Saturday, June 5, 2010
The grandma and the third wonderfulness
4:09 PM | 
Posted by
Cheryl |
I am already hearing the mutterings of discontent from my family as they warily eye me with the new camera. "Stand over there together and smile!" "Hold that pose, don't let Goldie move!" They never know when I will strike. It is so worth it, though, when it means that I get to keep moments like this one forever.
After a Friday night movie, just walking out to the car.
They just looked so alike in that moment I had to snap a picture.
When Carolyn's grandchildren were little, they were the three "wonderfulnesses." It's not that the three could do no wrong, they absolutely could and Carolyn wouldn't let them get away with it - but she always made relationship with them a top priority. Whether it was learning the names of all the Mutant Ninja Turtles with Eric, watching Pokemon and Transformers with Amy, or watching romantic comedies with Stacy, Grandma was into whatever they were into. She wanted to know how their mind worked, and what made them tick. When Amy was three, we moved to Indiana.
Living with Grandma and Grandpa in Indiana - in the SNOW.
That first winter was a doozy!
We lived with Howard and Carolyn for almost two years after moving to Indy while Mark built up his practice. You never saw a more harmonious three generation household. When it was time to move into our first Indiana house, Amy was five. She loved her new room and new house, but she missed Grandma and Grandpa. So, Grandma/Grandpa nights began. One day a week, Amy would spend the evening with them, watching movies, reading books, or playing pretend. The tradition continued through high school, and now that Amy's a college student, she still spends one evening each week with her Grandma during summer break. All three of the wonderfulnesses are still very connected to their Grandma, even though they now range in age from 18 to 29. And all three have their biggest fan and cheerleader in their Grandma. What blessed young people they are - they will forever be able to see themselves, at least a little bit, the way their Grandma sees them.
It's hard to believe that this picture was taken almost 10 years ago, when Amy was 9.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The snap is back!
8:24 PM |
Posted by
Cheryl |
I'd like you to meet my new camera: The Canon Rebel XS
This is admittedly a very bottom-line digital SLR camera, but it is big step up for me! It came with a wide angle and a telephoto lens.
Nineteen years ago, Mark and I splurged on our first really nice camera, in anticipation of the birth of our beautiful baby girl. It was a 35mm Canon EOS 630. It took amazing pictures, and weighed roughly 30 pounds (well maybe not that much). And as with all film cameras, you took your shot and took your chances. I took hundreds of pictures of that poor baby, and then popped her into her car seat for a drive through the Kodak shack in the grocery store parking lot. I probably threw away a third of every roll, and yet I still have about 400 pictures of Amy's first couple of years. Truly frightening.
I've started playing around with my new camera in preparation for our vacation in a few weeks, and have been absolutely amazed at its capabilities. I mean, I've been using point and shoot digitals for over ten years, but they were all pretty basic.This camera has all the conveniences of being a digital (you can take a million pictures in search of the perfect one, and only print the one perfect shot), but it has the added "oomph" of much better optics in the lenses. The level of light and detail captured by these lenses is something I've really missed with the lower level digitals.
I've been a flower fan for a long time. As a teen I took pictures of my Dad's roses, and every family vacation includes shots of the local flowers. So naturally, as I've been playing with my new camera (and since Amy started scowling at me for practicing on her) I went outside to get some flower power.
I admit that the neighbors may now have a nickname for me like "the crazy lady with the camera in the garden." In the three days since I got my camera, I've stalked around the yard at dusk trying out new features. The begonias above are by my front door. I took a snap of the entire planter and was able to crop it down to this image. I didn't even have to enlarge anything - it's like having a microscope for a camera. I sat here on the couch, editing the pictures, and kept making Amy come over to look at the amazing results. The above level of detail is not even the full size of the image!
This is nice picture of a hydrangea blossom on its way to blossoming . . . nice picture. But then I cropped down the image to this, and was amazed again:
I'm amazed at the camera, and I'm amazed that such beauty exists right under my nose every day. I like my hydrangea (even though I call it the Drama Queen for its demanding nature) but this snap reminded me that the large blossoms are really just fractals, hiding smaller and yet smaller beautiful signatures of the creator.
The pots in the backyard saved a surprise for us this year - the Petunias returned! I thought they were gone for good and would have pulled the sprouts as weeds but Mark believed in them. And here they are! I planted only purple, but sometimes a genetic "sport" shows up, blazing individuality. The far left blossom has white at its center that I believed was a reflection, but looking at the full size image you could see that little bee feet had left trails of pollen on the velvet. How is it that such beauty flies daily under our radar!
Ferns always remind me of quiet spots from the backpacking trips of my youth. The shady undergrowth of mountain forests sometimes hid acres of silent green ferns. Each one full of fractal beauty if you had the time to look closely. I'm afraid if I had created the world, I'd be like a bad con artist and put a good bill on top of a stack of newspaper - I'd make the surface look convincing, but not spend the time where I thought people wouldn't look. But no matter how closely you look, or where you look, the creation's beauty is far, far deeper than what we see. Even with the electron microscopes and the incredible technology of our day, there is still beauty hidden in creation that we may never discover. It is an absolute and true reflection of its creator.
I can NOT wait for vacation. We leave on June 11th, and the blog is waiting for vacation pictures: http://dobbstrek2010.blogspot.com/
Nineteen years ago, Mark and I splurged on our first really nice camera, in anticipation of the birth of our beautiful baby girl. It was a 35mm Canon EOS 630. It took amazing pictures, and weighed roughly 30 pounds (well maybe not that much). And as with all film cameras, you took your shot and took your chances. I took hundreds of pictures of that poor baby, and then popped her into her car seat for a drive through the Kodak shack in the grocery store parking lot. I probably threw away a third of every roll, and yet I still have about 400 pictures of Amy's first couple of years. Truly frightening.
I've started playing around with my new camera in preparation for our vacation in a few weeks, and have been absolutely amazed at its capabilities. I mean, I've been using point and shoot digitals for over ten years, but they were all pretty basic.This camera has all the conveniences of being a digital (you can take a million pictures in search of the perfect one, and only print the one perfect shot), but it has the added "oomph" of much better optics in the lenses. The level of light and detail captured by these lenses is something I've really missed with the lower level digitals.
I've been a flower fan for a long time. As a teen I took pictures of my Dad's roses, and every family vacation includes shots of the local flowers. So naturally, as I've been playing with my new camera (and since Amy started scowling at me for practicing on her) I went outside to get some flower power.
(click on photos to see full size)
I admit that the neighbors may now have a nickname for me like "the crazy lady with the camera in the garden." In the three days since I got my camera, I've stalked around the yard at dusk trying out new features. The begonias above are by my front door. I took a snap of the entire planter and was able to crop it down to this image. I didn't even have to enlarge anything - it's like having a microscope for a camera. I sat here on the couch, editing the pictures, and kept making Amy come over to look at the amazing results. The above level of detail is not even the full size of the image!
This is nice picture of a hydrangea blossom on its way to blossoming . . . nice picture. But then I cropped down the image to this, and was amazed again:
I'm amazed at the camera, and I'm amazed that such beauty exists right under my nose every day. I like my hydrangea (even though I call it the Drama Queen for its demanding nature) but this snap reminded me that the large blossoms are really just fractals, hiding smaller and yet smaller beautiful signatures of the creator.
The pots in the backyard saved a surprise for us this year - the Petunias returned! I thought they were gone for good and would have pulled the sprouts as weeds but Mark believed in them. And here they are! I planted only purple, but sometimes a genetic "sport" shows up, blazing individuality. The far left blossom has white at its center that I believed was a reflection, but looking at the full size image you could see that little bee feet had left trails of pollen on the velvet. How is it that such beauty flies daily under our radar!
Ferns always remind me of quiet spots from the backpacking trips of my youth. The shady undergrowth of mountain forests sometimes hid acres of silent green ferns. Each one full of fractal beauty if you had the time to look closely. I'm afraid if I had created the world, I'd be like a bad con artist and put a good bill on top of a stack of newspaper - I'd make the surface look convincing, but not spend the time where I thought people wouldn't look. But no matter how closely you look, or where you look, the creation's beauty is far, far deeper than what we see. Even with the electron microscopes and the incredible technology of our day, there is still beauty hidden in creation that we may never discover. It is an absolute and true reflection of its creator.
I can NOT wait for vacation. We leave on June 11th, and the blog is waiting for vacation pictures: http://dobbstrek2010.blogspot.com/
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