Remember when my family went away for spring break and I stayed here working? The project I stayed here working on is out on news stands now. It came out last Thursday to be exact.
Category: photos
Signs of spring.
Despite the fact that there is still little piles of snow tucked away here & there, spring is on it’s way. My allergies tell me so.
As does the tulip magnolia across the street in Jennifer’s back yard.
The tulip magnolia has exactly 2 buds that have cracked open at the top of the tree. If you look very closely, you can see it.
The cherry tree has the beginnings of blossoms.
As does the one next door.
And in Brian’s back yard, the maples are turning red.
Guest Shots.
One of the badges the girls in my Girl Scout troop said they wanted to earn this year was the Digital Photography badge. We got to it this past week with some help from the lovely photographers behind Beyond The Flavor, Sarah and Andrea. After a brief introduction by our guests in which they shared some of their photos and gave the girls some tips on photography, the girls spent the rest of the meeting taking pictures. They warmed up with a few shots of our surroundings – which happens to be the library at their school as well as the adjacent science lab.
The girls were encouraged to not use their zoom function, but to get as close to their subject as possible. As a result, there were a number of ear shots.
It would appear that headbands & ponytails with pearl earrings is a common look among my girls. Something I hadn’t noticed before.
They didn’t limit themselves to ears though.
Another tip Sarah & Andrea gave the girls was to try different angles and perspectives.
Which they clearly embraced.
After warming up, the girls were given the first of a few assignments. These are some of their texture shots.
Their next exercise was a portrait of someone.
The girls were encouraged to try for some candid shots.
Then came the self portraits.
Lastly, the girls were to snap three pictures that told a story. Lauren & Alayna teamed up for a fabulous Goldilocks and the Three Bears narrative that used Alayna’s flair for drama but I don’t have those photos. You’ll just have to take my word on the awesomeness of it. What I do have however, is this photo of a Pokemon character that lives in the library and has become our unofficial mascot this year.
I had every intention of capturing the ‘behind the scenes’ of our meeting, but as one of the girls had a snafu with her camera, I handed her mine, which she figured out how to use in about the time it took me to hand it to her. Kids seem to have no fear in picking up things like cameras and iphones and immediately figuring them out, while us grown ups take forever to get the hang of them. Or maybe that’s just me. Anyway, only the first two shots in this post were taken by me, the rest by various members of my girl scout troop. I love their creativity, don’t you? The self portraits just slay me. I watched Hannah set hers up with her violin. So stinking cute.
Thank you again Sarah & Andrea for taking time out of your busy schedules to share some of your knowledge with my girls. And thanks to the parents of the girls in my troop for sharing your girls and their photos with us. I love seeing the world through their eyes.
Critter bread.
I almost didn’t want to cut into this loaf and eat it, it was so cute. Doesn’t it look like a hedgehog?
Found.
Saturday afternoon as I was standing in my friend Rieman’s kitchen, I looked out and realized there was a great photo opp sitting there.
Despite the fact that it was snowing and cold, there was something beautiful about the day. I actually woke up the other night at 2 am mourning my MIA creativity and wondered how was I going to go about getting it back. For someone who’s goal in life to is to live creativity, this was troubling.
I understand these things have an ebb & flow, but the last few weeks have completely and totally sucked it out of me.
I was really hoping that after the holidays, we’d get into some sort of groove again. You see, since before Halloween, someone in this house has been sick. That’s also about the last time Edie had a full week of school.
Holidays, sick days, snow days have all had a turn as to being the reason why she’s home from school. This past week, she had a holiday, was ill with strep throat, had a snow day and then, when she finally went to school on Friday, was dismissed early.
Part of why I do what I do – attempt to live life creatively, free lancing my way through life, juggling multiple projects, is so that I have the freedom to take off when she is sick. Or on school holiday. Or has a snow day.
I just didn’t think they’d all occur the same week.
Over the last 10 days, thanks to all of it, she’s had exactly one half day of school.
She’s alternated between velcrobaby moments, where she wanted me nearby, holding her and moments where it would absolutely kill her to be nice to me, thank you very much. At 11, she is starting to get very close to those teen years. I remembered today that she started practicing her terrible two’s the day after her first birthday and it wasn’t the terrible two’s, they were just a warm up for the truly terrible three, which was promptly followed by four, which starts with F for a reason. If it’s true that the toddler years are a glimpse into what the teen years hold, then we are screwed.
And if she started practicing being two the day after her first birthday, then it would make sense she’s doing the exact same thing this time around. After all, she’s been 11 for a week now. Time to get cracking on that teen angst.
All of this regrouping and last minute changes mean that I have to had to regroup every week for months. And this last week, this week of no school, well, it’s about done me in. I’ve had some great ideas of projects I have been wanting to pursue, that keep getting pushed to the back burner because life keeps popping up. And popping up. And popping up some more.
On one hand, I’m grateful that I have the flexibility to scrap everything at the last minute. On the other hand, scrapping everything at the last minute for months on end has had a disastrous effect on my creativity, productivity and inspiration. Among other things.
So feeling inspired yesterday to wander about the farm and take some shots?
It felt good to get those creative juices again, knowing they were there. It felt good to be able to work on something without being interrupted, without having to stop and fix anyone a snack or water bottle or dinner. It was nice not having to ask anyone to please keep it down, please can you not see I’m working or have anyone (everyone) sit in the same room as me and talk at me as I attempt to get something done.
The camera I have is a point and shoot- and while I’ve gotten quite good at manipulating it to take some great shots from time to time, it’s a point and shoot. It’s not capable of doing some of the things I want it to do, that I know a nicer camera would do. It doesn’t do well with low light at all.
But the black and white setting is quite forgiving. Especially on a grey, snowy January day.
When I happened to find my creativity hidden amongst skulls on a picnic table in the snow.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 