Greetings,

It has been a fun week. Our last one at Bonita for a few weeks though. We have some business to attend to in Chandler as well as some people using the studio.I’ve had to arrange any shoots I do to later in the month as I can’t risk Linda getting sick over the next couple of weeks.

I’ll admit the variants of this virus is a worry to me. As long as it’s running around out there it is going to change itself as needed. One of these variants is going to be far more deadly and it will only happen because we don’t seem to want to stop this in its tracks. I guess, in a way, it is enviable that an organism can change and adapt to the environment. Evidently it doesn’t really take brains to figure out what works and what doesn’t. (grin)

Back to the art. I’ve been going back to old shoots again and finding some fun images to edit. Of course, without any shoots the last week there aren’t any super fresh images. I have a few scheduled for later this month and they are all new people I haven’t worked with before. All beautiful of course. It is pretty evident that I like to work with the same talented models often. But the number is getting smaller since they all refuse to just go into stasis between shoots. They move away, have babies, change jobs, etc. I would like to think they don’t get tired of creating art with me but I can’t say I wouldn’t if I were them. Oh, and a couple images of Bonita Creek at night by Colby and I last weekend.

In the next couple weeks I should have three sets of wings hanging up in the studio too. BIG sets of wings, coming all the way from the Ukraine of all places. I’m looking forward to having them as options for some new artistic ideas. And they will be for rent along with the studio so someday they might even pay for themselves.

Colby Files, a good friend and fellow photographer/artist came to visit last weekend. I think he enjoyed the cool and the rain storms. He came up with a very interesting idea for a video or two that we are planning to make. I’m very excited about that project, it should be fun and informative. If nothing else, we’ll enjoy seeing it a few years from now as we watch it from our rocking chairs in our VR headsets. ;)

The humming birds are back in large numbers right now. We can typically see 50 at a time but the trees are full of them. They are drinking about a gallon of sugar water a day right now. That’s one of the sad things about going to the valley for a few weeks. Our bird herd will have moved on. Did you know those little squirts can remember every flower they visit, 1500-2000 a day, and know when there should be nectar in each one? And when it’s hovering, its little heart beats 2200 times a minute? And they can recognize one human from another. Such interesting creatures.

On the geek side of things, I’ve finished building my remote antenna disconnect and it works great. When storms come I can press a button on my phone and disconnect the antennas so a nearby lightning strike won’t harm my radios. I’m going to actually wire it up so it is disconnected when I’m not using a radio. And the system will rely on a fail safe battery so, if we have a power failure, the switch will automatically activate and disconnect the antennas. I’m pretty proud of this project. I even had to design and 3D print some parts to make it work. I’m already thinking of ways to fine tune the design and even make it marketable. No one makes anything like this.

And I’m full swing into fixing and building things using surface mount technology. The parts are so small I have to use a microscope to see what I’m doing. I actually fixed a device I had that had surface mount parts. It’s one thing to believe you can do something. it’s another when you do it and it actually works!!

You all have a wonderful week. Enjoy the art and feel free to reach out and tell me what you think about it.

Until next week, be safe, happy, cool, and hydrated.

Dave

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