Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Photography


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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!)


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Heartland

Those of us with a bit (or a lot) of wanderlust sometimes feel trapped; we ache to get out and explore.  We’re envious of those that live in some other, greener, hillier, flatter, wetter, drier place.  Sometimes we forget to look around at the place we are, forget to notice the pretty things right here.

I was thinking about that during last weekend’s adventure with Katie.

Thinking about how pretty the farmland is around here – especially this time of year when the corn is just higher than our knees and the wheat is coming in, the fields are being hayed.

This is the heartland of America, a place you can feel comfortable no matter who you are.  Where people are just pretty much plain folk.

Not to say there aren’t just plain folks everywhere else.  But still, this is a very nice place to be.


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Light on leaves

This morning while out with Katie I saw the rising sun glimmer on the dew of a small redbud tree in the yard.  If you click on the photos you’ll see the shimmer yourself.

Katie knows what it means when Mama says “Katie – let’s go get the camera” and she trotted right back toward the house.  She’s such a good girl.

The tree reminded me of PJ’s blog “Shot in Light” ; I hope she doesn’t mind that I share her blog with all of you.  She has beautiful shots of things in the country.  Go check it out!

Anyway…here is my “light on leaves” offering to you.  Hope you have a mellow Saturday morning.


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Photo scavenger hunt – at the zoo

Karma challenged us to find photos of the following:

  • a colorful bird of your choice
  • a grad – of any sort
  • a dad – of any sort
  • something purple
  • a butterfly
  • a funny face

BONUS: a cow, bull, heifer, calf or ox.  Extra bonus points for  the belted galloway.  (This assignment isn’t due till June 25…you can challenge yourself too!)

 

So on Father’s Day I took some time and went to the Detroit Zoo.  I figured there might be a butterfly house, was sure there would be colorful birds, and figured I’d find a funny face somewhere.  And since it was Father’s Day I was hoping to find a father or two along the way.

I have to say – this was a blast!  The zoo had everything I needed except for one item on the list; I bet you can figure out which photo came out of my archives.

So let’s get going!

A Colorful bird:

I have lots of colorful bird photos, but this one won out.  I’ll show you others on another blog.  Promise.

A Graduate:

In the spring of 2008 I graduated with my library degree.  Someday I’m going to do something librarian-ish with it.

A Dad:

I saw lots of Dad’s out with their children…

…which made me miss mine a bit.  Still, it was nice to see all the families enjoying the beautiful day.

Something Purple:

I took a lot of pictures of pretty purple flowers.  But on my way out of the zoo I saw this, and knew it would become my the purple element for my hunt.  Because flowers could be anywhere, but this was definitely something from the zoo.

A Butterfly:

There was a butterfly house right near the front of the zoo!

I hadn’t seen a butterfly here at home yet this spring.  After my trip to the zoo I was weeding the garden and a monarch landed on my shoulder for a moment.   Priceless.

A Funny Face:

A funny face?  Well I saw a few, but this guy had the best face.  The docent said this emu was pretty ornery.  Maybe it was just because he had a bad hair day.

A Cow:

But of everything, you know what I’m most excited about?  The COW!  I know…I know.   A cow you say?

The zoo had farm animals so I figured I’d find a cow there, but I had no idea I might find one that looked so much like a “belted galloway.”  But look at this!

I don’t know if it really is a belted galloway…but it certainly has a wide white belt.  Maybe he’s still dressing from the 70’s.

All in all I am truly grateful to Karma for challenging me like this.  I had a wonderful Father’s Day morning.  Such fun!

Here’s one more funny face from the zoo…