Photo Friday: A Blushing Model

 

A beauty peeks out from among the green.

Better late than never! Our Early Girl tomatoes, which I dubbed the Late Babes a week ago, finally are adding some much-needed color to our vegetable garden. And that color definitely is RED!

I took the above photo on Sunday after seeing a distinct shade of orange peeking out from among the many green Girls. Could we finally have a tomato to eat?

Eureka!

Yes, sir, that’s our ’mater! Ain’t she a beaut? I pulled it off the vine Wednesday and then last night I cut it open and ate it all by its lonesome . . . no lettuce or dressing to diminish its flavor.

Looks tasty!

The verdict? Delicious and nutritious! Ain’t nothing like a homegrown tomato. I can’t wait until we have more, so I can eat my fill. Judging by how the Early Girls looked this morning, it won’t be long!

The more, the merrier!

 

Happiest birthday wishes

Today is my neighbor JJ the organizational whiz’s father’s birthday. Mr. J is a temporary Texan now, as he battles cancer at M.D. Anderson. A blog shout-out to Mr. J on what I hope is a wonderful birthday. Have a great day, Mr. J!

More Distracted Disc Golf Photography

Kent shoots his way out of the jungle.

Remember a while back when I got distracted by softball when I was taking disc golf photos? Looks like it’s going to be an ongoing problem.

Curious dragonfly

Such is the nature of that dastardly Nikon 105mm macro lens! I see so many things other than disc golf action whenever I have it slapped on the Nikon D300 . . . which, quite honestly, is why I use it. I’ve taken my share of disc golf photos using the Nikon 70-200mm, my standard outdoors action lens. But that gets boring after awhile. When you’re someone who thinks outside the box (usually because no one will let me in), you use unconventional glass for action pix. Which you hope will lead to more-interesting photos.

Take last Saturday. The Mister and C.J. were playing in a small tournament that was basically in the backyards of two local disc golfers. Really! They had set up nine baskets, with alternate tees for nine different holes, in the field in front of and behind their houses. It helped that one of the guys’ sister-in-law lives next door, so they could use her yard, and that all the houses were on an otherwise empty cul-de-sac. Behind the yards was a large, green area that backed up to a small creek and some woods. A perfect location for chiggers (excuse me while I scratch the approximate 518 bites on my feet) and for a unique disc golf experience.

C.J. lets the disc fly.

I started out taking action photos . . . until I saw that dragonfly. Then all bets were off, and I was suitably distracted.

Large purple flower (hope I’m not being too technical)

Of course, there were the usual flowers that the 105 seems to be drawn to.

Yellow flower (hey, I’m trying my best to dumb it down!)

I kept trying to get a snap of a butterfly, but this was the best I could do.

Even moths like flowers.

There even were some “trespassers” on the property: This is a crawdad mound. Chuck, one of the guys’ playing partners, kicked one over and left the poor crawdads homeless. We’ll probably see them under a bridge in Houston, asking people who have stopped at the light if they want their windshields washed. Tragic stuff!

The elegant, high-rise crawdad mound

When the tournament was over, there were even more distractions while we waited for the results.

C.J. shows off his bball ability.

I was content to snap a few here and there of C.J. showing off, when Sam took the basketball in hand.

Sam vs. the windmill

Holy cow . . . look at that windmill! That became my model for several minutes, as I experimented with different shutter speeds to blur it.

Blurry vision

So was I really distracted last Saturday? Distracted? From what?

Another Day, Another Bad Awards Ceremony Photo

A very unhappy #2 camper

You’d think I had learned my photographic lesson with Jake’s recent awards ceremony, right? But where’s the fun in that?

Last night was C.J.’s turn to win a couple academic awards—one for three years on the AB honor roll and another for three years of A’s and B’s and three years being commended in math and reading on our evil TAKS test. Who woulda thunk it? Even C.J. figured he probably was going to get a sports award (not that he did)!

But last night also was the weekly disc golf mini at a course that he likes . . . at the very same time. Of course, he wanted to play, but the Meanest Mom in the World thought that while he can play disc golf any old day and twice on Sundays, he’ll only be able to endure his eighth-grade awards night once. Of course, the Mister was very helpful in convincing C.J. what was the right thing to do (where “very” equals “not at all”).

Me: “Don’t you think he should go to the awards night?”

Mister (who also wanted to play disc golf): “Whatever you decide is fine with me.”

Me: “Thanks for making me the bad guy!”

Glad no one else could see what he was thinking!

C.J. reluctantly agreed to go as long as we went out to dinner after. Unlike his big brother, he knew that he should dress nicely, opting for a red polo shirt (red being his favorite color) and khakis.

Sidebar: The pants were the same ones that Jake fit in last year. C.J. is in one of those growing-every-day modes, so I’m glad we have a hand-me-down big brother.

The venue for C.J.’s ceremony was markedly different than Jake’s, and I thought I was prepared for that (as if!). It was in the cafeteria/commons an hour earlier, and there was a row of windows to let in light. Jake’s had been in the very-dark high school auditorium. I thought I’d have enough light for a decent shot at 1250 or 1600 ISO, but I probably should’ve used my Nikon 85mm f/1.4; instead I opted for the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8. There just wasn’t enough light to stop the action, especially when you’ve got an unhappy camper who’s scurrying across the stage.

Get me outta here!

Of course, I knew I’d get my “money” shot outside where I didn’t have to worry about the light. But I did have to worry about getting the grumpenstein to grin. Fortunately, the Mister cajoled C.J. into smiling, so I could snap a winner.

Award-winning #2

Maybe I’ll have all this awards ceremony photography figured out by next spring!

And yet another award

They call him “Coach!”

C.J. did earn an unexpected sports honor: He was selected as a Coach of the Season for spring flag football (there also were two guys, but they co-coach). This is the second season that he has coached a team in the third-/fourth-grade division, and he does it all himself: He has his own snazzy playbook (thanks to mom’s desktop-publishing skills), runs practices, and teaches skills. What I’m proudest of with him is that unlike too many of the dad coaches, he makes sure that every boy on his team gets a chance to catch and run with the ball, no matter his skill level. He’s teaching wonderful life lessons to boys who are only a few years younger than him, who always will remember him for what he’s given them.

C.J. was taught to do this by one of the fairest youth flag football coaches out there: His dad.

Car Wash and a Movie

 

Heading into the car wash

An old favorite singer of mine, the late Jim Croce, wrote a song called “Workin’ at the Car Wash Blues.” Someone working at a car wash might have the blues (the guy I saw certainly didn’t look very thrilled), but I love driving through the car wash! Hey, sounds like a great song title!

When I went to get gas for my car yesterday at Buc-ee’s, I noticed that the price was a whopping 20 cents cheaper with a $5 car wash. $1.79.9 for gas plus a badly needed cleaning? Count me in!

Sidebar: This would be the Honda Pilot’s first car wash since it came to live with us in November. Dirty? Definitely!

I gassed up the Pilot and drove around to the automatic car wash. It’s not fancy, but it does a decent job for $5. Since I just happened to have my Canon PowerShot A590 point and shoot, I was able to document the whole experience for my reader(s) as I enjoyed someone other than me scrubbing my car clean. Sit back, relax, and relive it with me. Unless you’re claustrophobic, of course.

Soap time

Let's bring in the brushes!

Brushing the windshield clean

Now I know how teeth feel when they’re about to be brushed!

Watering off

Things continue to clear.

Ah, the clean windshield!

Back outside on a beautiful day

Something in that fifth picture worries me. Could it be the monster that hides in the car wash giving the workers the blues? Might make me think twice about driving through again!

The Car Wash Blob!

Movietime

General Custer and Ben Stiller

The family saw “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” yesterday. As with all sequels, this wasn’t as good as the original. Both the Mister and I rated it as just average, but the boys loved it. #1 deemed it worthy of his top “10” rating (which he gives to just about every movie), while the more-discriminating #2 “only” gave it a 9.5. See this one for the kids.

Tie-Dye Fun

 

The #1 son holds up his chemistry experiment.

My favorite part of high school is that almost all busy work is done in school. Unlike elementary school, especially, when parents (where “parents” = mom) have to be hands-on with lots of things. Like science and history projects.

As I was basking in the glow of rarely having to help the #1 son, who is finishing up his high school junior year, he handed me a large Ziploc bag with a wet, colorful mess inside and an ominous note filled with instructions attached to it. It was his chemistry project, the infamous tie-dyed shirt. Time to stop surfing the net and help my son turn that mess into something he can wear to school tomorrow.

#1 had done the hard part, which was the most fun: Tie-dying the shirt in no discernible pattern during class. It was up to us to provide the finishing touches.

#1 son: “We need a bucket to rinse my shirt.”

Me: “Your dear brother broke the bucket.”

Sidebar: The #2 son has a penchant for breaking things. Well, him and “Ida Know,” as in “Ida Know who broke it.” That’s what #2 son said when I found a cracked picture frame. I guess Ida Know also throws balls and discs inside the house.

I needed to pick up a prescription for the Mister at our local CVS and figured I’d find a bucket there. Here’s what I bought:

Will the shovel come in handy?

I brought it home. The #1 son groaned. Guess it was a little too small. We looked in the garage and found a styrofoam cooler that, of course, had a crack in it. Wonder what #2 was using it for when he no doubt broke it. But it held enough water, so we were in business.

The process of setting the dye including numerous rinsing and wringing out of the t-shirt. I handled the hose and the camera (my Nikon D300 with the versatile Nikon 17-55mm lens), while #1 took care of his shirt.

First rinse—colorful water

A dripping, bright mess

The second rinse

The water is almost clear!

The #1 son is proud of his work.

After the shirt was rinsed out, it went into the washing machine (by itself in hot water with a squirt of dishwashing liquid) and then into the dryer. And that’s it for #1’s chemistry experiment!

Of course, that wasn’t the end of my experiment. I became intrigued by the water coming out of the hose and just had to snap a photo. This was at a shutter speed of 1600 with an aperture of f/2.8 (200 ISO):

My very own waterfall

Not very colorful but still very cool!

In memoriam

We are humbled by the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice while in service to our country so that we can live free.

Photo Friday: Send Yourself On a Field Trip

 

Beautiful bottlebrush bushes

Photo Friday photo tip: Send yourself on a neighborhood photo field trip! Armed with your camera, you never know what you’ll find that will make an interesting subject. This also is a great chance to get to know your camera better. Experiment with different settings; change up your lenses if you’re using a digital SLR. Without the pressure of having to get a great shot or document an important event, it’s easy to have fun!

Recently I slapped my wonderful Nikon 105mm macro lens on my Nikon D300 and walked around my neighborhood to take photos of the beautiful blooms of spring. Flowers are great subjects for photo shoots. They usually stay still, so it’s easy to keep them in focus. You can practice shooting wide open (aperture set on a small number, like 2.8 or 3.5) and changing your focal points for different effects.

Bottlebrush

Flower photography cries out for a macro lens, but it’s not a necessary expense. Just move in close and focus.

Lilies

My next-door neighbor, Tami, is as great at gardening as we’re bad at it. The contrast between our yards? Let’s just say it would help her win numerous yard of the month honors. These are beautiful lilies for us to admire.

Oleanders

These gorgeous oleanders hang down over our backyard fence, courtesy of our other next-door neighbor, JJ the organizational whiz. Others might have planted these beauties so close to us in order to mock our lack of green thumb talent. But JJ is too nice to do that . . . I think.

Here are more flowers that I admired on my photo field trip:

Red flower

Pink flowers

Cool-looking whitish flowers

Yep, I like the flowers in the ’hood, but I have no earthly idea what they are! The Mister and I had admired the above whitish flowers outside of our local P.F. Chang; I was surprised when I saw a bunch of them (“bunch” . . . is that the proper gardening term?) near our house.

Extremely off-topic sidebar: For you “Lost” fans . . . if Miles’ dad, Dr. Pierre Chang, had the middle name of “Frank,” he’d be Dr. P.F. Chang! Sigh . . . the #1 son didn’t think it was funny, either.

Sometimes taking close-ups of flowers can yield very unexpected results. You never know just who or what will be hanging around, glad to be pictured in a blog!

Hey, little guy! Thanks for visiting!

Will Our Tomatoes EVER Turn Red?

It’s a jungle out there!

It’s almost been nine weeks since we planted our garden. We’re still battling the weeds, as always, but we’re seeing even more veggies growing among the greenery.

Are the Early Girls late?

We have a bunch of Early Girl tomatoes, which were the first variety to appear in our garden. Supposedly the Late Babes should have ripened by now, but they’re still green as could be. I give them—and the rest of their veggie brethren—a pep talk every morning. So far none have thrown themselves at me.

Roma tomatoes

If all the tomatoes ripen and don’t get pecked at by the pesky birds, we’ll have a boatload for salads and snacks and sharing with our neighbors. IF!

 

Cute cherry tomatoes

Better Boy tomatoes

It’s not just tomatoes that are busting out all over! We have banana peppers and green peppers almost ready to pick.

Banana peppers

Bell peppers

But those cucumbers? So far, we’ve had one grow to a smallish size and drop off its vine. It was delicious! Otherwise, it’s a waiting game. We know from last year’s crop of a bazillion cukes that they’ll show up so suddenly, it’s as if they’ve dropped from the sky. We can wait.

Cucumbers-to-be

Hopefully, the next time I update the garden’s status, we’ll be seeing lots of RED scattered among all that GREEN!

 

 

Easily Photographically Distracted

 

Will it be a hit?

I started out Saturday with such good intentions. Really, I did.

I was tagging along with the Mister and the #2 son while they played disc golf at a park close to us. I was going to be content with taking action photos of them and the other players, as well as any compelling wildflowers that haven’t begun to wilt in the heat yet. And that’s what I did . . . for awhile.

Chuck butterflies a putt into the basket.

Don't know what it is, but I like how it stands alone.

Billy tries to get his upshot close to the basket.

The #2 son has an easy putt for par.

Then I lost all focus (well, except when I looked through my camera lens, of course). The nine-hole disc golf course at this park is merely a sideshow to the main event: a beautiful softball complex. And what happens at beautiful softball complexes on Saturdays? Softball! A large tournament was being played, and all too soon I felt drawn to document the action. As a sports photographer, I’ve shot my share of baseball and softball. I’ve always especially liked the interplay between the pitcher and batter.

The pitch is on its way to the batter.

Because I didn’t expect to have this opportunity to shoot softball, I had my trusty Nikon 105mm lens on my Nikon D300, my favorite glass for wildflower pix. Normally, I would use my Nikon 70-200mm lens for softball, but I had to make do. Once again, the 105 proved to be a versatile lens.

The windup

And the pitch

I ended up having a lot of fun taking photos of both sports. I discovered that being so easily distracted can be great for your photographic versatility!

No Awards for My Flash Photography

 

So nice of the high school to protect the #1 son's blog privacy when they showed his slide!

The Mister and I are busting our proverbial buttons over our #1 son, who is finishing up his junior year in high school. Last night we went to the high school’s spring awards night to watch our pride and joy walk across the stage and accept his two honors: Best student in advanced (non-honors) Algebra II and in advanced Music History. Before we left for the school, I pondered my photographic options for documenting this grand occasion.

Sidebar: Early on in the #1 son’s high school career, he declared that as long as he passed every class, he’d be happy.

Me: “You’d be satisfied with making all D’s?”

#1 son: “Absolutely!”

Me: “Think again!” Where does he get these ideas? Why in the world would he think that his father and I would accept D’s when he’s capable of mostly A’s? Boys!

That put him on the road to better grades, culminating in this year. He made straight A’s the first semester and is close to duplicating that success once again (hold good thoughts for his Webmastering I final grade!).

But, as usual, I digress. I once tried using a point and shoot digicam when #1 won a math award, and the photo looked awful. So I opted for my trusty Nikon D300 and Nikon 17-55mm lens, figuring that I could up the ISO, all the better to throw the built-in flash further. As the Mister and I settled into our cushy seats in the school’s auditorium, it suddenly dawned on me: Duh . . . I need my big, external flash, not the underpowered built-in! Bad timing, unfortunately. Definitely a V8 headslap moment.

This is what happens when the "ace" photographer forgets her external flash.

The above photo was the best I could get while the #1 son walked across the stage to get his medals. Thanks to Photoshop CS3, I was able to lighten the photo enough so you could tell who’s in the photo. I used ISO 1250 and barely got enough light for a barely acceptable picture.

Sidebar: Yes, the #1 son is wearing a polo shirt, shorts, and sandals at an awards ceremony. Yes, his mom did tell him that he needed to wear long pants, which he hates (good thing we live in south Texas). Believe it or not, there was one other boy there who wore virtually the exact same outfit . . . and I’m sure there was an equally exasperated mother also sitting in the audience.

"Hurry and take the picture! I'm not going to smile!"

My strategy for good awards photos? Take pictures after the ceremony where the light is good. The above pic was taken outside with my grumpy guy. I wanted him to smile, so, of course, I pulled out my handy, dandy, guaranteed-grin trick: I asked him to say “horseradish.”

At first, the #1 son was determined it wasn’t going to work. But I just patiently waited . . . and soon he cracked—a smile!

Horseradish gets him every time!

I guess #1 has never heard those pearls of wisdom from the musical “Annie”: “You’re never fully dressed without a smile!” Especially if you’re wearing shorts and sandals to a somewhat-dressy event!

Surviving Another “Survivor” Season

 

Survivor: Tocantins—the final four

Last night’s “Survivor: Tocantins” finale proved that nice guys can finish first! The ultimate nice guy, James “J.T.” Thomas Jr., complete with a disarming Alabama drawl, was only the second unanimous winner (Earl Coles of “Survivor: Fiji” was the first over the infamous Dreamz).

Full disclosure: Watching “Survivor” is one of our favorite family activities. We’ve seen every season of the show together (the first season in reruns on cable), and we’ve always enjoyed guessing who will be voted out, as well as who will win. We’re just weird that way.

This was one of the few times that it was obvious who was going to win. The 24-year-old J.T. played the complete game: He won plenty of immunity challenges, including the final three; he was a hard worker; he was extremely likeable; and he had that awesome southern drawl! Plus he was cute to boot. He went up against Stephen Fishbach, his best friend in the game, in the final. We thought Stephen might get a vote or two, but J.T. turned out to be more popular (he also won the $100,000 Sprint favorite player award). In the game of “Survivor,” just like in high school, popularity counts.

Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George

Even though we really liked both J.T. and Stephen, we hated that they dumped Taj in favor of taking Erinn Lobdell to the final immunity challenge. Taj was part of their Jalapao threesome that turned the game on its ear post-merge. The guys’ reason for opting for Erinn over Taj was totally illogical: They thought Taj might have a better chance to win the immunity challenge. Hardly! Taj hadn’t come close to winning a challenge all season, while Erinn almost beat J.T. in the previous one. We would’ve respected the guys much more if they had stayed loyal to Taj, who was more deserving of the final three than Erinn.

J.T., Erinn, and Stephen take the fallen comrades walk.

That being said, we still have to give props to Erinn, who proved to be the game-changer for the outnumbered Jalapao tribe post-merge. She wisely defected from Timbira where she was sixth and last to Jalapao where she figured she’d at least finish fourth. Ending up third overall was great for her. But it still should’ve been Taj in the final three!

Coach: One of the most-colorful players to ever play "Survivor"

Dumb move time

First rule of the post-merge in “Survivor”: If you have a tribal advantage, vote out the other tribe before you pick off your own players. Timbira, which had a power struggle between Brendan and Coach, didn’t get along enough to remember that they had the upper hand, 6 to 3. For the final two to be both from the outnumbered Jalapao tribe? Unbelievable! At the reunion show, Stephen said Coach unwittingly helped them by providing inside information that he had gotten from Tyson to J.T., enabling them to anticipate Timbira’s moves.

Ah, Benjamin Wade, aka Coach! He was a trip!! Always spouting philosophy about warriors and being held captive by natives. Definitely one of the most-colorful players in “Survivor” history. That being said, our family was so glad when he was finally voted out; he wasn’t one of our faves.

Stephen keeps busy with the final immunity challenge.

Random “Survivor” snippets

• Loved the final two immunity challenges! It’s always tougher on the production team to come up with interesting challenges when they’re in a landlocked area. The penultimate contest looked like a tarantula; it was so cool! The final one was a-maze-ing . . . it was the ball and chute maze pictured above.

• What about that bromance between host Jeff Probst and Eddie George, Taj’s husband? Holy cow, any opportunity to spend time with the former pro football player. It was a veritable lovefest! No offense to Eddie, but I’d rather they had spent more time with the “Survivor” cast.

• Loved, loved, LOVED that J.T. is a mama’s boy! His mom had pestered her cattle-ranching son for three years to apply. He also would quote his mom from time to time while on the show. Pretty cute.

• The show is promised at least two more seasons; in the fall is “Survivor: Samoa.” We still love it and plan to watch it, no matter what. There’s just something about how unpredictable this social experiment in adverse conditions becomes after 39 days with former strangers that captures our fancy.

• A shout-out to Ethan Zohn, the winner of “Survivor: Africa,” who has been diagnosed with cancer. Here’s hoping he remains a survivor.