He is better!

Phew. Poor kid was the sickest I have ever seen him. He is not 100%, maybe not even 70%, but he is on the mend. I am so relieved.

The weather has smartened up, and I've had the chance to get out since my boy is on the mend. Since today was my only chance to get out alone for the next week and a half at least, I decided to go to Moraine Lake. I had never been before, but I know that it gets busy. They only open the road up there from June to October, so I have been stalking the website to get a jump on things. I checked yesterday and saw that the road was open.

So I got up at 5 am this morning to hit the road and get up there at a decent time. I saw tons of animals on the way, but they were all off the highway so it wasn't safe to stop. Figures. There was a coyote in the meridan, deer and elk. Once I got to Moraine Lake, there were two cars in the entire parking lot. Definitely worth getting up early. Anyway, here's the pictures from today. I'm not thrilled with them, the sky exposure isn't quite right but I am too tired to mess with it right now, and I wanted to post.

The lake in question:


A friendly neighbourhood squirrel:


A picture I took after I shat myself thinking this was a bear, I have no idea what it is, I'm guessing a beaver:


And Danny enjoying his ice cream cone:

Not better.

This is what I woke up to this morning. My poor little man.

Not Good.

That is how things have been around here. Jake is sick to the point of me checking on him and wondering if he needs to go to the hospital again. Yep, we've been twice in the last week. The last visit got him antibiotics for what looks like the beginning of pnuemonia. He is probably the sickest he has ever been. He went from scoring two goals in his soccer game in the morning, to a fever of 40 C (104F) underneath his arm at four in the afternoon.

I have that horrible cotton headed feeling and dry cough, but no fever or barfing yet. I am so hoping that Daniel escapes this. Please, please, please. And please no more hospital visits. I want the healthy Jake back.

I have some stuff to upload, and I will as soon as things get back to normal around here. Hopefully very soon.

Whew.

A good friend of mine suggested that I become a member of istockphoto.com . I had thought of this before, but was under the assumption that it was for professional photographers only. Once I read a little more about it, thanks to Meredith, I found that wasn't the case. So I applied.

First of all, just applying was kind of a big step for me. I have a problem with failure, I'll admit it. It is one of the things that I like very least about myself. There are a lot of opportunities in my life that I have allowed to go by because I can't stand the thought of giving something my all and then not succeeding. Anyway. I applied, but was pretty nervous about it. I really care about photography, and to get shut down would sting.

I put the application through on Wednesday, after doing some serious agonizing over the pictures I wanted to submit. After over analyzing, I thought fug it, and sent one I really liked, and a couple of others that were popular on a non paying stock photo site. I got the email back this morning, and two of the photos were rejected, and one was approved. Can you guess which was approved? Lol, that's right, the one I liked. But I didn't dig through my hard drive to find originals of the others, and the note with the rejected photos said that the picture quality had suffered. I am guessing that submitting versions of the pictures that had been re saved was part of the problem.

I am thrilled that they approved one of the pictures, but now I am back to agonizing over which two to resubmit. The key with stock photography is to submit pictures that people will want to use in their online and print publications. I am thinking about this one:


but they did say no flower pictures. I did a search for water lily on their site, and there isn't that many to choose from. But still, they say no flowers, so I should probably stick with that.

I don't know, maybe the pollution picture? I think I'd have to tweak it a bit, but it seems like there is a good market for it. *Sigh* If anyone has any suggestions for me I would love to hear them.

Okay, the last of them...

Here is the end of the roll, so to speak. I apologize if you are tired of looking at cowboys. It has been pouring here most of the week, and that is supposed to continue into the weekend, so coming up with some picture ideas is going to be a challenge. It looks like the boys are going to be my muses, at least until Daniel tells me to "take pictures of your flowers, please".

Also, I haven't had a chance to run these through photoshop. I know some people think photoshop is cheating, but I kind of see it as a digital darkroom. My goal in taking a picture is trying to get it as close to the moment I see as possible. If I have to use photoshop to make that happen, then I will.

Jake on the horse, looking much more relaxed then he was at first:


A beautiful end to the day:


On the way up to the windmills the next morning, my dad made fun of me for taking this shot, and probably for good reason, lol:


The windmills....see my Dad's truck at the bottom? I couldn't run far enough away to get the entire blade in frame with my 50mm lens:


So there it is. I am glad I took so many pictures, since it might be the last time there is a branding. I hope that is not the case, I have so many wonderful memories on that farm. My Mom grew up there, and I spent a lot of time wandering the land as a child. I had kind of hoped for the same thing for my boys.

More from the weekend.

I think that this will probably be two of three. It sucks, because I have some really good ones of my family, but I just don't feel comfortable putting them up here. So it'll have to be semi anonymous pictures of their backs and such. Sorry.

Okay, here they are getting the cows over the rise:


The brand spanking new baby....maybe two days old:


Getting the brand on:


The cowgirl getting her calf:


So that's all I've got for now. There is still some of the boys riding that I'd like to post, but I feel like shit tonight, so I'm out.

"You stayed up until 11 because your Mom was partying with the Hutterites??"

The above was overheard at my house yesterday when we got home. We had a great time, and I haven't made it through all the pictures yet, but I wanted to get this up before I forgot the details.

I got to visit a hutterite colony while we were out of town. It was one of the neatest things I've ever gotten to see. I thought that we were just going there briefly, but we ended up getting a tour of their whole place. I was blown away.

First, we were in the house of the hutterite we went to see. The men needed something welded, so they took off to the shop and we visited with his wife. She was so nice, and had the most unique and charming accent you have ever heard. She offered to show us around and preceded to give us a tour of pretty much the whole place.

We saw the laundry room, the kitchen and dining rooms, a new home that was to be a wedding gift for a couple getting married at the beginning of June, and the slaughter house.

The laundry room was completely tiled, from floor to and including the ceiling. There were three or four sets of stainless washers and dryers. Everything was spotless.

The kitchen was just crazy. When we walked in, there were tables set and ready to go. She told us that we were in the children's dining room. Any child on the colony 15 years or younger had their meals there. All the kids clean up after themselves as well. The next area was the adults (15+) dining room. Men on one side, women on the other. Everyone sits in the same spot every day. All appliances are stainless steel, restaurant style. It all looks like it was purchased yesterday, but the kitchen is five years old. Just off the kitchen is the baking area, with industrial dough mixing machines, and a separate "rising" room that smelled like cinnamon. In the basement is their major food storage area. They also store their home made soap in the basement as well. At one point she gave Danny a bun, and he accidentally dropped it on the floor. She went to grab another, and I stopped her and told her that her floor was much cleaner than mine, and he eats off mine all the time. It was that clean.

The newlywed's house was really nice. No carpet anywhere though. The bathrooms were gorgeous, and there was so much storage throughout the house. The newly wife gets an enormous sewing room (which you need when you make all your own clothes, your newly husband's clothes, and all your kid's clothes too). They said that the woman always goes to the man's colony when they marry. Just the way things are. There were about 85 people on the colony we visited.

The slaughter house was as clean as the kitchen. I got to see the chicken plucking machine too. She said that the slaughter house was their old kitchen, and it still had all their old appliances in it, which were just as clean as the ones in their new kitchen.

After the tour, we went back to her house to wait for the guys to come back, and we sat and visited with them. Danny was a typical two year old maniac, and he absolutely loved all the food they were feeding him. It was so cool to chat with them for a while and learn a little about their culture. She has six children, four were there when we were visiting. A couple of the girls followed us on the tour, giggling and speaking German to each other so I am sure they had a few comments about the city slickers, lol.

The one thing I was bitter about was that my camera was in the truck when the guys went to the shop to get the welding done, so I didn't get any pictures at all. Which was a shame, because it would have been nice. But I am not sure that they would have let me take any, so maybe it was better that I didn't have to put her in a weird position by asking her.

I'll share a couple of the pics I've gone through so far...

The boys and their kids for the weekend:


My Uncle, the cowboy:


Danny and his entourage:


My cousin at work:


I had to keep switching from auto to manual, because I didn't trust myself to set things up right. It alternated between cloudy and sunny, and I think it was throwing the white balance off. I had to do some adjustments. I hope they look okay. I should be back with more tomorrow.

So darn sleepy.

Man am I tired. With soccer, school, work, and trying to get ready to get outta dodge I am beat. It is safe to say that Jake loves soccer. He is such an emotion kid though, and just freaks when it is line change time, and game over time. He is soooooo competitive, and he loves sports. Anything, as long as there is a score and a winner. I had never seen a three year old watch curling on TV until Jake. He loves to watch golf too. Here he celebrating his goal:

On the picture front, a mostly user run news website asked for permission to use my pollution photo. Too bad there was no money involved, but I'll take the exposure, no matter how

minimal. I haven't gotten out too much lately. I poked around last night just before the sunset, but there wasn't much to be seen:

The weather is turning, and things are finally getting green. I am just waiting for the darn baby ducks and geese to hatch. I'm sure it will happen this weekend while I am out of town.

It's gonna be a slow blog week.

Well, I almost made it a week straight. It was Mother's Day yesterday, so I took a blogging break. I did get up at 6 am to take some pictures though. This week is going to be a bad one for me, I've got to get things ready to trek two kids across the countryside. And then there is work too. So I apologize in advance if I am a little neglectful this week.

I do plan on getting out one or twice this week though, I know the baby ducklings are on the cusp of hatching, so I've got to get some pictures of that. No signs of hatching yet, although I've been on the outskirts of the city. It may be different inside the city parks.

My attempt at taking pictures of the grandson pretty much sucked. He wasn't all that thrilled in the first place, and spent 90% of his time in his grandma's or mommy's arms, and the other 10% furiously crawling away. I've got a few to work with, literally 8 or 9 out of hundreds. I have already spent way longer on that then I'd care to admit, and I still don't have anything that I am even remotely happy with. My husband says I'm my own worse critic but I think anyone would criticize these. I don't know, I just like shooting animals and landscapes so much more than kids, unless they are my own. It's just that the market for nature shots is a little over saturated.

*Sigh* What can you do? Practice, practice, practice I suppose. Anyhow, some pictures from yesterday morning:

A meadow lark:


A muskrat swimming (I didn't realize what cute little faces these guys have):


The bringers of spring:


A crow trying to kick a hawk's ass for getting to close to his nest:

Waiting...

So I am sitting here waiting for a call from my friend to come over and take some pictures of her grandson. I hope it goes well, but we will have to see what happens. I wish I had an external flash, and one more lens, but I think my husband would flip if I got anything else for this camera.

I've pretty much decided that I am going to go visit my family next weekend. They are the ranchers (sounds nicer than farmers, doesn't it?) that have the branding every year. It's about a five hour drive, which I am going to have to do solo since my hubby has work obligations. I hope the boys behave. It can be such a nightmare to deal with them when they are away from home, especially when their Dad isn't around. My parents will be there, so that should help.

Other than that, not too much is new on the home front. I'm not sure what is going on tomorrow, apparently the kids are getting shipped off, but that is all I know. Jake told me he can't wait to give me "Olay Shampoo". Interesting...

Yeah, I'm an idiot.

So today we stopped off at the flower store, and got my mom some Mother's Day flowers. The nice lady at the flower store gave the boys each a red carnation too. Jake proclaimed today, "Boy's day!" and was absolutely thrilled. Danny was thrilled too, until he broke his flower on the way out, and had a fit. My Dad taped it back together when we got there and all was well again.

Since my parents live out of the city, I usually drag the boys for a drive down a few country roads on our way home, to see what we can see, and so I can take pictures. So we find a few cool shorebirds, and one in particular that wasn't the least bit shy. I take a bunch of pictures, and we head home. I upload them onto the computer and realize that I had neglected to change my camera settings from manual to auto when I switched out the lens. The pictures are so overexposed that no amount of photoshopping is going to save them. Sigh.

We did head out to Johnson's Lake last weekend, for a picnic and a hike, so I'll share a couple of pictures from there.

The ice receeding:


The crocus's blooming:


Boys being boys:

McKinnon Flats

Okay, I managed to get all the editing done last night, so all I had to do was post today. I got up bright and early yesterday morning to get to McKinnon Flats while the light was still good. It was cloudy when I woke up, and as soon as I got out of the city limits it was foggy. I figure I'm already awake, I might as go and check things out.



So I'm on my way when I realize that I forgot my directions at home. I am reasonably sure I can figure out how to get there without them. I head out in the general direction on one of the busiest, most dangerous roads in the city. In the fog. It is a divided highway, divided only by the line painted on the middle of the road. Some jackass that was late for work was passing, in the fog. He is headed straight for me, and thankfully the car he was passing pulled onto the shoulder so the jackass could get over and not hit me. After the near miss, I decide to take the back roads.



The back roads are okay, I hate driving on gravel though. Plus, I have the absolute worst sense of direction, and that combined with the thick fog made finding McKinnon Flats pretty difficult. But, the back roads were scenic, and the fog made things interesting to photograph. First, I found this American Avocet:


Then I saw this spiderweb straining under the weight of the dewy fog:


Then I saw this bird again, it's called a Common Snipe.

When I was trying to figure out what they are called, I found out that the female usually lays four eggs. Once the first two of the eggs hatch, the male takes and raises them. The female raises the remaining two separately from the male and the first two hatch lings. Interesting.

Then I saw the smoke from a fertilizer plant pouring into the air. The fog and humidity in the air really makes it look terrible. It just sickened me that I am see all these little marvels of nature, and then in the same breath I see the things humanity is doing to disintegrate the earth. Of course, the guilt and irony of me driving around contributing to the pollution isn't lost on me either. At least my car isn't a hummer.


I am still not at McKinnon Flats, and it is getting to be time for me to head home. I head back to the scary highway to try and find the sign to direct me the right way. I finally find it, and am following a truck down the right road. A flock of gulls fly up, and one of them gets smoked by the truck. It makes me so sad, I know the truck driver probably didn't think twice about it, but I just feel so sorry for that bird. I've always had a soft spot for animals, and hate to see them hurt.

I finally come over the ridge to McKinnon Flats.


I don't have much time for pictures, since it is further from home then I thought. I have time to snap a few pictures of the scenery and the shorebirds wading in the river.




Then it is past time to head home. As I was driving back over the ridge, I see a herd of deer grazing on the hills. I snap a few shots of them, but nothing turned out quite right. Taking pictures in the fog was a lot tougher than I thought, but I like the way some of the pictures turned out. And now that I know how to get there, I should be able to do better next time.

Trying not to flake out already...

Arg. Since today was my day to sleep in, I got up bright and early and headed out to take some pictures. I went to McKinnon Flats, and got some decent shots. Although most of them I got on the way there, since I couldn't find the place for the life of me. I have a little editing to do before I post them, but they should be up tomorrow. A little too much beer with dinner + getting up too early, and I am pretty much done.

A Fresh Start

Mainly to hold myself accountable. And keep track of things. I really, really, really love photography. And I need to get better at it. So this is going to be a place for me to work on that, and hopefully see some progress. Also, it will probably be a place for me to bitch/brag about my kids. My goal here is a post a day. We shall see how that goes.

Anyhow, I bought a Nikon D60 about a month ago. I love it. I'm an idiot, I had the chance to get a dslr late last year, and flaked out and got the Canon S5IS instead. It sucks, it takes good video for a camera, and decent macro shots, but other than that, pos. So after months of not liking it, I got the D60. I am slowly learning about aperture, metering, white balance, and all that fun stuff.

I got this picture with it right out of the box, with it's 18-55mm lens, all settings on auto:

Of course, the 18-55mm lens is fine and dandy for basic pictures, but I am a fan of nature photography. I like birds. I couldn't even tell you why, I kind of collect bird pictures. It's rubbing off on the kids too, Jake begged to take the bird identification book to bed with him. And instead of sleeping, he's going through it. And then I hear "Mom, I found the Hairy Woodpecker!!!" Nice. I got the 55-200 AFS VR lens to help me with my bird hunting. My favorite shots from the past month with that lens:

Then, I wanted just one more lens, lol. I went with the 50mm 1:1.4d. This is a much tougher lens to use, and it's teaching me what exactly all the manual settings do. Here are some of the better shots I've gotten with it:

So there you have it. I'm not sure where I want to go with this photography obsession, ideally I'd like to make some money at it. Wish me luck!