Experiment

Playing around with exposure and light and stuff.

Specs/info for this shot: 5:30 p.m. (i.e. dark room and dark outside), 5 sec. exposure, tightened the aperture to a 32, 400 ISO.


Dec. 7, 2006

Probably more of these kind of shots to come...Not only am I still somewhat obsessed with exposure and light, but I love Xmas ornaments. Shiny! (I was going to use this--or something like this--for our holiday cards, but the girls declared that it was "boring" and agitated for something with more of an Emma and Morgan theme. Narcissism, thy name is 7-year-olds.)

Morgan

Erm...so ten days later, I'm finally getting around to the Morgan post. (This has blackmail potential. I can already hear it: You always did like Emma best! Even in your blog, I got short shrift!)

For the record, I did not forget. Work up and exploded on me, that's all.

I think I may have mentioned that Morgan's not always the most enthusiastic subject...



But I do occasionally get an actual smile.


November 23, 2006

P.S. Happy Birthday, Scott!

Emma

It's tough to be a twin. No one can tell you apart, even when you get different haircuts and wear different clothes. And you always have to share--clothes, your room, hair pretties, toys...even posts on your mom's blog.

Well, today Emma, this one's all yours.

Emma


Talking to Nana

Nov. 23, 2006

I'll do a Morgan post tomorrow.

Bemidji was grand fun, by the way! It was great to see everyone. And the parade (and all that candy--and Santa riding on the fire truck!) is something the girls will be talking about for a loooooong time.

Hello? Is this thing on?

Emma loves it when the camera comes out.

Look! I'm a monkey!


Morgan does not love it when the camera comes out.

Mom, will you stop taking my picture already!

November 23, 2006

In other news...yeah, I know, another big long stretch with no updates. What's been happening? Well, I finished the novel's (third) rewrite on November 1st and am now editing, editing, editing as fast and as furiously as I can, for I want this thing out of my life in 2007 and off making the reject rounds--so I can start all over again with the shitty first draft of another novel that I wrote in 2004 and then shelved to go back to this thing. Man! What a crazy, masochistic thing this writing gig is.

And, um. That's about it. I have no life. I work, I come home, I run the girls hither, thither, and yon, and I write in every spare minute I can find. Wheee! Glamorous stuff, let me tell you.

Oh, and Pete got Lasik, and I was laid low by the plague (not really the plague; it's just our pet name for the germ-crud-sickness the children periodically bring home from school) for a few weeks there, and today we're heading up to Bemidji to visit Pete's extended family.

That is all.

The Day Before Election Day

[Excerpt] ....So I have a practical suggestion for those of you who are principals, superintendents, school board members, and teachers: Go home from here and revise your core curriculum. Yes, teach the three Rs; teach the ABCs; make sure your kids learn algebra, biology, and calculus. But teach them about the American Revolution – that it isn’t just about white men in powdered wigs carrying muskets in a time long gone. It’s about slaves who rose up and women who wouldn’t be denied and unwelcome immigrants and exploited workers who against great odds claimed the revolution as their own and breathed life into it.

Teach your kids they don’t have to accept what they have been handed. Teach them they are not only equal citizens under the law, but equal sons and daughters – heirs, everyone – of that revolution, and that it is their right to claim it as their own. Teach them to shake the torpor that has been prescribed for them by calculating elders and ideologues. Teach them there is only one force strong enough to counter the power of organized money today, and that is the power of organized people. They are waiting for this message; the kids in your schools have been made to feel as victims, powerless, ashamed, inferior, and disenfranchised. Tell them it’s a great big lie – despite their poverty, circumstance, and the long odds they’ve been handed, they have the power to make the world over again, in their image. - Bill Moyers, America 101

Yes, yes, consider the source, liberal stinking bias, et cetera. But whatever your political persuasion, I believe that Moyers' speeech in its entirity is worth reading and thinking and talking about. What kind of a country are we shaping for our children--and their children?

Are we fiddling while Rome burns?

I'd end this with a reminder to go vote on Tuesday...but I think y'all are already more than aware that we're at the tail end of a particularly nasty and mean-spirited mid-term election. So. Go, Vikings?

Untitled

This shot reminds me of the Greek myth of Icarus.


October 1, 2006

...They passed Samos and Delos on the left and Lebynthos on the right, then Icarus, exulting in his career, began to leave the guidance of his companion and soar upward as if to reach heaven. The nearness of the blazing sun softened the wax which held the feathers together, and they came off. He fluttered with his arms, but no feathers remained to hold the air. While his mouth uttered cries to his father, it was submerged in the blue waters of the sea, which thenceforth was called by his name. His father cried, "Icarus, Icarus, where are you?" At last he saw the feathers floating on the water, and bitterly lamenting his own arts, he buried the body and called the land Icaria in memory of his child. Daedalus arrived safe in Sicily, where he built a temple to Apollo, and hung up his wings, an offering to the god. - Wikipedia

When the original looks like crap...

...and you tweak it but that doesn't really help, why, then it's time to old-photo it. (Ah, the verbing of America.) Presto. Crap shot becomes...something else, with a perhaps Passage to India feel to it (okay, maybe I'm reaching there, but let's just go with it, okay?). Why are there two little girls on an elephant, with a strange building in the background and a man leaning on a fence, watching as they're led...where? What would E.M. Forrester make of this?

Elephant ride at sunset

September 30, 2006

What's this?

Why, it's a post! Before another month has gone by! Jump back!

I think I was playing with exposure when I took this--but I really have no idea. I have a few dozen takes of the same shot, all with different settings. So, I was trying to do something. I'm not quite sure what, though...

This was the best of the bunch. And whatever I was trying to do, I did at least nail the lighting and exposure (but drat, pity about that blur of motion in the bottom left corner, drat); this was outside, in my garden, mid-day.


July 30, 2006

Oops, I did it again

Bleepity bleep, but how has almost another month gone by since my last post?!

Here's the scoop: I've been busy. (You may have guessed this.) Work's doing its level best to be insane (for those of you not in the know, I'm a senior editor for a legal publisher, and since this is an election year, we're buried in, well, legal stuff); and in what passes for my spare time, I'm deep into the third (or is it the fourth?) and dear-god-but-I-hope-this-is-the-final draft of a novel I've been working on for the last five years. Work + novel + the kidlets + all the other usual blah blah blah = reduced time for photos. Alas.

That said, a few weeks ago I did manage to get out and enjoy a beautiful fall day. Fall's already over here--it's cold, most of the leaves are already fallen, I hear that they've had somewhat serious snow up north, it's cold, this morning when I left for work there was a light dusting of snow on the van, and did I mention that it's cold? And it was a rather subdued fall--there'd been a drought earlier this summer, and that stressed out the trees, and so the colors weren't quite their usual glorious selves.

But it was nice while it lasted.

Beautiful day for a bike ride


(Pete is not one of the above bikers, btw...He and Joel were home-brewing that afternoon.)

Vine and Tree


Flames

October 1, 2006


I'd promise (again) to try to be better about posting a little more regularly...but...Well. That'd be silly, wouldn't it?

Man! I have been bad, bad, BAD about remembering to update this blog. So, to recap (since it's been almost a month since my last post)...

The girls started school (second grade! OMG, where is the time going????):





I got a haircut:



The hummingbirds have taken off for warmer climes, but we had lots of fun while they were here:



There were more sunsets, of course:



And--file this one under the category of: "The Shot that Got Away"--I learned a valuable lesson about dashing outside without the tripod at night to try to capture the really cool lightning show. If it had been daytime I could have got away without the tripod (I submit this and this as evidence)--but it was after 10:00 pm. Note to self: next time, grab the gorram tripod.



That is all.

Oops

I sort of forgot about this blog. /sheepish

So...here's a pictorial recap of what's been going on with me and mine the last few weeks. (If you'd like to see something in a larger size, just click on the picture.)

The girls decided to face their fear of the needle...and emerged with pierced ears! Here's Morgan and her little ear gold ear bobs:


On our way back from Nate's wedding, we found happiness in the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin:


as well as the intersection of the 90th Meridian and the 45th Parellel.



For my birthday, Pete gave me a remote control for the camera (which I'm still trying to figure out how to work) (the remote control, not the camera).


Butterflies finally discovered my garden, but alas, not in nearly the numbers I'd hoped for when I put in the lantana and other butterfly-attracting plants. Next year, maybe?


However, that's okay, because there've been lots hanging out at the local park (I need to get some liatris in my garden next year--the monarchs love this stuff!).




The sunsets have been stunning


and the hummingbirds have been making wonderful subjects.


We're enjoying the eats from the garden.


And Emma got her hair cut like Lucy's in the Narnia movie.


And that's what's been going on with us!

I'll try to remember to post a little more regularly. :)

Then and now

My cousin and her family have been up visiting from Texas (they left today, sniffle). The five kids are great little buddies; it's been a really fun week, and we're sad to see them leave! And wow, they're all growing up so fast...sigh.

2004

Left to right: Michael, Morgan, Julianne, Emma, Jacob

2006

Left to right (the girls switched): Michael, Emma, Julianne, Morgan, Jacob

Strawberry fields forever

Hydroponic berries! Unfortunately, they weren't open for picking. But Morgan sure wished they were.




July 2006, 70mm or thereabouts

And another one

July 2006, macro lens (I can't remember the specs and I don't want to go upstairs to look)

Variations on a theme

July 2006, 200mm

Things are beginning to shape up nicely

The hosta ghetto--a 27 x 3 foot L-shaped border around the patio--is no more. It took a full year, but the last of the hostas are out and flowers are going in. There are still tons of bare patches left to fill, and realistically this is a project that will probably take a couple of years before it comes even closer to matching the picture that's in my head, but it's a start.

Coneflower in my garden

July 2006, 200mm, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Gnar

Suffice it to say that I spoke too soon. Still sick. Cipro sucks. And that's all I've got to say about that.

Instead, have some cute kid shots!

Emma (with an almost-gone temporary tattoo on her forehead)


Morgan

July 2006, 50mm, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

I spoke too soon

Okay, now I'm better. Really. I'm also on an antibiotic that prohibits me from being out in the sun (argh!) but that restriction will be over as soon as the antibiotic is finished, which will be Thursday, unless the doc decides to keep me on the antibiotic for longer. And that is such an unhappy thought that I'm not even going to go there.

On a somewhat questionable plus side, I've lost ten pounds or so since this thing sidelined me. Don't get me wrong. I can certainly afford to lose the weight. This particular method, though...I hear there's a line in The Devil Wears Prada that relates to this, something about, I'm just one stomach flu away from my perfect weight!

Ha. Ha. Ha ha ha.

In the meantime...I don't have much to show for June, but I did manage to get out and about a little bit in between the recurring bouts of gastrointestinal horror. Clicky-click to see it large.

Sunset silhouette

June 2006, Mendota Heights Overlook, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

But what is it?

I was poisoned! By a chicken caesar sandwich. Ugh. It's been a nasty ten days, let me tell you. Hence, the no-posting. But now I'm better. And back to stalking birds!

Anyone know what this is? We're stumped. It almost looks like a cross between a nuthatch and a robin, but I don't think that's possible.

Unknown

June 2006, 200mm (the telephoto lens ROCKS, by the way), Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Edited to add a profile shot:


(Grainy, because the sun was setting and the light wasn't great.)

Joy!

I got some new camera toys--a close-up lens and a telephoto lens. I'll post more about them later, I'm sure, but for now...

A macro of a peony:

Soft

May 2006, 34mm, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

and relatively long distance shot of a kid (for those who know our backyard, Emma was in the pool and I was on the patio).

First sign of summer

May 2006, 200mm, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

More garden stuff

Focus is a little off--it was a little windy, not much, just enough to make things difficult--but I like it.


May 2006, 50mm Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Second rose

Dramatic lighting courtesy of a birdfeeder's shadow.


May 2006, 50mm, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

Roses and things

Insert obligatory squee!bounce.

First rose

May 2006, 50mm, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT

In other news, today is the girls' 7th birthday. (7?! How is this possible?) We had the family party yesterday, complete with a SpongeBob ice cream cake (yum).


(I know, it looks like a cake for a 77th birthday, but they both wanted those 7s, and they both wanted them on the cake at the same time. So there it is.)

Among a whole bunch of other things, they got scooters from Uncle Matt and Aunt Mandy (but for some bizarre reason I didn't get a photo of Morgan with her scooter, just Emma; I'll have to make up for that tomorrow).

Scooter girl


Today we opened the last few gifts, then went to IHOP for breakfast with Nana and Papa Tom and saw Nana and Papa off, then came back and set up and filled their pool and played outside and had pizza for dinner and watched one of the movies they got yesterday. Tomorrow we'll be off to spend the day at the new water park that just opened by the Mall of America.

I usually feel kind of bad that the girls' birthday always falls on Memorial Day weekend, what with all the graduation parties and weddings and things that are usually happening. Case in point, last year the girls got to spend their birthday at my cousin Tracy's wedding (if you're reading, happy anniversary, Tracy!). Don't get me wrong. They had a blast. They tore up the dance floor, bonded with other kids, people are still talking about the song they sang to the bride and groom, et cetera. But still. It's kind of the principle of the thing. Through no fault of their own they're stuck not only having to share their birthday with each other, but also having to share it with other events that usually fall under the category of "momentous." Eek. Sorry, kiddos.

This year, however, it's been a solid weekend of nothing but birthday stuff. There are no parties, no weddings, no picnics or family reunions, nothing. Just the girls having a three-day birthday bash, essentially. They've been having a ton of fun--but ye gods, their parents are exhausted!

Perhaps the other way isn't so bad after all! ;-)