Holy Freholes has it been a long time! Hey y'awlll! Warmest greets to faces old and new. I'm back to announce that there will be an event in Manitoba this summer in the middle of July, specifically the weekend of the full moon. This event will be both unique and ground-breaking. This will to my knowledge be the first adults-only outdoor furry festival on private property, a full quarter section of fields and forests. Now let me stress the fact that this is an adults-only event purely for reasons of liability!!! If you burn your feet during the fire-walking, I don't wanna hear about it from your lawyer! Oh, note that "Adult" means 18 in Manitoba, just to be clear.

Y'know, when people mention that they're going "camping" I get a crawling sensation in my skin. All those people! All that noise! STFU after 11:00? Wha? Madness! Feels like downtown Portage and Main to me. This will be the way it's meant to be, late nights, proper campfires, and coyotes. Right now we're just in the announcement phase, testing the waters to see what kind of a reaction we get. For more details check out this LiveJournal post.

Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!

Atomicat

So I've been polling my friends on LiveJournal and now I'm asking you... I would love any and all input on the three pictures I'm entering in this contest, particularly from the few very talented photographers I've got on my list here ( FenTera and  Orcinus, I'm looking at you and hey  Akirashima, I haven't heard from you yet!) Any comments either here or there will be much appreciated. Thanks!

Since my van was giving me problems my aunt and uncle were kind enough to pick up Hannah ( cannibalweasel) from the roadside last night at an ungodly 3:45 am. Her guy traveled on to the city where he proved to be one of those rare kinda guys... the kind of guy who can find a place to live (one bedroom apartment) and possible burger-flipping work, on no sleep and in one day! And with a nine-month-old baby on his hip as well! Good show dude!!! This evening he called to tell her to hop on a bus, all taken care of.

So I barely had company up here for a few hours!!! I can't tell you how impressed I am with this guy. Far too many find it easy to shirk their responsibilities but when the chips were down, he came through. I'm going to enjoy buying him a beer when I can.

Look up. Look waaaay up! That there is Thompson, Manitoba, a mining town of 50,000 that is a pretty lousy place to live and a worse place to find work. That's where  cannibalweasel and her 9 month old baby live. Or used to anyways, because on Sunday they will be on the street. Well hey, at least it's only going down to -20, gonna be a drag on Tuesday though when it's down to -27! So she has to have bus fare raised by Sunday or else.

"Yes, I am FLAT BROKE! Right now I'm selling EVERYTHING I own, Clothes, Jackets, Tables, Dishes, Computer, TV, Desks and even my 1 yr old Great Dane *sniffle* I am gonna miss him. Hopefully I can gather enough money for a ticket on the bus and enough for some food. (Unless someone is willing to pick me, My son and my BF up and drive us down ) . My BF has a place to stay, his EX roomie before I moved in with him is letting him and our son stay with him..but he hates furries so I am not welcomed. We have til Sunday to get ourselves organized or else we'll be on the street..and Thompson isn't the best place to be homeless with a baby."

When I talked to her on the phone tonight to get some details she told me that they had managed to scrape up $50 but were still about $200 short for the tickets. Now if this were at the end of the month I could handle this myself but as it stands I've got, amusingly enough, exactly one dollar in my bank account. *lol* I know we and those I know can do this though. I've told her that she and her son can stay here while her BF continues south to Winnipeg where he will look for a place and a job. I will have to be the conduit though for funds for the tickets as she doesn't have a PayPal account. From mine though I can shuttle things about and do a direct transfer to her bank account. Its Thursday, and this has to be done by Saturday, no time to lose!

Donations/Loans: wilna at dehls dot net

If you haven't read my journal entry about using my photography for some good causes, now would be the time. A couple of weeks ago the owner of this gift shop and gallery in one of the most high rent retail areas of the city bought two of my prints... and told me she would be redoing the room she wanted them in a bit so it would go better with the blue in my picture! This Stuff Sells. Period. Use it! Go do some good with it.

I've been saying for a while now that I'd love to see my pictures put to good use and if anyone in need could sell some of my work I'd be glad to give them the full-sized files for printing. Now that we've got the  adlmdailyspotlight this becomes a bit more of a reality. So, where to start and how to explain. First let's start with me and my photography.

This very long story will have to be made very short of course. To sum up, after a very severe and almost fatal illness (I'm openly HIV pos) I retreated up north to take over the M&P's country place, moved into the barn and started renovations there. During this time I turned myself into a pretty damn good photographer and have the sales and accolades to prove it. I may not have had any experience with a camera but I do have a quarter of a century of wallowing in the arts under my belt. Yes kiddies, my leathers are probably older than you. *lol*

The photography. First off, there's a lot more than what's on this site of course. I'm sensitive to the fact that this is primarily a furry/anthro site and so I do not flood it, I only post best brief examples of sets and the like. I do have a site but since almost all of my sales have been local I haven't kept it updated until now. Currently waiting for me bud to post these pictures and many more (Hands up, who's not behind in post-production! Figured so.) There is an up-side to being on the disabled list and buried in the boonies... I've got all of my time to devote to photography and a great place to be for great pictures.

Pictures! Sellers! My last big sale was this picture which sold for $150, this one sold this spring for $150 and two years ago a nice large framed print of this pic went for a very nice $350. It also took third place in photography contest, I would have had first and second if they hadn't mixed categories with the digital! Funny thing that, my childish pique had me doing this piece in five minutes to prove how easy shit like that is... and it's a constant seller! Really, which reminds me I have to get another good print of it in my gallery space. Others I expect to sell for that? Well this one for starters is one of my best "sofa" pictures along with this one (almost sold this summer for $225!) You know what a "sofa" picture is... "Ooooh! That would look so nice above the sofa." *lol* Dig... art is furniture, live with it! I'll wrap up this mini-tour with these latest from this fall, definitely sellers. ( 1 2 3 4 )

So what to do with these! Well, do what I do... get some good cheap frames from your local thrift-stores, print pictures, frame em, and get em hung up in any place you can. Postcard sets? Not a problem. Anything else you can think of? Not a problem! What is a problem for me is my isolation and inability to get out and about. I really am rather disabled right now and let's face it, northern Manitoba isn't exactly the Venice Beach boardwalk! *lol* What do I want? Nothing but some acknowledgment, credit where credit is due like any artist would want. Of course if someone really does make some big sales I'm certainly a candidate for the  adlmdailyspotlight myself! After all, I'm living on $600 a month disability in a partially renovated barn with no running water or sanitation.

To sum up, this is good proven work, I'm just very low on energy, resources, and isolated as hell. There are a lot of people here with great contacts in the art world though and I'm sure there are people with the knowledge and contacts. This is for a good cause, all good causes, and there are plenty of people here who could really use some help. I myself am doing quite well actually. I'm lucky to live in a country with a good social safety-net that has saved my life and allowed me to live far better than I would in most places in the world. I am deeply grateful for that and it's the reason I work so hard at my photography, to repay the society that I believe in and am indebted to. So that's about it, whatcha think?

I just found out yesterday that the orthopedic surgeon who has been taking his own lovely time with my case decided that I wasn't a candidate for hip replacement just yet, and that I should get by on cortizone (or whatever) injections for a while longer before he puts me on his ungodly long waiting list, long list because he's like, the best you know. Nobody bothered to even try to contact me mum about this. Fucking communication. I don't care how bloody good you are as a surgeon, and nobody doubts he's tops in his field, but if you can't communicate then anything else is immaterial.

For the record, I only have email now as the idea of having a phone that I only get two or three calls on a month is rather ridiculous.) I knew right from our first rushed meeting where he didn't listen to a goddamn word I was saying and took off on a tangent, that he was about to add a year to my sentence right there. But still I mapped out my best way of dealing with this, get the rehab doctor to sort it out and not get involved! Wonderful job the rehab doctor did... not a goddamn thing! People have to understand that it's not the system here, it's the people involved, and that I myself can do little since I'm so far from town and each trip in can be an ordeal.

I've told him a couple of times, once in writing and once in person, that the big problem is that he lives in a strange and alien world, and thinks it's normal! Think about it... the world you live in is not natural! The world I live in, is! Other than in my abode, my barn, my life is not full of flat floors, even surfaces, and open spaces. It's rough, covered in sticky mud, and it's got rocks and trees everywhere. In my world I do not twist a dial when it gets cold, I go out and haul wood upstairs to be burned in the stove. I do not twist a knob to get water, I pump it out of the ground and into buckets which I also have to haul upstairs. I can't do that now so basically this guy has made a judgment call that evicts me from my home, at least for the winter months. But he's a doctor so of course he knows what's best for me. What arrogance.

Yeah, just a journal to push that thing with the Antarctic contest off my front page. This week someone walked into the gallery and dropped $150 for one of my pics! Now that's the kind of boost I needed considering I've sold squat since spring. I'll just link you to the LiveJournal post which also has some really great haiku verses for some of my pics penned by a writer gal-pal o mine. Very flattering, having someone cogitate and ruminate, fulminate and fuminate over one's pictures. Deeper meanings!

I've entered this competition....
http://www.blogyourwaytoantarctica......blogs/view/627

Please go and spend the time to register and vote but please please do more than that, pass it along and hassle, nay, demand that your friends do the same! I don't hit the pity button there but I bloody well will here! I've lost a decade to illness, spent years in isolation, and lived a lifetime of one in a hundred dice rolls coming up double-zero. It looks like all the top contenders have lived those charmed lives with rewards for their work and opportunities to travel and do things, but not this lad. Yes I know how much worse off so many are, but if someone is to get a break, win this competition, why shouldn't it be me and why should it be someone who has everything already? Seriously!

If I'm to have any chance at this it will require unprecedented levels of whoring... and for this I'd whore myself out to the devil and his minions for a year if that's what it would take! So I'm asking everyone please... please please please pass this along and if you do know someone who's got a lot of contacts on their own journals, please please get them to pass it along!

The math is simple... if 20 people here each get 20 people to vote (and vote themselves) that's 420 votes and I'm already in the running. Please make my dream yours as well. Write down that link and carry it with you, hassle relatives, people at work, strangers on the bus, whatever it takes! Spread the word and stress that it's only five minutes of time to help make a dream come true for someone who's had heaps and loads of awful in their lives.

Update: I'm in the local paper! These are the community newspapers, but they've got a higher circulation than the main city-wide paper, over 200,000! Great, but, that doesn't mean that every vote won't count. Please pass it along!

About a month and a half ago the engine overheated on the van and before I could do squat, the block broke. Unreal! New engine? Shit, I can't afford that, period. Try dealing with eight hundred bucks when you live on six hundred a month! Impossible! In any case, me mum stepped in and gave me the help I needed to get the van back on the road. Of course you simply cannot live in the country without transport, never mind do photography.

Two weeks ago my system became rather unstable. Couldn't reinstall XP without blue screen and major error, kernel errors cropping up at random, full mem dump etc etc. Swapping ram about did nothing, and then when I was just tilting it back up to put the case back on, huge sparks out of the power supply. So, replaced power supply (I'm in town now) and still the same so, either chip, board, or both. It's in the shop. *SIGH*

Now the worst. *BIG SIGH* *Cig break* Ok, so I'm coming back from photographing the gulls/terns at the locks. As we pull into the driveway there's a rabbit, and naturally Gracie goes crazy ape-shit bonkers. I say there there, of course I'll let you out, go nuts. As she squirms past me in her haste to get out, she snags the camera strap around her neck and legs, and tears down the driveway with the camera bouncing behind her. I retrieve the camera and breath a mighty sigh of relief when i find there's only a bit of grit that can be worked out in the 70-210mm lens.

A week later or so, on the 24'th, I'm out at Hilbre beach at 5:00 am to catch the sunrise and hopefully some hot wet beaver action (haven't seen them this year). I pull out the Meade, balance it on my shoulder, head for the beach, and trip. I fall to protect the Meade but the camera slung over my shoulder takes a hit. Still ok though so I proceed as usual. I should note that with my hip joints dead I have very limited range of motion with them, turning is an absolute NO NO period, and I couldn't stand with my legs say, two feet apart. Basically I walk like a geisha, seriously. I also gobble T3's like Smarties and have maybe half an hour, maybe an hour before my legs and hips just won't support me anymore, they just say no. So in other words I do actually hurt myself a fair bit just to take them, and I use my limited amount of standing up and moving to take them rather than something else like say, clean up this place! ;) So when I tripped there I knew I was going down, I can't move my legs far enough or fast enough to prevent a fall. Consider this, and then consider I take a lot of pictures while standing in mud, or water, or on a clutter of stones that are um... hard as rock.

I usually sleep during the day when sunrise and sunset are so close together, it barely gets dark up here. I'm up that evening getting ready for just a wee jaunt so's the Gracie won't kill me with voodoo puppy eyes. I pick up the camera, and the zoom lens slides apart into two pieces, the barrel drops on the ground.

It's my main workhorse, even for close-up work like that Untitled pic I just posted. Wade in with the boots, disturb scene, ripples etc etc, just to hit it with the 28mm, or hit it with the 210mm while standing on shore. And outdoors means distance! 70mm is not in the running, not even close. Without this lens or something like it, I'm fucked, out of business.

With all that me mum has done for me how much more can I ask? She's not exactly swimming in it and already as I've said, helps with so much. So I'm asking you now, please, if my pictures have brought you five dollars worth of pleasure, please please drop em in the hat! I'm so acutely aware of the turn of the seasons, the missed opportunities as the moon whirls around, only three days in the summer where the full moon is setting right as the sun is rising for instance.

My mom's PayPal address is wilna@dehls.net Please help me get back in business. It's the morning of the 3'rd of July and I have $20 in the bank, a few bills in my pocket for the month. I hate asking for help but at this point I've no choice. What I can do is this, anyone who can make a donation of any sort, I'll gladly send you the full files for almost any pictures you'd like. I say almost only because there's a very select few, very few, that are just a bit too personal for me to share that way, but I doubt if these pictures would be your pics anyways.

Thanks
Atomicat

Quite a while ago I contacted  ralcan about doing a commission. Awesome artist eh? I love his cyber-style, lush color and an almost Rembrandt touch with the dark. Here's the problem though... contact and communication! I didn't hear back from him but then saw him post this. I sent another note in much simpler English but still no reply. Then I saw him post this. So this time I went to an English to Korean online translator and sent another message asking him if he had a friend who could translate and one again for his PayPal address. Still no reply but I just saw him post this. Too wicked, but of course I really do want to communicate with him. Can anyone help me here?

I just ran across a site called "Who Killed Bambi" that is absolutely stuffed full of out of this world absolutely nuts and brilliant artwork. It all started with a search for the title of a Robert Williams painting, and somehow that led to this, and on it goes. The whole site is stuffed with awesome. Enjoy!

A few days ago I got a watch from  FPphox who declared himself to be a 'fellow photographer' so as usual I went to their gallery to have a look. What a nice surprise! So tell me, how often have I drawn attention to an artist here? Twice I see, not very often at all! So come with me now and have a look at his gallery.

The first thing you'll notice is lots of trees and lots of sunsets. First the critique... too many sunsets! Yes they're stunning, but since they are it takes something special to set one apart. Here is one such. Such a nice contrast, those two clean edges, one of land and one of clouds forming almost a secondary surface, topped by nice chaotic colorful fluff. Yah, I like vibrant in-your-face color. It takes a while to get into the habit of pulling back a bit though and I would have here, just a wee bit to get those lines more towards 1/3'rd and 2/3'rds.

There are a lot of shots that show open eyes on the lookout for the overlooked. Check out this one tangle from a series. Most people I think would see that, but not SEE it. There's a difference. But most of all I think there is a great sense of color that admittedly fits my own inclination towards serious eye-candy.

We're photographers. Light is our palette. Check out what he does in these shots. Can't pick one, gotta list em all.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1729771/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1654645/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1654629/

Tone, composition, color, all combine nicely here...
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1594955/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1013719/

So what do we have here. Well, the usual cliche's that I think every photographer including myself has to work through and some inclinations that have to be dampened down a bit, all very normal. What we also have is some of the best innate sense of color and form that I've seen in a long time. Huge potential and I'm sure they see the world around them as noisy and vibrant as I do, colors you can almost taste and fractal trees squirming with mathematical functions.

What would I like to see? More variety of course, and much more close-up and particularly macro shots. Water and ice! Reflections and refractions that toss the light around. I'll finish this off with a tip and a question using my personal favorite picture in his gallery. My friend taught me and I repeat ad-nauseum that we read pictures from left to right like we do text. So with that in mind take a look at this original and this flipped version. The question is do you see what I see and which do you think works better?

Yep, definitely my fave. Watch this guy, if he throws himself into it and really stretches he's going to be a powerful talent.

Argh! Good news, bad news, whatever news. First of all let me send a big huge thank-you to the people who sent me the bucks to get those gloves and socks. It was great to find people would do that and well, lets just say it was a great boost for me.

Now the bad news.... THEY SUCK!!! *sigh* Yep, absolutely pathetic. Fully charged batteries, plug em in, turn em on, and get a minor bit of warmth in a few spots. Minor warmth? Jeez dudes this is freakin' Manitoba, a wee bit of warm is nothing, not even on the radar! *SIGH* Now I'm always careful to keep receipts for things like this but somehow this one got lost. No idea. Searched the van for the bag from the store but somehow, nada. So that's that, complete rip-off and no way to return em. Ah bugger!

Very disappointing to say the least. Well this was my call. Things have looked up a bit for expenses though, mostly because the price of gas has dropped considerably. I had more donated than I needed as well so I've combined those bits of situation and sent along what was donated to me to a couple of people who needed it far more than I do. Socks, fine, but when I hear that someone I know is selling their plasma to make rent for the month, well I'd say that's a bit more important!

One thing struck me as funny and kinda strange though... you know, I'd far rather people bought a few prints than donate a few bucks to the keep me warm fund y'know. *grin* So, holidays are upon us and I'd like to get some arts on some walls and in some hands. I'm happy to sell any of my prints for cost and a bit. There are so many print services these days with so many sizes, quality level etc, that I can't even begin to list prices and all that. Basically, if you'd like something, I'll make it happen ok?

Well here's the problem. It's getting right cold out there and even the warmest gloves are useless when you have a camera with buttons and switches to deal with. This morning I was only out for 45 minutes and had to duck into the van for a warm-up and lens change four times! I do have an excellent bit of headgear I sewed together out of a couple of thrift-store plushies, pure luxury warm, but it just doesn't cut it when it comes to gloves.

So here's my save my fingers and toes from frostbite and allow me to concentrate on taking pictures rather than freezing to death plea. I'd like to get these gloves and socks but it's a bit much for me now. Urrr! I've nothing against beggars but I hate being one myself so be assured that if you toss a few bucks in you'll eventually be getting a print or postcard in the mail sometime in the future. I've posted the PayPal donation button on LJ as well as a gift of a full-sized picture.

I know you're here because you like my pictures and I thank you for your attention, kind words and all that. With these I'll be able do the best I can to keep serving up the best pictures I can.

Frostbite... It feels like you've taken a blowtorch to your fingers and feet!

So when have I posted anything political here, never I'd say. You're all here because of my photography, not my views on politics or social issues. This time however, I will open my yap.

To my American friends... In the coming months and years charges will be laid against President Obama saying that he is involved in class warfare. These charges will be true. Yes, you are involved in a class war. The modern assault on the poor and middle-class was started by Ronald Reagan in the 80's with so-called trickle-down economic practices that held the bizarre notion that if you give lots of money to greedy people, they'll eventually give some back to you. WTF?

That administration started the deregulation that you see now, freeing companies of 'restrictive' environmental regulations, freed financial institutions from oversight and allowed them to create mechanisms to further bilk the public. Remember the S&L bailout? Where did all that money go? Certainly not into the hands of the people who had money in those S&L's. All efforts to track down and recover money lost in that debacle were frustrated and fought at every turn. Suits were filed only to be struck down for no reason, the word came down from on high, hands off!

This was the start of a massive redistribution of wealth. Socialism for corporations and financial institutions, a practice that went into high gear in 2000 with the Bush administrations huge tax cuts for the richest of the rich. Median paychecks have gone down by 5.9% during the current regime, but Americans in the bottom fifth have seen their incomes sliced by 20%. How's that for class warfare?

Bailouts! Socialism for the rich. Where do you think the money from the latest bailout went? Well ten percent of it went to bonuses to people who can piss away what any of you earn in a year without even noticing! It was the last looting of the till before they booked it out the back door, burglar alarms ringing loud. That was your money, so what does your ass feel like right now? How's that for redistribution of wealth?

"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance at success, too… My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody. If you’ve got a plumbing business, you’re gonna be better off [...] if you’ve got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you, and right now everybody’s so pinched that business is bad for everybody and I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody."
- Barak Obama

That's the statement Obama is getting all the flack over, but what's wrong with it? Is there anything there that ain't true? How the hell is any economy going to prosper if the majority of the people participating in it don't have any money to spend? My mom always points out the fact that people on welfare spend their money, it goes immediately back into the economy. What hurts the economy is the people at the top end who squirrel it away and do nothing with it. Guess who else was a Marxist socialist who believed in redistribution of wealth...

"Money is like manure - it's most effective when it's spread around widely'."
- John Paul Getty

That's right, J Paul Getty, the massively wealthy industrialist. So make no mistake, this is class warfare and you all have been on the losing side for a long time now. The Reagan administration unleashed a blitzkrieg attack against the poor and middle-class, this election was the Battle of Britain, and now hopefully the tide will turn. Class war? Damn right, and they have used every method at their disposal to disarm you. They've lost this battle though, the polls are so definitive that there is absolutely no way they can steal this one. If you wake up in the morning on Nov 5'th and find that they've declared for McCain I predict riots, justifiable riots and revolution, exactly what your founding fathers wanted.

"Every generation needs a new revolution."
- Thomas Jefferson

The first punk gig I was at was a small hall gig featuring D.O.A. and Winnipeg's "Stretch Marks" Absolutely killer! I was 16 at the time, gods, 26 years ago! They're still one of my all-time favorite bands. Had a great time at Joey Shithead's place in Vancouver once, but that's a story for another time. Class war? Fucking rights and bring it on!

DOA - Class War

I want a war, between the rich and the poor.
I wanna fight and know what I'm fighting for!
In a class war, class war, class war, class war!

Yep, I've got freakin' gallery space!

Oh, and I'm gonna completely shatter a world record for giant origami this winter.

I just got a letter in the mail. It seems that last week when I went into town for this so-called [b]"awards ceremony"[b/] I got caught running a red light. One of those photo things, the best I can tell by the picture it was one of those cases where you misjudge a yellow in urban traffic. One of those missed it by inches things, along with everyone else who you're sort of obligated to go along with on these things.

Price tag? One Hundred and Seventy Dollars.

It was at 4:10 pm, after I'd been driving for three hours, totally exhausted. I'm very long-time HIV positive and I'm always exhausted. This is only one of the medical reasons I can't work. The photography is the only thing that supplements my income.

So what did this so-called 'awards ceremony' cost me? $30 in entry fees and $70 in gas to pick up a rather useless piece of paper. Yes I sold one work for $300 and that's great but that also cost $80 per picture for printing and framing. I still have the other two which may or may not sell, someday.

Two days ago I spent what I figured I could spare this month on 1x4's and 2x4's to rebuild a corner of my space, replacing the crude bench that served as combination workspace and kitchen with something that isn't made of dirty planks and scrap lumber. Sometime this summer I'd like to put a properly sealed window on the east end of the upstairs so that it doesn't have to be sealed up during the winter months. And then there's the insulation... Ever rely on wood heat in a leaky barn when it's -30 outside and the winds are high?

What bugs the piss out of me about this is the fact that all these penalties are doled out with people with far more than I do in mind. What's $170 for Joe Suburban? It's a hit but it's not life-changing, this is. This is a setback of months, seasons in length. This is not a slap on the wrist, this is a full punch in the face, to a cripple.

Prints anyone?

Just got the results.... This came in third and this sold for $300! Woohoo!

Avascular Osteonecrosis. Great! I hadn't penciled in a hip replacement for this summer, hope it doesn't interfere with doing pics of the beavers now that I've got a decent camera. This first of January I was giddy with joy. For the first time in my life I had (and still have) a lover and friend, someone to share this place with and help me running it. Then I lost Benny, murdered by a neighbor, laughed at by the cops (details in LJ, starting May 16'th). This seems anti-climactic right now.

Prints anyone? I don't post a tenth of the good shots I get of course. Tell me what you're into! I've checked out a number of options and ended up settling on Kodak print services. On the down side their paper is a bit on the thin side but not much. On the up side the image quality is superb and they are the only ones who were able to print some more challenging pics of mine perfectly, the ones with smooth sunrise/sunset gradients. The one thing they're missing is sizes between 8x10 and 16x28. Having 11x14 would be nice but definitely offset by the pricing on their prints. With their prices I could easily just print two pictures on a 20x30 sheet and cut it myself.

I have ordered one 20x30 print of One Hundred and Eleven Percent and it looks awesome so I know the images will hold up to being printed that large. That is one big print though and definitely something you'll end up spending over $100 on once you've had it framed. That size can be rather overpowering though but hey, if you wanna impress the hell out of that certain someone...

8x10 prints - $10 (4 for $30)
16x20 prints - $30
20x30 prints - $40

Shipping $3-$10 depending on speed and size of order.

The joke with Benny is that he farts. Ok, he doesn't now so much but when I got him he damn near drove me out of the room and remember at this time it was the room and there was nowhere else to go. It was so bad that I went immediately to town the next day and got a can of air-freshener.

Mike brought a huge whack of chocolate out with him (seriously, garbage-bags full) and it included a small sack of shitty and ancient bubble-gum. So, the challenge became finding places for all this that the pups wouldn't get into. I then had a horrible thought that gave me a picture I can't get out of my head.

Imagine Benny if you will floating off the ground butt-first suspended by this enormous bubble-gum bubble with this panicked expression on his face. Imagine me standing there doing the ultimate in face-paw. "Oh Benny Benny Benny... *SIGH*"

Well let me say that I'm totally overdue for a huge public thank-you to  whitedingo for not only doing this painting of Joon for me but actually posting it to me all the way from Australia! Fifty bucks Aussie postage for that, and that's a good night out anywhere. It felt so awesome that a total stranger would do that for me. My faith in humanity is nibbled away and destroyed by many, but can be renewed by one.

Ok, on to my question, my thoughts etc. Now I know that my stuff doesn't exactly qualify as 'furry art' in most minds and lets face it, no it ain't 'anthro'. On the other hand I do know my stuff is liked and well, quite realistically speaking is some of the better photography on here. Now I've always been sensitive towards this so I've tried to be sure to post only the best of the best here, stuff that makes me go gaaah! So my question is, can I, should I post more, how much is enough, how much is too much? Should I perhaps dribble out a picture or two once in a while as I'm scanning and framing old pics? Gods know I've got a ton of them and quite often see something I missed before that I'm tempted to post. Have I been setting the bar too high, and would I be pushing things if I did post more? Thoughts?

...to  Defago who really pulled my chestnuts out of the fire last week. Azzy was supposed to have done a drawing for me for some adds I'm doing, long story. Anyways, what she gave me was this...
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f.....rflow/Add1.jpg
And what  dDefago handed back to me was this...
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/944914/
Nice eh? Now this is something I can offer up to my customer with pride. I just wish he had a camera because well, he's from Laos. Now how's that for isolated? Drop by his gallery and give a hello to a lonely lion of the jungles.

This one is hard. Maybe I should have a couple more beers. I'd like to commission a memorial drawing of my puppy Joon who died last year at this time. Actually I'd like it to be of both Benny and Joon and the theme would be them in the setting of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier". let me tell you Joon's story.

Last year I saw an add in the local LJ feed where someone was looking for a home for two pups who'd been found abandoned in some asshole's house. The house was literally full of shit and piss and it was obvious that, although they'd been well fed and hadn't been abused, they had never been outside of that house. It was a beautiful Cinderella story. They went from that shit-hole to a country paradise. They were very close of course and obviously so happy out here. Nothing but fields and forests to frolic in.

Pictures speak louder than words. I'll let these speak for me.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/285497/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/306863/

And a year later words fail me. She was my sun-dog.
http://atomicat.livejournal.com/148322.html
http://atomicat.livejournal.com/149725.html

It's been a year and I can still hardly bear to look at the pictures I have. This is the one that brings to mind a strong noble soldier, my Benny, and a beautiful dancer, my Joon.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/297044/

Not an easy commission, not to be taken lightly. Anyone doing this will have to put a lot of heart into it but it will be something that you can be very proud of. That's about all I can say about this now. I'm going to have to put on something to work the sad out of me. This is what I used last year, sounds about right.

Gowan - Strange Animal
Hoodwinked Soundtrack - Critters have Feelings
King Crimson - Epitaph
ELP - Oh Lucky Man
Nick Drake - One of These Things

"I could have been a sailor, could have been a cook"
...she never knew a single summer.

Out of dog-food. Van starter motor went. Etc etc etc. Really. How does 3 for $15 for glossy borderless 8.5x11's sound?

I've got a job doing the signs for this local dollar store here. It's not a big job but I'd like to do it well of course because it'll be good visibility for me and my first custom print job here. Well hell, I like to do jobs well anyways, duh. Anyways, I really need a logo design or graphic for the store. Oh gods you're gonna hate the name! "Huck-a-Buck dollar store" Oh gods, told you. Whatever. Anyways, I really need a drawing of something like a buck deer flipping a coin or something like that. I know this would be such a piece of cake for so many here. Could someone gimme a hand with this? Trades of course or well, whatever you think. Would be hugely appreciated.