Photography | Change Is Hard

March 1, 2016
by dawnkinster 17 Comments

Scanning memories

Technology. It frustrates me, confuses me, tests my patience, pushes my buttons. I’m not even on the learning curve but usually somewhere far behind it. So I’m feeling pretty progressive these days as I help a friend scan her family photos. And I try not to think about discussions we had in library grad school about technology changing and future generations (or even sooner) having to move collections of documents and data to whatever the latest viewing technology is available. That someday no one will be able to view CDs full of data unless they have an antique reading device. And that paper documents still available from centuries ago are still readable if they were preserved.

But that’s another blog.

This one is about the process of providing access to memories for everyone. The way to distribute family photos among surviving members electronically, quickly and efficiently. And that’s a misnomer in itself. Once a file is complete the transfer to other people will be quick. But putting that file together takes a long time.

I love the 'mid-century-ish" of this. And it was mid century too

I love the ‘mid-century-ness” of this. And it was mid-century too.

I cleaned out a closet this week and found a box filled with random photos, some of them very old, of family. They are so fun to look at, and bring back so many memories that I want to share them with my brothers and sister. So I’m scanning them into a file. And I’ve found that scanning a friend’s family photos is much faster than scanning my own.

Working through a pile of photos spanning my own history takes time. Time to peruse each image, each face, to take in the background and figure out which house, which city, which trip, which year. To sort out which baby image belongs to which child.

Time slips away as I am immersed. And then the dog barks, or the snow slides noisily off the roof, and I am jolted back to reality. Mom and Dad are gone. My brothers and sister live far away. I miss them all but am still very thankful that I have the memories captured in these random photos.

And so I scan the next picture and smile at the baby smiling back and remember summer days and adventures from long ago. Someday this project will be complete and I’ll be giving them their memories for review. I hope they enjoy them as much as I did putting it all together.

I can’t see how they won’t. Who can resist pictures of cute kids?

Lean on me…

February 28, 2016
by dawnkinster 27 Comments

WordPress Photo Challenge: State of Mind

Last week we were running through the park in shorts.

But this is Michigan, so this week is different. Can you guess what my state of mind was when I snapped this?

The weather outside is frightful.

You would be correct.

For other interpretations of ‘state of mind’ check the link. Or visit a few of my favorites (so far) here, here and here.

Seems obvious to me that the ground hog lied back at the beginning of this month.

Pretty though

February 25, 2016
by dawnkinster 20 Comments

Now this is more like it!

Katie here.

As you might know I’m a sheltie princess, and we shelties love snow. We come from a land far away that is very cold and whenever we get a chance to play in the snow we’re very very happy.

At least that’s the official story.

Maybe I’m just getting older but I have to tell you this storm we’re getting right now hasn’t been that much fun for me! It’s been snowing for over 24 hours and there’s a lot of snow on the ground. My dad went out three times yesterday to clear the driveway. I don’t know why they don’t just wait till April when it would all melt by itself. Humans don’t always have common sense, you know?

Remind me why we’re out here mama?

Anyway, this morning my mama and I went out back to fill the bird feeders. I like to help her with that, mostly because I like to sniff all around under the feeders. There’s lots of good sniffing under there, I can tell you.

This morning mama had to shovel a path across the deck just to get to the feeders. I barked and barked at the shovel cause I don’t like it. Not one bit. But after she got to the steps she just went down them and over to the seed bin. Well! I had to go too, so I raced down the steps ….and got stuck at the bottom!

Uh oh!

The snow was deeper than I am tall! I couldn’t touch the ground and I couldn’t go anywhere and mama was laughing at me. I gave her the stink eye and she came over and picked me up and set me back on my feet and I scrambled back up the steps to the deck where I waited patiently for her to finish filling the feeders.

I’ll just stay up here mama.

When we got back inside mama went out the front door to clear up the driveway. I wanted to go with her. I go everywhere with my mama! But she said ‘no baby, you won’t like the snowblower. You don’t like the vacuum and this is just like that only it throws snowballs far away!”

Well!

I told her off! I love to run after snowballs! What was she thinking! But she still said no so I stayed inside and picked the snowballs off of my legs and left them all over the house to melt so that she could be pleasantly surprised when she stepped in ice cold water puddles later.

This is a fine mess I’m in.

She was outside a long time. And when she came back in she was covered in snow! She asked me if I wanted to see what the snowblower looked like, and maybe check out my poop room that she shoveled as well. So we wouldn’t have to go back out just as soon as she took her coat off she said. (I don’t know what she’s talking about. I always pick opportune moments to ask to go out.)

Doesn’t look like a vacuum mama!

Mama was right. I didn’t really like the snowblower thing. It was big and weird looking. But I sat next to it cause she asked me to. I am nothing if not an obedient dog. You believe that right? Of course you do. A princess does not lie.

Not often anyway.

She made me sit behind daddy’s truck too. I don’t get it. She’s always telling me to stay away from cars and trucks and then she wants me to pose next to one. I guess it was pretty obvious this one wasn’t going anywhere soon.

Are we going to go on an adventure mama?

Here it’s not even noon yet and I’m already just exhausted by all this snow. I think I’ll just take a little nap now. Mama says it’s snowing harder and she or daddy will have to go back out and clean up that driveway again. I don’t know why. I think they should follow my lead and take a nap.

zzzzzzzzzz

I hope you all get your naps in too, and be very careful if you’re driving. Cause I, the princess, want you all to be safe!

It’s a winter wonderland!

February 22, 2016
by dawnkinster 21 Comments

WordPress photo challenge: Seasons

Here in lower Michigan we’ve been confused by the seasons. It’s supposed to be cold and snowy in February. In fact this time last year we had wind, drifts of snow, and frigid below zero temperatures.

So you can imagine our joy at the temperatures this February. And the lack of snow. Sure there are piles of it in the shadowy woods or where city trucks dump their street slush. But mostly, around here, it feels as though we dodged the winter bullet.

Temperatures in the 40’s F (4.44 C) had people running around town like it was the middle of summer. Out at the park I actually stalked a runner for this photo challenge.

I had just finished my own 3.5 mile walk/run, and was climbing into my car for the ride home when I spotted him starting out. I loved that he was wearing shorts in February and that his shirt was bright green. So I shoved the car into gear and raced to a parking lot one mile down the road, where I leaped out and trotted a ways up the path, positioning myself on a curve, pretending to take pictures of the dried up winter lake, when in fact what I wanted was him running in shorts in February in Michigan.

Warm run in February.

To show you that ‘seasons’ can’t always be predicted, and staying flexible is always important.

You can see other interpretations of this challenge at the original post. Or visit a few of my favorites here, here and here.

What season is it at your house? Please share with us, especially if it’s tropical. Because here in Michigan we know for sure that this little respite will be brief and winter will be back with a vengeance soon. So we’ll live vicariously through your photos until June or so when we can enjoy our own summer sun.

Just ignore that pile of snow.

February 21, 2016
by dawnkinster 15 Comments

Creative types

Fun stuff.

Almost two weeks ago I showed you all the things people were doing in the middle of a Michigan winter out at my favorite park. And I mentioned that there were also a number of artists painting there that day, so many that I figured they deserved their own post.

And now two weeks have passed in a flash.

So before more time slips through my fingers, let me show some very talented people at work capturing their vision of my favorite park. They were spread out near the nature center, some along the bike/running path…

Painters and runners share space.

…some tucked further into the woods.

Painting in the woods.

Most were focused on parts of the lake, fringed with cattails and surrounded by bare trees against the brilliant blue sky.

There’s beauty everywhere.

It was cold that day, and they were painting while dressed in heavy coats or hunting gear, scarfs, gloves, hats.

Staying warm with art.

But the cold certainly didn’t dampen their enthusiasm. Their work was beautiful. I wanted to stop and talk to each of them about what they were doing, but they seemed very intense. So I admired from afar.

Something else I admired from afar was this guy. Or girl.

Our national bird.

This photo is cropped 3 times, the bald eagle was sitting in the top of a heron rookery far out in the middle of a lake. I’ve never seen one this far south, and I wouldn’t have seen this one if he or she hadn’t flown in with a huge stick while I was across the street watching artists. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. There was a fringe of trees between us, and I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. So I ran back to the nature boardwalk and looked through my long lens.

I still couldn’t believe it.

I stayed a long time watching the eagle watch all of us. And if it weren’t for the cold I might be there still. I felt privileged to have witnessed the low flight of this bird, and its sweep up to the top of that tree. Eagles are very special in our family and I’m so glad to have seen this one. Another photographer said a pair of them was around that lake all last summer, though I never saw or heard anything about eagles being there. I’ll keep a sharper eye out this summer and keep you posted.

An incredible day captured.

Meanwhile…the artists were packing up and headed home to warm up and reminisce about their lovely day at the park. I decided I would too.

Maybe someday I’ll try oil painting. I think it would be fun, but probably frustrating, to capture my version of things I see. If I give it a shot you guys will be the first to know. And I hope I see the artists and my bald eagle out at the park again this spring and summer. I’ll let you know about that too.

Waiting and watching.

February 19, 2016
by dawnkinster 21 Comments

Cee’s black and white photo challenge: Weather

It’s a long time till summer picnics.

The weather lately has been vacillating between cold snow and warm rain. Sometimes it all collides and we get this.

February 17, 2016
by dawnkinster 3 Comments

Wordless Wednesday

February 16, 2016
by dawnkinster 28 Comments

The same but different

A lonely day at the lake.

Twenty-eight degrees F (-2.22 C) here, and a slight frozen mist hanging in the air; seems perfect to go for a nature walk around a lake. So I drove out to my favorite park again. You know, the one that was full of activity and bright sunshine the last time I was there.

Not so much sun or activity today. It felt melancholy, lonely, damp. Few people were out, though there were more than I expected at the back of the park on the far side of the lake.

Someone is watching me.

And there were birds. As I took my first step on the nature path I could already hear the chickadees calling, and soon they were circling my head. They expect a treat. I left them a few seeds on the railing of the first bridge and moved along. It was too cold to stand still, arm outstretched to feed them individually.

Incoming!

I was thinking about why I was lugging my camera. Before I left the house I debated not bringing it, considered the advantages of taking a walk in nature without it. But then I realized if I did that there would be something amazing and I’d regret not having it.

What you lookin at lady?

So early in the walk, with fingers already getting cold, I thought about all the pictures I already had, filed away in my archives. Pictures of this park, these birds, most under better light and conditions than I was facing today. So why was I still watching for something interesting?

Anything good up here?

People have asked me….”what do you do with all those photos?” I don’t necessarily do anything with them, except share a few of them here with you, or with family. If I’m at a family event I might turn the best of them into a book for my siblings to remember our time together. But only a few of them ever end up in anything I share.

Most of the time I just flip through them and remember.

Because, you see, I can remember what it felt like to stand where I stood when I took almost every one. The way the light was, the temperature of the air, unique smells and sounds, why I was out there, the shots I missed when I got the one I’m staring at now. The photos in my archives take me right back to the adventures I experienced when I took them.

OK, we can share.

I think it’s probably a lot like playing music. It’s more fun to be the player than the listener. Perhaps it’s more fun being the photographer than the one looking at the results. For me, it’s all about the hunt; sometimes for something specific that I have in mind, but more often the fun of finding an opportunity to catch something surprising or pretty, or arty or just cool.

Eastern bluebird scout

So on today’s cold walk along the mist shrouded lake I didn’t find lots of great photos, but I found enough to make me smile. And really that’s enough to make cold feet and tingly fingers worthwhile.

Peek-a-boo

Even if no one else ever sees the majority of them.

Serenity

February 13, 2016
by dawnkinster 6 Comments

WordPress Photo Challenge: Life imitates art

Several years ago a friend and I were visiting an art gallery.

Times two.

I snapped this picture of her, never noticing until I saw the shot later that she was standing in a similar pose to the piece of art hanging behind her.

Sometimes life imitates art unconsciously.

Here, here and here are a few of my favorites, so far, from this week’s challenge.

February 8, 2016
by dawnkinster 26 Comments

Active winter

Sunday afternoon at the heron rookery.

My folks moved to Alabama when I was working in the Upper Peninsula, so I stayed behind in Michigan. I’d visit them and sometimes meet their friends. As they introduced me to people who had lived their entire lives in the South the response was almost universally horror stricken. “You live in MICHIGAN? Doesn’t it get awfully cold there? And how do you handle all that snow??”

Well, yes it does get cold here, and it snows too. Sometimes a lot. But seriously, we don’t sit in our homes and mope — we get out into the fresh air and enjoy it. It’s the only way to get through the winter, to not let it get us down. Because yes it does get old.

But not this year, at least not here. Not yet.

I was out at my favorite park on Sunday and was amazed at all the activity. though I shouldn’t have been surprised. It was chilly and clouds were chasing the sun, but it was a beautiful day. So I thought I’d show you what people in Michigan do on a winter weekend. There was hardly any snow on the ground, and people didn’t want to waste a chance to enjoy some time outside.

Nice day for a long run.

This particular park is centered on a very large lake. There’s an eight mile (12.8k) bike/walk/run paved path around the lake, and many other miles of paths through the hills and fields including nature paths through the woods.

It’s incredibly beautiful no matter the season.

People were out doing everything you could imagine. Aside from the expected walking and running, it’s a perfect place for well socialized dogs to take their humans for an afternoon walk.

Let’s get going!

And the fishing is great too, no matter the season. Lots and lots of fisher people stand on the banks of the lake and catch their supper, as evidenced by the lures tangled in the high branches of a tree above the bike path.

Remnants from last summer.

But this time of year it’s all about ice fishing. I can’t say I understand that sport, but I fully support a person’s right to sit out on the cold lake staring at a hole in the ice waiting for a fish to strike. It’s gotta be fun for some people. Just not me.

It’s a chilly sport.

On this Sunday the weather was so warm that people were out riding their bikes…

Out for a spin.

…and even inline skating.

Faster than running, more exercise than biking.

It felt like spring, and I’m sure we all wish that winter was over. Of course we know it’s not — snow and cold is forecast for later this week. If the snow arrives you might not want to be out on skates or your bike, but you can still wander the nature trails and feed the birds.

Feeding the birds.

Yes there are signs out not to feed the wildlife, but enough people hold sunflower seeds out for the little birds that they now follow nature walkers around asking for a handout. It’s a special feeling to have a wild bird flit to your finger for an instant. Especially for young kids, and those of us still young at heart.

He weighs nothing at all.

Sunday there was also a large group of artists at the park, each painting their vision of the paradise that is this park. That was so special it’s going to have to go into it’s own blog. Stay tuned.

So that’s what people will do on a nice winter day at a beautiful public park way up here in Michigan. The next semi-sunny day you have during the rest of this winter head out to a park near you. I guarantee you’ll see something interesting and fun and maybe even beautiful.

Regardless of whether or not it’s cold or there is snow on the ground.

Running in shorts. In February in Michigan.

Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Photography