More Negative Space and Black and White

 Black and White is a challenge for me because I love color.  Most always, if given a choice between a black and white image or a colored one, I will choose color.  So usually it's hard for me to find a photo that I think would look good converted to black and white.  These two, above and below, were two I thought would look good converted.  The above photo of Capri, except for her Troll shoes, could have been taken in the black and white era of the fifties.  A little girl shoveling, the Desoto in the background.  She's helping Aiden and I fill up our rain gutters with dirt so we can plant pea seeds in them.  A gardening experiment we're trying . . . .

And this picture of Capri resting on her shovel also converted to black and white nicely.  At least, I thought so.  Below, the light on half of Capri's face made a nice black and white image.  She's showing off her "fish face".  I wish you could see that cute upper lip moving up and down in true "fish face" fashion.  It's adorable!!  

 I also worked a little  more on negative space, since I really didn't understand it before.  The picture of Aiden below enveloped in smoke is a good example of negative space, I think.  It reminds me of Garth Brook's song, Standing Outside The Fire. :)  I'm thinking, "Thank goodness he's standing outside the fire"

 And this photo with a burst of sunlight in the background is a good shot using negative space.  These were both taken in Jill and Kenny's back yard when they built an illegal bonfire to burn weeds, limbs and their Christmas Tree.  As Capri said, "Aiden, burn our Christmas Tree so we can get a new one!"  Gotta get rid of the old one before you can get a new one.

It's so nice having these kids next door for me to practice taking pictures of.  And I think they like my food, so it's a good trade.

Negative Space

 Negative space is something I'm not good at thinking about when I take pictures.  Usually, I just accidentally end up with negative space in a photo, like the one above of Capri.  The white behind her is sheer white curtains that I "blew out" when I took the picture.  It worked quite well for the setting, which was Capri in the cute hat she made, acting "like a lady".  The purpose of negative space is to bring a sense of balance to a photo.  It strengthens it by helping draw your eye to the subject of the photo.  

I knew when I took them that these would be cute with Kaylie's face framed in the playground equipment she was playing on.  I didn't think of it as negative space, but I think it fits the definition.  It does strengthen the composition and adds interest to the photo.  

I am going to try and keep the idea of negative space in mind when taking pictures in the upcoming weeks.  Meanwhile, I really love these!!

Soft Light and The Golden Hour

I got to spend some time in Stansbury playing with these kiddos this week.  Luckily, Mr Brodes wanted to go to the vacant lots to ride bikes during "The golden hour" photographers love so much.  The Golden Hour challenge isn't until week 24, but since I'm behind anyway, I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and combine "soft  light" with "the Golden Hour.

 This picture of Brody standing on the tips of his toes to reach the ground from his bike seat is my favorite.  I love that he is still such a little boy.  I wish he could stay that way :)

Thanks little Brody, for giving me such a great a subject to photograph.

The next week's subject is "Taste"  So let me just throw in my Valentine pie.  This is before it was baked, . . .

And after it is done.  It was as yummy as it is pretty!!

Leading Lines and A Little Bit Of Reflection

This week my photographic challenge was leading lines.  Now, I know what leading lines are, and I've taken leading lines photos before.  Check out the above photo from our trip to Boston last year.  THAT is a leading line.  The photo I managed today, after thoughtful consideration all week long, is a stretch.

See, I wanted to get a picture of the clouds hovering down low on the mountains, and the graveyard was the best place to do that from.  And I thought, "Great!  Gravestones.  Leading lines!"  But apparently they don't plant gravestones in a straight line in Moab.  So my leading line is a curve, but it does lead your eye to the cool shaft of light coming out of the sky and bursting into cloud there above that last headstone in my leading line.  If you can see a line, that is . . .

While I was there hanging out at the graveyard, I took a few more pictures of graves and the cloudy mountains.  The tall grey gravestone you can see in  the background there marks the grave of China Lutz, a southern belle from the 1800's who helped settle Moab.  I played China in a play about Star Hall for three summers running, so it was fun to find her grave.  I really liked other two old, battered gravestones nearby, also, so to fit them, China's grave and the cloudy mountains, I had to forget about leading lines.  

 And, while I was there and the clouds were hanging, I snapped a few pictures of Debbie's grave. Then Dave called me and asked where I was, and it was awkward explaining that I had run up to the graveyard really quick.  Who does that?  So I crawled under the fence like Peter Rabbit and went home.  

When I started this photo challenge, it was to help me get my camera out and use it in ways different than just the normal everyday snapshot photos I tend to take.  The above photo challenge - leading lines for this week - is a 52 week challenge.  So once a week my creativity is stretched and I have to think about a different way to take photos all the time.  This week I found another challenge in one of my CLICK magazines that I really liked, so I decided to do it, too.  

 The first challenge was reflections.  Capri and I had fun taking pictures of her and her reflection in a puddle on our back porch left by the rain.

 Can I just stop and say how much I am loving this rainy, sweatshirt weather we are having this lovely January?  I can't remember a January I have enjoyed more.  Or enjoyed at all!  While the rest of the world is being covered with blanket after blanket of snow, we are getting rain here.  It's just so great!!

 The idea for reflection photos in the magazine was capturing something inside and outside a window at the same time.  So, as you are taking a picture of something inside, you also capture something different happening outside.  I altered that a little bit and just captured Capri and her reflection in the water in the same photo.  That was creative enough for me.  The above photo is SO cute!  The wind blew her umbrella inside out :)

And this little Capri is SUCH a great poser, after you warm her up to the idea and make it sound fun!  

So today I bring you two photo challenges.  Leading lines . . .sort of, and Reflections . . . sort of.  At the very least, I captured some cuteness I would not have captures otherwise.  And that is always a good day.   

Fresh

It's January!  Of the year 2017.  Actually, it's been January for a while now.  It's the 14th of January, but I'm a little behind.  That's just me.  For a New Year's Resolution I joined a photography challenge just to try and up my photography game and to keep me from taking the same picture, but of different people in a different locations kind of thing.  I looked at several 52 week challenges, but in almost every one the first challenge was a photo of yourself.  A selfie.  Now, I did just take a photo of myself, and it wasn't easy.  It also wasn't pretty!  It was for my concealed weapon's permit renewal, so there were some restrictions, but still . . .  I finally found one that had some challenging photography elements in it, and the first guideline was Fresh.  Now, if you're starting this challenge in January, which I would think most people are, then my question is, what is Fresh about the month of January? In a normal January, everything is cold, dead and covered in snow.   So, this took some thought, but I finally came  up with the above photo after Aiden and I planted - yes planted - basil and tomato seeds in pots today.  See, the rest of the world is plagued with an over abundance of snow, ice and cold, but here in Moab, it has been THE BEST JANUARY EVER!!  So far.  Today we were out in sweatshirts cleaning the yard and planting in pots.  That, to me, is pretty fresh.

 And while Aiden and I planted, Capri rode the little motorcycle around and around the yard.  There are so many things I love about these pictures.  The fact that she is riding in a skirt, tights and Aiden's snow boots, that she has her jacket on backwards, and likes it that way!, her determined look in the bottom picture, and her smile that lights up the world in the top, and the one little braid that escaped her helmet and is hanging down in front of her cute face.

It was a good day.  A perfectly wonderful January day, made more wonderful by the absence of cold and snow. It was so very Fresh.

Cozzens Camp - Day at the Lindon Pool

On our last day of Cozzens Camp, we drove to Lindon to play in their water park.  We had thought about going to Seven Peaks, but thought better about it when we considered the younger kids, the crowds, and the stress level of a major water park.  I am SO glad we made the decision to go to Lindon's water park instead.  There was something for everyone!

The above should be a video of Porter body surfing, but the video isn't working.  For a first time attempt, it was awesome!  Wish you could see it :(

Given some time and practice, I am convinced these guys would eventually be expert body surfers.  

Skills right there :)

There was also a gauntlett type thing that was also a blast to watch.  

Some of those kids in line could run right across those floating circles.  

But, although it may look good here, our boys usually fell on about the third float and had to crawl to the end.  

The littler kids spent most of their time in the lazy river.  It was perfect for the shorter kids, kept them moving around, and thoroughly entertained. 

I don't know what Chase is doing here, but it looks like he is blowing water from his nose :-{

It was the perfect way to end our time together.  And the perfect way to end a camp who's theme was "Unplugged and Submerged"  because we certainly were on this day!!  

What a fun week!!  I always hate to see this week, MY week with Grandkids, come to and end.  But we have lots of fun memories to look back on until next year.  

Cozzens Camp Day Three - Camping and Zip Lining

I hope Kimbrey got pictures of our camp, tents, foil dinners, ect,, because I am so bummed I didn't.  But our third day of Cozzens Camp was held in the mountains at a pretty little spot where Grandpa Cozzens has spent the past three summers working. I don't know what the place is called, but it's on the other side of the Gold Basin area.   

This is where Porter chose to eat his breakfast. Later, we did have some Four Wheeler riding time :) 

But first, it was zip line riding time.  Our friends, the Dalton's, own the adjoining property to where Dave has been working, and they have an awesome zipline that is high and long.  It kind of puts our zip line to shame :)  

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but you start at the top of a hill, up in a tree stand and end a long ways down the hill even higher in the tree.  I was standing on construction scaffolding.  My job was to unhook kiddos after their ride was over.

 

From where I was, the pictures were long distance ones until they hit the brake and we towed them in.  

Here is Bridger getting towed in after his ride.

And here is Brody, anticipating that brake . . . 

He hits the brake . . . 

And then gets towed in.   I didn't think the littles - Brody and Capri - would be brave enough to ride THIS zip line, but they were!

It's a long ways down!!

This gives a little better perspective of the zip line ride.  The ladder you see in the distance is where Jill was hooking kids on, and Aiden and Capri are walking back with their harness after their ride.  I think that's Brody again on the zip line.

Here is Capri watching that brake!

I have no idea how Jill got her up that ladder, into that harness, and off the platform to ride the zip line.  She is deathly afraid of heights.  I tried it, and I had to sit down and just kind of fall off.  I couldn't step off that platform.  It was WAY too scary for me!!

It took several trips down before kiddos relaxed enough to show how much fun they were having :) 

Here is Porter, flying free, no handed through the air, just enjoying the ride.

Another pretty good perspective of the zip line as a whole.  You can see Jill in the distance sitting on the platform at the beginning of the zip line.

And here are Porter and Chase towing Dave in to the scaffolding at the end.  

From my place at the bottom, I saw a lot of faces like this as kids hit the brake.  It was a pretty sudden stop.  Except that one time Dave thought he could lengthen the brake line and give them a little bit longer ride.  Aiden ALMOST hit the scaffolding before Dave stopped him.  And he promptly shortened the brake back up again.

Dave was excited to have the grandkids watch him knock down a couple of big trees.  They LOVED it!  And after that, they were all over. around, up and down, playing on Grandpa's big tractors.  Suddenly, those tractors were pretty cool!

We had planned to hike to Clark's Lake and then on to Oowah Lake to fish, but this was much more fun, so we took a vote and decided to stay at camp, ride the Four Wheeler, play in the mountains, and then go home to swim.

Porter caught a "caterpillar"

Here we are on our way home.  I made everyone get out of the Landcruise to take a group picture in front of an old, falling down cabin that ended up being in the wrong light for this time of day, so we turned around to get good light.  The cabin is actually in front of us here, because good light is WAY more important than a cool old cabin in the background.   And that ended our night and day of camping at Cozzens Camp.  Fun, fun, fun!!