FABRIC

Detail of the fabric of the bridesmaids dresses for the Hindu wedding ceremony of our daughter and her fiance.

SOFT

Falling snow makes the world seem a little softer.

PROSPERITY

Grandpa dug into his vintage toy box and gave an early wedding gift to our young engaged couple.

I think he gave me a toaster when I got married.

HANGING

I've never seen a crawdad hit on a baited hook before and then continue to hang on when reeled in.

MOTION

ORDINARY

Ordinary day. 

He plays a soccer match then walks alongside to tag the ball back when it gets away from his little cousin.

Ordinary day. 

He waits on the sidelines through two matches until he gets his turn with the ball; his chance to be like his older cousin.

Ordinary day.

Extraordinary boys.

ORANGE

SEASONAL

All I wanted was to get him to a pumpkin patch where he could pick the biggest pumpkin in the place and I could get the best photo of my life.  He chose a small pumpkin, one he could carry by himself.  I chose to live in the moment and only grabbed a couple of shots of the day.  The seasons of our life pass far too fast and the moments even faster.

POVERTY

What struck me first were the "Keep Right" sign and "One Way" sign pointing up the hill with the man asking for help just below them.  What strikes me now is the contrast of the lush green corner garden across the roads with the near lack of color in the midst of the roads where the man is standing.  You can see the water line around the garden across the roads where the grass turns from manicured green to a thirsty dull shade. Life in the city.  Monotone poverty on one block then you turn a corner to well kept gardens and green green grass.

CLUSTERED

Tomato hornworms are strange looking critters. Stranger still when there are wasp cocoons clustered on them. If you look closely, you can see that some of the cocoons have open ends where the wasps have emerged.
It's actually a very cool bit of nature in play. The hornworms are feasting on my tomato plants (the ones Mr. L. now refuses to feast on because the idea that green monsters crawled around on them grosses him out) and the wasp larvae are feasting on the hornworms. Eventually the wasp larvae would kill the hornworm so it's a natural pest deterent in theory. In reality, the hornworms usually eat the tomat plant bare long before the wasp larvae kill them. Still very cool.

High Style

Youngest Ms. Lorri created a video entry for a contest by Aveda.   She's the stylist in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaDDDV3KxlI

MOVEMENT

One captive makes a move toward freedom.

No crawdads were harmed in the splashing, rock turning, mudbug catching chase in the creek and all were returned to their home in short order.

FOUND

Found: A bucket full of crawdads while wading the creek with 3 little boys.

Found: The forgotten wonder of little boys in exploration mode.

DISCOVERY

I guess a guy is willing to take a risk when he discovers a box full of birdseed and corn just waiting to be enjoyed.

And imagine our surprise when we discovered him stuck in one deck box and his five siblings stranded in another.

4-H/FAIR RESULTS

My 4-H girls did well in their county fair--both received a blue in their class, both were considered for higher honors and one of the girls ended up winning Grand Champion in her class. There were over 100 entries in their project. They are already talking about next year's project. Thanks to those ofyou who reviewed their shots and helped with selection. You can see their photo boards by looking through my archive for "4-H Photography" The lighter blue board is the one that received Grand Champion.

In my local county fair I was pleased to get a Reserve Champion with an Ohio landscape shot, an Honorable Mention in Manipulated Photos and blue ribbons in 5 other categories. This little county fair gets close to 1000 photo entries each year.

BLUR

Playing with a wide angle lens with a macro ring. Nothing high tech or high end, picked it up on eBay for fifteen bucks.

RED

Sunlit petunia.

FRAGILE

I think dragonflies are actually a little creepy which contrasts with the fragile appearance of their wings.

GLITTERING

Fireworks glittering like jewels in the night.

Another from the King's Island amusement park's July 4th show.

This is an example of my camera knowing better than me. After reviewing several shots done according to various articles I read, I popped the camera on "Auto" for a few shots and got this one.

NIGHT

Fireworks light up the night at King's Island amusement park in Ohio.

Life always gets in the way of my best intentions. I read a few articles about shooting fireworks and practiced camera settings, got the tripod ready, dug out the cable release. In the end, though, I made a quick relocation to an open spot with a better view and shot handheld.

So much for good intentions.

PATRIOTIC

Two young men from Denmark spent the July 4th weekend with us in Ohio. They wanted to visit "an American funpark" for the holiday. As we arrived at King's Island there were sky divers coming in to open the holiday celebration.

I had seconds to grab a camera. Ended up with no sky in the background.

4-H Photography

Our little girls, ages 9 and 11, completed their boards for 4-H Photography. In their early divisions there is not a lot of room for creativity. All color or all black & white shots, 10 to a board with a pre-determined title.

The girls did a good job, though, and here are their completed boards. Judging will be July 15 so keep your fingers crossed for a good outcome.

Hannah, age 11, has the top board on the darker blue background. Andrea, age 9, has the bottom, lighter blue, board.

THE CITY

Mr. L. and two friends look out from a hillside high above the city. They can see Great American Ballpark, home of the Reds, clear across the Ohio River and into Kentucky.

The girls are visiting from a neighboring state to work on their 4-H Photography projects. It's been fun to see them going from taking snapshots to photos that many of us would be proud to claim. The youngest especially. She listens to an instruction and I can see her putting it into action with her next shot. she can name the parts of the camera and is using "Auto" less each day.

SEASIDE

I'm sad to say this is as close to seaside as I'm likely to get this summer.

FEMININE (one of many themes I missed over the months!)

Our daughter has a quiet moment to reflect in the midst of the engagement celebration. The wedding day will be a celebration of both our family's Catholic Christian traditions and her fiance's Hindu traditions. For this Hindu engagement blessing she is honoring her future husband's traditions by wearing a bindi (a small jewel that doesn't really show well in the photo) in the center of her forehead. The red marking is a powder (sometimes a paste is used but our girl has sensitive skin!) and is, I think, called "tilak."

PASSAGE OF TIME

Our daughter receives a welcoming hug from her fiance's grandmother following their engagement blessing ceremony, a Hindu tradition. I liked the behind the scenes perspective and the way the passage of time is measured in generations in this shot.

VEHICLE

He didn't seem to mind the off and on mist of rain. I liked the texture the misty rain added to the shot.

DROPLETS

A visit to our garden after an early day rain.

PAIR

A pair of swans glide past a pair of boaters.

DISTANT

The ground is a distant speck when you're perched on top of a water tower while painting.

COMPLEX

Our middle daughter is engaged to a young man of the Hindu faith. His family hosted an engagement blessing for the couple. This is a close up of the detail work in the mehndi done on her hands the evening before the event. It is done with henna and lasts a few weeks. The darkness of the final ink is determined by one's own body temperature.

PEACEFUL

A busy weekend.

Late nights.

Early mornings.

A long car ride home.

A few peaceful moments before the little guy wakes up and life kicks back to high gear.

PORTRAIT

Thirteen months and counting.

COOL

Main Entry: cool !kUl
Pronunciation: \ ˈkül \
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English col, from Old English cōl; akin to Old High German kuoli cool, Old English ceald cold - More at - cold
Date: before 12th century
Results.....
......7. slang a. very good : excellent also all right b. fashionable hip

Grandson #1 looking very cool in his sunglasses and showing off the very cool patch he was awarded at this weekend's soccer match. Each coach in the league is given a patch to award at the conclusion of each match to a player on the opposing team who exhibits good game skills and good sportsmanship.

YOUNG AND OLD

Two of our family treasures.

One year old Hollis, the youngest member of our family, visits with Grandma Annie, his 98 years young great-great-grandmother. Granny Annie spends the cold midwestern winters in Arizona so Hollis hasn't seen her in 7 months. I wanted something better than snapshots of the two of them but Hollis wasn't convinced he knew Granny Annie well enough to sit with her. He was willing, though, to stop by and visit as he showed off his recently acquired walking skills.

THE SPORTING LIFE

It's soccer season. Two double headers a weekend, two practices a week. Grandson #1 and his family live The Sporting Life.

YELLOW

Still working with the new lens, trying to master a point of clear focus while getting the desired edge blur.

BLOSSOM

A single orchid blossom.

Still playing around with focus, I intentionally have most of the flower slightly soft and concentrated on highlighting the "mouth," so to speak, of the orchid.

BIRTHDAY AFTERMATH

Oh sure, they're all about encouraging you to play in the birthday cake. And then--once you've been lured in--someone comes along, puts your head in a lock down position and starts scrubbing your face off with a spit drenched Kleenex.

PhotoWalk Friday Tip

Happy Birthday, Karin! Have a bite of birthday cake with my youngest grandson as he celebrates Birthday #1.

Bring your own wipes.

Photo Salvage

I liked the emotion of this shot of youngest grandson watching his older cousin play soccer, but it was a miserably out of focus shot. A little color and texture work gave it a quasi-vintage look that I find more appealing than the original.

EMOTIONS

Bright eyes, dimpled cheeks, toothy grin. Emotions.

ONE

One lovely blossom.

PARTS

Still playing with new lens; trying to consistently determine the parts of the image that are sharp and the parts that are blurred. Hand held; I know I'll need to use a tripod to get something printable.

PARTS II

Grandma Paparazzi

All done with a wicked belly laugh as he got those slobbery hands on the camera.

VIOLET

Yeah, real men wear violet.

Grandson #2 working his trendy accountant look.

GLOW

The Easter fire casts a glow on the faces of the parish community as the Vigil begins.

The Easter Vigil is celebrated in the Catholic Church during the hours between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Easter Sunday morning. In our parish it typically begins just beyond sundown, between 8:30 and 9:00.

There are 4 parts:

The Service of Light

The Liturgy of The Word

Christian Initiation/Renewal of Baptism Vows

Communion

The fire is lit and the Christ candle (representing The Light of Christ in the world) is lit. Everyone follows the candle into the dark church. Candles are lit and held by the entire community as the Exsultet is sung, telling the story of Christian salvation history. As seven Old Testament readings are read, the lights are gradually brought up in the church. The water in the baptismal pool is blessed by immersing the lit candle in it three times. The fonts in the church are filled after possibly 6 Lenten weeks of being empty. The music is loud and joyfull. Those adults being baptized into the faith begin to be received, those people joining by profession from another faith are met and all are confirmed. The entire community recalls their own baptismal promises during a very wet sprinkling rite throughout the church. The liturgy continues through the celebration of Communion and dismisses, often as late as midnight.

It's an evening rich with tradition and deep with meaning in the Catholic faith.

ACTION/ACTIVE

Easter Baptism

Two years of active faith formation.

The action of the priest pouring water three times over her head.

Stopping the action of the falling water droplets (I love their shadows on the priest's chausable)