Youngest Grandson

He likes to pose in my hat, and I even occasionally catch him smiling! I love that smile Emerson.

Christmas Moon

Trial and error, persistence, and a little bit of "tweaking" to get this shot of the last "Christmas Moon" until 2034. I might be around for the next one, but the one that is here is the one that counts I guess!

I shot this with a 400 mm telephoto and was surprised that there was enough light in the shot to get the shutter over 1/200 of a second at an ISO of 800. Some real edges formed with sharpening the image, but the obscuring clouds worked pretty well to soften the overall effect.

I was also surprised that there was very little color, although it was dark, and I thought I might add a little blue. I still might, but not here.

I Got Stung

Not in the sense that Elvis meant with his song by the same name, but as David and I were cleaning the furnace yesterday this little monster "swooped down" and stung me on the ear, whereupon I brushed him off my face and directly down into my shirt, so he had the chance to sting twice more on the chest and one on the arm for good measure before I could get my shirt off. I crushed him just a little and have watched him slowly die over the past 24 hours. I feel no sorrow for him (maybe just a little as he was trapped inside my shirt, but the ear? Not called for.

Digital Damage

So here are a couple of digital pieces I have been working on tonight.

Just trying to do things a bit different, you know, spruce things up a bit.  

I can't believe I haven't posted to this since August.

    And here it is whenever I need to say it is.

Back to work.

Lawn Mowing

Torrey was out to cut the grass this morning and I got a few pictures of Jackson helping him. I have been shooting with my iPhone using the"noir" setting, and I really like the result. I need to try to emulate the effect in PhotoShop or LightRoom.

Here are a couple of the ones I like best!

Play Area

So here's the playground to date. My grandsons will have to grow into it, and I hope it will grow for them.

Chickens and Grandsons

If you haven't noticed yet, there is a lot of activity on this blog that involves my grandsons. This post is no exception, as there was an exciting day at Pineland (New Gloucester) with all the farm tractors and such that the farm uses.

What a day they both had with the animals and all the plants in the gardens to see. The boys have two chickens, but seeing a whole barn full was amazing. Rhode Island Reds, I think. Here are a few of the photos.

The hens. The boys.

Jackson and the John

While in Home Depot last week, Jackson thought it might be fun to try out a toilet that was on display. He told me right after this shot that he thought the toilet was a little "close to the wall". Finding pictures of him is never a difficult task for "Grampie", sometimes known as "Grumpy"!

There's a Dead Frog in the Middle of the Road

Out on my bike ride up to Pineland and back this morning, and the first thing I see on the Penny Road is this poor crushed frog. Colorful.

Two Days After the Fourth

 I realize more today than I have in a while just how much my family means to me and how careful I need to be with "our" relationships. Thoughtlessness, although not ever intentional on my part, can really be damaging to others, especially those that you love, and I must be more careful to realize my place in my family has changed as I have grown older and as I have become a grandparent and a parent of full grown and almost middle aged children of my own. I think I just have trouble looking back over my shoulder. I have always been forward looking and full speed ahead, and as that has worked for me for a long time, I have just taken for granted what is left in my wake. Now it is different, I don't have forever on this mortal earth, and I really need to slow down and listen to where my family is at any given time.

I don't know what to post for a photo here, but I will look and see what I have done or shot with my camera that might have helped to put me in this place I find myself.

Double Exposures...

These are all images from the "Hipstamatic" Phone app on my iPhone. I'm just trying to explore the double exposure mode with these photos, hoping to gain some experience and skill in being able to anticipate what an image or pair of images in this case, might look like together.

The first one this afternoon, below/top.

The second, below/middle, and the third, one my oldest son Matthew, is at the bottom.

Apple Blossom Enemies

There was a branch on the East Tree that was all brown and leaves falling off and such, so I looked closely and found these things on the branch. I got the trimmers and the tree lost the branch but the damage was contained. I know I don't seem very kind to the bugs, but I didn't burn them, I just put them on the shore to fend otherwise than they would have on that apple tree branch. Here they were.

Apple Blossoms

Got home early tonight as it is Friday and I had the chance to cut the grass and get a few chores done ahead for the weekend as we will have Matt at home and I really would like to spend some time with him.

I am always amazed by the spring blossoms, and our apple trees are especially profuse with blossoms this spring. The "front tree" always has the pinkish color in its blossoms and I have photographed them numerous times. I never get tired of it. Here are some of the shots I captured this afternoon with a telephoto (75-200) macro lens and close-up filters. I set the f-stop as low as I could to narrow depth of field.

Spring - The Edge of Water

While the weather seems more like spring, it is still pretty chilly with the wind right off the ocean. I went down to the shore this afternoon for a half-hour or so to take some pictures and it didn't take all that long to get really cold.

My intention was to try out my neutral density filter as a way of expressing the photo assignment "The Edge of Water" I use with classes. While I have read a great deal about using ND filters, I had never actually put it into practice. I made a bunch of mistakes, and then little by little got better at it to the point I got some images I think I like. Here are a few, and I find the almost pure white of the water in the first one fascinating after looking at ice on the bay for the most of the winter.

Frosty Morning

It is so nice to have some warm days and feel that sun on my face, but this morning had that "spring chill". I stopped the car and flicked on the "Hipstamatic" app on my phone, pointing it out through the windshield at the trees on the sides of the road. The frost contributed a sense of mystique to the image that I think represents this time of the season and that time of morning very well!

The Past Winter

I am already feeling nostalgic for last winter, especially after today has topped 60 degrees and the snow is melting quickly. I took this shot a couple of weeks ago, and felt at the time it was a marker for the end of winter, and then we got a few single digit temperatures over night and I did my "cake walk" on the ice a few days ago. Everthing is open in the bay now and it does feel good to really have winter behind us!

Acorn Composites

Hey All!

It's great to have a group of fellow teaching artists who are interested in the way that photo images might  be altered and manipulated to help students find a solution to ARTS problems in their work, as well as finding entirely new ways to express themselves!

This post is for the teachers in the MAEA Spring Conference in Brewer who are planning to participate in my workshop on using the MLTI "Acorn" program for image composites.

The link to files I have put together for the session is

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BxJsGy-IBRrhfnd3VmdSTGZSY0ZmSmdjQ0RBRHo2dU1fZXhDaFVOTGJWaGZaU3VhUWVqMkU&usp=sharing

... and I hope you will free free to download or upload files to this folder. Now on to the session!

But I'm on it Tonight Anyway!

I did some "ice cake hopping" at dusk tonight down by the shore, and it was very cool. I also got a couple of images I like very much. The ice cakes are such a variety of shapes and sizes that they provide a very interesting random pattern along the shore. Looking back at the house, the shore becomes this white littered playground. I found it fascinating!

The Bay Ice is Now Unsafe!

Watching the ice begin to deteriorate the past few weeks has been interesting, and I think it will be a while before anyone walks on ice on Flander's. Really punky looking now and hard to access from the shore. Picture below.

Two Months Later

The ice in the bay has been pretty solid for the months of March and February, but these last few sunny days have begun to break it up, especially near the shore where the fresh water runs down and the sun strikes the snow and ice at an angle that facilitates melting. This may well have been my last day on the ice as it is starting to get sort of "punky" and the water is now seeping up through the cracks, especially along the shore.

Here are a few pictures I shot tonight at dusk.

Another Storm Day

Here we are at home being "socked in" by a lesser storm than in the past weeks, but still giving us additional accumulation we may not really need at this point! I made this image this morning out the second floor, where we can still see through the windows as they are above the level of the snow. The bay looks as though it is just going out across to the end of the earth!

To New Goucester in the Storm

This past weekend was an adventure as we headed south in the middle of a snowstorm, which is no new thing as we have done much more precarious things in the past. I had rested some from the concussion and am starting to feel slightly like myself again. It was a good weekend with the family and we always enjoy the boys, especially with Emerson becoming so much more interactive and personable!

The first shot here is a macro of one of Jackson's "binkys". I started calling them "chew toys" and Jackson would correct me every time, never succuming to referring to them as I did. He would say "It's called a binky, Grampie!" Here's the shot, you decide.

I was amazed by this second shot, which was a "no look", grab the iPhone from the armrest in the car, flick it on, and hit the shutter button while holding it against the window of the car. Jen pointed out the beauty of it and I was so lucky to get it on such quick notice! It is right after the Penobscot Narrows Bridge headed toward Searsport.

Juno Sunset

All that snow in the air and the blustering that accompanies it made for a remarkable sunset over the Sorrento Golf Course tonight. Looking across the bay, the sun was an unusually glowing ball as it sank slowly down to the horizon. I didn't really have time to set up a tripod for these shots, and it was still snowing quite a bit, but I was able to shoot at a fairly fast shutter speed, so they worked OK, just OK.

Juno, Really?

The removal of snow from our fairly extensive driveway is always a hassle, but almost two feet, bare in spots and drifted to four feet in others makes it even more "hassle some"!

Here are a couple of pictures of David using the snowblower. I always like the way the snow and its field of white draws attention to the subject of snow shots.

Jackson's Birthday

We celebrated today with a few people at Torrey and Katie's. I was a great time, Katie did an amazing job with all the preparation and decoration and I took 120+ pictures! Here's one of my favorites with Torrey playing with Jackson on the sofa.

What a Day For the New Year!

It's a beautiful morning from one of the living room windows!