Welcome back..................  It's been about a year since I published my last "Image of the Month" newsletter.  During that 4 year effort I met some of the best people and received some of the nicest, interesting and sometimes confusing comments and responses one could ever imagine.  Thankfully the nice ones far outweighed all the others about 50 to 1. 

My "I SHOOT ROCKS & WEEDS" BLOG is intended to be a lot more interactive, a little more frequent with more diverse content.  Most of you undoubtedly came over to my new blog as members of my Newsletter members mailing list.  Hopefully this broader scope will be of more value to more readers.

My Blog it titled ......."I Shoot Rocks & Weeds" for a reason.  More often than not, when I meet a new customer,  usually in the gallery, the most often asked question I get asked is "What kind of photography do you do??"  Well, I learned a long time ago that no one really knows what I mean when I say "I'm a fine art photographer" (heck, I'm not sure I know what that means) but, they immediately get the Rocks & Weeds thing.  When I keep it down to earth and understated it almost always opens the door for a great conversation, a few chuckles, and a good experience for both of us. 

So, for this journey, its mostly about the simple act of research, planning, accessing, shooting, post production and showing the beauty of Rocks & Weeds.  However, from time to time you will find me wandering off course to include information on my services as a Photographic Guide, the occasional workshop, lecture or training opportunity for  photographers wishing to take their photography to the next level.  It should be a great trip.

Some of you might like to know that I am no longer part of the co-op Artists' Gallery in Sunriver .  The experience of being part of that great co-op gallery was fantastic !  The customers, fans, collectors, lookyloos, artists and community were, and are outstanding.  However, the co-op obligation to work in the gallery, several shifts each month simply became more and more problematic.  I found I had less and less time to create the images that fullfilled me and are in demand by my growing customer base.  About the same time that I made the decision that I needed to step back from the co-op relationship I was recruited to join a new co-op / consignment gallery being formed in Sisters Oregon. This gallery has an equally outstanding group of artists and I could participate as a consignment artist which means I don't have to work shifts, like in a coop gallery,  The new gallery is called Hood Ave Art and you can take a look at our emerging web site here:      http://katherine-taylor.com/hoodavenueart/vern-bartley  

I want to keep each blog entry fairly short and make sure it is about images, resources, education and of course an occasional image of the week, day, month or in some cases it could be every other month depending on my shoot and travel schedule.

Keep an eye out for future blog posts over the next few weeks as I will be unveiling some new stuff and will be inviting, those who are crazy enough to want to follow along, the opportunity to keep up on a 10,000 mile photo shoot I am now gearing up to take starting no later than the end of Aug.   It should be fun.

             MUSHROOM CLOUD #544      Ironically, this afternoon, as I sat here in my studio writing this introductory blog I looked up and was bowled over by the cloud patterns that suddenly erupted over the beach generated by a strong on shore wind and right above the shore line..  I grabbed by camera and headed outside to capture this unique scene.  I thought you would like to see why we say....... every thing is better at the beach.  I have added the 12 images of this event to my Cloud Library.  And, yes this is pretty much unedited.  I even left the power lines in the lower half of this quick thumbnail image.  And, yes you will likely see these clouds in one of my fine art images in the near future.  It's what an Image Creator does.

Till next time

Vern