I committed the original sin of photographers and writers this week. Actually, I have been for some time. In the digital age, any photographer or writer's mantra should be "Save, backup, save, backup." A task that, for some reason, has escaped my attention in the last couple of years. It caught up with me last week. Not in the photography side of my work because my photographs are in many different places, but on the writing side.
Some of you may know that on 21 March 2020, I began a journal on the computer documenting life during the COVID pandemic. It became much more than that as politics morphed into something we had never seen in America. It was approaching 600 pages in length, as I wrote about everything from the mundane to COVID, natural disasters, and frequently, politics. I can't say that the writing was brilliant (not being Shakespeare), but it did have its moments. Most of all it was meant to jog my own and others' collective memory of the years in which we found ourselves. My parents nor anyone I knew in their generation ever spoke of the flu pandemic that lasted from 1918-1920 and I would like to have known more. Thus, my journal. But due to my enthusiasm for clearing things from our iPhone and not really knowing that it was totally synced to our computer, I seem to have eliminated the most recent version of my journal. It was like losing a part of me. When I tried to add to the journal one day and was unable to locate the latest iteration, I spent a good part of the next three days searching the innards of the computer trying to find it. After working through file after file and searching iCloud, where I suspected it was hidden, I used a free data recovery program and did not manage to locate it (despite searching through roughly 50,000 listings. I made the decision to try to reconstruct things via by blog, photographs, emails, and texts. It is important enough for me to do that. Lessons learned!
What does my sob story have to do with today's blog? Not much except that part of what I blog every week shows how I spend my professional time. Fortunately, I back up my husband, Fred's, portfolio of rugs every time I shoot an image. They are in several different places including two different stand-alone hard drives. His designs and use of color has been particularly brilliant this winter.
First is Rug 415. Truly for the red lover in you, the rug is comprised of different dye lots of chile Colorado, and Sangre de Cristo. It is Navajo-Churro wool dyed at Tierra Wools.
Below is a detail of the rug under construction.
A very "western" feel flows through Rug 416, in which both dyed and natural white, natural medium grey/brown, and natural grey wool are used.
Finally, Fred utilized a technique called pick and pick in Rug 417. It is a bit complicated to present here, but the resulting weaving produces lines that run vertically with the warp rather than horizontally. In this detail shot, you can see the variations of turquoise and viento, along with a beautiful natural black from Cedar Mesa Ranch in Colorado. The red is Sangre de Cristo.
Thanks to Fred who continues to amaze, and to Ingrid, Jean & Sam, Steve, Marilyn G., and Barbara F. R. for checking in this week. As we enter February and slight warming trend in the Rocky Mountain west, I hope you are able to head outside with cameras in hand to capture natural and other offerings wherever you are!
until next Monday,
DB
a passion for the image©