Somewhere Along The Way

Deepak Chopra: Self importance is self pity in disguise :)

sun flare

Capturing sun flare in portrait photography is neat trend going on right now, but super tricky to execute.  In this photo I got a beautiful octogon shape of sun flare coming through on these lovely friends of mine.  Of all the photos I got this day, this was my fav.

 

Autumn Beauty

Took this photo a few weekends ago.  A long time friend and her beautiful son.  We were doing a family shoot and after an hour or so when we were wrapping up I got this shot of the two of them just hugging in the grass w/ the newly fallen leaves.  I love the contrast of the color of her sweater w/ the green grass....and the colors of the leaves which were perfectly dotting the foreground!  Fall in New England is gorgeous....and one of the best times of years to take photos!

Katherine's Best Recipe

I posted a recipe to my friends last week and got lots of responses.  Katherine, my sister, is not much of a cook.  She does okay, but posted this as her best recipe:

The best recipe I am good at is:
2 scoops bran
3 apples cut up in 1/4 slices
3 carrots cut in 1/3 slices
1/2 cup of molasses
mix all in small bucket
Add hot water until saturated
let sit for 5/8 minutes then serve
 
The horses just love it!!! 
 

it's mid-october - really?

Just like that the color of the leaves has peaked.  I'm sure of it.  Just today I was driving past Sand Hollow where I took this photo last week and the colors just weren't the same.  I don't know if the wet June we had helped or hurt the fall show of leaves this year.  Glad I took a mminute to stop. It was slightlyg raining when I took this photo.  (series of six shots stitched into a photoshop panorama)

Just before I took the pic above I was playing around w/ shooting wide open.  Tyler was my model and this was taken at a Congregational Church attached to Tyler's school.

This weekend I volunteered for the Saint Rescue organization at our local pound.  It's such a hoot.  Whenever there is an event scheduled everyone comes out w/ their St.'s.  All the dogs are so mellow, so big, so cuddly.  They look like big teddy bears.  I lent a hand at the raffle table, even came home w/ a few prizes!  I can't wait to help out again.  Such a worthy cause. 

For more photos visit www.francesmileskiphotography.smugmug.com

 

weekend

Sometimes I can barely remember what we did on the weekend.  It's all a blur.  Thank goodness for the camera.  For the most part we puttered around the house.  Swimming lessons at the Y in the a.m., followed by naps and family playtime in the backyard.  Bill and I attended our neighbor's annual Harvest party in the evening.  Sometime Saturday afternoon I was reading Jasmine Star's discussion on Facebook about shooting wide open and remembering to stand back far enough so that one or more subjects remain in focus.  I guess that's the key to her signature style. 

Sunday,  Bill took his dirt bike on an a 40 mile Enduro ride and that took up most of his day.  He came home wiped out.  The dirt bike is the replacement for the airplane, and that's okay w/ me.  The boys and I headed to church.  Julian has started his Faith Formation classes which he calls "Fake Formation Class".  He's not trying to be funny, but it's hard to correct him because he makes us laugh.

  Yes, it's November in New England and he's barefoot!  He's constantly taking his shoes off outside!!! It's driving me crazy. ( photo is a bit blurry)

Little Tyler came up to my bedroom for a little break.  The room was dark, but the sunlight on his face was perfect.

Oops! I forgot to mention that we did stop by a local fall festival that featured an army black hawk helicopter.  The boys LOVED it.  Julian had a few minutes at the controls, Tyler decided to have a chat w/ the pilot while being buckled into a jumpseat!

Tyler with Black Hawk pilot !

Welcome to Fall ! These are my neighbor's glistening gourds!

and these are my mum's!  Love that pinky purple color!  Shot wide open here at about 12 ft. away!  

Dark Chocolate cake w/ chocolate ganache and raspberries!  Made w/ my new DeMarle bakeware!

a quick self portrait w/ my new Galapagos hat !  
 
 
 

 

 
 

Excited!

This week's theme on I Heart Faces is "excited" ! 

I captured this very cool skater on our beach vacation this summer.  He was a sweetheart.  I first saw him cruising down the hill, then I stopped him and asked him if he wouldn't mind going back up the hill while I took pics.  He was so so enthusiastic and smiled all the way while cruising on his skate board !  I love action shots.  The not so funny part was that while I was panning this shot I tripped on the sidewalk and banged my ankle and cut my foot ! I was bleeding, and down on the ground, but saved the camera and kept shooting !  It's all about the photo!  I can barely remember the foot pain, but I'm so glad I got this shot !  Just looking at it makes me happy!  I think he was excited that he had an audience and that he was about to get some very cool photographs!!!

Julian's First Day of Kindergarten, better late than never.

I've finally been able to load the Blog to Book software on my computer, by Blurb, and download the 300+ entries I've written over the last three or so years.  I'm quite excited about this.  It's going to be a 400 page book w/ over 600 pictures!  How wonderful is that?  I never really knew where this Typepad journey was going to take me and now I may have this huge book that documents some of the lowlights, and highlights of the goings on in our life.  It's now made me realize how I'd really like to continue daily posting and uploading more pics with the goal of publishing a blog to book every year.

With that said, I realize I had not documented one of our biggest milestones and that was the very first day of Kindergarten and Julian's new adventure of riding the bus.

So many mixed emotions for Bill and I.  So much change.  Getting up earlier, making lunches, and just taking daily organization to whole new level.  Walking to the bus on this beautiful September morning was really exciting.  The big yellow school bus pulls up.  We meet Mr. Kevin, this really enthusiastic young driver w/ freckles and a mohawk!  Really cute guy actually. Seems super nice.  Julian says goodbye to us, finds a seat, and waves to us from the window...and here we are with two DSLR cameras, lenses galore, firing away.  Little do we know Tyler disappears.  There are several adults around and no one sees that Tyler has found his way onto the bus and was hiding in the back, thinking he was a big boy too.  I then hop on the bus, walk all the way to the back w/ my camera.  Tyler sees me and grins!  Then he grips the seats w/ both hands because he wants to go to school.  I pry him out of the seat and carry him off the bus.

Poor Tyler. The three of us stand there on the grass.  Tyler looks dejectedly at the ground and gets very very quiet.  It was such a sad moment.  Brothers seperated for the day.  Bill and I waved to Julian as this big yellow vehicle takes our son away.  It was awful.  This right of passage seemed so wrong.

 

my favorite childhood toy

One of my favorite childhood toys was the Mrs. Beasely doll.

I grew up watching the TV show "Family Affair" and fell in love with the daughter Buffy's sweet grandmother doll, Mrs. Beasley.  Oh how I loved that show.  Brian Keith seemed like the warmest fuzziest Daddy anyone could ever have.  Handsome, deep voice but gentle and loving.  Really, to this day I've just adored his movies.

  Oh, I think I would love to go find a Mrs. Beasley on ebay!!!
 
 

my silly boys

I think my boys should go work for Walter Wick !

I love the little toy soldiers at the top of the display!