Dailyshoot.com "movement". Opinions?

It's an embarrassment of riches today.

The daily prompt is:

Let's play with movement today. Get a shot of something in motion. Freeze it or let it blur. It's up to you!

So I went up to the school this afternoon. Took Nate a Starbucks (sometimes, I think that he gets the short end of the stick, what with being the third kid. I've left him behind, and forgotten to take him places, and he isn't doing nearly the same amount of 'enrichment' stuff that I loaded Skip and Kelly up with when they were his age, because now I'm approaching 50, and I'm Just. Too. Pooped. So on occasion, I try to make him feel a little bit special, and not an afterthought) and got to school shortly into the Lunch Recess play time. Everyone had finished eating, so it was time to troll around, looking for 'movement'.

Oh, here's Starbucks Dude.

And here he is in motion

A few of the girls were playing on the glider.

More movement.

After the bell rang, I was set to do some math enrichment with the 3rd grade half of Nate's class, but something came up, which really deserves its own entry (note to self: Don't lose steam before you get that entry written tonight). Also? Photos!

But when that was done, I went into Nate's old class from last year, and checked on Toady and Superman. There was almost a half hour before the end of the day, so I asked Mrs. Henderson if the kids had had a chance to hold the toads yet.

Nope?

Well, let's surprise them with a fun activity. A good way to end the week.

Toady:

And Superman:

This year's toads are just massive compared to last years, and seem so much more hale and hearty. They're a good solid handful, and active? So very, VERY active. Superman up there? he's on the rain boot of one of the boys... after leaping out of my grasp about a half dozen times. They're just hoppy-jumpy, and unflappable. I was worried that they might get stressed and start oozing the white goo that says "stay away! I'm toxic!" but they just hopped around, and hopped around, and hopped from hand to hand, and it was a riot.

Oh. This just in. Nate had a kung fu seminar this evening. Nunchaku. Yay weapons!

And more movement!

How about this one?

Or this?

OK, there's your assignment. Which of the 'movement' photos should I use?

1. Nate on the playground

2. Blurry girl on the glider

3. Nate kicking

4. Nate swinging that weapon.

???

Edit: Dudes! The other folks who follow along on this site? Some of them are BRILLIANT!

Look here. No. Go now. I'll wait. I mean that's just so out of my league it's not funny, but I can't help looking to stuff like that... or THIS!... for inspiration.

Dailyshoot.com "tag"

Three days in a row.

I am on a roll.

But there is the thought that three times, (or seven, or twelve) does not a habit make. Apparently, one must do something 29 times to make it a habit. I do wonder who came up with that number. But here's to making it to 29. Three down, Twenty-six to go.

Today's prompt:

Illustrate one of the various meanings of the word tag today in a photograph.

I will admit that my first thought was "Oh, I wonder which of my kids I could pay to take off their socks, put their feet up on the table, and let me take a sterile-ish photo pointing at the bottoms of their feet with a tag on one of their toes..."

Is that too morbid?

I took a look at the first few eager submissions, and there were just far too many price tags, and size tags from inside garments, and I wanted to be different.

I wondered if I could troll around looking for graffiti on some abandoned building, but I live in the sterile burbs, and there are not too many abandoned buildings looking to be decorated around here. There is a pretty nice tag-able surface at the pond, but what with the mountain lion sightings (did I mention this? Did I mention to you, my friends, how Kelly's school was PUT ON LOCK DOWN last week because kids came face-to-face with a mountain lion while doing their 5-lap run? My heart, it was in my throat!) ... anyways, what with the mountain lion sightings, I didn't want to be out in the suburban 'wilderness' alone, with nothing but a camera to protect my tasty, well-marbled butt from being lion-lunch.

Instead, I thought about the whole "Tag! You're it!" calls that echo from my own childhood. I hoped to get up to Nate's school at recess to photograph him playing on the playground with his friends, but it was raining, and I was in meetings, and it just didn't work.

After school, Kelly was picked up by Gail's mom (usually, Gail comes to our place on Thursdays) and the girls went down to the local ice rink for Gail's skating lesson, and for a chance for Gail to give Kelly some informal lessons to try to get her to relax her iron grip on the boards. Yes, it is true, my non-Canadian Canadian child cannot skate. (Truth be told, she doesn't know any of the rules and regulations of hockey, either. Or, as we like to call it... 'ockey)

I went down to the rink after I'd gotten Skip and Nate home in the rainstorm. Brr. It was colder inside the rink than it was outside. I am a thin-skinned, thin-blooded California girl these days. I wouldn't survive a week if I was sent 'home' to the Canadian winter wonderland.

And there I found my inspiration.

Tag! You're it!

(of course, it was no contest. Gail can skate circles around Kelly. But they were willing to mug for the camera.)

Check it out!

A new job

I think I had mentioned that last Saturday, I'd talked with the ranch manager about Kelly coming in on a semi-regular basis to visit with the horses (and one in particular), socializing them (such as it is) in preparation for the summer. And I may also have mentioned that I offered to pay for the privilege but had been waved off.

So, yesterday was Kelly's first day of "work".

After a little bit of my own 'work' (The mother of one of Kelly's classmates (well, actually, he's in special day class, so she doesn't have any classes with him per se) has asked me to drive her son to her workplace after school on Wednesdays because she can't get the time off, and she worries that he'll get beat up if he has to walk anywhere or take the bus - she's probably correct. The kid can be a bit of a weasel, but is mostly harmless. And because the mom usually sounds desperate, and really has no other connections at the school, I oblige her. No real skin off my nose, when it comes down to it), and a quick trip into a grocery store to get take-away sushi, Nate and I took Kelly over the hill to the coast, where the blustery day had turned into a perfectly glorious sunny afternoon.

There wasn't much action at the ranch. Jorge was sitting on the fence, shooting the breeze with a couple of friends, but when we showed up, he offered to get Eddie from the pasture for Kelly. I said "No, this isn't your job, it's hers. Make her do the work and go back to your friends." and off we went to the pasture, she with her lead rope in her hand, me with a pocket full of carrots, just in case the pony didn't want to come. Jorge called after us "Just please make sure to close the gate!" so I took that as my job to be responsible for.

Meanwhile, Nate was holed up in the van, basking in the sunshine streaming in through the windows, doing his homework.

Even though it had been really stormy the day before, the pasture wasn't nearly as muddy as it had been in the past, and Kelly wasn't up to her knees in mud (it was a possibility). She wandered out into the pasture, where all the horses were quite curious about what might be up.

(Poor Aladdin. he's the horse on the left. He's gotten so skinny this last year. He couldn't be ridden by the summer camp girls, but he was so sad when he wasn't put out on the line, that they'd bring him to the line, and hook him on, just so he'd be with the working horses, and feel like a part of the 'in crowd'. I hope he can fatten up come spring.)

Eddie is the horse she's after, though, and this time there's no drama in collecting him.

Maybe the sugar cube in the palm of her hand had something to do with it...

He was all happy and prancing...

Until he got to the ring, and realized that he was going to have to actually pay attention, and do a bit of exercise if he wanted to keep the carrot treats flowing.

Hey! I don't want to go this way. And I'm bigger than you, scrawny little girl...

After several laps around the ring, and a couple of times spooking as the cars went by, it was time for another treat break. You don't have to ask him twice...

She walked around the ring with him over and over, chatting into his ear the whole time. I don't know if he's getting any gentler, but if she does this twice a week for the next couple of months, at least he'll become VERY accustomed to the sound of her voice.

But my goodness, is he ever dirty. What he really needs is a bath. Alas, we didn't have enough time, even though it was probably warm enough, with the thermometer pushing 60F (after a week in the 30s, this is wonderfully balmy!). I'm going to try to put off bathing him until the weather really turns warm, come spring. I don't want him getting chilled, or anything. So instead, Kelly had to settle for giving him a good brushing, detangling his mane, and making sure his hoofs were in good shape.

And here's a special kiss for you, sweetheart. Right on your forehead. Don't forget about me. I'll be back on Saturday.

Dailyshoot.com "shiny"

So here's the prompt for today.

Make a photograph of something shiny or glossy, but not transparent. Emphasize the effect of the surface.

Didn't think I'd come up with anything fun...

Until I got to the ranch, and it was so gloriously sunny, and all the horses were so gloriously frisky in the warm sunshine, and they ALL knew that I had carrots, and, quite frankly, sometimes you're just lucky to get out alive.

But here. I give you Cookie's Eyeball. Just before she did the TSA security agent frisking thing with her big insistent horse-lips, looking for a carrot in all the wrong places.

And yes, I know that eyeballs are TECHNICALLY transparent, but it just looked like a big soft brown marble coming at me there.

ooh. Time for supper.

GO check out dailyshoot.com. It's a fun place.

OPE 2: Rust

I took the Littles out to the ranch this afternoon (half days on Wednesdays) and Kelly spent an hour with Eddie, the Recalcitrant Pony, while Nate stayed in the van, pinching his nose shut (he doesn't really like the scents of the great outdoors), and working on his homework.

There's a good story there, filled with photos, but what I wanted to mention here is that I found this great rusty gate to photograph while Kelly was starting to bombproof Eddie.

The One Photo Everyday weekly photo prompt this week was "Rust", and i was pretty sure I wouldn't have a chance to go hunting for it, but it got dropped in my lap.

Here's a great rusty gate-latch.

Here, let's get in a little bit closer. I love how they have repurposed the old horse shoes.

Dailyshoot.com

I've been trolling around on the interwebs the last few days, mostly wasting time, but sometimes finding things that are really cool

(ok, pretty much everything I've been finding is really cool, but I need to start growing a backbone, and telling myself that not EVERYTHING needs to be looked at. One really cool thing a day is just fine, please).

One of the things I came across was this site called dailyshoot.com

It's pretty neat, and I like the baby-steps that I can take there. It's a daily prompt that you go out and shoot, and then tweet your response, which, through the magic of computers, shows up on their front page in a gallery of 'photos of the day'.

Apart from being a massive sucking time vortex, it's given me some great ideas, and I finally took the plunge today, and joined up.

Today's prompt was:

Make a photograph today that features or uses a liquid as a subject.

Of course, I hadn't taken my camera with me, but while I was waiting at the corner for Kelly and her friend to show up after school, the skies opened, and it started raining. I had my phone, and I was messing around with a Camera360 app that I'd just installed on it, and when I got home, I realized that one of the photos was pretty much as good as I could do to follow the prompt.

So instead of hemming and hawing, I just uploaded that puppy before I could change my mind, and linked it up.

It's a start.

More to talk about, but now it's time to put kids to bed.

Goodnight, Souffle'

Over the last few months, Souffle', our Campbell's hamster, has been failing physically. First, he started getting this mange, and then he developed some weird neurological thing that made him all wobbly on his feet. He seemed to be able to eat and drink, and was social just the same as he always had been, so we just let things play out.

In the last few weeks, his fur has grown back all pretty (he had been pretty much nude from the waist down), and apart from the wobbly walk, he was looking hale and hearty.

Until yesterday.

Last night, Kelly told me that she thought Souffle had died. He didn't peek out of his den when she blew into his cage (the sign that treats were coming), and she thought it was more than just sleeping.

She was right.

Good night, Souffle. You were the gentlest of all the little hamsters.

More Penguins

Now I'm kicking myself that I didn't save all the penguin shots that I took at Nate's classroom party last month. I probably could have made some hilarious little still-life dioramas, with funny dialogue underneath them.

Oh well. Next time.

But here are a few more shots of the penguins from Nate's classroom party.

I really like the 50mm lens.

There's something just quite hilarious about these little guys. I know it has a lot to do with the array of different googly-eyes that were available for the kids to use. I love the little guy on the left in this one. Like he got his beak shut in a door, or something. And he's still a little bit dizzy from the impact.

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Hey... bay-beeeeee. Wanna come up to my iceberg, and see my etchings?

Talk to the wing, because the ears don't hear a thing!

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Space Penguin from Galaxy 32 says "Take me to your Herring"

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Whoa. Dudes! Feel the tremor?

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Nate. Where's his other eye? Is he Cyclops Penguin? His depth perception is going to stink, and he'll go hungry, unable to hone in on the little fishies under the waves. But at least he'll have great hair while he's starving to death.

Photo dump

So last month, I did a little photo outside-my-comfort-zone contest over at One Photo Everyday. Even made it into the finals, and came away tied for 2nd place, which thrilled me to no end.

The site is continuing, with a weekly photo extravaganza, where we post photos weekly, rather than daily. There is still the potential for a daily photo (I'm thinking of paying closer attention to dailyshoot.com), but the posting, and viewing will be weekly, rather than daily (which, I am sure, was a whole lot of work for the OPE admin person)

I haven't decided if I'm going to work with the prompts, or just post my 'best photo of the week', or 'some subset of daily photos', but when you come across an entry here, with that cryptic "OPE:xxx" title, at least you'll know that I'm not selling secrets to the Soviets, or anything.

This initial prompt was "Language and Rust", and seeing as I've taken my camera out exactly ONE TIME since this year began, I don't know if I can come up with something from this month that matches the prompts. So, in that respect, this time I will dig into my archives, and pull out some shots of things last month that never got shown.

For instance:

I chaperoned a youth event for our church that had all the kids descending on Sky High last month. It was a hoot and a half, as well as being chock full of Girl Drama at times. But we gloss over that, and give you my fave shot from that evening:

This was also my first little get-to-know-you session with the Nikon 85mm f/1.8 lens that I rented from borrowlenses.com, and ended up using to shoot parts of the New Year's Eve wedding.

And Nate had his Classroom Party on the last day of school before break, and I broke free from my pre-holiday ennui long enough to head down to school and take a few photos in the classroom.

Nothing says fun like a penguin made out of a toilet paper tube.

I just got a note from Nate's teacher thanking me for the lovely photos (I shared my picasa album with her), and saying how much fun it was to see the enjoyment that the kids got out of the craft, and how cute it was, 'especially that photo where one boy is making the penguins talk to each other". So I'm going to say that this might fit under the broad umbrella of "Language", when you know that the big picture has the boy on the right (out of frame) making what he considers to be 'penguin noises' as he bobs his toilet paper tube penguin up and down. You can tell, though that the girl penguin in the middle of the frame can see right through his act. She isn't buying what he's selling. Not for one minute, even if the guy with the purple eyes beside her is stunned by what he's hearing.

Nate's penguin stayed out of the fray.

He didn't want to mess up his penguin hair-do.

First Ride of the New Year

The weather's been holding fairly steady the last few days, so yesterday, I suggested to Kelly that we might want to take a chance on the sun, and go out to the coast for a beach ride.

She invited her friend Anna, who was unable to come for a sleepover, so we arranged to pick her up on the way to the coast.

This meant getting up earlier.

Boo.

But I can count on Kelly to never sleep in on a day that she might get to go riding. I don't even need to set my alarm (but I do, anyways)

It was cold and miserable at the house. I couldn't even see the neighbour's house across the back yard because of the fog. But we'd promised Anna that we would take her on her first ride, and i didn't want to have to phone their house and wake everyone else up, so off we went.

It was glorious over at the coast, even though it was quite chilly.

There were horses ready to go. Kelly's favourite ponies were taking a break in the pasture, so she got a chance to ride Alex, a high-spirited part Arabian horse.

And oh my goodness, are these horses ever dirty. They get out in the pasture, and they roll in the mud, and it cakes on, and I shudder to think what's gonna need to be done once spring comes, to get them all pretty again.

Kelly was so pleased to ride Alex. During Horse Camp, Kelly's friend Carrie rides Alex, painting her with a brush of "This horse is too hard to handle for you". But Kelly's experience this morning? "She tried to throw her head a bit at the beginning, but then she calmed right down, and was beautiful for me. And she listened, and I hardly had to work at all. And she has such a beautiful canter!"

Yeah. I don't think she's too much horse. Do you?

While I was waiting on the beach for the girls to ride by, I thought I'd take a few photos of the local wildlife. There was a flock of about 500 seagulls on the beach ("and I ran... I ran so far away...") , just basking in the sunshine, and then I realized that at the edge of the flock, sitting up on a piece of driftwood, was a bird that was definitely NOT a seagull.

I walked towards it, and kept taking photos. Soon, it came into view.

A peregrine falcon!

And then it took off. Beautiful!

And I watched it head towards the flock of seagulls....

...who were IMMEDIATELY on high alert, and rose into the sky like a big cloud of "I don't want to be the falcon's breakfast" Or maybe I should say "gotta get away...."

SUPER cool to watch!

Oh, and then I looked down at my feet:

Oh look. A typical January morning on the California Coast. And so fragrant, too.

(makes up for the horse nuggets that get dropped with great regularity along this stretch of the trail)

I got back to the ranch before the girls, and talked to Jorge. I mentioned that Kelly is a little worried that Eddie (her favourite pony) is not getting ridden much, and seems to be regressing back towards the wild-type. Will he be ride-able come Horse Camp next summer?

Jorge assured me that they would have a lot of work ahead of them before horse camp, but that they'd be working with ALL the horses that would be used for horse camp, gentling them again. I said that if it was OK with them, I would be happy to bring Kelly out more often, to work with some of the horses, perhaps just starting off by walking them around the ring, getting them used to the halter and lead rope again. I said that I would even offer to pay for the privilege of letting Kelly come out to the ranch, perhaps not the full cost of a guided ride, but maybe some lesson-fee.

Jorge said "No cost! She's welcome to come out here and work with Eddie, or whoever she wants. Here, I'll get Eddie ready, and she can start today."

And before I could say anything, he was out in the pasture with a little bowl of oats, and a lasso.

So when Kelly and Anna got back from their ride...

She went straight out to the ring, where Jorge gave her a lesson in how to longe.

It looks pretty easy, she thinks...

But Eddie has a mind of his own, and pretty soon, he's broken free, and standing outside the ring, stubbornly pulling back on his halter.

So we'll take a step back, and start with just walking. Walking at a steady pace, and not stepping on the feet of the girl holding your lead rope.

Oh, and there you can see the half-chaps that she got from Nonie and Poppa for Christmas.

And then as a reward, some grooming, and treats.

And then we had to leave precipitously when I realized that Kelly and Anna had a basketball game (against each other), and we still had to get home and change.

But that will be another entry.

Christmas Morning 2010 Part 2

Hey, remember that time I used to write here, and post photos?

yeah... me too.

Man, I'm glad I didn't have a "I will write more" New Year's Resolution. That would've sucked, because I already broke it.

Instead, I have resolved to gain 20 pounds and really let myself go this year. It's time to have an attainable goal this year, and I say "Aim High". Also, I resolve to not have my house constantly mistaken for Martha Stewart's this year.

All kidding aside...

I am at the age where I forget stuff if I don't write it down.

So here I am writing down Christmas. Nearly 2 weeks after the fact.

When last we left our intrepid family, the mother had demanded that the Eldest Child march immediately to the showers before any more Present Opening Photographs were taken, because the grease in the hairdo had reached critical mass. He was also instructed to USE SHAMPOO (because, you know, if you don't SAY he has to use shampoo, he probably WON'T use shampoo)

Interestingly, while Skip was off having a short shampoo-filled shower, Nate and Kelly entertained themselves quietly and happily, not whining about the presents that awaited them at all.

Ahem.

These are not my children, obviously.

Soon, a sweet smelling son emerged, all fresh and shiny, and ready to read the Christmas Story.

For the last 10 years (at least), Skip's 'job' on Christmas Morning has been to read this lovely book called "This is the Star". It is a beautifully illustrated book, and EVERYONE should have one in their home library.

Here, I took a little quickie video of him reading one part of it.

Anyways, good to see the boys getting along...

We wrap everything at Christmas. Kids get socks and underwear, and you never know what a box may contain.

You may think that you're getting the cymbal upgrade for your Rock Band X-box drum kit, when instead...

SURPRISE! It's a shirt! Don't you just love Nate's rapture and awe at this discovery?

We also have a tradition of handing squishy parcels to each other with the phrase "I wrapped the socks MYSELF!"

And sometimes? They actually ARE socks!

(Ken does a much better job of looking surprised AND happy.)

Kelly got Nate an origami calendar. A big hit.

And it's important to try to divine what is inside each parcel before you open it.

Nate opened a winter coat, and decided to wear it. (This will come in handy later, when he decides to HIDE one of his presents inside his coat, so he can be assured of being the LAST ONE to open a present at the end of things). Here, he is pontificating on what he thinks this next present will be.

"I think this will be a Night Light"

Nate, you ARE correct!

Time for me to open my present. Kelly picked it out, and Ken paid for it. It is from both of them.

It is a fireplace candelabra. I have wanted one of these for a long time, and it's perfect.

I still have to photograph it all set up.

Nate stashes a gift. He is not very stealthy.

It's like the Gift of the Magi! Kelly gets Nate a page-a-day calendar, and what does Nate get Kelly?

Fortunately, no watches were sold, and no hair was cut in the making of these presents.

Ken's lemon tarts will never stick in the pan again!

A special present for me, from Ken. Not to be shared.

Merry Christmas to all.