A drive

 Yesterday Far Guy had a medical appointment two hours away.  He is doing just fine, feeling a bit better everyday, he has gained three pounds (probably because he is a good cook) and his strength is improving....the best part is that he is not struggling to breathe. 

I took this cloud photo the other day...no blue skies yesterday...and it is raining.  I probably should have taken my camera on the drive...we saw Eagles very close up as they flew right in front of the car and Sandhill Cranes in a field.

We hear that a neighbor had a successful bear hunt...so our bear is most likely gone!  One of our other neighbors said that their dogs were awake and barking all night because the coyotes were howling. 

I am working on the design for our Christmas Card.  I really like both of my stamps. I just need to figure it all out. 

Far Side

Smoke, Dyson and kids

 We stayed inside most of yesterday.  The air was smoky again. We made a trip to the post office to mail a package. We did normal things in the house...laundry, dishes...Far Guy runs his robotic vacuum every day.  

 In the afternoon our Dyson Pure Cool arrived.  Far Guy got it set up and going...none too soon as the wildfire smoke is supposed to be hanging around for a while.  Between it and the air conditioner filter it should help with the air quality inside the house. 

It moves a lot of air....I am not sure how it works but it does...the design is very futuristic. 

In the afternoon I watched Mother's Day on Netflix and enjoyed it very much I give it a nine out of ten.  Then I had a nap until it was time to join Far Guy in the kitchen making a pan of lasagna for supper. 

I edited some of the photos I took on Sunday.  Ten kids are a challenge to photograph! 

In the evening Beth, Lindsay, Collins, Otto, Lulu and Baxter visited.  Lulu made faces at Far Guy and she acted like she could cry but didn't.

Far Side

Green

 I found this photo on the SD card that was in one of my old point and shoot cameras. 

It made me smile....the green almost hurts your eyes. 

It is my parents yard in town.    Last year they did all their own yard work.  My other baby brother takes care of their snow removal needs during the winter.  I  have shoveled only once this winter, when my baby brother is here he helps them too.  My Dad has a nurse that checks in on him once a week.  Other than that they do pretty good for old folks in their 90's. 

I visit with them on the phone or from their deck with their door wide open.  Soon my Mom will go to have her second vaccination.  Dad is done with his vaccinations. 

 My Mother is a very social person so Isolation has been hard on her, she wants to be able to go to church again...I told her she could go two weeks after her last shot...but she could not hug anyone...for her that will be a challenge. 

Far Side

Perspective

 Sometimes you have the opportunity to photograph a sunflower field....and they are all facing the wrong way...your only way into the field with permission from the farmerlady...any other way into the field would involve parking on the shoulder of the 60 mph highway and walking through a ditch...no thanks...

Sometimes we just have to make do and look at things differently. 

The back of a sunflower is pretty in its own way.

A side view isn't half bad either. 

Yes I could have walked into the field...but there were probably bees and I did not want to break any of the stalks...I walked along the edge...and then ran into a huge area of Poison Ivy...Sunflowers from a different perspective would have to be enough for the day. 

The Sunflower field still made me smile!

Far Side

Bird's Eye View

Back in September one of Andy and Jen's friends were here with a drone.

They sent us a photo!

A bird's eye view of our place in the woods.

A long time ago my greenhouse extended past the raspberry patch.  I found it very interesting to see this view...almost made me want to look at drones with cameras.

Far Side

Old World Photos

Busy me, listening to the chatter of four girls and one little boy, all the while giving them some direction!  It was a good evening and we got some good photos. They all love Chance and everyone got a photo with him too!

I did some interesting “stuff” in Lightroom to a few of the photos.  A little different it is called Old World.

This photo makes me smile.

I took the time to take a photo of each child with their Mama because multiple children seem to always be grouped together. Each child was also photographed by themselves.

The girls ended up with flowers in their hair!  This is my niece Stacey and her children.

Say Cheese

I have been taking photos lately… mostly people.

 

“Well… I already said cheese today!”

This little gal is a corker, she and I could get in lots of trouble together if only she lived closer.  She is one of my baby brother’s grandchildren. She and I share the same middle name …Joy.

Change

Sometimes it is a really good thing to have lots of photos of some of your favorite things.

One of my favorite barns in a cotton candy colored sunset.

Or maybe a firey sunset… many times I would snap a photo of this barn as we left our neighbors.

The towering old barn was shortened and got a new roof.  No quite the photo op that it was but  most of the barn was saved and will be put to good use.
Change isn’t easy…but sometimes necessary.
 

My own calendar

I made my own calendar again this year.  I have photos of some people and their age on their birthdate.  There are many companies out there that will make a calendar for you, the software they have is easy you just upload your photos and then add the text you want. I use Shutterfly and think they are awesome printers.

I had a hard time picking photos…there were more than just a few that I really liked.

This is my January photo.  Chance, Miney and Little Elvis who recently turned eight years old…eight can you believe it?  This photo looks like it was taken in a studio..it was our driveway after a snow and we were playing ball.

I can appreciate my photos everytime I glance at the calendar.

A cold update: I rested and had a really long nap yesterday, it is a good thing we have food in the freezer ready to warm up as neither of us felt like cooking.  So far no body aches…it must just be a common cold.

Happy Place

I have a happy place. It is a place where I have my camera and some time on my hands.

I was thrilled to see this field in sunflower rotation again.

Getting ready for the big show!

Bees in flight!

Another car drove by and parked.  A lovely young woman asked me to take her photo in the field…she had to show me how to work her camera phone…as you recall I don’t do phones.

She appreciated the sunflower field as much as I did.  We chatted away for a while.  She is a Senior with one semester left at UND.  She has a phone in her camera but she and her Mom are Nikon people…she also takes photos with film.  Her name was Rebecca.  I told her about our Grandson Noah attending UND and moving into an apartment almost on campus.  She said she wished she had lived closer to campus and that she should have attended all the events that are set up the first week of school for students to make friends and get aquainted.  She was excited about finishing her last semester and then going to the UK.  She was in her happy place too!

Some of the heads are beginning to point downward under the weight of the seeds forming.

So I got to be in a happy place for a little while and meet someone who enjoys photography as much as I do.

Never can tell who you will meet out standing in a field.

Photo Bucket List: Baby Buffalo

I played driver yesterday, it was a cloudy day and I knew the sunflower field was in full bloom.  I could double back for photos after I dropped Far Guy off at his Physical Therapy appointment or “learn how to walk properly with a walking stick session.”

On the way into town I saw that the Buffalo (Beefalo most likely) were grazing in the field next to the sunflowers…JACKPOT.   If only the herd stayed put until I got back.   They were even near the approach where I could park the car.

Far Guy told me to “be careful” about five times….either he repeats himself a lot or he thinks I pay no attention to him.

I stayed near the car, the buffalo were quite curious about me…oh I wanted to get closer to that fence…but I have great respect for buffalo and not much faith in that fence…even if it is electrified. (Falling in the lake and getting trampled by a buffalo all in one week did not appeal to me.)

Low and behold there was even a baby…he was on my photo bucket list.  I had photographed one at the Zoo in Winnipeg…now I have a photo in a field…maybe next in the wild…who knows.

Buffalo butts and a baby.

another baby

Jackpot!  Buffalo on one side and Sunflowers on the other. 

What a perfect morning taking photos.  I had one thought…what if I went into the sunflower field and then took a photo…would I get sunflowers and buffalo? My second thought was “tresspassing” so I remained on the road right of way. Sensible decision.

Winter Photography Class

I attended a photography class with my youngest daughter Jen.  It was a fun afternoon of classroom and some practice outside.  It was about 20 F so the weather was not too cold.

I learned a few things. I have a new appreciation for Spot Metering and I got in the P mode (program) something I have not ventured into before.  Canon people should all sit together, especially when the instructor has a Nikon! We can learn from each other.  It was fun to see a couple of teenage girls with new cameras!  There were several people with point and shoot cameras also.  The Instructor said that in order to take good photos you should have a fully charged battery and a SD card in your camera.

We went outside for a short photo session, I did not go out on the lake (it was very icy) but found several good subjects near the building.

A hungry Red-Breasted Nuthatch.

Icy Fern

I get bored with photography in the winter, so this class was a good one for me to take.  You are never too old to learn something new! 

This was a free class put on by the Lake Bemidji State Park, the Instructor was retired Law Enforcement with the Minnesota BCA.  Crime scene photos were her specialty.

Next Project

I am not finished with my other ongoing projects but I am on to a different project. At some point you have to leave a project behind and move on. (Ongoing is SO my word for 2017.)

I am going back into my photo archives hunting for photos for a special occasion in March.  At the same time I am deleting photos AND retrieving photos of the grands. 

I think this photo was taken about 25 years ago….I found it as a scanned negative.  Far Guy spent the better part of a few weeks scanning all our old negatives a few years back.

What kid doesn’t like a fire truck?  Every year at the Father’s Day Picnic little kids get to climb all over the fire truck and sometimes they got to go for a ride.  This photo was taken in 1992.

On the right is the old six by six that Far Guy drove through a line of fire in a CRP field while I was on top with the hose…I leaned over and squirted the hose through his window and finally just held the hose in my hands and pointed it straight up so it acted as a waterfall and cooled the air around me.  Needless to say I was relieved to get back to the black (the area that already burned.) I also gave him the what for.

I can only work on this digital project for a short time…it is tedious…one digital folder at a time.  I also have to bring down several photo albums to make sure I get the dates correct.  I would like to have this project done by the end of the month…I am crossing my fingers on this one.

Twin Fawns in August

The fawns still have their spots.  We found the twins munching along the edge of the woods trying to escape the skeeters.

They stood like bookends.  Mama was back in the woods watching.

Pretty little tick carriers.  I guess you could say my deer hunting is done for the year.  Photo opportunities of fawns with spots doesn’t happen very often.

I took these photos close to sunset on Tuesday night.  It was cloudy and rainy on Wednesday.  A catch up day for me…laundry, cleaning the bathroom and painting Christmas Ornaments.  The ornament count is still at  five completed…but we have parts all over my desk.  When those start coming together the count will go up dramatically.  Chance spent most of the afternoon hiding from the thunder…he has to be bribed to go outside.  We have enough rain, if this was winter we would have lots of snow…I hope the weather pattern changes before winter.

Assistant Wedding Photographer

Yesterday I helped our daughter Jen take photos at a wedding.  The Bride is a friend of Jens.  Jen usually only does photos of babies and graduation photos…weddings are a bit more stressful, you only get one chance to capture the moments during a wedding.

I was photographer number 2 …the assistant.  Having photographed several weddings with Jen before…we know that each of us sees things differently.

The ceremony took place on a hill near the Red Lake River.  There was a bit of a breeze and it was partly sunny and 80 degrees. Guests were asked to bring their lawn chairs.

These Orchids surrounded huge Calla Lilies in the bridal bouquet.

The bride was beautiful.  The ceremony was short and sweet and to the point, it was also very musical…with trombones, a flute and even a violin.

Thumbs up! Yes for sure… she was looking for her new husband to give her a ride back to the reception.  They hosted the wedding guests at their new home just down the road from the site of the ceremony. Shortly after their arrival they donned aprons and served their guests a wedding meal.

Here is my best shot of the day…the flower girl.

Sometimes you are in the right place at the right time with the right light.

It was a fun day…the newlyweds presented their guests with butterflies to release.

Not sure what kind of butterfly…a Skipper of some sort maybe.  It was fun to watch them fly away.

I wouldn’t want to be a wedding photographer…but I enjoyed being an assistant!

Christmas Photo Cards

I finally got around to putting the year on all the photo Christmas Cards. I took a photo of them and put them away in the box marked Christmas Photos…which will someday end up in a folder…another someday project. There is still room in the box.

These may be really good sources for genealogy someday….or just a good walk down memory lane.
I was thrilled when some of the photos that I took came in the mail as Christmas Cards.

You never know for sure if people liked your photos enough to use them or not. 

Photography is a good hobby to have.

Rainy Day Project

“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” ~ Eudora Welty

Years ago I purchased a photo storage system from Creative Memories.  It hung around empty.  One day last week Jen needed a photo of Maddie…well I made a complete mess out of the old photo storage box that you couldn’t squeeze one more photo into.

I had photos all over my desk…it was a mess.

It started raining here Thursday night and rained all day Friday.  You guessed it.

It was a lovely trip down memory lane.  I gave up on photo albums back in 1995 when everything went into storage and I was lucky to have a box to stick photos into. Just you try moving three times in four years…four times if you count the 15 months we lived in the camper. Let me tell you sizing down to a camper will make you think twice about what you really need.

Now the photos are sorted by person.

The old photo box that used to be stuffed to the gills has room for more photos.

The Christmas Photos/Greetings that I like to keep have their own box. I am thinking about putting these into page protectors and into a three ring binder.

I am not certain what my next step will be with the loose photos.  Photo Albums…some of the old ones we have are a mess…some photos are stuck to pages forever…and some are falling out of their albums. That is a project for another day or three.

For now I am glad all the loose photos are together in one place.  Next winter I think I will download some of the photos of the grandchildren and have them printed out at Wally World.  I print out very few photos…perhaps it is time.