Summer Photography Challenge: Day 1

Just for fun, I am participating in a two-week long Summer Photography Challenge that starts today. I expect to learn a lot, and get some good practice.

I was joking with my sister on Saturday about her photography: "Wow! You must have a good camera! You get some really nice pictures!" She laughed. "Yeah. I do. It's all about the camera." She knew I was being completely facetious. "Seriously," she said, "if a person has an eye for composition, even a cheap camera can take good pictures."

I remember my first camera. I saved up my money for it when I was in about the 7th grade. It was a little Kodak Instamatic that took 110 film. It took a steady hand (which I didn't necessarily have) and even then, the pictures usually turned out grainy. Cameras have come a long way since the late 1970s. And since we don't have to pay for film or developing (Kids, go ask your grandma about that!) it's fun to just snap-snap-snap away and then play around with the results.

Today's challenge covered composition, and talked about using the "rule of thirds" for composing your subject. Even before I knew about today's challenge, I enjoyed playing with that rule yesterday with my road trip snapshots. I had forgotten my "good" camera, so I was taking pictures with my cell phone and then editing them with Instagram.

#westerncolorado #i70 #roadtrip #headedhome #ezell2k15

A photo posted by Karla Cook (@ramblinroads) on Jul 12, 2015 at 6:43pm PDT

When I'm taking pictures from a moving vehicle, it's hard to think about composition, so that's where the editing comes in handy. Here's the original of the "finished" picture above:

First, I cropped off the mirror and window frame of the car. Instagram has the "thirds" grid built in so I was able to zoom in enough to put the canyon cut at the 2/3 vertical line and the guard rail at the 2/3 horizontal line. Then I applied a neat filter and frame. I like the way it turned out.

 Here's another one I did the same way. This one also has "leading lines" with the curving highway.

#utah #i70 #roadtrip #headedhome #ezell2k15

A photo posted by Karla Cook (@ramblinroads) on Jul 12, 2015 at 3:31pm PDT

And the original:

I zoomed in and put the horizon line at the 2/3 horizontal line, and the "end" of the highway (where it goes behind the hill) at the 2/3 vertical line. And then chose a different filter. I don't filter all my photos, but I think they are fun to play around with.

I'll be practicing some more during the next two weeks. I'm not sure if I'll post all the challenges here... or on my Instagram account. We'll see.

Weekend Road Trip

We spent all day Friday and Sunday driving so we could be in Nampa, Idaho for my parents' 50th anniversary celebration on Saturday.

It took us just over 13 hours to get there. We averaged 66 mph with 5 stops on Friday, so it was a long day in the car. Lyle did all the driving. The girls were content with their earbuds in the back seat. The dog and the guinea pig went along, too, and rode in the back of our Jetta wagon. We put our car-top carrier on for luggage.

Laura and I entertained ourselves as we drove along by snapping pictures, posting them to Instagram and Facebook, and texting them to friends and family.

I love the scenery out west!

On Saturday we all gathered in my brother's yard for family pictures.

My sister is the "real" photographer in the family, and she took the portraits.

Me? I snapped a few shots of the men with their heads under the 1949 Chevy pickup...

...and one of the yard, just because I thought it was so pretty with the morning sunlight streaming through the trees.

 That afternoon we had a "party" with cake, family trivia games, and a slide-show of family pictures over the years. It was a fun day.

On Sunday morning we started home again.

We stopped to stretch our legs at Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, Idaho...

...and then headed on down the road, through the salt flats of Utah...

...and through the mountains of western Colorado...

...and made it safely home again.

It was a good trip.

Happy Independence Day!

Styling our stars and stripes shirts. Enjoying grilled hamburgers in the backyard with our kids. We are blessed.

"Long may our land be bright

With freedom's holy light.

Protect us by Thy might

Great God our king."

Glimpses of My Days

Since many of you don't do Instagram, and that is where I share a lot of the pictures I snap, I thought it was time for another Instagram update. These go back to March...

I'm finding the #hashtags to be a lot of fun. I like thinking up which ones to use for each post... and then seeing what other pictures people have posted using those same hashtags. Sometimes I get comments or likes from random people who have found my picture from the hashtag. You can click on the hashtags below the pictures to see other what other Instagrammers have posted using that particular hashtag, if you're interested.

Breakfast at The Perfect Landing #airplanesinthemorning #breakfastdate

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Apr 4, 2015 at 8:10am PDT

Flowers from a friend. #cyclamen #touchofspringonmydesk

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Apr 13, 2015 at 5:33am PDT

Crocheting and audio book in the passenger seat... My idea of #roadtrip !

A photo posted by @karlacinid on May 14, 2015 at 10:50am PDT

I need a friend to do my hair for me every day. #fancybraid #goinggray

A photo posted by @karlacinid on May 29, 2015 at 12:33pm PDT

#rockymountainsunset #juneevening #lifeisgood #trustinggod

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jun 1, 2015 at 7:24pm PDT

#takingthescenicroute #onthewaytochurch #springtimeintherockies #sundaymorning

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jun 7, 2015 at 9:13am PDT

#rainbow #godspromise #onthewaytochurch #sundayevening #crazydenverweather

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jun 7, 2015 at 5:16pm PDT

#morningquiettime #trustinggod #coffee

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jun 9, 2015 at 7:02am PDT

#flowersfrommysweetheart #brightenmyday #lovemyman

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jun 11, 2015 at 1:59pm PDT

#gottalovehalfpriceafter8 #summerevening #strawberrybanana #milkshake #sonicdrivein

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jun 20, 2015 at 7:53pm PDT

#sundayafternoon #dayofrest #backyard #icedcoffee #goodbook #summertime #trustinggod

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jun 21, 2015 at 1:30pm PDT

#datenight #downtowndenver #lodo #summerevening #crazydenverweather

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jun 25, 2015 at 7:09pm PDT

Sonlight's 25th anniversary celebration at the Downtown Aquarium. #sonlight #denver

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jun 26, 2015 at 3:48pm PDT

Iced caramel crunch coffee for breakfast? Well... Okay! #saturdaymorning #breakfastdate #303coffee #lovemyman

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jun 27, 2015 at 7:43am PDT

And Back Again

It was a lovely weekend with lots of driving, which is the way we like it! We drove from St. Louis to Fort Wayne on Friday, stopping for a bit in Greenfield, Indiana where I have relatives. I knew I wouldn't have much time to visit, but I had hoped to at least have a chance to say hi.

As it happens, Friday was my aunt Rachel's birthday. I had texted her to see if we could meet for lunch. She was tied up with work that morning, so she wasn't sure if it would work out or not. I texted her when we got into town. She said it would be a little longer before she would be available, but for us to go ahead and eat lunch, and she would join us as quick as she could.

Lyle asked if I would rather eat at Wendy's or Taco Bell. "Eh. Doesn't matter. Taco Bell, I guess." So he pulled into Taco Bell. About then Rachel called to see where we were. She asked if I had talked to Aunt Dee, who also lives there. I told her I hadn't called her because I didn't know how long we would be there.

I hung up the phone and Lyle said, "Aunt Dee's right there." I looked up and sure enough. Can you believe she was just coming out of Taco Bell with her lunch in her hand? Her car was parked next to ours! I opened my door and said, "Lady! Hey, lady!" She did a double-take and said, "Oh, Karla! Don't scare me like that!"

It was so fun to get to see her. I told her what we were doing and invited her to take her lunch back into the restaurant and eat with us. So she did. I thought it was awfully nice of God to arrange that little meeting for us. If I had chosen Wendy's, or if we had been just 5 minutes later we would have missed her.

Rachel joined us a few minutes later. Then we stopped by their office on our way out of town to say hi to her husband and daughter. We hadn't seen any of them since 2008. That's just way too long.

We got to Fort Wayne in time to set up the Sonlight booth that evening.

Saturday was a busy day at the convention. We had pretty steady traffic through the booth and were definitely ready to put our feet up by the end of the day.

We drove part of the way home on Sunday and enjoyed a relaxing day off. Today was our main travel day. We had lovely weather all the way. We didn't stop much but appreciated the novelty of rolling farm-land scenery through Iowa and Nebraska.

And so, we made it safely home again.

A 3-State Day

We traveled from Denver to St. Louis yesterday with a small detour to Rolla, Missouri to visit Lyle's mom for a few minutes. We left home at 3:00 a.m. and traveled a total of 17 hours, including stops. Mostly we were on the interstate with not much "scope for the imagination" or interesting tallies. We were off the main road for a little bit as we cut down from Columbia to Rolla. With that in mind, here are my tallies for Thursday:

States traveled through: 3 (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri)
Car Talk episodes: 2
Audio book CDs: 3 (of a 15 CD book, Illusion by Frank Peretti)
Dead armadillos along the road in Missouri: 44 (not kidding!)

Country churches with interesting names:
Little Flock Baptist Church
Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church
Grace Cowboy Church

Ok. So we'll see what this post looks like. I don't seem to have the hang of mobile blogging, so I  may or may not post again before we get home.

On a Jet Plane

Day 1 of my Alaska trip was mostly spent in the air. Our flight out of Denver was at 6:10 a.m. It usually takes about 40 minutes to get to the airport, so allowing time to get through security and such, we left home at 3:45 a.m. Ugh!

The first leg of our trip took us to Salt Lake City. Our layover there was relatively short, and of course you can't tell much about an area just from the airport, but we did enjoy seeing the mountains.

 As we flew out from there, I was interested to see what appeared to be bright purple water below. I don't know if that was the Great Salt Lake and the purple was minerals in the water, or if it was something else entirely.

 Our next stop was at SeaTac. In a switch-around of typical weather, it was raining when we left Denver, and sunny in Seattle. And so the "mountain was out." (Mount Rainier is often hidden by cloud cover.)

 I enjoyed the clear view of Puget Sound as we headed north from there.

When we arrived in Anchorage, Judy and I decided we should snap a picture of the stuffed moose in the airport lobby in case it was the only one we would see.

Tomorrow we will be driving to Kenai. I am hopeful the weather will be nice so we can get some good pictures of the scenery.

The Saga of the Lilacs

 Of all the places I've ever lived, I think the Denver area has the wackiest weather. Last year the lilacs were just beginning to bloom the week before Mother's Day. We have a lovely stand of tall lilac bushes along the back of our deck and I was so looking forward to enjoying the delicate color and delightful fragrance of lilacs in full bloom, when we got hit with a late spring snow storm.

Spring snow is wet and heavy. The leaves and blossoms hold the snow and weight the branches down. So that was the end of the lilacs last year. I was hopeful that this year would be different. The weather was milder and the lilacs budded out earlier.

They weren't quite in full-bloom when we, again, got another spring snow storm. Again, the branches were weighted down with the heavy snow. I was so disappointed, just sure that was the end of lilacs for another year.

However, the temperature hovered just above freezing, so the lilac blossoms were tenaciously hanging on. I thought it still might freeze during the  night last night...

...but it didn't. This morning, when the sun came out, I was happy to see the branches beginning to spring back up as the snow was melting away.

One large branch had snapped off, so before the flowers had a chance to wilt and die I went out and "harvested" them...

...and arranged them in a lovely bouquet to enjoy indoors.

I'm so glad the lilacs survived this year!

(High drama in my backyard, right?)

An Evening Drive

My parents visited us last week for Dad's spring break. One evening we took them for a drive up to Lookout Mountain Park.

A herd of mule deer were ambling around when we arrived. They weren't scared of us.

I was able to get quite close to take some pictures

 We walked around for a little bit, but the wind kicked up and it was pretty nippy.

We decided we could see enough from the car.

 It's neat to be able to see downtown Denver from up there.

 When we got back to town the sun was setting.

 Lyle pulled over so we could enjoy it.

I snapped picture after picture.

These were taken in a parking lot about a half mile from our house.

What a lovely way to spend a spring evening!

Instagram Update

I find I'm chronicling some of the tiny moments of my life with the Instagram app. Like I mentioned before, I'm not one for selfies, but it is kinda fun to snap a quick shot of some little thing that caught my eye. Later, I enjoy looking back through the moments I captured. From the last few weeks...

Still #playingwithinstagram

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jan 21, 2015 at 7:43pm PST

January 21. Light snow caught on the bark of a tree outside the office... I thought the textured filter added a neat effect, too.

So... does the lettuce wrap and the sweet potato fries cancel out the carbs in the milk shake? #workinglate #Sonlight25

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jan 22, 2015 at 3:31pm PST

January 22. A quick supper with co-workers before the Inspire25 event that evening. All four of us had lettuce-wrapped hamburgers... and milk-shakes!

Taking the light rail downtown. Mid-morning is definitely the best time to ride! #introvert #publictransportation

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jan 23, 2015 at 9:17am PST

January 23. I met a friend in downtown Denver for lunch and didn't want to try to find a parking spot, so I took the train.

Saturday morning breakfast date at the Golden Diner. #coffee #Colorado

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jan 24, 2015 at 7:04am PST

January 24. For our breakfast date that Saturday we drove to Golden and ate at an old-timey diner. I like taking pictures of a cup of coffee, apparently.

#breakfastdate #brainstorming #chickfila #lovemyman

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Feb 21, 2015 at 7:33am PST

February 21. My daily snapshots didn't last long. A few weeks later our breakfast date was at Chick-fil-A. We were trying to work through some details for our family budget that morning.

Cute new mug for my Monday morning #coffee. #Sonlight #goodmorning

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Mar 2, 2015 at 5:40am PST

March 2. And another coffee picture with a new mug from my Secret Sis.

Love the blue sky and sun! #Colorado #spring

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Mar 9, 2015 at 4:14pm PDT

March 9. I actually didn't know about this picture until I started getting comments on it. Turns out I had left my phone at home one afternoon, and "someone" decided it would be fun to post a picture for me. Could be worse!

#lookingfortulips, #earlyspring

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Mar 15, 2015 at 3:16pm PDT

March 15. I noticed tulips coming up in the backyard. I hope they bloom this year. Last year a spring snowstorm ruined them.

#sunsetinthecity #denver

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Mar 16, 2015 at 6:05pm PDT

16 March. Mountain sunsets are spectacular, even in city traffic.

#firstdayofspring #crocus

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Mar 20, 2015 at 8:09am PDT

20 March. I was delighted to discover crocuses emerging on the first day of spring. Not my yard, but close enough.

Happy spring!

Homeschool Convention Season 2015

This weekend started my 16th season as a Sonlight Convention Representative. I was at the Home Instruction Ministries Spring Curriculum Fair in Loveland, Colorado. This is my 6th year to be at this event, and I always love starting off the season here, because it's small and friendly... and now that we live in Colorado, close to home.

Sonlight is celebrating their 25th anniversary this year, so our booths have a new look with a blue and silver color scheme. Actually, we are trying several new things this year so it was interesting to see how they worked out... some better than others.

I have a break of a few weeks between conventions before my travel starts in late April. Here's my convention schedule for the rest of the season:

• April 29. IDEA Curriculum Fair. Kenai, Alaska.
• April 30 - May 1. IDEA Curriculum Fair. Anchorage, Alaska.
• May 4 - 5. IDEA Curriculum Fair. Fairbanks, Alaska.
• May 16. FWAHS Resource Expo. Fort Wayne, Indiana.
• May 21-23. FPEA Homeschool Convention. Kissemmee, Florida.
• May 28-30. TTD-CHEO Homeschool Convention. Sandusky, Ohio.
• June 19-20. OCEAN Homeschool Conference. Portland, Oregon.

I'll be flying to most of these events, but Lyle and I plan to drive to the one in Indiana. Yay! Road trip! Flying in and out doesn't allow for much sight-seeing, but I'll try to post something interesting from each trip. After all, life is an adventure regardless of how you travel.

Winter Day Trip

After a particularly snowy week we were happy to see sunshine when we got up yesterday morning. Lyle suggested going for a drive in the mountains to see the fresh snow. Rebecca and Cookie accepted our invitation to ride along. 

We started out early because I was afraid the sunshine might not last. Sure enough, it was only partly sunny during our drive. Still, the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful.

ICY CONDITIONS MAY EXIST

 Do tell!

Our route took us through the ski resort towns of Breckenridge and Keystone.

MUG SHOTS

 I thought the name of this coffee shop in Breckenridge was clever. I love a good play on words.

 We were especially interested in watching the skiiers. Needless to say, the ski runs were quite busy after all the "fresh powder" this past week.

We pulled into a scenic overlook above the chair lift at Arapahoe Basin. It was neat to have a bird's eye view. Lyle and Rebecca would have liked to go skiing themselves. Maybe another time.

It sure is fun to have beautiful scenery so close to home when we are in the mood to go for a drive.

Marshmallow World

On Friday the weather forecast for the weekend was 8-16 inches of snow by Sunday evening.

Since the weather has been mostly sunny and snowless this winter, I thought it would be interesting to do a series of "time lapse" photos of our back yard over the course of the weekend. Obviously, the weekend isn't over yet, but the results are dramatic enough that I decided to go ahead and post while I have time. (Otherwise I might not get around to it. Iz bad, I know.)

The little dab of snow lurking in the shady areas on Friday afternoon was left over from a few days earlier. The clouds were beginning to gather, but the flurries didn't start until after dark that day.

 Saturday morning the ground was lightly covered with a very wet snow. It had already melted off the stone walkway and mostly just stuck to the grass. But more was still in the forecast.

Midday Saturday it started snowing lightly... 

 just kinda spitting snow off and on...

 By early evening the snow finally decided to start getting serious.

 The "snow" setting on the camera shows it coming down better than the "auto" setting above, though I have to say the "auto" setting makes a prettier picture. I love the warm lights shining from the back fence neighbors' houses.

 And so finally, this morning, we did wake up to a Marshmallow World.

Church was cancelled due to the bad roads, so we are enjoying a quiet morning sitting by the fire, watching the snow. We love that our family room has both a fireplace and French doors overlooking the backyard.

We will enjoy the snow while it lasts because it could very well be all gone by midweek. Denver weather is funny that way.