The Alpaca Farm -- plus a few more animals

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Hi again --

Following are photos taken at Gnomewood Farm, which is owned and run by Noel, a good friend of mine for some 25 years, and her sister Renee. It's located in Covington, LA, almost directly across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, a little beyond where you get off the bridge. Sandy and I spent one of our photo days there.

Noel and Renee have been raising alpacas for a couple of decades (give or take) and currently have 21. As you can see, they've just been sheared, a procedure that takes place around Easter each year. The fleece then goes to an alpaca co-op and results, for Gnomewood at least, in clothing -- mostly scarves, socks and yarn -- which they are able to sell. I got several pairs of these delicious feeling socks, $15 per pair. (Please excuse the plug.)

Don't forget to double click on the first photo. Then you can go on to the rest of the photos using the arrow in the upper right corner of each photo. With some photos, you may have to run your curser around that area to get the arrow to appear.

Now, for my photographer friends, this is what I know about High Density Resolution (HDR), which is quite limited. Because digital camera sensors are unable to record the wide range of light that our eyes can see, a number of software programs have been developed which will take two, three, even five photos -- underexposed photos to correct exposure photos to overexposed photos -- and then combine them into one photo. This helps greatly to overcome to limitations of digital sensors. So instead of a photo of a room with the interior correctly exposed but the windows "blown out" (overexposed so there are no details) or a room with the windows correctly exposed to that you can see the details through the window but you can't see the details in the room's shadows as they're underexposed, the HDR process will result in a photo in which everything is correctly exposed -- the room's interior and the scene through the windows.

I've chosen to use Photomatix (well recommended) and I'm quite pleased with it. I bought it on Amazon through one of their vendors. It was called "out of the box" -- in other words, never used but no box and half price ($50). I'm having a bunch of fun with this process although I realize I went a bit overboard with the clouds in the earlier crypt photos. They had that "HDR look." Actually, that's why the HDR process got something of a bad rap in it's first years as people were going for the lurid, surreal, overdone look. But I think people are learning to tamp down the lurid effect somewhat as the use of the process matures.

Next blog -- New Orleans sights and the Laura Creole Plantation

Best, Paula

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Photos

an abundance of alpacas
They have 21 alpacas, and as you can see, they've just had their yearly shearing.

Sandy & alpaca
Affectionate? Or just curious?

mr alpha alpaca
This stately stud trotted around with great elegance -- as though he heard music.

Van Gogh, the blue eyed pig
Look at this piggy's beautiful blue eyes. And he's so sweet! He got his name because there's a chunk out of one ear.

little potbelly
Gnomewood sells potbellies.

mule buddies
Look in the lower right corner and you see some Paca Poop. Knomewood used to sell it as it's great fertilizer, but it got to be just too much to do as the sisters still work.

big & little dog
A Great Dane and a West Highland Terrier. What a pair! The Great Dane, Muffit, came up to Sandy's chest and kept trying to sit in her lap. But she's just a puppy right now.