Spring, Cameras, Photography, Etc.

Friends, spring is here! I heard red-wing blackbirds singing Saturday morning on one of my many trips to the school for various sporting events, both real and imagined. C heard a woodcock on Sunday. Today it was warm enough to walk outside in just a sweater and feel almost, dare I say it? Hot.

Yes, yes, I know I just jinxed myself (and all of you within a 100-mile radius of me--sorry), and I know the boy red-winds precede the girls by many weeks in order to establish their territories, and I know woodcock have been known to resume their wild mating dance with only a patch of bare ground between the snow drifts, and I know we're still due of our April Fool's Day blizzard, at a minimum, but oh it does feel good to have the warm sun on your face, doesn't it? (I feel like breaking into a rendition of John Denver's "Sunshine on My Shoulder Makes Me Happy," but since I'm in the library stacks, I'll spare everyone and refrain). Maybe it's just that daylight savings threw me in such a loop I slept about two hours last night and am now completely slap-happy (it might have been the two pots of tea, but I prefer blaming daylights savings).

So, on last week's new camera post you all left some great comments regarding photo tips, which I want to share here, but first, the camera. After an informal poll of bloggers whose photos I admire, I selected a Cannon Rebel T3i. With the standard lens that comes with it, which I can't name right now since I don't have it with me, but it's a sort of zoomish thing with a function that makes your pictures non-wiggly even if you do wiggle while taking them (do you love my technical jargon?). I love it very much and one of the things I love most about it (which happened to be one of the only things that gave it bad reviews on the Cannon site) is the very loud, snappy shutter sound it makes when taking a picture. When it's set on "continuous" and takes many pictures in short succession, it sounds just like the beginning of "Girls on Film." So Duran Duran runs through my mind when John Denver doesn't.

Now, on to your comments:

IM said...

Tip: Take your camera everywhere. Take tons of photos. But don't be afraid to delete delete delete photos and delete quickly (do you really want to go through thousands of photos at one sitting?). It's so easy to hang on to them because you only kind of like them. Save the ones you love and dump the rest and soon you'll have an amazing set of photos.

Play with light. Get up before sunrise to catch that morning light and dew on the spider webs in the field.

Look for interesting patterns in objects (bark, buildings, moss, clothing, etc.) and focus very tightly so the pattern is the focus of the picture, not the whole tree or whole building or person wearing the clothing.

Maple syrup in process.

Aunt Kirstie said...

That is awesome! I love mine. I have had it for over 2 years and I am still learning new things. Your pictures so far are great. I suggest joining Flickr for feedback, inspiration, and tips.

Jaimie said...

As far as tips, I am such an amateur that I really don't know. Oh yes, I do have one: don't use your flash. My brother has more photography training than I do (I also took one darkroom class, when I was 19, which I LOVED, but that was *cough cough* years ago).

Two years ago I asked him for one good tip to improve my photos, and he told me not to use my flash. That was the last time I used it. I'm pretty sure I haven't used it at all in the last two years, but perhaps I have once or twice.

What is your favorite tip?

Thanks everyone! These are great tips! (I did wake up very early Saturday morning, looked out the window at the stunning gold light on the trunks of the trees and put my head right back on the pillow). And I actually deleted photos of my kids yesterday, that weren't even blurry or anything, just not that good (I have three years' worth of photos waiting to be made into photo books on Snapfish--oh I wish I'd heard that delete tip a long time ago!).

My favorite tips are: 

I think it's called the "rule of threes" or "the golden mean" (I could look it up, but am too lazy): divide your viewfinder into thirds horizontally and vertically, and put whatever your point of interest is at the intersection of two of these lines. However, I also enjoy photos that purposefully break this rule to good effect.

Don't cut your subject off at a joint (knee, ankle, wrist, elbow, etc.)

If your subject is facing the side, have them looking (or running) into the picture, rather than out of it (unless you are going for the opposite effect, I suppose).

I also love close-close-ups, short focal distance with blurry backgrounds, taking pictures with dead trees in the foreground (this is more interesting in Utah than in Maine--junipers just have a nicer shape dead than, say, a white pine). 

I'm really looking forward to photographing dragonflies with this camera--which is not a hint, just something I'm excited about.

Keep the tips coming, if anyone's got more. Also, I just had the realization of how much work I have ahead of me in the next couple of months (two writing packets and two workshop pieces by May 1), so I might be a bit MIA around here for a while. But I do hope to pop in every now and then.

Another Good Use for Twins

Flash-carding each other.

Lovely Yellow Teapot

I was devastated when I learned that Pristine Pottery of Staffordshire, England went out of business. I love my green four-cup Pristine--it is so perfectly balances, never drips, the lid stays firmly in place even when pouring out the last dregs of tea, and they're just beautiful to look at. I used to have a bright yellow two-cup as well (pictured here), but C broke it. When I found out that they could be had no more, I started checking Etsy to see if any would ever show up. I found a lovely yellow six-cup there right before Valentine's Day and dashed off an email to C letting him know that's what I wanted.

When Valentines Day (observed) arrived, C gifted me with this pretty copper-foiled stained glass heart, which is made locally and is perfect in our mudroom window, where I've been wanting to hang something stained glass.

I didn't want to sound disappointed, so I waited a few days before I asked, "Was that teapot already sold?"

C's eyes bugged out, he clapped his hand over his mouth and ran downstairs to the basement, emerging with a big priority mail box. Inside was my lovely new teapot:

He said he figured he owed me a few extra presents to make up for some dud Valentine's Days in the past.

I haven't used it yet (six cups is an awful lot of tea). I'll need a friend (or five) to join me in a cuppa.

New Toy

Did you guess? Yes, I finally got myself a fancy-dancy real-live grown-up actual digital SLR camera. It was half a birthday present from C (he gave me the cash from selling his car, which I had bought in the first place--but it all goes in the same pot anyway, right?). I'm so excited I just want to loll about all day reading the 1/2-inch thick manual.

I've just gotten as far as trying out the various automatic settings. I figure I'll delve the manual settings here and there over time.

I took a photography class in high school, which was a very long time ago, and I hardly remember anything about apertures and shutter speeds.

But I do remember the feeling of having that old school-issued Pentax 35 mm camera in my hands,

and the way it was like looking at the world through new eyes.

I had just exactly that same feeling again when I took my new camera out into the woods on Sunday,

but with the advantage of not having to roll film or worry about having to develop the pictures in the darkroom,

so I could take as many as I wanted to (and believe me, I did).

Suddenly the same old trees and woods that I walk in almost every week were alive with new and unusual textures and beautiful colors that I'd noticed before.

I know I have a lot to learn, but it's going to be so much fun figuring it out along the way. 

What are your favorite photography tips?

March Meanderings

I got a new toy last week. Can you guess what it is? I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

It snowed all day Thursday then rained all day Friday and Saturday, so now it looks like a typical Maine March outside, wet heavy snow everywhere. But I have to say, I'm not sick of winter yet (perhaps because it's been so minimal, or maybe because it's not April) and I prefer the snow and ice to the mud (although I know we'll get that--again--next month).

The boys took advantage of the packable snow and spent a good deal of Sunday engaged in a good-natured snowball fight (with sleds for forts, 'cause that's easier, right?). But signs of spring are in the air; birds are making much more noise--chickadees singing their spring songs, woodpeckers drumming and a flock of purple finches has been frequenting our feeder. This is not one of them:

In sadder bird news, I came across this little owl when I was walking in the woods yesterday:

It was tiny--only about six or eight inches tall--and at first I thought it was a baby, but quickly realized its wing feathers were fully developed (the body feathers are so naturally downy it's hard to tell, right?) and there was no sign of nesting nearby (owl guano on tree trunks, owl pellets, angry mother owls). The feathers under its bill seemed stained a rustish color that I thought might be dried blood. I wonder if it could have flown into a tree. Do owls do that? I thought of taking it home to show the boys and draw it, but decided it would be happier left to be food for other wild things. When I got home, I looked it up and I'm pretty sure it was a Northern Saw-Whet Owl, which I didn't even know we had here. Poor little owl. RIP.

OK, so now I've joined the ranks of "bloggers who post disgusting pictures of the insides of their kids' mouths" but I had to share Z's crazy double tooth. The twins had a dentist appointment today and I was hoping he'd just pluck the damn thing out (the baby one, that is) so the adult one doesn't stay all crazy-crooked, but he said just give it time.

Before we went to the dentist, we stopped off at the credit union to cash in about 20 pounds of coins we've been rolling (and rolling and rolling) for the last year or so. It all came out of my Dumbo piggy bank, which I've had since I was two and to which C has been adding his pocket change for years. Dumbo finally was full last winter and we've sat around on occasional rainy days ever since, rolling up coins. We finally finished the last 300 pennies last weekend, checking each one against M's penny collecting booklets, and reading Shell Silverstein's "Smart" while we were at it. E and Z are very into money (I think it's a first-grade thing; M was in his millionaire stage at the same age), so it's been a fun and educational activity for them.

We ended up with $253.50. A pretty good haul. We're going to go on a trip to Boston with our takings sometime this spring.

I'm just about to send off my second packet of writing for the semester. I know my mentor will hate it. I've been wallowing about in self-doubt ever since I got her comments on the first packet, and this story has been such a struggle. Do you remember when you were a kid and wanted to draw something and had such a clear picture in your mind of how it would look, but when you put pencil to paper it came out nothing like what you had in mind? That's what writing this story has been like; I can't get it to do what I want it to do. Also, a friend of mine who had kindly offered to pre-read and offer comments on my work before the official comments sent me an email that said, "The other stuff you write is so good. Why is your fiction so different." I'm paraphrasing here, but that was the gist. Youch. I'm really hoping that voice inside my head telling my I suck is just my super-ego on overdrive. I guess there's nothing for it but to push "send" and hope for the best.

How is you March meandering?

Good Weekend

Last weekend (and pretty much all last week) I was not at my best, mom-wise (I think it all started with staying up too late Friday night watching 3 Idiots, which could be my new favorite movie, then staying up too late, and drinking too much wine, Saturday night hanging out with a friend, capped off by staying up too late Sunday night to watch the Downton Abbey finale), so I decided to concentrate on making up for it this weekend. 

First order of business: going to bed at a decent hour. 

Second: some spontaneous "me" time out in nature. 

Third: get the house clean in order.

Fourth: I felt so guilty about dissing the Magic Treehouse, I read all of "Mummies in the Morning" to E and Z (still loving all the comments on how you all have handled reading annoying books to kids; love the idea of books on tape; wish they could read to themselves, but they're still in the "Dick and Jane" stage, which, by the way, are wonderful first readers: very short chapters, lots of repetitive "dolche" words and delightful vintage illustrations; much better than some of those Step into Reading books we have).

Fifth: Craftiness. E, Z and I made some felted geodes, or "rainbow rocks" (directions here). I love playing with wool and hot, soapy water and these were super fun to make.

The best part was "cracking" them open after they dried to see what kind of fun patterns we made.

Here they are posing alongside a real geode M got for Christmas and which we just finally broke open with a hammer. Can you tell which is the real rock?

E added them to our dining table for Sunday night dinner (Which is the Sixth order of business: a big vat of macaroni and cheese I made Saturday night and which lasted two meals and about which not one person complained, even though I put green beans from the freezer in it).

And finally, C kept the boys outside most of Sunday making maple syrup (which is an activity I enjoy not in the least, for a variety of reasons) while I battled through an annotation for my next packet and fiddled with an essay I'm writing for fun (as a mental vacation from fiction).

I did some sewing on a project-in-progress I hope to share with you soon while the boys were in the tub and Z repented of his kicking and screaming over Little House in the Big Woods and asked me to reread chapter 1 (which I had read to E alone) and we made our way through the first several chapters by Sunday night. A good weekend, indeed. Hope that you had a good one as well.

Walking in the Woods on a Snowy Morning

We woke up to a few inches of snow Saturday morning.

It wasn't entirely a surprise, since driving home from the YMCA the night before was a bit like navigating the Millennium Falcon through hyperspace, with nothing visible out the windshield but huge snowflakes flying at us like stars and asteroids.

Snow has been such a rare occurrence this winter, I rushed outside to take pictures while C was cooking pancakes (I am a lucky girl) and, on the spur of the moment, I decided to walk our whole loop trail through the woods, which has been sadly neglected this snowless winter.

It turns out I wasn't the first one to track up the snow; some squirrels had been out and about already,

and a snowshoe hare.

It was one of those magical, mystical snows that frosts everything just enough to make the world look new again.

Even old familiar paths became inviting.

All morning, the blue sky and the clouds jostled each other for position.

And little black-caps worked their way through the treetops (sometimes even singing their springtime "fee-bee" song).

The river, which never froze up at all downstream was starting to break up upstream, too.

The pancakes were on plates by the time I got home,

and this was just the start of a lovely weekend.