Beauty in Decay

This is a collection of four more of the roses I found last week. The combination of the end of the season and the heavy rain, created a different kind of beauty. I really enjoy these last reminders of summer. Soon, the gardeners will prune the bushes down to just a few sticks with thorns.

Dancing Roses and Angel Rose

Last week when I was taking pictures at the rose garden, I enjoyed looking at the textures and shapes that the dying flowers created. These two pictures are some of my favorites. I am not usually a very imaginative observer, but I could easily see the angel in the first one and the two holding hands and dancing in the second. I knew that I would mostly desaturate these, but my final idea came while blog hopping this morning. I visited a new site called The Play Date Cafe. They run a weekly challenge with a color theme, but little else to constrain creativity. I loved the color choices for this week and knew they would work well for the rose pictures that I hoped to create. So this is my entry for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge! Pop on over to their site to see all the other so very creative entries!

Umbrella Walk

Brianna has wanted to take the pink umbrella out for a walk in the rain ever since she saw it in my trunk. Today was a great day to go for a little hike in the Hoyt Arboretum to look at the beautiful fall trees. It wasn't really raining- more of a mist, but that meant I could have my camera out to capture the delightful pink against all those greens, browns and yellows.
A day with this particular four-year-old is always marked by lots and lots and lots of conversation. I enjoy the observations and questions she comes up with and a walk is a good time to remind myself to slow down and listen, and interact with her and see things from her perspective. I paused a few times to ask her to pose for me and she finally let me know that yet another picture was not really what she cared about.
My first plan after I loaded these pictures on my computer, was to pick my favorite one and scrap a cute portrait type page. But, after looking at the series as a slideshow a couple of times, I felt like the real story here was in the series and in the conversation bits that I remembered.
I was reminded again this week, as I looked through a scrapbook from three years ago, that I just had printed, just how many of the everyday, special details we forget as time passes. I always think I will remember, but without the pictures and journaling to jog my memory, I just don't. My granddaughters love those little scrapbooks and the reminders of days past when we enjoyed them and took the time to record the moment. This is why I scrap and these are the stories I want to keep telling.

Rainy Day Surprise

After a record number of dry, sunny days this summer, the rains have returned to Portland. Things had gotten too dry and I was glad to see the soaking begin. Give me a month or two of wet, dark days and I will sing a different song, but for now I am glad to just grab my umbrella and head out or stay inside where it is warm and dry!
Today I packed up my camera, umbrella, raincoat and tripod and headed for one of my favorite places to take my camera for a walk. The International Rose Test Gardens are just a few minutes from my house and I can always find something interesting to photograph. Today I was fascinated by all the texture and muted colors of fading, wet roses. I took quite a few pictures and I am sure they will show up here later in the week, but as I was heading back for my car, I looked out over the garden toward downtown Portland, and the sun had peeked through the clouds just enough to cause the brilliant reflection in the building that you see in this picture. Usually, the view of the city from the garden is hazy and uninspiring, but I loved this quick glimpse of color. It only lasted for about a minute and the flat grey returned.

Thirty-One Years Ago

Thirty-one years ago, I became a mom for the third time! I have been wonderfully blessed to watch my children grow into adulthood but I love remembering them as little ones sometimes. Today I share some of my favorite 'little' David photos! Who could not smile at that face? Happy birthday, son! Oh, and yes, he is kissing a fish in that left photo!

At the Duck Pond

I went for a walk around a pond near my house today. I was hoping for pretty fall colors reflected in the water but it just isn't happening yet. Instead, I kept hearing an insistent squawking coming from the water ahead. The source of the noise was the pair of ducks. I have no idea what kind of birds these are, but they were fun to watch as they interacted with each other. I took a lot of shots of them, but the one I like best is the top one here with the wing of one extended over the other.

Sixty Years

Sixty years ago today, my parents got married. I am enjoying looking through all the pictures from those early years. Happy anniversary, Dad and Mom!

Great, Great Grandpa Was a Jailbird

Last month I had the privilege of meeting a historian from the McCleary Museum in Washington. This is an area where many of my paternal relatives lived, worked and died in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The man who met with me, Charles, was a fountain of information about my ancestors. He has spend hours and hours in local libraries, pouring over old copies of newspapers from a long time ago. He makes copies and files away stories that are relevant to current and former residents of the McCleary area. He had a rather thick file folder full of pictures and articles to show me.
The story of my great, great grandpa and his brush with the law was one I had never heard before. The newspaper article is a copy of a copy of a copy, so I typed out the story for my scrapbook layout. I think these kinds of details are especially interesting when learning about my history...

The Colors of Fall

The Pacific Northwest has had an amazing, sunny, dry summer and fall this year. In fact, we have set a record for the number of rainless days for our part of the world. Even so, those of us who live here know that it will end soon and the rains will come and the days will be dark, cold and wet. Because we know this, we are all savoring each weekend and spending as much time outside as possible. My husband and I spent the weekend near Mt. Rainier, hiking and enjoying the signs of the changing season. Since I love fall colors, I set out to find some pretty leaves to photograph this morning before we needed to head on home to Portland.
We didn't take into consideration the shadows of the hills and I was at first disappointed that all the forest we were driving through was still in shadows even at 9:00 in the morning. Vine maple just comes alive when the sun hits it and that is what I wanted to photograph. We finally stopped at the place I remembered seeing such pretty leaves in years past and decided to just wait a bit for the sun to cooperate. My ever patient honey went to have a seat, knowing that I would be awhile!

About this time, I remembered reading about how if you slow your shutter speed down while photographing the sky at dusk, it brings out lots of pretty colors. I decided to see if the same would work on leaves in the shade. Out came the tripod.........

I loved the colors! What fun!
After I played around for awhile, the sun finally caught up with me and I did get a few brighter lit pictures. I think I might be a bit partial to the shaded ones now though!

I especially like the textures in this last one.

The Story Behind the Photo

Everyone has a story....or two....or a hundred! It might be a story of a special birthday or anniversary, or it might be a story of the birth of a child or grandchild. It could be the story of your vacation or your journey through a difficult illness. We all know stories that we have heard since we were young, of ancestors who made an impact on their world, and consequently on ours. We have funny stories, sad stories, inspiring stories, and stories that bring back precious memories.
Many of these stories are accompanied by photographs. Sometimes there is one, special, precious photo to remind us of an event and other times there are hundreds. Those photos are in boxes, closets, under beds, shoved in drawers and attics. Some are fading away in old albums and some are still on the memory cards of digital cameras or the hard drive of a computer. Most are not stored in a way that they can be easily enjoyed and more importantly, in my opinion, they are not joined together with the stories that they so wonderfully illustrate. We think we will remember the stories or we will write them down 'some day' and put all those photos in albums to enjoy and to show our children and grandchildren.....Hmmm....really???
This is a copy of one of the photos in one of my many boxes:

Now, to me, those boys are cute and any picture with them in it is important to me, but this one has a special family story behind it.......

 

The story makes this picture so much more than two little boys playing around. It's one we love to remember as our children are having babies of their own now. This is just one little part of our family story.
What is your story?  What photos do you have that are special to you because of the story they tell. Will your descendants be able to enjoy them? Maybe you have a lot of story, with only a few pictures or a lot of pictures to illustrate a special story. I either case, I challenge you to tell your story!
I will be posting more ideas in days to come on this subject...I invite you to add your comments and thoughts below.....Watch also for a link to a special place where you can share your story with others....Coming soon!