Picture Summer: Day 7, So Subtle

captured wednesday july 7, 2010 at 3:20 pm. ISO 200, SS 1/1250, f/3.5, lens 50mm f/1.4.
pay attention to the understated blushes of summer and celebrate a more restrained expression of the season today.

we love to go out for a drive, one of our favorite directions to head is towards the local fruit farm, to check on "our" apples. i set off that way today to get yesterday's wide open spaces assignment, and as we drove through the rows of apple trees basking in the sunshine, we could see the peaks of rose starting to seep into the young green skins of the golfball size apples. perfect.

i really love how this photo turned out. and of all the images i took of these same apples in a cluster, this was the one capture i took a moment to breath and savor before i composed it and pressed the shutter. and I shot it from in the tree out, got a little scraped, but worth it.

Picture Summer: Day 6, Wide Open Spaces

image captured wednesday, july 7,2010 at 3:06 pm. ISO 200, SS 1/1600, f/3.5, lens 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 at 18mm.
sweeping landscapes can sweep us off of our feet, muse over a local vantage point. use a unique angle.

Ok, so the day of this assignment, I made a point of musing over one view only, my own living room. We needed a day at home doing nothing. My daughter is fascinated by corn fields, and they are what most of the wide open spaces are around here. I didn't realize it was this tall already.

I took this from the roof of our minivan. . .with my kids inside. There was a rather lengthy discussion about how mommy was about to do something they shouldn't. Then I handed the girl a roll of fruity mentos, the boy a box of orange tic-tacs, and climbed up on the roof of the loser cruiser.

I think this angle was a bit too extreme, but I did like mirroring the line of the corn rows, but the horizon is a little too tilty. . .but then again I was precariously perched on the roof of my car, so it sort of works.

Picture Summer: Day 5, Tall Drink of Water

photograph taken wednesday july 7, 2010 at 4:55 pm. ISO 200, SS 1/160, f/3.5, lens 50mm f/1.4.
Pay attention to your cool beverage of choice and how it can allow you to study light.

Ok so this one took me a few days. The day of this assignment I spent 9 hours with my daughter, rocking her belated bday photos session mommy daughter day of awesome. We did have lots of cool drinks, but they were all in canteens or paper cups, and I was busy paying attention to her. So I decided to stage this one over the next few days, tuesday I had the kids help me prepare this peppermint and spearmint tea to brew in the sun. We collected the leaves from our herb garden, cleaned, and stripped them from the stems, and then put them in a glass jar to brew in the 90+ degree heat. I put the whole thing in the fridge to cool overnight and transferred it to this pitcher we got for our wedding but have never used, or maybe once.

You can certainly tell that the light was diffused as it was partly overcast. I love the amber color of the tea, the mint is so pungent you can almost taste it just pouring it. I love that this is the first time my kids and I have done this together.

I love the most that my daughter confided in me as we were looking at the water starting to tinge a light yellow in the sunshine, she said quietly, "You know mommy, I've tried the leaves from that tree, and those leaves over there, I haven't liked them really." I've only known one other person who tasted every plant in her backyard because it seemed a reasonable thing to do, and she made mint tea with her kids this week, just like she used to leave lifesavers in a glass of water in her window sill and serve it to her imaginary friends.

Picture Summer: Day 4, Summer Traditions

Image taken Sunday July 4th, 2010 at 4:22 pm. ISO 200, SS 1/200, f/2.2. Lens 50mm f/1.4 (Nikon).
Today is a day steeped in traditions. Capture the mainstays or simplest pleasures of your routine today, be it a holiday tradition or a celebration of summer.

We haven't been to see fireworks since Penny was about 5 weeks old, it was Columbus' Red, White, and Boom. We were close, ash fell on us. . .the people with the baby. Maybe that's why she can't hear me tell her no? The next year I was pregnant, we did nothing. The following year we were in Kansas City with family, the kids were tired and it was bedtime, the end. 2008 Josh was bitter about something, we didn't want to go anywhere, your kidney exploding will do that I hear. Last year we were in California, our kids were still on the eastern time zone, so we offered to watch our hosts' baby.

So summary: not real big fourth of july celebrations people. not that we don't like the holiday, or the festivities, just not something that meshes with our scheduled programming right now. . .maybe next year.

Instead I pretended we were some of those non-americans taking the course and went the path of trying to capture something that symbolizes summer celebrations for this family. And if it is summer and we are having friends over, Andy usually grills. And he grills well. It just so happened he was out of his homemade "Mutha Sauce," the base sauce for a lot of his recipes, and was cooking that up today.

Nothing says summer celebration like Andy grilling up something awesome and serving it with a homemade delectable sauce.

Picture Summer: Day 3, Getting Centered

Image captured Saturday July 3rd, 2010 at 2:44 pm. ISO 200, SS 1/500, f/1.4.
Although strong composition often comes from placing the main subject off-center, there's perfect balance and symmetry waiting to be achieved when you place the main subject in the center today.

I had tried a number of subjects and images for this assignment, none with any punch that really hit home. I was sitting at our kitchenette table trying another shot when I saw my son's stamps and just took a shot for fun. In the preview on the back of my camera I saw the reflection in the table surface and the framing/symmetry of the chair in the background across from me. So I opened the aperture as far as my 50mm f/1.4 allows and went with a creamy shallow shot of the stamp. Love how an everyday little item worked so phenomenally.

Picture Summer: Day 2, Splashy

Photograph taken Friday July 2, 2010 at 11:11 am. ISO 200, SS 1/3200, f/3.5.
Stage something splashy and capture your ultimate cool-down routine.

Funny story. Some friends were all planning to go to Easton Mall to play in the magic jumping fountains. They were going to go midday and I wasn't going to go as I thought Josh would overheat. then I got the email assignment for the day, and thought well, sort of have a ready made idea in the wings. So I contacted a friend and found out he and his sons were actually going 2 hours earlier! Score!

Trust me, it was hard to narrow down the field of contenders. But this one won for the splashes suspended in the air as well as the splashes bouncing back up off of the concrete. And for those who may not recognize her, that is my daughter in the floral rainbow bathing suit.

Picture Summer: Day 1, Here Comes the Sun

Photo taken Thursday July 1st, 2010 at 10:53 am. ISO 200, SS 1/100 f/2.8.
Find something , anything at all that says summer to you.

Summer to me is about kids wandering around in the backyard, full of imagination and fun. Finding little weeds and flowers and picking them to bring to momma to put into a glass of water. The best little bouquets I can think of, and every bit of the best of summer, finding magic in all the little spaces.