Ollie Fern

OH YUPPPPP

white-breasted nuthatch rising up and spreading its wings to become big and scary

white-breasted nuthatch swaying back and forth with its wings spread, terrifying its enemies

the Nuthatch Intimidation Dance is a masterclass in chutzpah. objectively they are just pointy little anger puffs way outmatched by the average woodpecker, but BOY do they sell it. 🪶

micah referred to the bird feeder as “Ollie enrichment”

a tufted titmouse chases a downy woodpecker off the suet feeder

a white-breasted nuthatch spreads its wings in an intimidating posture at a tufted titmouse, who screams back

Back east, my mom put up a suet feeder, and the drama was incredible 🪶

It absolutely does! And your trial prints/misprints count toward the materials cost of the finished prints.

Anyway, it was a weird, exhausting holiday weekend, and if any of the handful of really nice people who stopped by my table are on bluesky, thank you for buoying my spirits.

In my case it’s a little like asking a woodblock printmaker how long it took them to make a print, but telling them not to include the time they spent drawing the design or carving the block, only the time spent on that individual print. (Though probably people do ask block printmakers that too.)

I never know what people are looking for when they ask how long a piece took to make. Some are clearly just curious about the process and want to chat (I’m happy to!), but often it’s asked a little suspiciously, like people want to sniff out whether a piece is really worth what I’m charging.

people keep asking how long a print took to make, *not counting the photography*, and going forward I think I will simply decline to exclude that from my answer. While I loved spending three hours in a frigid lake with <5 feet of visibility, the print wouldn’t exist without that effort.

YESSSSSSS

Thank you!

(My example prints are of wildlife because that’s most of my photography, but we can work with anything from family photos to landscapes to pet pictures 🐕🐈‍⬛🦜)

I’m really hoping I get to teach it again! Also, I’m hoping to visit SF sometime in the next couple of years (I have family there)

Cyanotype is a lovely way of creating something physical and one-of-a-kind from your photographs. We can work with any kind of photos, including cell phone photos. To keep the workshop beginner-friendly, I’ll make everyone’s transparencies ahead of time, then walk you through the process in class.

cyanotype blue and white print of a flying gull reflected in still water

cyanotype print of a gathering of puffins on a rock in the mist

cyanotype print of a harbor seal surfacing, with a side-eye expression on its face

Seattle: I’m teaching a photo cyanotype workshop in October! After learning the basics, students will use their own photos to create fine art cyanotypes, and also take home their transparencies for use in future printmaking. The class is beginner-friendly 🦋. www.studiopianonobile.com/shop/the-cya...

okay now I especially want to see one of these magnificent dinosaur muppets in action

cyanotype (blue and white) print of a school of fish from above, in flickering underwater light

A new piece from my recent freshwater snorkeling adventures! I could only see a few feet in front of my face, and I’m pleased with how the print conveys the eerie flickering light. Photo cyanotype on mulberry paper.

watched it like “this is not going to go well for the butterfl—WOW”

Ooh, not long at all for a heron! Seven to ten minutes in full summer afternoon sun!

I did not know what zucchini could accomplish, left unchecked; incredible

Thank you ☺️!!!

As we say... If your Beak is a Spear then your tongue must be an Arrow!

pure poetry

💙💙💙💙💙

it wasn’t vocalizing and the weather wasn’t hot (and the bird emerged from somewhere in the shade). just seemed to be a case of tongue for tongue’s sake

a great blue heron flying over a still lake with white water lilies

the heron flies closer, and it becomes clear that its beak is open, its tongue poking out

in the morning sun, the heron's long pointy red tongue seems to glow

closeup of the heron's open mouth, showing its long pointy red tongue

a four-second emotional journey from "the heron looks so lovely in the peaceful morning light" to "I guess I knew on some level that their tongues must be very long and pointy. but I didn't, like, viscerally understand it until now." 🪶

butterfly in midair, chasing a hummingbird away from a flower

it's real, I witnessed it: a hummingbird vs. butterfly throwdown in which the butterfly won

a male cardinal on the tail end of a molt that clearly had it looking like a little bald denizen of a sulfur-and-brimstone universe for a while

another view of the scruffy mid-molt cardinal starting to regrow its crest

traces of blöödchëëp remain
🪶

small toad glowering at the camera

a challenger appears 🐸

a green frog staring into the camera

posting frog on main 🐸