Black and White

The week 3 challenge over at 52 Frames is “black and white”. The nice folks over at this website describe black and white photography in this way:

“It’s all about capturing life’s moments in shades of grayscale magic. You might wonder, what’s the big deal with black and white pics? Well, it’s like stripping down to the bare essentials, where contrast, textures, and emotions take center stage. Now, what makes a bang-on black and white photo? First things first, contrast is your BFF! Seek out those extremes, from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights—they’re like the yin and yang in your shot. Texture is another superhero here. Think rough surfaces, crinkled fabrics, or even the lines on someone’s face; they pop in monochrome. Oh, and let’s not forget about shapes and forms! Play with silhouettes, curves, and patterns, because they become the VIPs in your grayscale party.” – editors at 52 Frames.

Now some of you may remember from back in the day that I was never a big fan of black and white. I did make myself try such a challenge a long time ago – I was invited to do so by the lovely Robin -and I learned a new technique in the process, “focal black and white”, and ended up creating an image that I still love to this day. The subject of that photo, my wonderful kitty Cedric, sadly passed away in 2020. He was the last of my crew of faithful companions to survive since my previous blogging days. Just like the so many other things that have changed about my life, I no longer remember how to create such an image in Lightroom. I’m using a mobile version of it as I blog here on my Chromebook, and it doesn’t have all the capabilities of Lightroom Classic.

Back to the challenge at hand. I decided to scroll through some images from last year, since I’m currently uninspired to go outside and hunt for new ones in this weather we are currently experiencing. I found the shot you see above in my collection from my last visit to Florida. I was in a tropical garden, thoroughly enjoying my surroundings and trying to take pictures from all sorts of angles. I came across the flowers you see above in a spot where a ray of sunshine was dramatically lighting them up and knew I needed to try to capture what I saw. Here is the original photo that I got:

I thought the conversion to black and white would work here for those “darkest shadows and brightest highlights” mentioned above. And a little reminiscence to a much warmer day wasn’t such a bad thing either! What do you think? Do you enjoy dabbling in black and white from time to time?

Icy Beauty

There is a place here in the town where I now live ( a small town neighboring the town where I’d lived the majority of my life until about 3 years ago) that has become my “go to” place when I need a quick walk in the woods. Those days when I just need to take a breath after work, this is where I go. It is called the Conant Brook Reservoir – the reservoir was created by the Conant Brook Dam built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1960’s to provide flood protection to communities along the Quaboag River. There are lovely hiking trails throughout the area, just right for being away from the road while not having to work too strenuously. After a terribly dreary, gray, wet weekend, this morning dawned with beautiful sunshine and a blue sky. A light dusting of snow had fallen the previous evening and temperatures were fairly low – upper teens to low 20’s Fahrenheit- as I sipped my coffee on this day off from work and contemplated taking my recovering self out for some fresh air, and of course some photography. The trail head is a short 5 minute drive from where I live, so I bundled up and headed out.

As I walked the path through the woods to the reservoir, I began to see what appeared to be beautiful blue and white sparkle up ahead. I got excited to take some pictures! As I approached the icy water, I could hear CRACK! SNAP! SPLASH! echoing around me. Sheets of ice were breaking and falling into the water. I was so happy I decided to make the trek!

 

I was dazzled by the beauty of the sparkling ice on top of the water:

A short walk after passing by these icy diamonds brings one to the top of the dam.

On a warmer day, this is where I’d often sit and breath and fill my lungs with fresh air and just be. The 20 degree temperature today did not invite me to want to stay. I did find a picture on my phone, however, from a day in late September of last year when I did just that:

It had been a particularly difficult day at school that day, so rather than dwell upon it, I took myself to a place where I could let it all go.

I’m grateful I decided to go out despite the cold today. My cold seems to be on the mend, and this sunny day and icy beauty were just what the spirit needed. Hope your spirit guides you to what you need today too!

ETA: I was scrolling through my photos on this snow day and realized I somehow forgot to include one of my favorites from yesterday:

A New Technique

When I started writing these posts again, my intention was to reconnect with all of you and to have a place to post photos in my own way – not through Facebook or Instagram or what have you. Writing this blog challenged me to be out with my camera and learn techniques which I really enjoyed. Photo challenges and such were a regular part of my posts. The very first challenge I ever did was even before the blog – I challenged myself to a 365 photo project, a photo a day for a year. Lots of those pictures were nothing special, but I continually had my camera around, and kept techniques fresh in my mind. I want to feel that way again, like I actually know how to use my camera. I once again have to give credit to Mike, who explained in this post that he is challenging himself this year to a 52 week photography challenge using the prompts from 52 Frames. I don’t know if I’m going to go along with these challenges, but I love taking cues from others to help me create a post. Mike posted his week 2 challenge today, which made me remember that I was considering playing along. I was struggling with what to even do for a “new technique” as this week’s prompt directs. I started scrolling through their articles they provide to encourage you. I found one that spoke of using unique filters; for example, cut a shape out of an index card and hold it in front of your lens. All of sudden, something clicked in my brain. Years ago, I bought or was given as a gift, I can’t even remember any more, a little filter kit from Holga. It was made to attach to a Canon EF mount. I put it on my EF to RF adapter. There are no electronics whatsoever, so then I had to find in my menus how to make the shutter release without a lens. This absolutely became a “new technique” through the learning process. The photos are nothing special, as this little kit is really just a toy, but they provided a bit of fun. There is a color filter and shape filter. My subjects are a baby spider plant I’m growing for a friend and the grow lights from my plant stand you saw in the previous post. Here are a few shots from this technique.

No editing in Lightroom or other editing was done, these are SOOC. A cute little toy, perhaps to be played with another time on a sunny day outside.

Being Flexible

Earlier this week I told Carol over at Wanderings of an Elusive Mind, that I am a self-proclaimed crazy plant lady. Maybe this isn’t a surprise as someone who loves to be outside, that I would want some of the outdoors inside with me. I no longer have pets in my life, so no kitties who might like to use this area as a personal salad buffet. Some of you may recognize that this space I’m showing you is another part of my life that is different. I no longer live in the house that I was in where I raised my family. The circumstances are complicated and that’s all I feel comfortable sharing at this time in my life.

One particular plant from this menagerie has a habit of attempting to outgrow its container.

This fern in the corner of an attempted terrarium grows tendrils that regularly escape the confines of the glass cube. I prune my plants as needed, however, occasionally I let this one grow as it pleases just to see where it thinks it might go. It amuses me.

Usually, it heads toward the plant stand with the grow lights. The terrarium has its own grow light, but I suppose this fern feels it needs more. Greedy little thing, no?

This time, once it reached the grow lights, it started meandering. That made me think of Robin’s Monday Meander posts. I enjoy how Robin just shares her thoughts in these posts; sometimes the photos are related and sometimes they are not. I thought maybe I could do something along those lines. I wanted to share how I challenged myself to a yoga journey this month, but had no photos that were related to yoga – hence the idea about writing and posting photos that might not necessarily be related. Do you see the connections my mind was trying to make?

Yoga, meandering fern, flexibility – that was the train of thought. Since 2020, when Covid changed all our lives, I started following the YouTube channel Yoga With Adrienne. She has many years worth of yoga videos in all different styles and lengths of practice. I find her likable and soothing. Each January she posts 30 days of yoga – every day of the month she posts a new video related to a theme. I have never once finished an entire 30 day challenge. I started again this January and I’ve been doing very well with it, found myself looking forward to it each day when I got home from work. As it often does, life threw me a curve ball this week. I’d been fighting a winter cold for several days when Thursday at school in the middle of the day my energy level just fell through the floor. I powered through my last two classes of the day, then hastily wrote substitute lesson plans for Friday. I am RARELY out of work. Honestly being absent for a teacher is often more difficult than going to school, but I felt my body was telling me it was time to rest. My 30 day yoga practice came to a halt.

Just like the progress of the fern tendril; I halted that this morning.

It is Saturday morning as I’m typing this post. Hopefully, the yoga is just on pause right now, not halted. I’m resting, drinking lots of fluids, giving my body the time it needs. Luckily it is a long weekend from school – Monday is Martin Luther King day so I have another day to recharge before returning to the place where I likely picked up this cold in the first place. I plan to pick up where I left off with Adrienne when I’m up to it; I’m being flexible.

Does this count?

I commented to Mike after reading his post that maybe I too would post a “self portrait”. If I’m being strictly technical about it, this is a crop of an “ussie” from my New Year’s Day hike. I think that’s what you’d call a group selfie, right? It can’t be a groupie, lol! So no, I haven’t technically followed the rules in that I did not compose a self portrait. I didn’t have my friends’ permission to post their images in my blog, so I decided this was my best bet. As I stated in my return blog post, life is different. My hair is longer and lighter, my face is older. But some things remain the same: I am always happiest outside. 

My Favorites of 2023

Reviewing our favorite photos of the year is a favorite theme of photographers. I am no exception to this, but late to the game. My first foray into the world of mirrorless cameras was a Canon M50 Mark II which I used for most of 2023. After a few frustrations, and Canon’s announcement that they were not going to continue their M line of photography equipment, I packed most of my equipment off in a trade, and purchased the R10 I spoke of in the previous post. So here I present a half dozen of my favorites of 2023, the first 5 of which were taken on that M50.

f25,1/250, ISO 2000 at 133mm

On a trip to Florida for my February break from school, I had the chance to come nearly face to face with a pelican. I liked the head on view of his or her face and fairly good focus on the eyes.

f13, 1/4000, ISO 25600 at 50mm

A trip to Cooperstown, NY presented me with the opportunity to fulfill one of my photography dreams – a field of sunflowers. This is probably the photo of which I am most proud.

f3.5, 1/3200, ISO 400 at 18mm

An oasis in the city of Holyoke, MA, Ashley Reservoir is a beautiful spot for a walk and for photography. Against general photography advice for good light, I spent a lovely afternoon here last summer walking and taking some fun flora and fauna photos. I compensated for the at times harsh light in my editing. My visit this day also provided another favorite of 2023:

f11, 1/60, ISO 400, at 150mm

I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye and was lucky enough to witness a family of deer emerging from the woods. I quietly watched them from a distance and did my best to capture some images. Although I didn’t have my shutter speed fast enough to show you what might have been a really great shot, I did get one of this fawn nursing from its mother.

f11, 1/50, ISO 400 at 18mm

A dear friend of mine is trying to start a photography portrait business. On a late summer evening, we made our way to the tiny town of Shelburne Falls, MA to the Bridge of Flowers where I took pictures of flowers and she took pictures of me! If you remember my posts from “back in the day” flowers have always been a favorite subject of mine, and I did take some pretty close ups, but of all the shots I took that day, I really enjoyed the composition of this one the most.

f9, 1/800, ISO 200 at 10mm

On my first day of holiday break from school, it was chilly but sunny, so I took myself on a solo hike of Peaked Mountain in Monson, MA. It is a place I’ve been many times and I know the route to the summit quite well. This was one of the first shots with the R10 and the ultra-wide lens I referenced in my last post.

Thanks once again Mike for the inspiration. Did you do a favorites of 2023 post? Let me know in the comments.

Life is different, but some things remain the same

It has been more than 7 years since I wrote a post here. As life tends to do, life has changed. One thing that hasn’t changed is that I still love photography. My current life situation is different, technology is different, WordPress is different, my camera is different. I’d like to get back to sharing here because I learned so much from all of you back in the day when I was blogging regularly. Blogging and interacting with all of you made me get out with my camera, and keep my familiarity with it.

The photo you see here was taken with my new Canon R10 – that hasn’t changed, I’m still a “Canon girl”. I purchased an extra wide lens for it that I’m enjoying: it’s an rf10-18mm f4.5-5.6. It was taken at 1/3200, f5.6, ISO 250 at 10mm for those of you who like that information. The R10 is a crop-sensor mirrorless camera, so the view you see here would actually be a 16mm field of view. I love how the R10 feels in my hands. It is similar in size to my old Rebel XS that I was so happy to learn about along with all of you back when I first shared my joy of that purchase. 

The shot was taken on a New Year’s Day hike with some friends to a spot called “Goat Rock” in Hampden, Massachusetts. Another thing that has not changed: I still love being outside. This hike wasn’t any huge elevation or anything, just enough to get your heart pumping, get some fresh air on a sunny day and enjoy a little view.

I’d like to thank Mike, from MLCreations, who gave me some helpful information about diving back in with WordPress after my long hiatus. He kindly answered my questions when I was starting to poke around again in the “blogosphere”. I have no idea how often I’ll get around to posting, or if I’ll become a “regular” once again. Happy new year everyone, and if you took the time to read this, thank you so much.

Well, I Tried to Keep the Tradition!

It is Christmas Eve morning as I’m thinking about my blog.
Awake are just me, the cat and the dog.
A day of prepartion faces me down,
But maybe for a moment, with you I can clown.

This blog has been neglected, that much is clear,
I’ve still thought of you often and read during the year.
Will next year be better? That I don’t know,
Depends where its decided my time needs to go.

Well damn. The words just are not coming to me in the Clement Moore style this morning. Damn shame I can’t seem to make my Christmas tradition of a fun rhyming blog happen this year. This link to the blog post from 2014 has the links to my previous years’ posts in it. The one from 2012 is by far the funniest in my opinion. Last year’s was rather reflective.

Much is similar this year as far as my feelings about Christmas. The magic is different when your kids are adults. The best part of this season is having them home, and I know I will only even have that most likely for a few more years. This could be my last one with my older daughter still living here since she graduates from college in May. (How the heck did that happen???)

My love of photography has unfortunately taken a back seat to many other things these days. I think that is part of the reason this blog has suffered so much with lack of attention this year. Since September I can certainly add my new job as a 7th grade teacher to the list of reasons I’ve had other things taking up my time. I do still want to retain my blogosphere connection with my favorite bloggers out there – Dawn, Carol, Mike and Robin especially. I don’t always have the time to comment, but I do try to regularly stop by and read. I’ve even been neglectful of that in this busy season, running around like a crazy person trying to get it all done.

Perhaps I’ll try again later to do this up right. Perhaps not. Perhaps I’ll write another blog post before the end of 2016. Perhaps not. I like to leave open the possibilities!

To those of you who celebrate it, and actually still read my blog posts on the blue moon when they happen, have a very Merry Christmas! Happy new year too if I don’t see you before then! 😉

Grateful Days

I think this is the longest time I’ve ever gone without writing a blog post. I’m wondering if anyone still reads this space. If you do, thank you for having a look. Life has been busy and fun and active, and this Thanksgiving break has allowed me a moment to pause and think and appreciate, hence the title of my post.

The biggest change, as some of you may remember, is the new job I began this school year. I’m a 7th grade math and science teacher at a parochial school, and what an adventure it has been! Working for a private school is very different from what I’ve known of public school teaching, and as any job does, it certainly has its ups and downs. Overall it has been a very positive experience. There is much demand on my time, but now that I am finally teaching instead of being another teacher’s aide, I know I am doing what I was meant to do. If that is not a feeling of positive energy, I don’t know what is.

This fall has been filled with fun and adventure.

One frustrating adventure was the death of my iPhone 5 in September. One morning the screen simply refused to power on. I lost everything I had on that phone – photos were the saddest loss; I’ve come to like having those little reminders of where I’ve been and what I’ve done. The pictures that I’m sharing today are from my new phone.

Columbus Day weekend was sunny and warm. My sister and I went apple picking and found some side trips along the way. We headed up to an orchard a little bit north of the area we live in to pick my favorite type of apples, macouns. On our way to the orchard, we discovered the factory store to a local gourmet tea company was open.

Tea Guys in South Deerfield MA makes a huge variety of different types of tea. We each had a sample freshly brewed and made some purchases.

Then we found this little place for lunch with great soup and popovers – The Smithsonian Cafe and Chowderhouse Mmmmmmm popovers! A simple but delicious thing that I should try to make more often.

Apple bread was one of the results of this apple picking! So delicious and cinnamon-y!

Teddy and I got out for a nice autumn walk.  I wanted to write up a post to share for Robin’s Walktober but of course that got away from me too.
I’m ashamed to say Teddy and I don’t get out nearly as often as I’d like to and as this great dog deserves. He misses his college girls nearly as much as I do, and I’m sure it would do him some good. My dear friend Sherry, who often motivated me to get out for walks, is going through a difficult time with her sweet dog Angel who had a stroke early this summer and has not yet regained full control of her limbs and is unable to stand unsupported. If you’d like to know more about Angel, she has a page on Facebook: Team Angel Mulloy

October also brought an additional visit to Cape Cod. My sister and I had been down to visit our mother in September as we usually do, to celebrate Jennifer’s birthday. My mother had been on a waiting list to get into a new apartment, and she suddenly got the call 3 weeks before it was available. It was time for action! Jennifer and I went and did our best to help with the cleaning and clearing out and packing that goes with moving to a new place. As Jennifer and I traveled back home, I had a little laugh:

It was cranberry harvest time on the Cape and we were following this truck, getting pinged in the windshield by cranberries! Nothing harmful or too distracting, just a couple here and there, but enough to amuse me. It’s the little things sometimes!

During the last weekend of October, I had the pleasure of attending one of Meghan’s ballroom competitions. I traveled to Cranston RI for Brown University’s annual competition at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet

Meghan and her partner Kate placed in mambo.

Meghan hadn’t brought the beautiful green ballroom dress we got her for Christmas last year with her to this competition because she didn’t think she’d be able to dance this year to the style of dance that she could wear it for, due to a former partner choosing not to dance, but she brought along that pink dress just in case a need arose. As luck would have it, a former captain of the team came to the competition, and the last minute decision was made that he and Meghan would dance. I have less blurry photos from these dances, but none that show the joy that Meghan felt at getting to do this dance like this one does.

Early November brought a gathering of friends. The Halloween parties that I used to throw years ago, have evolved into an autumn dinner enjoyed with great friends. Somehow this is the only photo I managed to take of the evening:

I made a delicious ham and side dishes, and the girls came home and our whole crew of friends was present. I should have taken other shots to commemorate the occasion, but these things happen!

My most recent adventure was a day trip to Boston. Sarah had her Colleges of the Fenway Dance Project fall recital on the weekend before Thanksgiving. I drove out earlier in the day and took Sarah to eat and we visited the Prudential Center wandering and talking before she had to get ready for the show.

I really enjoyed the show, especially the student-choreographed piece that she was in.

(photo credit to Jack Tan)

As many of you know, I mourn the loss of summer and the glory of hot weather and lazy days. Every now and then I let myself like fall, just a little! I find delight in small moments of beauty, like:

a mockingbird landing on the deck and sticking around long enough for me to take a picture,

a pink sunrise on an easy weekend morning before we changed the clocks,

sunshine filtering through a tree dressed in its autumn colors.

In addition of course, we’ve just celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. The girls are home for the long weekend and I’ve been enjoying their company. For all these wonderful times, I am grateful. I wish you joy and beauty and peace in the days to come. Maybe by Christmas break I will be able to share again!

Chasing Waterfalls

One of my early summer adventures this year involved a couple of my favorite things. A day spent with both my daughters, having fuzzy Teddy along for the ride and photography. I feel lucky that I got my girls to agree to go on this ride-along with me! The four of us piled into my car and headed west to the Chester-Blandford State Forest, about a 50 minute ride from here.

I had hopes of taking some really spectacular pictures of rushing water, but it probably should have occured to me that late June of a fairly dry spring wouldn’t be the time for wild water. However, we enjoyed an easy walk through the shade of trees and followed a path that eventually turned out at a small fall that I imagine could be quite pretty when flowing at full capacity. I took this picture with Meghan in the shot to give some idea of scale.

Sarah and Teddy waited near the bottom while Meghan climbed up to do a bit of exploring.

My best shot of the bunch I took:

So not a glamorous rushing thundering waterfall shot, but a good day! Sunshine, a walk, my daughters, my dog, and my camera – time well spent.