The Night Alight

Like moths attracted to a porch light, we were likewise drawn last week to the 'Alight at Night' festival at Upper Canada Village, a reconstructed town that replicates life as it was in the mid-1800s. It's hard to imagine how long it took to string up the almost 1 million lights that illuminate the village during this season of light.

It was certainly impressive as we toured the village on a horse-drawn wagon, and enjoyed a ride on the riotously-festooned train.

Hop aboard.

[since there would have been no opportunity to deploy a tripod, these are hand-held using my trusty $92 50mm f1.8 lens - a must have in every camera bag]

"No, I am NOT tired !  Why do you ask ?"

Making lemonade

After sifting through several series of photos I'd made over the past week or two, I was going to post some cheerful spring photos, made while the sky was blue, the sun was shining, and temperatures were approaching the high 70s F (mid 20s C). Today we woke up to a different season - gray overcast skies, a howling north wind driving the rain horizontally, and a temperature of 39F (4C).

Our grandson is staying for the weekend while his parents enjoy a quick getaway. Plans for outdoor time had to be shelved, but the weather certainly doesn't put a damper on a 3-year old's ability to have fun. And what better fun than to see what's in the toy box and get down to some serious playing ...

Snake birds and pirates

You might well wonder how these could possibly be connected. Well ...

It continues to be unseasonably cold down here in Florida, so the pool is not in high demand by our guests, although our grandson did briefly consider it today. Instead we made our way down to a local park this afternoon so he could release a little pent-up energy. Graydon had a lot of fun on the swings and slides, while I had fun capturing some of his antics. He continued clambering over the playground equipment when I left him with his parents for a few minutes, while I stole over to a nearby lagoon for a look around. That's where I discovered this snake bird (or anhinga), presumably after a successful afternoon of fishing since he was now drying his wings.

I'm still gaining experience trying to photograph a very active 3-year old (aren't all 3-year olds very active ?). It's a bit like trying to nail jello to the wall. My best success came when I caught him in those rare instances when he stood still. So here he is with a pirate's headdress (fashioned by his father), followed by a shot of him with a handful of playground mulch that he was scheming to stuff down his father's shirt. [my shutter's had a great workout during their stay with us so far. I'm trying to squeeze in a few visits to blogland when I'm not on call as grandpa or family chronicler].

Summertime fun

[click on this link for some music to put you in the mood ... while you spend a moment or two here]



It's been a couple of busy weeks since I was last here - time spent making memories with our children and grandchildren. The camera got a good workout capturing just a fraction of the many moments we had together. The best moments, though, can't be displayed here - they're burned into our collective memories.

a hike through the forest (under the pretext of 'taking the dogs for a walk')

cooling one's toes on a hot summer day

a quick time out for a pose ("are we done yet ?")

anticipating a big splash at the water park

visiting a pioneer village to get a glimpse of life in the 1860's

seeing how water was used to provide power to the mill

but the highlight was a visit to the one-room schoolhouse (where I was 'reacquainted' with the strap ... much to the delight of our granddaughters !)

and where they saw how students dressed for school 150 years ago (note the absence of cell phones and iPads)

in between the visits to parks and playgrounds and beaches there was still plenty of time to catch frogs in our pond (here's Hailey, ably assisted by Sasha - both were equally obsessed)

and the end of each day was capped by a glorious sunset

I hope your summer has been equally blessed.

When the playing's done

Our son, daughter-in-law, and 2 year old grandson escaped winter's (rather loose) grip to come and visit us for a couple of weeks. Of course that entails visits to any place with slides and swings and things like that. Amidst the countless captures of family (naturally) there were also the occasional moments to capture a very brief moment of solitude:

(18-55mm  f5.6  1/50 sec  ISO200)

Now I couldn't let this opportunity pass without letting you have a peek at who's driving the daily agenda around here:

(70-200mm  f5.6  1/160 sec  ISO200)

Ain't it the truth

"If I would have known that grandchildren were going to be so much fun I would have had them first !" (Bill Laurin)

"Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing old." (Mary H. Waldrip)

Advice to parents: "Have children while your parents are still young enough to take care of them." (Rita Rudner)

"Grandparents are there to help their grandchildren get into mischief they haven't thought of yet." (Gene Perret)

"Perfect love sometimes does not come until the first grandchild." (Welsh Proverb)

"The idea that no one is perfect is a view most commonly held by people with no grandchildren." (Doug Larson)

And here are our three (so far ...):

Hailey (7)

Lilly (4 AND a half)

Graydon (almost 2)

Party Time !

Wow - has it already been a year ? The days may seem to go slowly but the years go fast ! It seemed only just a short while ago that Graydon made his entrance into the world, and there we were today celebrating his first birthday (well, a day early but let's not quibble). There's definitely more time to watch a grandchild grow up than your own child, since you're not involved in the daily routines.

It's incredible to see how much a child learns in the first year - moving from a helpless baby to a child on the road to independence. And today was the day to celebrate the first milestone on that journey - with a party, balloons, and ... birthday cake !

(50mm  f2.0  1/60 sec  ISO200)

(Day 158 - II) Heart string pullers

I've always had some problems in life following rules (my wife, if she weren't sleeping, would be nodding vehemently in agreement) - but I only don't follow rules that don't seem to make sense to me. Obviously there are many rules that I do follow - because they make sense, like 'look both ways before crossing the street, do unto others as you'd like them to do unto you', etc.

So if there's a project 365 rule that says to only post 1 photo per day, then I've broken it. And if there's also a rule that says only 1 post per day, I've broken it too. Well, that was a lot of verbiage to say that I'm going to do another post for today - depending on where you are, that's either Monday or Tuesday (although in Australia it might already be Wednesday or Thursday - they always seem to be into another day already, let alone another time zone!).

Why am I doing this ? Well, I made some photos of my grandson tonight, and I also had made some (well, many then) of my granddaughters when they were here 2 weeks ago, and I thought I'd share them with you. You'll see why they pull at my heart strings.

(all photos made with my Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens)

In order of age:

Hailey (5)

Lilly (3)

Graydon (5 months)

(Day 151) Self portrait, and grandpa to a child prodigy

Today was a bit of an arduous day - I spent another full day with my son, demolishing his house, er, doing the necessary demolition work in preparation for renovations. It did feel a bit weird though swinging a sledge hammer through his kitchen wall! But that's not the point of my post today. You see, I took the camera with (yes, ABC) to record for posterity what the old interior looked like, during the gutting and before the  restoration. So - it was with me when, close to home, I spotted Mr. Turtle in the middle of the road - it looked like he was late for dinner  - but he stopped dead in his tracks as I drove up to him. I wanted to get some closeups, but didn't really want the neighbours seeing me lying face-to-face with a turtle, in the middle of the road! So I placed the camera close to him hoping he wouldn't retreat into his shell (he didn't and that's why I knew he was late for dinner), checked the exposure, hoped I'd aimed it ok, and proceeded to make some photos.

Now - why did I call this a self-portrait? Well, if you blow up his eye, you'll see me in his eyeball with an outstretched arm pressing the shutter release (an unintentional byproduct). You may also notice a bug crawling up his nose, as well as some greenery he obviously didn't have time to wipe off his head.

(60mm  f5.6  1/60 sec  ISO400)

After a late dinner (ours, not Mr. Turtle's), my son opened a birthday card he received in the mail, from his sisters. Graydon, his son (my grandson) reached out for the card 'cause he wanted to read it for himself. Imagine that, not even 5 months old, and he's already reading birthday cards - what a child prodigy!

You look skeptical - here, see for yourself:

(50mm  f1.4  1/100 sec  ISO400)

(Day 122) Two gifts today

I always find it amazing how quickly a newborn goes from being little more than a completely helpless baby to a (still) little human being who can react to and interact with their environment. Today our almost-4-month-old grandson, Graydon, came over for a visit (he's 17 lbs and doesn't drive yet, so yes, his parents brought him). Of course we had a great time with him - it's always great as grandparents because someone else gets to feed and clean him and take him home again :)

His surname, translated literally from Dutch, means 'the sweet one'. I think you'll agree, based on this photo, that he lived up to his name and underscored the point in my first sentence (that's his dad's dessert he's eyeballing).

(50mm  f2.8  1/80 sec  ISO200)

gift no. 1

Now, I don't know if you're familiar with Scott's blog 'Finding Another View'. Scott celebrates and invites others to celebrate Sundays by posting a sunset shot. Where I live we're not blessed with fabulous sunset opportunities on the same regularity he is, but I thought this evening's was worthy of being posted. So to make up for lost opportunities I'll post 2 shots.

(70-200 mm  f11  1/13 sec  ISO200)

gift no.2

(50mm  f11  1/160 sec  ISO200)