Four Feathers

Four Feathers by paulnsheryl


New image shot in the last few days.

Jerome, Arizona

Jerome by Paul Hood
A while back we visited Jerome, Arizona. A very small, former mining town then a ghost town, then rebuilt to suit a group of artists who came in and took it over. Although by appearances not a lot of rebuilding was done. Part of the charms are the strange angles, cracks and old buildings still standing (mostly) after all these years. We were told that it's either a "Art town with a biker problem or a biker town with an artist problem, depending on who you talk to" today. On clear days it has fantastic views. It's always a good walking town, has a few taverns if you like that sort of thing. The worst espresso in the country probably, but that can be said about most of the places I have been in AZ. Despite all that I wanted to move there, sell my art to the tourists and show everyone how real espresso is made. The place charmed me, as did the people we met.

Coyote at Twilight

Lone coyote walking at twilight through the tall grass. Click on the image to see it better.

Raven Paint, or Color Raven

Raven Paint by paulnsheryl

On a clear background for products.


Raven Paint by Paul Hood
And a variation on a granite blue background.

Made a new image titled Color Raven, but was undecided abput calling it Raven Paint instead. Oh well, titles aren't everything. Specifically designed this to go on products. I find that borderless designs tend to go better, which makes me have to re-aquaint myself with clear backgrounds and how to work with image selection in a more refined way. This, while I am trying to find the right combination of precision and control and letting go of precision and control. I love doing art.

New Mexico Skyline, just outside of Taos

Stitched panoramic image from a trip to New Mexico back in September. Click on the photo to get a better look.

New Image "Quill"

Quill by paulnsheryl


This is just a detail view (above).


New image today titled "quill" modeled by a raven feather found out here in the desert. The details won't resolve well on a monitor, so I'm including a detail view. Need to print it soon. It will be nice to see the whole image properly.

Chloe the warrior kitty versus gopher snake.

Bull Snake by Paul Hood

We wondered why the cats were out in the yard acting all excited, Chloe meowing-- she never meows. Discovered this large gopher snake floating in the pond where he probably fled to from the cats. His mouth was open and he was hissing, coiled to strike at Chloe, who just kept inching closer despite everyone yelling her name to come away. Brave, crazy cat. She gets protective, territorial, we've seen it before. Don't let her sweet appearance fool you, she is muy loco. Don't mess with Chloe.

Grass Abstract

Grass Abstract by Paul Hood

Sheryl gave me the idea to do a more abstract image of grass. This is as close as I (so far ) get to doing an abstract image. I've been returning to this image for a long time before I finally decided to edit it last night. I'm pleased with the result, but it really shines in full size and full resolution. Like a lot of my pictures lately, it's the subtle touches which really make the image, and those can only be seen printed out, preferably large. 72 ppi screen resolution just can't do justice to a 300 dpi image.

Tree Dog

Tree Dog by Paul Hood

Ok, so I was going to call it "Tree Spirit" but to me it looks just like a dog.

Raven Holds the Seed of the World

Raven Holds the Seed of the World by Paul Hood

New image created today-- after a long and rather disappointing trip to Saint John's, Arizona. I discovered that there isn't a whole heck of a lot that I want to take pictures of there, at least not at first sight. So, we drove home and I notice that the ravens were out playing in a tree just off the front porch. Got the long lens on and started shooting. Only managed to get a few shots. A lot of the ravens around here don't really trust people. They probably get into trouble raiding gardens and such. in our case, we feed them, along with a lot of other birds but they still don't usually like for us to get too close. In this case I noticed the seed, probably a juniper berry, in the beak of this guy after I downloaded the images to the computer. Made me think of the title and I'm not sure whether it actually has any real existence in folklore. I'll have to start looking up Raven myths.

Snail, a new image from the garden collection.

Snail by Paul Hood

Spent a little time with a relatively common snail shell. I like the way that macro images get us to look at the small things and appreciate them more.

Raven Ascension

Detail view: click the image above to see it a little better.


Raven Ascension by Paul Hood

New Image up of a raven ascending across a sky of texture and cloudy shapes. The top image is a detail view so that you can get a better sense of the texture.

Poppy Landscape

Poppy Landscape by Paul Hood

Decided to put this up for sale. It's long been one of my favorite poppy images. I'm calling it "Poppy Landscape". Spend much time around California poppies and you'll find them endearing.

"Quail" a new image in my bird gallery

Quail by Paul Hood

I took this shot probably a few years ago back in Santa Cruz, California. I don't think I really saw the potential in it until recently. I have, for the most part stopped taking bird photos in favor of more artistic landscapes and such. The name of the game in the bird photo genre seems to be hyper sharp close-ups and a while ago I got tired of that. This is more of a medium shot and the overall composition is what made me want to revisit it, especially since I am gradually getting more creative in treating backgrounds and foregrounds. At some point it struck me that "super-real" impressed me on one level but left me flat emotionally. This is an issue which pushes me more towards other art mediums and to some extent away from photography.

"Lala Sunset" and "Raventree"

Lala Sunset by Paul Hood


Raventree by Paul Hood

A couple of new images. I took both photos the same day about an hour apart. Obviously both are pretty "tweaked" in post processing. "Lala Sunset" is so named because when I showed it the first comment I got was that it looked like a sunset in "Lala land". Good enough for me, a title is born. I didn't have a lot of emotional investment in the shot, I just thought it would be fun to do. I'm experimenting with some of the more extreme filters in photoshop, mostly under the "artisitic" and "brush strokes". Most of those filters strike me as completely unusable, but I found a few that are fun to play with. Raventree looks so much like an illustration that it somehow bothers me, and I don't know why that should bother me. Of late I am moving more towards photos which don't quite look like photos.

New image, a photomanipulation titled "Reach"

Reach by Paul Hood

The general concept is "as above, so below" with this image of tree branches reaching to bridge a gap between heaven and earth.

Little Dog in black and white.

Click on the photo to see it nice and big.

After printing this one out I decided to try it out as a black and white. I'm pretty pleased with it, it's moody. . . I don't think I could sell it as a greeting card. This tiny dog was making a stand in the middle of a big gravel road. We had walked past his house I guess, which surely does not happen very often on the edge of town. He came out late after we had walked by and wanted to check us out. I turned around and there he was--- I only got one quick shot before he decided that being back in the house might be safer than out amongst the wildlife of two big strangers with big black cameras.

Skybranch fine art photo

Skybranch by Paul Hood

This one is called "Skybranch" I had to lay on the ground flat on my back and shoot straight up in the air to get the shot. It was early evening and the light was fading fast, hand-holding the camera was a challenge. Lately I am really loving the luminous blue to turquoise to pale green shades. Pretty big on vivid colors anyway, except when I'm not.

New Photo of Sagebrush with a watercolor sky

Sagebrush by Paul Hood

Took me several tries to get this one right but I think it was worth it.

Latest Southwest Photos

Contrail Tree by Paul Hood

White Bench by Paul Hood

Arizona Pit by Paul Hood

Pink Gravel at the Mormon Stake by Paul Hood

Horse Dream by Paul Hood

Claret Cup Cactus by Paul Hood