Saturday, July 31, 2010

Father-daughter bonding moment

One of the reasons I discovered an interest in photography and storytelling was because of my parents.  As a little girl, I would "borrow" (sometimes for weeks at a time) my mom's photo albums.  She took photos of everything and recorded the events for us.  My dad, on the other hand, was the creative photographer.  During our two-year stay on Midway Island, he took slide after slide of "goony birds" (albatross), the beaches, and the lagoon.  When we moved to Oregon, he used the darkroom in his dental office to develop incredible black and white photos.  Many of our weekend family jaunts included Dad taking photos of waterfalls, Dad taking photos of the coast, and Dad taking photos of the fog-filled forest.  Well, it's my turn now (insert gleeful squeal).

I'm very much the amateur photographer, but I love it.  And I take every chance I can to try something new.  We took the kids to a waterfall near my folks' house (we'll see if my family members recognize it when they see the photos) and while my mom, hubby, and two brothers played with the kids, my dad coached me in taking some waterfall shots.  The photos turned out great, but more importantly I got to spend time doing something with my dad that I had wanted to do since I was a little girl.  That in itself makes these photos more priceless than all the gold in the world.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Sunrise in Oregon

Princess

While the younger girls were getting "sparkly" my oldest was adding a few sparkles of her own, in the form of dress-up clothes.  Yes, my girls are girly-girls.  Hey, I've got four of them; we may as well have fun with it!

Spider

With plenty of trees to spread webs from, it's no wonder the spiders love my parents' yard.  I thought this was a particularly handsome spider myself.

Fish pond

My dad lived in Japan for two years, and he's always had a fondness for Japanese gardens.  When they built their house several years ago, most of their time and money went into creating a backyard pond.  When we visit, our kids love to feed the fish in Grandma and Grandpa's pond; I like to photograph the fish.


My folks don't keep pets, but they do like their fish!


These are the fish's swimming patterns.  They're a cozy little bunch.

Sparkly Kids

"What has my sister done to me?!"

Grandma has the coolest "beauty kit" for kids, full of bright, colorful goodies (or goop) that can be spread all over kids' faces.  My second oldest daughter took the role of makeup artist for her younger sisters; these photos show her "masterpieces."


And here's the artist herself:

Romantic getaway

We've been visiting my folks in Oregon.  My husband and I don't get to leave the home for a date very often, so my parents encouraged us to take a bike ride through the forest.  My folks are fortunate enough to live near a paved nature trail that lies within walking or biking distance.  So we borrowed their bikes, grabbed my old Canon Powershot 6 MP camera (the dSLR was too bulky for a bicycle ride), and disappeared for a couple of hours.  Can you tell that we had fun?

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

It's a forest--of sorts.

I grew up in western Oregon, with a forest in my back yard.  Now I live in eastern Utah, in the middle of the desert.  As you can imagine, it's been a bit of an adjustment.  Several years ago, we built a house.  The next summer, I started planting.  But the plants that you can grown in western Oregon are very different than the ones you'd choose for Utah.  I added a new word to my vocabulary--Xeriscaping--and took on the challenge.

One of the first plants I added to our home was a hollyhock.  It was available in the early spring, when I was desperately searching the nursery for anything green, and my gardening books assured me it was "drought tolerant when established."  It survived.  So the next spring, I sowed some hollyhock seeds next to it.  Next year--wow!  I swear those little plants must be related to the beans in Jack and the Beanstalk because they grew like crazy. . .and multiplied.

I love waiting for them to pop out each summer.  In the spring, the kids and I chop down the last year's stalks (and I do mean chop--I have to use my large pruners).  Then we wait for the magic.  One day we can see a carpet of green spread along the west side of our home.  A week later, it seems, little stalks have shot upward.  Then the heat of summer arrives and suddenly the entire side of our home is covered by these lofty, friendly flowers.

Our trees may be small, but we have a forest--an entire grove of hollyhocks.









Saturday, July 17, 2010

Carousel

Ah, photography.  I love it, and I've been taking pictures since I was 10.  But it wasn't until this spring that I finally got the chance to start studying photography.  I took two classes from Candice Stringham, an incredibly talented photographer, teacher, and genuinely kind person to boot.  Class is over, but I'm still playing, and whenever I get a chance to challenge myself I take it.
This isn't always easy when you have 5 children in tow.  Luckily, I have a supportive husband, so he's been willing to act as assistant, and since my kids have grown up with a camera in their faces, they're pretty good sports when it comes to "picture time."
Last Tuesday we took the kids to the zoo (minus our oldest daughter, who was at girls' camp--sniff).  Now I have taken lots and lots and lots of photos at the zoo (who hasn't?), but I hadn't tried photographing the kids on the carousel yet.  So that was the challenge for the day.  Luckily we had some money in our monthly "entertainment fund," so the kids got to ride twice and I got to snap photos.  Wouldn't you call that a good bargain?  Well. . .  The three girls had a blast--put them on an animal and they'd smile forever.  Conner, however, wanted to choose his own animal--the eagle.  Unfortunately, the eagle was in the wrong location for me to catch some good photos before and after the carousel started turning (This mommy wants to cover all her bases!).  So instead of a series of charming, ready-to-go-on-the-wall photos, I ended up with a story.  Which is fine.  After all, that's what scrapbooking is for. . .and blogs.  So, Conner, my love, this thread is for you:

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

When I was a little girl. . .

. . .I loved to write.  I scribbled in my notebook all the time, stories with riveting titles like, "Quest Through Cannibal's Jungle" and "Soldiers of Iris."  I planned on becoming an author or an editor.   I wrote all throughout high school, and even chose English as my major in college.   I earned my B.A., and then I met my husband.  He was just finishing a degree in Art.  It quickly became apparent that my focus was going to change.  And believe me, it was the best decision I ever made.

Nearly fifteen years later we're still happily married, with five incredible (and incredibly busy) children.  I've done the Stay-At-Home-Mom thing since our first daughter was born, thirteen years ago, and I've enjoyed it thoroughly.  Last year, however, our focus changed again.  We decided to finally pursue my husband's Master's degree.  This had been a dream of his, but babies demand a lot, so we'd put it off over and over again.   This time, however, it felt right so he applied for an accelerated degree (Translation:  two-year degree crammed into ten months).  We knew this was going to be crazy for us, so my hubby suggested that I pursue some of my old dreams, too.

It seemed possible.  I'd worked hard to train my kids to work alongside me and to share responsibilities in the home.  They played well together (as well as five siblings do, anyway), and for once I didn't have a baby needing me 24/7.   So I took the plunge.

I'd been scrapbooking for years (did I mention that I love photography almost as much as writing stories?), so I started taking classes at my favorite website:  JessicaSprague.com.  Within a few months my entire world had opened up.  I discovered this magical realm called "Photoshop," where I could play with pictures and words and anything I wanted before ever printing anything out.  It was amazing!  There was no mess; I didn't have to worry about hiding the scissors and adhesive at the first call of "Mommmmmmy!"  I could just put the computer to sleep and come back to it later. I had time to think about my layout before I started "cutting" or writing.  Mistakes?  No problem!   I discovered two amazing buttons:  Control and Z.  And best of all, my husband--who had been using Photoshop for years--could get just as excited about my work as I was.

Over the past year my little journey has suddenly become much more than a creative outlet.  That's why I decided to call my blog "Kbear Art."  I'm not satisfied with simply doing scrapbook pages anymore; I want to understand the whys, the principles, and all the hows of creating something beautiful.   And part of learning that is the desire to share my creations with others.  So here I am.

Where will this blog take me?  I don't know.  It may last a week, it may last a year or longer.  I have no expectations.  This is simply a place where I can share a little of what I learn, maybe talk to a few people, and pass a little joy onto others.  Regardless, it feels good to be writing again, even if it's sharing stories about my family's tears and laughter instead of grand adventures in a made-up world (although there might be a little of that, too).