Hiatus

Sometimes I think of myself as a writer, sometimes as a photographer.  Yet the truth is I’m a professional student—at least Humdrum is.  Trixsay is often inspired by the results of Humdrum’s efforts.

My problem is that studying takes time—productive time unfettered by fibro and RA fatigue or by chores like doing the laundry and shopping for groceries.  At most I have two to four hours of free productive time a day.

With that time, I want to learn about travel writing.  As my cameras shrink in size due to my diminishing strength and my time in the field shooting shrinks correspondingly, I want to expand the writing I do.  I can write on my laptop or in my i-PAD or with a pencil, or I can dictate into a recorder.  I want to take notes while we travel on photo-shoots, then structure the notes into stories—creative non-fiction essays and stories—travel writing.

For example, you’ve read the two posts I wrote about our Brazil trip.  What you didn’t see was

• A Franciscan monk meditating on scriptures as birds fed on the seeds he’d scattered.  

• Or my spouse giving the guide one end of his walking stick before he unwittingly slid down into the water.  To free his hands and help himself out, my spouse let go of his end.  The guide fell backwards onto high ground waving the stick at the sun.  

• Or me sitting in the back of a boat trying to see jaguars through man-sized bodies while under strict orders not to stand up.  (I obeyed because if I fell into the river, I might well feed the piranhas.)  

So much of that story has yet to be told.  So much of the story cannot be seen solely through the photos we took or the poems I wrote.

I am going to suspend this blog until the first of the year (2016) so that I can study travel writing from themes to voice.  I want to organize my memories using our photos as reminders of earlier stories, to list the reasons people travel, and to study how to write personal essays.  Finally, I want to study how other writers incorporate these facets into their travel pieces.

Early next year we’re going to India and later to the Louisiana bayous.  I want to be ready to write those travel stories.

☻ Happy Holidays ☻

Swimmingly*

Holy guacamole, what was that?  I’m being sloshed around down here like undies in a washer.  Now it’s too dark to see.  What the hell happened to the sunlight?  Is there a storm?

I’m gonna to turn on my headlamp so I can count those damned taco trout and get out of here.  What? There it goes again—that sloshing.

Hey, are you guys listening to me?  What in hell’s name are you doing anyway?  Is this some kind of prank?

It feels like the pressure is increasing, like I’m being sucked down to the bottom.  What kind of fucking whirlpool forms in muddy lake?

There, there’s a light.  Looks like a line, like it might be coming through a big florescent tube.  I’m going to see what’s up.  Maybe a meteor’s struck or something.

*     *     *

Had to drop my weights to get up here.  The light is seeping through a slit.  I seem to be in some kind of tank.  Or maybe I’ve been swallowed by a whale.  Maybe the damned thing’s trying to suck me down into its gullet.  A whale in fresh water?

There is an air pocket up here.  I’m going to take off my mask and drop my tank so I’ll be out of touch for a minute.

*     *     *

Cough!  Hack!  Hack!  Holy guacamole, it’s smoke.  I must be close to a forest fire.

Just a minute while I get my tank back on and my mask secured.

*     *     *

That’s better.  I can breathe.  I think I’ve been skimmed off with water to fight that fire.  Am I going to be dumped?  Holy cayenne guacamole!

There’s no way to get to the plane or chopper or whatever from inside here.  I tried when swam up to the slit.  Couldn’t get more than my neck out of the water and the sides of the, the bag are too slimy up there to hang onto.  I couldn’t pull myself out.

I could try again, but why?  If the smoke doesn’t get me, the fire will.  If the fire doesn’t get me, the trees will.  And if the trees don’t get me, that hard ground will.

So I guess I’ll just have to tell you guys my last will and testament—and it doesn’t have anything to do with trout except that there are at least three swimming around in here with me on their way to the same frying pan.

Hell, my tank is running low.  So here it is: I bequeath to you guys all the damned enchiladas.  They’re in the fridge.

Tell Maria I love her.  I should have asked her to marry me last Sunday, but I got cold feet.

Wonder if I could use this wet suit as a parachute—Wait?!  HOOOOLY GUACAMOOOLE!!

*    *     *

Hello.  Are you reading me?  I think I’m hung up on a lodgepole pine.  My tank seems to be caught on a branch.  There’s more smoke than fire here, thank God.  Steamy smoke.

Forget that bit about Maria.  I’ll tell her myself.

END

*Writing suggestion #2:

News stories can inspire a story like this one which originated with a newspaper clipping I misplaced some time ago—but it made an impression on me.

Sunrise from Sea of Cortez
by Jeter Skeet

Landshape

Giant Anteater
by Jeter Skeet

Landshape, the physics

of curves and parabolas carved 

by wind and rain—

Landshape, grassy highland savannas south of the Amazon jungles in Brazil,

A giant anteater

licks her way across what was 

once a lush pastureland.

Through binoculars, a local guide spots her for visitors from foreign lands.

The Landshape sings a 

subconscious siren song in

dry photographers,

a lullaby for the newborn riding side-saddle on his mother’s back.

The baby bounces riding 

across the Landshape, scalloped by 

treeless hills and deep ravines.

The distance is far, further than the leader wishes to walk across an unkempt savanna.  But a promising treasure—pixilated memories of these unique creatures—makes the risk worth the taking.  

The Landshape bathes 

them in winter’s warm sunlight so

near the equator—

and so they begin their journey with hope, and determination, and eyes to the ground.  Dormant grasses hide irregularities along the route.  

For Landshape, time means

little more than the change in

angles of sunlight.

Some photographers stay behind in the van waiting not too patiently for a closer and more cooperative anteater.  Time creeps as their colleagues disappear over the rim. 

The Landshape disguises

their view with tawny grasses

and weedy flowers.

The adventurers stop to find the best place to cross a mercurial ravine.  

Slurries of soil and flowing 

water offer uncertain support  

for shifting mats of grass.

The guide probes and sinks.  He pulls himself toward the opposite side of the ravine while the rest decide whether to venture across or turn and go back.

The Landshape reveals the

anteater working her way toward 

higher ground with ease.

Leaving her camera behind, the leader climbs out of the water onto a small island midway across.

A conveyer belt of 

outstretched arms hand camera gear from

tourists to leader to guide.

On higher ground, a retreating photographer pauses to take videos of the crossings.

The Landshape changes, 

an easy way down into a

strenuous way up.

Those who stayed behind ask, “What happened?”  The videographer prefers to show them the raw footage.

If Landshape could grin

it would look like a ravine buried in grass 

and awash in water.

Giant Anteater with Offspring
by Jeter Skeet

Wildlife Photography

On To Brazil

Who rents a scooter to see the animals in a zoo?  I do.  Who walks on wooded trails, on its ups and downs, with a walking cane?  I do.  Who is left at home while the spouse goes on a wildlife photoshoot in Australia.   Me, but that’s not unusual.  I want it to be that way even though I am jealous.  I just can’t keep up with healthy photographers, and they don’t need me slowing them down.  Besides my spouse needs a break from helping me.

So now that my love has flown halfway around the world, I’m going to post a couple of pieces with photos from our Brazil trip.  In the meantime I’ll refocus on my everyday life and writing—and try to ignore my envy and wanderlust.

    Wildlife Photography

    A Maned Wolf receives a blessing

at an ancient monastery.

   A newborn rides her Giant Anteater mother

across a highland savanna.

Clever Brown Capuchins create 

their own crosswalk.

A South American Tapir swims 

across a peaceful river.

  An Amazon Kingfisher races

our speeding boat.

   A Jabaru protects her eggs warming 

in a treetop nest.

   A fish jumps to avoid a Speckled Caiman 

and lands in our boat.

  A Giant Otter hides in a den

beneath a hungry Jaguar.

   A Black-Tufted Marmoset looks down

at me while I look up,

   And I feel like I’m trying to capture

rainbows in a butterfly net.

Giant River Otter  and Jaguar
by Jeter Skeet

A hungry jaguar smells the giant river otter in the den beneath him.

DSS Part 8: Unusual Perspectives

African Elephant Watches her Trunk (T)
by Jeter Skeet

Plains Zebra (T)
by Jeter Skeet

What is it like visually to be part of a zebra herd?  Confusing?

Hammercop Reflection (T)
by Jeter Skeet

Panther Cameleon's Tail (R)
by Jeter Skeet

Montezuma's Oropendola (CR)
by Jeter Skeet

Birds like dogs will shake off the rain.

Sunset Reveals Landscape's Pattern (T)
by Jeter Skeet

DSS Part 7: Landscapes

Klipspringer on Top of his World (T)
by Jeter Skeet

Hippos Feeding in Ngorongoro Crater (T)
by Jeter Skeet

Cheetah Silhouetted at Sunset (T)
by Jeter Skeet

Blue Moon (T)
by Jeter Skeet

Surprise, the rim of the moon is not smooth.

DSS Part 6: Mammals

Africian Lions (T)
by Jeter Skeet

In a great expanse of savanna with one tree in the middle, two lions find some shade from the sun.  This
may be a rare paring that occurs when a male has been supplanted.  An older female who is no longer
fertile may leave the pride to be with him.  They are looking in opposite directions for safety and to spot a source of food.

Young Defender (T)
by Jeter Skeet

This young fellow is growling at us because we apparently are multi-eyed, metallic dragons.

To Thieve from a Thief (T)
by Jeter Skeet

A black-back jackal is following a spotted hyena who has snatched a gnu skull from a lion kill.

Follow the Leader (T)
                                                  by Jeter Skeet                                                     

Wildebeests or Gnu form the great herds that migrate across the Serengeti Plains. It’s estimated that there are about 3,000,000 Gnus in these herds.

Synchronized Diving (T)
by Jeter Skeet

The great herds of Wildebeests form bottlenecks at river crossings, especially at the Mara River.

Chaos in the River (T)
by Jeter Skeet

During one crossing we saw a Nile Crocodile take one of the Wildebeests.

DSS Post 5: Amphibians and Reptiles

Red-eyed Tree Frog (R)
by Jeter Skeet

Pipa Pipa (R)
by Jeter Skeet

An aquatic frog.

Mossy Leaf-tailed Gecko (R)
by Jeter Skeet

Spot-bellied Sideneck Turtle (R)
by Jeter Skeet

Sidenecks are a more primitive form of turtles.

Green Momba (R)
by Jeter Skeet

Poisonous.

Woma Python (R)
by Jeter Skeet

Constrictor.

DSS Part 4: Insects

Dung Beetles (T)
by Jeter Skeet

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (NC)
by Jeter Skeet

Moth on a Tree (CR)
by Jeter Skeet

Ghost Mantid (R)

All we need to do is find this spooky relative of a praying mantis.

DSS Part 3: Birds (continued)

Northern Black Flycatcher (T)
by Jeter Skeet

This nondescript bird made a beautiful photo while I continued to search for the black-
and-white bird I wanted.

Bateleur Eagle (T)
by Jeter Skeet

This handsome juvenile is more attractive than his black-bodied, brown-winged parents.

Augur Buzzard (T)
by Jeter Skeet

The wind that morning nearly blew this raptor away.

Ruppell's Griffon (T)
by Jeter Skeet

And yes, this handsome bird is a vulture.

DSS Part 2: Birds

Blue Jay (NC)
by Jeter Skeet

One of those birds I’ve been trying to take a good picture of for ten years.

Pine Warbler in a Pine Tree (NC)
by Jeter Skeet

Brown-Hooded Parrot (CR)
by Jeter Skeet

This bird is quite bland, a green bird wearing a brown hood, until it flashes its underarm colors.

Red-Legged Honeycreepers Flitering (CR)
by Jeter Skeet

Isn’t love grand?

Black-Cheeked Woodpecker
Carving a New Home (CR)
by Jeter Skeet

 Grim Grackle

A Common Grackle

with jaundiced eyes

and pitchfork claws

uses his beak as a vice

to pull and pull on

his slimy breakfast

 stuck under a boulder—

   or maybe he’s a Grim Reaper

 disguised as a Grackle.

Common Grackle (NC)
by Jeter Skeet

Digital Slide Show

Digital Slide Show

Wildlife photographers often shoot animals and birds in the wild.  That means no TV or TV in a language we don’t understand.  It can mean living in a tent or on a boat in a remote part of the world.  Personally I love the wilds even if it means biting mosquitos and tsetse flies, blood-sucking leaches and ticks, or stinging wasp and bees.

Places like these have a minor problem.  It's nearly impossible to shoot in the dark without special lighting setups or doing star-trails.  Thus we use evenings to download photos or entertain one another.  Since we are all photographers, what better entertainment could there be than digital slide shows.  Some of us elect to show the best of our images to an trapped audience.  We all try to give the presenter encouragement.  No critiques.  Those are done privately with a professional.

For your enjoyment, I thought I would present an abbreviated version of the slide show I gave in Brazil.  At least those photos are ready to be seen.  My recent Brazil photos are not available yet because I’m reorganizing my whole body of work for Lightroom, which I am in the process of learning.

This slide show is based on four photo-shoots we did last year (2014):  Costa Rica (CR), North Carolina birds (NC), and a Reptile (R—captive animals), and Tanzania (T).

I should warn you, my tastes in photography are eclectic.  I’m more of a nature photographer than a wildlife photographer per se as you will see.  I’m going to divide the show up into 7 or 8 parts each one based on a different subject for my photography.

DSS Part 1: Flora

Sunrise in Costa Rica
by Jeter Skeet

This shot was taken from across a bay of the Pacific coast.  I wish that I could have finished the frame of vegetation around the sunrise.  Maybe I can do some cloning in Photoshop.

A Stem of Red Flowers and Buds (CR)
by Jeter Skeet

This was a favorite of hummingbirds as the flowers bloom sequentially.

Lily Pads (T)
by Jeter Skeet

You don’t expect to see lily pads in the middle of the Serengeti Plain, but we did.

Azaleas (NC)
by Jeter Skeet

Ah, Spring in Carolina, and what do beautiful flowers need, but a song.

White-Throated Sparrow (NC)
by Jeter Skeet

Words of Wisdom

What do photographers do on long van rides through back country when we’re tired of staring at termite mounds?   We talk.  We share stories and life histories and philosophies.  And then there are those boring discussions about camera equipment.

On one of these rides, a fascinating lady who practices Yoga shared her philosophy about conserving energy. That’s something I need to learn do since I seem to have so little energy these days.

She says these fives tips for living each day are from Reiki.  I’m not sure how to spell his/her name even though I’ve tried to find the quote. So I’m going to paraphrase both this photographer and Reiki:

• Do not get angry--just for today.
• Do not worry--just for today.
• Be kind to all living things.
• Do an honest day's work.
• Allow joy.

The hardest one for me to master is the angry one.  I get so frustrated by my own limitations that I tend to strike out verbally at anyone who crosses my path.  But I am trying to keep these tips in mind each day.

Oh, My ...

What can the matter be?  Not only is processing photos slowing my writing down, now I have a new camera to learn.  It is lighter, a marshmallow of a camera with interchangeable ping-pong-ball lenses.  What it doesn’t have is a mirror to lock up to prevent it from messing up a shot.  That function is handled somehow by the computer inside the marshmallow.  

Why do I need a lighter camera?  Because my hands can no longer hold the weight of my old SLR cameras with their heavy lenses.  Why do I want a brand-spanking new camera?  Because Trixsay wants to play photographer in spite of Mystery’s problems.

The Panasonic Lumix is a descendant of the first digital cameras I used, the ones that lured me into nature photography which in turn fed my wanderlust.  I just hope this new version produces a quality comparable to the SLRs.  For that to happen, I need to figure out how to play ping-pong with a marshmallow.

This is an example of one of those early Panasonic shots:

Watching the Watcher
by Jeter Skeet

I'm Back

I’m back, but I’m not as organized as Humdrum was.  When Trixsay takes over, things scatter—and she always takes over when we travel.  For example, the neat narrow-ruled notebook was to be used exclusively for my travel journal.  But the information about most of the animals we saw is in my messy writing journal where any topic goes.

Worse than that, photography has begun to compete with my novel’s snowflake for my heart and soul—again.  I know I’m going to have to give up wildlife photography eventually for health reasons.  I was assuming that this Brazil trip would be my last one.  How wrong I was.

In the last three weeks, we’ve had one photographer invite us to join him and other amateurs on a new India trip next year.  In Brazil, our photographer-leader asked if we would be interested in a South Africa trip she’s thinking about for 2017.  So my brow raises, my heart pounds, and I begin to taste dust and smell curry.

I love wildlife photography.  That’s a given.  But can I physically endure these trips?  I decided that it was time to talk with my rheumatologist about prednisone.

Withdrawing from prednisone is a distracting process. My head spins like I’m riding a tilt-a-whirl.  I can’t walk a straight line, yet I don’t drink gin.  I’m just dizzy, ditsy me.

Monday at my rheumatologist’s office I received my overdue shots of the biological I take—one of those miracle treatments for RA.  It was time to withdraw from my self-administered flare treatment.  Or was it?

I confessed to the doctor that I started taking prednisone in Brazil.  She sees to it that I have a supply of prednisone on hand for flares.  I really didn’t want to come back from Brazil because without the steroid my corporal tunnel problem is worse, my feet hurt, my knees hurt worse, and my fatigue problems are downright depressing.

We talked about my feet.  My big toes tingle most.  It’s more annoying than actually painful.  She said I probably have the equivalent of corporal tunnel in my ankles.  The prednisone was treating all three problems.  She suggested that I could maintain treatment with a low dose as long as I get enough calcium and continue my Prolia shots.

I accused her of blessing me.

Trixsay was sticking her tongue out at Mysery.

I now know when I’ll get back to my novel (which already had been postponed at least five times for various reasons.)  When I break a hip or a leg, then I’ll give up wildlife photography and work on it (but I may be turning my photos into art by then).

In the meantime, I’ll write my blog (irregularly), process photos, and smile.  Trixsay is taking over my life.

Stained Glass Window at Chicago Museum of Art

Blog Hiatus

This is my last post for about six or eight weeks.  July and August are going to be busy months for us. You may know by the time you receive this that I've left for Brazil.  I'm guilty of writing these posts ahead of time, then scheduling them to actually appear by magic later.

My niece is going to visit with us for one week in July.  She seems to remember some adventuresome places around here that they don’t have in Spokane, WA.  She would like to visit childhood memories shared with her cousins and lit by fireflies.

After that we are going to pack for a photography trip to Brazil.  We’ll leave on the last day of July for a two week excursion into wildlife refuges in search of maned wolves, anteaters, and jaguars.  Then there are various monkeys and birds that will pose for our cameras—we hope.

I’m planning to keep a journal of our experiences as well as take photos that will take some time to process. So it will be awhile before I get back to my blog and my novel.  Expect me online when you see me.

Spectacled Caiman frrom Brazil
by Jeter Skeet

Writing Suggestion (1)

I have had some ideas for novels that I’ve worked on for years.  I have written this scene and developed that character for no other reason than I liked exploring the situation, but I never could figure out how all the situations could be fit together into a whole novel. In other words, I have plotting problems.

I have found a method that seems to help these divergent ideas converge into one story for a novel. I’ve known about the idea of a central story question for a long time now, but sometimes a story question has many answers, sometimes no answers.

I have since discovered from the Snowflake Method. From a story question comes designs or snowflakes. For you who have a mathematical background, this method is based on fractals.  Essentially using a 10-step method, an intricate matrix of plot points evolves from a 15-word (or less) summary of the novel.

I am just at Step 4 of the process, and I have already discovered a couple of important elements for my story that had never occurred to me before during all those years of tryimg to write this novel and going nowhere.

The Snowflake Method was developed by Randy Ingermanson, Ph.D. and is on his website at this link www.advancedfictionwriting.com.  The method is spelled out at no cost after a rather long introduction.

Snowflakes Piled High
Jeter Skeet

Why Science Fiction

I, like so many writers, have dreamed about writing a novel—or four.  When I started writing, I drifted toward SF because I was studying the sciences and because Sputnik’s timing was just right for a student to imagine walking on the moon and eventually Mars.  My dreams expanded throughout the universe when I read the words of Asimov, Heinlein, Clark, and especially Ursula K. LeGuin and C.J. Cherryh—science fiction writers all.

Science fiction has an ally called fantasy.  Fantasy is more popular these days because it focuses more on characterization than traditional SF which is usually more about ideas.  What I would like to do is to transform traditional SF themes using strong characterization.

In good science fiction, the science element or predicament plays the role of metaphor which reveals some aspect of ourselves.  In too much science fiction, however, that aspect is heroism.  What story might arise if the protagonist were not heroic, but perhaps a coward or villain or just indecisive about what to do?

That has been my dream since I sold my first short story decades ago.  I’ve since had two more published. Expanding one of those is where I want to start.  I am a member of Science Fiction (and Fantasy) Writers of America or SFWA which I hope will give me a head-start with readers.

What I’m considering for my blog is posting an update now and again about my successes and failures.  I will also have suggestions about the writing process itself.  One such suggestion will be in the next post, a suggestion I have already found invaluable.

Topi Dreams
by Jeter Skeet