Flashback to May: Part One

I had a visitor in May! She is Ambar; she has cojones of steel.

Ambar, who is not only drop-dead gorgeous, but also generous, tough, and ready for anything. She rode 10 hours on a bus to visit me, carrying large amounts of chocolate, wine and cheese for my belated birthday present. A birthday so belated that any normal person would have let stay in the past, and wouldn't have made the effort of smuggling a Malbec on the Greyhound. She swam in a freezing cold lake in May in her skivvies without shrieking or teeth-chattering. And if you ever need someone to pop a goat's amniotic fluid sac and pull the baby out with a four second warning, Ambar is the gal to have around. 

You can do this too, if you visit me!

Dewy Garlic

I've been trying to teach myself Photoshop for the last few months. So far I know only 4 things: Brighten, Contrast, Exposure, and the Patch Tool (and I'm not really confident with that last one). I went a little crazy with the contrast on this photo. What do you think? Too much?

Also, do I need a macro lens or what? I better start saving...

Also...

If you my newest post wasn't enough to cure you from photo withdrawal, check out 8th Street Greens blog again! I've been faithfully posting farmy photos weekly for Shannon.

http://8thstreetgreens.blogspot.com

I'm Back!

As an apology for my absence, this will be an extraordinarily long post. Among the things I did while I was not posting this blog was a quick trip to Iowa for my sister's high school graduation. 

My sister does NOT like to photographed. My sister was photographed A LOT that weekend before her graduation ceremony, by my mom, new brother-in-law, grandmother, neighbor, friends and me. So this was an excellent learning experience for me as a photographer and sister.

After the ceremony, my mother wanted a picture of my sister with her diploma. This request was met with serious protests from the subject. I approached my sister with a creative solution...and a bribe. So we tottered out to the lawn with camera, diploma, robe, and kitchen chair in hand, took this shot (is it still called shooting from the hip if you are holding the camera above your head?), and she didn't have to pose for any more photos that weekend.

The lesson learned was: most people feel uncomfortable formally posing for a photographer. Give them something to do, preferably something fun, something else to focus on rather than the camera. Also, bribes totally work.

We have a tradition in my family. You receive a handmade quilt from grandma when you graduate high school. My grandma has 8 children and a dozen grandchildren. When I say handmade, I mean, made by hand. See below.

One more reason my grandma is awesome: she wears hats like these to graduation. She is kind of like the queen. A really useful queen, who can make quilts, and preserve food, and do absolutely anything.

My sister met her best friend at age 3, and it was love at first sight because they were both dressed as Pippi Longstocking. They still do everything together. Including playing with matchbook cars. Did I mention they are both 18? I want to be as cool as them someday.

On our last day, my dad took advantage of all the extra bodies in the house to get some yard work done. It took 6 people and 3 brooms to cover up the cherry tree. It was a pretty silly affair.

The obligatory Grant Wood shot. No smiling allowed.

It was a wonderful trip. I miss my family and Iowa already.

Easter Challah

What an oxymoron! But my mom always made Challah for Easter, so I thought I should try my hand at it this Easter. Challah reminds me of my mom two-fold: her Challah loaves, and her thick braid of hair that looks like Challah! I wish I had a photo of that to post.

I better go check on that rising bread, schellac it with egg yolks, sprinkle it with poppy seeds, and pop it in the oven!

Support Local Family Farms

My friend Shannon asked me to help her make a blog for her farm and CSA, 8th Street Greens. We put up the first post yesterday! It felt great to be in her fields with my camera, on a real "shoot". It felt even better to make something brand new that will (hopefully) help someone who is wonderful!

Here is the part of the post where I shamelessly advertise this CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Shannon and her family and not only generous, fun, community-minded individuals, but Shannon carries that over into her farm life. Her CSA boxes always have incredible variety of produce (you'll never get five heads of fennel at once), fresh (always packed the same morning), and she has the best greens you'll ever taste (all season-this is really hard to do!).  If you join as a member, not only do you get these weekly boxes of produce, but you also support numerous local farms, businesses, the environment, and folks who are employed by 8th Street Greens.

Here's one photo from the post. Check it out!   http://8thstreetgreens.blogspot.com

Piglet Wranglin'

My friends Amber and JC asked me if I wanted to go check out their new piglets the other day. Of course! Who doesn't love piglets? I assumed they would be just like Tetley, the teacup pig.

It turns out piglets are not only large, dense (40-50 lbs), ear-splittingly loud, but also surprisingly strong. After they unloaded two pigs from the back of the truck, we watched them settle in to their new pen. The female pig was lively and bouncy, but the male may have a problem with his back leg. 

24-70mm f/2.8, ISO 800, 1/250s, WB Cloudy 

24-70mm f/2.8, ISO 800, 1/200s, WB Cloudy 

24-70mm f/2.8, ISO 160, 1/640s, WB Cloudy

Email Updates

Hey folks,

I know you subscribers weren't getting email updates. I think I fixed the problem, but let me know if it didn't work!

Phoebe

Why did the goose cross the road?

70-200mm f/4, ISO 100, 1/500s, WB Daylight

The day I met this goose was a good lesson in carrying my camera with me always. I lugged my giant lens (70-200mm; looks like a gun and weighs more) around with me all day, hoping to get some better bird photos. I was starting to feel a little whiny when I saw this goose, his mate, and a duck crossing the road!

Their owner came out to shoo them off the road and she told me their names. Mister, Missus, and Mr. Duck.

I’m so glad I had my camera with me at that exact moment.

Nature Photography is not for Lazy People

Which is probably why I'll never be a Nature Photographer. Also, I did have my feet in a heated pool surrounded by roses and palm trees and I was sipping a cappuccino in Florida when I took these photos. Would you have gotten up to change your lens? I swear, under normal circumstances I would not have been so lazy.

Ospreys!!!

I really like the position of the osprey in the first shot, but the composition is just embarrassing. I promise I've learned my lesson though. Next time I spot an osprey I'll grab a longer lens and drop the cappuccino.

The Cut

One of the hardest parts of photography for me is choosing which ones make the cut.  Especially with digital, when you can easily take hundreds of photos for one event, and often many are very similar, which one is the best? I find the choice gets easier with practice, but I'm still up in the air about these, taken on an afternoon ski with my folks one wintery Iowa day.

 Canon 7D, 70mm f/6.3, ISO 250, 1/500s, WB auto

 Canon 7D, 27mm f/6.3, ISO 250, 1/500s, WB auto 

Canon 7D, 24mm f/9, ISO 250, 1/400s, WB auto

I'm partial to the last one, because it tells a story and I like photos that have juxtaposing images. What do you think?

Bone Trees

Canon 7D,  200mm f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/1600s WB daylight

Every spring this orchard turns white and blue. They spray the trees with something that turns them white, and band certain ones with blue. I'm not even sure if they are pear trees or apple. Can anyone shed light on any of this?

The sky shed light on these trees for exactly this moment. The rest of my photos from this shoot are all gray and yucky. I think these white trees look like bones.

Good Grub

Canon 7D,  60mm f/4.5, ISO 500, 1/160s, WB cloudy

My friends host an annual pick-up sticks party in their peach orchard. Peach prunings can develop a nasty fungus, so you have to take them out of the orchard as soon as possible. They invite a bunch of folks over to help with the work, then have a bonfire and make some really excellent grub. Pickled beets, salmon soaked in Chicaoji sauce (chipotle, cocoa, and goji berries = wow), turkey dogs with homemade buns and home sprouted sprouts! Not bad payment for an hour and a half of easy work. If only every day on the farm was like this...

Catch-up

I'd like to post daily, and I missed the last 4 (oops) days. I better make up for it!

Minolta

What is better than a quilt made by your grandma and a meal made by your boyfriend? If they have the same color palette! Took this shot with my mom's old Minolta. It's been about 2 years since I've used film.

Canon 7D

I saw these Cedar Waxwings in Cedar Falls, IA this winter.  This photo was inspired by Van Gogh's painting, "Almond Blossoms".  Cedar Waxwings eat the fermented berries from the trees in the winter and get drunk, make lots of noise, and fly around...drunkenly.

Canon G9

I went to help my friend one day during lambing season. This was the only moment she was still all day. She brought the sick lamb into her mud room, gave it medicine, and sat with for half an hour. I'm not sure what became of that little lamb.

I wonder if I should crop the left side of the frame, to simplify the image. But I hate cropping, I sort of feel like I should get at least the framing right the first time around. What do you think?

Canon G9

Springtime is the time for starting your plants indoors or in greenhouses. It's also time to start your calluses! Here my lovely hand model is helping some baby plant shed it's seed pod, so the new leaves can stretch and grow.

Canon 7D      

What I'm really looking forward to most this season is beautiful produce to take pictures of! And, of course,  eat.

Waiting

At the beginning of March, we had one last nice snowfall. Our goat ladies are due to kid in the next week! The months of waiting will be over, we will have green grass, fresh milk, and piles of goat babies!