Cousin Camp, 2017, part 2 of 2

post #346
          July, northeastern Kentucky, we get together so the kids can get to know each other, with not much scheduled except for daily late afternoon swims in the pond (weather permitting) and meals and lawn darts (this year-- thank you, George Ella) and walks to the waterfalls and in the creek on the way and make believe and board games and books and playing with the kittens, the cat, the two dogs, and getting eggs from the five chickens, and catching lightning bugs of an evening and maybe a fish in the pond. Somehow it all works.

 One of the three kittens:

 The pond after some rain! Luckily, for most of the time, the pond was clear.

At the pond, all three in pjs!

Practicing for the upcoming group photo (see last week's post). Nothing as wonderful as Christmas pjs in July! Very cool!

Back at the garden, celery -- PLANTED FROM SEED -- is thriving. Bravo, Jeremey!

      I also "used" the kids for help with a book project George Ella and I have been working on.  One of the photos needed concerns eggs. Since our plan is to use a few photos of these kids on other pages, I had the idea this time to use all three kids at once, each holding an egg from the chicken house. What follows is the start of a "photo session" and then a closer view of just their hands. I tried to combine the work of figuring out how to do what I asked without making it a lot of work for them. In this case, work meant holding still.... This whole project is in progress, but I thought that sharing some of on-going process might of interest.  Thank you, A, T and W!!

         I'm leaving room to add a few of Rebecca's photos from Cousin Camp, but she has been busy celebrating their tenth anniversary, right after CC ended.  Note: I added her photos Monday evening. It's been a very busy, but happy, time.

congratulations R and J!! (The plate was a wedding gift from my sister, Haven, and her husband, Robert, who live in California. Not available at your local mall store.)


FIVE PHOTOS BY REBECCA O. WRIGHT

pixels and posterity, saying it again

post #224
     Last weekend, our community celebrated the long life of Mary Foley Carew, who at 97 had a small stroke and died two weeks later.  I am sharing this because, as a photographer,

a lily on my daughter's table, taken with my iPhone4s!

one of the things I think about is the photograph the family will want to use for the service or perhaps for the obituary in the newspaper.  Her family are close friends of ours, so the photo they chose was one I had taken almost 6 years ago during a visit to our home.  I then discovered that for some as yet unknown reason the photo did not have quite enough pixels to be blown up to a large size!  But otherwise her photo was just right for the occasion.  I am honored that they were able to make good use of it.  Mary, we miss you and love you always.
 

         What I have said before, and I am sure I will feel called to say again, is that everyone should keep a fairly recent photo around that has adequate pixels, and, even better, have a print made.  I am not sure yet if the Carews needed to scan the print they had in order to get a high resolution version or if they made do with the pixels I emailed them. 
       After Mary's lovely service, I was talking to a friend there who also loves photography. I shared with her my concern that having a photo on one's cell phone is NOT the same as having a reliable print or a guarantee that there is a photo if needed for public occasions. 
        I asked my friend "Do you have a photo if you were to need one next week?"  She said no.  "Well", I replied, "I happen to have my camera right here and you look great.  Do you want me to shoot a photo for you?"  Most people had left the church by then so she decided to go for it.  Here are two of the photos I took and will send to her to print or keep on hand.  (She hasn't seen these yet...) So I say again, Take.a.real.photo.  Make.some.prints.now.

      It is getting to be late afternoon, and I haven't yet made it down to our waterfalls to take a photo of their being frozen from top to bottom!  So I am going to finish this post for today, after this one last photo.  My neighbor's eggs.  An egg basket from Lou Martin years ago.  And a timely comment, that these eggs are different colors on the outside, but they are all good eggs on the inside.  My heart is with the people of France as they stand together today after so much tragedy.