Catching Up... How We Spent Spring Break

Spring Break provided an excellent opportunity for me to play with the new camera.  Avril and I decided the beautiful weather warranted a hike through Ledges with the kids. 

The Lost Lake trail is my favorite hike when I have the kids with me.  There are a lot of beautiful views and scenery.

Lucy is a lot easier to photograph than Sam for some reason.

Boys will be boys

After our hike we ventured down to the river in search of Avril's dad.  The boys had a grand time skipping rocks.

Nanbaby had an even grander time playing with the rocks

Nan and Hunter appear to be the making of life long buddies.

Finally we found Avril's dad and it was time to head home.

Senioritis

So I think it's about time for me to get back into blogging and writing.  What do you all think?

Back in March I finally bought something for myself... a brand new DSLR camera (a Canon Rebel T2i for those interested in the details).  I had only had my camera a few days when Sis asked to be my guinea pig as I tried my hand at shooting her Senior pictures. 

I finally agreed (relented?) and we decided on an evening to head out to a local park.  The photos below are a few of my favorites.  Eighty-one out of the four hundred photos I shot came out decent.  I don't think that's too bad of a ratio for a beginner that had to keep referring to the manual!

I did turn down a "job offer" the following week from a softball coach I know to photograph his players.  Perhaps when I am a little more comfortable and familiar with myself and the camera.  In the meantime I have been reading a few photography books and have now started on the assignments in said books.

Can you believe that my little baby girl is all grown and graduated now?  Where have the last eighteen years gone so fast?

New Camera

I wonder if I will ever get back into the swing of blogging again?  There is one thing that should help me out, I finally bought my dream camera in March.  For those interested in the specifics I bought a Cannon EOS Rebel T2i.  This has turned out to be the perfect beginner DSLR camera for me.

Below are a few of the images I captured during my first week of getting to know my camera. I expect my next camera related purchase will be Photoshop. Until then I am happy enough with the results I get before editing.

Sam poses so pretty when I have the camera out

I was actually standing up when I took this photo of the ball on the ground

This is the first photo I took of Nanbaby, I haven't been able to take on comparable since

This was the very moment that I started yearning for a wildlife lens.  Hopefully soon!

Pretty impressive...this ceiling fan was turned up to high speed when I decided to try my hand at photographing it.

Oh, Canon, I think you are my new best friend!

For My Fruity Friends

In my world a good life-long friend inspires and challenges you whether they intend to or not.  I had been thinking for the last several weeks that I really need to get back into blogging again.  It has been way to long since I let any of my randomness flow.  I needed that release of sharing something totally random but most of all I needed the release of writing something, anything.

And then Chris over at Photography139 gave me the little bit of inspiration I needed.  For the past few weeks he has been challenging himself to eat healthier (a very admirable goal).  Each week that he accomplishes his goal he adds a new challenge.  At Supper Club last week we were discussing his progress so far and his prospects for this week's addition.  I suggested he add a piece of fruit daily.  He admitted that he had been toying with that very idea.

I thought that was the end of the conversation and I would receive word of his progress the next time we spoke.  On Tuesday though he posted on Twitter that he was not good at picking fruit out.  I naturally assumed that he had purchased under-ripe fruit.  After offering a tip on what to do to remedy the situation I found that I was wrong and he had consumed an overly ripe pear.  Eating a piece of nearly rotten fruit would not encourage me to continue such an endeavor.  I offered to give Chris tips on how to buy fresh tasty fruit from the grocery store and he issued me a deadline to write this post.  Thus you can thank Chris for giving me the swift kick that I need to write something, anything again. (The photo below is recycled from an earlier post in an effort to get this posted by deadline).

Without further adieu here are my tips and ideas (and training for Chris) on purchasing fruit at your local grocer.
I have a family that loves fresh fruit so I try to buy enough in bulk and varying degrees of ripeness to get us through each week.  Most of these tips are based on purchasing fruit that is intended to be eaten the next day or a day or two later.

• Unless you are planning to eat this fruit within the next few hours Never buy from the bottom of the bin.  Fruit at the bottom of the bin ripens faster due to ethylene gas which is produced when fruit ripens.  The compact conditions at the bottom of the bin holds in the ethylene gas causing all the fruit around a ripening or already ripened piece to ripen even faster. ( I am guessing that this may have been part of Chris's error?)  Thins is a good tip for buying strawberries and blueberries in the plastic containers as well... always look at the bottom to check the degree of ripeness.
  
• Coloring is usually a given.  Watch for deepening shades of color.  Any green means you will have to wait for it to ripen.  Too deep of a shade could mean it's edging on being overly ripe.
  
• Size matters but not in the way you think.  Go for a piece of fruit that is medium sized and has some weight to it.  That weight is water weight.  I think that we can all agree that a good piece of fruit should be juicy.  Normally what I do is pick out several pieces of the same size and weigh each of them in my hand.  You will be surprised at the weight difference of seemingly like pieces of fruit.
  
• Quit laughing at the little old ladies that are sniffing the fruit.  They are really on to something here!  Smelling the stem of the fruit gives you an indication of how good it will be.  If you don't smell anything chances are you aren't going to taste much of anything. If it smells bitter it will probably taste bitter.  You are aiming for fruit that smells like you want it to taste here.
  
• Look over the fruit for bruises, soft spots and gashes.  These areas are going to ripen and rot faster than the rest of the fruit. Nothing annoys me more than watching people squeeze and pinch at fruit.  The rougher you handle it the faster it will rot.  Seriously, nobody wants to buy a peach that you just pierced with your fingernail.
  
• If you have a banana that is perfect but you aren't going to eat it yet, throw it in the fridge.  This slows down the ripening process for a day or two.
  
• Have a peach, pear, or apple that's not ripe enough yet?  Throw it in a brown paper bag with another piece of fruit for a day.  Or throw a banana in the bag & everything will ripen in about half the time. 

So there it is, how I select fruit from the grocery store.  Anyone else have any tips?  Maybe we together we can help Chris achieve a perfect piece of fruit yet.

Getting Squirrelly at the Hollow

The beginning of October was simply gorgeous in Iowa, mid-70's to low 80's, beautiful sunshine, and mild breezes.  One particularly dazzling Sunday morning the sunlight burst through the curtains with every gentle breeze, I felt a yearning to be outdoors.  As I looked around the house at Bug on his computer, Anthony on his, and Nan sound asleep I thought this is no way to waste this gift of a day away!  So I packed up a cooler with sandwiches and as soon as Nan woke up I hollered at the boys.  We were going on a picnic!  I just didn't know where we should venture to since I'm still not completely familiar with the area.

Anthony solved that small dilemma.  He drove us to Squirrel Hollow, a state park along the Raccoon River, about 10 miles from our door.  It was the perfect setting for our little out of doors adventure.  We enjoyed the sunlight filtering through the colored fall leaves as we took a short hike before lunch to acquaint ourselves with the park.

Nan and Bug were enjoying some Uncle/Niece bonding time as they posed for this picture on a wooden bridge spanning a small ravine & even smaller creek.

Always the adventurous 10-year-old Bug tried to shimmy down to the bottom of the ravine.

Pausing to look over the river Nanbaby quietly took in the scenery.

Bug and Sam were curious as only a boy and dog can be to check out this cabin, which turned out to be an outhouse.

We stopped for lunch at a little play area. Anthony pushed Bug on this Merry-go-round a few times before Bug decided to take a more leisurely spin.

Nan was quite taken with this leaf she caught skipping across the picnic table.

She had to explain her find to PopPop in great detail.

After lunch we wandered down to the river.  Bug and Sam climbed this fallen tree (the same one that Bug investigated when we were at that spot on New Year's Day).  I have only ever known one other dog to climb a tree.

With Nanbaby loaded up we trekked down the river.

Bug and Sam took off ahead of us to make sure there were no sharks in them there waters.

Bug toyed with the thought of taking a swim but settled for just dipping his toes in instead.

We found a bar of beautiful white sand.  Nan wasn't sure what to think of this new substance at first.

But she finally decided she was impressed and this new stuff was pretty neat although not very tasty.

Bug had a grand time running up the small dunes of sand and rolling down the other side.

"Hey PopPop!  How about we take some of this stuff home?"

Even Sam seemed to enjoy the sand.

I'm sad that the weather is changing and winter will soon be upon us.  I can't wait for spring to make her appearance so we can continue our explorations.

Hangin' With the Good Guys

You would think that with my job at the dealership I spend so much time around cars that I wouldn't want to see anything with wheels on my time off. However, during the long Independence Day weekend Anthony and his mom took me to see the Good Guys car show at the state fairgrounds and I have to admit that I was impressed. 

In an effort to pick up the speed of my blogging in order to catch up to the present I'm not going to bore you with the lengthy details of souped up engines and specs.  I am mostly just going to post a few photos of the vehicles I found most interesting.  I had a great day watching people, talking about engines and paint jobs, and admiring the unique artistic touches and mathematics behind these creations.  I did discover that I have a new interest and admiration for the rat-mobiles. Although, for some reason I did not come home with a photo of a single one.

Who ever would have thought of making a mustang into a four-wheel drive?

Stay tuned for photos of our end of summer picnic.

A Photogenic Personality

At the end of June Nanbaby and I went to visit my friend Chris of Photography139 fame to have him shoot her 6 month photos.  I've said it before and I will state it again, Chris has an amazing talent in photography.  I have heard him wander aloud why his friends choose him to photograph the babies in their lives.  I obviously can't speak for all of them, but I had many reasons for asking Chris to photograph Nan.  I love the artistic spins, the angles, the way he can capture emotion and personality.  Chris doesn't pose the children as so many do, he captures them being their normal happy and occasionally fussy selves.  But I will let you be the judge, below are a few of my favorite shots from that evening.

Nan was getting a little tired and fussy at this point and I was trying my best to liven her up.  I wasn't even aware that Chris had aimed his camera towards me as I tried to induce giggles from the little one.  This photo now graces the desktop of my laptop.

As I said above, these are only a few of my favorite shots. There were so many fantastic photos to choose from I had a very difficult time deciding which ones to display at home & at work.  Chris has conveniently given me a link for friends and family to view the gallery of photos in the Photography139 Store.  

Thank you again for sharing your amazing talent Chris!  Look for me to discuss Nan's 1 year photos with you before long!