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.

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.

Road Trip to Indiana

Lyle and I are headed to Indiana this weekend to host the Sonlight booth at the Fort Wayne Area Homeschool Resource Expo this Saturday, May 16.

We'll be driving to this event. Maybe I can post some pictures along the way, though we won't have a lot of time for sight-seeing.

I know! I can keep tallies! That's always fun. I don't know if anyone else is interested in my tallies, but they amuse me.

Stay tuned.

Denali Viewpoint South

The second "sight-seeing" stop of yesterday's road trip was at the Denali Viewpoint South. It involved a short uphill hike for the best view. I wasn't too sure where it would take us, so I asked some ladies coming down if the hike was worth the view. They assured me that it definitely was, and that I was almost there. So I kept going.

The strip of photos in the collage above shows the trail, starting from the bottom picture and going up. I could just barely see the top of the mountain as I started up. The background picture was taken from the viewpoint at the top of the trail. As were these...

The view of the mountain from this vantage point was breathtaking. At over 20,000 feet, Denali is the tallest mountain on the North American continent. Apparently, Mount McKinley is the official name, but the "real" name of the mountain is Denali. If you're like me, you've heard all this before but may not remember it at the moment.

As with most major mountains, seeing it on a sunny day is rare. We were thrilled that the weather cooperated for a stunning view just for us.

Talkeetna, Alaska

On our road trip today we enjoyed a detour to the little town of Talkeetna.

Tourists that we are, we decided that it was a quintessential Alaskan town.

 We walked down the street lined with authentic log cabins...

...whimsical buildings...

...and even a yurt!

I would have liked to try this coffee shop, but it didn't seem to be open when we were there.

We followed the signs to the "river view trail"... past the Mexican Moose where this little girl was selling cinnamon roasted nuts, along with random Mexican-y style gifts under the awning behind her. We never did understand why Mexican. In Alaska. Just to be different maybe. I have no idea.

The river view was well worth the hike.

A photographer was rafting down the river with his collapsible bicycle in the raft with him. In case you didn't recognize it, yes, that is indeed Mount McKinley way off in the distance.

Here. Let me zoom in on it for you.

You know what? I think it just needs its own post. But it's getting late. So I'll post those pictures tomorrow.

Enjoying the Journey

It's a family road-trip. The car is loaded and stocked. The kids are buckled in. And so... you start off. You're barely on the highway when the first kid asks:

"Are we there yet?" 

Patiently you explain how much further there is to go. It doesn't make much difference because a few minutes later:

"Are we there yet?"

And so it goes throughout the day, until you are ready to pull your hair out in frustration.

While I've seen this scenario in comedy movies, I'm happy to report that my children actually never did that much, though we have had our share of family road-trips. We cultivated the attitude that "getting there is half the fun."

If you've read my blog for very long you know that my family loves road-trips. We can easily spend 15 hours or more a day driving, and have very few complaints. We enjoy conversation, audio books, travel games, looking at the scenery, and stopping at points of interest. And yes, we do look forward to arriving at our destination.

Today's topic for the Sonlight Blog Party is to share the best homeschool advice I've been given, and it's very similar to "getting there is half the fun."

Rather than focusing on the daily ups and downs, 

enjoy the journey.

I remember the daily ups and downs. How excruciating it was to sit beside an emerging reader listening to her laboriously sound out the words in her first grade reader. Days when it seemed like we didn’t accomplish anything we meant to. Days when I wondered if the kids were really learning, or if they would be better served going off to public school.

"Are we there yet?"

Mixed in with regularity were the delightful days reading piles of wonderful stories… and laughing and learning together.

The years went by way faster than it seemed like they should, and before we knew it we had arrived at our destination. It was a wonderful journey!

Settling In

 I guess it's way past time for an update. We are gradually settling into our new home. The weather has been quite variable. January was overall pretty mild. Last weekend we got a good bit of snow, turning our backyard into a Winter Wonderland.

 Two weeks ago we made a quick trip to Kansas over the weekend to meet up with my parents so the girls could go home with them. They are planning to stay in Arkansas until the end of March. Laura will probably come back to Colorado at that time, but Becky intends to stay and raise a new flock of chickens this spring, since last year's Girls had to stay in Idaho. She's thinking of adding some guineas to her flock as well.

We drove home across southern Kansas, and drove parallel to an Amtrak train for many miles. Sometimes it would get ahead of us when we stopped, but then we would pass it again.

 In the evenings we're trying to get more unpacking and setting up done. Last weekend we got some pictures hung which makes the house feel more like home. I was happy to get Lyle's string arts hung in the family room. (This is a craft he was into as a teen. Even though they are somewhat "retro" by now, I have enjoyed hanging them in our home throughout our marriage.)

Work continues to go well. Each week is a little better than the last... which is a good thing, I think. Lyle is getting to know his co-workers and enjoying more variety than just running the printing press, which is what he mostly did the first couple of weeks. I've been making plans for the upcoming homeschool convention season. Turns out I'll be doing 8 events this year... 3 of which are in Alaska! I'm very excited about that, as I've never been to Alaska before. That will be an adventure, for sure!

One thing we are thoroughly enjoying is exploring the area. Last Sunday was sunny after a big snowfall the previous two days, so we went for a long drive up in the mountains. Suffice it say that fresh snow in the Rockies shimmering in the sun is breathtaking.

Until next time...

Moving Day 2

 It was 4 degrees below zero when we left Bozeman this morning just before sunrise. We were a little concerned that one or more of our vehicles wouldn't start in such cold temperatures, but everything started right up so were off to a good start. We wonder if any of our belongings were ruined by such extreme conditions, but obviously we couldn't carry everything into the hotel!

I did carry in my pet house-plant which I've had for more than 40 years. Unfortunately, I didn't realize I should cover it just to carry it across the parking lot. Today it's looking pretty traumatized. Most of the leaves have turned black and limp. But it's a hardy little thing and has survived many hardships over the years, so I'm hopeful the root is still alive and it will come back. We'll see.

 Many of you have told us that you are praying for us. I can't tell you how much that means to us. We haven't run into any precipitation so far, though there has been wind, blowing snow, and ice. However, we can sense your prayers. Every time I start feeling nervous about the road conditions I can almost feel the angels all around us! So... THANK YOU for praying!

Laura took this panoramic shot of our little convoy at one of gas stops. It's not exactly been a fun trip, but we are making it okay. It's definitely an adventure!

Later this week I hope to share more of the details of how God has been working in our lives to lead us to this move.

Tomorrow's destination: Our new home in Highlands Ranch, Colorado!

Moving Day 1

We had hoped to be on the road by 9:00 a.m. today. However, it turned out we still had about 4 hours of work to do this morning, including final loading and cleaning, so it was almost noon by the time we were ready to pull out.

 My assigned "rig" was the Excursion pulling the Plan B (12-foot) trailer. Did I mention that I've never towed a trailer before in my life? Seems like a 1,000-mile trip over the mountains in January is a good time to learn, dontcha think? Ugh.

 I snapped this picture as we were ready to leave our neighborhood. Our caravan consists of Lyle driving the Penske truck towing the car-carrier with Laura's car on it, Laura driving our VW Jetta with a car-top carrier, and then me in the Excursion with another car-top carried and the cargo trailer. Lyle's co-pilot is Cookie-the-dog, and Rebecca is riding with Laura to keep her awake and entertained.

 The girls took these pictures as we drove through Montana today.

We got to our hotel in Bozeman, Montana about 9:00 p.m. The hotel beds are soft, which is a very good feature in a bed. We are looking forward to a good night's rest.

Tomorrow's destination: Casper, Wyoming.

At the Crossroads

Road trips are always an adventure for Lyle and me, whether we are in a hurry, or we have time to linger along the way. We just never know what might be over the next hill or around the next curve. We enjoy the scenery along the way. We find the unexpected interesting.

And then, sometimes we come to a crossroads. When we're following the GPS, the crossroads don't slow us down much. But there are occasions when we're not sure which way to turn... which will be the best route to take.

At the crossroads, if we're going to move forward, a decision has to be made. We can't stand there looking down the road indefinitely. And we can't know what lies down either road around the next bend. That's what makes it so hard.

I have learned that life, like a road trip, is always an adventure. Even here at the crossroads.

Your prayers are appreciated as we make some important decisions regarding my work in the weeks ahead.

I Know Who Holds Tomorrow

 I don't know about tomorrow; 

I just live from day to day. 

  I don't borrow from its sunshine 

For its skies may turn to grey. 

 I don't worry o'er the future, 

For I know what Jesus said. 

 And today I'll walk beside Him, 

For He knows what lies ahead. 

  Many things about tomorrow 

I don't seem to understand 

But I know who holds tomorrow 

And I know who holds my hand. 

~ o ~

 I don't know about tomorrow; 

It may bring me poverty. 

But the One who feeds the sparrow, 

Is the One who stands by me. 

 And the path that is my portion 

May be through the flame or flood; 

But His presence goes before me 

And I'm covered with His blood. 

 Many things about tomorrow 

I don't seem to understand

But I know who holds tomorrow 

And I know who holds my hand.

--Alison Krauss