Óndago Arts Photo Blog

Hi Folks,

Inspired by others sharing pictures and stories of the fur people that share their lives ( see Diane Varner’s “Daily Walks“, and Mark Graf’s “Graf Nature Photography“) we’re posting a few pictures of our ‘kids.’ All these photos were taken using a technique called “Through the Viewfinder (TtV)” photography which you can read about in an earlier posting here. A good deal of Photoshop filters were used as well, mostly Nik filters and the wonderful (and FREE) VirtualPhotographer from OptikVerve Labs. (VirtualPhotographer is a seriously powerful plugin with lots of cool effects, and you can’t beat the price–we highly recommend it.)

Back to the critters: we jokingly say we’re running a geriatric home for kitties, as all three of ours are over 15 years old—Tylar has cancer, Ashana has kidney failure, and Jess has decided that in her elder years, the kitchen floor is way better than those nasty old litter boxes. All of them are doing pretty good at the moment, and we cherish every second we have with them. Tenaya is our big ol’ dog boy…he just turned seven last week, and is just about the most loving, sensitive creature on the planet. These animals, each so amazingly unique, bring so much to our world, and ask for so little in return. One family member, Akila, has been gone from us for just over a year. She was an amazing dog, loyal and stubborn and protective–we miss her so.

Hope your week is going great!

Peace, Heather and Jenn.

Tenaya Lover of toys, big sticks, and snuggling; gives lots of respect to the kitties of the house, going so far as to whine and cry if one is blocking him from coming up the stairs.

Jessica, This girl is moxie incarnate….On more than one occasion she’s seen fit to chase Tenaya around the coffee table and right out the back door when she thought he was misbehaving. Incredibly funny thing to see, and unforgettable.

Ashana, Without a doubt, she owns the house. Loving and sweet to us humans, seven pounds of solid attitude to the rest of the critters.

Tylar, A sweetheart, that loves to be petted, but only with your feet! Seriously. The only way to pet Tylar with your hands is if you put socks on them! He’s a slow moving, lazy kind of guy, with eyes the color of a tropical sea.

Just a quick posting from our most recent pet photo shoot….what an amazing couple of dogs we had the honor of photographing! A big thanks to Jan for hiring us to photograph her beautiful girls.

Have a wonderful week!

Heather and Jenn.

Peaches, the older and wiser girl. What a sweet sweet spirit!

Pebbles, the younger (and stubborner! ) of the two, and oh so cute!

We had the most amazing experience this past Saturday; we went whale watching on the Condor Express out of Santa Barbara, California. Not only did we see more than 20 (!!) endangered Blue whales, but had the magical experience of being in the middle of what they called a ‘mega pod’ of dolphins…literally thousands of them. It was an amazing experience. It’s hard to say who had the most fun, the dolphins or us awestruck humans–the dolphins literally swarmed our boat–jumping and riding the bow of the boat and the wake behind us by the hundreds–we were directly above them on the bow, maybe 8 or so feet from the water. As they jumped into the air and swam right below us, we hooted and hollered and some of us even cried. We can’t begin to describe how that felt. For as far as the eye could see, there were dolphins feeding and jumping and swimming. The captain said he guessed the mega pod to contain several THOUSAND dolphins. Needless to say we took a lot of pictures, but we were so caught up in the JOY and emotion that only a few photos of the dolphins were in focus.

For those of you unfamiliar with Blue whales, they are the largest living animal that has ever lived; even larger than any of the dinosaurs. They can reach over 100 feet in length, their heart is the size of a small car, and their tongue weighs as much as an African elephant. These things are gi-normous! To see even one of these endangered giants is an honor…seeing over 20 defies the telling. It’s uncommon to see the tail flukes of Blue whales…mostly you see the 25-30 foot spray of water from their blow holes, the ridge of their back and their tiny dorsal fin as they cruise through the water. Fortunately for us, four different whales showed us their tails….simply spectacular, and apparently we got the finest showing they’d had all season.

We’re including a sketch of a Blue whale so you can get an idea of scale.

The blue whales feed off of the krill-rich Channel Islands through early September…we highly recommend going.

No way can we do these creatures justice..the pictures are hardly award winning and pale in relation to the experience, but we wanted to share a few with you anyways.

Blue Whale Drawing , © 2002 Encyclopedia Britannica (Check out that tiny little human top right)

Blue Whale Tail Flukes, Near Santa Cruz Island, CA

Thar she blows…

Common Dolphins, (But not to us!)

Just a quick posting today. We’ve been trying out some different Photoshop plugins, and came upon this one called “melancholytron” from Flaming Pear. This was a quick first attempt, and we definitely think there’s some potential with this filter when we have more time to play. Hope your week is going wonderfully!

Forest & Fern, Near Parksville-Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island, British Columbia