Sunday, August 31, 2014

Galavanting The North Carolina Country Side



Barn Quilt in Randolph County, North Carolina. One weekend we took a driving tour of the Barn Quilts in Randolph County.


Junius Lindsey Vineyards take the Hoity-Toity out of wine tours. They offer open grassy fields for kids to play and romp with the resident dogs, fences to climb and a general airy, "come as you may" atmosphere.  Rocking Chairs, round tables and an open pavilion welcome you at the end of a beautiful, windy road into the property.




Roadside black Eyed Susans held their aging heads up


Less than an hour from home is the famous Childress Vineyards. If it weren't for the humidity, you'd feel as if you were touring a Napa Valley establishment.....


Look, but don't touch.


The Carolina Blue skies over Childress Vineyards






Monday, August 25, 2014

Finding the Light....

For years, I've had struggled with finding a balance between creating a memory and capturing a memory with my children. There are some photos that I look back on and see the annoyance in my children's eyes....the "Are you done yet? We just want to play!" look. All the while I'm adjusting WB's, ISO's and determining which position would best capture the catch light in their eyes.
So many memories were contaminated with different variations of "Wait. DO that again! Stand here, face that, hold your chin up, square up to the lens" commands coming from behind the camera. Or embarrassingly enough, staged moments usually consisting of making kids REDO what they had just done..... trying to capture the sunlight through the trees, the sweet pigtails flying behind their darting bodies....all the movement, light and poignancy of a nice portrait......long after the "real moment" is lost.

These numerous occasions were results of  artistically pleasing my photographic eye at the expense of  disappointedly losing the moment; the true light of excitement is missing from their eyes replaced with repulsion for the annoying, repositioning, ever fidgeting half mother/half photographer turning knobs, and muttering about appertures and leading lines. And none of the photos are really worth a hoot. Because, I am a little repulsed at the memories. The memories I chose to make----rather than capture.

And now. I don't even charge my camera.  I haven't used it in months- evidenced by the fact that I "found" my camera in the trunk of the van last weekend. It still had pictures on it from a March ice storm.  As much as I hate to admit it- I'm a person of extreme degrees. ALL IN or ALL OUT. 

My camera phone has been my go-to-camera for the last two years....and although sometimes there's grainy "noise" in the back ground or fuzzy edges from a kid in motion...with no catch light to be found---the pictures are of a moment. A memory. A captured piece of my heart that I can recall time and time again full of excitement, wtih depth. Developed by a light of the photographer's heart capturing and documenting every moment in full frame, full color and full tilt in life.