Author Archives: treshabarger

Celtic Festival (3)

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More photos from the photography field trip to the Celtic Festival in McDade, Texas.

Something new for me was the caber toss, a sport from Scotland. Those poles start around 65 pounds and are about 19 feet tall. If the tosser is successful at tossing it end over end before it hits the ground, in the next round they get to use a heavier pole.

Tammy lifted the pole up high enough that it did, indeed, flip end over end before landing. A round of applause for Tammy!

Tammy, holding a caber

Tammy, the caber tosser


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A shopkeeper sweeping the steps to his shop, getting ready to open for business

Shopkeeper opening for business


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A man with a half of a tomato on his head

Not a target in the archery contest, fortunately


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The king’s castle.

The king's castle at the Celtic Festival

Sherwood Keep

Celtic Festival (2)

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At the Celtic Festival in McDade, we saw the archery contest with the long bow.

I actually got a photo of an arrow in flight.

An arrow in flight at the Celtic Festival archery contest

In flight

At the end of the contest, all the archers drew their long bows at the same time, for the volley.

An archery volley, when all the archers drew their bows at the same time

Archery volley

The archery target with all the arrows in it from the volley

Volley results

One of the archers, a woman in a black dress and black face mask

Masked archer

An archer approaching the line

An archer approaching the line

Here is Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest at the Highland Games arena during the archery contest.

A man dressed as Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest

Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest

Celtic Festival (1)

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I attended my first Celtic Festival in McDade, Texas.

The field trip was hosted by Precision Camera & Video. They provided two professional photographers as instructors and guides and the rest was up to us amateur photographers. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot from the instructors.

All the “residents” of Sherwood Forest were friendly and happy to pose for photographs. I took a couple hundred photographs and, fortunately, a few of them are good enough to share.

This one is my favorite: the future caber tosser.

A baby, just learning to walk, in a kilt. So cute.

Future Caber Tosser

A father and daughter both dressed up in medieval clothes

Like father, like daughter

These two gentlemen greeted the crowd just before the festival opened for the day. Beautiful music they made. When they started to play, about 25 of us got out our cameras and clicked away, startling them. Their very own paparazzi!

Two men in kilts, one playing the bagpipes, one playing the drum

Bagpipes and drum

Scott, one of the professional photographers from Precision Camera, in a kilt

Scott, one of the professional photographers from Precision Camera

The wooden gates, entrance into Sherwood Forest

Sherwood Forest entry

Fiction Friday: What Was The Question?

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Friday Fictioneer Challenge: Write a 100-word story based on the photo prompt.
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Photo of a music room, filled with several keyboards

Friday Fictioneer prompt. Copyright Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

“Do you own enough keyboards?” Mark asks, astonished, peering into the music room.

Looking around, Isabel sees only old friends. She touches the nearest keyboard, sighing, remembering writing her first song. Even now, she can hear echoes of her opening night on stage, feeling incredulous at becoming a “professional musician.” She had been excited and terrified. Years later, playing her Yamaha Motif XF8, she toured with Stevie Wonder. What a magical time that was. Isabel loves all her keyboards and the memories they create together.

She notices Mark waiting in the doorway, expectantly.

“Um, what was the question?” she asks.

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To read other stories based on this prompt, select the smiley blue frog.

Three-Hour Apple

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After struggling with my first oil painting, I realized that I don’t know enough about tone. I returned to using charcoal and sketched an apple. I spent three hours on this apple. I think it’s recognizable as an apple, but not necessarily the apple I used as my subject. Sigh.

A charcoal sketch of an apple

Yes, that’s an apple

The bamboo skewer is there to point out to me where the top of the shadow is relative to the top of the apple. (From where I sat when I sketched the apple, the shadow was lower than how it looks in the photo.) When I first sketched the apple, the shadow was much higher. Why? I don’t know.

An apple, with a bamboo skewer behind it marking the top of its shadow

Seems straightforward enough

My first problem was that I shaded my background way too dark (I laid down a 6 tone and it should have been a 4) and then had trouble distinguishing the dark tones of the apple and its shadow (tones 6-10). The instructor put a 6-tone fabric under the apple to help me see the difference in a 4 tone and a 6 tone. You can barely see the lighter fabric in the top right corner of the photo.

The tone chart goes from light to dark. I know that 1 is white and 10 is black. I might even be able to put down on paper a correct likeness of 2 (one tone darker than white) and 9 (one tone lighter than black). But talk to me of a 4, 5 or 6 and I will not be able to mass it in correctly.

What did I do in that three hours? I sketched in the apple, put in tones . . . and then erased them. I did this several times trying to get the shape and tones of the apple correct, as well as the shape and the tones of the shadow. I’m getting really good at erasing.

I’m choosing to work on tones in charcoal a while before my next oil painting effort. We’ll see how long that takes.