Mulberry Street

I lay down in the grass to get these shots of morning dew -getting wet was worth it.  If you look closely at the droplets you can see light refracting in a few of them.  I don't have a macro lens, so I had to adjust my focal length quite a bit to focus on the right blades and droplets.

It turns out that trying to be both parent and teacher is tough, like really tough. When you're isolated from everyone else and spend A.L.L. D.A.Y. E.V.E.R.Y. D.A.Y. with your family, it is difficult to focus on various things. We have also discovered that keeping to a schedule has been important for anxiety, but that we need to build in time to process all the feels that arise and fall on a daily basis. This all means that we are trying to be flexible and creative. This also means that as we each try to do our best, we will try to be understanding with one another.   

We converted the dining room into our homeschooling home-base.  I imagine we will be tweaking ideas, schedules and assignments as we figure this out.

Found this explanation on a recent visit to the Hirshorn Museum... Close to Nothing How can "nothing" be articulated in the object-based world of visual art?  The understanding of "nothing" differs strongly from one culture to another; it can suggest infinity and mindfulness or it can represent absence and loss .  Regardless of its interpretation, the expression or form of "nothing" depends entirely on whatever is actually present , and vice versa.  Artists have increasingly exploited the limits of this mutual dependency, expanding the field of their artistic expression and emphasizing the fault lines between emptiness and material representation. I taught some school kids about MC Escher recently.  It was fun to share his use of negative space and optical illusions.  Walking them through the complex layers in his artwork blew their minds.  I thought of his 1952 piece titled Puddle when I came across this image Emory shot - reflection caught in a...

Good things about our field trip today include: stopping to buy rain boots from the thrift store, bringing enough umbrellas and zero crowds.  Also, there was a day camp there with low attendance so they shared their pizza and juice boxes with my kids.  Super generous leaders and I am grateful for their kindness. Some not so good things about our field trip today include: the rain, leaky umbrellas, and falling in the mud.  I also learned how difficult it is to hold an umbrella with one hand and shoot photographs with the other hand. It was raining hard enough that I didn't ever put the umbrella down, just attempted to pin it between my head and shoulder if I needed to use my other hand to get a shot. C'est la vie they say. The kids earned Junior Ranger badges and I managed to get a few good shots which almost makes all the whining worth it.  Next time, I wouldn't mind visiting the aquatic gardens on a sunny day, alone.  

I have a fascination with decaying trees.  Until the layers are peeled back, you wouldn't know that insects had left their mark, chewing through the outer layers and boring holes into the inner layers. ISO 200, f /3.2 at 1/5000, 50mm So much texture and depth is revealed when bark separates from trunks or limbs.  Bark has a tremendous responsibility to protect the tree and I am amazed at its thin, papery feel in my fingers. ISO 200, f/3.5 at 1/500, partial metering, 16-35mm at 16mm It was fascinating to come across an old beaver lodge and examine the felled trees from long ago.  They say a beaver's work is never done and we found evidence that they were still hard at work before they disappeared. ISO 200, f/3.5 at 1/500, partial metering, 16-35mm at 23mm I love watching Benjamin discover nature, wander around, and let his imagination work in this element.  I hope he leaves a positive mark on nature, as it appears to be doing on him.  ISO 200,...

This week's photo challenge was eyes.   I need to get new subjects because mine are already very, very tired of the camera.  I am pleased with this shot overall, because I successfully captured Benjamin's eyes.  More and more I tell my kids to simply look at the camera, rather than "SMILE!" because that somehow causes them to distort their face.  After playing around in photoshop, I think that I like the black and white version better because the eyes seem to pop just a little more. SOOC, original shot Post Processing, take 1   Post Processing, take 2 ISO 200, f 3.2, at 1/640, partial metering with 50mm lens In photoshop I cropped the photo, adjusted the color for skin tone and highlighted the eyes.  Then I applied the Lomo Effect to create the edge burn around the frame.  For the black and white version I converted it to Portraits Black and White, then adjusted my RGB levels to lighten the photo overall and boost the contrast a ta...

Difficult Run Supreme Court US Capitol Marine Corps War Memorial

Between the wrong white balance (tungsten light), the wrong shutter speed (too slow) and whatever else I screwed up, I overexposed this photo of Jewel perched on the porch railing.  Because she is a cat, she jumped off before I could adjust my camera settings and take another shot.  I liked the photo enough that I wanted to salvage it, if possible.  Using Photoshop Elements, I went to work - I straightened and cropped, converted the photo to black and white, and then adjusted the lighting (RGB levels, highlights and contrast) to give Jewel back her lovely stripes.  Granted, the photo is still overexposed, but I think it turned out decent in post processing and I can pretend that I "blew it out" intentionally.  The great thing about shooting in black and white or converting to black and white, is that it generally covers up some of your mistakes.  Black and white shots also puts all the focus on your subject by diminishing competing colors or patterns. SOO...

I dug out some more camera gear and, good news - found the wireless remote for the camera.  In my attempts to get in the frame with the kids I realized it would be much easier to use a remote than what my strategy had been - setting the timer, running across the room and then relaxing...in less than ten seconds.   Benjamin tried out the remote for me and we discovered that it does, in fact, work with my current camera body.  Hooray!