Worldwide Photo Walk

Saturday I took part in the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk.

Honestly, I was a bit nervous as I drove there, but I've been working hard on my courage. I've taken my camera to the grocery store, not only once, but twice. I no longer care, at all, what people think when I grab my faithful camera and jump up on a chair, or lie flat on the ground to get the shot. And that is a really huge achievement for me. Perhaps it also means I'm old? I've practiced (I have a very large trash can), and learned (and still have so much more to learn). But as I stepped out of my car after the nearly two hour drive, I put my chin up and grinned, because I knew I could knock that photographic ball out of the park.

At least, I was going to try.

The Photo Walk turned out to be a very good thing. I met some fun people, got my shoes soaking wet, took some pictures... but the very best thing? I spent nearly an entire day off on an adventure that was all my own.

It was refreshing. It was exactly what I needed.

Here are some of my favorite photographs from the walk. I need to submit one for judging. I'm almost sure which one it will be.

Go ahead and confuse me. Which one do you like best, and why?







This one lends itself well to black & white. Lots of contrast.



I'm loving the texture of the out of focus fence in the background on this one.



And this... is just so very dreamy.







And yes, yes I am obsessed with shallow depth of field, thankyouverymuch.

Simple beauty

My kids are young.

We don't have a television. Although to be fully honest, we do sometimes watch movies on our laptop. The world hasn't yet told my babies what to believe. I am aware this will soon change, but for now I'm allowing myself to completely enjoy it.

Our home is on acres and acres of untamed goodness that we never tire of exploring.

And, as you already know, we are easily entertained. Yes, very much so.

This spring, like many boys, mine gave me dandelion bouquets. Then, when I was too busy to cut them myself, they brought lilacs into the house and asked for a vase. It was wonderful!

And then, in mid June, I smiled when they found beauty in this...


{that is not a color cast around the edges, these are actually fringed with an almost iridescent purple)

"Oh, you brought me some grass! It's so pretty, I love it!"

"NO Mommy, it's flowers. You need to put them in a vase with water or they will die."

I gently explained that they had, in fact, picked some amazingly beautiful grass, and that I had a tiny vase that would be perfect. Satisfied, and proud of themselves, they marched back out the door to their other world.

Just don't ask me about the vase.

Excuses that rock

Well, here I am.

I'm late getting my self-portrait up this week. I have excuses because, you know, it's really not my fault.

And my picture just really isn't that cool this week. Ah well, can't win every time, I guess. It could have been better, but I didn't want you all to think that I truly am a monkey. Even though I am. See, I smashed my knee against the corner of our corn burner (who put that thing there?), so I was slightly crippled. It was instantly purple. My knee.



Right.

You want to hear my other excuses?

I know you do.

1. I was busy modifying an old diaper bag my most favorite faithful little backpack ever, converting it into a camera bag. I hand-stitched a double layer lining of an old towel that I should have thrown out years ago terry cloth for padding and covered that lining with super soft flannel. I am not a seamstress. At all. By some miracle, it turned out amazing. I am a rock star!

2. I escaped the house leaving a Grandma in charge (and a mostly intact yard), and ran far far away to the big city (not the BIG city) where I participated in the 2010 Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk. It rocked.

3. I had to babysit a chameleon named Igor and a bearded dragon named Crusty Rusty. Igor has an attitude. He rocks.



4. My cockerel little baby rooster went missing, but he finally showed up today. I found him sitting on a wood pile in the barn like he had never been gone. Perhaps we will eat him after all... and then I will find out if the axe my parents gave me for Chrismas rocks.

5. There is a six foot deep moat entirely surrounding our home. It makes me wish we had a dragon. A big one, with an attitude like Igor's. And a draw-bridge. That would rock, because leaping over the moat is getting old in a hurry.



6. We have a mess. A really, really big one. Including piles of rocks.



The end.

An afternoon

She hears her brothers whooping and crashing around the backyard, as they alternately giggle in joyful play and then moments later try to kill one another.

Brothers. What a mysterious relationship they have.

Hearing them is simply too much to bear and so she howls to join them.

A multitude of honey bees are hovering along the ground, hypnotized by the sweet clover flowers. I dare not set her free.

So she swings.


{happy restraint}

I give her a bouquet of clover flowers, the stems just right for little hands to hold tight, the white flowers so soft for little lips to kiss. The bees won't bother, they're much too busy down below.

She wants to see chickens. She loves chickens. Off to the barn we go.

This pretty lady, she was interested in us for a little while, just until she was sure we didn't come bearing gifts. Edible gifts.



Maybe we should have brought the clover flowers with.

You Capture - "Black and White"

Communicating

It was the kind of moment that stops you completely, makes the squeaky wheels in your head spin backwards, and leaves you in absolute confusion. Did I, perhaps, not hear the question correctly over the kid noise saturating the room?

"Do your flowers on the front step need to be watered?"

Seriously, there are no flowers on our front steps. So the reasonable thing to do, obviously, was to reply with the correction to his inquiry.

"Ummm... the back step?".

"No. The flowers on the front step."



You see the beautiful flowers on our makeshift front steps? Yeah, me too.

So I said it, plain and clear, in a way that left no room for any gender communication error. I said it exactly the way it was.

"There are no flowers on the front steps."

It earned me a look. The dear-wife-you-are-a-raving-lunatic look.

{sigh}

He pointed out the kitchen window, in the direction of the windmill across the driveway. "Your flowers in those pots on the steps. Right there."

Duh.



Apparently, the front steps are still the front steps, even when they have been hauled across the driveway and parked beside a mound of dirt, across from an even bigger pile of little rocks. They are still the front steps even if they are closer to the barn than the house. I imagine they would still be our front steps if they were in the middle of the pasture or somewhere out in the back forty.

Glad we got that straight.



"Yes, I do need to water my flowers, the ones that are on the front step, and I'll do it later."

Perfect water

One week ago, we were at the BIG lake, and having an awful lot of fun!



All three of my boys love tubing, but it was the littlest one that would have been happy to ride that thing non-stop the entire day.



Apparently the Milkweed Longhorn beetles were having a great time too, and I suppose I should apologize for putting them on the blog. Not sure what came over me. They were pretty. Yeah, that's it. And I've never used a telephoto lens as a macro before. It was novel.

Okay...

The sun was hot out on our friends' boat, perfectly bright and hot. We stopped to play in the water. The boys sat with just their feet in, and so did I.

It was enough for us.



But it was our fearless nutty Bean that went for a dip there with her Daddy, in the deep deep water.



The sun was so bright I couldn't see the display on the back of my camera. I shoot with my histogram up so I can check my exposure occasionally. Shooting blind like I was, I was sure of only one thing in this world and that was that as a photographer, "I suck!".

It was the icing on my day's cake when we got back to our tent and I saw that I had actually nailed my exposure on almost every single shot. Being fully aware that I am my worse critic, I was thrilled with what I got.

I also learned to trust my spf 50 sunblock.

Honestly, could that water not be more perfect?


{being fearless and loving to splash is a great combination}

I cooked my toes on the sunshine-heated boat seats to get this shot. It was totally worth it.



That's my self-portrait for the week. The proof that I was there.

(I was pleasantly surprised to find that my husband did actually take some pictures of me and my littlest boy riding on the tube. I had no clue because he took my glasses away. Because if they end up at the bottom of a lake then I am in some serious trouble.)

Anyone else posting a self-portrait is welcome to share on non-linky weeks by adding your url to the comments below.

No fear

This Bean, she has no fear.


{This is one of those photos, you know, the ones that are out of focus but too darn cute to throw away}

She is always on the move... running, climbing up and then getting stuck or falling down, dancing, knocking chairs over, driving laundry baskets complete with sound effects, smacking her brothers with whatever is handy. Those brothers, they teach her well. It's frightening, actually.

An eight foot drop down a curly yellow tube slide? Gotta see where it goes.







She tumbled out the bottom, giggling.

And did it again, and again, and again.

Dirty

We went camping.

My kids (all of them) kicked the dirt, threw dirt in the air, rolled around in the dirt, inspected the dirt, and wiggled around in the dirt on their tummies. The little Bean got tired, put her head down and plowed through it like a bulldozer hard at work.

They were dusty, dirty, happy, smiling kids. It was such a fun novelty, because as you know, we don't have dirt at home.

I was photographing them, but then...

Then I saw this, on some milkweed which I was innocently checking for Monarch caterpillars.



I swear the only reason I took a photo was because, for the life of me, I couldn't remember the name of those red beetles.

Then I saw more pairs of them. I did not find it comical, and I did not get as close as the minimum focus distance of my almighty telephoto lens would allow, and I did not then zoom in on them because I don't yet have a macro lens (although there is one that I dream of).

A single pretty red beetle caught my eye, as she was sitting on the milkweed. All alone. I did not watch as a boy beetle scrambled up the milkweed plant toward her as she waited, and I certainly did not take yet another photo after he climbed on top of her.

Oh admit it! You would have watched too!

It was bizarre, red beetles were getting busy all over the milkweed.



If you look closely at the picture in the upper left corner of that collage, you can even see their parts!

(and I know you looked)

But that isn't the kind of thing I put on my blog. I always keep it clean. I never write about animals mating, and absolutely never ever talk about chicken sex. Nope, you'll never catch me doing that!

Ummm... nevermind.

Is this better?



After I wrote this up, I got out my Simon and Schuster's Guide to Insects. It's not the best insect identification book in the world, but it will usually do the trick. My heart did not start beating faster as I got to the section on beetles, because I am not a complete nerd. And there it was, in all it's wondrous beauty, the Milkweed Longhorn (Tetraopes basalis). I am also now certain that I have lost my mind, because how in the world could I not remember that!?


Linking up with Macro Monday at Lisa's Chaos, and MckMama's Not Me Monday.

Eye contact

Sometimes it's hard to get pictures of the kids looking right into the camera. Wait a minute, what am I talking about? Man, it's always a struggle.

But, ummmm... I have the answer.

It's my secret.

But I'll share if you all promise to send me chocolate. Lots of chocolate. The darker the better.

Or lemons. I'll take lemons too. Organic please.

Okay then.



Hey, I never said the facial expression would be amazing. Just that you'll have the eyes.

I had the beeper and the flashing light warnings going on my camera's self-timer. The camera was on the floor. That little Bean was intrigued, entranced, hypnotized, desperate. The camera was right there for the taking. If only she could... just...

Like a moth to the flame.

Her battle cry, like any good cave-baby, was "Uuuuuuuuggggghhhhh. AHHHHH! Ummmmbobmmmmm. Maaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmm! Beebeebeebeeeeee."

As you can plainly see, I was hanging onto this sweet uncivilized little wild thing for my dear camera's life.

Nice, huh?

Maybe I ought to put that one on the blog.

And what is with my neck? That is so flattering. I have no doubt that I could use a good exfoliating, but I look like a reptile about to molt.

Cows at sunset

Because really, I had nothing better to do.

{cough}

Actually, I was free. As free as a Red Rooster when he's not locked away in solitary confinement in the dog house. As free as a mom can be, when she has narrowly escaped the house armed with only a camera... and a grocery list.

No, people, I was fully dressed. Don't even go there.

Thank the good Lord we found the car keys. Today, I almost got all the dishes washed, almost got the whole main floor of the house vacuumed, almost got the entirety of the bathroom scrubbed. Almost lost my mind. Almost. It would have been fitting, in a depressing kind of way, had those keys remained at large as I would then have almost made it to town.

I was on my way to Walmart, ya'll! All by myself! Yeehaw!

I weep and wail and pour ashes on my head every time I have to shop there.

{sigh} But we can save that for another day.

At first they were all like, "What the heck?"



Cows are not very good models.

Move a few steps this way... now lift your head and look straight into the camera.

Or not.



Is it too much to ask just one of you to lift your head?



Apparently so.

Maybe I should have yelled or whistled to get their attention. Except that I have some kind of disability which causes me to be unable to whistle. I have tried, and tried, and tried. I just can't whistle.

And they're not my cows, so I didn't want to harass them.

AND I had not a clue how the cows were posing, because by this point, I was blind.

Public Service Announcement: Boys and girls, do not look at the sun. Do not look at the sun's reflection bouncing off a mirror. Do not look through a camera at the sun as it shines into your camera's lens and bounces off the mirror contained within the camera, causing it to shine directly through the viewfinder and straight into your eyeball.



Oh the pain and agony I went through to bring you this sun flare.


You Capture - "America"

So I'm late with this You Capture, but better now than when the cows come home.

Multiple choice

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is my twelve dollar Hibiscus tree. You'll just have to trust me that a picture doesn't do it justice.



It's amazing. It's beautiful. The flowers are the size of my hand.

It looks so exotic and out of place here on the farm. The wind knocked it over once, and my darn chickens ate every single bloom off of it. If I can manage to keep it alive in our house through the winter it will be a miracle. But you know me, I am going to try. And honestly, stranger things have happened around here, so what the heck. Right?

Now, for purely entertainment purposes, let's play a little game of multiple choice.

I washed this gorgeous Hibiscus with warm soapy water today because:
a. I overdosed on my thyroid medication which meant my house was spotless from top to bottom and I was desperate for something else to clean.
b. it has become home to approximately five hundred thirty two trillion hungry little aphids and there is not a single ladybug around to save the day.
c. I always listen to the voices in my head.
d. one of my greatest talents is procrastination, and I had a sink full of dirty dishes.

And...

I'm up later than I should be, yet again, but this time I'm blaming it on:

a. guilt for not picking peas since Friday and knowing that many of them are going to be way too mature to taste decent, and even though they technically won't be wasted, will end up going to the chickens.
b. amazement at how a wild turkey can lodge itself way the heck up a pine tree with just a little encouragement from the sharp pointy teeth of our resident predator.



c. wondering exactly what maximum length of time a hen can keep sperm from a rooster (internal fertilization and all, you know, with those eggs they lay).
d. lusting after a Canon 5D mark II after getting so comfortable with one in my hands all of Saturday afternoon.
e. all of the above.

Also...

My 4th of July weekend was truly amazing because:

a. my little Bean slept through fireworks that were loud enough to wake the dead.



b. I spent half a day playing with (and drooling on) nearly four thousand dollars worth of photography equipment, while simultaneously giving my brainiac electrical engineer brother a taste of his own medicine by letting him eavesdrop on a conversation about a topic that he didn't comprehend, which by default made me feel brilliant and important.
c. the food was awesome, the company great, and our tent even stayed dry and bug-free.
d. the pee limit was three.



e. all of the above.

Facing Myself - July linky

I'm not sure exactly what possessed me.

In the nearly three years that we've lived here, I swear I have never before climbed the windmill even once. And certainly not at one o'clock in the morning.



Although my husband has done it. When we first moved here, climbing the windmill was the only way we he could get reception on our cell phone. Our only phone. Yes, for real.

Perfectly civilized, don't you think?

That shot was way harder to get than I imagined it would be. Of course, having never previously climbed the windmill, maybe I just didn't know what I was getting myself into. My timer is all of ten seconds. The bottom of the windmill ladder is five and a half feet off the ground. The shutter speed I decided on was half a second.

In the howling wind at one o'clock in the morning with our dog thoroughly enjoying the show.

So once I had the camera all set up and found a step-stool, it went something like this: push shutter button, run, climb, freeze at the exact half-second moment it mattered, climb back down, tell the dog how much I love her, peek at the photo and it's histogram... wash, rinse, repeat nineteen times.

You don't even have to do the math to know I was a sweaty little monkey by the time I gave up.

And yet I think this shot worked.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, go have a great holiday weekend with family and friends. I wish you awesome food, cold beverages, sunny days and mosquito-free evenings. You have all week to come back here and link up with your self-portrait. For details click here and also here.

The next Facing Myself linky will be here the first Saturday of August. Those of you who are intrigued and also terrified by the thought of a self-portrait, you have an entire month to think about it. I expect my head might explode with all the self-portrait ideas I have. Now, wouldn't that be something to get a picture of?

Despite hail and high water

In the evening after my kids are to bed, it's then that I escape down this path lit with golden light.



I come to visit my beautiful green things.

July is the magic month, the time when my little green things become lush and lovely.

The potatoes are starting to flower. That means if I gently reach beneath them, I would find perfect small new potatoes. It's addictive, pulling those little jewels out of the ground with my bare hands. You have no idea.

And when I do, I'll have garden dirt under my nails for at least a week.



I instantly like people with garden dirt under their nails.

Gardening teaches patience.



Our new bed of asparagus is doing exactly what it should. The growth on top is feeding the baby crowns below, giving them the strength to make it through our harsh winter. In a few years they'll be strong enough to survive the harvest of some of the first shoots that grow in early spring.

Corn should be knee-high by the fourth of July? Well, we're doing better than the ankle-high we had last year at this time. Deceiving angle, isn't it?



When sweet corn is harvested, it immediately begins to convert it's sugars to starch. There is nothing like grabbing some ripe ears, husking them right there in the garden and then racing back to the house to a pot of boiling water that is ready and waiting.

Look what I found!

Cilantro!



I thought it looked suspiciously like something when I was weeding. I wasn't sure what kind of something it was, so I let it be. Patience is a virtue.

I love the quiet calm and repetitive motion of hand weeding. It's my time. My time when no children are yelling, "Mommy wipe my butt!". My time to ponder on the mysteries of life, such as the reasons why my Red rooster attacked my mother-in-law.

Gardening forgives, giving me a new chance every year.

And yet, this gardener wonders how many chances that Red rooster should have. Right now, he's hanging on by a very thin thread of grace.


For the You Capture challenge this week, Beth gave let us choose between "Green", "Hands", or "Chairs".

You Capture - "Green"