OUR PRECIOUS ANGEL, GAVIN

Today our grandson Gavin would have been 3 years old. It's hard to believe almost 2 years have passed since he quietly slipped out of our lives........but never out of our hearts and thoughts.  Every day we are reminded of, talk about, and laugh at the past antics of this adorable little imp who had a personality and spirit as huge and bright as his big blue eyes.  We still look at his fingerprints on the bottom half of the glass on our kitchen door and remember him 'signing' to go outside to play with rocks and sticks, and we still listen to the music of his 'chocolate bunny' and imagine him 'bustin' out his dance moves for us.  Sometimes I see him in the high chair with blueberries smeared from head to toe and a big grin on his face, or rummaging around in the receipt drawer.   We miss him so much, and yet our faith sustains us and we are not without hope and joy, because we know he lives still, and awaits for us beyond the veil.  Happy Birthday Gavin, we love and miss you and will celebrate your birthday with green rice krispie squares and green balloons!!  (I took this photo about a month before he passed away.) 

(For those of you who may not know, our grandson passed away shortly after his first birthday.  At the time, he and his parents - my son and daughter-in-law - were living with us while my son finished his last semester of college.  One Sunday Gavin had a slight fever.  Michelle called the doctor twice, being an anxious first time mother, and was reassured when the doctor said he was fine and to give him some Tylenol.  She did so and put him to bed, but when she went back to check on him 20 minutes later he was gone.  He was in the same position as when she laid him down.  The autopsy showed nothing but a healthy, normal 14 month old toddler.  We were all in shock.  This just couldn't happen, but it did.  It has been a hard 2 years.  Jaron and Michelle still live with us, trying to adjust and recover.  Jaron's career plans, and all other plans, for that matter, have been put on hold for now.  But they are doing surprisingly well.  They take care of each other and support each other and still look to the future with their strong faith.  And most importantly, Heavenly Father has filled their empty arms with a second beautiful son to love.  You have seen several pictures of Sawyer here on my blog.  He is as precious as Gavin is to all of us.  For now we don't have all the answers to our questions, but we are content to know that Heavenly Father is real.  He knows us and loves us, and most importantly, we know that all is well because He is in charge!)

Off Again!

No time to post a photo.  I'm off to Omaha for the weekend to see my son-in-law graduate from Creighton Pharmaceutical School.  Will catch up next week.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Sunday Worship

Worship in Costa Rica

(For those who've asked about HDR, I shot this without a tripod, since I was in a church.  It is extremely difficult to hand hold and bracket 3 separate shots without camera blur, so this isn't as sharp as it should be. )

Notes:  I've been on another quickie Moab trip, then lots of family things to keep me busy, and today, Mother's Day, I've had a house full of family and grandkids.  It's been a great week with little time for photography or blogging, so I'll have to play catch up next week.  Actually that's not true.....yesterday I took bridal photos for my nephew's soon-to-be wife.  We had so much fun, and I took bridals different than I've ever taken before!!  I'll post some soon, and hopefully get caught up with my blog and email correspondence.   

One quick comment about Mother's Day.  I have 2 beautiful daughters and 2 beautiful daughter-in-laws, and 1 more beautiful soon-to-be daughter-in law.  I also have 3 handsome sons, and 2 handsome son-in-laws.  My wonderful blessing is that they all love and respect me, and the icing on the cake is that they all love and respect each other.  Last night they all went out for an evening on the town together, and today at dinner told us how much fun they all had.  My heart is full, I am so blessed!!!!!!   I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day, too! 

One Spring Morn

It is dawn and I am alone.  The worries of yesterday and the cares of today seem far away, and like the winter cold, eagerly forgotten.   My senses take over.  I hear the rustle of growing things swaying in time with the gentle breeze, and I smell the sweetness of a thousand spring blossoms and blooms as they dance with the leaves.  I see a rainbow of colors and shapes and textures that make my spirit soar.  Soon the first sunbeams appear, and buds stretch open their petals to welcome the warmth of the morning light.  I realize I'm not alone after all.  Chubby breasted robins bounce from leaf to twig to blade of grass in search of breakfast.  Not only does the early bird catch the worm, but he is also a witness, with me, to the miracle of a glorious Spring morn.  

I was dreaming!  It must be so.  Twenty short hours have passed and yet another dawn of another new day and I've been tricked, for all I now see is a bleak gray sky and a blanket of freshly fallen snow smothering and silencing all that speaks of Spring.   

Sacred Place

Salt Lake Temple

I love to see the Temple,

I'm going there some day.

To feel the Holy Spirit,

To listen and to pray.

May Desktop Image

 Beautiful Blossoms 

This is my May desktop image to share with you.  Just click HERE then right click to download to your desktop. 
(The photo should fill your screen and not be pixelated.  If you have trouble let me know and I'll help.) 

Phriday Phun

Is This for REAL???  Yes It Is!!!!

I think this is a new medical facility across the street from a building shaped like a pyramid.  Saying the architecture in this Las Vegas neighborhood is eclectic is a bit of an understatement.  A better description might be ridiculously weird!!  My imagination is working overtime.  Can you imagine a patient coming here to see a doctor because he's been having dizzy spells?  Or what about someone driving by after a party and thinking they had way too much to drink!  I wonder how many car accidents will happen when tourists come upon this unexpectedly?   

Spring on Temple Square #2

You Light Up My Life!

Spring on Temple Square

My annual Spring pilgrimage to Temple Square

Sunday Worship

Chapel in Calico Ghost Town

Phriday Phun

THE CHALLENGE

THE RULES:

• Choose a beautiful location full of potential photo ops
• Spend the day 4 wheeling with at least 6 other people
• The other people cannot be photographers and are interested in riding, not taking pictures; and,  however polite, fun, and wonderful they are, they would probably be irritated with a photographer wanting to stop every few seconds to take a picture, or spend time viewing a scene from every angle, or waiting for the perfect light, etc. etc., so..........
• Take no longer than 5 seconds to compose and shoot each image
• Only take images when and where the group decides to stop
• Use only a point and shoot camera in auto setting
• Must be the first time using said camera
• No tripod
• No bracketing or combining multiple exposures
• Use only the LCD screen to compose your shots (if you have a viewfinder)
• Shoot in the middle of the day
• No filters, polarizers, etc.

THE OBJECTIVE:

• Come up with at least 1 semi-decent photo that you wouldn't be totally embarrassed to post on your blog!!  

MAKING THIS CHALLENGE EVEN REMOTELY POSSIBLE!!! After seeing the images I ended up with, I realized immediately that for me to have even a chance at coming up with a few reasonable images, I had to be able to do some editing, so I did do some post process work in Photoshop.  I learned very quickly the limitations of a point and shoot camera, and if this experience did anything for me, it was to remind me how much I LOVE my 5D Mark II.  I left it at home this time,  and I ALWAYS take my camera on trips.  I felt like my arm was cut off!!


Here we go.  First a SOOTC snap of our group.  (I noticed right away the noise in all my sky shots was intense.)

The next two are about the best I came up with.  I tried to reduce the noise, correct odd color casts and I added a little clarity.  This is Determination Towers, Moab:

I lucked out with this next image.  A huge storm front passed over turning everything dark, dramatic, moody, and rainy which certainly helped the composition and lighting.  This was shot at Dead Horse Point.

I actually had a second objective with this challenge as well.  I often have people ask me what kind of camera they should buy "so they can take good pictures".  I always give them my opinion depending on the money they want to spend and how serious they are about photography.  But I always end by saying, that an expensive camera will not make you a good photographer.  There is no short cut to learning how to create beautiful images.  You must learn and practice, learn and practice, repeat, repeat.  But, I really do think that great photographers can produce great images with any camera.  And, although they certainly are limited creatively,  they know how to work within the limitations of whatever camera they are using!

Spring in Snow Canyon

All my senses have awakened from a long winter's hibernation; hungry to feast upon the delectable beauty of a desert dressed for spring.

P.S.  Off for our first trip to Moab this year - be back in a few days.

Beautiful Sky

Landscape photographers try to shoot at the magic hours of dawn and dusk, but sometimes that is just not practical.  This shot was taken in the middle of a bright sunny day, but I thought the beautiful skyscape made up for the poor light.  This is another shot from Sand Hollow.

Phriday Phun

Hummmmm......

No Thank You!

Heart Breaker!

Is This Cute Enough Grandma?????

YES, Sawyer,

it DEFINITELY is!!!!!!

Wednesday Workday (Interesting People in Their Environment)

Saddle Maker

On our way to California about a month ago, we stopped at an old mining town called Calico.  It is an old west 'ghost' town, now frequented by tourists.  We had fun browsing through the stores on the main street.  The owner of this shop was proud of his hand made saddles and was anxious to show us his craft.  I asked him to pose, and he gladly agreed.

Time to Celebrate!!!!!

TYLER AND EMILY ARE ENGAGED!!

I took this snapshot after Sunday dinner when they made the big announcement!  We are so excited and happy.  We love Emily and think she is just right for Tyler.   For my photo buddies who don't know my family, Tyler is our youngest and the last of our 5 kids to get married!  They haven't set a date for the wedding but it will be sometime this summer.  (For family members, please do not mention this to Grandparents Larsen.  They want to go visit them sometime this coming week and tell them in person.)   

Indian Paint Brush - maybe?????

I was looking forward to the spring flowers we see in the southern Utah deserts, but it still must be too early, at least where we were on our little adventure two weeks ago.  In two days of exploring this is the only clump of flowers we saw.  They looked like Indian Paint Brush, but I'm not sure.  Does anyone know?

Phriday Phun

Bustin' Out.......

......of the prison called winter.  That's just how I felt last week when we were in Las Vegas for the car show.  But the BEST part for me was when we took two extra days and zipped around the St. George area on the RZR for our first ride of the season.  I've been dreaming of this all winter, and I wasn't disappointed!  The weather was perfect (about 75 degrees),  and as I've mentioned before, we are seeing places we've never seen before.  The first photo below is just to document the 'first ride of 2010', and the second is my favorite from the area, both taken at a place called Sand Hollow.  

In Silhouette

Spring at Sand Hollow

 

Tech Talk Tuesday (just the basics)

White Balance
If you are a beginning photographer, you may or may not have noticed a sometimes subtle,  (or even dramatic), shift in color between what you actually saw at the time you took your picture, compared to what you see when you uploaded your images to a computer or printed them out.  Digital cameras often pick up different color casts depending on the lighting and colors in the scene.   Sometimes, for example, if you are taking a picture of a person surrounded by vibrant green foliage, the person's skin will take on a greenish tinge.  If you are taking a picture in a gym, it might turn out too yellow or orange or green depending on the lighting.  That beautiful winter scene might turn out with blue or gray snow. 
Most digital cameras have different white balance settings such as 'sun', 'shade' 'florescent' and so forth, to help compensate for color shifts.  (Or maybe to be used in a creative way...I don't know, maybe you like orange skin!)  You need to experiment with the white balance settings on your camera.  Shoot the same scene with all the different settings and see how the color changes with each setting.  Shoot indoors in incandescent light and florescent light, then shoot outdoors in cool morning light and in sunset warm light.  As you become familiar with the lighting situations and other conditions you are shooting in, you will know how to set the white balance on your camera.  (It seems that most Tech Talk Tuesdays I have a disclaimer, so here it is:  I could talk about setting white balance using a gray card, or adjusting the Kelvin settings found on more advanced cameras, or making sure your monitor is calibrated, etc. but I'll keep this simple for today.)
Even good photographers who understand what adjustments need to be made to achieve correct color are often disappointed when they see their unedited images on the computer or printed.  Fortunately in this age of digital photography and computer programs, images that would have been thrown away in the past, can now be easily and quickly color corrected on the computer.  (Just one more reason for those of you who have resisted using the computer to edit your photos, to finally jump on the bandwagon now.  It may seem overwhelming at first to learn new computer software on top of learning basic photography, but I promise, if you do, you'll never look at photography in the same way, and soon, your computer will be your best friend, even if you are almost computer illiterate like me!)

Below are some examples of the same scene with different color casts that need to be corrected to portray what I actually saw:

Initially, this photo looks nice, but compared to the next photos you can see this is way too blue.

This image has a bit of a magenta tinge to it.

This looks kind of gray/green.

With a few clicks of the mouse, I get this, and on my monitor it looks the closest to what I saw, (and if I print it out, it will look the same because I have my home monitor calibrated to the same specifications that my lab uses for their equipment.)

As you become a better photographer, you will be more aware of those things that will make your photos better.  Correct color and white balance are important ways to improve your pictures.

P.S.

Our friends invited us to spend a few days at their lovely cabin about two weeks ago.  It was so peaceful and we had a great time.