It's All About the Light

Bangalore, India

Wow.  Some of you may know that there was a very real possibility that my family was moving to Bangalore, India this summer.  It's been a roller coast year for us and we were looking forward to the adventure of living in India for a year or two.  We could live in any city close to a major airport and after some research had settled on Bangalore.  Bangalore is a modern city (or at least has modern parts), has a large ex-patriot community and seemed to be the safest and the cleanest of our choices.  

About a month and a half ago, we learned that the job was not going to work out and we would be staying here in the USA after all.  It was disappointing....I had already planned the side trips we would take while living in that part of the world, Nepal, Thailand, the middle east...but we of course quickly settled back into life without all the worries of how to pack up a house and move two children across the world. 

This week, I am grateful to know that we  will be staying here.  Last Friday, there was a series of bombings in Bangalore and Ahemedabad.  Many were killed and even more were injured.   The bombs went off in busy market areas.  While we likely would not have been in India until the end of summer or into fall, knowing of this instability would definitely have caused a change of our plans.  If you can, please take a moment for the victims of these bombings.

Our First Year of Homeschooling

I thought I'd share a post that I just made over on my family blog.... (it is in no way photography related but I'm just a little excited and proud to see all that my son has learned this year at home).

We're finishing up our first year of homeschooling.  I know, some of you may be thinking "What?  It's summer, shouldn't she have already been finished up?".  Technically, I guess you could say that....but as a photographer, I have a couple of very busy months around the holidays so in order to lighten the schooling during that time, I've decided to also school lightly during summer. 

I pulled my son out of public school in October of last year.  This is roughly what we've done since that time (in between all of my portrait sessions, proofing, and ordering sessions LOL).

Science

Weather

Electricity

Properties of Light

Insects/Arachnids

Metamorphosis

Desert

Louis Pasteur

John James Audubon

Dogs

Mummification

Polymers

Geography

World Geography (identifying mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, landmarks, deserts)

Geography of Fertile Crescent

Geography of Egypt

Geography of China

US States

History

Prehistoric Times

Ice Age

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Mesoptamia

Ancient China

Titanic

Medieval (knights & castles)

US Presidents

Arizona history (prehistoric AZ, early native americans)

Math

Place value to billions

Rounding & estimation

Multiple digit addition w/ regrouping

Multiple subtraction w/ regrouping

Column addition

Calculator use

Skip Counting

Multiplication

Fractions

Adding basic fractions

Problem Solving/Critical Thinking

Solving for the unknown (aka algebra)

Geometry

Telling time to the minute

Read Alouds

a ton of picture books

Charlotte's Web (we're finishing up now)

The Spiderwick Chronicles (all five books)

The Littles

The Littles Take a Trip

The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe

The Number Devil

Just So Stories

Self Reading

Pugsley (he's in the middle of it right now)

Who Was Harry Houdini?

Who Was Leonardo da Vinci?

Wizardology

Math Curse (poetry)

Science Curse (poetry)

Tie Your Socks & Clap Your Feet (poetry)

A Pizza the Size of a Sun (poetry)

A bajillion of Star Wars books

Language Arts

Narration - Aesop's Fables, science experiments, biographies

Story Writing - writing & publishing own stories

Grammar - predicates, subjects, nouns, adjectives, plurals, complete/incomplete sentences

It has been a great year, a challenging year, a tiring year, but ultimately a rewarding year.    

Christian the Lion

My aunt sent this to me this morning. It is beautiful. One of those stories that brings tears to your eyes (or maybe I'm just a wimp?) and makes you feel good. Please watch and enjoy. After watching the video, I wanted to see if it was a true story so I checked on snopes.com. I'm happy to say this is true! These two men really did save this young lion's life and were reunited with him in Kenya. You can read the story of Christian the Lion on snopes.com . Just a little warning that the story doesn't have a happy ending.

Baby, How You've Grown!

I'm sure I've mentioned before how much I love photographing one year olds but it becomes even more special when I've photographed my subject a year before as a newborn.  

Meet little "E".  She is destined to not only be a beauty but to be talented as well.  How could she not be talented when she has a daddy that is a composer and a mommy who is an amazing singer?

And just for fun, here is one from her first photo shoot....

Just Back from Africa

At least that is what my daughter thought this afternoon as I began looking through the images from this morning's session.  She saw this image and asked if I'd "gone to Africa to take their pictures".  After looking at it through her eyes, I can definitely see how she could mistake the beautiful background for the Serengeti!  But, unfortunately, no, the K family and I did not do a destination shoot in Africa....although it was hot enough to be!

So, I guess this is a sneak peek of their sneak peek.....

Bedhead

Monsoon Season

Summers in Phoenix are monsoon season.  Monsoons are fast strong moving thunderstorms.  They come quickly with strong winds, lightening, often dumping torrents of rain onto the dry desert.    

When there is not enough moisture in the air for rain, the monsoon can take the form of a "haboob" or dust storm.  I have never experience anything else like an AZ dust storm.  In 2001, we were caught in one while driving back from California.   Within minutes, the sky went from blue to dark grey, our car was buffetted back and forth with the winds & dust.   Visibility went to nothing as we pulled to the side of the road.  Having  just moved to Arizona at the time and never having experienced a dust storm, it was definitely scary!  

I found this video on youtube and wanted to share it with those of you not from this part of the country.

Besides the dust storms, the monsoons bring flash floods.  The dry desert floor can only hold so much water from a monsoon.  The excess finds it's way into dry creek beds or overflows the streams with fast moving water.  Ordinarily, the flash floods occur in the more rural areas...areas with dry creek beds or small streams.  This week we saw something unusual.  One of the main freeways that runs through the valley was flooded when a monsoon moved through dropping close to two inches of rain in a very short period of time.  The freeway was actually shut down and people were stranded on the freeway for hours!

Isn't this image amazing? (I found it on one of the news websites)

I photographed a storm moving by our house the other day.  You can see by the contrast of the blue skies and the dark gray storm clouds just how quickly these storms can move.  (These were taken as I stuck my camera lens through the view fence in my backyard)

And then of course, from the front yard, there was a rainbow...

Whoever You Are

On the personal side of things, I have been leading my children in an author study of Mem Fox.  You have probably read a few of her books but may not have realized it:  Koala Lou,  Tough Boris, and one of O's all-time favorites at bedtime, Time for Bed

Mem's books always seem to touch on an important aspect of life, both happy and sad.  We've just read, Whoever You Are, and I thought I would share it with everyone.

Whoever You Are

© Mem Fox, illustrated by Leslie Staub,
published by Harcourt, San Diego, USA, 1996;
and HodderHeadline, Sydney, Australia, 1996.

Little one,
whoever you are,
wherever you are,
there are little ones
just like you,
all over the world.

Their skin may be
different from yours,
and their homes may be
different from yours.

Their schools may be
different from yours,
and their lands may be
different from yours.

Their lives may be
different from yours,
and their words may be
very different from yours.

But inside,
their hearts just like yours,
whoever they are,
wherever they are
all over the world.

Their smiles are like yours,
and they laugh like you too.
Their hurts are like yours,
and they cry like you too.
whoever they are,
wherever they are,
all over the world.

Little one,
when you are older
and when you are grown,
you may be different,
and they may be different,
wherever you are,
wherever they are,
in this big wide world.

But remember this:
Joys are the same,
and love is the same.
Pain is the same,
and blood is the same.

Smiles are the same,
and hearts are just the same -

wherever they are,
wherever you are,
wherever we are,
all over the world.
_______________

Another favorite collage

I've sold this collage a few times but haven't really used it lately. Today while working on a session, I decided to pull it back up and I am so happy with the results. 

Don't you just love her zebra diaper cover?

Another little doll...

I have photographed little "O"'s older cousin a couple of different times and now it was her turn!  She was such a doll....just so happy to just hang out with me and my camera! Take a look at those big round eyes!