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Slept in a bit, then finished up the vehicles in the stream. Tried to go shoot an in an old mining area today but the last leg of road was washed out, so settled for the touristy St. Elmos, then took a short hike up to some falls.

On the way back, stopped in at Princeton Springs (apparently one I missed when doing a doing a different hot springs every weekend with my friend Anuja when I was out here in 2001). Took a short swim, and I think I spent over 3 hours just lounging (about to fall asleep) in one of the rock lined pools by the river. I watched a great sunset as the sun went behind a a bluff spewing rays of mist out to the side. Yeh, I thought to grab my camera, but told myself I wouldn’t make it and might lose my pool! ;)

On the way back to the campsite had some great Mexican food and winding down here.
Wondering why haven’t found local trout anywhere yet.

Pics coming soon - here is a girl I met on the street in the neighborhood by Hollywood Cemetery. She’s telling me where things are…

Pulled into Louisville, found a spot for my rig, walked a little over half a block and found this. - more shots from this locale later :)

 The blue wall with the drainage pipes against the Red Brick and Yellow muck gives me a real aquatic feeling ;)

Here is my canopy setup for Art & Air

…and the dorms @ Eden Seminary where we stayed, right by the festival grounds 

Delayed Post

Was tired of stuffing the old (2 yrs) 8 foot trailer and digging everything out to get to a piece of art I need. So this day I traded in for a dual-axle 14 foot with a V-front extension. A lot more room (& gas). I can stand upright inside.

I will be participating in the Deep Ellum Arts Festival - April 2-4. (Downtown Dallas)

this looks a great time and will be there with artists friends Heather Harris & Collin Welsch! :)

I created 5 pendants as a test run and finished 3 out as ‘wine charms’!

Now you can collect more of my art and
be sure you are drinking from your own glass! ;)

See my ‘Wine Charms’ gallery for some initial promo shots…

Note they can also go on beer mugs as well ;)

They rurned out really well and look forward to refining the process. Only got one bubble on this first run and may need to pull back on the amount of resin, but really pleased overall.

They will be available individually, but Collin Welch made an excellent suggestion to sell them in sets of (4). So I May do the following sets:

* old trucks
* trees
* architecture
* flowers
* etc.

These can also be incorporated into necklaces etc. or just strung together.

Shot this old 50s? Chevy up in the Texas Panhandle coming back from shows in Colorado, August 2009. The car was shot early morning (think in Dalhart, Texas) and the sky was at sun rise earlier that morning a few minutes down the road from the rest stop I slept at (in New Mexico) ;)

 Here a theater I shot in November and finished put but never posted…

Some are gonna take a while to process - like the mass aerial migration over the Rio Grande tent, but here a some I’ve started working on…

This is one I took on the way back from New Mexico in October in West Texas. Lots of cotton fields along the way. This tractor is spraying the field.

Different view with clouds in the background & fading of the leaves…

Yes have balloon pics on the way, just was focused on trying to get orders out this week ;)

Stay tuned…

Flying by water tower & old wood burner in Bernillilo, New Mexico just north of Albuquerque, New Mexico during Balloon Fiesta 2009.

Bill landed in the school yard to my right and excited elementary school kids came out to greet him. I took this from the top of a play-scape in the adjoining park.

More pics later (heck of a time trying to save a jpeg on this new laptop - save button is off the bottom and had to preview & save from browser - arrrggghh…)

Well. Rolled back into Texas Monday, stayed with mom & dad in Gardendale, then got back to Austin yesterday afternoon. took the ’scenic route’ in the beginning of the trip and after about 7 hrs in the road, found I had only made a couple hrs progress compared to the ‘quick route’ stopping, shooting & talking ate most of that time ;)

Now working on orders from the August Colorado shows and prepping for September Fest in Midland!

These are Marcella’s White Lillys in April. Wanted to portray a ‘couple’ in this shot :)

GMC truck & tractor are from Leadville Colorado, and the the other truck is somewhere in central New Mexico…

Just starting to look at the waterfalls I took…

Some of these just don’t look right in small jpegs - keep in mind I’m targeting these for large canvases (not the screen) and the color & texture doesn’t translate well sometimes :)

Mine Shack with rails coming into the top from the mine.

Mine underwater with pool.

Had to go back and shoot this the last morning in Leadville to catch the morning light before we went rafting in Bueno Vusta.

Saw quite a feew of thesse pools or ponds where I guess the mineral deposits have leached out into the water. Here is a small one on the edge of town with the mountains reflecting.

Vanishing points under a railroad trestle - Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia

Here are a couple from Harpers Ferry in West Virginia after the Frederick Maryland show. After crossing over the bridge I hiked up the Mountain over the tunnel to view the town (pics later).

On the way down, got caught in a thunderstorm and was a little nervous crossing back of the bridge with all the metal in the lighting. ‘Tesla Cage?’ ;)

And of course the Wells Street Bridge since the festival took place on Wells Street (hence the name) a little further North :)

We’ll pulled my rig (Ford F-150, 8 cyl & 8′ trailer) across a good section of the nation from Montauk, NY to Vail, Co and back to Texas starting in Midland Texas and ending up there this weekend to hang out with Mom & Dad a couple days. Traveled by auto, train, bus, plane, bicycle. Stayed with friends family, hostel and a whole lot of Hotels. Ate some really great food and open quite a few cans of peas behind the wheel. Judged quite a few rest stops and highway service signs.

The odd thing is I left my music off. Had few CDs with me but got tired of messing with them and just enjoyed the road: Oceans, rivers, plains, tornados, rain, cold, heat, a little more rain, wind, and a LOT MORE RAIN. Rained every show once I left Texas, although there were some nice days. Okay son Maryland I only sludged during setup, bet the weekend was nice ;)

Brought Dad to NY, LeaAnn & Beth to Chicago, and Marcela to Vail. A great  2 month working vacation all paid for by my sales :) Plus I have some neat pictures as I shoot everywhere I went. Look for those soon! :D

Met quite a few ‘Texas’ on my trip, in every city.

The first guy that walked into my booth in Frederick, Maryland looked around and said
‘first booth I walk in - don’t tell me your from Texas?’  I said ‘yep - Austin

He said ’south Austin, up on business - you?’   Me: ‘Naw, North-Central - wouldn’t have made the drive all the way up from South Austin!’ ;)

Thanks to everyone I’ve met on the road the last couple of months. As you can imaging I have quite a few orders to get out for May & June. Rest assured I’m working on them right now :)

Here are the pics I promised in the previous post*. Kinda neat cause I knew what to watch for from attending Disaster Ready Austin/CERT sponsored classes put on by weather professionals.  I was just driving for hours watching the clouds, identified the parts of the storm, knew where to look, saw the rotation and then the bottom fall out of the clouds.

Sorry the pics aren’t better - thought it better to get my artwork and everything around the storm first ;) First 3 are one hand on the dsrl while driving around 65. The forth I finally caught up but it had moved North into Aurora with less contrasting background. Full frames (didn’t crop).

* Driving through Nebraska on June 17, 2009 on my way from Wells Street Art Festival in Chicago to the Vail Arts Festival.

Real quick: Chicago was fun, my sister Lee Ann and her partner really enjoyed the trip as well.

Rain-rain for taking pics. Saw the Aurora, Nebraska form and fall outta the sky (pics later?)

Now scootin around Colorado waitng for the Vail show this coming weekend.

Gotta run to get somne sleep and hopefully catch a little morning light for shooting…

A few days ago, I started to apply for out of state shows and I am very excited to be accepted to the Montauk Fine Arts Festival May 23-25. So far, this is my out of state show. Montauk, New York is just a little further out the peninsula from the Hamptons about 50 miles from New York City. I haven’t been to NYC since right before 911 and looking forward to the trip. Will try to take the scenic route there and back to visit some neat places and photograph.

Drove in from a visit with my parents and private showing in Odessa Thursday and went right to the Austin Convention Center to setup for the Austin Green Living Expo. After 5 days of setup/breakdown, showing, and driving I got to relax after delivering a large canvas here in town Monday.

Really enjoyed meeting people and other Artists Friday-Sunday, and very happy to have some of our Art Of Texas artists join in by setting up Sunday for the Buy Local Market area.

Gosh busy weekend* porting websites, and databases for blog, online store and artists forum over to a new hosting service. The old one was just down most of the time and had to be done. If anyone encounters problems, please comment here….

* guess weekend ends Wednesday in the wee hours of the morning ;)

My latest newsletter is available online:

‘Beyond the Photograph’ - Newsletter for January, 2009
by Jamie Rood

It gives special thanks to everyone who has made the last 6 months my most successful period yet and highlights how I’m am improving my setup and in house production…

In the spirit of the new year, new administration, and doing my part to improve the economy…

I pledge to strive to grow my business and not shrink away from challenges or put off investments. Instead of citing a poor economy, I will work to make this my best year ever! :D

I invite you to join me, and especially if you were inspired by the inagrual events, please help your community as well as your country by buying local ;)

btw, click here for my online shop :0

Well I joined our Art Of Texas group for the Home & Garden Show this last weekend at the Austin Convention Center. We setup on our 20×20 space on Wednesday and I worked hard to get those first large canvases ready for the show and made it! :) We had a great time interacting with folks at the show and hopefully gained some good contacts.

Driller & Old International Pickup appeared to have been the hot items for the show and there was plenty of viewing room in the 15×10 area I had.

Thanks to everyone who came out!

Many patrons appreciate that I do all my own production work. Now I have the capability to do images 90″x40″ (or larger).

It was a sight seeing 4 adults maneuver this 433 lb, 6 ft long machine up the steps and around the corner, but we got it in place. I spent the week producing 5 large canvases in time for the Home & Garden show this weekend.

I participated in the Keep Austin Bizarre event with our Art Of Texas group for 12 days up until Xmas. I took this shot from the rock wall ;)

Or should I say ‘Dustville’? Geez it was dusty - cleaned all my bags etc, but gotta be careful about these shows. Anyway we really support Judith Craft and what she attempts to do with this show every year :)

Went out to West Texas last week to see my parents, swap vehicles with my Dad and take a few shots of ‘West Texas’. Wanted to capture a few ‘old-energy’ / ‘new-energy’ theme images so I made sure pump-jacks and wind turbines were on my list ‘;) Here are some preliminary prints:

Well, finally got my pro-panels last week and they look & work great! :) Decided since I setup just about every weekend, they would be a good investment. Stapled velcro to the backs of my canvas frames and can just stick them on the wall - great time-saver, and they stay straight. ;)

Thanks to patrons who have given me my best winter season ever! :)

Family support has also been very important and I want to thank everyone including the artists that have come out and and made our markets worth coming to :)

As some may know, I have been traveling around to the markets at 20-25mph in my green van. Although my van will take awhile to be repaired, I was able to fix my Jeep Wrangler & will be ‘mobile’ again tomorrow with a new trailer to haul my & the markets equipment etc. - just in time for the Rites of Spring in Lockhart next weekend ;) Test drive will be this Saturday down to Mother Egan’s.

Really love the luxury of my van, but my Jeep & I have been together since I snagged it off the showroom floor in 1991 and we have some familiar history - so we’ll be good ;)