Right Brain Feed

 I've worked with several different photo management/editing apps over the years. I've used both Apple Photos and Google Photos for the last 10 years-ish. I never quite fell in love with either. Back in early days with my first digital camera, I used and absolutely loved the now long dead Picasa. It had just enough features without going overboard In complexity, and wasn't hell bent on locking users into their proprietary little world. I do have an ever increasing list of requirements for photo managers as I've been snapping away at pictures over the years... Can quickly do basic lighting fixes and crop photos. I don't need hours and hours of computer work every time I take pictures... I spend enuf screen time as it is. Allow me to manage and search for metadata: Keyword tags, ratings, Camera name, Lens, and hopefully GPS. Allow me to manage my photos using normal operating system directories and files. This makes it easier to use multiple tools if need be. Importin...

 First rule of photography: you gotta have your camera with you or you’ll miss the perfect shot. I’ve been neglecting this one on my daily walks, and frequently regret it. One day this Spring that I did have it... With the overcast/haze it ain’t a great pic, but I like having the memory of that early early spring day. Closely related corollaries: you can't get the shot if you forget to check how much space is on the card, and check that the friggin battery isn't about to go belly up.

 One thing we’ve enjoyed this summer is all the fresh produce at the monstrous WNC farmers market, including this large heirloom tomato called Mr Stripey. Also been going peach crazy with red globe, o’henry, and big red, getting half bushels!

The candle holder below is based on a design I stole (borrowed?) from a classmate at Clayways back in Austin a few years ago. I saw it originally as a carved fruit bowl, which I also want to try some day.... I did it as a candleholder and it turned out well.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,  and in pottery, it's actually how you learn.

I was trimming a lid a while back, it was really too wet to trim, but I stupidly did it anyway. The trimming tool dug into the lid badly, causing it to fly off the base (I was using the pot body as a chuck), and bounce off the wheel. It was mangled pretty badly, but what the heck, maybe I could save it. I centered it back on the wheel and struggled for a bit trying to start the trim... But it was so mangled that I was struggling to keep the trimming tools (I tried a few different ones to see if I could find something that worked) from doing a repeat gouging of the surface.  Then I spied the little yellow handled cheese grater and gave it a go.... It  did an awesome job of slowly chewing out the weight of the area that needed to be trimmed .....and doing it in a safe and controlled way. In the picture you can see the small shavings from the grater, and the area I was trimming from the mangled lid. After I was done doing the rough trim, I was then able to switch over to the regu...

An example of small Asian influenced platter things from a class. We throw a flat disk, push on the sides until they fold over, then put them in a slump mold for a while. Here's a pic of the next phase, throwing little feet off the hump, and attaching them. It's a fun form to play with.