random reflections

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Week 23

Sarah and Caleb left yesterday afternoon, and our house feels very empty and quiet this morning. Life with a two-year old is certainly a change for two empty nesters, but do we ever enjoy having them here! We spent a lot of time with Matt, Betsy, and Skylar over the weekend, and I'll be back with photos later this week. The party at Shadow Lake was fantastic: perfect weather, beautiful setting, tons of happy people! I took my camera, but didn't take any photos at the party. Too busy having a good time. Fortunately there was a professional photographer there so I'll eventually have lots of photos.

I'm nearing the end of an eight week course called "Beyond Your DSLR" at our local Community Darkroom. I've really enjoyed it, and will be back to post more about it when it's over. This week's assignment was to choose a subject and take ten photos of it. I'll share just four of them here (I actually took a lot more than 10), for this week's Zoom In, Zoom Out. This is the Frederick Douglass-Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge that crosses the Genesee River. Much of the walkway in this area is lined with parks and restaurants.

I totally forgot there is no railing or fence along this walkway on the Genesee River. Fortunately, Sarah and Tracy were able to monitor Caleb's movements while I got my photos! 

For an earlier assignment, we were instructed to use Raw + JPeg and set our cameras to Monochrome. When you upload the photos you get a black and white image as well as a color image. I'll be using this setting frequently.

I'm off to see what I can do to organize myself for the rest of the week. My list of projects seems endless, and like Rinda, I'm getting ready to try some block scheduling as outlined here by Ali Edwards. I'm hoping it will help me get to some projects that just don't get the attention they need.

 

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Week 22

I'm popping in to post my Zoom In, Zoom Out, but it's probably my last post for a week, and it will be awhile before I catch up with all of you as well.  Sarah and Caleb arrive tomorrow for five days. When Matt and Betsy got married in December it was a very small, immediate family, event. They knew then they'd want to have a party for the extended family and friends and it's this Saturday. My brother and niece are arriving on Saturday morning, so we'll have a full house for the weekend. I'm excited to have family here and to see some friends we haven't seen in quite some time.

Last weekend was busy too. We spent all day Saturday and Sunday (and evening) helping Matt and Betsy move into their new house. It's a great house, with lots of room for a growing family, but the best part of all is the fabulous new yard. The house needs some updating (mostly painting), but the yard is perfect just the way it is.

Skylar is already enjoying it!

Then on Monday we got our vegetables planted at the community garden. I'm hoping this is a more successful year. Last year the torrential rains caused root rot, and we got less than half the yield we usually get.

When we bought our house nearly 29 years ago, we discovered a peony tree in our back yard. It's in the lower yard, and hard to see from the house or the patio. A few years ago when Matt was living with us, he picked one and put it in a bowl. Ever since we've brought them in to enjoy for a week or so while they bloom. The blossoms are huge and so beautiful.

You can check out Helena's kelpies and other links for the Zoom In, Zoom Out meme right here.

Here's hoping all is well with you. See you next week!

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Runniculas

May seemed to be slipping away from me, and then I ended up with a nasty cold which is so unusual I was quite taken aback. So my hopes of getting a lot of watercoloring done fell along the wayside with most other creative endeavors. 

A friend recently brought me a beautiful bunch of runniculas. As part of one assignment for the photography course I'm taking I pulled out my macro lens and had some fun.

I'll be back later with a long (long overdue) One Little Word post for April. I'd better hurry as it will soon be time to talk about May's intentions!

Zoom In, Zoom Out

It's time for Helena's wonderful meme:  Zoom In, Zoom Out. You'll have to indulge me for awhile. It was such a long, gray winter I'm obsessed with the beautiful spring flowers. This week when we walked through the park, the magnolia blossoms were mostly on the ground. The tulips, however, are still gorgeous.

I love the colors in this collection planted near the conservatory.

And I always love red and yellow.

 

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Week 19

I got an early Mother's Day gift from Tracy this year. I didn't have anything particular on my wish list, but several weeks ago received a flyer from the Community Darkroom. An instructor who I knew through Camera Rochester was offering a course "Beyond Your DSLR," and it looked like something I'd enjoy. We just finished our third class, and it's been very interesting. Much of the first two weeks were quite technical, but I knew enough to keep up, and had several "ah ha!" moments. He has me shooting on manual again which I hadn't done in a long time, and our first assignment was to learn how to set custom white balance. I found that relatively frustrating, and not particularly helpful since I shoot in Raw and can easily adjust white balance in Lightroom.

Last week's assignment was to shoot 10 images all with Daylight White Balance since that replicates the old film world more closely. We were to work on good exposure, focus, and composition. I put off doing the assignment until yesterday (the day of the class) since I was hoping for good weather, and finally got some. 

Although these are not the images I shot for class, I did remember to get some shots for this week's Zoom In, Zoom Out while walking through Highland Park. There were lots of photographers walking around the park yesterday. It was a gorgeous day, but folks are a little worried that the lilacs won't really be blooming by Friday when the annual Lilac Festival begins. 

The flowering trees, however, are in full bloom.

And most of the magnolias survived a week of wind and rain. I love the contrast of them against the deep blue sky.

You can check out other Zoom In, Zoom Out photos here on Helena's blog.

 

 

ZIZO: Hope for Spring

It's relatively cold, and very rainy. But, thankfully, not enough rain here to cause the awful flooding that's happening south of us. Late last week, however, it was nice enough to walk through the park, and the magnolias were just beginning to bloom. Driving by Mt. Hope Cemetery in the rain two days ago, I noticed that the magnolias there are in full bloom. There's no sun in the forecast until Monday, so I hope the blooms stay on the trees so we'll get a good view of them in full bloom. They don't last long. They're one of my favorites!

I'm linking these up to Helena's meme:  Zoom In, Zoom Out, though I almost always think it's better to Zzoom Out, then Zoom In. 

 

 

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Easter Fun!

The Typepad platform has been down (in my case) for over four days. Whoever or whatever hacked the site certainly caused a big hassle!

 

But it's back up today in time for Helena's meme Zoom In, Zoom Out. This week was a no-brainer. After church we quickly changed clothes and went to Matt and Betsy's to "help" Skylar with her Easter egg hunt. She loved it. We loved it.

Zoom Out

Zoom In

"Oh, no," cried Skylar when she saw this egg. Although the plastic eggs had only been in the yard a few minutes before we arrived, a squirrel had eaten away both ends of the egg and stolen the M&M inside!

We found another surprise during the Easter egg hunt, just outside the fenced in yard.

If you look closely you can see a nest with three tiny eggs. Here's the momma who wandered off the nest as Skylar was looking for eggs along the fence. She didn't seem overly concerned about us at all.

A family friend of Betsy's arrived with a little wagon filled with two stuffed bunnies while we were there. Skylar loved the bunnies, but the wagon was the best gift.

Fortunately, Skylar is tiny so she's not too big to be hauled around in the wagon herself. After her ride, she hoped her dad could get in. Not so much.

While we were in Chicago we took Caleb to the Museum of Science and Industry. Grandpa picked out a bubble gun for Skylar, and it was a huge hit with both Skylar and her dad.

I loved the pretty bokeh in this one. I hope you had a lovely weekend. Our weather was spectacular for a Rochester Easter, but it's turned cold and rainy again today. Ah, Spring in western New York!

 

One Little Word: March & ZIZO

source

In my efforts to SIMPLIFY, here were my March intentions and a progress report:

Declutter and Purge

• Den purged. One bag of books donated to the library; closet emptied, painted, and organized; another bag of office supplies/notebooks to Goodwill
• Feedly purged:  stopped following blogs I didn’t read regularly so it’s easier to keep up with the inspirational blogs I love

Healthy Living - increase the number of vegetarian meals:

With just a few exceptions, I’ve established a routine of eating vegetarian 2 of 3 meals each day. I’m enjoying it, and not finding it difficult at all. Some days it’s all vegetarian.

Read 4 books:

I only managed 3 books this month, but our book group book was over 700 pages long.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and despite it’s length (771 pages) finished it in just two weeks. It got mixed reviews at our couples’ book group. Tracy thought it was way too long, but agreed the writing is superb.

I’ve read nearly everything Kelly Corrigan has written, and enjoyed it all. This is another memoir about her time as a nanny in Australia and how it changed her relationship with her mother. In some ways, it was hard for me to read since I lost my mom at such a young age, and never got a chance to know her as an adult. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it, and it was an easy read.

This was one of the most difficult books I’ve read in years. It was the Lenten book for our church, and our pastor led a retreat around the book a week ago Saturday. I could only go for the first hour since my Dining Room Ministry team was cooking lunch that day. The author is a poet, and I don’t find reading poetry an easy task. When the writing was more narrative, I enjoyed the book, and found some of his insights profound. In other sections the writing was elaborate, and it was difficult to extract the meaning from it. I wish I could have stayed for the whole retreat; I'm sure I would have gotten more from the book with some shared insights. (One of the big advantages to a book group.)

Classes:

Truthfully I should be working on classes I've yet to finish, but instead I enrolled in the Online Card Class: One Layer Cards, and tried many of the featured techniques. These classes are a great value. For each lesson there were a minimum of three videos, three more step-by-step projects, and a pdf of the lessons. Participants have access to the content of the class indefinitely; the message boards and galleries are closed for participation, but the content of those remains open as well. I always learn new tricks, and this time learned quite a few new techniques.

Photography Projects:

I’m way behind with the challenges in The Visual Toolbox as well as the online course, Practice. For the latter, the terrible weather has definitely been a factor so I think I can probably catch up once spring arrives. I am thoroughly enjoying Helena’s meme, Zoom In, Zoom Out.

 And here is this week's, taken several days ago. Friends of ours asked if we thought Caleb would like a tricycle. We knew he didn't have one yet, so brought it along with us. The first experience was a bit tentative, but when we "rode" it to the playground the other day, it was a huge hit. He's just beginning to get the idea of how to pedal.

 

Sarah arrived home from California a "new" woman. After being a student for all but two years since she graduated from high school, she decided to say "enough." She finished all the class work for her PhD a couple of years ago. She just finished writing her last comprehensive exams, but when she got to Berekley to defend the exams, she realized she's lost her passion for the research needed for the dissertation. The work she now hopes to do doesn't require a PhD. Two more years of steady research and writing seemed overwhelming. The door to the degree remains open without a second application for two more years, so she has time to reconsider, but she's feeling very relieved. I think you just know when the time is right for these decisions. She'll have more time to spend with Caleb, time to pursue some recreational interests, and opportunities to grow her spiritual direction practice. 

Today is Adam's birthday, and I'll be back tomorrow to share his birthday card as well as two others that went out this week.

 

 

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Week 14

My brother-in-law and nephew came for dinner last night (along with Matt, Betsy, and Skylar) and Tom brought me a beautiful bouquet of purple striped tulips and calla lilies. It was the answer to the weekly question of what to shoot for ZIZO.

As you can tell, I had some fun playing around with different angles and getting closer and closer. Thanks, Helena, for providing weekly inspiration to get the camera out for a bit of experimenting!

Spring? ZIZO

This is what spring looks like in Rochester right now.

But if you know where to go you can find the colors of spring. 

Zoom Out

Zoom In

Zoom In a little closer

And for a  bit of exotic color, one of the most gorgeous hibicus I've seen.

Zoom Out

Zoom In

Spring brought to you from the Lamberton Conservatory at Highland Park.