Color Explosion

I can't seem to get enough of the beautiful, vibrant colors of spring. On our recent little jaunt to California, I was in flower heaven when we toured 3 of the 21 Spanish missions. This photo was taken at San Juan Capistrano, (where the swallows come back every March 19). There is nothing quite so dramatic as bougainvillea, (yes I had to look up the spelling), in full bloom. Here, contrasted with the textures and architecture of a mission wall, it presents a spectacular sight, (in my humble opinion). For those of you who love, love, love dramatic, prolific flowers, check back tomorrow. I intend to post a picture a day for several days of some of the most beautiful floral scenes I have ever photographed.

JJ's Baby Shower

I'm really slow in posting a few photos of the amazing baby shower that our neighbor and friend Hailey Kandell had for Michelle and JJ several weeks ago. (For those of you who read this blog and don't know, Michelle is the mommy of Gavin in the previous blog entry and is due to have another little boy in a few weeks. For now, we call him JJ, short for 'Joy in the Journey'). Back to the baby shower. Thank you Hailey for making this such a special day for Michelle. You thought of every detail, and we all agree this was the most elegant and fun baby shower we've ever attended!


If you want to see more photos of this fun party, here's the link:
http://karenlarsen.smugmug.com/gallery/8252567_K75XN/1/540010893_GofKE

Happy Birthday GaviBear!!!

Today is Gavin's birthday. We had a party to celebrate this beautiful little boy angel who brought so much joy to our family. For dinner we had his favorites: hot dogs, watermelon and blueberries. For dessert we had green rice krispie squares. (For his one year birthday party he also had green rice krispie squares with green frosting instead of cake because he was allergic to milk products.) We sang happy birthday, and his cousins blew out a Number 2 candle, then opened a few presents they got to keep. Then we watched some of our favorite videos of Gavin's brief life and laughed and remembered how cute he was, how much personality he had, and what a joyful little spirit he was. We then went to the cemetery and admired his beautiful gravestone and the tree Jaron & Michelle had planted to honor him. We all sent green and white balloons up to heaven. How blessed we are that Heavenly Father sent Gavin to our family and that he lived in our home for 8 months. We love you Gavin and look forward to living with you for eternity after this brief separation called mortal life is over. Here are some pictures of his one year birthday party, and a couple from today.

Phriday Phun

This really was a Phun Phriday! Here is our new Phriday night date car, and yes, definitely an old age/retirement crisis!!!!! And the most amazing part, it was my idea. So how in the world did this happen! A friend in the ward (Jeff's age), wanted to show us what he bought for his wife for their retirement. When we saw it, I said, "that's what I've been waiting for." I knew I wouldn't like straddling a 4 wheeler, and then there's the safety thing. This 4 wheeler side-by-side drives like a car, you are strapped in, has a roll bar and long arm suspension making it very difficult to roll over. Added bonus, can add a heater and sun top. I like that Jeff and I can ride together and talk about what we see, plus I can tell him when to stop for photo ops. We got it yesterday, and took it out for a trial run for our Phriday date! Yes, we have gone over the edge, but we'll be the coolest grandparents around !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (See link below)







Now check out this link to see what we will NOT be doing, (but the boys already have plans).
(I had a link with some crazy kids doing all sorts of not so safe jumps, but I noticed that the lyrics of the music they used to accompany the video were offensive so I removed it.)

Springtime In The Rockies

We have waited sooooo long this year to see colorful blossoms and warmer weather. Don't let this magical time slip by without taking a few minutes, (and a few pictures), to appreciate the gift of spring... the lilacs, the blossoming trees, the vibrant spring bulbs, the brilliant new greenery, the puffy clouds in the sky. I was leaning over the fence of my neighbor (and stake president's) orchard on the busy street in front our our house to take this picture a couple of days ago. P.S. This is how I like snow....far, far away as a backdrop.

Water.....Colors

This was taken in the atrium of the Bellagio. There were several of these huge water globes. Everywhere you looked there were either vibrant spring flowers or beautiful, soft focus reflections of vibrant spring flowers. This was truly a feast for the eyes.

Tech Talk Tuesday

Well, I've had several of you say you like my pointers on taking better photos, so I'll continue. We are still talking about COMPOSITION, and today I'll mention LEADING LINES. When you take a photo, you want to be clear about what the subject is and you want to draw attention to that subject. Some of the ways you do this we've already talked about, such as 'framing' your subject and 'simplifying' or removing elements that distract from the subject. Another way to draw the viewer into your photo and take her to the subject is with leading lines. Consider the following photos:

In this shot the diagonal leading line of the purple pansies and grass edge, leads your eye from bottom to top taking you on a tour of the beautiful flowers along the way. Special Note: diagonal or curvy lines are especially pleasing to the eye.


Here, Jeff and I were in a glass factory in Mexico. I was attracted to all the shelves of brightly colored glass. I was looking for a 'creative' shot, and this lady with a bright red shirt and purse walked into the frame. I loved how the bright red in the glasses and the line of the shelves complimented and moved my eye directly toward the lady. Of course, this would have been a much better shot if the lady had been Jeff or someone I really wanted to remember.


Here the large rocks in the foreground lead your eye to smaller rocks that point to the Tetons, which are the main subject.



And in this photo that I also posted earlier, I still feel like I'm standing in the middle of the road, looking right down the yellow lines to the red rock mountains in the background.

NOW, GO FIND AN INTERESTING SUBJECT THAT HAS A LEADING LINE DIRECTING THE VIEWER WHERE TO LOOK. (Remember that leading lines in and of themselves are boring. They have to lead to something interesting for the viewer to look at.)

Happy Mother's Day

A Mother's Love Influences Generations

This could be a photo of Amber or Michelle or any of the other young mothers in our extended family. I can't imagine a family more blessed than ours, where our grandchildren are so fortunate to all have mothers who are totally devoted to this most noble calling of motherhood. Young women with many talents and accomplishments, who could contribute so much to other worthwhile endeavors, yet know and believe the most important contribution they can make in this life is to nurture, teach and guide these beautiful little spirits Heavenly Father has sent to our family. I love how all you young mothers can keep in touch with each other through your wonderful blogs, where you share the joys, sorrows, accomplishments, frustrations and all the funny, unforgetable little moments along the road of parenthood. Thank you for rearing such amazing grandchildren!

Inspiring View

San Diego Temple

After our trip to San Francisco we turned around and drove back to California for a car show. We decided to take a few extra days to do some sightseeing. Our first stop was the San Diego Temple. We went on a session and by the time we got out it was dark. I set up my tripod, took three shots at three different exposures and shutter speeds, and combined them to get this magical image. The colors are just as they were, green lights and all. It is indeed a beautiful temple.

....Where Little Cable Cars......

Jeff and I had a wonderful time in San Francisco with his siblings and spouses a few weeks ago. The weather was beautiful, the sights, sounds, smells, tastes are like nowhere else, and the company was delightful. The only complaint any of us had was that our get-away was just not long enough! (Getting stuck in an elevator, stairwell and on a bus were just part of the adventure, not complaints....HaHa.) Great food, great times, great memories! Thanks Dave and Sherrie for coordinating everything.

Golden Gate Bridge

Well.....not so golden. Very early morning, very misty, shot very far away with a telephoto lens.
For those who want to see all of my San Francisco photos, here is the link:

http://karenlarsen.smugmug.com/gallery/8089015_tEUu4/1/527118915_FrwZB

Thursday Bummer!

This is what I woke up to last Thursday morning, (taken out of the kitchen window). Pretty yes, but I've had just about as much snow as I can stand at this point. Luckily we left that afternoon for a weekend get-away in San Fransicso with Jeff's siblings and spouses. We had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect!

Tech Talk Tuesday

A picture is much more interesting when you take time to compose the various elements in the picture artistically, which really means pleasing to the eye. Today I'll only mention one thing to consider, the Rule of Thirds. If you were to study photographic composition, this is probably the first thing you would learn. It is almost always more interesting to place the most important part of your picture off center. Imagine an imaginary tic tac toe board superimposed over your viewfinder or LCD screen, (like the one below), and put your subject in one of the 4 intersections where two lines cross.


I wish I had better examples to post, but since the 'crash' I don't have access to my last several years of photos, and I'm too lazy to pull older ones off of CDs or download from the website. So, here is a photo of tulips taken on Easter day, and another of the remains of an old building in Lehi that I passed last week. (I thought it would make an interesting photo, and titled it 'Stairway to Heaven' as a joke.)








As you can see, I've composed both of these photos to be 'off center'. I should have posted the same subjects set in the center. Side by side, I think you would agree that the 'off center' compositions are more appealing to the eye. (All this having been said, remember that at times all photographic rules are meant to be broken. As you think about your composition, there will be times when putting something smack dab in the center makes a stronger statement.) But back to the Rule of Thirds, I've saved the best for last.....

While I was watching the boys yesterday, I snapped a few of Chasey-bug. Even portraits usually look better if you place the eyes somewhere near one of the 'intersections'.

HE IS RISEN!

I just took this image of this morning's beautiful Easter sunrise. Can there be any holiday or message more important to mankind than this one - HE IS RISEN! And we, too, will be raised as well to be reunited with our Savior and our beloved family members. What peace and comfort this gives me to know that in time I will be with my parents and grandson again!

Phriday Phun

HOW OLD IS YOUR BRAIN!!!
This may drive you nuts!!

The instructions in the link below are in Japanese, so read the following English version and then click on the link:

1. Click 'START'
2. Wait for '3, 2, 1, to count down telling you the game will start
3. Memorize all the numbers' positions on the screen, then click the corresponding circles in order from the smallest number to the biggest number.
4. At the end of the game, the computer will tell you the age of your brain.

Mine is so old I could not even figure out how to play the game at first! Then I did it several times. This game must have been designed by someone who wanted everyone to 'feel good' about themselves. Three times my brain was 39, one time it was 37 and one time it was 29!!! Hey, I would have been happy with 50! Have fun, and I'd better have a few people tell me how old their brains are so I can confirm what I've always suspected...my family and friends are exceptionally smart!

http://flashfabrica.com/f_learning/brain/brain.html

P.S. Thanks to my friend Denise for e-mailing this to me.

MONEY and MEMORIES DOWN THE DRAIN - A Hard Lesson!

I keep all my photography on an external hard drive. With so many high resolution photos I don't want to bog down the memory of the computer's internal drives. I usually upload photos from my card reader, sort through them, save the ones I want. Then I copy the originals of important photos to a CD. Then I pull those up in Photoshop, do my post processing work then save the final images on another CD.

Then two summers ago after we got back from Belize I came down with a strange intestinal problem that lasted literally 9 months. I had every test the various doctors could come up with and nothing was found. Finally after about 9 months the symptoms slowly went away. It was at this same time that I had to produce a DVD about the YM/YW trek experience that I can only say was stressful and grueling. After that came the move into the house with all the chaos that brought and then summer and Gavin and Gabe. You know where this is going. I was preoccupied and lazy and just didn't back up my photos during that time. Now, for the past several months my 5-6 year old computer has been acting up. So I decided it was time to get a new computer which I did last week; and then my goal, as soon as it was up and running, was to transfer all my photos to a new external drive attached to my new computer. (Then instead of burning CD's as backup for all the photos I've neglected, I'd just keep safe the old external drive where they were all originally stored.) Talk about bad timing. The day I turned on the old computer to start this process, the computer goes crazy and the hard drive crashes. I'll skip the part about my tantrum, and the bizillion calls to Scott (my son-in-law and computer man), and other support services. Bottom line, I've taken it to a data recovery service. I'm waiting to see what they are able to recover. The good news.....after taking the thing apart, the tech thinks he can save a good share of the data....the bad news is that it will cost me between $500 and $1200. Yes, you read that right, there is no typo!!!!

With digital cameras we are able to take so many photos. It is easy to fill up cards and be lazy about either making hard copies, (printing them out), or procrastinate downloading them to a computer, and/or saving them to a CD. (Cards get lost or compromised, too.) When I read discussions on saving digital files, there still is a question about how long CD's will last, what happens if they get scratched or warped, what happens when the technology changes, (when was the last time you saw or tried to use a floppy disc), let alone how heavy several years of CDs are to store. (I have mine in a rubbermaid container, that I can hardly lift.) Many people save their photos on external hard drives not hooked up to their computer, but that certainly doesn't give me any comfort at this point. People who want to have an extra level of protection can subscribe to one of various websites that specialize in storing photos for you. The website I have www.karenlarsen.smugmug.com is just for that purpose. They claim to have user's data/photos stored on 3 separate servers in 3 separate parts of the country. I've been slowly uploading my photos to this website when I have time, but because I have so many, it takes time to sort thru everything. The real tragedy is that I have left all my family photos until the last to upload, because they are more complicated to sort through, get them in order and decide which folders/multiple folders to save them in. And of course they are/were on the hard drive that crashed.

The bottom line is that all important photos should be printed out, (hard copy), and displayed in an archival type album along with a copy on CD, and stored in a safe place. Something else for you bloggers.....you all have such a treasure of family history in pictures, every day stories, family events, etc. It would be a shame to lose these precious memories. Please find out how to back up your blog and also print out a hard copy. I'm sure there must be a way, but I probably won't get around to figuring that out for now. If anyone knows how, or can find out, please let us know.

Phriday Phun.........

You know how easy it is to get a speeding ticket going through the small towns in southern Utah on the two lane roads? We really try to watch for the signs outside of town that gives a speed limit change. On this last little jaunt we came to the outskirts of Loa, (I think), and I say, "Jeff slow down there's a cop on the side of the road just ahead." Of course Jeff slams on the brakes and we glide by the cop................................







Hey, wait a minute. There was something not quite right there. A block down the road we decide to go back to get a better look..................................



I guess the city budget of Loa is pretty tight! This guy probably doesn't get a very big paycheck, even though he probably is responsible for a lot less speeders going through town.....it worked on us!