I have been playing with another new editing program I found at Plotaverse. Within the Plotaverse, there are several apps to play with, but I have really had fun with Plotagraph. It allows you to take a single still image and edit motion into it. The app takes some practice to get smooth images, but with less than a day of playing I have some up with some pretty cool results. Being a photographer, I'm not sure what I plan on doing with these mp4 movie files other than post them on all my social media outlets, but are really interesting and fun to play with. Here is a short video by the talented Trey Ratcliff with Kelby One showing what is possible with Plotagraph. Kelby one is great place to learn all things photography. I have found it is very much worth paying the monthly fee for Kelby, at least long enough to learn what you need.

Here are a couple of my Plotagraphs, along with the original photos. There is no sound with these since they were not recorded as a video but as a single image. One could certainly add a soundtrack through different software though.

Enjoy, and if you decide to make some of your own Plotagraphs, share them with me. I'd like to see your creativity.

I ask an important question tonight? Why is mental health so hard to talk about? Even with our own friends and family? We just turn the tv so we don't have to think about what our internal voices are screaming to us, for one hour at a time, unless we are binging, then it can be for days, weeks or months at a time.

This is part of why I haven't been on here. So I am saying now. I have really been struggling with the loss of my mother a year and a half ago. My inner voice screams at the top of its lungs that it wants something else. I want to be somewhere other than where I am, and have for a very, very long time. I don't want to be here. I don't want to scare anyone with that last statement. These are not suicidal thoughts in any way. It is more of a caged animal needing to escape. I feel trapped and cornered. So I binge tv to escape my own thoughts. Game of Thrones has been great for this.

A big part of the trap is not hurting the ones you love when breaking down the walls. Even typing this tonight feels like a big betrayal. How do you tell your loved ones that you feel this way without them feeling betrayed. It's not them that is the problem. It is living in a place that I hate with every fiber of my being. I hate this fucking place. I hate the weather, I hate the city, I hate the suburbs, I hate the landscape, I hate the political stupidity of this state (which can be anywhere). But, I stay because it would crush the ones I care about for me to leave. I feel like I have been just buying my time until we can all move away, which is still years away. This is not fair to my wife. So we don't talk about it. We watch the next episode. I stay here for her and I do give her all I can. She knows I struggle with this.

Knowing that my mother died at the young age of 63 of cancer, makes me not want to wait any longer in life before I start doing what I want to do. Life is too short. Next episode. Stop thinking about it.

Where do you start? Does talking to a therapist help. I know what I want or need, I just choose to stuff it down because that is what has to happen for me to keep the family together. I don't even really want to talk to a therapist. I don't see how telling someone about the position I am in can make the reality any different. I am here, in a cage or I leave and hurt the family. Next season. Hulu is great!

So why is mental health so hard to talk about? Truth is, I will probably delete this post sometime soon. No one wants to hear a poor me story. I think I'll just go to bed.

Here is a picture. Keep sharing. One more step, one more step, one more step. Keep moving.

So I may have fallen off the band wagon this year. I started off writing, or when I didn't write, I at least shared something on Facebook or Instagram every week. Sometime around midyear, that seemed to have stopped. I will assume that the halt came with me losing my job, starting a new job, then finding even a different job. Well last week, I left that job too. It's been a roller coaster of a year. I will say I have been producing more artwork and participating in more art shows than I have in the past, 17 in all this year.

I want to recap the year and go back to see how my goals turned out for the year, but I will save that for the end of this month. I still have most of December to get through.

My wife and I went to Santa Fe a couple of months ago. I was spectacular! The leaves were turning gold up in the mountains. Ski Santa Fe had the ski lifts up and running so you could float by all the aspens at canopy level. It really was beautiful!

We stayed at the quiet and beautiful Santa Fe Motel and Inn. It was perfect. I highly recommend staying here and getting one of the casitas if possible. Here is a shot of our private patio entrance.

We stopped by the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, TX on the way back. I had driven by it several times in my life but had never stopped. It was pretty cool. Definitely worth the stop for some pics.

For those of you that follow or know me, you know that I love Colorado. My family has been going to Creede and Lake City for over 50 years. A few weeks ago, I had a chance to throw my tent in the Jeep and run out there for 4 days. I delivered some of my photos to a great new shop in Lake city called Cabin Fever Mercantile. Tracy, the owner of the shop is great! She really loves Lake City and the mountains of CO! I just heard that she's already sold a few of my prints too!


I finally got to meet one of my peers, photographer extraordinaire, Michael Underwood. I LOVE his work. He got an awesome opportunity to open a new gallery in Lake City and it is full of some incredible images and all priced to take home!

There were fires north of Durango, CO and around Cimarron, NM that made the trip a bit smoky and hazy. It didn't really effect my trip but it did make for some great sunset pics one evening. It also rained most of my Sunday there so I didn't get out with the camera as much as I had hoped for but it was still a great trip to one of my favorite places.

My annual trip to Creede comes 3 and half weeks from now. It will be a very different trip for we are going to spread my mother's ashes in the area that she loved so much. A large part of the family will be going this time. It's bittersweet for me as the area has always been such an incredible part of my life. I was a one year old the first time Mom and Dad took me. This year will be my 41st year. We went almost every summer, although there were a few that got missed but not many. My Mom and her siblings started going with my grandparents several years before I was born and My grandpa, whom we lost last year too, started going with his uncle (without the kids) sometime in the early 60's. Last year Mom and dad didn't get to go because Mom was in the hospital fighting for her life. This will be Dad's first trip back. It will be a lot of the family's first trip back. There will be a lot of emotions and memories on this trip. I really needed to be there before the weight of this upcoming trip. It is after all, my grounding space. For most of the rest of the family, I think it's just a place they used to go on vacation occasionally.

For this quick trip, I camped one night and stayed at our usual spot, The San Juan Ranch. It's located 22 miles west of Creede off of Hwy 149. Peggy and Kaye have always been such gracious hosts. I was so happy to see them. Peggy ran out and gave me a giant hug. She loved my Mom and our entire family. I gave them a canvas print of my "Curious Cows" photo and Kaye was just absolutely in love with it. The photo was shot on their ranch last summer.

Here are some pics I shot while I was there. The lake is Lake San Cristobal. The cabin with the Jeep is at San Juan Ranch. The old cabin is Uncle Charlies original cabin where it all began. The river is the mighty Rio Grande. And the pointy mountain is Uncompahgre Peak.

I have a few shows coming up. The show in Stillwater will be my first time with them. I'm looking forward to seeing some Cowboys and Cowgirls as they start school the following Monday! the Medicine Park festival was great last year. I'm looking forward to a better show this year! Live on the Plaza is always great! I'm also waiting to hear back on a couple of more applications for this fall.

July 13, 2018 - Live on the Plaza in the Plaza District OKC, OK
Aug 17-18, 2018 - Pop Up Art shops @ Prairie Arts Center Stillwater, OK
Oct 5-7, 2018 - Medicine Park Art Walk & Flute Fest, Medicine Park, OK
Oct 12, 2018 - Live on the Plaza in the Plaza District OKC, OK

Now showing in four new houses on the OKC Parade of Homes tour. These beautiful homes are built by Capital Homes in Yukon, OK. Each piece is printed as a very large 32" X 48" premium gallery canvas wrap. They, along with the beautiful new abodes they currently reside in are absolutely stunning in person. You can have your very own Special Edition Art Series Canvas print. Visit my shop and contact me for details.