Pour Some Sugar On

This may be the one and only time you see me say I was hoping for snow this week. Especially, since it is March and everybody is ready to be done with winter, including me. But last week found me doing a run and gun through a favorite historic homestead and walking park, looking for my daily 365 photograph.  I had about an half hour to kill before I had to pick up Findley, so I thought I would do a quick walk through of the house and barn areas. That is when I saw the metal sap collection buckets. It had snowed with snow squall force that morning and the maple trees and buckets had a heavy blanket of white on them.

I grabbed my daily shot, but knew I wanted to come back when I had more time and my tripod. I also wanted to continue practicing my Compelling Frame photography course lessons.

I have become quite attached to my tripod. I know most of you photographers are saying, "But I hate carrying my tripod, I want to be free to move around." There is certainly truth to that, but I have learned that I also want to be free to slow down and improve my game. A tripod makes me slow down, and honestly my "vision" is so much better when I use it.

Monday morning I got my wish. It wasn't a heavy blanket of white, but it was enough to give a thin coating to the layers of fallen maple leaves, and provide the backdrop I needed for my adventure.

I grew up surrounded by maple trees. When my dad retired he decided to tap those trees and begin making maple syrup. As if his beekeeping hobby, and tenacity for cutting wood for his wood stove weren't enough to keep him busy already. He built his own sugar shack, and would be out there at all hours of the day and night boiling down that sap.

On the average it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. Interesting article on maple syrup making here. The average sap collection period can last anywhere from four to six weeks. There were abundant years and there were lean years, but as my dad approached his 70's, I think he had had enough of the lean years. He sold the equipment, and turned the Sugar Shack into another storage shed.

During January and our Whole 30 adventure, we had to give up ALL sugar. It is amazing when you start reading labels on the food at the grocery store how many items have sugar. Here we are mid-March and I still read labels. Now, if I purchase items with sugar, I try to make sure it is either organic cane sugar, or more preferably natural sugars like honey and maple syrup. Locally sourced natural sugars are the best, since my dad still keeps his bees I get my honey from him, and I buy my maple syrup at the farmers market.

I spent a satisfyingly slow hour photographing sap buckets, snowy trees, and the sugar shack. Before I returned to my car to warm up my frozen feet, I made a little detour down a snow covered wooden walkway.

My initial run and gun turned into a substantial exploration.  I throughly enjoy having my creative/adventure days early in the week.

In Other News...

My friend Cathy H. made a comment on my blog last week that resonated so deeply with me, "Sometimes I feel just holding the camera and pushing the shutter button brings me more joy than seeing the photo I took!"  I held that sentence in my heart this week. All it really takes is that first press to get rolling again, the results are not the important part. 

I returned to filming this past week, squeezing in moments when I could. Working on something a little outside my comfort zone, it won't be perfect the first time, but the learning and improving is in the doing.

The kitchen flooring has been ordered. We have found pendant lights for above the peninsula, and they have been ordered. Next step is to contact the electrician to install. More painting ahead this week, coating everything in lovely, neutral Alabaster.

I finished listening to A Gentleman in Moscow this week. I love listening to books while I am in the car and when walking. It is amazing how much you can listen to just running errands around town. I give the book 4-1/2 stars.

A Haunting Tour

"By resisting the beginner's mind, you make yourself more prone to repeat yourself than to create something new. The attempt to avoid failure, in other words, makes failure more likely."                                                                 ~ Ed Catmull - Creativity, Inc. 

On December 27, 2017, I embraced the beginner's mind. I signed up for Xanthe Berkeley's Make Films class that starts January 9, 2018.

I gave myself plenty of time to think about the class, almost a whole month, and I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I knew that I was making the right decision.

In preparation, I took this class on how to use iMovie so that I had some clue what I was doing before the class starts. I know that Xanthe will teach us on iMovie, but sometimes I get so hung up on the technical stuff that I never get to the creating part.

Thanks to that easy to follow class and a trip to Traverse City a couple of weeks ago with my husband; him for work, me for pleasure, I visited the insane asylum with my iPhone and shot some clips to put together into a short little video.



This captures a sense of the buildings that captivate me, more so than a still photograph or even a series of stills could ever do. You feel the eeriness of the broken windows, the tattered curtains blowing in the breeze, the warning signs.

I think I failed in my previous film making attempts for two reasons:

1. I was already pretty good at photography, so I figured I should be pretty good at making films as well. When I wasn't, I viewed it as failure and quit, and went back to what I was good at.
2. I invested money to learn, but I didn't invest time to learn.

Pride and impatience, two things that don't belong in the world, and especially in the creative world. 

Scene & Story - January 2017

It was about this time last year that I began to become disenchanted with iPhone photography and the driving force of social media linked to iPhone photos - Instagram. I can't put my finger on one specific reason for the dissatisfaction. Two things do stand out though. First - I had grown extremely lazy with my photography. My iPhone and various apps. could do everything for me and fix almost any technical error. Second - Instagram, something that had once been a community of "my people"  had turned into one more way to prove my self-worth based on how many "likes" a photo received. I was posting to post and to get likes, not to create and that bothered me.

Over the course of the year I continued to fall off, at one point even temporarily suspending my account, I needed a break for a while. Eventually I did reinstate it, probably prompted by a class that encouraged Instagram sharing.

Some really good things have come out of this disenchantment; I use my big camera on an almost daily basis now, as opposed to my phone, I also feel my photography skills have grown with my recommitment to my dSLR. Using my Canon has also made me strengthen my Lightroom and Photoshop skills, as well as, learn some new programs like Topaz Texture Effects and Impressions. I have also rediscovered Flickr and some pretty amazing groups there.

A couple things I have missed with my iPhone: the easy portability, and apps. like Stackables, iColorama, and Brushstrokes. I will probably never return to the level of obsession I had before, but I am slowly finding a place for it in my life again.

This photo was taken with my iPhone on a cold, damp, foggy day in January at the Lake Michigan beach near my house. The day was too cold to lug my dSLR around and freeze my fingers off fiddling with dials. Seeing the potential in this shot, I did some editing in Snapseed and Stackables and created the image at the beginning of this post.

No matter the camera device or the editing software, I still love the creating.

An InLinkz Link-up

Altered

It has been an unusual January here in Michigan. We have had a couple of cold blasts and enough measurable snow to break out the snowblower a time or two. But for the most part the days been a dull gray with temperatures hovering in the 30's and 40's Fahrenheit. There was even a day that it reached into the 50's.

Photo Credit: Glen Huizenga

I have a gym membership for the rainy days, the snowy days and the bitter cold days, but given a choice I prefer to be outside. The need for fresh air, natural light and wide open space is irrepressible. Most of the year I am happy to walk along the beaches near my house, but in the winter, when I am craving creative visual stimulation, I hop in my car and drive to our thriving downtown.

I begin my walk in near darkness, the sidewalks illuminated by street lamps, car headlights and the lights of store window displays. It is the window displays that draw me downtown, so much creativity and imagination goes into each store's presentation of who they are. Following the holidays, my mind seems to be empty of creativity. I walk, I look, I dream, I am inspired.

Photo Credit: Glen Huizenga

There are also office buildings at the east end of our downtown, many of the offices have windows looking out onto the main street. As I walk past and the lights begin to come on, I see the photographs that adorn the desks and walls of these spaces. The smiles of children and spouses often shine bright from the desk or the shelves behind the desk, my favorites are when the family pets have their own framed portraits, this office belongs to someone I would like to know.

The walls though are the most interesting, family photographs tell a part of their story, but what about the artwork on the walls. Did they get to chose their own pieces? Or did the interior designer chose what should adorn their walls? I like to think if you have to look at it all day, you get some say in it. Judging by the variety I have seen, it seems most people get to pick their own, to me that tells another part of their story.

Some have large, matted realistic photographs of the big red lighthouse near our local beach, a much photographed icon in our town. But the pieces that catch my eye are the painted canvases; open fields with rustic barns in the distance, painterly lake shores with iconic lighthouses. I always wanted to learn to paint, lacking the patience for that, I became a photographer instead.

I have many empty walls in my own house. I have talked for years of printing and hanging my own work, and I have done some over the years. What I mostly print is realistic photographs and then frame those 8 X 10's in 11 X 14 matted frames. They have never stirred me. The few canvases I have had printed of creatively altered photographs are the ones that move me, and the bigger the better.

You can guess and assume what your preferences are, but until you actually take action you don't really know. By seeing my small 8 X 10's printed I found out I prefer bigger prints. Realistic photographs don't thrill me, creating painterly images from my photographs in Photoshop and Topaz Labs programs, that makes me happy. Taking that knowledge and the inspiration from those downtown offices, I ordered a 24 X 36 canvas of a digitally altered portion of snow fence I shot in December. For the first time in almost fourteen years in our house, we finally have something on the wall above our bed. I kept waiting to find the right thing, little did I know I just had to create it myself.

Lessons in Observation - Midnight Blue Sky

The dog stood by the door, his signal that he needed to go outside. Not getting a fast enough response he turned his head and fixed his melt-your-heart brown eyes on me. I didn't understand his need to go outside, he had just been out there ten minutes earlier and done all his morning business. Maybe going outside after eating his breakfast was just too much a part of his normal routine, even if he didn't have to do anything.

The eyes won, I grabbed my long, down coat from the closet, pulled on my paisley rain boots, snapped on his leash, and at the last second grabbed my mittens from the counter. I opened the door from the garage and we were off.

He made a beeline down the driveway to the bike path, he thought we were going for a walk. This was not my thought at five o'clock in the morning. Once on the bike path he stopped, giving me a moment to catch up. That's when I noticed it - the enchanted winter wonderland that had been created over night. The stillness. A thick blanket of snow covered the ground absorbing all sound. Above me was the deepest, darkest midnight blue sky, filled with tiny golden lights. Also floating in the sky were jagged edged islands of sooty gray clouds. A weak moon shown through the breaks in the clouds, illuminating the path before us.

Maybe I would indulge the old guy for a quarter mile or so, it was too magical out here to go back to the warm house so soon. We set off down the unplowed bike path. When we reached the subdivision corner, it was time to turn around, my head was cold from the lack of a hat. The dog was disappointed, I have a feeling he had more things he wanted to show me.

Back in the warm house, I gave him one of his big biscuits, to thank him for the breathtaking adventure. Maybe tomorrow I won't forget my hat, and we can travel a little farther.

Lessons in Observation - Winter Storm Warning

The weather service has issued another winter storm warning. Since when has 3-5 inches of snow merited a winter storm warning? Have we become wimpy here in Michigan? Maybe it is the lack of snow this year that has created this new panic, anything more than an inch or two seems like a blizzard. As I sit here by the window preparing for a morning of writing, drinking my freshly brewed coffee, I watch the parade of pickup trucks with snow plows attached travel up and down the road. The snowmen are hungry for snow, hungry for the money clearing other people's driveways brings them. As I watch the snow gently fall, I realize this is the prettiest storm I have every seen. 

**I am in a writing class called Story Slices. Creating bite size stories about every day observations. I am hoping to turn these into a new series - Lessons in Observation. Some many turn out to be longer; reminiscent of The Coffee Shop Chronicles days. I know this is a style of writing I want to get back to, without always having to go to a coffee shop to write them. I have also started an additional Instagram account @herlifeinvignettes, which I will be using as a working creative space for story ideas and life observations. 

Didn't Intend

I didn't intend to stop at the beach yesterday. Now those of you who follow me on Instagram are probably saying "Yah right Sarah, you go to the beach everyday". But I really don't, I go on Mondays every week, and maybe one or two other times during the week in the winter. Now summer is a different story, but we are a long way from summer.

My intention yesterday afternoon was to do some antiquing. To escape the blinding white of winter shooting, I have been doing some still life photography. I am enjoying the challenge of lighting, prop placement and post-processing. I also found the perfect table to set all this up on, it is the perfect size to nestle next to the north window in our bedroom.

My husband called before I left the house to "check-in" and see what I was up to for the afternoon. I said I was going out. I told him I would probably do some shooting while I was out. Having spent the morning writing, I needed some visual stimulation. Shooting usually means to me, dressed in my winter wardrobe and paisley rain boots, carrying my iPhone. But at the last minute I decided to throw my camera backpack with my Canon in it into the car, just in case I needed more than my phone.

I set off for two antique stores with my mental list of photo props I was looking for. After a couple of hours of wandering the aisles of other people's cast off treasures, I decided to call it a day, not having found one thing that was on my mental list. Although I did find a couple of small, vintage bottles; look for those in future posts.

Leaving the second store I had the intention of stopping at a marshy nature preserve near by. But I was chilled to the bone from wandering this second store, I swear they don't have heat in there, maybe that is to keep the antiques preserved. So even though my car temperature gauge said 37 degrees, I felt damp and chilly, and decided to skip the preserve and return home, start making the soup for supper.

As I was driving along the lakeshore towards home, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a cop two cars behind me. Why does this always seem intimidating? On that road I will never be guilty of speeding, going too slow is a possibility though. The road to the beach by parent's home was approaching so I signaled and turned off the main road, watching the cop car cruise on past.

This beach of my childhood is filled with memories, and other than the months of July and August it is almost always deserted. Known only to the local and summer people. I turned into the empty parking lot, and parked. I debated about getting out and walking down to the water. Having been warmed by my car's heater for the last twenty minutes, I felt ready to do a little outside wandering. I grabbed my iPhone off the seat next to me, hoping to capture that color combination I love; golden dune grass, gray sky, pale blue water and stark white snow.

I was not the first person to walk the trail over the dune to the water, I followed the trail of footprints. Reaching the shore, I was pleased to see less ice and more water due to the warmer temperatures, but what I wasn't seeing was that perfect color combination I was looking for. Disappointed I began the climb up the dune, returning to my car. As I was slowly driving towards the exit gate, I saw it, the clump of golden dune grass lit up by the weak February sun, set against the sparkling blue-gray lake water. I stopped my car in the middle of the parking lot. Knowing my iPhone wasn't going to get the shot I wanted, I reached into the back seat for my Canon. I fitted my 85mm lens on and stepped around the car to capture the image that gave my heart that fluttering feeling.

*I have been reading my friend Lissa's blog, who I met through Instagram, were she journals about her daily life. She inspires me to record small snippets of my life on a more regular basis. I am working on the small part of it. Her blog is Electric Journal.

Monday Beach Shots

Last summer I made weekly trips to the beach with my camera. It was delightful walking along the shore of Lake Michigan in June, July and August.

But what about in the barrenness of winter? Not quite as delightful. But still the beach, the water/ice and the shore were calling me. Thankfully this winter has had much less snow than in recent years, so  getting there hasn't been as problematic as it normally would be.

December 14, 2015

On Monday, December 14 I made the first of my weekly Monday trips to the beach. I decided I wanted to document the changing landscape of the beach over the winter months, plus it was a good excuse for me to get out photographing at least once a week.

December 21, 2015

I don't plan on taking the same shot every week. I want to be open to whatever moves me each week. By the second week I thought it would be fun to document the weather conditions, and temperatures.  Even though the weather looks ominous in this shot, it was 46 degrees.

December 28, 2015

December weather was good to us. I did forget to record the temperature this day, but my note says there was a howling wind.

January 4, 2016

All good things must come to an end...the snow came. We had gotten a couple of inches over night and the temperature was 25 degrees, but the sun was shining brightly, giving me a nice long shadow.

January 11, 2016

Intersting changes from one week to the next. Much colder at 18 degrees and windy, and the nasty ice.

January 18, 2016. I decided to mix things up a bit and take a video. A chilly 14 degrees with a wind chill of -4. I was the only crazy person out there that day. 

January 25, 2016

A beautiful winter day, 36 degrees and sunny. Those are ice chunks and ice rings floating in the channel.

February 1, 2016

February arrived and it was time to take my first of the month self-portrait. Totally unprepared but yet determined, I propped my iPhone up in the crevice in this log and set the timer. I think it only took 10 tries or so. A beautiful 34 degree day, I got lost for an hour out there. 

February 1, 2016

Some weeks offer a bonus shot. I knew as soon as I saw this shot that it was the shot of the day. Edited in Stackables and iColorama, two of my favorite editing apps.

February 8, 2016

That brings us to this week's shots. While cloudy with some threatening winter clouds, it wasn't snowing and the temp was a warm 34 degrees. I decided to climb to the top of Mt. Pisgah for a shot down the dune to the beach.

February 8, 2016

My favorite shot thus far, and an example of the stairs on the dune. Edited in Stackables.

Once a week seems a very manageable project for me. I will miss a Monday here or there due to travel, but for the most part I am always getting groceries and going to the gym on Mondays. The beach is my reward.

Winter Photography

Two years ago, we had one of the worst winters here in Michigan that I can remember since I was a kid. I think most of us in the midwest and northeast remember the term "polar vortex". It snowed for weeks on end, storm after storm, temperatures always hovering around zero.

That winter kept me inside, and I hated it.

Last year I was determined to not let winter beat me again, so I invested in high quality long underwear, a long down-filled coat, and new snow resistant pants to go over my long underwear. I had a warm hat, good mittens and the ever important neck gator. I was ready for winter. I was not going to be held hostage inside my house again. I went out at least once a week, if not more, to photograph. Sometimes with my dSLR, but mostly with my iPhone (the fingers don't get as cold using the iPhone). I got a lot of great winter shots, and came to appreciate the beauty of the blank white canvas, and bare tree branches against a gun metal gray sky. I fell in love with winter photography. Notice I did not say I fell in love with winter, that is a work in progress.

This year a El Nino winter is forecast, supposedly warmer and drier than in recent years. I am hopeful but not unrealistic, winter is still winter in Michigan. None the less,  I still have the same good quality clothing and the same determination to get out and photograph that I had last year.

Two weeks ago we had a lovely winter afternoon; blue skies, bright sunshine and temperatures in the mid-30's, no wind. I set off for a recently discovered county park with my Canon dSLR. My daughter and I had been there a month earlier and at that time I had only my iPhone with me, but I knew I wanted to go back with my big camera. I was not disappointed.

The willow trees across the river from the park were what drew me back with my big camera. I wanted to try out some of my new Topaz Labs processing software.

Winter no longer holds me hostage, and I am ever grateful for this hobby of photography that gives me reason to venture out in any kind of weather.

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

I found a great use for an empty whisky bottle.

Find No. 2

I found my way up a lot of stairs. A great cardio workout. Twenty minutes of steps burns 200 calories.

Find No. 3

I found a friendly shadow.

Find No. 4

I found a sad dog who thought if he laid on my lap I wouldn't leave him to go out of town. Sorry Scout it didn't work but you got to play with your friend Trevor instead.

Find No. 5

Photo Credit: Glen Huizenga

I found a girl on the edge of an exciting new adventure.

Joining Nancy for Random 5 Friday
Joining Kim for Friday Finds

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

I found beautiful early morning light on our walk downtown this week.

Find No. 2

I found a great place to kick up the Paisleys and enjoy the sunshine and 50 degree temperatures. Go away snow! I could have easily taken a nap here.

Find No. 3

I found a lovely little stream while trudging through the snow around a frozen pond. Always the adventurous one am I.

Find No. 4

Thanks to my friend Viv, I found the perfect online journaling app for all my Apple devices, Day One. 

Find No. 5

I found this one beautiful fading bloom in the boutique of yellow roses that my dad bought for my daughter while she was home on Spring Break. I loved the way the petals lay open around the center. I paired this bloom with a pair of vintage gloves I found in an antique shop last week, watch for these in future self-portraiture work. I also added an old vintage envelope I had in my ephemera stash. I don't do this kind of still life often but these pieces called to me to be paired together.

Joining Kim for Friday Finds
Joining Nancy for Random 5 Friday