Life and Death

    So I went on another college visit today and I think that I am about ready to decide where I want to go for college!! AHHHH crazy!!!
    So on to my project. I am still reading "Chosen by a Horse" and I love it still. Actually scratch that. I just finished it and I bawled my eyes out. The way that Richards was able to convey the loss and love of a horse is amazing. I have worked with three horses that had to be put down.
     Snickers coliced and had to be euthanized, we had sent him to Cornell to see if he could be saved but unfortunately his owner did not want to pay for the surgery bills. This was when I was a camper at Misty Hollow, we lease the horses from April to October and therefore his owner had the final say. For those of you who don't know, colic in a horse is when there is a food blockage or other obstruction in the intestine. Horses are not able to throw up and relieve themselves of the blockage that way so the only thing to do is walk them, the walking helps to move blockage sometimes resulting in passage of the blockage. In extremely bad cases the intestine can twist itself so that even walking does not help. Snickers had a pretty bad case, all riding was canceled that day and our barn staff stayed up the entire night walking him. Unfortunately the next morning he was sent to Cornell and didn't come back. I had been riding him the day before and was really sad to see him go, he was a spirited little horse.
     Then there was Zoe. She was the oldest most decrepit mare in our barn. She had a limp when she walked and we fed her so much food to keep weight on. Zoe was narcoleptic, which means that she falls over when she falls asleep. To be sure that this wouldn't happen we had to watch her constantly while she was being ridden. Sometime during her journey back home she must have had a narcoleptic episode because when her owner had gotten home and opened the trailer she was down. Unfortunately she didn't get up and they presumed her dead and therefore left her in the trailer overnight until a grave could be dug. When her owner went out the next morning she was standing up eating hay that was left in the trailer. Her owner then decided to let her live out the summer at pasture and then would put her down before winter
    Baby was a polo horse that I just met last year. She was so inquisitive and full of life. She had a tick in which she would always play with her bit and flap her lips together. She got an infection in her eye and had to get medication. She went blind in one eye and was moved to a different barn to live out her life. Unfortunately she then went blind in both eyes and had to be put down. A horse can live blind in one eye, we have one at my barn, but being blind in both eyes is a death sentence.
      It sucks to see all these gorgeous horses put down before it was their time to go but  its nice to know that they didn't have to suffer anymore than was necessary.

Class Notes 3/28/11

WISE class meeting 3/28/11

1.     Money?

2.     Self Assessment

3.     Friends help friends research

4.     Show and tell

    So Mrs G had an idea for a a fundraiser that would benefit the WISE program. She wanted to know if we wanted to put on a WISE night for the community that featured all of the WISE student's work. My class didn't really care. I think that we wanted a night but none of us wanted to put in the time needed to pull off an event like this. We were then made to run around K building to wake up. After we all filed back into class we were handed our self assessment. This is due on Friday as that is when the marking period ends. Also as an aside, I am going to try to write every day this week. It might not work because I have rehearsal almost every day but I am going to try.

    Then we started show and tell. Miriam went first and talked a little about the tape that is used in athletic training, Paul went second and showed us a music theory book that not many of us understood. Alexi then shared his journal in which he jots ideas and expands, David brought a book that explored the relationship between eastern mysticism and physics. Now I have no knowledge about physics what so ever but David's WISE project sounded really cool! I don't normally focus on philosophy a lot, but this sounded intriguing. Erin brought in some sketches that are going into her children's book, they looked amazing. I wish I could draw that well! Marley then showed us some of her favorite wire wrapping magazines, Gabe brought his mouth piece to his saxophone and played a few notes for us. Marcel brought his journal that he uses for notes and research, his fact of the day was that one in every two and a half people will die of heart disease. That is so scary! That was about it for class. 

Happiness Revisited

       Sorry I haven't kept you all updated. I was away all weekend on college visits AHHHHH decisions!!!!! So I was unable to work on my project hands on over the weekend. I did, however continue reading a book by Sarah Richards, who wrote "Saddled," called "Chosen by a Horse" I really like it. Richards puts the connection with horses onto paper very well.
      So on to the homework assignment. This week we were supposed to read a story called "Happiness Revisited", hence the title, and answer questions about it.
  1) When do you feel most happy?
   I feel most happy when I am around horses. Whether it is watching, cleaning or riding, if I am in a barn I am happy. The sense of comfort and contentment is amazing. Even if I am frustrated while working with a bratty horse I am still content amazingly. horses have this 6th sense where they know if you are upset or really excited and will act accordingly. I get horses and they get me and honestly thats all that matters sometimes.
  2)  React/respond to the article.
    I agree with a lot of the points of the article. I definitely think that we do things that we think will make us happy. If they don't make us happy we tend to not do them; however, I think we do sometimes do things that may make us unhappy short term but happy long term so overall it makes us happy.
  3) Where are you on the flow chart?
    I think I have almost achieved flow. Because I haven't really pushed myself outside of my comfort zone I don't think I have yet achieved flow however I am not completely bored because I work with animals that have minds of their own.
  4) How has this changed or remained the same throughout your project?
    I would say I was farther from flow at the beginning of my project because I wasn't consciously thinking about pushing myself outside of my comfort zone so I was a little bit bored but I have come closer as my project has progressed.
  5) How can you achieve flow?
    I can achieve flow by challenging myself more. I stay in my comfort zone too much and therefore my project is not enough of a challenge for me. To do this I need to do things I do not normally do such as interview people I don't know and take pictures I haven't taken before.

Collaboration :D

   So one of my friends Avalon, who is also doing WISE, is planning on selling her pottery pieces with all of the proceeds benefitting Japan. I absolutely loved this idea because we get our work seen and we're helping people in need at the same time. So I approached her about the possibility of me also using that idea and selling my photos with the proceeds going to Japan. She agreed and then said that her mentor had suggested she do a joint art show with another person in WISE and asked me if I wanted to do a joint art show. I thought this was an awesome idea because now I can sell my photos to benefit Japan and collaborate with a friend. Avalon also pointed out that we will hopefully get more people there because we will both showing pieces. We will be planning more later so I'll keep you updated.

The Latest Photos

    So these are a few of my favorite pictures I've taken from the past few weeks. This photo on the left is of Clara and the one on the right is Pico. Pico is such a character, he is so inquisitive, I love it.


These are a couple of people from Wednesday nights. I love the action in this shot.

The one to the above is of Marrissa, she is a grouch so to catch her looking happy is a pretty big feat.

Below is David's horse Desi. She is a gorgeous dapple grey, she is in training to play polo right now.

Mentor Meeting 3/22/11

    So I had a mentor meeting with Mrs G. on Monday and it went very well. We talked a lot about how I am doing well with my project but I am not pushing myself out of my comfort zone. So my mission for this week is to push myself outside of my comfort zone
      She suggested that I do an enrichment program at one of the elementary schools. For those of you who don't know, enrichment is a bunch of programs that are open to elementary kids. People from around the community come for an hour after school to teach classes on a variety of topics. Unfortunately elementary school ends at 2:00 and enrichment starts at 2:05 and goes until 3:05 this is smack dab in the middle of my 7th and 8th period classes and I can't miss those. I am going to think about solutions to this problem because leading an enrichment class for an hour once a week for 8 weeks would definitely put me outside of my comfort zone.
      Another suggestion was going to local coffee shops and asking if I could display some of my work for a while. I mentioned the fact that I was thinking of holding a photo show at my house and Mrs G. was a little hesitant because she really wants me to get out of my comfort zone and therefore my house with people I know might be too comfortable. I totally understand this and I think thats why I was leaning towards holding the show at my house because it would be more comfortable for me.
   Mrs G. also suggested that I interview a local photographer. I talked to Judy but I know her rather well and I am comfortable with her so talking to Judy wouldn't be getting out of my comfort zone. One of the photos I used in one of my earlier was taken by Jenna at Jenna Leigh Teti Photography. Jenna said that I could email her with any questions or to just talk about photography in general. I think that I will take advantage of her offer and see how she got into photography. I am also planning on contacting a friend's mom, who is an equine vet at cornell, and seeing if I could get in to take pictures of a workout on the treadmill or something like that.
    I also need to talk to Judy soon to see if she would be willing to let me print my photos at school using school paper. I would pay for the paper and ink I used. If I can't print at school then I will have to find another place to print.
     I think thats all for now. I will be posting pictures of my long exposure experiment and some nice Wednesday night polo pictures at a later date.

"Practicing" and "Two Tramps in Mud Time"

     So we had a homework assignment this week in which we had to read "Practicing" which was about getting out of your comfort zone, and "Two Tramps in Mud Time" a poem by Robert Frost. We then had to reflect on how these two works related to each other and our individual projects.
      "Practicing" and "Two Tramps in Mud Time" are related to each other because they both stress the importance of work, whether it seems like work or not. A quote from Practicing that I really liked was "As guitarist, it's safe to say that we play a lot, but rarely do we actually practice." I really like this because it reminded me that even though I may take pictures a lot it doesn't mean that I am trying to take good pictures, I'm just pushing the shutter button. And I think that is ok sometimes but when I want to create something that makes me proud and completely content, I want to be able to do that instead of just pushing the button. To be able to do this I need to practice taking the shot to make the picture I'm happy with instead of expecting it to happen without trying.
     "Two Tramps in Mud Time", a poem by Robert Frost, also relates to my project because the main character chops wood as his avocation, two lumberjacks come out from the surrounding woods and want to chop the wood as it is their jobs. The main character refuses because he doesn't want to give up the thing he loves even though it is their need. My favorite part was:

"My object in living is to unite

My avocation and my vocation"

    I really liked this because I would definitely love to take pictures of horses as a living but I don't think that it would be enough. So I will make do with what I can get. I certainly hope to unite my avocation and vocation but maybe not as soon as I would like.

Progress and Planning

     Hello out there. Sorry I haven't updated in a while. So my progress for this week has been pretty good I think. I finally got my collage planned and sketched out so that is one thing off my list. So yesterday I went down to sunset park to take pictures of the sunset. It was an ok day to shoot, there were a lot of clouds on the horizon so I couldn't get the actual sunset which was disappointing. Later I went outside and took some pictures of the moon, which was supposedly at its largest in a very long time. I did long exposure pictures. Long exposure pictures is when you keep the shutter open for a much longer amount of time than is normal ie. 30 seconds. When this is done in a low light setting it creates the illusion that the picture was taken during the day. To do this you need a tripod however because any movement will be reflected in the photo. I was hoping to wake up early and go back to sunset park to take long exposures of the moon setting because you can really tell that the moon is huge when it is close to the horizon. Unfortunately I didn't wake up so I wasn't able to get pictures; however I am planning on taking more tonight and I might plan to get up early and take pictures tomorrow before class. I am pretty happy with the photos I did get. This long exposure mini-project has made me want to take more and get better at it. I will be continuing to do this throughout the rest of the year. I am also thinking of playing around with super imposing a horse picture on to a picture of the moon. We did an assignment similar to this in Photo last year and I really liked it. I think I will try it again.

Polo in a Nutshell

This is the Cornell Men's and Women's polo coach. If you haven't played or seen polo yet you should definitely get over to Oxley and watch some because it is amazing. It is so addicting.

This is a Harvard Polo video but it was shot at Cornell during the Nationals of 2009 I believe.

WISE Class 3/14/11

       So yesterday we had WISE class and Mrs. G kinda yelled at us for being behind in our projects. She said that as we were supposed to be doing at least 3 post minimum per week we should be pretty close to 14 entries if not more. I am feeling semi ok about this. I do have more than 14 entries but not a ton more, just a few. So another goal of this week is to blog more, even if its not a long entry. One of my classmates asked what the minimum length for an entry was and Mrs. G said as much as you would write in one sitting. Now I find this a problem for me because I tend to write a little bit then come back to it and add more thoughts that I have come up with. I think I will stick with the longer entries for now but not be worried about posting shorter entries if that is all I can think of at the moment.
    I will be posting a video of my polo coach speaking about polo (duh) later in the week as well as a progress report on how I am meeting my goals.
    As this is all I can think of at the moment I am ending my post here. Hmm maybe I do like this shorter posts thing.

Mentor Meeting 3/11/11

      So I have been in somewhat of a rut for the last few days. I was happy with my project, where it was headed and my progress but I wasn't satisfied. I don't know if that makes sense or not, I hope it does. So when I met with Mrs. G I voiced these concerns and she had a lot of ideas that she thought would help to keep me satisfied throughout my project.
    This meeting came at a really good time because I have a problem continuously planning so having the meeting helped me to get back on track. I am now planning for my show opening as well as continuing to plan out the collage. I think the collage will be my main focus this week.

         One of her ideas was to get my photos up in a public area so that many people could see them. Because my project doesn't rely on me learning a lot of photography skills, I took Photo classes last year, she thought that publishing was the next step. I totally agree with this one. Mrs. G suggested putting up my favorite works in a coffee shop or something to that nature, or putting on my own photo show. I then mentioned that Judy puts a photo show on every year and that I could ask Judy if she would be willing to let me put some of my photos into it as well. Then as I was talking to my mom about this she suggested that we hold a photo show opening at my house. We would set up my photos all around the dining room and living room and invite friends and classmates to come over, have food and see my photos. I really liked this idea so I'm going to start planning it for mid to late April. That way "The Wiz" is over and I will have more time.

 
     I guess I should explain my main purpose behind this project as I have neglected to do so until now. I want to show non-horsey people why us horsey people are so absolutely and utterly obsessed. Any horse person out there can tell you there is a bond between horse and rider but are unable to put that bond into words and still have it make sense to a non-horsey person. My goal at the end of this project is to communicate that bond. Maybe the reason why we can't explain our bond with horses because there are no words that would do it justice. The closest I have ever seen anyone come to describing it perfectly is Susan Richards, author of "Saddled." So I aim to convey this bond through pictures because as they say: "A picture is worth a thousand words."

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?

     So finally I chose the style that I want my portfolio to be in. I have it all pretty much planned out and I am relatively happy with it.
    Unfortunately I feel like I am not doing as much as I could be for my project. I have been reading my fellow classmates blogs and it seems to me that I am on track but that I seem to be working on my project in large amounts and then not working on it for a couple of days. And maybe thats ok because I have been getting lots done but I want to try to work on my project a little bit every day and still do the large portions on the weekends. That is one of my goals for the rest of the week.
      I also am realizing that my idea for the large collage is not going to happen unless I start talking pictures all the time. I also need to start planning out the collage so that I can take pictures with that in mind. I am going to polo tonight so I will bring my camera and hopefully get some good shots in the barn.
   I really want to make this project a success so I need to start doing even more for my project. We'll see how it goes as the week finishes.

I Found It!!!!!

Yes!!!! So I absolutely love this photo. I think it is absolutely gorgeous and I just love the composition. I think this photo helps explain, or at least demonstrate, the mysterious relationship between a woman and a horse.
Basically I love everything about this picture.

YAY!! iLife '11

       YAY!!!!!!!! My Dad just came home with the new iLife '11. I am so happy right now! This means that I can start putting my portfolio together. Thanks Dad!
        One of the big things I was concerned with is that I would leave all of actual planning of the portfolio til the end of the year. Now I can get a rough idea of how I want it. Also this will allow me to make changes through out the semester.

Here is my picture of the week:
Well, I think I have two; here is the first.
    I really like that only the outline of this horse is visible. Some of its muscles are visible but the majority of the horse is left dark. Even though most of the horse is dark I'm still able to make out the shape of this horse. I think this picture really brings out the grace and beauty of the shape of a horse.

       Unfortunately I have not been able to find my other picture. I don't know if it got deleted or what but I will continue looking for it and if I find it I will post it immediately!

So over the weekend I have been exploring the new iPhoto that was updated by iLife '11. It is really nice. Now with the older version of iPhoto the ability to make a book was there but choices were limited. Now there are about 20 themes to choose from and each page can be formatted to fit 1 - 4 pictures on it. I have narrowed the themes down to two so hopefully I will choose one soon so that I can start putting all my pictures in.

    This week I hope to finalize the theme for my portfolio, as well as insert the pictures. There is also polo on Wednesday so I think I will end up photographing instead of riding like usual. I also want to get started on my collage project as I have yet to start that. I really don't want to leave that till the last minute because with how I'm envisioning it, it will be a huge project.

WISE Notes 3/1/11

       So today we watched a documentary (Barnsong) about a former wise student and his journey to make a barn. The documentary was actually made by another Wise student as his project. I really liked the idea of building a barn and using all of his own lumber and everything. I think that the process itself must have been so hard and time consuming! I like the documentary a lot as well. I think it portrayed the efforts and hardships of of raising a barn very well. However I thought the music was at times too loud and overwhelmed Austin talking. Some of the shots were a little shaky but I think that that added to the character of it. I really liked the original score that accompanied the film. One thing that I didn't was that it didn't seem like a full portrait of the experience. When I think of a documentary I think of a film that shows an experience from all sides. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I thought there was too much editing for what I think of as a documentary. I do Understand however that filming a documentary is a huge undertaking and to get almost a full film done in a semester is an accomplishment.