Tuesday, February 25th, 2014

Hibou

Thanks to generous family and friends and the presence of an existing child, Heather doesn’t need anything for her soon-to-come baby. At least, nothing I can afford. So I figure, if someone doesn’t need anything and I feel compelled to give them something anyhow, it should either be (1) delicious or (2) small and always (3) made by someone totally awesome. In this case, the awesome person is me.Β I decided to make baby Leigha an owl.

 

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First I made a 1″x1″ doodle of my idea. Then I made a bigger doodle. Then I started cutting fabric. For some reason, having a child has liberated me from the confinement of using sewing patterns. I used: six co-ordinating colors of fleece fabric, six colors of thread, three types of ribbon, half a plastic snap, some quilt batting, Β some crinkly plastic and a couple of steel jingle-bells. The owl has a wingspan of about 7 ΒΌ” or 18.5 cm. It’s so adorable! I want one for me…

 

Oh, and what did I learn about photography today? To use snow as a neutral background, shoot into the sun and let the object’s shadow fall onto itself. That way, the whites are burned-out whites and the object’s colors remain somewhat vibrant. Otherwise, the snow turns neutral-grey & when I try to fix that, the colors get a bit washed out. I’m sure there’s someway around that issue, but it takes time.

Friday, February 21st, 2014

ISO 25600

This week’s assignment was to take some photographs in low-light conditions.

I turned my ISO all the way up.

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Thursday, February 13th, 2014

Visitors from Falls Road

We don’t have a Jack-in-the-box,

but we do have a totally awesome vintage 1974 Fisher Price cash register with all six coins.

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Iris drives off in the getaway car as Joshua tries to heist the cash register.

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Joshua checks out Iris’ butt.

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Iris adores baby Mesa.

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Joshua writes Iris a message on the magnet board, but Iris can’t read.

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Mesa is astounded with Joshua’s skill at making the climbing men climb.

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Joshua assesses whether the toys are distributed evenly enough across the floor.

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Wednesday, February 12th, 2014

Mostly we’ve been sick again

Following some directions on youtube, I made my regular ol’ convertible Wescott ‘brolly into a brolly-box. I really like how it softens the light. Unfortunately, my skills at flashing are still pretty low. So is my ambition for creative photography this week. The assignment was “directional light: side lighting.” I barely scraped by.

 

Iris looks into the light. Flash!

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I try to get Iris to sit still a minute & end up with another underexposed photo.

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Tuesday, February 4th, 2014

Ice at Shelburne Farms

Which of the following do you prefer?

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1.

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2.

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Monday, February 3rd, 2014

Star Garden

On Mondays, we go to a Waldorf playgroup called Star Garden.

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Iris really likes it.

 

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Now Iris is a dough pro.

Friday, January 31st, 2014

Pretzel Dough

Everyone got some dough (including Mesa)

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to poke

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and pat

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and prod

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and pinch

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and roll

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and roll some more.

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Tuesday, January 28th, 2014

Assignment: Your Town

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Shelburne, VT is a cute perfect little New England town with lots of picturesque historic buildings and farms and fantastic architecture dotted all over the landscape. My house is right in the village on a little loop drive that abuts the LaPlatte Nature Park. There’s about fifteen little houses on little lots in my little loop neighborhood. There’s a big field for wandering around in and the sledding hill and the community gardens all right here. One could walk to the grocery store or the PO or the hardware or one of a few decent restaurants via the woods, should one choose to do so. It’s not some vast wilderness, tho. It’s a little city wilderness. It’s owned by the Nature Conservancy. Pass two houses, go by the community garden, enter the woods and go down the steep trail, take a right at the bottom, go over the little bridge and walk a ways and you’ll get to LaPlatte Falls. It’s frozen, because it’s been sub-zero for weeks. I bought this stupid over-priced, shoddy-built, teeny-tiny, leaky cold wet house with no central heating in central Vermont because I can walk out the door and think: This is it. This is my town. These are my woods. These are my falls. This is my everything. I am here.

Monday, January 27th, 2014

Baby Leigha @ (-3) months

Heather is going to have a baby. I am practicing capturing her belly with light.

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I have some ideas how to make it better.

Ooh! I’m so excited…

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014

Amaryllis Bloom

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The subject for last week’s P52 was “My favorite,” which can mean anything. An inordinate number of people posted photos of their favorite child. I wasn’t going to post a photo of my child at all, because I’m above all that. Of course, I only have one child. The two of us have spend the last week housebound, knocked off our feet by some gruesome intestinal flu. Iris threw up lots and lots. She didn’t eat anything but momma milk for nearly a week, tho now she has bites of custard now and again.Β