Follow up: yarn bombing

It's hard to believe it's been almost three years since we talked about yarn bombing in this post.

A couple of days ago, Lion brand yarn shared this photo on their facebook page, originally found here and the work of Lorna at Knits for Life.



I find it clever and fun to look at. And obviously no one is using the phone anymore anyway...

Of course, the comment section exploded with opinions ranging from admiration to disgust. As usual, the knitting community seems pretty torn over the subject.

One woman linked to an interesting interview with Ishknits, who may or may not have been yarn bombing phone booths before anyone else. If you visit her website, it's kinda neat to see the commissioned work she has done as well.

The interview... for your consideration:)  American Hipster Presents: Ishknits Documentary

Photo Project Complete - Autumn

Today is the first day of autumn. It might be one of my favorite days of the year, because of its promise that cloudy weather, beautiful fall colors, rain, and the holidays are just around the corner. 'These are a few of my favorite things.' :)

Also today, I bring my nine-month-long photography project to a close. I have photographed these same spots now on the First Day of winter, spring, summer and fall, respectively. Always at the same time of day (so that any lighting differences are actually an indication of the earth's orbit).

There were quite a few different spots that I photographed, but for the sake of your time and attention, I'll only share the most interesting. (you can click on the photos to enlarge them if you want to)

winter

spring

summer

fall

 

I don't know if it's the preggy hormones running through my veins, or if I'm kinda sentimental anyway (probably both) but taking these last photos got me to thinking about the seasons changing, not just in the natural world, but in my personal life as well. I thought about where I was a year ago. Or even nine, six, and three months ago when I came back to the park to take these photos.

winter

spring

summer

fall

 

It was a year ago today actually that my mom passed away. At the time, although I knew it was coming sooner than later, it still pulled the rug out from under me and left me reeling. As Lemony Snicket writes... "It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one.... It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise..." That was definitely a hard season, but some might say as inevitable as the biting cold will arrive in January, the one that makes you ache to your bones. When you draw into your lungs the frigid air of long, dark winter nights like that, it imparts its stillness and loneliness to your heart...

It took a good long time to get over that one. I spent most of the winter wallowing in depression and self-pity. But I allowed myself those feelings so I could walk through my grief properly and come out to the other side, to the spring.



Also a year ago, we had been wanting another baby for quite awhile, and I was feeling discouraged that it was taking so long. But six months later, we found out we were finally pregnant and one week after that, I was shooting the spring photos... :) My belly has grown progressively bigger as I've shown up to the park in summer and fall. And now here we are, only about a month away from his arrival.

winter

spring

summer

fall

Another dream that we had for several years was to own a home. As of winter, we had been looking and making offers off and on for about 7 years. By spring, we had made an offer on a cute little fixer-upper, but I didn't have my hopes up too high. But by summer, our dream had finally become a reality and we had moved into our first home, deep in the throws of a major remodelling project.

winter

spring

summer

fall

 

So as I look at these photos and study the changing face of the seasons, how the same spot can look so different over such a short amount of time, I correspondingly marvel at the changes in my face. A little more weathered, a little older - a few more wrinkles from new projects and less sleep, a few more gray hairs of grief and worry, skin a little darker from working my land, a twinkle in my eye for a new little one to love, and the woman in the mirror seems more of a mother to me now and a little less of a daughter.

 

So much has happened this year, I can only imagine what the next season will bring...

 

 

 

 

The Pothole Gardener

Came across this last week:




Kind of reminds me of yarnbombing, but seems even less intrusive and more benign. What do you think about pothole street art? :-)

First Day of Summer

I continued my "Seasons" photography project yesterday (which was the first day of summer)

Wow, everything was so GREEN, even greener than it was on the first day of spring! And there were many more people out, enjoying the sunshine and UGH 100 degree weather.

Here is the winter shot for comparison, taken the same time of day:

There is one small difference that you might not notice right away, but I thought was interesting. Here is a story in the local news from a few days ago about one of the sycamore trees falling into the pool here in Lower Bidwell. So I knew even before I went to take photos that they would look different. It's barely noticable, though. It took me awhile to even find which tree was missing. You can see it better in the spring version:

and the summer shot once again - green, vibrant, full of life, but with one tree missing... :}



The project is really coming along nicely and I can't wait to see what autumn brings!

I have lots of other spots where I took these photos, but here's just one other fun set I have so far (It might be easier to compare them if you click on one to enlarge it, then scroll through sideways) :

Winter

Spring

Summer

Hope you are enjoying your summer so far!

~C




Nerd moment: Curious about why summer solstice was day early this year? Read here! 8-)

Some photos from Easter

Here are some photos I've been meaning to share from our little guy's first Easter Egg Hunt!

It might have been mine too. ;)

 

And here are some of the eggs we painted this year...

The heart and flower are drawn in white crayon before they are dipped in the dye.

In a similar fashion, we put little dot stickers on the green one before we dyed it, and then removed them to reveal the white eggshell still underneath.

What a wonderful season to celebrate new life in Christ. 

"But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” When she had said thi...s, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!”
John 20:11-16

 

Hope you had a wonderful Easter!

C

 

First Day of Spring!

Today, I continued my photo project started here.

This photo was taken this morning in the park. Notice how active the creek is! It was very high and had lots of rushing water from all the rain and snow we've had the last couple of weeks. Also the sky today was gloomy and grey - lots of low overcast clouds. So you'll notice those are the two reasons why the trees don't reflect in the water as nicely as they did in December, when everything was so dead and quiet. Very different now! The earth is active - swirling and churning and busting out blossoms and painting everything green! :)

Here is the same photo taken three months ago (on the first day of winter).

You can see the grass is not quite as green, the trees are bare, and what leaves they do have are brown and dead. I can't wait to see what it looks like in June!

What are your plans for the season? I am hoping to start a community garden with a few friends of mine and I am very excited about working the ground again. I haven't been able to do that in many years. I hope you are having a refreshing First Day of Spring!!

 

Recesky

Took these yesterday and today with the Recesky.

 

Even though it's a little challenging to see through the top-end viewfinder (and it's a mirror image, so I kinda lose myself sometimes - haha), it's still a really fun camera to use. And I love the results!

I think I need to work my focusing skills on this one, though. A few of the pics I didn't share because they were a bit too blurry.

It might be awhile before I get to play with the Diana, but looking forward to that too. I have taken more photos this weekend than I have in the past 3 months probably! But I was just so excited to get out with these and get the rolls back! :)

The gift of Lomo

Ahhhhhh!!!
Check out the amazing and unbelievable and totally awesome care package I just got from my friend B the other day:

Recesky, Diana F+ (with roll of 120mm film), and a Holga 135

I've been wanting to get a Holga for a few years now, but never really got around to making the purchase. Probably because I felt so busy with other things and I figured it would just sit around anyway. But also because I thought all Holgas were 120 and I couldn't find anybody local who does that kind of thing anymore. So I put it in the category of "things to figure out someday."

But... my dear friend B, overheard me talking about my Holga daydreams and offered to send me hers as a gift! I was so stunned and humbled by her generosity. You know you have a good friend when they do something nice for you and make it sound like you're doing them a favor. And that's what happened here. She said she had too many cameras anyway or something silly like that. So sweet... Anyway, I didn't know anything about how to use these cameras, so I did a lot of googling last night. And I found myself knee-deep in the wondrous new world of lomography...

What is lomography? Well, I'm just learning about it myself. You know all those instagram apps for the iphone that make your photos look distorted, but kinda cool. Or gives them a vintage look? I'm pretty sure all those apps are just trying to be this. But this is the real thing. And to do it with film is a little more complicated, because it's not editing after-the-fact like the apps are. 

In our hi-tech world, where every photo we take has to be laundered though PhotoShop - cropped, lassoed, and highlighted, lomography is refreshingly lo-fi. It's a calling back to the basics of photography, the skin and bones. It is haphazard and imperfect. It is not necessarily shiny and straight, but more unrefined and raw. It's usually plastic toy hand-cranked cameras with no batteries. Being a lomographer causes you to give up the need for control - the feeling that every shot needs to be perfect every time, and reminds us all to have fun with it. To go a little crazy. Photography is art after all, which by its nature is free of rules and boundaries. Maybe I like that little blur there, I think it looks cool. Maybe the vignettes in my photos were caused by light leaks, but I kinda like 'em that way. Maybe I double exposed by accident, but that shot is rad! The style in general is very candid, very retro, kinda grainy and grungy and fun.

Of course, this in turn graduates itself to intentional double exposure, blur and and the like. And you can get kind of creative with the results if you want to.

Wow! I was so stoked to get out with these cameras today and play around with them. I bought film for the first time in 6 years, and figure out how to load the things. It turns out this Holga is a 35mm, as is the Recesky, so getting film was no problem. I got color for the Holga and B&W for the Recesky. Then Caleb and I went out and fooled around. Here are some of the fun ones from the Holga. It isn't too grungy, so the effects with this camera can be very little unless I intentionally utilize them.

Pretty straight forward

Some vignetting to the left

Unintentional

Intentional 

 My son's favorite

 

...And this one is just cute 

We haven't developed the Black & White from the Recesky yet because we have a few more frames left. But I really look forward to seeing those too.

Remember when you didn't know what your photos would look like until after you processed them? It's like Christmas Day walking into the Photo Lab...

:)

More soon...