Foto Friday #77-- thanksgiving pie

Thanksgiving Huckleberry Pie
We took a trip across the miles to be with my side of the family. We made yummy huckleberry pie and enjoyed a family filled day.


Hosted by Cecily

Foto Story Friday #76 -- Desire for greatness

I think we all have a desire for greatness inside us. I look at others and see their greatness, but it is much harder to see the greatness in ourselves.
I desire to make great pictures.
What exactly makes a great picture: Clarity? Beautiful subject matter? Seriousness or humorous? Knowledge of lighting and proper use of equipment?
Photography is a form of art. Beauty in the eye of the composer of each shot. Sometimes we can convey our perception of beauty to others and sometimes it falls flat.
Here are a few examples of the way I see my surroundings, what inspires me and things that contain beauty. (Of course, my kids are beautiful and inspiring!) I love a good showing of colors in the sky but sometimes I try and look elsewhere for the beauty and inspiration that surrounds me.
Humorous:
From the recent construction on my street, which thankfully is complete, I was inspired and humored to find this port-a-pot........... the first I's seen on a single trailer like this. It is truly a portable potty!
Beautiful/ Curiosity:
I like to improve on capturing my human subjects. Robby gave me that mischievous grin and this turned out to be a favorite photo of him taken at a volleyball game.
Beautiful/Growing up:
The fleeting tween years and the ever changing portrait of childhood fades. ANd maybe I need to look with my eye before I look with my camera....... how could I miss the strand of hair?!
Humorous:
Typical kid doing dishes, listening to the iPod and chewing gum..... bigger and bigger until it pops! Which it did all over his face!
Beautiful:
Photo night put on by the young men and young women at church. Props can help a person to loosen up. Learning lighting..... need lighting!
Dreaming/Inspiring:
Old time photos taken at Kmart........ shooting from the hip. The photographer was not well pleased to see that I had a camera hanging from my neck. She grumpily informed me that I could NOT take pictures of her backdrop they are protected! Well you can see that it is located in a store and they are stetting up and I didn't even try to conceal that is was a photo shoot. Props. Yeah could sure use some cool props.
Beautiful/ Sneaky:
In my ever growing attempts to take good people shots, I do have 6 mostly willing subjects. Everything worked that time!
Thoughtful/Beautiful:
Mostly this child doesn't stop moving and trying to get and acceptable photo of her proves to very difficult. She was busy looking off into space and I got my chance.
Inspiring/Thought provoking/Beautiful:
Patiently awaiting his turn and wishing his mother would not point that camera at his face, I got lucky to look up and see this glimpse at teen life. What was he thinking? Was he wondering if he could ride the rails on his board? or was he simply wishing the "photo shoot" were over?

So what inspires you? what is beautiful to you?

Hosted by Cecily and Sue

Foto Story # 75-- Beautiful Skies

Thanks to a high schooler who also has an early morning religious class, seminary, I have been forced... er, blessed with the opportunity of being up before the sun rises. Tuesday morning dawned in radiant splendor! I could not believe how bright and beautiful the colors were. It is difficult to get him to class on time when I really just wanted to have him pull over so I get out and compose a shot or 20! The morning sky changes SO much faster than the evening sky. The bright colors quickly fade and are gone in a matter of seconds.


That same evening the setting sun put on its own display of colors. Evening sky usually gets more colorful as the minutes pass and the challenge is not the loss of color but the loss of light in which to capture the range of colors that have appeared.

May we each take a moment to enjoy the sky whether you are a morning or an evening sky the beauty painted there is calming and inviting.

Hosted by Cecily and She's a moron and can't remember...

Foto Story Friday #74-- a devine smell and a weird helmet

When the smell of fresh baked cookies wafts through the air in your home, what do your children do? Well Scott goes in close for a big whiff!
I looked up and saw him "just smelling them mom!" I couldn't resist a shot to preserve the moment. It's torture when you haven't had dinner yet and the cookies are cooling on the rack!


And totally unrelated picture....
Scott was going to be Spidey for Halloween until the Monday before when he informed me that Spiderman was "not cool" and he HAD to be Darth Vader. Well, since I live in the middle of NOWHERE, my only choice was Kmart and they didn't have Darth. SO I figured I could wing it... come on it is only black and the helmet. So I visited the Attic for some second hand stuff in the shade of black and possibly something to bulk him up. I lucked out in the bulking up department. I spied 2 motorcycle chest protectors for a whopping .50 cents each... I grabbed both! A nice big piece of black fabric for 2$ and a black sweatshirt for 1$. Then I did a google search on 'how to make a Darth Vader costume/helmet'. Well there were some easy but not cheap ways to make the helmet but since the kids can't wear full masks at the Church Halloween party/trunk or treat I didn't want to make it that way. I figured I could make one.
I stared at a photo of Darth's helmet and got some supplies: cardboard box, scissors, tape and black poster board and set out to figure it out.
It wasn't looking too good so when Cody came home from school I asked for his opinion and we set out to cover it with the black paper. When we were nearly finished Cody said: " this looks more like Dark Helmet from Spaceballs rather than Darth Vader. Seriously google it!"
SO I set it on the table and called it done hoping that Scott would like it.

Well he got up the next morning and told me: "This is WAY better than Jace's Darth Vader helmet!" Thanks for the ego burst! So here are Darth and Ninja Girl!
Trunk or Treat just after getting all gussied up in the bathroom. We got some very nice comments like, "that is the coolest costume I've ever seen!" I was well pleased with the reactions and nearly everyone knew who he was! :)