Graduation Day, 2014

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Well...the grandson graduated today.  I'm not quite sure how that could have happened.  It seems like only a few years ago that I was baby-sitting him when he was still pre-school.  And yet, here we are, on graduation day.  Oh dear.

He was an easy-going baby, a spirited but compliant toddler, a hard-working and conscientious student and he is now one of the nicest young people I know.  

It was a bittersweet day. 

Comfort Food

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When I think of comfort food, I think spaghetti, chili, burgers/fries, chicken fricasse (I think that's spelled wrong, but I can't find the correct spelling).  But today I got the idea to make chicken cutlets, which, upon reflection, was one of my favorite foods when I was growing up, and therefore a comfort food for me.  We didn't necessarily have rice or broccoli salad with it, but it doesn't matter what the side dishes are, the cutlets themselves are soooo good.

The main reason I wanted to make this is that I wanted to take photos of it.  That and the meat was already thawed out so I had to do something with it!

Okay, now it's time for dinner.

Once Upon a Time...

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Once upon a time there was a great little roadside farm stand not too far from my house--actually, it was right on one of the routes I could take to get to town.  It had been there for years and years.  They sold the most amazing produce.  I stopped there at least every other day throughout the summer and well into the Fall.

They grew their own corn and I have never tasted better corn on the cob than theirs.

Well, once upon a time there was a storm, unlike any that had hit our area before.  It rained and rained and the floods came and the waters rose and continued to rise until--devastation and destruction.  Some homes were lost, others were seriously damaged, one person lost his life and Pine's Farm stand was destroyed.

You might be thinking, "well, it's only a farm stand and compared to the homes and the one life that was lost, it's a small thing in the big scheme".  You're right.  But....it was an icon.  One that used to draw people from miles around, and it was, after all, the livelihood of the family that owned it.

So even after all theses years, I still miss it. Others do too.  Every spring you'll hear someone say, "gee, I wish Pine's was still around".  This spring was no different.

Rural Upstate NY

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Late this afternoon I got a great idea for a food photograph that I want to work on in the morning.  It requires ice-cream, so I decided to go to Stewarts tonight...

I figured out that I also needed eggs and milk, not for the photo, but just because....

As I was driving down the hill, I noticed a sign for eggs at the farm stand.  I turned around. I wondered if there were any eggs at the stand so late in the afternoon when I noticed the mini-fridge.  Sure enough, there was one dozen eggs left along with some cans of soda and water and a money can. Payment by the honor system.

I continued down to Stewarts.  When I asked for a hand-packed pint of my favorite ice-cream, they said they were OUT!!  Working really hard not to hyperventilate, I asked if they could call the store on Rt 5S to see if they had any--I wanted to drive over there but not if they didn't have it.  They had no clue which store I was talking about--go figure.  I decided to drive there and take a chance.

So, in addition to the 5 miles I drove to the first store, I drove 10 more to the second store and then about 12 more to get home.  It was a very expensive and time consuming pint of ice-cream, to be sure.

But I have to tell you, it was worth it.

Whoever came up with this flavor is brilliant.  Kudos to him/her.

Another Trip to Chinatown

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My friend, Jackie, and I decided to make another trip to Chinatown today.  We got there pretty early while it was still cool and not too crowded.  We both did a lot of random shooting.  It surprises me that every time we go there, we manage to find something interesting to shoot, but I think that's pretty true of any street photography--things are different minute by minute and all you have to do is keep your eyes open and be aware of what's going on around you.  

We found a couple of very colorful doors.  We just stood on the street across from the doors and waited for people to walk by.  I've only posted a selection of the ones I took of this green doorway because I didn't want to overload you with such similar images.

After making our usual stop at our favorite Starbucks we drove over Magic Island just to see if there would be anything interesting.  Usually there isn't in the middle of the day, but we took a chance.  There were 4 different bride/groom couples having their photos taken.  This couple was really fun, but I think it was partly to do with the photographer--he kept giving them suggestions for fun things to do.  

Lesson Day

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It's been a while.  A long while.  I'd have a difficult time saying why I haven't posted, but it seems like the time just gets away from me.

I found out about halfway through the day today that the grandkids were scheduled for a horseback riding lesson.  The girl was taking lessons last Fall and she started again this spring with her brother, but this is the first one I heard about so I jumped at the chance to be there and get a few photos.

They both did so well.  Even though their expressions are very somber because of all the concentrating they were doing, they really had fun.

After horseback riding lesson, soccer.  I was glad to get home tonight, it was a busy day.

Coffee Break

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I decided to bake some cookies this morning for two reasons: 1) I haven't done much baking lately and 2) I needed a subject for some still-life photos.  The other day I found a recipe for Shrewsbury Biscuits (English cookies) and they looked so yummy.

They're similar to shortbread cookies, but they don't have as much butter.  

So, so, so good.

After baking them and taking the photos I treated myself to a couple as a reward for my efforts. Don't let the second image fool you, I really only ate two...

I'm discovering that the tricky part of photographing food is trying not to eat it before taking the photos, especially when hungry.  So I guess I have to use the same strategy as when I go grocery shopping.  Eat first, then shop, or shoot.

Everything is a learning process.  So fun!~!

Practice

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I've been reading a book about food photography, so today I finally decided to do some practice.  The book has some great suggestions that have enabled me to work without having to schlep all the equipment and props outside, only to deal with wind/bugs/uneven light.

It was fun.  Now I just have to get motivated to do some cooking so I can have some subjects to photograph.  That will be the hardest part!

Honolulu

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I finally got the chance to get into Honolulu to photograph some architecture.  This first photo is of the building that is used for police headquarters on Hawaii Five-O.  It isn't really police headquarters, but it is a court building and it's beautiful both outside and inside.

In the same general area as the above building is a Mission Museum with a small cemetery.  

All three of these images were put through photomatix.

It was a beautiful day and the "icing on the cake" was that there was a hot dog vendor selling Sabrett's hot dogs at lunch time.  Yum!

Photo Shoot

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It was supposed to be sunny and beautiful that day.  Even the weather announcer on the radio seemed a little surprised that the clouds weren't cooperating by going away.  I was relieved though.  

Clouds mean the lighting is even (sometimes a little too even to be a little flat). They mean there's no need to squint. They mean slightly cooler temps.  They mean the photos can be taken in any direction.  So even though the lighting is not as creative as when the sun is shining, it makes the session a little more pleasant.

It turned out pretty well and everyone seems happy with the results.

Beautiful Morning at the Beach

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I decided to finally get going to a beach this morning.  I only have about 30 more mornings to do that before I head back to NY, where my toes will not touch sand for the next 9 months when/if I return to Hawaii next year.  Insert sad face.

My beach of choice was Ko Olina.  It's close, it's beautiful, and the weather there is usually wonderful even when it's pretty stinky elsewhere on the island.  I packed a book, my camera, a snack and a drink...

Ko Olina is home to Aulani--the Disney Resort.  After grabbing some rays and then walking around to get some photos, I took a walk through the grounds of Aulani.  It's one of my favorite places to be.  I know it's a tourist trap, I know it's crowded, I know it's not what you think of when you imagine Hawaii, but I love it anyway.  

It was designed with an Hawaiian cultural advisor on staff  and it's so NOT hokey.  I lucked out again and saw one of the characters, Stitch, wandering around looking for photo ops with the children.

I.   WANT.   TO.   WORK.   THERE!!

It will never happen, but it tugs at my heart every time I'm there.

Anyway, after several hours at the beach, I packed up, drove to the Y and swam my laps.

It was a really good day, praise God.

A Day in Haleiwa

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My friend and I spent the day in Haleiwa.  I wasn't too excited about it when she suggested it, but I agreed because I haven't been out shooting much lately and I needed the diversion.  Once we got there, I decided to put some effort into it.

It was hot and I'm not a big fan of hot-weather photography.  But unlike hot weather in the northeast, there are always chances to cool off by getting into the shade or when the trade winds blow, so it was fairly tolerable for me today.

I'm pretty happy with some of the images I brought home.  

So I give thanks to my friend, Jackie, for giving me the impetus to get out there, for the stimulating conversations we had and for the great ideas for some creative uses for my images.  

Bellows Beach

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Last Saturday we went to Bellows Beach for the first time since I arrived in Hawaii.  It's one of THE most beautiful beaches on the island.  When driving down the road on the approach to the beach, there's a spot where, when you see the beach, you want to sing the Hallelujah chorus.  It's that glorious!

Anyway, we took Betty's grandson with us, and once there's a toddler in my viewfinder I'm a goner.  So, of the 150 shots I took, probably 100 of them were of the baby.  But, reason prevailed and I cut it down to a reasonable number for the photos I'm giving Betty....

....and even cut it down to my absolute favorite of the entire bunch for this blog. 

Some More Photoshop Playing

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I mentioned that I was taking an online photoshop elements course for digital scrapbooking.    This is one of the composites I created using one of my images of the Pow! Wow! event, gradients, frames, layers, and the different text functions.

Very fun.

Practice in Layers

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I'm taking an online Scrapbooking Course in order to learn more about layers and the capabilities of Photoshop Elements.  This is one of my first creations.  Very fun.

Waikiki in Black & White

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The other day my friend and I went to Waikiki with the intention of doing some street photography only in black & white.  We both LOVE black & white and I remember back in the day when the only  way to shoot b&w was to insert an entire roll of b&w film into the camera.

If you decided you wanted to switch to color halfway through the roll, you either had to stick it out and finish the roll or remove it which was pretty tricky to do.

Now....with digital, it's just a matter of switching functions. 

But shooting b&w is a different animal than shooting color.  You have to "see" differently and anticipate what will look good and what won't.  Sometimes it's easier to shoot in color and then convert to b&w on the computer.  Part of me thinks that's cheating.  Part of me thinks that's cool.

Shooting in a b&w function forces you to be more discerning--you know that the image has to stand on the merits of composition and contrast without the impact of beautiful color to grab the viewer's attention.  Of course, the digital darkroom can really enhance any image, as did the wet darkroom, so some images can be salvaged.

So we set our cameras on b&w and began shooting.

After we finished at the beach, we headed over to our favorite Starbucks.  We did a little practice with panning and slow shutter speed.  I didn't have my tripod and I was just trying to teach my friend how to do these techniques, so I really didn't anticipate having any keepers.  Most of the images I shot were deleted, but these next three appealed to me.  

(Although the camera was hand-held, I was resting the camera on a newspaper box)