Corolla Summer Tales: Horses of Rulers and Nobility

"Fly Away Day" Young Banker Stallion at Sunset

July 2013 found me on the beautiful North Carolina Island of Cordova, accessible only by four wheel drive vehicles, a place where wild Corolla Horses wander freely along the beach and find delicious delight munching on tall dune grasses. It is quiet and calm there, the smell of sea and shore and the taste of sea salt on the wind both relax and rejuvenate your soul, I swear, I would never have come home if I didn't have to. It was the closest I have felt to contentment in a good long while.


Now, back to those Corolla horses, much like their world famous Chincoteague cousins (insert your knowledge of  the 1947 book, Misty of Chincoteague, by American author Marguerite Henry) they make their beachfront home on the Island of Cordova off the Coast of North Carolina. They are more formally known as the Banker Colonial Spanish Mustangs as are classified as such in the Horses of Americas Registry. They are the distant relatives of horses belonging to the Spanish explorers, who for reasons unknown left their horses behind upon returning home. It wasn't uncommon for explorers to leave animals behind after the completion of their expeditions, either due to having to lighten their loads or just from ships running aground or wrecking.

A Corolla mare grazes in the early hours of light

The Banker Horses took up residence on the Outer Banks and its impressive to note that these mustangs stayed genetically pure for hundreds of years because life on sandbars prevented cross-breeding. These horses do not group in herds, but rather harems, each stallion has a small band of mares, some stallions only have one or two, while others have four to seven. The dynamic of these horses was amazing to watch.

The handsome Stallion I named Inigo Montoya after the character in the Princess Bride. As you can tell by looking at him, he exudes the Spanish look.

They are not as territorial as other bands of Mustangs found in America, but seem tolerate other harems in or around their "territories". Perhaps this neutrality came about due to the relative small spaces they have to roam, but it is interesting to note that often multiple harems will congregate on the beach together and play in the surf, usually around dawn or dusk.

A stallion and his harem; a single mare with a day old colt. A Proud Family.

I personally witnessed a young stallion approach an older stallion and thought for sure there was going to be "disagreement", ears pinned back, eyes rolling as they were, typical of stallions being protective, but once they got to smelling each other, they started a friendly neighing and pawing game and soon began to groom each other while the mares belonging to each of the stallions came together to munch on the dune grasses. It felt more like a family reunion, leading me to believe that the younger stallion may have been a now grownup son.

Inigo Montoya grazing near the observation tower

"The members of the Spanish Mustang Registry in the 80s and the Horse of the Americas Registry in 2007 have confirmed that the Banker horses are the last remaining band of what was known as the 'the horses of rulers and nobility'- a mixture of Spanish Barb, Andalusian, and Arabian blood. The DNA of Corolla horses was tested both in 1992 and 2007 by Dr. E. Gus Cothran from Texas A&M University and was found to be lineally pure to the 16th century imports as can be found in North America today." -Susan Selig Classen

A mare grazes on a dune as an evening thunderstorm rolls in

In today's world, human interference is greatly affecting their existence due to development of beachfront property and tourism and the fact that the herd now all originate from a single maternal bloodline.  Such a small grouping of horses that continually inbreeds creates genetic anomalies and will eventually suffer from genetic collapse. These horse are now listed on the Endangered Breed list (American Livestock Breeds Conservancy) and on the Critical/Nearly Extinct list (Equus Surival Trust). The best hope for their survival is to introduce other maternal bloodlines.

Horse play in the surf

The Banker horses are special and I immensely enjoyed the time I had behind my camera with them. I am looking forward to returning to Corolla to revisit them one day. Until that time, I suggest anyone who is looking for a great vacation and photographic opportunity to visit Corolla Island. Best time to photograph are sun-up and sun-down, especially with the heat of summer.

Morning on the Sandbar

You can view some more of images at the Horses of Corolla gallery at my website. Prints are available for sale and I will donate proceeds of sales to The Corolla Wild Horse Fund.

Why, Too Many

She looks away; the realization that aching and longing are the same. The something is as unknown as time.

An image begins as a poetic thought…capturing that is hard. I try but I fail. One day…one day.

Why, Too Many
I have questions-
One too many…
They begin with why
and other words thereafter
tag along for the ride.

Outside my window
is a hot morning in grey-
refreshing promise
of rain later today.

The aster and yarrow swelter
and melt, like spent lovers
under hot sheets-
and passion’s raw heat.

The meadow’s shadows shift,
dancing upon the breeze,
a kaleidoscope of shade and colors
falling where they please.

Why do aching and longing
feel entirely the same?
Why do I miss something?
It’s a realization- I cannot tame.

I wait and ache in the way
the bird taking wing
and the blossom in pink
anticipate the coming spring.

Why can I not find it?
Why do I not know what it is?
Why do I miss it?
Why? Why? Why? Why?

The Echoes

I am falling back to something sentimental and difficult.

I am returning to the photographic work of a man I loved, admired, and hated.

A tragic something...
and deeply personal

It is a visual journey with poetry of two lives-two journeys taking place at two very different time periods.
Forgiveness? That is a thought that I carry with me on this journey and perhaps you will notice the complexity of this word during the exploration I do with this series.

I am combining my methods of photographic artistic expression with the images belonging to my grandfather, also a photographer.



~His Love~

Only one of many
an apature eye
capturing
beauty (ies)
Doing more than seeing.
She wrote
tragic love notes
set them to flame
watched then burn.
The fire
was easier to bear
than letting go
of the oceans
her eyes
held onto.

~her love~
the one and only

Contemporary Nostalgia-a Process

I am always asked about my working methods, so for this blog, I have chosen a to break a recent piece down to demonstrate how I take an idea I have bouncing around in my head and finalize it using my photography, textures, and digital hand painting techniques to create a photobased digital fine art piece.

However, before I begin, I would like to say that as both a digital artist who has worked in the commercial world as an illustrator and concept designer for the last 12 years and as a photographer, who has studied photography since 1998 in art schools ( Hartford Art School and The Maryland Institute of Art, aquiring my BFA/MAT/MFA) I am passionate about defending both as separate "art forms". I will label all my works accordingly, so as not to take away from either field, nor contribute in anyway to the mass of confusion that exists between those two "worlds."

In my opinion, "Fine Art Photography" should be, photography that is created utilizing methods that mirror what we have been able to do in the darkroom and outside of the darkroom during the film days. The reason being is that the digital arts have been, for the last 20 or so years incorporating elements of the photographic picture within various processes used by digital artists. These techniques have been firmly established as digital art techniques and are recognized as such in the commercial/editorial realm and now within the "fine art world"(as slow as this later recognition has been among the upper echelons of the fine art world, who on the broad spectrum still view digital art with an err of caution and a touch of hokem.)

The fact that we have photographers utilizing extreme techniques that are conventionally used in the commercial/editorial world labeling their work as fine art photography, is adding to the confusion of what digital art is and what fine art photography is. Having said all this, those of us who have been trained in the digital arts world, can instantly recognize a doctored photo. Especially those photographers labeling their work as SOOC or done with "minimal" processing. We know who you are!

Nothing gets me so heated as seeing someone using their Photoshop skills to create a photo manipulated image and passing it off as a SOOC image to the general "gullible" public. Or using digital extremes to elevate a photo into the world of "digital art" but labeling it as "fine art photography."  I also have a major issue with a digital painter using a photo as a base and smudging the crap out of it, doing this doesn't make it a "DIGITAL PAINTING". That is still a photo based digital art piece. A true digital painting is, from start to finish, an image that begins as sketch, as in the traditional form, and is then painted digitally.

There are many shows and galleries now, requesting to see the digital working files and the references used  before accepting images, whether they be digital art or photographic art. Which is WONDERFUL news to me, as I do not want to see either art form lost to each other.

There will be new technology on the market that embeds, like a digital thumbprint, a strand of hexidecimal code into photographic and digital works that will in a sense, store all the information of that image. Meaning any digital art creations, will carry the code of ALL pieces of photography, web found images, and copyrighted images, etc within it! I am waiting patiently for this creation to come to fruition as such technology will greatly help in copyright issues.

The image that I am demonstrating with here, is what I would personally label as Photo based Digital Fine Art and not Fine Art Photography due to the amont of digital processing I used to create it.I created this one quickly, so I don't consider it to be at its best where technical skill is concerned. I created this for this blog.

 

 

The image above, is the main piece I am using for the final photo based digital art piece. My computers are custom built with the best processors I can have (or afford at this point and time in my career), as the only way to truly create print ready digital fine art, is to work as LARGE as possible, scaling and reduction apply to digital art just as it would with illustration and art created by traditional media. If I am creating a piece of work for a 10x10 print size, I generally work with 20"x20" at a MINIMUM of 300dpi, sometimes higher and sometimes larger. The final digital image resulting here, will be 80"x80", roughly over 6.5 feet, because I want the print to be 3.5' by 3.5'!

 

I use Wacom Tablets (Cintiq and Intuous), for final editing and proofing, I use a HDMI cord attached to my large screen TV to go over my image wtih a fine tooth comb. I just have to make sure the color calibration of that screen is similar to  what my computers are set at.  The large screen TV works nice and to be honest, I don't want to shell out 10k or more for a computer monitor that size, I am not a large scale commercial studio, so I have no need for that equipment, but if anyone wants to give me one, I will gladly accept it! On a side note, some of James Cameron's computer screens for the creation of  Avatar cost in excess of 400k.

 

People with limited processing capabilities may work at the 3.5'x3.5' size at 300dpi or more and hope for the best. Or they may work as large as they can at 72dpi 110"x110" or larger. But I have generally found that the larger I work both in DPI and actually image size, the better, tighter, cleaner, the final image is when reduced down to the actual print size.

 

I also want to note, I DO NOT ADVOCATE the usage of ANY commercial print company for the creation of true giclee prints etc, (as in meets the standard for archival and collectible insurance requirements). I use FAA to offer general customers an affordable option to true Giclee prints while offering published prints directly from my studio or if the job is too large, from my favorite fine art printer to the collectors who want a piece that can be registered, insured and handed down for generations. If you are wondering why the upper echelon collectors of the art world don't waste their time on FAA, Cafepress, Zazzle, etc, it is due entirely to the print quality etc. You can look for a blog about how to print true giclees and will be listing some wonderful fine art printers that I recommend for their quality of published prints in the future!

 

will be using the foreground of this image

 

will be using the background area of this image

merged backgrounds but not blended...see the line across the bottom

 

playing with color balance, shadow, of the subject image

still playing and tweaking

 

starting to blend the the two background images together

 

still blending and playing with colors and levels in the photo

I moved the subject image to the created background and decide I didn't like the background

 

I have taken out the distant portion of the background

I added more foreground to play with depth of field

I decided to add hounds from another image I had, what's a Master Hunter without a few of his hounds?



Added more to the sky with cloning and digital hand painting. Also decided to make the sky more "moody".

Tweaked the sky a little more with blue and the photomanipulation part is "done".

Prepping the final photomanipulation to get it ready for the digital art processing with textures and such. Basically playing with color, sharpness, shadow/highlight, grain, etc.

 

I am playing with four textures on top of this image after placing an ochre overlay set at 45%

 

I ran my dream blur action over the piece and applied three more textures to give it a vintage look and tone down the piece. This step is done to personal taste level as some may like the look of the above piece better, especially if they like saturated colors and a sharper look.

Slightly more tweaking of color which you may or may not be able to tell on your screen at this size, watermarked and done! Well, done for now. So in short, this was a rather "quick" example of a photo based digital art piece, which I entitled Contemporary Nostalgia. Centuries old sport and a Master Hunter Checking his Iphone :)



Tracey Pennito Photoshoot 12.26.11

12.26.11 photo shoot in Bristol Connecticut with model Tracey Pennito, I was able to collaborate a shoot with photographer/artist Kevin Stiles who is also a former teacher of mine! Some of these photos were take in artist Chris DuFour's art studio.

Snowfall Lullaby Texture Giveaway

Wanted to let everyone know that my newest Facebook Fanpage Giveaway is up! I am offering 15 grainy, icey, bokeh-ey textures for your photographic and digital art needs!

Snowfall Lullaby Texture Set Giveaway

Hey there photography and digital artist friends. My Snowfall Lullaby Texture Set 1 will be available for a free download midweek! You have to be a facebook fan of mine in order to obtain this creatively delicious freebie! A wonderful wintery theme just in time for the season!