Graciebelle Photography

Soooo…once again I find myself assuring the blog-o-sphere that I have not fallen off the Earth! Student teaching was a bit of a wild ride…I’d be lying if I said I loved EVERY second of it, but I sure did love the majority of it. I miss my students tons and I think about them a lot. I’m getting some stuff together in the next couple of weeks so I can substitute teach at the school. Hopefully I’ll get a lot of assignments for the eighth grade so I can see my kids.

It’s going to be a fairly short blog entry today. I’m slipping one in among the hustle and bustle of holiday preparations. But stay tuned because I have plenty of catching up to do in the next few weeks. I have quite a few sessions I’m really looking forward to sharing with all of you!

In the meantime, I want to share a little “howl” iday lovin’ from my critters. We hope the next couple of days are safe and filled with fun, family and cheer!

Here are a few images from the shoot with makeup artist Molly Krause. We both decided we wanted to have some fun with this shoot and do something a little different from the norm. Molly was looking forward to playing around and creating a look totally different from what she typically does with her brides and I thought it’d be a good idea to mess around with my studio lighting, as I’m generally much more comfortable shooting in natural light. So we chose a few bright tones for a color scheme, came up with the premise of old fashioned sundae cups and ice cream and went at it.

I still wanted to squeeze in some outside shots, as I wasn’t totally ready to zip out of my comfort zone. For the outdoor shots, we kept the make up a little more simple. The entire time I was shooting, I was so taken with all of the girls’ beautiful eyes and how much they popped against the green grass and overcast skies. I was sooo excited to get working on those shots.

After being chased down by mosquitoes (they’re really vicious this year…they’re one part of summer I’m anxious to leave behind), we ventured inside to play around with the studio lights. And…uh…let’s just say we had some technical difficulties. Erm. Still, we made do with what we had and the girls were totally game for it. I had such a lovely time working with these ladies! It’s no wonder we’re all already talking about our next collaboration.

Here’s a few of the images…For more, as always, check out my Facebook page.

Well, it’s the eve of my first day student teaching and I’m a bundle of miscellaneous emotions…I’m a little nervous, crazy excited and sad that summer is coming to a close. I’m happy to report, however, that my last week of summer was pretty fantastic. Last Saturday I went to a bachelorette party for a very good friend and I spent a good part of last week with my mom and one of my aunts. They came with me when I went out to photograph some new horses at HAHS on Tuesday (pictures to come soon). On Wednesday we visited the Chicago Botanic Gardens and Friday we did some shopping and had some lunch. Yesterday I did another fun photo shoot with makeup artist Molly Krause. The models were all delightful and great to work with. So it was a good day filled with laughter and beautiful image making. And it was also totally exhausting. So after this post I’m headed of to bed to catch some quality sleep before my big day tomorrow! Stay tuned for pictures from HAHS and the pictures from our photo shoot. Both should be up sometime later in the week.

And now I have a few images to share from the past week…

Pi going for a swim at my parents' house...

Clue

Jake

Mr. Phineas McGee...Looking slightly pathetic.

Phinney and Pi patrolling the yard...

...Phinney doesn't seem particularly happy about it.

And a couple images from the Botanic Gardens…

On Thursday I had a fantastic shoot with one of the most adorable, happy and photogenic babies I’ve ever met. We were out on his grandparents’ property, which was absolutely gorgeous. From the little cornfield in the backyard to the beautiful vegetable and flower gardens, everywhere we turned provided a perfect backdrop. They have also converted a little barn into a sun room, so we shot quite a bit in there (actually, we were chased in there since the mosquitoes were so terrible). But the room got great light and really brought out the blue of Ollie’s eyes. (I mean, check out those eyes, folks. They’re fantastic!) Ollie’s grandma did a wonderful job as prop master, pulling out all sorts of things to keep him entertained while I snapped away. And Ollie was a treat the whole time. He wasn’t fussy a single second, which was amazing considering the shoot went past his bedtime and mosquitoes were eating us alive nearly the entire time.

Here are a few of  my favorite images. For more, check out my Facebook page.

Back in June, I participated in an event organized by Main Stay Therapeutic Riding Center, a non-profit organization that offers therapeutic riding to people with physical, developmental, emotional and social disabilities. The organization is hosting an ongoing call for artists. On various dates, artists are allowed to roam around the facilities and take inspiration in their surroundings. (And the surroundings are breathtaking indeed!) Beginning in February, artists may submit their work to a jury with no entrance fee. Next summer, all accepted artwork will become a part of an exhibit. The pieces will be up for sale—50 percent of the earnings will go to the artist and Main Stay will get the other half. All artwork not sold will go back to the artist. Seriously, it’s a really great deal, so all interested artists should sign up, as there are more dates available in the fall. It was a fun day to go out shooting and fraternizing with horse people. (And the horses are a blast to spend time with. They’re so personable!)

For more information about the Art of Main Stay event, as well as information about Main Stay’s classes and volunteer programs, visit their website.

So all this thinking and talking about Peachtree and Gidget made me think about an artist that I discovered back in 2007. I was in my final semester at Columbia and I was assigned to write about a museum exhibition of my choice for my feature writing class. The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago has always been a favorite of mine, so after receiving the assignment, I immediately went to the museum’s website to look up what was cooking over there. I was stoked to see a photography exhibit, as photography was my minor. And even better, it was focused on how humans deal with nature and animals in our period of increased urban sprawl. (I had focused on a similar topic for my digital photography class.)

There was one image of a chick with a yellow beak, heaped into a pathetic little mound on a red stair. That image is forever seared into my brain. Mostly because I think I have that weird compulsion to rescue all bald baby birds I see and I always feel a little sick, a little guilty when I haven’t gotten there in time. And that’s how Colleen Plumb’s photo made me feel. But it was a beautiful image nonetheless. And I guess thinking about my adventures with Peachtree and Gidget made that image pop into my brain the other day while driving home from the tutoring center. For the life of me, I couldn’t think of the photographer’s name. So when I got home I rifled through all of my old class files on the computer until I found it. Here is the original article that I wrote…(Note, I do not have the actual paper with my teacher’s comments, corrections and suggestions so if it seems a little forced and ridiculous, or if you notice any grave grammatical errors, this is its original form back four years ago. )

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You notice it across the room. It demands a closer look. So you get closer, stare harder.  And then you see it…Is that an elephant?  It is an elephant.  But the angle, the way its eyes aren’t visible, they way its trunk is tucked away, it becomes just a gracefully curving mass of gray and leathery texture.  It is heart- achingly misplaced, heaped upon an equally colorless concrete floor.  There is something instantaneously sinister about the scene, but the burgundy of the plush velvet ropes and the stanchions, the bright shapes of children in the background make you think that what’s going on can’t be all that bad.  Surely children wouldn’t be gathered to watch an elephant die.  Surely the elephant is tired, and—so accustomed to life behind the ropes, the presence of gawking youth so routine—settles in for a midday nap. Yet there is something inherently sinister when living among concrete floors and velvet ropes and gawking youth becomes monotonous.

Taken in 2005, “Elephant” is a part of Chicago artist Colleen Plumb’s photographic exhibition, “Urban Nature,” which will be on display until November 4 at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.  Beginning with a startling image of a half-buried, teeth-bearing dead raccoon on the shore of Lake Michigan and ending with the crumpled carcass of a sparrow lying desolate on a step, the exhibition is interspersed with images of animals caged, cooked and displayed on sweaters.  Plumb’s quietly dramatic photographs focus on humans’ interaction with animals in all forms: wild, domestic, captive or representational.  Her work also examines our coexistence with the natural world and how we handle its disappearance in the face of increased urbanization.

“Elephant” was taken when Plumb attended a Ringling Bros. Circus.  The mother of two bought only one ticket. “The Ringling Bros. Circus claims that they treat their animals well and I believe it,” Plumb says.  “But personally I have a problem with it because, to me, elephants should not be in a circus or in cold environments.”  She shot the image during a pre-show presentation where trainers demonstrated how they taught the Asian elephant to lie down.

“It wasn’t a terrible thing right off,” Plumb says.  “They were explaining how they get the elephants to lie down so that they can more easily administer medicine. It’s just that these animals are so big and it’s not an ideal environment for them. So I wanted it to be eerie. Is it alive or dead or sleeping?  And of course it’s alive with all of these people standing around.  I just wanted to emphasize the hugeness of it and it’s sad to me.”

Plumb began working on “Urban Nature” in 1997 while earning her Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia College Chicago, where she currently teaches part time.  “I had these candidacy reviews and I was always bringing in black and white pictures of animals, particularly my dog,” she says.  “It was the review panel that pointed out that there was this sort of organic thing going on, this tapestry of a dog’s paw or a plastic flamingo. I was always just going with how bizarre things are and looking at the fakeness of nature and nature’s representation in the city.  But it’s kind of always been this issue and it kept going deeper and deeper.”

Plumb contacted the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum about exhibiting her work last June.  “It was kind of the phone call out of the blue,” says Jill Riddell, vice president of exhibits and strategic initiatives for the museum.  “She came in and she had an incredible portfolio with her and we were immediately impressed.”

Riddell reports that the exhibit has received a warm reception and likes that Plumb’s images create a different element in increasing awareness among the museum’s patrons.   “A lot of our exhibits are intentionally more didactic,” she says.  “They convey information and tell people physical facts about nature and the environment in the city and Colleen Plumb’s art exhibit touches people in a different way and works on a different part of the brain. Art has that ability to elicit an emotional response.  It causes you to respond in a much different way and we like to be able to offer both.”

It’s certainly getting people thinking.  In a recent online review, Newcity Chicago’s Michael Weinstein writes, “Far more critical of the most dangerous animal—ourselves—than celebratory of all creatures great and small… If Plumb’s low-key, yet telling images do not start you thinking about animal rights, nothing will.”

But that’s not what Plumb is aiming for. “I’m not looking at this work as fighting for animal rights,” she says.  “I don’t want it to be pushing for ideas.  I just want it to raise some awareness. If there’s an incremental change in how people think about their relationship with other living things, that’s what I’m going for.”

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After reading the article, I googled Colleen Plumb. It seems that “Urban Nature” has evolved into a full-fledged book, titled Animals Are Outside Today and is published by Radius Books. And while the project has expanded, it seems that her initial idea is still relatively the same. In her artist statement, Plumb writes:

“Contradictions define our relationships with animals. We love and admire them; we are entertained and fascinated by them; we take our children to watch and learn about them. Animals are embedded within core human history—evident in our stores, rituals and symbols. At the same time, we eat, wear and cage them with seeming indifference, consuming them, and their images, in countless ways.”

Another project, “Towards the Sky Again,” looks at trees and their resiliency, as well as our strained relationship to keep nature in our lives. (At least that’s how I interpreted it…) But it struck a chord, especially as Derek and I are gathering quotes to remove the giant Cottonwood tree standing along our fence. I really seriously hate the idea of taking it down because it’s so big and majestic and old, but its branches are perilously perched above our neighbors’ swing set and shed. And as it is, a hefty branch fell off and ruined part of their fence shortly after we moved in. They didn’t say anything and replaced the fence themselves because I think they knew we were new homeowners and feeling overwhelmed, but I’m not sure they’ll be as understanding next time.  So, down it goes… a big, majestic piece of nature. Sigh…

Seriously, though, back to Colleen Plumb…check her out.

Wow! So this summer has gone blazing by and I feel like I really haven’t accomplished much at all. I had a lot of big plans, but it seems few of them worked out for various reasons. I start student teaching in August, which is basically a form of indentured servitude. I will be in the classroom all day, five days a week for four months with no pay. And I don’t mean to sound disgruntled as I write this because I am not disgruntled at all. I knew all along that the final step in my teaching certification would involve a significant financial sacrifice and therefore I was prepared to remain pretty frugal this summer. In May, I was looking forward to a few household projects: I wanted to paint the kitchen, fix up the sunroom and begin landscaping our relatively barren backyard. But when I figured out the costs such projects would entail, I quickly nixed them from my to-do list. Derek has fixed our sump pump and trimmed trees and bushes. I have weeded and planted some hand-me-down hostas. We are still planning to install ceiling fans in the bedrooms and take down a giant decaying tree in the backyard, but that’s really it as far as household projects go. And that’s fine. We’ll be here for a while so we have plenty of time to get around to everything.

I also had big plans to prepare for my student teaching. I was going to meet with my cooperating teacher right after the Fourth. That way I’d have about a month-and-a-half to wrap my brain around the material to be taught and create lesson plans. But then I was reassigned to a new cooperating teacher. We will meet next week. School starts in about three weeks. Am I stressed about this? A little. Do I enjoy the fact that I had a perfect excuse to goof off and not worry about lesson plans for the majority of my summer? Absolutely. And while I’m stressed, I keep thinking about a friend of mine who recently graduated from the teaching program and had a similar experience. She was reassigned to a new cooperating teacher about two weeks before the school year started and found out that she would begin by teaching The Odyssey. (Now that’s pressure!) She was definitely overwhelmed by the prospect of teaching a difficult piece of literature that she had not thoroughly read since she herself was in high school. But while it was challenging reacquainting herself with Homer’s epic poem at the same time she had to teach it, she was thankful for the opportunity to get to know her students’ personalities, learning styles and comprehension levels before she went about putting together other in-depth lesson plans. By familiarizing herself with her students, she was able to tailor her plans to them rather than try to modify the ones she’d already put together over the summer. So I’m keeping her experience in mind and staying strong.

And then my photo projects…While I did complete the boho bridal shoot, that’s really the only project that came to fruition. The others either fell through or I haven’t even started yet. I console myself with the fact that I still have three weeks left. But sometimes life just gets in the way, or other, unforeseeable opportunities arise. Life getting in the way is maddening. Other, unforeseeable opportunities arising is awesome. But I’m one of those people who likes to plan and when plans go awry, I get a little upset, even if good things are still happening. And while I have been busy with freelancing stuff and doing the tutoring gig over at the writing center, I look back on my summer and feel like I could have done more, even if I have perfectly acceptable reasons why certain things didn’t get done and I’ve managed to do other things I didn’t plan on doing. And when I look at my blog post from May and see how motivated and excited I was, I get a little frustrated. But such is life…

In any case, I do have quite a few images and things to share, so the blog’s gonna get busy for the next few days.

First up: I want to introduce Peachtree and Gidget/Gadget. Well, I’m not sure if introduce is the right word to use here, as they’re no longer a part of the family. I released them on Sunday…

This is Peachtree at about three (ish?) weeks old.

This is Gidget/Gadget at about three (ish?) weeks old.

Pi looking at Gidget/Gadget from the family room.

It all started when I went to scout out the property for the boho bridal shoot. We found three chicks sprawled out on the ground in the pine tree grove. Now, I realize that finding baby birds who have either fallen out or been knocked out of their nests is all a part of the circle of life. And I realize that the proper thing to do is to just leave them there and let life take its course. Usually, if the baby has its flight feathers or if I can see a nest nearby, I will just let things be. After all, babies with flight feathers are learning how to fly and they usually end up crashing and getting a little dazed. They’ll get over it and carry on and they usually have some watchful parents waiting in the wings (no pun intended). If a nest is nearby, it’s usually a given that the parents are too. I’ll put the babies in a cozy, shallow box, set them in an area protected by bushes and trees and the parents can handle the rest. But when I stumble across some naked babies that aren’t set to fly for quite some time and can’t find a nest anywhere, I feel compelled to take them in. I know that’s messing with the whole circle of life thing, but I just. can’t. help. it. So I scooped all three of them up and drove them home.

My mother has two parrots, so she always keeps baby parrot formula on hand. It started with the first parrot, Zoey, an African Grey. Back in the day, pet shops used to let you take the baby parrots home and finish the weaning process because it helped with bonding. Now I’m hearing that a lot of pet shops are discontinuing that practice because feeding is such an intricate process and new owners can inadvertently do some damage to weanlings’ delicate crops. But it’s also good to keep baby formula on hand in case of emergencies with pet parrots. If they’re injured or stressed, they can always use the extra nutrients that come from baby formula. (And birds love to be babied. When Zoey recently broke off the tip of her beak and my mother hand fed her for a few days, she converted right back to that wing-flapping, begging monster that we brought home 17 years ago. It was adorable.) But anyway…I’m getting a little off topic…I brought the babies home, got them settled in a box lined with paper towels, borrowed some baby parrot formula from my mom and fed the ravenous little buggers. They spent the night in their box, which was resting on top of a heating pad on the bathroom floor. I honestly didn’t expect them to make it. I didn’t know how long they’d been outside of their nest. They could have been severely dehydrated. And maybe the mother bird pushed them out because something was wrong them. Who knew…I just figured that if the babies died through the night, it had to be better passing away all warm and snuggled up with food in their bellies than to be torn apart and eaten by a free-roaming cat or wild raccoon.

But they made it! The next morning I did some research. I wasn’t quite sure what kind of birds they were. They were much larger than the sparrows I typically rescue and they were kind of gray-ish blue, so maybe they were blue jays. I looked up blue jays diets and information on feeding wild baby birds. I was shocked to learn that songbirds should not be fed liquid diets, as their bodies do not easily absorb liquids. Water and water-based baby bird formula can get into their lungs, causing them to aspirate. I immediately stopped feeding them the baby parrot formula and started a new diet:

A handful of kitten food soaked in water. (I used Science Diet Indoor Kitten food. Any puppy or kitten food will do as long as it contains at least 39% protein.)

1 Tablespoon of applesauce

1 Teaspoon of canned kitten food. (I used Blue Buffalo Kitten Chicken and Rice—again high protein level is key.)

Liquid avian vitamins

Once the kitten food was mushy, I mashed it up with the applesauce and canned kitten food. Then I put in a drop of store-bought avian vitamins. I’d put the mixture onto the tip of my finger and the babies would open their mouths up and gulp it right down.

Unfortunately, one of the babies died after about four days. Looking back, something was wrong with him right from the start. When I found him, I thought his wings and legs were broken because of the way he lied all contorted on the ground. Once I had him settled in the box, however, his limbs seemed to be intact and working correctly. Still, he had little to no appetite most of the time and he never snuggled up next to his brothers. Every time I’d check on them, two of the babies would be nestled together in one corner of the box and he’d be over on the other side.

I was discouraged by the one baby’s death, but it made me more determined to make sure the others lived. And live they did! They ate ravenously every two hours until 9pm, which is when I covered them up for the night. One of my aunts—who has had a lot of success in rescuing and rehabilitating wild birds—would take them for me on Tuesdays and Wednesdays while I was working at the writing center. Her employers are a little more lenient about her bringing wild creatures into work. So they ate regularly and flourished into curious, comical little blue jays. By the time they were three weeks old, I could rest assured that they would live and I named them Peachtree and Gadget. Peachtree was named after the pterodactyl in The Land Before Time because blue jays—with their pointy crowns—have always reminded me of the prehistoric creatures. Gadget—who was by far the more inquisitive and brave of the two—was named after the main character of Inspector Gadget. (Can you tell I grew up watching movies and television in the early nineties?) Later, I decided Gadget might be a girl since her coloring was more subdued and began calling her Gidget. When they gained their flight feathers, I began letting them lose in the sunroom. I’d hide birdseed and nuts in different parts of the room so they could practice foraging. I also weaned them off of the baby food and began feeding them mealworms—which they devoured with relish.

Gidget at about five (ish?) weeks old.

Peachtree sunbathing.

At about six weeks old, they were accomplished flyers and could find their own food. I stopped feeding them mealworms by hand at about five weeks. (Even though they would continue to beg from me every time I entered the room.) My mom and I brought them over to my aunt’s house on Sunday so they could begin their lives as wild birds. I figured my aunt’s property would be the best as she’s surrounded by trees and has tons of bird feeders. While I would have enjoyed keeping them in my own backyard, we have a ton of outdoor cats roaming around and I knew they wouldn’t have stood a chance. We set their cage in a shady area for a while. Once they seemed adjusted, we opened the door. Within seconds, Peachtree was out the door and Gidget was close behind. Peachtree stuck around in the tree near my aunt’s house while Gidget (true to her original name) set out to explore. After an hour or so, Peachtree flew over to us begging for some mealworms. My mom and I stuck around for another couple of hours, visiting with my aunt, but we didn’t see Gidget again. Peachtree retired to the cage that night and my aunt brought him inside.

The next morning she let him out again. Right before she left for work, she saw Peachtree and Gidget taking a dip in the birdbath together. I stopped by a few hours later and was overjoyed to see Gidget hanging out in the tree near the house. She flew down for a few mealworms and then headed back out into the rest of the yard to practice being a wild bird. I stopped by again later that afternoon and both Peachtree and Gidget were settled in a nearby pine. Again, they came out for some mealworms and then flew off. My aunt was home all day Tuesday. They’d fly over to her to ask for mealworms periodically, and she’d catch sight of them flitting about from tree to tree. She reported to me that they seemed to be getting the hang of the whole living-in-the-wild thing.

The last time my aunt saw them was Wednesday morning. I was at the vet’s all this morning with Toki (he got fixed today), so my mom stopped by my aunt’s to see if they were around. I just got off the phone with her and she could report nothing. While this worries me, I have to keep reminding myself that they are wild creatures and this is the life they were meant to live. If they don’t return, I’m going to tell myself that they’re off to bigger and better things…

Gidget on the porch at my aunt's house on Monday.

Gidget taking a drink.

Born free...Gidget acting like a real live wild bird!

And so that was one really cool summer adventure. (In fact, now that I think about how much time was dedicated to feeding those greedy monsters, I’m willing to bet that they might be a small part in why I haven’t accomplished as much as I had planned to this summer.) But even so, it was a very, very cool experience and I’m glad for every second of it.