A Little Boy's 2nd Year Celebration

We had a quiet birthday party at home today, just me and the boys. It actually was not that quiet but more-so than having a bunch of kids over. The boys awakened to some new movies, new swords and shields, a fishing game, and a pancake breakfast with juice. The birthday boy chose to eat only juice and then after playing took a long nap. During his nap, his big brother and I enjoyed a movie and baked a carrot cake. The little guy is nuts for carrots. Cousin Jennie called to give her wishes. After attempting to blow out candles and successfully eating the sweet treat, we headed to the post office to pick up gifts from Grandma Linda, Grandpa Greg and Auntie Laurie, talked with them on the phone. And just as dad arrived home from work, we enjoyed a surprise visit and Hawaiian gifts from Papa Bob and Grandma Barb. It was a great day shared with close family near and far.

A Wonderful Dozen Visits

My parents came to visit us for their twelfth time in six years.  I am getting better at controlling my excitement before they arrive and our disappointment after they leave.  I plan things to occupy myself and the kids until our next visit and it seems to work pretty well.

While my parents and I were out shopping, my husband made my mom a red velvet cake with cherries inside for her belated birthday. Puss in Boots here had a good time helping to make it and blowing out the candles. That night my mom, my dad, and I caught the flu ... probably from our son who barfed momentarily a couple of days before us. Sounds like a scenario last February when they visited? Yes, almost an exact repeat.

We had a warm 1st week and were able to play and walk outside but as soon as Christmas arrived, so did the cold. It did not, however, keep us inside or home.

Because I do not have any siblings and my husband's siblings are younger and without families of their own, it means that the boys are the only grandchildren on both sides and the only great-grandchildren that are still kids. They were spoiled by us and grandparents with things like skis, skates, the rocking horse my dad made for me when I was two, a pirate ship, a hunting camp, knight castle, and much more.

The boys had a lot of attention and asked for their grandparents still. Actually, as I am typing this and my son is watching a movie he says, "I want grandma and grandpa to stay here, mom." It's a good thing they will soon retire. Until then, we remember them by having pillow fights each night on their bed, playing with their gifts, reading books about Minnesota, and eating my mom's (my grandma's) cinnamon and sugar bread rolls. Besides, we have memories of sitting outside at -25 and watching fireworks with them, ice skating, swimming, and much more including fantastic cowboy and indian costumes and wooden bath boats made by grandma and grandpa.

I received a scroll saw for Christmas and hope to make many gifts with it. I want to take a knitting class and learn how to expand my knitting capabilities, which should also help me gift creatively. Tomorrow, I join the Community Band and will play the flute in a group as I did from 5th grade - college. I am looking for a used but maintained piano on which the boys will take lessons and hope in other ways to incorporate more music into our lives. I have joined the Ladies of Leisure ski group and want to ski ten times this year which would be probably the most times ever in a year or at least the most in the last fifteen years; I am up to four so I should make it. I want to bike with the Dirt Divas again this summer at least four times a month and bike to the art exhibits on First Fridays at least once. I want to bring the boys camping two times and backpack with either my girlfriends or my husband before I find it completely intolerable (I'm 30!). I want to teach my son before or during age four to skate alone (almost there), ski (he shows promise), swim (I've been slacking here), and to read (he's starting to sound them out) since he shows an interest and promise in all of these valuable skills. I think I will stay busy this year or at least until March, when we plan to see my parents again.

Homemade Laundry Soap

A month ago, a friend shared a pint jar of home-made laundry soap with me. It's opaque white, smells like ordinary soap, and a similar consistency to any liquid detergent. After laundering our clothes with it a couple times a week, it is half gone, and I can tell it works just as well as the earthy brands we have been using for the past couple of years and as well as the mainstream brands that give your clothes odor and leave chemical residue to boost the reflection of light (color!) I like to buy the environmentally-friendly detergent brands because they tend to be fragrance-free, biodegradable, and have fewer additives, which means they are healthier for us as well. Making soap at home seems to me like a good way to keep using a green product but with fewer packages to recycle and at a fraction of the cost. For the price of one jug of liquid detergent, which is not even a gallon in size, I can easily buy the ingredients required to make 15+ gallons of comparable soap at home.

Ingredients:

4 cups hot water

1 bar Fels Naptha or Kirk's Castile

1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

1/2 cup Borax

Directions:

Grate the soap and add it to a sauce pan that contains the hot water. Stir until melted on medium-low heat. Fill a container with 5 gallons of hot tap water. Add the soap, borax, and washing soda. Stire until dissolved. Cover and let thicken overnight or until cool. Stir again.

Use:

1/4 cup for high efficiency (HE) machines

5/8 cup for regular machines

There are numerous websites that describe the previous in more detail, with variations, and with photos. For example, here is a diaper site that describes how to make two different powder versions of this soap, which they call detergent for some reason (mistake?). I think I will make the second, the heavy powder, because I already own liquid castile soap, using liquid instead of bar means I don't have to grate it, heat it, or deal with multiple bars since a little liquid goes a long way, and because making powder soap is not only easier than making liquid but it takes up less space.

Note that stores usually sell detergents, which are synthetic, and here we I am talking about making soap, which is composed of natural substances. There is no question that soap is easier on us and our environment, but detergents are better at removing hard-water residue. So, for diapers, which need to remain absorbent or in hard water locations the price of specialized diaper detergents can be a necessity unless other steps are taken to strip the fabrics.

Christmas Preparations

In four days, my mom and dad arrive for a half-month long stay with us for the holidays. We are all extremely excited and I know I probably won't have time to blog while they are here. So, here are some warm photos, not in any particular order. The photo below was taken two days ago, while the boys decorated the tree. I didn't think the excitement of putting up the tree would start so young but it surely did. I had been bugged for a week and that was fine because it turned out that they were excellent little helpers.

In late November, I got the itch to make things. So, I dug into the closet to see what I could find. In 2006, my husband and I knitted scarves for everyone we knew; it was a fairly inexpensive way to give gifts as we were just about to put a house on the foundation we'd built and were saving money. We personalized them with 'Handcrafted by ...." tags. In 2008, I begged him to make me a scarf because we didn't have any leftover and he did but it sat only half finished until last month when he taught me how to do his knit and I finished the second half of it. So, if you see me sporting a bright green scarf, that is it, the scarf of many memories.

Because we had knitted so many scarves we had remnants of many different yarns. I didn't know what to do with them, so during christmas of 2006 I think it was in Minnesota I knitted all of them into squares. This is also when my cousin Jennie learned to knit :) Anyway, the squares sat in my closet until I recently fashioned them into neck warmers ... and then I converted them into purses because they were too flashy for neck warmers, which my son calls "warm neckers."

Apparently, they also make good hats! And I love that even though this was taken half a month ago, they're wearing the same shirts they wore above when they decorated the tree. And my son, who prefers to be called Puss in Boots, has a sword in his belt in both photos as well.

I have such really great friends here. One friend organized a party that was held at my house. She spoiled us with the best food we've all had in a long, long time with the theme "Tapas," which is basically spanish bar food. Everyone exchanged cookies and gifts and dressed up in pretty and ugly sweaters. We've been to some fantastic white elephant gift exchanges in the past few years but this was new to me because it was all women and all close friends.

Let's not forget our annual kids' party with our son's oldest friends. Last hear they made gingerbread houses and this year gingerbread people and of course exchanged gifts, got into fights (not my son), and ate. Some things never change.

This week at preschool there is a gift exchange where my son will exchange a book with the kid with the glasses; this kid has all of the same interests as our son does: dragons, knights, lions, dinosaurs, etc characters with an element of danger. Another day there will be a visit from Santa and a party where I will help with games and sit down to eat with the kids. This is the 6th time in 4 months we've had the opportunity as parents to participate in the preschool events or fieldtrips so that is pretty neat.

Today, I am going to a friends place to make swords and shields for the boys and in a couple of days I am going to print dragon drawings onto shirts for them. This blog in some sense provided those dragons as they're from my talented friend in England, who traded me the drawings for the photos I posted for the high bush cranberry triptych. All my son wants for christmas is skis and ice skates and the other is too young and too content to ask for anything, but it'll be fun to make some things for them too. I think I'll stop there because I know they're going to be spoiled by two sets of grandparents.

Two Series

I ended up submitting two series of photos for my final photography class project because a chinook was expected to arrive when I was scheduled to reshoot my original idea: "A Painter's Work" ... or something like that. I am not good with titles. In fact, they canceled public school, a day in advance because of the expected icy roads and snowfall ... but it really never came. The roads were fine and I was able to make it to the painting studio at the university for a second shooting of my friend painting. The images turned out very well considering I had to keep the existing fluorescent light on because there were always other artist working in the space and supplement that light with 3 large halogen lights. In an Adobe camera RAW program, I was able to adjust this harsh light and make it more natural. This actually is a little variation of the series that I submitted. This one fits better in webspace because they are all vertical.

I also completed the other idea: "Night Comforts." This idea began as I grabbed a bottle of milk in the night for my son using only the fridge light. I thought to myself that there are a lot of things that keep us up at night-- dogs, bathroom breaks, noisy streets--and they all have dim light that would be neat to capture with long-exposure. The idea quickly changed from night annoyances basically to night comforts because my original series had a toilet in it and it just didn't seem to fit. Here are some fairly universal night comforts lit by firelight, fridgelight, candlelight, barlight, and flashlight. In this series, I wish I had used more negative space. My best photos, which had a lot of negative space, were not included because one of a blanket on a bedpost lit by hall light was too light and the other of a beautiful blue bottle of of Bombay (which I've probably never tried before but it's pretty nevertheless) did not have a cracked open bottle. All of the other ideas are "in progress" so a closed bottle didn't fit as well as one poured into a glass.

Nothing in Moderation

Apples from a couple fairly young trees

My parents and uncle and aunt with their horses

Blueberry wine from the organic berry patch

Over 10 cord wood, all from down trees, a lot for a small vermont castings :)

There's always work and fun to be had on the Boondocks Farm, where I grew up. I love these photos and the fact that electronically I can see some of the things we missed this fall. Last time we visited the farm was during the month of June. Next year we hope to be there in late July - early August for the boys' first blueberry season (they love berries ... what I asked mom to bring me for christmas this year in her suitcase/cooler) and again in late October - early November for fall preservation, birthdays, halloween, and also white tail deer hunting opening season.

Not the end of this dance

The photography class is nearing it's end and I am fee (6:32am and one kid's now up) ling, I'm feeling, oh I forgot now but I'm definitely not feeling finished. Interruptions are the story of my life. I was telling my friend yesterday that I am amazed by the ideas I come up with in the shower or in the car when there aren't any kids in it. That's nothing new except that these complete quiet moments are much farther and fewer in between than they were when I was in college. However, I do think I played it right. Study mathematics, chemistry, biology as a single undergraduate, environmental science which is less technical as a graduate with babies in my belly (and out), and photography which is even less technical with two toddlers at my feet ("I'm hungry," he says). Photography is just a little easier to grasp. In fact, I think anyone can do it. And I don't mean that anyone who is doing it can do it, but I mean really anyone who takes the time to learn how to do it properly and has some patience can and will take photos as well as or better than those who do it professionally.

I am supposed to find inspiration in online galleries for my class and for a journal entry and let's just say I've had quite some trouble. The fact is that I am not inspired by many of the black and white photos in the Yancey Richardson, Catherine Edelman, Fraenkel, Yossi Milo online galleries. I looked at all of the galleries for plenty of time and without knowing the stories behind the photos I find few I like and that could very well be because I don't have much training in art appreciation. In fact, I have found myself becoming more and more critical of visual arts. Photographers whose work has mesmerized me in the past I now page through uninterested. There is one photographer Hellen Van Meene whose work is now in the Yancey Richardson Gallery who caught my eye . She is one of the more contempory photographers in all of the galleries displaying photos as recent as 2010. The images are colorful portraits that in my opinion develop the soul of the individual subject through their eyes. The light is natural, usually from a window, and it is visible in the scene somewhere but not usually on the subject itself. This is exactly how I like to frame my images. Although I can appreciate photos taken in complete shade or on overcast days or just after the sun has gone down, for they sometimes allow for brilliant color and glistening eyes, this type of photography with less direct light is much easier, I think, and also less dramatic.

My problem this week is that it's almost December; the sunlight outside is so amazing but it is almost invincible. The amount of time each clear day that the rays touch my front yard is about an hour. It doesn't any longer hit the floor of my home, but rather only a couple walls and only for a matter of minutes. I drive into town four afternoons a week for my class and to bring my son to preschool and I can tell in these short daily drives that the sky changes dramatically in a matter of 20 minutes in interior Alaska. It's quite powerful, but it is something I have decided to just sit back and let myself observe rather than try to capture with kids at my side. It's been cold and when it's been 30 degrees warmer at -10, it's been cloudy. There might have been a good day or two in there where it was -10 and clear but if there was I missed it because I was spending time with my ("I really really really want raisins and peanuts, mom") family. I'm thankful that my younger toddler knows the value of sleep as much as I wouldn't trade these sweet interruptions for anything else in the world. It's nice to have time to sit and write like this. My classmates are fighting for studio time, but for my final I am still hoping for some natural light. Unfortunately, a series of chinooks are scheduled to arrive which probably means the skies will be less grand. Stay tuned for my final project ... although this will hardly be the end of my dance with digital photography with all its lovely interruptions that sometimes seem to meet in the middle. I have to remember to keep taking photos and videos of these happy little moments.

Two Triptychs

A triptych is basically a series of three something (photos maybe :) that tell a story. A diptych would be a series of two, etc. We were required to create two triptychs for class in anticipation of a final project that must be a series of 5-10 photos that tell a story but that do not contain redundant subject matter or composition. It turns out that this isn't so easy to follow these basic guidelines, even in series of only three. I mulled over a ton of ideas for my triptychs. Some were not in my heart because they were not as much tied to nature as I like: an arm composed of animal, machine, robot. Some were, but were not achievable at temps hovering around -40F: the moon's reflection on water in solid, liquid, and gas forms or my family in silhouette at sunset as we progressed from a family of two to a family of five (dog included). Some of my classmates had neat ideas that are very simple: an apple progressing from whole form to eaten to the core, tangled wires (like fishline, headphones, necklaces) whose abstract form continued from frame to frame, three different colored dog's heads posed identically. One of my ideas was to bring the bounty of fall into winter's preservation by using high bush cranberries.

We broke 6 low temperature records in 7 days last week but I went out every day if only for 5 or 10 minutes, brought my kids out in their best gear, and even drove 2.5 hours with my kids to try to photograph the mountains in the sunrise. It was refreshing to be out when we otherwise would not have been. Photography is not alone. There are so many other hobbies that have people out there at low temps: running sled dogs, biking, cross country skiing, ice carving. This community is full of energetic outdoors people. I wanted to photograph frosty eyelashes and steamy mouths, but it didn't work out exactly as I'd planned. Working with a subject at -40 is not exactly predictable. My fingers froze and I couldn't think but I still think this is nice and conveys "cold:"

The tie to the weather and the sun is what I love about natural light photography. I have seen things during this class that I would not have seen otherwise: the phases of the moon, ice dogs around the sun, the differences between the colorcast of the sun on the snow between early November and late November. There are such drastic differences between each week of winter in the subarctic and noting these changes makes the cold months pass quickly.

Flash

To complete a flash photography assignment, I borrowed a Vivitar 283 flash from the university. This is a universal manual type flash that can be mounted to the top of many different brands of cameras. The flash can be swiveled so that it can either be bounced off of a reflective surface onto the subject or directed right at the subject. The electronics work like this; you set the flash to the ISO that your camera is at and then you based on your distance from the subject--10, 15, 20, or 40 feet--you set the flash to one of four color coded settings and these settings in turn tell you where to put your camera's aperture. The shutter speed has to stay generally constant, a speed at or below the speed of the flash. My camera's flash synch speed is 1/200 of a second, but to acquire more light I could set it lower than the synch speed.

It's not really as confusing as I make it sound but getting a great pictures was not an easy feat. I took 200 photos inside my home based on a list I made of things to try and these are the ones I chose to submit.

Direct Flash. The area was lit from the chandelier above but flash was needed because it was an indoor situation and with motion to boot. I chose direct flash because since the walls were very close and both visible in the scene, bounce flash off of one of the walls would have created a very bright spot on the wall in part of the scene. This photo is cropped, so only one wall is shown.

Direct Flash. This one turned out well. The shadow created by the direct flash creates depth in the image, and the washed out white feeling created by the harsh direct light enhances the washed diaper scene. In this situation the room was lit from the recessed lights. I chose to use direct flash because the camera's tripod was situated outside of the room's door and because of the way the doorway is built there was not any place to bounce a flash.

Bounce Flash. This was the first photo that I took and I played with it a lot to get it to look this bright. I ended up bouncing the flash off of the vaulted ceiling, which I think is 18 feet from the floor. I was bummed that I couldn't capture the grandness of the window in the background, but that is one problem with a bounce flash; if you turn the camera on it's side to get a vertical image, the flash is also turned, which means you can only use direct flash or flash bounced off of a wall. Bouncing a flash off of a ceiling is out of the question unless the camera is horizontal. This is a 40 foot bounce.

Bounce Flash. This photo turned out more dark than I had planned. This was the last photo that I took and I think the batteries were giving out becuase I was having trouble getting the flash to fully charge. With these flashes, you can set them off before they are fully charged and they'll give a fraction of the light that they would have if you wait the full time. As I backed away from the subject, there was not enough light on him and when I came closer, he had shadows on his eyes. In the end, I'm not sure that the eyes are important ... like the photo above, it is more about symmetry.

Fill Flash. Fill flash requires depth in the background and a slower shutter speed than the synch shutter speed. In this photo I slowed the shutter to 1/20 second from 1/200 to catch some of the light of the chandelier which at 1/200 is non-existent. The flash is pointed directly at the subject, but is slightly diffused by tissue paper that I had taped over the flash. It would have been a bit better if I'd had a taller tripod. In class the students titled this photo for me: Domestic Diva.

Fill Flash. Here the depth is not in the room, but instead outside. At 1/200 you don't really see the light outside, but at 1/20 you can see the colors that the low November sunlight casts outside. The direct flash provides some light on dog. It was very difficult to get the majority of the flash to hit the dog and not the window (glare!). If he had been taller and wider, it would not have been such a challenge.

And one last photo ... the best photo I've gotten Santa Clause. I used a 40 foot bounce off of the ceiling above us and the effect is really quite nice I think. You are used to seeing this scene with the use of direct flash and that way it looks much more flat therefore less intimate.

Film Speed

I never thought I'd have fun with low light and high film speed photography since I'm not much of a sports fanatic , but it is also useful for taking photographs of kids in the wintertime. Inside or even outside on a cloudy day sometimes the largest aperture and the fastest shutter speed for the light available is not enough to catch a moving image or even to put a still image in adequate light. So, you either have to use a flash or you have to increase your film sensitivity or film ISO (Internal Standards Organization). In my case, I'm talking about the digital sensor's reaction to light not film's reaction to light, but same gist without all the dark lab chemicals.

The photos of our boys below are at a fairly large aperture f/2.8, shutter speed 1/100-1/125, and ISO 1600. Normally, I shoot my photos at ISO 100-400 because there is less noise which gives them much more crisp quality. In fact, when I did my first photojournalism assignment of the federal agencies state agencies and city mayor addressing the public on air quality and health, it did not even occur to me to increase the ISO so that I could get brighter photo in a dark room. I was looking over at the local newspaper photographer wondering why her shutter speed was so much faster than mine; I just assumed her monstrous lenses has much larger apertures than my best of f/3.5 at 18mm or f/5.6 at 55mm. After that night when I collected some subpar photos, we discussed film speed in class and when I did my next mock photojournalism shoot of the scientists at the local university museum discussing their work in animal preservation for halloween, I had much better luck. However, that time I brought my 50mm lens because it has a larger maximum aperture of f/1.8, which was good because the rooms were extremely dark, but then of course I was restricted in each frame by the higher mm because the rooms were small and I had to back up all the way, stand on chairs, and then still couldn't get much into each frame. Both experiences were a bit awkward, but not too bad, and I definitely learned some lessons. The third time I try to get some newspaper-worthy shots, I should not have any trouble at all.

The house is caught at aperture f/5, 30 second shutter speed, and ISO 1600. The blue light on the snow in the foreground and in the sky is from the moon. Even though it is nighttime, the high film sensitivity to light and the long shutter speed, together, give the scene a day-time feel. In any of these 3 instances, using flash would not have given the same effect because it either would not have created enough light or it would have created unwanted shadows.

Winter Warmth

I am going to use the onset of winter to talk about a few things for my journal entry on portraits.

I think that less is more. Simple is better. I prefer natural light because there is not much fussing required. By using sunlight, there are not any lights to lug around, not any strange shadows to fix, and not any backdrops to iron. You don't have to worry about things like carpet dating or degrading your image or bringing in props to make things like classy or creative. Every backdrop outdoors is unique and all you have to do is wait for the light and then move around and find the sweetest spots. Even a blade of grass can glisten like diamonds against the blue shadows in snow at the right time of day.

In my opinion winter looks great backlit. Like a drop of water, snowflakes catch the eye best when illuminated from behind. They look more translucent and bright this way and therefore are able to stand out from their background. I like people backlit also, in any season. I realize this is not preferred by all, but the feeling of warmth that is created when there is yellow, orange, or red sunlight streaming into the background is appealing to me. I tried to find portrait inspiration in the local galleries this past month, but it was just not there, perhaps because I have already made up my mind. There is a local contemporary photographer Chelsea Mach who is able to convey this feeling of warmth ... through bokah and through silhouette.

There are two problems though that I see with backlighting. Obviously, a photographer cannot capture as much detail even at large aperture of the subject because it is/they are in the shadow. You get bright spots. This can be helped with the use of a reflector but then of course you lose some of the effect. Also, sometimes, you get solar flare on your lens (red circle in top right above) if you're not using a hood or shade. But, if it is art, sometimes a strong feeling is more important than the quantity of pixels with detail or the absence of scattered light. I think most families want warm photos of themselves on their walls. If backlight can make these three photos at 0 degrees F look warm and appealing, I think it can enhance any human portrait just the same.