To the Father of My Boys...

I

I love watching you with our boys. Thank you for being the best father I could have imagined. Thank you for being willing to have the boys help you with tasks, for patiently explaining things to them, for taking them to work, on errands, and adventures. Thank you for being involved in the details of their lives, and for allowing them to be included in the details of yours. I would be thrilled if they turned out to be men like you. Thanks for pointing them in the right direction. I love you!

All Streams Flow Into the Sea

Generations come and generations go,

but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun sets,

and hurries back to where it rises.

The wind blows to the south

and turns to the north;

round and round it goes,

ever returning on its course.

All streams flow into the sea,

yet the sea is never full.

To the place the streams come from,

there they return again.

~Ecclesiastes 1:4-7

The Big Kids

Thought I should post photos of the other two brown-berry, cutie-patooties playing with my boys at the park yesterday. Cheris, you turn out beautiful kiddos!

Brother-licious

Little Miss Babelicious has an adorable 'big' brother. This guy knows how to work the camera. He doesn't say much, but he can charm your socks off...

Babelicious

A day at the park with friends... just what the doctor ordered. Check out this yummy goodness. I asked her if she would share her toes, but I don't think she was in a sharing mood.

i heart faces: week 23

I can't believe it has been 23 weeks over at i heart faces. I think I've only missed one or two weeks of photo challenges. I'm still coming off the high of having my photo chosen for the Blurb Book Contest (my first entry in the professional category!). This week, the theme is Sepia. Having had such great luck with my photo of Leif, I thought I'd enter one of Luke from the same trip to play in the snow, a year and a half ago!

Heidi's Photography Low-Down

NOTE 8/28/11: I am no longer scheduling photo sessions for this year. I may possibly resume next spring 2012. Sorry for the inconvenience!

I'm hoping to answer all photography-related questions here in this post, so that the information is all in one spot. Please let me know if I've missed anything, and I will add the answer (if I have one!).


My Photo Tips for Beginners and Beyond (click on link)


My Favorite Photography Book:

Expressions: Your Behind the Camera Guide to Taking Extraordinary Photos of Ordinary Life is my top choice because of the emphasis on creativity and capturing universal emotion in photography. This book is perfect for the beginner, providing excellent inspiration and guidance in a gorgeous format, but also gently takes the reader (when ready) into the arena of technical information (ISO, aperture, shutter speed, studio lighting, and more). (I should mention here that the book deals exclusively with 'people' photography.)

If you want to tell a story with your photography, while gradually increasing your technical knowledge, this is the book for you.


My Equipment:

I have recently upgraded my camera to a Nikon D90. I am currently using only the kit lens, a VR (love!) AF-S 18-105mm (love!) 1:3.5-5.6 G. While I may have additional lenses in my arsenal in the future, this is plenty for me to play around with (and learn how to use!) for the time being. (I'll update this post to reflect equipment changes and additions.)

Why did I choose the Nikon D90? It is the camera my hubby handed me. Ask him. Grin.

I'll be using my Nikon D50 for back-up.


Shooting in Manual vs Auto Mode:

All my photography up to this point has been done in auto mode. Taking pictures of little boys who never stand still makes it difficult to experiment with manual mode. I most often use the 'running man' setting and set my own focus point. That is about to change, however. I am diving head-long into manual mode experimentation. Pray for me.


Shooting in JPEG vs RAW:

I shoot exclusively in high resolution JPEG. Questions? Read here.


Editing Programs:

Almost every photo I post has been edited in Photoshop CS2. I exclusively use Photoshop actions. These include Pioneer Woman's free ps actions (both sets), Totally Rad Actions (both sets), and just recently began adding action sets from MCP. I often use multiple actions on one photo, experimenting with combinations and various opacities. You will see these combinations referred to as 'recipes.' I have only scratched the surface of what these actions are capable of. I hope to increase my abilities by leaps and bounds in this department over the next year or two.

Once I've finished applying Photoshop actions to a photo, I use the free online photo editing program Picnik. (I've upgraded to the $24.95 premium version, which is a steal in my humble opinion.) Occasionally I'll apply effects, but more often remove blemishes, clone out things I don't want in the photo, adjust curves, crop, resize, sharpen, add frames and text, and other sundry things. This program is outrageously simple to use. (And did I mention FREE?!) ETA: All of my collages are composed in Picnik, as well.

I save a photo directly from Picnik to Flickr. There I grab the code and use it to post photos on my blog. Speaking of posting photos on my blog...


Posting Larger Photos on a Blog:

I have had many people ask me how I post the larger photos on my blog. My friend Jodi sent me this link a while back, which explains the process. If that link doesn't answer your question, I probably can't either. Grin.

I also have had a few people comment that the right side of my larger photos are cut off on their screen. This is because their screen resolution is set too, uh, something. (Low, I think.) My husband will be doing a guest post about that shortly.


My Photo Inspiration:

I spend a great deal of time visiting blogs and sites of other photographers, increasing my knowledge and creativity. I have listed links (and will be adding more) on my side bar (scroll down) for your browsing pleasure. I'll send a shout-out to my friend Susan at Short on Words, my favorite inspiration.


Professional Photo Session Availability and Cost:

NOTE 8/29/11: I am no longer scheduling photo sessions for this year. I may possibly resume next spring 2012. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Yes, I am available for photo sessions in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. These are limited, however, so please contact me (heidi@poetsgarden.com) if you are interested in scheduling.

Current investment (subject to change):

(All sessions include travel time within 20-30 minutes of the Albany area. Please contact me for price quotes on extended locations. All sessions include a CD of fully edited images for your unlimited use, available within 2-3 weeks of your session. Fees are due at the beginning of each session.)

Individual Portrait Session: 30+ minutes on location (1 adult or child), roughly 10 fully edited images on CD. $75

Newborn Portrait Session: Undetermined, as of yet.

Senior Portrait Session: Undetermined, as of yet.

Deluxe Portrait Session: 45+ minutes on location for 2-3 people (couple, children, siblings, friends...), roughly 15 fully edited images on CD. $100

Family Session: 1.5+ hours on location for a single family (up to 6 members), various casual and posed shots as well as photos of individual children, roughly 30 fully edited images on CD. $200

(Please contact me if you have specific photo session needs not addressed in these categories.)


Is this going to turn into a photography-only blog?

No. For those of you who come here more in the mood for life, lovely, homeschooling, Project Heidi, or other fare, I promise there will be more to come. As our life ebbs and flows, this blog shall also ebb and flow. Sometimes I'm in the middle of planning our next year of lessons and thoughts of grammar, Latin, educational philosophies, and our daily rhythms fill the space in my head. Sometimes I've been reading like crazy and want to tell you about books I've loved. Sometimes our family has been on one adventure after another, and we have stories to share. I also have a new series coming up very shortly, in which I would love some outside participation!!

I will continue to post favorite images here and there from photography sessions, but eventually I'll be doing some refurbishing over at my (sadly neglected) photography blog and posting most of the photos there.


Any other questions?

Claiming Stray Gifts

Pleasure is spread through the earth

In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find.

~William Wordsworth, 1806

He's Five

How did my baby-doll-Luke become a five-year-old? I'm soaking up every moment with this guy, knowing that time is fleeting.

How can I describe Luke? We call him Mr. Earnest. He is Curious George. He is a dare-devil, a monkey, a tender-hearted lover. He is quiet, but his mind constantly asks, 'What will happen if I...?' He wants to help. He wants to fix things. He wants to be loved. He is mischievious. He is ornery. He is bare-footed. He is incredibly strong; sensitive, concerned. He loves worms and ladybugs. His face holds a million expressions which melt me a hundred times each day.

A boy is truth with dirt on its face,

beauty with a cut on his finger

and the hope of the future

with a frog in its pocket.

~ Unknown

(And bike crash scrapes, and a black eye/nose, and a puncture wound in his foot, and mud under his fingernails...)

More of my Favorite Magical Spot

After hiking, it was time to get our feet wet (or take pictures, or read a book...)

The photo on the right (below) shows the waterfall coming down from the trail and cave above.

We always make a stop at The Home of the All American Food on our way home from day trips in this area. What is it about ordering our food from the phone at the booth, or the waitresses with the cool money/change belts?

Hiking the Trail

Once we, my little family and my parents, arrived at our magical spot, we happened upon my sister, Shannon, and her husband. Actually, we knew they were having lunch there and thought we'd barge in on their party. They were just getting back from a hike on the trail. Apparently Ben had been chatting on the trail about how they needed to get the whole family together there for a day. Surprise! (Holly, where were you?!)

We gathered at a picnik table and soaked in the atmosphere while eating our lunch, sharing chips here and a cluster of grapes there... Eventually we were ready to set off for an adventurous hike. Shannon and Ben stood on shore and waited until we were around the bend before continuing down the road on their own adventure.

Mom and I were (as always) the dueling cameras. The boys ran circles around us, as we stopped to take pictures of everything.

Fallen trees are cut away to clear the path. Large sheets of bark cover swampy areas of trail.

The falls greeted us at the end of the official trail. But 'the end' never stops us...

I'm always reluctant to try a family photo in the midst of an adventure (what little boy can sit still in the best of times, much less when a trail beckons, and who looks their best after a hike?), but we made the attempt anyway... (And I have a crazy-huge bruise on my knee from slipping on the wet rocks and saving my camera instead of my body...)

This little waterfall heads down to the creek from the cave that gives the site it's name. Later I'll show photos from below.

We had to stop for a moment to feel the damp, cold air and listen to the echo-y trickling sounds coming from the mouth of the dark cave.

When we were hiked-out, the boys were ready for a little water action (the weather was incredible for May!). More photos to come.

Belated Lovely

A few weeks ago, we spent the day at one of my favorite places on earth. I had so many pictures to edit and share during the month of May, that I never managed to finish sorting the photos from this lovely outing. Maybe it is because I am always disappointed in the pictures I take whenever we visit this spot. I don't know if it is the dappled sunlight (impossible for me to capture beautifully 'on film'), or if the greens don't look right, or if it is just so magical being there, that nothing can do it justice. You can't hear the sound of the water rushing over the rocks, or feel the sunlight flickering on your skin, or smell the dampness in the air. You just have to be there. Or maybe it is the fact that I have been there, every year since I can remember. Are things from your childhood larger than life? Maybe this spot is like that for me.

It is still taking me forever to finish up these photos, so I'll start with our drive. Luke spent the whole time with his little head out of the window, feeling the wind rush by, gazing upon the scenery, and closing his eyes to experience the flashes of light as we drove through shade, to sun, to shade, and to sun again. The drive is half the fun.

A Birthday Party Tradition

This is our third year of summer birthday parties at our place in the country. At Luke's third birthday, a tradition was born. Every available wheeled large toy (and we have hundreds... or maybe just 15, or so) was carted to the top hill behind our house. Wild rides then ensued. We began handing out waivers to all the parents... Later in the summer, Leif's birthday continued the mayhem. I think this year, the kids went straight for the hill....

When the kids have had their fill of coasting down the hill, all wheeled vehicles are discarded by the wayside, and the kids head to the hose. Water fights begin in earnest. Water guns to begin with. Then they move on to cups, buckets, whatever is handy. Even the little kiddos get in on the action. We sent a child or two home wrapped in towels... Good, clean fun, folks. Good, clean fun.

The Month That Saved America

May's book selection for ChocLit Guild was April 1865: The Month That Saved America. Have I mentioned how much I adore my book club? We have read a stellar variety of books over the years. Many of the books I never would have read on my own, but became instant favorites, including Watership Down, Three Cups of Tea, What's So Amazing About Grace, and Our Hearts Were Young and Gay. (How's that for variety?)

April 1865 was immediately placed on my Books Every American Should Read list. Fabulous. Intelligent. Insightful. Jay Winik is a storytelling master in this work. It is all at once a crash course in the founding of our country, an overview of the Civil War (beginning to end), multiple biographies (Robert E. Lee, Grant, Sherman, Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, John Wilkes Booth, Thomas Jefferson, and many more), and a beacon of hope for our future... all anchored by the month of April, 1865.

pg. 379

Instead, April was that magic moment when these ideas joined together. Amid the long lists of heroic and historic actions for this country, April 1865 was incontestably one of America's finest hours: for it was not the deranged spirit of an assassin that defined the country at war's end, but the conciliatory spirit of leaders who led as much in peace as in war, warriors and politicians who, by their example, their exhortation, and their deeds, overcame their personal rancor, their heartache, and spoke as citizens of not two lands, but one, thereby bringing the country together. True, much hard work remained. But much, too, had already been accomplished.

Winik does not present a fairy tale, but, I believe, accurately portrays the atmosphere, the events, and the cast of characters with realistic, carefully researched details and magnificent insight. Utilizing his degree in international relations and experience and research in international conflicts, Winik contrasts the Civil War's ending with other civil wars around the globe, and throughout history. Our Civil War becomes a vivid miracle of reconciliation.

pg. 383

As Lincoln understood most poignantly, it is not merely how arms are taken up, and why, but equally how they are laid back down, and why. And what then follows.

One of my favorite moments of this book unfolds in the Epilogue: To Make a Nation. The author wells up a spring of hope in the reader with mysterious glimpses into the lives of unassuming citizens of our nation at the end of the Civil War. Citizens with names such as Remington, Carnegie, Woolworth, and Ford. A veritable world of possibility.

Read this book. And don't miss Uncle Tom's Cabin and To Kill a Mockingbird if you're making a list....

Let the Fields Be Jubilant

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let them say among the nations, "The LORD reigns!"

Let the sea resound, and all that is in it;
let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them!

Then the trees of the forest will sing,
they will sing for joy before the LORD,
for he comes to judge the earth.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

~ 1 Chronicles 16:31-34

Speaking of Mother Portraits...

...My own mom relented and allowed me to take a few photos of her in the garden.
I'd like everyone to meet my beautiful and incredible mother!!
You can visit her over at Treading on Moss.

ChocLit Guild in the Garden

Mom and I were the dueling cameras at our book club meeting last week. We were in the garden where the weather, scenery, company, and conversation were at its best. It seemed fitting, somehow, after last gathering in the garden to discuss Uncle Tom's Cabin, to then return to discuss April 1865: The Month That Saved America (review coming soon).

I thought I would again celebrate girls' night out by driving the Mustang. Sadly, I had no brakes, but that is a story to add to the Mustang saga I'll tell another day.

It felt like a coming home, of sorts, as many of us feel a sentimental tie to Poet's Garden, which has now been closed for a year. Obviously, for a few of us, we really were home. (The shop sits on the plot of my childhood veggie garden.)

We talked away the evening, devouring our chocolate cake and refreshing drinks. It was certainly convenient to have a cozy building in which to retreat as the mosquitoes came out in full force. We seated ourselves in the numerous chairs purchased as photo session props.

ChocLit Guild has a wonderful legacy of babies born into the club. I was pregnant with Luke when we began meeting over five years ago. Luke, Monet, and Ivy were born that year. Malachi the next. Then Leif, Jared, and Daphne. Phoebe is our current babe of the hour, and she is a doll!

Our previous book selections are listed here, but this is our current line-up:

The Giver (Lois Lowry)
Three Cups of Tea (Mortenson/Relin)
Louisa May Alcott Novel (reader's choice)
April 1865 (Jay Winik)
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (Jamie Ford)
I Am David (Anne Holm)
E.P. Roe Novel (reader's choice)
Mystery (reader's choice)
Jane Eyre
Biography (reader's choice)
Personality Style Books (reader's choice)
Quo Vadis*
The Jesus I Never Knew (Yancey)

*Several years ago, we had a month when each reader chose a book set around the life of Christ. Most of us read Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, The Silver Chalice, or The Robe. We enjoyed them so much, we've chosen this theme a few times since. This year, we've added The Bronze Bow and the Mark of the Lion series to widen the pool of selections.

A New Friend

I'd like you all to meet my new friend, Susan. We had threatened to get together prior to this, considering we aren't all that far from each other, geographically, but we hadn't made it happen. A photo session turned out to be the perfect excuse!

Susan was subjected to our family's real life... she was met at her car by a three-boy greeting committee. Two boys had no shirts. The other had long pants, long sleeved shirt, and cowboy books in 80 degree weather. Dinner was just being finished. I showed Susan around the house, and we chatted 100 miles an hour: paint colors, homeschooling, life. We were interrupted by Levi's frantic cries. Luke had stepped on a nail out in the field. Lots of drama ensued. We managed to contain the situation (okay, Russ took over) and began taking photos among the trees and grass while Luke and Leif situated themselves on the riding lawnmower with Daddy. Levi was off somewhere in the field singing to himself. My new camera was being finicky and didn't want to work...

I'm surprised we managed to get any picture taking in, considering how much chatting we did! It sure helped that Susan is ridiculously photogenic. We headed down the road to Poet's Garden for new scenery and ended up talking until dark. I think we are going to have to set up another chat date!

I had so many wonderful photos to work with, which makes it hard to choose which ones to share, but here is a sampling. Susan, I hope you enjoy these!