Finding - Citron Green and Turquoise

This summer I have fallen in love with color thanks to Maggie Holmes and the Big Picture Class - Finding Your Photo Style. It is funny when I first looked at the styles of the six photographers teaching this class, Maggie's was the style that I identified with the least. It is a good thing I have an open mind :)

Recently I came across a Summer of Color Blog Party at Twinkle, Twinkle. I knew then that this was meant to be my summer of color and possibly my new photo style.

I had some fun this afternoon playing with Citron Green and Turquoise which was the color pairing for the first week of Summer of Color. I have been on the look out for things with these colors all week.

I am also joining Kim Klassen for Friday Finds. I found the perfect Citron Green pear at the grocery store on Monday. I have been keeping it nice and cold in the refrigerator to help it retain it's color.

The turquoise heart I found in a cute little gift shop this spring. The burlap is actually a bag that use to hold coffee beans. The wooden box in the background is a fruit box that I found at my favorite antique store.

I also had some fun playing with Kim's textures. This one has Sybil and Portrait. I tend to like a heavier texture look, the only thing I masked off is the pear.

**Note to self - next time remember to switch your camera back to RAW mode instead of medium format jpeg.

The Adventure Dogs

Yesterday - Mallory, the dogs and I set out for an Adventure Day

We were going to my little slice of Heaven here on earth, the Leelanau Peninsula in Northern Lower Michigan. More specifically we were on a M-22 adventure. M-22 is quite a famous scenic route running through the Leelanau Peninsula and the Sleeping Bear Dunes area. Sleeping Bear Dunes was voted Good Morning America's "Most Beautiful Place in America" in 2011.

I had plans to take oodles of photos to document our adventure, but I knew that could prove to be a challenge with the dogs along. We don't usually take them on these kind of outings, where there will be quaint little towns and shopping involved. They go when we have a day of State Parks and hiking planned.

You see, they are Golden Retrievers and they get VERY excited when they go new places and see lots of people. They think that everyone wants to pet them and they want to be everyone's new best friend.

So I conscientiously put my camera away for the day (I did get a few shots here and there) and made the day as calming and enjoyable as possible for them. You see, Riley will be 11 at the end of month and Scout is 10, so just never know how many summers they have left to enjoy a day like yesterday.

After arriving in Leland, my favorite quaint touristy town, we got their initial excitement worked out of them in a cute little park. After that we were able to browse fairly easily. One of us would stay outside with them while the other went in and looked around. Scout was quite content to sit ON the bench with me, while Riley was a bit more antsy always looking for someone to pet him, but in general he sat or laid down.

We ordered bag lunches from The Village Cheese Shanty and took them to a nearby beach to have a picnic. That went extremely well. I had packed their food and water, and by the time they were done eating they were tired and content to lie under the picnic table while we ate our sandwiches.

After lunch we turned them loose on the beach. This is one of those tucked out of the way beaches that only the locals know about. Great expanses of sand and water, and very few other people around. They ran with the wind lifting their floppy ears, they chased after sticks thrown into the water, and rolled in the sand with great abandon. They lived their lives to the fullest yesterday.

We took two tired, wet and sand saturated Golden Retrievers home last night.

My kitchen floor has a fine coating of sand on it this morning, but that's okay. I have always wanted to have a beach cottage, where two happy Golden Retrievers are always tracking in beach sand after a perfect day of frolicking on the shore. Today I am pretending that I have that beach cottage.

The Summer List

Every summer we make a Summer Bucket List of all the things we want to do during this much too short of a season. Sometimes it is just a mental list we make in our heads, and then sometimes it is an actual written list.

This year it is a physical list.

The list always includes yearly favorites that have become a tradition like a KFC picnic lunch at the beach. Mallory and I use to always do this the last day of school. We can't do this on the last day of school anymore since the last day is in the beginning of May and it is in Upper Peninsula. Generally it is a little chilly for a picnic lunch on the shores of Lake Superior in the beginning of May.

A new favorite of mine that developed a couple of years ago is my mother's day present called the "One More Thing Day". It got that name because it was an additional note added to my presents one year with a description of a whole day planned out and paid for by Mallory.

We have added a few new adventures this year, like a baking afternoon, and a visit to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

I know that not all of these things will get crossed off of our list. Summer is too short, and she will be leaving for Montana at the end of this month.

I also know that this will probably be the last summer of these adventures. Next year as she nears the end of her college life, she will need to focus on getting an internship somewhere and I know that won't be near to home. My heart breaks...yet it is filled with joy. She has a very bright future ahead of her.

So for now I am doing to treasure every one of these adventures with my girl, and take an outrageous number of photographs to document these wonderful moments in time.

Photo - Heart Connection ~ May

The Photo:

My Observations: This photo seems contemplative. I am standing on the edge of something. I like how the top line of the boot toe box lines up with the sand/water line. I used a Lightroom preset to process this, aged photo,  and it perfectly reflected my mood on this overcast day at the beach.

My Heart Connection: Well these boots are obviously the inspiration for my whole blog. I love wearing them and the funny thing is that people now recognize me by the boots. I took this picture for a blog post I did on my other blog Becoming A Finisher. It talks about feeling like I am standing on the edge of something BIG and that I have been having this feeling for a while now. I am not sure what will happen once I step off the edge, or if I am suppose to stay on the edge a while longer. I do know that something exciting is in the works and I am scared but also very excited.

Linking up with Kat's May Photo Heart Connection

Turquoise and Orange

I am taking a new class at Big Picture Classes called Finding Your Photo Style. Each week for six weeks a different instructor shares their photography style, as well as, tip and tricks.

Now I have a fairly decent idea of what my photography style is, it does continue to evolve, but basically I know what I like and what I don't like, as well as, my comfort zone. And that is why I took this class, to step out of my comfort zone and try some new things. I may not like all of them, but I also like the challenge of taking what I am learning and fitting it into my style, so I can continue to improve and evolve my style. I have been feeling very compelled to work on my photography lately. I think the nicer weather and being able to be outside has helped that.

Our instructor the first week of class was Maggie Holmes. Her style is bright and colorful. Definitely not something I am use to doing. I generally shoot nature and things with muted or earth tone colors. Now most of these instructors are portrait photographers who have willing kids to pose for them. I could not find any willing participants in my house so I turned to bright and colorful props. It helped that the color prompt in my Facebook Creative Group this week was turquoise.

I found this turquoise "child's" shovel at my favorite antique mall this week.

Maggie challenged us to shoot bright colors in open shade outside. So these were taken on my north facing front porch in the morning.

This was my entry for our Facebook Creative Group.

I found this Robin's egg shell when I was out by the clothesline one morning, and I found the hunk of bark when the dogs and I were on a walk earlier this week.

In the afternoon I moved to my back corner garden. Good open shade but a bit on the windy side. I was having quite the challenge with the orange flowers.

Three important lessons I took away from this first week of class. 1) I like shooting things with color.

2) I LOVE turquoise and orange together. 3) I need to hunt for MORE colorful props.

Joining Kim Klassen's new FRIDAY FINDS link up party. Such a wonderful idea to stop and really look at the things around you whether purchased or found in the yard.

Passion for the Coffee Bean

Passionate People...

You just know when people are passionate about what they do. There is a physical change that comes over them as they start to talk about something they love to do. Their eyebrows go up, there is a twinkling light in their eyes, and a smile that stretches from ear to ear. In their voice is an unbridled excitement that makes you sit up and think "I am about to hear something REALLY good".

I was fortunate enough to meet some people last week who are passionate about coffee roasting.

Thanks to the bull dog persistence of my friend Jane and the graciousness of the staff at Uncommon Grounds in Saugatuck/Douglas. Jane and I were about to go to their roasting facility in Douglas and take some pictures of the roasting process.

I went on this adventure with only the intention of taking some pictures and writing a blog post about the adventure, similar to Walk and Click Photo Walks that I have done in the past. Little did I know that a whole new blogging series would be born.

Meet John and Danielle.

John was the roasting instructor for our visit. He has been roasting for two years and seems to have quite the touch for it.

John went to a local university and majored in Spanish. He admitted to me he chose that because it came easy to him in high school and he wasn't really interested in anything academic. Then he said something that echoed my own words for the last two years as my daughter has struggled to decide on her major. He said "What 18 year old kid knows what they want to do for the rest of their life?" Seems like John has found his spot, at least for now.

John says his Spanish has come in handy when they go on coffee bean buying trips.

The day that Jane and I visited was a lighter load roasting day, so they were using the smaller roaster at their facility.

On heavy load roasting days they use the large roaster.

Such an interesting process to watch, and John was keeping meticulous notes.

Now while John was roasting, Danielle was extra busy bagging the roasted beans, as well as, answering the phone and working on the computer.

They stamp their own bags. As someone who has a rubber stamp or two, I had to take some shots of their stamps.

Near the end of our visit, the owner stopped by and we were fortunate enough to talk with him for a few minutes. In this conversation the passion was evident again. He has been in the coffee business for nearly 20 years now. A few years ago, he was starting to feel a little burned out in it all. Then he really started getting involved in the lives of the farmers and their families that he buys from. Those relationships have made a huge difference to him. You can read about their trips they take each year here. Also on their FaceBook page they have great pictures from their trips.

They also offer coffee classes, so if you live in the West Michigan area and love coffee, this would definitely be something to check out. I think it would be fun to go back and take pictures at one of these classes.

I want to say a BIG thank you to the staff at Uncommon Grounds for letting us come take pictures and ask questions. It was such a unique and wonderful experience.

On the way home I had to stop at their Cafe...I love their Vanilla Latte.

I also needed to buy some beans to bring home...

The Invasion of the Tulip Time Tourist

It is Tulip Time Festival week in our lovely town. The weather couldn't be more perfect, especially given the cold and nasty Spring we have had. The tulips are in their prime, the sun is shining, the temperatures are in the 70's and the tourists are a happy bunch.

In a wonderful FB group that I belong too, that is filled with wonderful creative women, we have started a weekly creative prompt challenge. Many of us were feeling in a creative funk, and I wanted to get things stirred up, for the group and for myself. So we are taking a weekly prompt and creating something with it, whether it is a photograph, a poem, a story, or a blog post filled with one or more of these things. We are then posting it back in our group to encourage and share with each other. This week's prompt is AMUSING.

There is almost nothing more AMUSING than people watching, and this week our town is filled with them. So I thought I would share with you some AMUSING shots I took this week.

This one caught my eye right away. At a festival that is celebrating Dutch heritage, you have Pasties from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Yet there was not one vendor selling any Dutch food.

This lady had the stance down for her shot. I have always loved watching older people with this new technology "the digital camera".

My daughter has a very big infatuation with long married couples, so I partly took this for her, but also because they were so cute. From what I can gather from the conversation I overheard, they are from a local retirement community and came on a bus outing. The lady in yellow was taking their picture so that she could text it to friends of this couple that weren't able to go on the outing. I am not sure that the couple knew what texting was :)

 Obviously they do not have picnic tables in the town that these people are from.

This couple was happily sitting side by side, both doing stuff on their phones. Oh technology!

I know that I will get in trouble for this one, but honestly it is her own fault. My lovely daughter, Mallory, a tour guide at the historic Windmill that is located on Windmill Island. She is at the end of her  fourth day of 10 hour shifts.