William Cauffiel Beauchamp Self portrait using my tablet this evening June 18, 2018
Enjoying the inherent distortion provided by the “one lens covers everything” onboard camera. Strong cross light by the sun. Pulled a gradation on the left and then added noise to make it look less fooled with. Not much of a post, I know. That’s fine.
Spent last weekend out where I could see the horizons in the Desert. It was nice for sure. Played with dogs and they played with me too. Sipped a little bourbon and listened to Coyotes. No way to describe it but a bit of magic. Good for the soul. More down and dirty video in Premiere. Shooting stills in RAW format and drawing …of course! Of course. Got to draw.
Added more images last weekend while looking at the night sky in Marana, AZ
Shot these time exposures in Marana last weekend. Using noise reduction mode that looks for static and corrects it, I shot with an exposure of 60 seconds at F 2.0 and then the noise reduction process cleaned it up. It is interesting that the earth rotation for only a minute shows trails from each of the stars and planets. We’re spinning at 22,500 mph. Listening to distant coyotes and dogs and that rotation speed doesn’t produce a clear thought wave. I’ll go bulb setting on the shots next time and go at least 160 seconds. I can go to a smaller aperture and get more critical focus. Back in New Jersey I shot at night and saw squirrels out for a bite in the dark sitting on tree limbs with little or no motion. Digital versus film – apparently my camera also sees infrared and I used to get red flowers on the Cherry tree in color despite only a bit of light pollution and starlight as the lighting source. All good fun in the experimentation. Enjoyable. But… what if I do this? Or that? – yep.
Took some shots waiting for the sun to go down last night. I enjoy the product and will shoot some new ones today. Dust is off the capture device now so I will escalate the activity in my available time. Got a haircut yesterday and I feel more like myself today.
Today I got up and cleared some old images from my memory cards and charged the rechargeable batteries for my camera. It was supposed to be overcast with showers this morning but it really couldn’t seem to make up its mind. While I couldn’t see the sun it was apparently there anyway. We had a wide rainbow under cloud cover. The sun broke through occasionally and I talked my friend Will Henderson into letting me shoot some simple portraits of him. I shot Olympus RAW format ORFs and some are below this text. I didn’t want anything too fancy – just reference images. They turned out alright.
Beauchamp Sunflower Drawing – Prints
Seasonal shift is happening here in Southern Arizona and I’m seeing more atmospheric effect lately. There was a fresh snow on the Catalina Mountains and Mount Lemmon last week and it is gone. Just passing through. Could be thunderstorms just about any day. Or… we could see snow showers again. Volatile, unstable, air mass.
Meanwhile – some of the Mesquite trees are blooming and the recent rains have the desert greening up and leaves coming out. Mockingbirds are joining the Hummingbirds that have been a little agitated for maybe a month. Temperatures could be up – cooking out there again… a reminder that we are in the Sonoran Desert. I even used my Weber grill Sunday night and cooked up some hamburgers.
I think that our skies need to remind the F-22 fighters that they are only borrowing a little real estate… We do indeed know who is really in charge. It is awesome.
Further East the whole area is waking up and soon the tornadoes will be numerous in the clash between seasons. Along the East Coast, Winter Storm Warnings have been posted for a second round of strong weather following last week’s Nor’Easter.
Been going to training from lunchtime to 11:00 PM and I’m running tired. But I still draw. Trying to draw daily. Got off track when I was working and I need to just keep it up. There is really nothing that I’d rather do. But I have to pay the rent first. Yep. Have a number of pieces started. Thinking about the better options in WordPress. I really like WordPress.
Started an Account on DeviantArt. MilesOfLines.deviantart.com. Concerned about people taking my artwork though.
©2017 William C Beauchamp
more to come…
Standing beneath an SR-71 Blackbird in the Pima Air & Space Museum. I remember a series of booms off the entire New Jersey coast. Navy claimed that they didn’t have anything to do with it… Finally, years later, it came out that they were multiple sonic booms from clandestine missions of the SR-71 returning from Soviet Airspace. Took the length of the New Jersey coast to slow down enough to land in New York state. Seriously fast. Awesome then. Awesome now.
Hope you can see this shot Comrade??? Wow.
Sunday May 13, 2018. Mother’s Day. A day of outstanding visual stimuli at the Pima County Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. Gusty winds, blowing dust and changeable skies did not keep me from gathering some nice images. All images this blog are copyright – ©2018 William C Beauchamp
On Sunday as the Tucson, Arizona temperature rose to 106°F at ground level, I was fortunate to be able to join April and my friend Will and travel up to Summerhaven atop Mount Lemmon. It was nice up there for sure. Wide open views, towering hoodoos, pine forest and ski area made for a really nice change. I went from photographing blooming Prickly Pear at the base to shooting fiddlehead ferns in the shady pine forest. The views out toward the horizon were pretty spectacular. Enjoyed a Raven at the ski area and some large jays…. as well as some sparrow sized birds with a bright spot of orange just behind the eyes. Saw a turkey looking for scratch down the hill.
This is looking north up toward Oracle and San Manuel. In the foreground a hen turkey was hunting up food. Gorgeous. Hoodoos are visible lower right beyond the pines
I was absolutely a tourist up there. Digital still camera in one hand and a video camera in the other, I managed to obtain some nice images that I’ll work some drawings from. Most of all I got an idea of what’s up there and will target a few spots in some watercolors soon. If my “Mind’s Eye” images were real now… I’m ready for a gallery show! So when it comes to Mount Lemmon – I give it two thumbs up. Excellent.
All images this post are Copyright ©2018 William C Beauchamp – Tucson, AZ 85716
Currently editing a video that I will post to my YouTube space and link back to this article
as you can see… quite picturesque. Loved it.
I love doing my line drawings and they are increasing in speed as I go. I am enjoying putting images together of fleeting objects such as flowers that fade. Geronimo is gone but a photo remained and I drew from it. Tomorrow we are hitting 100°F. First time this year. Hand goes on autopilot these days.
Spring in the Desert. Bees are busy around these flowers. The entire tree can be heard to hum. Hummingbirds also love these. No leaves on the tree above… just flowers. Don’t think we’ll run out of flowers anytime soon.
Still loving pancakes. Absolutely loving pancakes. They are the best. I made pancakes for breakfast on Saturday. They just seem to come out really well here. I don’t understand what it is ? Some combination of the barometer, the humidity, I don’t know. Must be the altitude here… seems to affect the way the pancakes turn out. Then again that’s combined with the viscosity of the batter, the surface of the pan, the exact temperature of the burner and the visual timing on their cooking. Edges losing some gloss. Bubbles popping. So many factors. If you don’t have a good syrup though… you can make it all for nothing. I recommend Aunt Jemima’s Buttery flavor. Sure makes a difference.
©2018 WBeauchamp
I took my drawing of the Turkey Drumstick and typeset the word “imagine” in Garamond Light Condensed and put them together. I’ve always felt that an important asset that adolescents lose when entering adulthood is the free thinking ability to pretend. I, myself, never stopped picking things up and pretending that they could fly… So – If you can – let your kids watch their cartoons, play with their food, and live in a world of their own thinking. Adult pressures eat you up as you get older. It really is okay to pretend. That bit of brain elasticity is key in creative problem solving later on in life.
Somebody might even go on to become an Artist… perish the thought. Or, as my Dad used to say “Grow up will you Bill?” Nope. That does not fit my current agenda.
Been drawing my friend Henderson from some portraits I shot and that will probably show up here in the next couple days. He hasn’t seen it and it will likely be a surprise. Last night I listened to the old Dragnet radio program streaming in as my entertainment while working. A couple others afterward as well, with the likes of Orson Welles. So many of the early TV shows came directly from the radio.
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Still don’t have a new job lined up. Resumé is out and I’m trying. Really trying to locate an Art oriented job. Quite important. I was miserable doing something else. Different sensibilities than mine. That’s all. I am pleased that last night I sold prints of the Spring Soft little Bunny, Lady Cardinal, and the Sunflower in color all to a single discriminating buyer from Scottsdale, AZ. I sure appreciate the business. Thank you very much.
As a matter of fact – Considering employment… I’m uploading my latest Resumé to this blog and anyone who has a great idea that I should pursue… Feel free to download the PDF file and pass it along to potential employers. My laundry is done and I could start somewhere else as early as tomorrow morning. Or tonight in a pinch. The contact info is all right there. Hire me… Please. The link below works fine. Curious? Download it.
This should be a link to download my William C Beauchamp Resumé Beauchamp2018A
When I was growing up we had a Basset Hound. What a stubborn breed they are. But I have to say they are fun to draw. The ears help concentrate the scent and being close to the ground they are really right on top of it. Neighbors across the street in Maryland had one named “Cyrano”. Real hounds for sure. I remember one at the beach rolling in a decomposing eel. Scent masking. Then they can sneak up on the unsuspecting quarry. They can’t sneak up on their human after that though… yuk.
This is me with my drawing of the Hound. Will Henderson took the shot for me. Interesting, huh? Rabbit one day – Hound the next. I love to draw everyday.
