Shoot out! day 1 in Grand Lake

On our first day in Grand Lake we took the kids to the local museum, which was the first boarding house in town. The sights were fun, educational and for the kids enough to make them want to come back. More on the museum later, but today I wanted to share the children's highlight..the dress up area! They all dressed up and played their parts! They even played bank robber!

When they left they actually wanted to come back again for more! Both learning about the crickets old house and the games!

-ehw

P.S. Ok this shows the value of a simple program like Snapseed to process photos on the fly. I also could use the sepia setting on my camera (which I also did) to give you a fun historic shoot in just a few taps of a finger.

Rocky Mountain Colorado

The final push to our Rocky Mountain campsite took about five hours. The kids were surprised that they got the treat of seeing the Rocky Mountains up close thirty years sooner than their Dad...

They fell into their grandparents arms, Kevin (boy number two at age six) moved out of the trailer immediately to take up residence with his gran parents, and we settled down for a delicious dinner. I was thrilled to simply know I had no driving ahead of me for a few days.

Since this is Sunday I thought I'd share my wife's choice for a vanity plate on the van. It says "You're life has an owners manual" with a picture of the Bible.

-ehw

Kansas

We stopped after a long drive in Goodland, Kansas for a night on the high prairie. The KOA there is run by a lovely team of husband and wife. Alicia immigrated from Poland about 30 years ago. She was the second person in over forty years to say my name correctly!

The prairie of Kansas is incredible during the summer. It really can call to you...and make you forget about the cold winter ahead if you are not careful. The people are hardworking, the entire state seems cultivated, oil co-exists easily with wheat fields, and everything seems down to earth. In general it seems like a place that really works the land for a living and manages it carefully.

During our stay she was running the camp herself, as her husband was back in the old country attending to the funeral of his loving and kind father. She had here hands full as the park filled up, but she keep a great attitude towards everything, and longed for her husband's return. We were under a storm threat all night long, so the clouds were dramatic, the winds strong, and my worries a little higher than normal.

In the morning the sun rose with lovely color, and I captured the state flower in its glory! I told Alicia I would post that photo for her, as a memory to here kindness and hospitality.

-ehw

P.S. Evening photo with the X-E1, edited in Snapseed. Morning photos same camera but with the 60mm close up lens.

Missouri

We travelled hard all day and arrived at the KOA in Independence, Missouri...aka the East Kansas City Kampground. It is summertime, so it was of course very hot and muggy! So after setting up shop we launched into the pool to cool off as a family.

I guess for so many of us, our best memories of summertime were around a pool, lake or ocean. We loved the hours we spent in the water, making castles or learning to dive to record depths to recover diving sticks. We cared little about what we looked like, or what others would think. We just lived those golden summer moments for all they were worth, our attitudes matched the wide grins on our faces, and those memories remain strong with us today in a lovely glowing memory.

So my photos from this day were very, very few. They were however designed to capture those golden memories, the magical grins, and fleeting moments of summer past and present. I hope Normal Rockwell would be pleased.

-ehw

All three photos from the Fujifilm X-20. Top photo is the OOC JPEG, no edits. Second had a Vignette added in Snapseed, the last one had a little drama added in Snapseed to bring back the contrast in the fading light.

Kentucky

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Kentucky....driving north from Atlanta we passed right by the first home my wife and I purchased as newlyweds. At mile marker 1 one on northbound I-24 there is a bridge followed by a rest area. I used to run there and use it as my personal mile three marker for my weekend six mile run. I'd look at people pulling in and wonder where they were headed.

On this day a few weeks ago I pulled into the rest area with four children and the same lovely bride 15 years later. Lucky guy I be...lucky guy I be...

The photo of my girl is from the rest stop...photo two is from the KOA in Paducah with my kiddos are at play. Kentucky is a lovely, lovely state. It is one I love to visit just for its sheer beauty.

-ehw

P.S. Here we have one shot with the X-E1 55-200 (the portrait). The other is with the relatively fast focusing X-20 while on a morning walk. Originals are nice, but some tweaking in Nik Snapseed for fun.

Reflections

Reflections provide great opportunities for photos..and sometimes too many problems to deal with...

In this case I think the effect is right on the borderline.  The reflections provided a very interesting vintage effect.  You have a magical and timeless feel added to the texture of the photo.  Simultaneously I also drew in some distracting elements...like the little door handle.  Some people will take that as a "being there effect" while others will become uneasy  from the "ghost" image.

Just another tool in your photographic kit bag...use it when it helps and hit delete when it fails to meet your intent!

FYI...Yes another Roswell Main Street photo.  Never been in there...I've never run the bar scene..but the image was simply striking and had to be attempted!  In a way it was me stepping out of my comfort zone to try something a bit different.

-ehw

Working with Dad

Here are the boys with me last week out shoot our cameras.  Kalen got some pretty nice shots with that telephoto on my Pentax K200D, and Kevin did fine with our family's heirloom HP C618 digital camera.  (It was my first digital...and yes Pentax made the glass for it).  We had a great time going around town, into the woods taking photos, teaching each other to slow down, reading maps and sharing our photos later. Times like this I just don't want to forget.... -ehw PS These were shot with my new Fujifilm X-E1.  I am really enjoying the deep rich colors and perfect skin tones.

Happy Birthday America

On America's birthday I thought a little Red, White and Blue were in order to share....

I hope you enjoy America's birthday tomorrow..and if you get a chance enjoy a few chapters of one of my top five favorite books...The Federalist Papers.  The Founders had some pretty good ideas that seem long forgotten at times.

-ehw

PS:  Fujifilm X-E1 again from last weekend.  This is the RAW processor with just a little highlight recovery. Just love the colors...contrast...and recovery from the shadows.

On Main Street Roswell you can pickup a front row seat here to watch the world go by with a cup of joe...oh that is cappuccino in the fancy neck of the woods.  People sitting hear have however also been known to bring up some coffee and a Krispy Creme from down the street though!

Well Monday is here...and I rather be there instead of work.  Oh well...got to earn a living!

-ehw

This is another example of post processing done in Capture One.  I continue to find the tools are very sophisticated, and attack problems a bit differently than Adobe or Apple's solutions.  I'm liking them a lot!  Speed is also pretty darn good on my rapidly aging (in computer years) iMac.

Into the Woods

Went for a walk in the historic district this morning in Roswell.  The summer light is harsh pretty early, but I got a few keepers using HDR techniques.

More of the fun downtown over the next few days!

Roswell Fire Department #1

For my Babcha!

Each year, right now, the gardenia's bloom in my back yard.  When we moved into the house I was drawn to their complete package of beauty and fragrance.  If I had seen these flowers before, I had no memory of them.  I just knew they were something important to capture and enjoy.

Last year I shot a few of these wonderful flowers and sent them off to my family, only to hear a wonderful love story.  See paternal grandfather, DjaDja, brought these to my Babcha (grandmother) when they were dating since she loved them.  This was expensive during the war, especially up in the cooler climate of Boston.  My Babcha enjoyed them so much, they made up her bridal bouquet!

That love story took place during World War II, but I only found out about it the day I sent her the photos some seventy years later.  For years that lovely story laid dormant, untold and a my connection to these flowers unknown.  Only by sharing this image, which cannot compare to the real thing, did I learn how they are part of my story.

Since that day last year, when my Babcha sent me a lovely note, I've found myself anxious for them to reappear.  I've also shared other flowers with my wife a little more impulsively than in the past.  With each gift I think of my Babcha and DjaDja as I knew them as a child around thirty five years ago.  Two people very much in love, smiling together, and loving each other through the better, poorer, health and sickness parts of life.

So with the gardenia bloom I think of those two people in love, and try to show my wife the same devotion I remember my DjaDja doting on his bride.  That is a legacy I don't want to ever forget.

So as i used to tell him....Thanks Dja

-ehw

Polarizing Adventure

We took the family an hour north today to enjoy lovely Northern Georgia.  Amicalola Falls lies just a few miles from the southern base of the Appalachian Trail...

Back in 1998 I was wondering through these mountains a few miles away at the Ranger Mountain Base Camp...and slid down one of these little hills through three feet of snow.  It was not what I recall as a great time.  The little slide down the mountain helped my legs get infected, and an all expense paid trip to the hospital for five days of treatment.  As I recovered, we often walked by a nearby waterfall on some short hikes between sessions.  As crazy as the day was, the sound and beauty of the waterfall always brought me back to a level of calm.  I cannot explain why, it just happened.  So this trip was a nice one, just because of those same lovely sights and sounds being shared with my wife and children.

What made the adventure polarizing was that I put a polarized filter on my camera to help me with water reflections.  I had not done this in a great while...and it was the first time on the X20 (Mr K5 forgot to tell me he wanted a freshened up battery before we left...).  Some results were stunning, some said try a little harder.  I hope you like this one.

-ehw

Happy Times

Here is a simple little shot from a four years ago...whoa you mean old photos still hold relevance?  Photos taken with old technology like a Pentax K200D 10mp CCD can still "work?"

Well...yes they can...I know people who could shoot with a pinhole camera and put my efforts to shame.  A good photograph is less about technical excellence than it is about soul...in my humble opinion.

So many iconic photographs come from a spit second decision, snapped on instinct guided settings not perfectly applied logic.

Not much different than life..always comes back to that life thing...

People we trust the most are those that we know who will do right when under duress and short timelines.  We know that their soul contains excellent guide rails, and we can trust their instinct more than our indecision.

So I'm going to get back to the good book tonight and try to strengthen my guide rails...so maybe you will trust me to do right when my next time of trials begin.

-ehw

PS This is a Pentax K200D shot with a Tamron 18-250 ultrazoom.  Good kit if I say so myself.  K200D is still my back up, although now I don't know how I ever got by with only one whiz wheel (control wheel) and not two!

Looking Forward

Planes, trains and automobiles...all can take us places.  To these boys the power and majesty of a train is awe inspiring.  I can almost hear their questions and dreams over the clickty clack of the track.  "Where is the train going?  How strong is it?  How many cars is it pulling?  Could I drive that thing?  I'd love to travel the rails and be the engineer!"

Yesterday I talked about reflecting back in time, and coming into the present in prayer.  Those reflections provide us the necessary torque to pull the burdens of our lives forward on the track God intended.  Within those boundaries, we actually get freed to obtain the greatest rewards life can offer.

To us life is one linear motion, but to the maker of all things time has no linear boundaries.  It is limitless, without boundaries, and makes sense all at once.

Just like the boys, that mystery makes me say, "Where is God's train going?  How strong is it?  How many cars is he pulling?  Would he let me drive that thing?  I'd love to travel the rails and be his engineer on the way to the kingdom!"

-ehw

PS Mr K5 working his magic...F5, 1/5000 @ ISO 1600 -3ev

All Aboard!

Three boys and a train museum...with buses!  What do you get?  Fun and energy all wound up and let loose at the Southeastern Train Museum in Duluth, Georgia!

The boys (my son and his two best friends) were really good, considering how much energy they had they were angels!  I loved every minute of their discovery, but had a hard time keeping the lens on them in focus.

I wish I could see the world as they do...in awe and wonder...and with the vivaciousness of their souls leaping out at all times.  Instead I'll do as God intended us to do.  I'll look on then with wonder, accept the challenge in being their guardian for the day, and see what lessons I can bank for another day.

-ehw

PS Yet another shot showing the versatility of the Fujifilm X20 when equipped with a simple external flash unit (EF-20).

Liberty is not free!

On this Memorial Day remember the fallen who gave so much to let us be free, and pray for them to be enjoying the sweet embrace of Christ in heaven.

As we pray for them, grab a the Federalist Papers and read what the founders understood liberty to be.  Learn what histories they read, and why the rejected so many notions we see advanced today...as if they are new and improved ideas!

Meditate on why they said on more than one occasion that our nation cannot survive without God's natural law as its moral guide.

When you do these things you will honor those who sacrificed all..and understand why cannot forget liberty is not free..it comes with the acceptance of consequence and the grows with charitas (selfless gift).That is the wonder of liberty.  When abused and made selfish; liberty becomes destructive to family, self and country.  When liberty becomes a cherished gift and our actions towards one another are selfless giving; liberty grows healthy families, communities and country.

-ehw

Life Changing Day

Life can change in a moment.  One of those moments is when you become a father. Twelve years ago I first laid my eyes on my lovely daughter Julia Rose, and my whole life changed.  The first night she was born, I told her everything she needed to know for all of her years as we walked the floor of the ward.  She put her little hand into my shirt collar and rubbed my neck gently. Four weeks later at her baptism I became overwhelmed at the feeling of responsibility as I professed before God and family that this child was in my care.

She has had me wrapped around her pinky since then, but never abused that privilege!  Last night she had a small party with family and three close friends.  It was wonderful to see them play in the yard, make up stories filled with honor, and then hear the cards written by her friends with words of fellowship based in Christ's example.

God blessed us then, and continues to bless us now.  But watching the candles burn I could not help but think back to that first hospital cuddle, the first night of walking her to sleep, the first smiles and connecting touch...what a memory..what a wonderful life...

-ehw

PS Here is one of our first digital photos of my girl two weeks old!  Taken with an HP610..lit by Pentax glass!

Kevin at the Bat!

Kevin takes a practice swing as he steps up to the plate...looks bigger than six huh?  One of two photos I took at his last game of instructional T-Ball.  I'm glad I made them count, while I enjoyed the whole game without a large camera tied to me.  Sometimes it is very helpful to enjoy life through your own lenses.

I took this photo through the fence with my Fujifilm X20.  It is quite sharp, and provides a lot of dynamic range to pull out and play with.

I took some liberty with it in PerfectEffects, and I am pleased with the results.  I did vignette the photo as well to focus the eyes on the batter.

-ehw

Breakfast with Grandma

Moments of a lifetime...that is why you need to have your camera ready at all times.

It is not everyday you get to catch your child stealing bites from Grandma's breakfast plate.  It was just too cute to pass up.

The little Fujifilm X-20 is continuing to impress.  It is still a small sensor, but it is very capable.

-ehw