Life: Through the Lens

Roamin', sitting on my tripod at Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota It was great fun having my little gnome along on our trip. We got some attention now and then, as you can well imagine. In fact, at Mt. Rushmore there was a comment which made me stand up a little straighter: "Look! It's the Travelocity guy! What a great idea!" Roamin' is a great exercise in Depth of Field, as well. Depth of Field is how much of your photograph is in focus from the front to the back of your scene, or subject. With a point-and-shoot camera you don't have as many options. You have a focusing area, but you can't adjust the depth of field by changing the f-stop. (F-stop is the size of the opening of the shutter, determining how much light is let in. A small number, like f4 or f5.6, is a relatively large opening, while a high number, such as f16 or f20, is a small opening. I know...who set this system up, anyway? ) If you can play with your settings at all, you can decide how much of t...

Zipping down the road, miles of highway in front of us, and behind us, we couldn't help but think about some of the abondoned buildings we saw dotting the landscape. Once, the highway didn't exist and someone lived in these homes. One room, maybe two. In the middle of nowhere. When we came upon this lonely, abondoned homestead, I began to think about the lifestyle of the early American settlers, and compared it to all we have today. I would not have made a good pioneer woman, I don't think. However, if it's the only life you know I suppose you just live it. Traveling across the miles of endless prairie, how do you suppose people decided when to "stop," and build their homestead? Why this place over another? I see the patch of trees here, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't there a hundred+ years ago when this other homestead was established. The countryside is hilly, and we're headed to more mountainous terrain, but the early settlers wouldn't have k...

Just as we were starting out on our adventure, I received a "meme" request from a wonderful follower - Extranjera, at What Will I Ever Do With My Life ? Isn't that a great question? I hope we never stop asking it. A "meme," I asked? And what exactly IS one? Fortunately it was all spelled out, with examples, and room for creativity. There should always be room for creativity! So, a "meme," pronounced like "theme," is a list of questions we answer and ask each other - another level to getting to know something about someone else. I looked at Extranjera's post and found it interesting, smart, and funny; she's such a great writer. Then I looked at the post from the person who tagged HER for a "meme." Slightly different questions, and direction. So, I've come up with my own. The rules: 5 categories, and 5 things in each category. Photographs, words, combinations of the two - it seems pretty non-threatening, yet gives you pau...

This week has been lovely, and I hope to continue to look for my happy thoughts each day. Visiting others' sites has helped expand my "list" - causing me to think of connections to photos, and to stories. Thank you, Lisa , for getting the ball rolling this week and continuing to be a leader in creative thinking:). This post is also a "photography lesson," embracing my love for teaching. I love flowers. I don't have much luck growing them, but I love them. And my fondness for roses is a connection to my grandmother. She had a lovely rose garden at "the cottage," a house on a lake my grandparents owned and where we spent much of each summer. Grandma would be out in the roses, working in her cotton housedress (which she'd made), worn cotton work gloves on her small hands (with fingers shaped just like mine), perfectly curled short hair, and a smile. Standing just 4 foot 11 inches tall, Grandma's smile was bigger than she was. I don't re...

Welcome to my "critter" post. I love wildlife of all kind. I love photographing wildlife of all kind. This bison was by the road as we traveled through Yellowstone National Park. Huge. Ungainly. Fascinating. I could not leave out photographing wildlife from a week of celebrating things which make me happy. Thank you, Lisa , as I am having a difficult time sorting out only enough things to talk about for one week. I have a list which could take a few weeks to go through! How exciting is that? In the size category, butterflies are the other end of the spectrum. Small and dainty and colorful, I delight in watching them flit from one place to another. This particular little lady (I looked it up and found out you can actually tell a male from a female monarch by a little black spot on the back of the wing) started as a fabulous caterpillar who made her chrysalis on my front porch. In the left photo you can see the clear case still attached to my porch spindle as she dried her...

Happy Week continues with an ode to Water . Stop in at Lisa's for more things to love, and a blog roll of people sharing accounts of smiles and joy. Roamin' on the Shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, WA (gateway to the Pacific Ocean) We love the water. It doesn't matter if it's the coast of Washington State, which is rocky and big and sometimes turbulent..... ...or the water of a calm bay. I love to look for reflections, which extend the depth of a photograph. In calm water a reflection can trick your eyes, making you wonder where the horizon line really is. Sometimes water can add drama to an otherwise benign photo of a house, a lodge, or a cabin. It can make you image what it would be like to live in such a place. A place where you can get up in the morning and take your coffee to the deck or porch to start your day quite spiritually. This is also true for the end of the day, when the sun's last rays dance across the sky and are reflected in the water's...

Roamin Meets the GPS- Stories from the Road Lisa, my favorite Curious Girl , created a wonderful idea for a week of "happy" posts. Share those things which make you happy, bring joy to your life, and generally fill you with happy thoughts (I do love the movie Hook , with Robin Williams). We are just returned from our fabulous 23-day, 5600 mile, 10 state, 4 time-zone adventure, and I am filled with happy thoughts today. I am also aware of the piles of laundry, the dirty car, the grocery shopping, and the weary body. Those are not the things I'll share today! Today it's about the joy of road-tripping. The miracle that we live in such a country that everywhere you go you see something to celebrate. I love driving down the road and seeing something new, or different, or unexpected. We drove for a very long time across the upper mid-west, while following signs for "Wall Drugs." Apparently this is a historic stop, originally a place for those who crossed the coun...

There are so many wonderful stories from the road to tell. And images collected which are heartwarming and humorous. Here's the first installment of our 2009 Adventure: This record shot of our Oshkosh camp ground morning illustrates that when you travel you take what you can get. Here is the electricity...along the outside wall of the bath house. Each day you could find a mixed group of people getting their electrical fix - either drying hair in the morning, as shown here, or plugging in laptops and cell phones and electric scooters/chairs. In fact, you can see one electric chair undercover on the right, plugged into one of the outlets. It was pretty hilarious, and made me think of camping trips I have taken over the years. Though I was one of the people at the electrical outlets each morning, I was amazed that this is the place you could find the teenagers in the evening. Not playing ball or riding bikes or playing kick-the-can. They were attached by a cord to an outlet...and very...

That's "airplane" nose art:). I love this American tradition of personalizing an aircraft through artistic expression. Started in WWII, it was popular for a crew to name their aircraft, creating a personal connection to the plane, by creating artwork for the nose. Colorful to look at, most designs represented a time period in history, and/or a story about the crew of the aircraft. The tradition has carried forward from WWII, through the Korean and Vietnam wars...and into the present. Look at http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/militarynoseart/ for more complete information on the history of this art form, as well as to see some examples. Today, many people still create an art piece for their aircraft, though the styles are definitely changing.