I spend a lot of time thinking about photography and very little time actually taking photos. Often while driving I see an old barn or a stately oak tree and I think about taking a picture. But I rarely get around to it.
    Recently I decided to take some of those photos I had been thinking about. Here is one of a dead tree that looks like an old woman with her hand on her hip.

    There is an old house I pass by often. I had hoped to photograph it when an oak tree behind it was in full fall color, but it didn't happen. So I used an HDR program to give it a "painterly" effect.

     A small town nearby suffers from a plague otherwise known as "road construction." Its citizens decided to make light of their plight with signs featuring those darned orange barrels.

    Many times I drove past this old house and wondered how best to photograph it.

    Finally I decided to take the grandbaby there.

    Honey Bunny convinced me that it looks better in black and white.

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Joy

If my world were to cave in tomorrow, I would look back on all the pleasures, excitements and worthwhilenesses I have been lucky enough to have had. Not the sadness ....... but the joy of everything else. It will have been enough. 
Audrey Hepburn 
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/sadness.html#GKDoYpHe717y3vY1.99

    I have been going through a bit of a rough patch lately. So rough, actually, that I didn't feel like picking up my camera. As a matter of fact, some days I felt so bad I contemplated tossing it into the trash.  Who am I to think that I can be a photographer?

    But then the baby came over. He has a way of putting things in perspective.

    I resolved to take his picture before he left. 

Shall we say he was less than enthusiastic?

At times he feigned disinterest.

But he loves to be in the spotlight.

Finally I was able to get this one!

    It's hard for me to explain, but somehow this small step forward in my attitude has to do with the fact that it is my own child's 24th birthday. 

    Happy birthday, Darling.

    Love,

    Mom

Girl, look at that body!

  

Photographing the baby is harder than it looks.

Sometimes I think I need a baby wrangler.

   

   

   I let him play with a shoe lace in an effort to hold his attention.

   

Still, he tends to wander off in pursuit of other interests.

   

But when he comes back around the results are rewarding.

Push Up!

    Grand Baby came over today! We had a wonderful time.

    First we played in the sandbox.

    Then we blew bubbles. He belly-laughed as the dog tried to catch them in her mouth!

    He was offered pizza but preferred an orange.

    Later we stood in front of the mirror and brushed his hair. He loves that.

    After a while he grew sleepy. Waving goodbye, he was buckled into his car seat. Sweet dreams, Grand Baby. I sure am tired!

Nightmare on Toddler Street

    I have been learning a bit about making composite photos. I have a great book, "Adobe Photoshop Masking and Compositing" by Katrin Eismann. She begins with the basics and provides photos for the reader to practice with.

    Still, it is not easy for me. Perhaps I didn't get some of those basics. While working on this composite my mantra was "this is fun, this is my hobby." Otherwise I would have thrown the computer out of the door and into the back yard.

    The first photo was fun to make. I took this one over the Christmas holidays. My camera was set to shoot several frames per second and in one of them he had the expression I was looking for.

    Then I searched around the house for an old doll. It turns out, we don't have many old dolls here. But I found this one and she possessed just the right amount of creepiness for my second photo.

    I placed her against a solid red background. It should be easy to "cut her out" from that right? Not so much. But I finally got the job done. Then I moved her onto Jake's photo, blurred her a bit, and here you have it, one toddler nightmare! If you click on the photo below it should go to full screen for you.

    Compositing (or Photoshopping) could be a lot of fun. Imagine Jacob jumping out an airplane for the first time. Or Kira visiting Buckingham Palace and meeting the Queen's Corgis. If you have a suggestion feel free to place it in the comment section below.

Smile!

    I have been thinking a lot lately about buying some portrait studio equipment. Strobes and backdrops and such. Not so much for human portraits. For my dog.

    This will come as no surprise to those who know me well. I am the one who had to stop myself just short of telling my grandson "Good dog!" today when he obeyed a command. 

    Correction. He didn't obey a command. He he did what I told him ;)

    I am also the grandma who has seriously considered clicker training my only grandchild.

    Speaking of clicker training, Kira and I have been working on "stay." Kira will do anything if I have the clicker and some cheese. She will stay several seconds now. It seems like a long time to her, but to me it felt as if I had to take this photo very quickly.

    Since I don't have any nice studio stuff yet I rigged up some things and took this (quick) shot last week. It's not perfect, but I like it.

Momma

    Momma. There's nothing quite like that word, is there? Whether you are thinking of your own momma or you are hearing your child call your name, the word causes your emotions to run strong.

    The first night I began to write this blog I searched high and low for words to express the love between mother and child. Just as I began to believe it was hopeless I came across a news story about a woman who refused cancer treatment in order to spare her baby's life.

    In March of this year Stacie Crimm discovered that she was pregnant. She was overjoyed because she had been told that she would never have a child. Four months later Stacie was diagnosed with cancer. She decided against chemotherapy because she was afraid it would hurt the baby. In August, as Stacie lapsed in and out of consciousness her two pound baby girl was delivered by C-section. She was able to hold her daughter only once before she died. For the full story you can click here. 

    Stacie's actions express a mother's love better than any words I can summon. The only thing I have to add is that Grandma will be a pretty cool word to hear too. I'm sorry that Stacie will not get to hear it.

The Sailor Man

    The grand baby came to visit today. He has Popeye arms.

Rainbows and Blueberries

    "The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow, but the rainbow won't wait while you do the work." 

         author unknown

         

     My grandson came over Sunday. Spring has come to us early so I took him for a walk outside.
    Actually, I walked. He is always carried like the son of an Egyptian pharaoh.
    A breeze blew the baby's hair and he raised his eyebrows. A hawk cried overhead. I helped Jacob touch his fat little hands to the flowering trees while the crow cawed a warning to his flock that we were about.
    I had toured the same yard the day before. With a child in my arms  I noticed for the first time how pretty the blueberry bush is when in bloom. I resolved to get up early the next morning and take a photo in the soft just-after-dawn light.
    Thank you, Jake, for showing me this.