers were enjoying the day. The folks who rent tubes for floating on the Creek weren’t doing much business though.

Ted and Linda went with us and we ended up hiking about two miles up the creek before our stomachs drew us back to the picnic ground. Most of the rhodos, even the ones on the creek bank, were shriveled up. Leaves on the sycamores and some of the maples are turning colors as if it were already fall. There were a few blooms – some cardinal flowers and a type of small wild sunflower.

After lunch (I so love those brownies), we drove up The Road to Nowhere. When the Feds took land to build Fontana Lake during WWII, they promised to build a road to replace one that would be flooded, in spite of the fact that it would cut through the Park. Later on in the ‘60s, about six miles were completed – including a 1200’ tunnel – before environmental impact became an issue. Local kids have found the tunnel is an excellent graffiti canvas, although I wouldn’t call any of them artists. However, we didn’t have a flashlight and might have missed a mid-tunnel masterpiece.

The last stop of the day was at Wesser Falls on the Nantahalah River. The fragrance from the kudzu flowers was wonderful. It’s kudzu’s one redeeming quality. But short of a new ice age, I don’t expect it to disappear anytime soon.

And for photography? The creek had some mica-flecked rocks that were pretty good. Larry shot several as possibilities for composites, his newest interest.

The lost weekend

2008-07-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

Trying to keep expenses low, I always search for lost cost motels as soon as we're accepted into a show. This time I thought I'd lucked into a bargain when I found small cabins with a kitchenette for rent at a campground. Great, we could save money on meals, especially because the show was in a resort area.

We dropped off replacement prints at The Artists' House Too in Bryson City and climbed up to the Eastern Continental Divide to set up for the show. We met some nice folks and did the basics before heading to a grocery store for a few items. Onward to the campground.

As soon as we parked, I understood why the cabin was described as 'cozy'. I should have thought about how you'd sleep four people in a 12x12 space - a double bed on the right, bunkbeds on the left, a shower/toilet closet at the end of the double, and the kitchenette beside it. So we had a mini-fridge, microwave with coffee pot sitting on it, and a small porcelain sink. Oh, and two large mugs, a coffee cup, one roll of paper towels, and about three ounces of dish soap. We'd planned for a large salad with shrimp for one meal, but there was no way to make spaghetti in a mug. New plan - let's go out for dinner tonight.

It was dusk, but we decided to take a walk in the woods. That turned out to be the highlight of the weekend. The rhododendrons were in bloom, a little steam trickled over the rocks, and then we spotted something orange on the opposite slope. It was a stand of Turk's Cap lilies. I'd only seen them once before. These mountain wild flowers are a delight with their brilliant color and petals curving back to the stem. Larry took several shots, from the tripod because of the low light and little breeze.

To sum up the rest of the weekend: the mattress had no padding over its innersprings and the show was poorly attended. On the plus side, we had a chance to see three photographers we'd met at other shows - Cynthia Walker, Michael Cothran, and Ross Jeffries. Now that we're in our second year, it's nice to see some familiar faces and talk about shows and life.
jsh

Back to the blog

2008-06-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

When we started this blog, we expected to post at least every week and report on our latest show. But life interfered, fatigue set in, and inertia crept up on us.

To summarize what's been going on for the last month:
we did several shows and mostly broke even;
Larry led a weekend workshop for two students;
his mother had terrible vertigo that took nearly three weeks to diminish enough that she could get around normally;
we visited my sister and brother in Ohio as we traveled to and from the Pittsburgh Three Rivers show;
Larry reports that the new tiller does a much better job and doesn't wear him out like the old one did;
most of the garden is surviving, although yesterday was the first good rain in about three weeks;
and we celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary.

Some of those events may turn into longer posts soon, but we have plans for the summer that I believe will provide good topics to feed the blog. Thanks for bearing with us, dear readers - all six of you. (jsh)

Wild and Mild

2008-05-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

Last weekend started with a Friday full of strange events. Larry taught a four-day class last week at the Folkstone Inn in Bryson City, so he was already frazzled when we started out Friday to set up for our weekend show in Roswell GA. Thanks to numerous notes (what we'd do without both paper and electronic reminders is too scary to think about!), we loaded the dolly and some other essentials before leaving home, stopped by the office in Murphy to pick up a few new prints and email the class evaluation form to his students, loaded up at the storage locker and took off.

We'd been driving about an hour when Larry's phone rang. The owner of our storage place was calling to say that someone reported the door to our space was open. We'd been in such a rush that we forgot to close and lock it. After explaining that we were miles away, our good landlord agreed to lock it and hide the key, because of course I'd left it in the lock by the doorway.

We made it to Roswell and into the chaos of setting up in a small park along with over a hundred other booths. After dollying the tent poles and covers from a block away, we had just moved the car closer, when Larry got another call. This one was from the trucking company trying to deliver our much-needed cartop carrier. We called on Jan, our sister-in-law who works in the same building where we have our working office, to sign for the shipment and direct the driver to take it upstairs. That business took only 5 calls to complete.

Back to the setup. We were taking turns with our booth neighbors, stepping around and into one another's spaces to attach walls and canopies. (NB show committees: you should try erecting a 10x10 booth in a 10x10 space with tents already setup on each side and behind you! A foot or two of wiggle room would be much appreciated.) Larry went to the car for something or other and came back later than expected saying, "You won't believe this. The Folk School just called and asked me if I can teach a class next week. The instructor had to cancel and most of the students are coming from out of state."

Larry has taught a couple of classes at the John C. Campbell Folk School at Brasstown NC and he's scheduled for another at the end of October. This is the second time he's filled in so that a class wouldn't be cancelled. He subbed for an instructor with a broken leg last year, teaching a macro photography class. After the school called the students to let them know the class would have a new instructor and be all digital, everything was set. In fact one student was delighted to find out about the switch. He'd been at our booth at Inman Park and loved Larry's work.

We finally finished 90% of the booth setup, battened down the hatches against the predicted storms and headed home about 6:30pm. Saturday morning we hung the display signs and labels for the framed images and waited for the visitors. Larry sold two pictures. I said hello to artists we'd met last year and picked the brains of the other photographers about upcoming shows and their sense of the spring market. Saturday evening Larry dug in the spiral dog stakes to supplement the 40lb weights on each tent pole. We packed up the largest framed pictures and headed home, hoping the thunderstorms wouldn't spin off any tornadoes in north Georgia.

They didn't, fortunately, and the sun came out early on Mother's Day. But the winds kept coming. Our front awning nearly blew off and the occasional 25mph gusts actually shoved the tent back a few inches. The sunny day brought folks strolling through the park with their children and pets for the free entertainment, but very few carried anything away with them.

To paraphrase Jim Rice of Turtle Old Man Jewelry, one of our booth neighbors, "We must do this for love; it can't be for the 15 cents an hour we make." (jsh)

Planting time

2008-05-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about moving back to North Carolina is having home-grown vegetables. We always had a garden when I was growing up in Ohio. After Larry and I got married, we had a patch in Berea KY and later grew a small garden at our first house in King NC. But after we moved to New Jersey, we just had a couple of tomatoes on the patio.

Larry's parents and kinfolk always have big gardens. His uncle plowed up our two garden plots and ran the disk through the dirt. Then the work started - harvesting the biggest rocks and running the tiller, which is Larry's job. Fortunately the tiller's transmission didn't go out until he'd been over most of one patch a couple of times.

After supper and an ibuprofen break, we planted long rows of cucumbers, okra, sweet corn, and green beans, along with tomato, pepper, and cabbage plants. The potatoes went in a couple of weeks ago, as did the small bed of radishes, green onions, spinach, and leaf lettuce.

Because we'll be at shows every weekend until mid-June, we're going to try mulching to cut down on the weeds. I've been saving newspapers and shredding credit card offers all winter. There's also a good-sized pile of shredded limbs from a dead pine. Hoeing ought to be manageable when the walking paths are covered.

And the work is already paying off. Last night we had fresh baby spinach and green onions in our salads. Still to go: planting more corn spaced a couple of weeks apart and putting in a row of clay peas, a local variety that's grown to dry and eat like pinto beans during the winter.

And getting a new tiller. (jsh)

The drought is easing

2008-04-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

The Inman Park neighborhood in Atlanta hosts a spring festival each year, including a two-day arts and crafts festival. In spite of some much-needed rain, this year’s event was a good one.

The parade sets this festival apart – I started to say it ‘distinguishes’ this festival, but that’s the wrong word. There’s The Seed & Feed Marching Abominables and The Abominables in Training, kids about 10-14 years old who outplay the adults; the Grady High Knights of Sound marching band – sorry Abominables, they’re way better than you;
several children’s drill teams, and the dragon dancers from the martial arts academy; the mayor, state representative and senator, and various political candidates; the Athol Highlanders Pipes & Drums from Stone Mountain – gotta love those kilts; the antique cars, trucks, and tractors; the neighborhood bar, the chiropractor’s office with their parade of vertebrae carried on sticks a la dragon dancers, the dog washer, the Tooth Fairy, and, of course, the elite Inman Park Precision Attache Case Team. Mardi Gras may have the glitz, but Inman Park definitely has the attitude!

This is one show where we lucked out with the neighbors, especially Wendy Johnson, selling some great bags and totes. Her eight-month old grandson, Miles, visited and gave me a generous baby fix. (I do miss the grandkids, not having been to Hawaii since last summer.) Wendy’s Champagne Taste Boutique is on Flat Shoals Avenue in Atlanta. She also has a web site of the same name.

Saturday was almost a bust, but on Sunday, we sold two framed pieces including one of the new 24”x32”size. We’ll be adding more large pieces to the booth for the upcoming shows. We also met some great folks that we look forward to seeing again. (jsh)

2008-04-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hitting the road again

Last week we drove to Tallahassee for the first show of the spring season, the LeMoyne Chain of Parks Art Festival. What a beautiful city! We enjoyed visiting an old friend and meeting some new folks. Here’s a shot of an incredible sculpture and fountain on the state capitol grounds.

The show is held in a group of small parks shaded by live oaks. It’s a lovely setting and, with the exception of a few showers Saturday morning, the weather co-operated with the festival. Unfortunately the crowd was light compared to previous years’ numbers and the buyers even fewer. Maybe there were too many other events that weekend...or maybe it's the economy.

When visitors to the festivals are walking around, they don’t know what we’ve gone through to be there. Each year show promoters, arts associations, non-profit cultural institutions, local civic clubs, and merchant associations hold arts and crafts festivals. From trial and error in our first year, we found that fine art photography doesn’t sell well when the majority of vendors are selling “crafty” items. That’s crafty as in painted saws and fur glued to flip-flops, not traditional fine crafts such as wood carving and pottery.

So we researched online, subscribed to show rating services, and talked with other artists at every show. We refined our list of potential shows and were accepted at several shows in the fall that were much better for us. This year we’ve applied to events in large cities, suburbs, and small towns, some close to home and a few several hours away -- wherewhere we think the focus is right for us.

The application process is a bit like a beauty pageant in absentia. Several months before the show, we submit an application fee of $25 or $30 and 3-4 images that will be viewed and compared with other submissions. Some events require using an online service, but the smaller ones still request slides or photographs to be mailed with an application. Selecting the images to submit is like picking a gift for someone you don’t know.

In most cases, we don’t know who the judges will be. The jurors (artists, academics, curators, or knowledgeable, we hope, sponsor committees) review the images and assign scores. Then the show committee go down the list of top-scoring applicants by category until they have their booths filled. The top-rated shows frequently receive 1,000 applications or more, and limit the number of vendors by category so the show is balanced between fine arts and crafts. If 300 photographers apply for 25 slots, the odds can be daunting.

And then you get into a show and nobody comes! But we could still relax Sunday with friends to watch the sun set as these pictures show. Thanks to Larry Coltharp for shooting a fine portrait of Larry and to Rose, Melanie, Dudley, and Mickey for their help and sharing some good times. Onward to Atlanta! (jsh)

Spring Perspective

2008-04-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

Spring is exploding at the lower altitudes. Yesterday, Joyce and I got a chance to get back to Graham County, NC, and examine spring's progress around the Cherohala Skyway. Here's what it looks like at just a bit above 3000 ft.

A bit below, the trees are starting to green up, with the poplars first as usual, but maples and oaks are following. The flowers of the forest floor which flourish before the leaves fill out and hide the sun are everywhere.

We saw multiple types of trilliums, including red and yellow sessile, red erect trilliums, white trillium grandiflorum and something I had never seen, a cream-to-yellow erect trillium. (Ted had told me to look for those.) The white trilliums were scattered around widely, but in places they appeared in denser fields. We also saw dense patches of may apples, which are starting to bloom lower down.

As I worked with the tripod, I could hear motorcyclists rumbling down the Cherohala. It occurred to me how much more we see walking through the woods than one can ever see from a motorcyle. Yet one sees more from a motorcyle than a car, and more from a car than a plane. Any of those perspectives can be beautiful, but I find the great details on the ground with my macro lens. (lgh)

Spring Storm

2008-04-12T10:19:00.000-07:00

It threatened most of the day yesterday, but, by the afternoon, the sky was full of darkening cumulus clouds. I ran through one brief sprinkle in the eight miles between Murphy and our place in Grape Creek. After supper and dishes and a few chores, we started hearing thunder. Soon it towered and roared over us, and the rain poured straight down. It got strong enough that I unplugged the electronics, having seen a television lit up by lightning when I was young. (I do not know whether lightning likes satellite dishes, but who wants to find out?)

So it continued, with thunder, lightning, and rain fading and intensifying, but eventually settling down to a steady rain which persisted for a couple of hours, perfect for the onions, lettuce, radishes, etc. which got planted Thursday.

This morning everything was still very wet. When I saw the sun trying to break through the clouds, I ran outside to the the flowering cherry. Of course there were raindrops hanging everywhere with the sun's rays beaming through them.

Nearby was a single yellow tulip. It had a fine fuzz of dewdrops on it a couple of days ago, so I got up close again. Today the petal had a wonderful texture with glassy raindrops scattered up and down it.

It was a good spring storm....plenty of rain and impressive enough without being scary.
(lgh)

Why We Blog

2008-04-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

Who We Are
We are Joyce and Larry Hunsucker. We've been married 33 years, and yes, we are boomers. A bit over a year ago, Joyce decided to retire from the rodent marathon in NYC. I had already put my computer consulting business to bed, and had been toying with reentering photography full time, something I had last pursued in the mid-70s. After a bit of mental tinkering and resultant discussions, our plans evolved into: 1) return to my old home place in Western North Carolina; 2) start a fine art photography business; 3) start doing art shows and build a web site to sell the images; 4) see what happens next. It looks like what happens next is this blog.

What We Blog
We intend to blog on the following subjects (not necessarily in order of importance) 1) living back in the country again; 2) photography, as an art, a craft, and a business; 3) working the art show circuit; 4) anything else that seems important.

When We Blog
We intentd to post at least a couple of times a week, and more when we can.

Comments
Comments will be very welcome, but we reserve the right to remove (or prevent) comments we deem inappropriate. Keep it clean, people.