Scene & Story - December 2017

I took this photograph on a particularly cold and snowy day in December. I had been to the gym early and stopped at the grocery store on the way home for a few necessities. I was over by the almond butter and bread when I saw the brightly lit case of fresh(ish) muffins next to the deli counter. I needed something for my 365 Photography project anyway, so why not. Even for "freshish" it was delicious.

Yesterday, when I started thinking about writing this post, I wanted to jump through the screen and devour that double chocolate muffin with those large chunks of granulated, crispy sugar on top. It is best that I don't even begin to describe the chai latte that is in the muted shades of green, blue, and rust hand thrown mug from my favorite potter in Leland, Michigan. Because if I start to think about HOW much I am missing my chai lattes, I will go upstairs and make one right now.

Why this suffering? My husband and I are doing the Whole 30 Lifestyle change in January. If you have never heard about Whole 30 you can check out information here. Basically it is an elimination diet, and a gut reset diet for 30 days. No dairy, no gluten, no alcohol, and no sugar. You don't realize how many things have sugar in them, until you start reading labels.

So, what can you eat? Eggs...lots and lots of eggs. Can I say at Day 6, I am tired of eggs. But you can also eat meat, almost all vegetables and all fruit.

The good thing is that there are so many recipes out there for Whole 30. I think this "diet" has been around for a few years now. Manufacturer's are catching on that this is a niche market, and creating products that are Whole 30 compliant. There is even No Sugar bacon out there now, thank heavens, but you have to get to the grocery store early to get it, because every other Whole 30 participant wants the bacon too.

So, why are we torturing ourselves like this? First, after the holidays and all the sugar, we needed a reset. But also to figure out what might be causing some intestinal issues my husband has been having for the past couple of years, we are pretty sure it boils down to food triggers. Once the 30 days are over, we will slowly reintroduce foods, and note how our bodies react to them. When the food triggers have been figured out, we can then eliminate them all together, or chose when we want to pay the price and have something.

Like I said we are only six days in, and haven't reached the rewarding days yet. We have been through the craving days, the crabby days, the mental fog days, but we are nearing the end of them, so we keep going, taking it one sugarless day at a time, one egg at a time.

Interested in recipes? Check out my Pinterest board of saved recipes here.

End Notes

Adding a new section to share some things that I am working on...

1. To torture myself further, I signed up for a food photography class last week, this is the class. After all, it is January and it is winter, I have to find something to photograph inside, and if I can make eggs look good, maybe I will like them more.
2. Xanthe Berkeley's Make Films class starts this week, so excited. I have already started working on my next film - A Day in the Life of Findley. If you missed my first film, you can view it here.
3. We painted our bedroom over the holidays, it only took us a year since we started talking about it. So proud of ourselves though, we got all my photographs hung on the wall the next day, this never happens. 
4. The kitchen project will be starting soon. Went and picked out countertops, backsplash and flooring last week. 

The End

This is the last Scene & Story Link-Up. Lee and I want to thank every one who joined us in 2017, sharing your stories and your favorite photographs. I feel like we learned a lot about you all through your stories, and hopefully you learned a little about us too. My wish is that you keep taking photographs and thinking about the stories surrounding them, continuing to share them somewhere. 

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Scene & Story - November 2017

This photograph is what I have come to think of as "my style". If you look at my Instagram you will see that my feed is full of this type of look this fall; muted browns and grays, leaning towards the warm side of life, a bit painterly, and usually including leading lines of some sort.

Usually this type of shot is taken with my iPhone and processed with my own customized filter in the app. Stackables. But this shot was taken with my Canon 6D and my Lensbaby Velvet 56 lens. Knowing my "style" so fully now, it was fairly easy for me to recreate "the look" in Lightroom with a Preset, a graduated filter and some burning with the brush tool. The SOOC shot is below:

Even though this is probably a fairly true version of how the scene actually looked, in hindsight I should have stopped down a stop to maybe -1, but even at that, the top photography is how the scene felt to me, and how I wanted to share it with you.

Monday afternoon I was able to escape for a little while, to get back to what I love and keeps me sane...photography.

**JUST A NOTE: This is the second to last Scene & Story. Leon and I committed to one full year, so with the posting on January 7, 2018 of December's favorite photo, that will conclude the year. We have loved hosting this link up, and hope some of you will continue the practice on your own, but we are also ready to embrace 2018 and try some new things.

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Scene & Story - October 2017

Window by Sam Luna

She stares out the window each day

Before the sun sets away

Drinking tea and wondering

What could other people be doing?

There was nothing to see

Just buildings

And hanging clothing

On other people's housing

The wind blows

Her eyes blur

She sips tea

Her mind leaves

The images of yesterday come

The emotions of today emerge

In her mind she hums

And with the wind she surges

No one could really understand why

This girl would want to fly

All her thoughts are recurring

But only the window knows what she's thinking

Since starting to do Wild Writing at the beginning of September, I have been reading a lot of poetry. I have always struggled with poetry; pretty words but where's the story. Then I realized the words are the story. 

Poetry makes me think about photography, moments I would like to capture. I will never be a poet, poetry requires a level of feeling I am not sure I will ever obtain. But poetry helps me to identify that fluttery feeling inside me when I raise the camera and press the shutter. 

This was taken at Greenfield Village when my husband and I were there for a date weekend in mid-October.

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Scene & Story - August 2017

August was a long month. By the end of August I am so ready for summer to be over and for my favorite season of the year begin. I am tired of the sun, the washed out colors, the noise, the heat and especially the humidity, which is no friend of this curly-haired girl.

In spite of my strong feelings about August, it was good month. I completed a 30 Day Photography Composition challenge, learning many things about myself and my photography in the process, always a rewarding experience. I took care of a friend's puppy for a week and survived; I learned I am not quite ready for a puppy of my own. I continued to work on my personal photography project - The Meadow, only missing the week I watched the puppy.

But the best part of August was two trips North. One with my husband, which I wrote about in my last blog post, and one with my daughter for a long overdue girls' weekend.

I realized it has been over three years since my daughter and I did a weekend away, much too long for someone who loves quality time with her family. She wanted me to take her wine tasting, which we did, but I also added a twilight tour of the former insane asylum - perfect for the photographer mother and the history major daughter, coffee in our favorite up-north town, a trip to the bookstore and a book, some rock collecting, a food truck experience, a lighthouse, and a trip to the lavender farm - which is where the above photo was taken - enjoying lavender lemonade and  lavender shortbread cookies on the patio of the Secret Garden.

It was a great weekend, three years won't pass before we do it again.

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Scene & Story - July 2017

"We seldom get what we want without struggle and loss. We do not become who we want to become - the best versions of ourselves - without passing through the fire."                              

                                                                                      ~ David duChemin

I am constantly drawn back to this photograph. The contrast of light and dark, the depth. The delicateness of the spider webs, the heaviness of the shadows around the edges. A lot like life, there is goodness there, but we must look for it, and it will often be surrounded by struggles, darkness, and loss.  

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Scene & Story - May 2017

You would never know that less than four years ago this man had never picked up a dSLR before. And the first time he did, it was to humor me, I had an extra camera (shocking I know!), and he probably was tired of trying to find benches to sit on at decaying insane asylums, and sitting in the car on country backroads while I shot old barns and abandoned farmhouses.

He has gotten quite good for someone who shoots on a very part-time basis, although after every outing he says, "I'm sure they all suck". We need to work on the confidence thing some more.

I love this man for being willing to join me in my hobby/passion and being willing to take a vacation to the east coast just so I can go to a photography conference. If he had his way, we would be going to Glacier National Park every year and climb mountains. I promise we will go again, but there is so much to see in this great big world, and I want to keep seeing it together and through our cameras.

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Scene & Story - April 2017

Everybody's doing a brand new dance, now.

(Come on Baby, do the loco-motion)

I know you'll get to like it if you give it a chance, now.

(Come on Baby, do the loco-motion)

The song comes on the radio and I can't help singing along. Not out-loud of course, but mouthing it with all my might.

Today feels like a good day for antiquing. The rain has finally stopped, the sun is shining. I am on the hunt for things that make me happy. 

I am wandering the aisles of our local antique store. Fascinated by the items that find their way to vendors' booths. There are the objects I remember from my childhood; the avocado-green bun warmer my mom always kept our hamburger buns in, the black metal lunchpail with the silver ribbed thermos that my dad carried to work everyday. I wonder how these memories can be antiques, but then I remember that I am almost fifty, and these items were around before I was. 

I am on the hunt for a couple of specific treasures. First is a table for my daughter's dining room, we just finished painting the room, and now she is extra aware of how empty the space is with the much lighter color on the walls. She is anxious to get a table so she can stop eating her meals on top of the cabinet that covers the radiator. There was a time when I couldn't drag her into an antique store, who would want to buy something old and used. But now she understands the quality and craftsmanship that went into those old pieces. Her Pinterest boards are full of timeless antique objects. With age comes wisdom.

The second treasure I am hunting for is something I am always hunting for: green depression glass plates. I saw some once being used in a coffee shop and I fell in love with them.

There are a couple of table possibilities here, so I snap pictures with my phone and text them to my daughter. There is nothing else to do with that now, except wait. 

I am in the last aisle at the last booth and there in the open display case are two green, oval depression glass plates with matching cups. I lift them out and hold them in my hand, they are perfect. I look for a price, both on the plates and on the cups, no price. Then I see six more oval plates on the bottom shelf of the case, maybe they have a price, no such luck. One of the owners walks by, I stop her and ask about the price. She says, "Oh that gal is here today, I'll go get her for you." Hallelujah!

The booth owner comes to her space and I show her the plates and cups. She says, "I was just using those for display since there are eight plates but only two cups, I didn't think anybody would buy them." The cups are a bonus to me, I want the plates. She says, "I will gladly sell them to you, if you don't mind not having all the cups. How about $20 for the whole lot?" Sold!

Come on, Come on
Do the loco-motion with me

**In April I participated in Susannah Conway's April Love. I am also doing the #the100dayproject - This year I am doing 100 days of writing prompts. This photo and story were from the April Love prompt Patterns.

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Scene & Story - March 2017

Too bad you can't take a photograph of accomplishment, because accomplishing things has been my goal in March, and I have succeeded.

This might be one of my all time favorite photographs that I have ever taken, it was taken with my iPhone and edited with the app. Stackables. It was taken on the first day of March, thick atmospheric fog enveloped objects along my walk to the beach.

I love everything about it - the pier posts dancing in the water, the buoy that looks like a bobber, the two mallard ducks that flew into my frame at the perfect moment, the leafless trees, the processing that lends that perfect foggy morning feel.

One of my accomplishments in March was to get this photograph printed. I must admit I have never had many iPhone photos printed, and the ones I had done I wasn't that impressed with. But I think that was my early tendency to process everything with an overly warm cast. I have since developed my own slightly cooler style.

I started with having a 5 X 7 printed, big enough to get a good feel for the photograph, but not too expensive in case it was a disappointment. It was not! So I thought I would push it and try an 8 X 10 and an 11 X 14. Both are fabulous! The 11 X 14 is in a black frame with white matting waiting to be hung on the wall in the family room. The family room is waiting to be painted a nice Simply White. That will be next month's accomplishment.

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Scene & Story - February 2017

Deep breath and release.

That's how I feel now that February is over. What is usually the longest short month of the year due to Michigan winters has passed in one quick blink.

The weather in February was unnaturally warm, many 40 and 50 degree days, the average is usually around 20 degrees. We have had very little snow. I don't think I got the snowblower out once. We also saw more sunshine than all four winter months put together.

Big changes also occurred in our house. Our daughter moved into her own apartment with her dog. It is very weird to be living in a house with no dog, we have had a dog or dogs for the past thirty years, I am still getting use to the emptiness. I spent a couple of weeks helping her find furniture for her place and painting the dark brown walls light and airy shades of gray. All of this left me with very little time for exploring.

This photograph was taken on the second to last day of the month. My husband took the afternoon off for a date day. For Christmas we tend to do experiences instead of big gifts. I gave him 12 date days for 2017, one per month, vacation days were required. He always ends the year with too many vacation days unused, I plan to change that this year.

For our date afternoon we went to a Bar & Grill we had never been to for lunch, after that I made us climb 300+ stairs to the top of a small mountain with great views of a resort town and Lake Michigan. The day wouldn't have been complete without a trip to the beach. In summer you have to pay $8 to park at this beach, but off-season equals free. My husband and I explored a natural area at the end of the beach, and then wandered down to the lake. As my husband lingered on this path I captured the moment with my iPhone.

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