Life: Through the Lens

Thanks to some caring students, we were gifted a readiness kit for our upcoming adventure! On Saturday we leave for Ghana, a country in western Africa, where we'll spend 7 intriguing and exciting weeks. As you can see, Roamin' is ready to go. So much time and research has gone into our preparation, which began last spring. We will accompany 9 student teachers from Central Michigan University and their student teaching experience will continue in Ghanaian schools. My job is to supervise their teaching, as well as work with the teachers in the schools. Yes, Daryl is going as well, and he'll document our adventures and enjoy some exploration. Besides teaching each day, we will take field trips around the country and learn about the country, its people and cultures. What an exciting journey. The journal is ready. The camera gear is spread out, some having been cleaned, some added to, and all are itching to record this trip of a lifetime. If we're ready for it! The time beco...

Sensory Overload - that's a u t u m n in Michigan. The colors are so vibrant, and the sound of leaves crunching underfoot is exhilarating. The scent of burning leaves fills the air. Sharing an autumn walk is both soothing and rejuvenating. I love taking time to be outdoors and reveling in this magnificent beauty. Of course, being photographers during this season is also exciting. Daryl and I love looking for autumn shots to fill our albums and decorate our walls. They also take up a lot of room on our hard drive! What's also fun is the fact that we see the world around us quite differently. Daryl's a "big picture" type of guy. I love the details, the pictures within a picture. So when we were away last weekend for Crane Fest , we couldn't help but bring our unique styles to the 300+ images we brought home. We hope you're enjoying the many facets of this beautiful season. Take the time to stop, look, listen, smell the air, and spend time with loved ones....

Welcome to Crane Fest Where birders of all ages peer through binoculars, scopes and camera lenses waiting to see the Greater Sandhill Crane stop, rest and feed on their migration route to the South for the winter. At the end of the day.... it's all about the sound of tens of thousands of birds, wings beating and vocalizations filling the air, as they make their way to warmer weather, and continue to entrance those who take the time to stop look and listen, marveling once again in the wonders of the natural world. Look up...it's an amazing world.

Have you ever heard of Dale Chihuly ... a master glass artist? I had seen one of his indoor exhibits in Chicago a few years ago and was intrigued by his use of color and design and medium set in natural settings. Each piece of glass, or exhibit, tells a story meant to blend art and nature. Then just a week ago I accompanied my favorite 5th grade class, my classroom of budding photographers, on a field trip to Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, in Grand Rapids, MI, where a huge Chihuly exhibit was nestled not just indoors, but outdoors in waterfalls and ponds, over hillside and gardens. And I was blown away. His "fine art glass blowing" is exquisite. My photographers did an awesome job of "looking at different angles," developing artistic "compositions" and determining "point of view" - all vocabulary terms they'd learned during my in-school instructional time with them. This age group just soaks up the arts, and I am once again moved to f...

Travels near and far takes us to the zoo this week. The last day of summer vacation before school started, we took two of our grandchildren to the zoo and had an excellent adventure. The weather was nice and cool, perfect for the animals to come out and play. Okay, so maybe not ALL the animals wanted to play. The picnic lunch was perfect, too, and there's always ice cream for desert at the concession stand. The challenge with zoo photography is trying to get a shot of an animal without showing glass, or caging. One trick is getting in close so you can chase out that reflection, or shoot through the wires. And sometimes there's not much you can do. It depends on your equipment, to some extent. In this case, I just didn't have either enough lens to allow me to zoom in through the bars, or a way to get so close I could actually put the face of my camera between the wires. This was definitely not one of those kinds of photo opportunities, as you can see by the expression on h...

The Old 27 Motor Tour "Back in the Day" Every year they come through, those old car enthusiasts and their spiffed up rods. Making pit stops along the way, they drive a route that used to be traveled all the time, but now has taken second place to the highway. The highway - that sign of "progress." For a while in August, however, the Michigan "old 27" route is buzzing with the sound of mufflers, rough motors, and smooth ones. The sound of laughter evident, and the signs of a simpler time, as they say, are spit and shined for display. I remember my own pink poodle, Fifi , who went with me everywhere. Now here's a great way to travel. Ready to hit the road! So shiny you can catch the reflections of a glorious summer day. Automobiles "smile" as hundreds of people come out to photograph them. And luggage is packed for the journey...luggage which is as nostalgic as the vehicles. For a little while everyone relaxes and reminisces and remembers ...

Only 5 1/2 hours from home, and a new experience opened before us. We went with a group of fellow photographers to a beautiful national park near Cleveland, OH, and came away with sweaty clothes, mosquito bites, and memories of good times and photo opportunities. Every summer our photography group takes a field trip to a location not too far from home. Typically we leave on a Friday morning and return Sunday. The last couple of years we haven't been able to attend the entire weekend, but we go for whatever time we can. This year it was Friday and Saturday, returning in the evening so we could be here to photograph our airport open house on Sunday. Of course, the weekend was as hot and humid as most of our summer, it seems, so we did the best we could to stay hydrated, and apply mosquito repellant as we walked a wonderful walkway through a swamp, early Saturday morning. That walk was heavily traveled, we found, by a large number of cyclists, walkers, and beautiful wildlife. If we...