Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Weeks 26, 27 & 28

Week 26: An Old Friend

I wracked my brain on what to do for this picture. I live in Utah, about a million miles away from all of my old friends so it wasn't like I could call up a pal and have her come over for a photo shoot. I considered things like a tub of ice cream or a book I've liked for eons. In the end, it suddenly came to me and I knew exactly what I was going to take a picture of.

Meet Rainbow.


I think I got Rainbow when I was five years old. I can still vividly remember settling into bed with him (yes, for some reason Rainbow has always been a he) on the night that I received him from a neighbor. I remember my mom lying there with me and asking me what I was going to name it. I couldn't decide and she prompted, "Well, what does it look like?" And then I replied, "A RAINBOW!" 

His eyes are yellow and the plastic has caved in because I used to pop them in and watch them pop back out and then, one day, they just stayed indented and I was sad for awhile. He's faded into very muted colors and one of his arms is barely hanging on. But, for a twenty five-year-old bear, I think he's doing alright.

I slept with this guy from the age of five until the age of 17 with nightly regularity. During the summer after my senior year of high school I "weaned" myself off of him because there was no way I was taking a raggedy old bear to college. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't sleep with him when I came home from school. That bear knows more secrets and has caught more tears than any one living, breathing person. He is truly an old friend.


Week 27: Diptych

I didn't even know what a diptych was and totally had to rely on a series of websites to explain it to me. "A diptych is a photograph that uses two different or identical images side by side to form one single artistic statement. The two images can literally be in contact with each other, or separated by a border or frame."

So, the other day we were outside playing with a slip and slide. Our yard is pretty flat so I decided I'd set the slide up on our actual play yard slide and pray against broken bones. I rapidly shot as the boys slid down the slide. Then I put together this diptych which caught Garrett in the act of sliding and then his face post slide.

Week 28: Weather

We've been experiencing thunder and lightning storms in these parts. The other night, on our way home from our Community Life Group, we saw some fantastic lightning. When we got home, Troy jumped out of the car and took the boys inside to get them ready for bed and I drove up to the top of a hill by our house. I had our good camera but I don't know how to use it beyond pointing it and snapping some shots. It didn't have anything to focus on so it just kept flashing but never taking a picture. Apparently I need to learn how to use it in a manual setting. Well, quite irritated, I drove home and switched out the good camera for my every day, cheaper one.

That camera has a delay and I was unable to get any picture with lightning in it. I would see an incredible flash bolt through the sky and I'd snap only to look at the picture and see nothing but black. So I just started taking dozens of pictures of the black sky hoping that, eventually, a lightning bolt would occur.

And that's exactly what happened. Except it was way off to the right of the frame. So I kept taking pictures but never getting anything but the dark sky. Eventually, it started pouring so I drove home. I was pretty disappointed. Until I loaded the one picture that I did get onto my computer.

Just an ordinary, tiny, point and shoot Canon photographing the extraordinary. I'm pretty happy with the results.

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