Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Photography


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You want me to look WHERE Mama?

I'll pose but I won't look at you

It’s cold and really windy, but this afternoon the sun came out so Katie and I took advantage of the perception of warmth and went for a drive.  Mama took the camera.  Katie sighed.

We went to a park that has a children’s play area.  There’s a big sign filled with all the rules; one says  ‘no pets.’

Not looking at you.

But since there wasn’t anyone around and since Katie can’t read we wandered in anyway.

Are you sure we can be here Mama?It smells like children! You know I don’t especially like children.  They’re noisy.  Noisier than me.  And that’s saying something.

Hey, there’s lots of places to sniff.  Wait.  You want me to sit where?  Under these weird things?  OK.  But I’ not going to look at you.

Not looking at you.

Nope just not gonna do it.

Nope.

Darn!  You got me!

Now wait a minute.  You want me to climb up THERE?  Oh yea.  I can do that!  But I’m not gonna look at you.  You might as well face it.

Not looking at you.

Hey Mama this is fun and everything, but can we just go for a walk out in the grass?

I sat good for all your stupid pictures, so can we, can we?  Just go nose around all that pretty grass for awhile?

Of course we can baby-girl.  Right after one last shot.

Ok.  But I’m not looking at you.


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Subtly of Fall

Today the temps were in the low 40’s, the wind was howling and the rain was coming down sideways.  I miss summer already.  Luckily Katie and I got to go to her favorite local park last Sunday while the sun was shining and the air was still warm.

She said it was about time she got to do something fun.

She ran around a lot…

…while I noticed all the subtle colors.

Despite today’s weather we are only beginning the fall season, and haven’t reached our peak color yet.

Still, if you look you’ll see beautiful soft color everywhere.

Katie says…Hurry up Mom!  Geeze I have to wait for you all the time!

Coming baby-girl, Mama’s coming.

 


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A little competition

I’ve been thinking about Scott’s photo challenge – to photograph some kind of competition.  There are lots of things that come to mind; pie eating contests, lumberjack pole climbing contests, Renaissance jousting contests, dog shows, art fairs.  But none of these things seemed likely to occur somewhere that I might be.

So I fell back to a sport I used to participate in – running.  I found a small 5K race (that’s 3.1 miles) only a few miles away at a senior assisted living facility and on a Sunday morning I drove over there, feeling overdressed in my jeans and jacket, to watch a group of people head off on a beautiful run through the fall morning light. (Click on the photos to see them larger and with more detail.)

As at every race there was anticipation in the air as people prepared to run.

Volunteers were setting up a table with water and bagels for race finishers.

Soon everyone was getting last minute instructions.

And then they were off!

While the runners were out on the course, the residents of the assisted living facility did their own walk around the grounds and then crossed the finish line themselves…

…and many stayed to watch the runners come in.

The winner was a young man, who came in way ahead of the rest of the pack.

The first female was also young.

All the returning racers got a cheering welcome from residents and family alike.

It was a beautiful morning for a multi-generational run.

Makes me think I should put my running shoes on and get back into the competition!


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Riley's mailbox search

A long time ago, way back in August, while Reilly went for a walk around his neighborhood  he  noticed the fancy mailboxes there.  He and his Mom suggested we all look around and see what kind of pretty or interesting or unique mailboxes we just might have near us.

Well, lots of time has passed, but I’ve been keeping this challenge in the back of my mind.  Mostly around here we have pretty simple mailboxes out on posts by the side of the road, nothing fancy, nothing pretty, nothing remotely interesting.  Or so I thought.

Today while driving to see if I could find a competitive photo for Scott’s photo challenge  I decided to keep my eyes open for mailboxes too.  Look what I found!

Down one of the dirt roads that I used to run is this mailbox, advertising the kind of person that lives there.  I think this person just might be pretty handy to know.

And on another road I drive everyday is someone longing to be near the sea.

Most of our mailboxes are just, well, regular mailboxes.  Though lined up like this I think they look pretty interesting.

But my favorite is this one, made out of patio pavers with a top that lights up at night.   It’s something they built this summer and I’ve been admiring it for weeks.

I’m pretty happy with the mailboxes I found in a single morning.   And even though there are some fun mailboxes out there, I think I’ll keep our simple brown one.  It works just fine.

Katie’s waiting for some mail.

 


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The color of summer – photo challenge

Karma has issued her August photo challenge.  This time it is all about color.  In fact our assignment was to find all the colors of the rainbow represented in summer fun.

We have lots of summer color around here, so I’m taking you on three different photo tours. It’s difficult to choose just one photo for each color, so I’m splurging on three categories!

First is the county fair.  I went to the fair specifically to find the colors of the rainbow.  Some of you have seen many of my fair photos; I posted them shortly after I was there.  But I saved the photos here just for this challenge.

Second is our own garden.  After I read the challenge I realized that all the colors of the rainbow were right here at home.

Third is an annual event that occurs here every August called the Woodward Dream Cruise.  People from all over the country converge on our county and drive their antique and muscle cars up and down miles and miles of Woodward Ave, just like teenagers used to cruise Woodward in the 50’s.  It’s a huge event and there are beautiful cars on display for miles.  I’ll show you just a few.  I found that I was more interested in the art of pieces of vehicles than the whole car or truck.  So mostly you’ll see pieces of them here.

 

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

 

Blue

 

Purple

And as a special bonus, a picture of ME doing something summery.


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Woodward Dream Cruise

 

Every year lovers of antique cars and trucks show up here and cruise Woodward Avenue, reminiscent of the teenagers who used to cruise up and down that road back in the 50’s.  It’s a huge event; people bring their cars from all over the country.

I wish you all could have been there.

I’m not a car crazed person, even though I live in Michigan.  And though this event has been going on and growing bigger and bigger for years, I’ve never attended.

I went this year and wandered around on one mile of a several mile extravaganza.

The cars were beautiful.

The noise of hotrods on the street was overwhelming.

 

It was a blast.


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Talking about scale

I’d been thinking  how to complete the latest assignment over at Scott Thomas’ blog Views Infinitum. Scale is a funny thing, and sometimes I’ve been surprised while looking at photos how little you can really tell about the size of something.  For example, we take so many close up photos of our dogs that it’s hard for everyone else to see how big or small they really are.  But for this assignment I wanted to do something totally different.  So Katie is off the posing hook.

Most of you know I went to the county fair this week. I expected to find some things to photograph at the fair that would show scale.  You know, typical over the top fair stuff.  But out there is one of Michigan’s biggest barns.  I hadn’t thought about the barn when I was considering what to photograph for this assignment, but as I drove by it that evening I knew it was something I should try to capture.

The 14,000 square foot Ellis barn was built in 1848 and used to sit out on our main road next to it’s farm house.  We all drove by it every day and mostly didn’t think about it until the property was sold to a developer for a subdivision.  Then everyone wanted to know what would happen to the structures.  The house was moved toward the back of the property and became part of the new subdivision.  The barn was too huge to move in one piece so it was dismantled in 2004 and rebuilt, board by board, on the Oakland County  fairgrounds.  I hadn’t been to see it in it’s new home before, and I have to say it’s even bigger when you’re up close!

Friday night there were lots of people around to give you some sort of context.  Here’s a shot of the front of the barn.  Can you see the person standing in the doorway?  Or the people sitting under a canopy on the right?  It was difficult to photograph as the sun was going down, shadows were creeping toward the barn, and it was just so darn big!

Here’s a different angle…from the end of the barn, looking up another ramp.

I grew up visiting my grandmother’s farm, hanging out inside barns and I can attest…this is one huge barn!  Perhaps my favorite way of showing the scale of this immense building is to show you the inside.

Even more fascinating than the exhibits inside is the structure itself.  You couldn’t help but stand in awe and gaze up at the giant beams, the height of the roof and the cavernous room that once housed dairy cattle on a working farm.  Thank goodness it was saved, because we won’t see the likes of this again.

And for a more intimate look at scale, do you see the newborn calf curled up underneath his mama?  She’d just given birth to him the day I was at the fair.  I’m sure he didn’t feel all that small to her, but he’s tiny compared to a full grown cow.

I had lots of fun looking for ways to show scale at the county fair.  I hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride!

 

 


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County Fair

One of the favorite summer events growing up was heading to the county fair.   It’s a place that kids get to show off their 4-H projects, be it an animal they raised or a sweater they knit, or fruit they canned.   We’d win ribbons, ride the carnival rides, watch tractor pulls or musical concerts and eat fancy junk food.  Grown ups can ride and eat too;  I think it’s really a place for kids of all ages.

I have fond memories of excitedly deciding which rides to spend my limited amount of tickets on, and checking out the barns where all the animals were, not to mention perusing the other project displays areas, to see if we won any ribbons that year.  Mostly I have memories of lights and colors and sounds and smells.

Well it happens that my tiny little town has the fairgrounds and every year for a week in July we host the county fair.  It’s just a couple miles up the road and though I’ve lived here almost 20 years I’ve never been.  Somehow it comes and goes and I always think I’ll make it next year.

This year I marked my mental calendar and Friday night after work I headed up the hill to the fair.  I got there around 7 and had to park in the far far far away lot, back several farm fields from the fair, but it was a nice walk.

And as I got closer I could hear the sounds of my childhood.  Someone was singing, there were monster trucks roaring, hawkers were selling their wares and people were squealing on the rides.  Awesome!

I took my camera because I thought that maybe I’d find something for Scott’s photography assignment, or maybe Karma’s August photo scavenger hunt. You never know, and the county fair has endless possibilities.  You’ll have to wait to learn how my search for appropriate shots turned out.  I do encourage you to visit their blogs and check out the assignments, because this is just so much fun.

I have a feeling I’ll be sharing more stories of the fair in future blogs.  Stay tuned.  (Remember to click on the photos to make them bigger and easier to see!)