My Heart Goes THUD

Sometimes I take a photo of my child that makes my heart go THUD in my chest cavity. My daughter's long, dark lashes and blue-gray eyes only confirm that she is never allowed to grow up or date. Ever!

What Is This Color Called "Green"?

Did you know that the word green is closely related to the Old English verb growan which means "to grow"? It is one of my favorite colors, one that I haven't seen much of until very recently.

This last weekend I had an amazing opportunity to head in to the Willamette Valley for some much needed time with my mom and sisters. It was a reunion of sorts and a wonderful time celebrating my mom's birthday.

One of the things I noticed when pulling into town was that in mid-February, crocuses and daffodils were already starting to poke up through the earth. The grass was indescribably green and everything was covered in moss. Living in the high desert of Southern Oregon, I see a lot of brown, golden tones, and the vibrant blue of the sky; so I happily took in the colors of an early Spring and went a little camera happy.

My mom's yard provided a lot of nature to study. The tree in the front yard had several varieties of moss and lichens. The very prolific ivy dazzled me with its green and red veins, and sweet buds were forming on trees and bushes everywhere.


I felt the sting of sadness during my drive home as my surroundings changed from the lush forests of ferns and fir trees, to sparse collections of pines. I will just have to wait until May for our Spring to come, but it will be lovely. So lovely to see the color green once more.

Hello, Gorgeous!

Today I was treated to these beautiful blooms. It's the third time this orchid has blessed me with its sunny flowers. It gives me a sense of hope.

Sunshine

Today as I look outside at the melting snow, I dream of warm sunshine.

Outside My Morning Window

I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood. ~Bill Watterson

O, wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again.
~Bill Morgan, Jr.

The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination. ~Ward Elliot Hour

High Key

Autumnal Textures

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. ~Stanley Horowitz


Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. ~George Eliot


For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. ~Edwin Way Teale


Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter. ~Carol Bishop Hipps


Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus


No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face.
~John Donne

Toadstool

In our neighborhood, you can tell who waters their lawn frequently by the count and size of the toadstools growing in their yard. This is just one of many in our backyard. I actually find them kind of beautiful. Kind of.

Ah, L'automne!

Longing for fall.

They Like It Here

Today as I was heading down our street to meet my daughter at the bus stop, I grabbed my camera and started snapping away at our flower boxes. The lobilium is not very good at sharing and has taken over the space, allowing very little room for the petunias to peek out. I sort of think that perhaps I should cut it back a little to allow other things to shine, but I enjoy the lacy texture of the little blue flowers that spill over the sides - and it would seem, so do the bees:

I can't believe I got this shot! The large black bee would buzz the loudest as his face was buried in the sweet periwinkle bloom.

I was a little afraid to get too close to this guy; I'm pretty sure they are territorial.

I am tickled that I provide a sanctuary for these hard workers. And who wouldn't want to hang out in a place like this?

Dragonfly

Proof of God's intricate design. Their wings really are magnificent.

Picture Perfect

For months now I have been suggesting to my husband that we take some family portraits. I prefer to have spring portraits and fall portraits, but this year things got so busy in the spring and summer, it didn't happen until yesterday. It was a beautiful day and we made a commitment to go for it.

We are big "do-it-yourself" people. We have had professional photographers take our family portraits before, but we didn't like them. In fact, we didn't proudly display them anywhere because of our great disappointment. I'd say we have these "professionals" to thank for forcing us to buy a decent SLR and start experimenting with photography. To be fair, there are photographers out there that do a phenomenal job of capturing a moment and producing gorgeous pictures - and they charge accordingly (as they should). But, alas we are cheap and creative and just do our own thing.

We are pleased with the photos we took, but there were quite a few obstacles to get us these shots:

1. My daughter always seems to have some ugly fake tattoo on her bare arms when we take photos. I don't know why, but it works out that way. A lot of Photoshop work was required to remove the martial arts graphics from her forearm.

2. The location we chose was beautiful and worked well for taking photos, except we had to go off road to get there. Plus the structure we were shooting from had bird poop EVERYWHERE, not to mention bees and grasshoppers.

3. Kids are virtually never cooperative. This time it was my daughter who was acting like an ornery five year-old. She was mopey and constantly complaining. But she looked beautiful!

4. Lighting can be unpredictable. It helped greatly that we were standing under a roof and with a flash and umbrella it kept the lighting even. In just a short time the sun did creep into our space and we had to change our positioning.

Here are the fruits of our labor:

These pictures captures our kids' personalities and (thanks to matte photo paper and my Epson printer) we do have these photos proudly displayed in our homes.

Macro Monday

Behold the pine beetle - uglier than snot but at least they hold still!

Blah, they have a rather sinister goatee don't they? Bet you've never seen their face so close up before. You're welcome!

Macro Monday

Today I am inspired by a summertime sunset ...

This rose was taken at Avery Park in Corvallis, Oregon. I can't remember the name of it, but there were a lot of interesting rose names like "Ingrid Bergman" and "Sexy Rexy". It isn't exactly a macro shot, but I used my macro lens.

Rainier cherries. Stunning ... and delicious!

Macro Monday

We tend to go a little crazy over blueberries in our house ...

These berries were just washed and ready to go into my Rainbow Salad.

They taste like summer.

Macro Monday

Ah, the beauty of summer ...

In my opinion, there is no berry greater than a perfectly ripe red raspberry!

To quote Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail, "Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?"

Still, there is nothing like the delicate scent of a rose.

Macro Monday

The rusty and crackled texture of an old antique scale.

This is what it would feel like to live inside a petunia. It would be impossible to be sad when enveloped in such vibrant splendor.

My son's most beloved toy: Lightning McQueen. His brilliant red paint is wearing off from all of the adventures he's been on (trips to the grocery store, trips to the park, trips down the stairs ...) and I like to think of him as my son's version of the Velveteen Rabbit.

Macro Monday

I have been having a lot of fun with my new camera lens ...

Oh, how I envy those eyelashes!

After a stormy Friday afternoon.

Breaking through: my sweet bell peppers.

Many Reasons To Celebrate

Today was a somewhat momentous day. My daughter finished up preschool, and was registered for Kindergarten. It's a little hard to believe that come Fall, my baby girl will be in grade school.

Here she is, checking out her new school. She is wearing a t-shirt that she decorated at preschool for the last day - an interesting blend of her past and future!

On a different note, my son is officially walking on his own! The walker is gone and he is scurrying around everywhere. We are so thrilled, God is good!

Check out my boy, moving around with no assistance. There is no stopping him now!

And finally, after the untimely death of my 50mm lens (okay, it didn't really die, but it stopped connecting to the camera), I got my new lens today! A 60mm Micro Nikkor! This beauty takes great macro shots as well as portraits. Ooh, I will am having fun getting to know it better and its capabilities.

As if this happy face wasn't reason enough to celebrate, capturing it with my new lens makes it even better!

Not A Bad Gig

What can I say, business has been booming lately! And I'm not complaining at all about that ... although it has pulled me away from my extra-curricular activities such as blogging and knitting.

I have designed a website for a company that provides products and programs for adoption and other related causes. And I just got done with a re-design of the site, complete with product photography.

For the last week or so I have been on my stomach on the floor and doing all kinds of acrobatics trying to get clear and beautiful shots of jewelry - and it is no simple task! My muscles are sore from angling my body, positioning merchandise, and checking the settings on the camera and the flash. And that is just the photography side of things! The real magic happens when I download the photos and edit them for the web:

It is important to photograph jewelry from different angles. I didn't choose this one because it looked too one dimensional.

Here I played with the placement of the bracelets to try to convey that there are three bracelets in a set. Ultimately, it looks a little confusing to me.

I chose this angle because it has dimension and you can clearly see what the product is.

Finally I added a cream background to blend in with the website.

I feel that I have learned so much through this experience and I even got to play with the diffuser on the flash and positioning of the umbrella. While I am a graphic designer by trade, I find great joy in photography and it's great to get away from the computer once in a while.