Local Landscape pics

My favorite subjects to shoot are landscapes.

Here are a few of my faves. 

This is a vegetable stand, put out by a friendly neighbor in a nearby town. 

Volunteers take care of this garden outside our local park.
They do a great job and I appreciate their work and the beauty it adds to the area.

School volunteers take care of the garden beside the message board.
Thank you Garden Fairies :)



Seen along Rt. 123

Choose wisely..

Lawn Mooers..

 No hunting...

 

Serenity at Ashley Ferry's Landing

This is one of my favorite places along the Connecticut River to photograph at sunset.

Many people have found it an enjoyable place to fish, kayak and canoe, I mainly photograph the landscape, but have fished here with my son a few times. It is a nice, calm and accessible area to spend time at.

Fleeting Moment of Calm

My son, taking a brief rest with his sister's pup, Molly, between running with her

and trying to get her to lick his face. 

Spring 2014

I have not taken many photos this Spring, partly because my camera needed a complete cleaning, but also because I felt in a funk and everything seemed so over whelming. I am feeling better now, and the camera has been dejunked, so here are the few pics I took, some with my phone cam.
  In April,the snow finally melted by Easter and the kids had a blast gathering eggs at Arrowhead ski area..

He won a prize for finding a Golden egg :)

During April vacation, we went to Montshire kids museum

Along the trails at Montshire Museum

and the Science Museum in Boston,Mass. We had a really good time exploring and learning how things work:

The electricity show at the Museum of Science in Boston is always very cool to watch!

  In May, we went to a pond in NH and watched tadpoles and fish swim around.

My girls sent lovely flowers to me for Mother's Day :)

Last Day of the School Year,2014!

I had the privilege of posting the first message on the school's new message board,
on the last day of school :)  And a big Thank You to the School's PTO, who have helped make the school a better and more fun place for students, staff and families!!
The students and teachers were all in various stages of joy and sadness as the day progressed. Most classes had either a special breakfast or luncheon, along with extra recess and popsicles or ice cream.
Rooms were somewhat tidied,or at least purged of old papers and remnants from the school year.
There was a school wide assembly, where a few students from each class received awards for Integrity and Perseverance. My class of kindergartners were too squirmy past an hour, so we returned to class for cupcake snacks. After snack, each student went to the class they are designated to be in next year. I went with a group to the first grade class I will be in next year. I am looking forward to it :)
At the end of school, my son remembered he had given the principal a lollipop with a scorpion in it, which Mr.Cherry had previously promised to eat. Here are a few pics of him making good on that promise:
This is the first bite, he looks thrilled (not) but did keep his word..

Here is the side view, some of the body parts can be seen..

Another teacher had pity on him and helped take a bite out of it..

Several bites later..

Good (pics) to the last bite..

I have a feeling he will not be promising to do this any time soon. He was a good sport and it really made the day for the students, and teachers, who witnessed it.

All in all, it was a pretty good day, at the end of a pretty good year.
I hope next year will be good,also, though some friends are moving on and I hope they know they will be missed by students and staff alike.

Have a Great Summer!! Keep in touch!
~ Mrs. C  ;)

Making Mini Pizzas,with kids

My eight year old son has shown interest in learning how to cook. We watch cooking shows and he has been grasping several concepts he wants us to try together. While making dinner, he is right by my side, occasionally in the way, but trying to learn from his Mom how to cook.
  The most recent dish we made is one of the easiest you can put together with minimal room for error. English muffin pizzas. My son was able to do all the prep work himself. He got out the package of muffins, cut them apart using a butter knife, toasted them,them put them on a plate. He brought the plate to the table with all the fixings and went to work.
 
 First, he brushed olive oil on the muffins

Then he spooned pizza sauce over then,making sure it was all covered.

He then put on the cheese,we used the shredded taco cheese from taco night.

The toppings we use vary according to what we have on hand, which tonight was sausage and sliced olives.

He didn't put the topping on all the muffins because he figured not everyone likes them.(he was correct)
When he felt they were ready, I put them in the oven preheated at 350'
They cooked until the cheese was melted as we like it, about 10 minutes.
 When I took them out, he was excited to share his creations with the family.

I have a feeling he is going to surpass my own cooking abilities and desire to be a better cook ;)

Who is the cook in your family? Is there a special dish you enjoy most?
Do you have an easy kid-friendly recipe I could try with my son?
Thanks,
Bon Appetit'
Love and blessings,
Lori LC

My quest in being a better photographer

  This summer I have been trying to improve my photography skills in a few areas. One of those areas is lighting. Since my favorite subject has been landscapes,I have been using different combinations of settings; ISO,F-stop,white balance, each important in its own way.
  I have subscribed to several photography blogs with tutorials, gone on you tube and watched many pros give their advice, and then went out and used the info learned to see if I could take award winning pictures. I felt like a failure at first. Not that the photos were awful, though some were,but I wanted so badly to have most of them come out good enough to feel I was a good photographer. I put my self worth in how the pictures came out, which was a really bad way to look at it.
 Here are a few pictures I took. I know they could be better, but I need to realize that I am still learning and will someday look back and see how I've improved. For now, I am mediocre at best.
I hope you like them, even just to see a part of my world in New England.

  QUESTION:
What has been something you have tried improving, but became frustrated and almost quit?

                           My backyard at sunset..

I love the vibrant colors of Autumn!

                                     
                                       Connecticut River at sunset, view of Vermont from NH

I was trying to capture the cold bleakness of Autumn.

This brave bird watched me as I took pics

I like the way the tail feathers glow from the sunrise, it shows the details of the feathers.

My friend was kind enough to put up with my tinkering with lighting, for over an hour. She is a natural for posing, which helped me a lot. 

She is also very patient, which is really how we got through it. 

 This is one of the best shots, taken at the very end of the shoot:

She looks relaxed, lighting wasn't bad and it wasn't grainy.

This is one of the first pics taken, it looks grainy and is badly lit. (yes, she changed shirts.)  

I think I made bad choices in the type of lighting used, as well as where they were placed. 

So many things are wrong with how this one came out, but we laughed and chalked it up to a good learning experience.