Embracing the Blur

Posted on January 29, 2013 by backyardsisters

Blurry pictures are not generally a goal in photography. But there are times that blur in a photo is used as a means of conveying motion. There are a couple of different ways to accomplish this. Calling upon my most faithful backyard model for this motion photo shoot, we dusted off the old cruiser bike and headed out. The first way to convey motion with blur is to put the camera on a tripod, compose the scene, set your exposure settings using a slow shutter speed (anything from 1/30 and lower will work) and have something or someone move through your scene.

The shutter speed I used for this was 1/25. I tried a slower one of 1/8 and it was so slow the subject was unrecognizable.

At the playground, a tether ball beckoned.

So, we set up and had some fun here.

For old time’s sake. . .

Another method of conveying motion is panning. This involves following a subject with your camera creating a blurred background and focused subject.

To achieve this effect, use the tracking mode in auto-focus (or as an alternative you can preset your focus to the spot you will be capturing your image), a slower shutter speed (once again anything from 1/30 down), holding the camera very steady follow your subject in the viewfinder and moving the camera in the same direction as your subject, shoot away. A fluid movement is key to this effect. If there is any jerkiness your subject will also end up out of focus. A mono-pod or tripod can be used but sometimes this is more troublesome, the choice is yours. This works best for subjects moving in a predictable motion that remain at a constant distance from you; subjects moving in a line parallel from you. Cars, bikers, joggers and pets (anything moving really) are all fun subjects for the panning technique. It can be tricky and may require some practice but is a fun tool to add to your photographic toolbox.

So go on and get out there and embrace the blur!

~ Susan

Précis:
Blur can be used in photos to convey motion and this can be achieved by using a slower shutter speed and keeping your camera still on a tripod while an object or something moves through your scene creating a blurry subject and focused background or by using a slower shutter speed and moving your camera with your subject creating a blurry background and sharp subject.

Practice:
Think of things in motion you everyday and how you can convey that motion in a photo.
Using a tripod, set up and capture the blur of something moving while the rest of a scene stays in focus.
Pan your camera with a moving subject. This may involve taking many photos to get one but it’s worth it.

Play:
Call upon your most faithful model and set up a scene with them in motion. Could be jogging, skateboarding, bike riding, scootering or even simply walking with gusto and try using both motion capturing techniques on them. Play around using different shutter speeds also.

The Weekend Dish – Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Posted on January 25, 2013 by backyardsisters

There are a few food scents that upon detection send me to my “happy place” – cinnamon, cloves, roasting garlic and to a slightly lesser extent coffee and cooking bacon. A new addition is curry. This month, I have been making dishes with curry more than usual and I have noticed it is beginning to have that happy effect on me. Recently, returning home after making this soup, I am transported to my aroma therapy happy place. The faint curry scent coupled with the delicate squash create an olfactory bouquet I view as a little gift to myself. In the five seconds or so I am mentally reveling in this gift, my daughter exclaims, “mmm, smells good!”, a bonus gift!

The squash, with the help of a few supporting ingredients, is elevated to a smooth, warm, savory delight and allowed to shine.

For this simple yet elegant soup. . .

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
2 Tbsp chopped, seeded jalapeño pepper
1 tsp curry
6 cups cubed, peeled butternut squash (about 3 pounds)
4 cups water
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp dry sherry

Heat olive oil in a dutch oven or large pot over medium heat. Add onion; cover and cook 5 minutes. Stir in jalapeño and curry, and cook 2 minutes. Stir in squash, water, and salt and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes or until squash is tender. Place half of the squash mixture in a blender ; process until smooth (or can be processed in pan using a hand held blender). Pour the puréed squash mixture into a bowl. Repeat the procedure with the remaining squash mixture. Return the puréed squash mixture to the pan and stir in the sherry. Can be brought back up to a simmer and kept warm.

The perfect dish for warming a cold, winter day.

Try it this weekend and see if you will be transported to your “happy place”.

~ Susan

Lessons from winter

Posted on January 24, 2013 by backyardsisters

Can I weave a nest for silence,
weave it of listening,
listening,
layer upon layer?

May Sarton, from “Beyond the Question”

I told you once, there are four of us Backyard Sisters. Today’s post comes from the eldest, Theresa, prompted by a telephone conversation.

“I drove in the dead winter,” she tells me one day. “From Des Moines to Minneapolis. And it was darker than dark except for headlights on the highway. And I thought of letters flying through cyberspace, of too many words, like those headlights.

“And I thought of a poem by May Sarton. Then I wrote this for you.”

Theresa’s my hero. She finds a way to quietly approach life, to focus as if each moment, each person, each word matters. I’m happy to share my big sister with you. Here’s Theresa…

“words once spoken, can tear down or build up – but can never be destroyed.”

I wrote that when I was 14 or 15 years old, probably after an angst-producing adolescent moment – and I still think about words a lot.

This 27 ft x 17 ft sculpture, Nomade, is by Jaume Plensa, who “envisioned the letters as building blocks for words and ideas, in the same way human cells form tissues, organs and bodies.” It sits in Des Moines’ outdoor sculpture park.

I too believe that words and ideas form us in the same way our cells give us shape and I believe that we are all the better that words can’t be destroyed or we would have lost our earliest stories.

But one must first become small,

nothing but a presence,

attentive as a nesting bird,

May Sarton, from “Beyond the Question

I also think about how today thoughts can be casually dispatched as quickly as you can type and in a split second be launched at someone or some group and preserved forever in our digital minds.

I picture cyberspace as the darkest of nights, illuminated by flashing lights like lightening bugs and trailing comets, letters strung together careening and whistling to their intended targets.

And then I think about us, how we see this chatter, day and night, incessant words, constant words, bathing our thoughts and I wonder what will come of this, what are we building?

What happens in a world when conversation is mostly visual and there are few pauses between our words? Where are the spaces in our communication now, the opportunities to pause and reflect before answering, or to just sit in comfortable silence with one and other.

Beyond the question, the silence,

before the answer, the silence.

May Sarton, from “Beyond the Question

This amazing technology that allows us to connect instantly is for the most part a gift, allowing families and friends to share their lives in a way never before possible. But like all blessings, it might also be a curse, teasing us into believing that putting thoughts into words without pausing to consider the effect or substituting virtual reality for an opportunity to connect with a real person is the way it is supposed to be.

I have no answers – I suppose when the telephone first became available to most people, there were those who declared it unnatural and dangerous to humanity, most likely by someone like me who tends to think too much… However, quite by accident, I stumbled upon a book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle.

Sherry Turkle is director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and the Self and spoke with Krista Tippett about this topic on “On Being” recently. Do you think we really expect less from each other? I’m going to download the book on my Nook and start reading.

You don’t expect me to throw the baby out with the bathwater do you? I’ll let you know what I learn. Until then,

Happy wandering –
Theresa

p.s. Catherine here ~ What would happen if today, this week, this year, you focused on treating the words you release as precious as art, as air? Celebrate silence. Be attentive “as a nesting bird.” Speak and write carefully.

It’s a Wild Life

Posted on January 22, 2013 by backyardsisters

I am a paparazzo. Positioning myself in the optimum position to capture the subject while trying to remain hidden so as not to spook it. There have been rumors of sightings. I have actually seen them here before, in this exact location, but this time they are proving to be elusive. I lay on the ground as flat as possible behind a large bush, checking the camera settings; at the ready, finger on the shutter. . . there he is! Snap!
It’s a goldfinch! Joining another one for breakfast.

Not unlike celebrities going about their daily lives, birds are difficult subjects – camera shy, flighty, never staying too long in the same spot – downright evasive.

Sometimes you get lucky and are able to catch them at rest.

Giving you more time for focusing and composing the shot.

More often than not though, you will be trying to capture a moving object . . .

When trying to get that shot, and focus on the avian subject, you have choices. You can use auto-focus or manual focus. When choosing, auto-focus there are options within that choice – the options I describe pertain to Canon cameras, so if you have another type you will have to refer to your user’s manual for the exact terms for your camera. The auto-focus options are: One Shot mode – which is used for still subjects, AI Servo – for moving subjects ( if the subject is moving and the focusing distance keeps changing the camera tracks the subject) or AI Focus – for switching between the two ( if the subject is still and then moves it will switch to the AI Servo mode from the one shot mode). The auto-focus mode can be nice for capturing active subjects out in the open.Take your camera to a location where you know those celebrities congregate out in the open; perhaps near your local watering hole.

Start in either the AI Servo or AI Focus modes and shoot away.

Often, our feathered friends choose to hang out in trees or on bushes with a lot of branches. This can create a problem with auto-focus because if the bird takes flight the camera will sometimes try to focus on the branches. The other option is manual focus discussed last week. If having trouble in auto-focus mode switch to manual focus and see which setting works best for you in your situation.

Sometimes those avians can be very accommodating. . . “I’m ready for my close-up!”

Keeping both eyes focused in the trees.

~ Susan

Précis:
When using auto-focus there are options as to how the camera handles the focusing of a subject. If your subject is still use One Shot mode, if your subject is moving use AI Servo mode and if your subject will be still at times and then move choose AI Focus mode.

Practice:
Use auto-focus in each of the three different settings and conditions this week and see how your camera responds. Birds make excellent action subjects but choose whatever you like.

Play:
Become a bird paparazzo capturing your subjects by being as unobtrusive as possible so you can catch them acting naturally, or catch them before they fly away!

The Weekend Dish – Thank You

Posted on January 18, 2013 by backyardsisters

Dear One,

(You are amazing. I love you beyond the clouds and back.)

I found your note, tucked under the honey jar after the dinner party. It’s hard to know exactly what made you underscore “amazing.” Was it the dancing in the kitchen after cheesecake? The roaring laughter at the table when you told that story about a sprinting basset hound? Whatever dear friend, it was really nothing, you know, nothing more than deciding to open up the door, serve a little food, and add some candlelight. For the record, you are amazing too. And for that, I’m grateful.

A few years back I had this idea to keep all my Thank You notes. At the time I thought I’d collect a pile, then paper a wall with them, or create a room border, maybe modge-podge them onto a tray. Yes, I’ll pause while you chortle. At my earnestness. At my utter disregard for the fact that I have no crafting ability. But still, I save these treasures.

Thank you for including us! We enjoyed meeting some of your friends.
Thank you for spending a Saturday afternoon with me at the AFI Fest…
Merci pour the less-buttered chocolate cake…
Thank you for a wonderful semester of learning!
Thanks for your love and support during what has to be one of saddest times of my life…
Thank you so much for sharing your time, your words, and your poetry…

Thank You notes remind me of good times and of the importance of helping friends through the sad ones. They’re a living scrapbook of parties I’ve almost forgotten, of cakes I’ve made so frequently that I tend to I overlook how they might still be special to another. Thank You notes, sent and saved, draw in pen the invisible web of connected lives.

This weekend, take a minute – that’s really all it takes – and send a Thank You note. Or, if you’re like my friend, write a note and tuck it in a hidden spot where it will be discovered later. Either way, show a little gratitude for big things, yes. But focus on the small things too; the time spent together, the cake, the poem, the words said at just the right time.

To our readers, on this our 100th post – this one’s for you. You are amazing.

With No Crafting Ability Whatsoever Except When Using Words
~Catherine

Rock, paper, scissors…

Posted on January 17, 2013 by backyardsisters

Focus. Focus. I need to focus, to find an image, a metaphor to guide when life’s rapids churn around blind curves and threaten to upend me.

Rapids of the Reuss, Illustration from 1,000 Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe

What’s the point, I wonder, of crafting a vision for a life, without a symbol? I try on images like new dresses. Words from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden echo.

…beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit?

The first time I heard of a life image was when my daughter’s friend, poised between college graduation and a new career, said “I want to be the Swiss Army Knife, you know, that guy who’s helpful in any situation.”

I’m not a knife. I am a rock. I am an island.

No, I’m not a rock. A stone is too immobile, improbable. Too cold.

Paper. Paperback writer, (paperback writer….) Too ephemeral. Too easily ignited by flame and burned to ash.

Scissors. Sharp. Sharp tongued. Rock beats scissors.

Quick jot.
Things I love:
You. Of course. And…
Ocean. Freedom. Literature.

Woman’s search for image simmers on the back burner as I unpack more boxes to fill the new bookcases J built for me. I find Dove by Robin Lee Graham, a yellowed, dog-eared souvenir of my teenage reading taste. “The true story of a 16-year-old boy who sailed his 24-foot-sloop around the world.”

Sailboat? Closer.

I unpack a stack of freshly printed copies of dirtcakes, the literary journal I founded. I remember when I first hatched the idea of birthing a journal and asked around for inspiration. A friend told me his favorite was Kayak Magazine. George Hitchcock, Kayak’s founder, used to say,

A kayak is not a galleon, ark, coracle or speedboat. It is a small watertight vessel operated by a single oarsman. It is submersible, has sharply pointed ends…It has never yet been successfully employed as a means of mass transport.

“…operated by a single oarsman…” J and I kayak together and I’m a terrible backseat paddler. Yet a daytrip to Venice Beach finds me walking along the canals, thinking of vessels, maybe boats with only one seat, not “a means of mass transport.”

Did you know almost 100 years before George Hitchcock started Kayak Magazine, another man took off alone to explore Europe in a canoe, selecting that vessel because,

…in the wildest parts of the best rivers…these very things which bother the “pair oar,” become cheery excitements to the voyager in a canoe. For now, as he sits in his little bark, he looks forward, and not backward. He sees all his course, and the scenery besides. With one sweep of his paddle he can turn aside when only a foot from destruction.

He can steer within an inch in a narrow place, and …can shove with his paddle when aground, and can jump out in good time to prevent a bad smash. He can wade and haul his craft over shallows, or drag it on dry ground, through fields and hedges, over dykes, barriers, and walls; can carry it by hand up ladders and stairs, and can transport his canoe over high mountains and broad plains in a cart drawn by a man, a horse, or a cow. (From A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe on Rivers and Lakes of Europe by J. MacGregor.)

Kayak. Canoe. Canoe. Kayak. Some websites say the words are interchangeable, others cite leg and seat position as defining characteristics between the two. Kayak is a palindrome, a word that reads the same from front to back. It moves only through human effort, glides silently, is open to the sun and moon, the breeze and stars. So too, the canoe.

Maybe for once the word matters less than the image. Kayak. Canoe. A noun. A verb. A vessel wherein the wildest parts of the river of life can, “become cheery excitements;” a vessel wherein the paddler “looks forward, not backward…and can jump out in time to prevent a bad smash;” a symbol to take along into the big wide open year.

With wobble and strength,
~Catherine

Précis:
An image can remind you to stay on track with the life vision you set for yourself.

Practice:
Explore things you love – books, places, people – for ideas to create your own personal image. Settle on this image/metaphor for the year. Post it in a spot you see every day.

Play:
Read about others’ adventures where a single object becomes metaphor. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick immediately comes to mind. What, that doesn’t sound like play to you? OK, fine; go out and kayak. Then send us a focused photo.

Pay Attention and Focus

Posted on January 8, 2013 by backyardsisters

Focus . . .

Maybe it’s just me, but why can it be so hard to focus sometimes? Is it that there is so much to do that choosing one or two things to concentrate on is downright difficult? Or, is it that fun opportunities trump work, which can be OK, for awhile, but eventually those responsibilities won’t be able to be put off any longer? Once the decision has been made to buckle down and focus on a task at hand, it can be eye opening.

Photographically speaking, focus is important. It shows what a photographer is trying to express by drawing attention to an object or person or part of a whole. Yet, achieving focus on the subject in your pictures can be as difficult as focusing on areas of your life. For DSLR users, I have a few tips to offer and aid in finding focus this month. First things first, it’s time for you to tell the camera what you want to focus on and don’t rely on the camera to know what you want automatically. When in auto mode, the camera chooses the focus points based on the shooting conditions. Sometimes this works, but sometimes it doesn’t and when it doesn’t it can be frustrating. You end up with your subject out of focus and something in the background in focus. To correct this, put your camera in manual, aperture priority, shutter priority or program mode, choose a focus point and take back creative control.

It can turn your world upside down, in a good way! Now that you are out of auto, the first thing is telling your camera where to focus. Go ahead get bossy! Most modern cameras have at least nine auto-focus points (some have many more), which are the spots the camera will look to achieve focus when you have your lens set to auto-focus. Using the selection point button, you can choose one of the nine points by highlighting one and then using the dial to move the highlighter to the different points. If you highlight all the points the camera chooses automatically which point for each shot, so choose one. Often, the center point is the most sensitive and hence fastest at achieving focus, because it uses cross type focusing and the others don’t. But, maybe you don’t always want your subject in the center of your picture. What then? You can do one of two things; either change your auto-focus point to one of the others that is closer to your subject or focus using the center point and then recompose your shot. To do this, push half way down on the shutter button and when focus is locked in, you will either see a red highlight of your focus point and/or hear a beep, keep holding the shutter down half way while recomposing your shot and placing the subject where you would like; then push all the way down on the shutter button taking your shot.

While recomposing, it is important to remember to keep your subject in the same focal plane or risk loosing focus. Now, go out and practice, practice, practice!

This year, we are offering suggestions of ways to practice and hone the skills you may learn from Backyard Sisters and feel free to let us know how it’s going.

To Recap:

Getting out of auto mode and telling the camera where to focus, will give you more creative control in your photography.

Challenge Yourself:

Think about what you want to say in your photos this week and how focus can help convey that message.
Use any mode but auto and use the center point to focus lock and recompose
Also, try switching auto focus points using the point selection button

Cavort:

Try using the eyes of a person or an animal as your focus point in a photo this week. If the person is angled and the eyes are not on the same plane, focus on the eye closest to you.

Keep in mind, according to Mark Twain, “you cannot depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus.”

Imagine away,

Susan

“Get up! Get up!”

Posted on January 4, 2013 by backyardsisters

I dream last night of my grandmother, my mother’s mother, the one my sisters and I call Gammy. She was one of the original Backyard Sisters, the youngest of four girls born in an Illinois small town. She always wore high heels and a silk petticoat, carried a patent leather pocket book, and never pierced her ears.

Gammy, far left

No one laughed like Gammy, or danced like Gammy, and lord knows no one loved or was loved quite like Gammy. Our mother, an only child, and we, her four granddaughters, were the sun around which she revolved. She was the kind of grandmother who, with each hello or goodbye, would clasp her hands around both your cheeks, pull you within inches of her own face, and with her eyes drink you in like whiskey the first night Prohibition was lifted. Not that Gammy ever drank. She was a confirmed teetotaler. Her giddiness bubbled purely from joy at being alive, surrounded by family.

We girls loved her back with reckless abandon.

Gammy has been dead now for almost 12 years. But last night, when she leaned over me, right there in the moonlight, white lacy dress fluttering as she circled her hands over my head and cajoled, “Get up! Get up! Get up” I was only slightly surprised. See, even though I use the term “dream,” to name these occasional encounters, it feels like a much more substantial spirit than my subconscious. The other sisters will tell you their own stories about Gammy visits. It’s like she was right there, right there in the room… The only difference between our stories is what she tells us.

“Get up! Get up!” Oh my Gammy knows I’m struggling with rising out of the holiday stupor of too much food and too much fireside reading and too much nothing-to-do. It’s January 4 and I haven’t yet set my intentions for the new year, haven’t decided yet what to focus on.

And focus I must. Why?

Because, like the holidays, my to-do list is rich with too many good things and I’ve been acting like that squirrel in the headlights, unwilling to say yes to anything because I’ll have to say no to so many others.

There is one sacred rock. Family. There are 22 of us now, our parents, we four sisters and mates, our own children and in-laws. We gather at least once a month to celebrate birthdays, or graduations, or holidays. We bake Gammy’s cake recipes and roast chicken like she did and never say we’re too busy to sing and dance in the kitchen.

But work projects are essential. Our writing, teaching and photography sustain us and pay our bills. And then what is life without trying to leave the world a little better for someone else? Nothing! Gammy would say.

So in honor of what would have been Gammy’s centennial year, the Backyard Sisters decided to challenge ourselves.

We’ve selected 12 photographic terms, one to concentrate on each month. These words convey a message, or capture a moment, a mood. We’ve picked expressions that easily become inspiration and metaphor for family, for creative projects, for our place in the human collective. They’re essential to saving life’s ordinary moments from the brink of oblivion; without these intentions meaningful art and life become difficult.

Our theme for January is focus. Works for photography. Works for poetry.

“It Is Out Of Focus” by Joel Lipman, (Poetry Foundation)

Ansel Adams once said, “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” (LensWork, Issue 55, page 33.)

The Backyard Sisters welcome you to 2013 with words, with photographs, and yes sometimes silence, just to remember.

Each day we all travel one step closer to the inevitable endless silence of death. The challenge then is to leave behind the words, images and memories that when recalled will reflect our best efforts.

Are you with us? Then “Get up! Get up!” The program begins on Tuesday. Until then, think about what deserves your attention this year.

With focus,
~Catherine and Sue

waiting and watching and wishing and hoping

Posted on November 27, 2012 by backyardsisters

While doing the morning dishes and looking out the back window lately, I am entertained by the sight of finches using our bird bath. One recent morning, I grab my camera, stealthily creep out to the backyard and stage myself close enough to hopefully allow for an action shot of the activities. Sitting as still as possible with camera poised I wait. . . and wait; for a half an hour, at least, I wait and not one bird comes close to taking a dip. A few days later, still determined to capture the activities, I venture out again. This time trying a new location a little farther away and armed with a 100mm-300mm zoom lens. About fifteen minutes in, my mind begins wandering. Thinking back, many years ago, to when we purchased the bird bath and one of the backyard daughters, Michele, was about four years old. We lugged it out to the carefully chosen spot in the garden, placed it in the dirt wiggling and maneuvering it back and forth to level it and filled the bowl with water. Michele was excited about the new addition to the backyard and couldn’t wait for the first visitors to arrive for a bath. “How will they know it’s here?” she queried. I assured her the birds would be able to find it but she decided to help out and rode around the backyard on her pink bicycle with training wheels and streamers hanging from the handlebars shouting, every few seconds, “Birdbath! . . . Birdbath!” Unfortunately, it had the opposite of the desired effect and eventually we decided to wait and watch from inside the house. Sitting there in the yard, warmed by the sun and the fond memory, I waited once again. This time there were a few birds but they seemed to distrust me and kept their distance and a watchful eye on me and the bird bath.

No birds were brave enough to dive in that day either. Not one to give up easily, I decide maybe third time’s a charm. Same zoom lens and location, I stake out once again. A few minutes in, there goes my mind again. Thinking of the upcoming holidays and trying to decide when to begin decking the halls, I realize many of the plants in our backyard are festively red and green at this time of year. The pepper tree’s berries are just ripening.

As are the toyon berries.

The only rose bush flowering in my garden right now is the one with the red blossoms.

Spirits lifted by this unexpected holiday gift, I notice the loud caw of many crows nearby. Looking up, I see a beautiful hawk with a crow in hot pursuit.

Those crows are relentless.

Getting back to bird bath watch, I notice there are more birds in the yard getting closer to me and the bath this time. One is slowly working its’ way over. Finally, it alights on the bath; although it is partly obscured by the foreground plant.

It is barely there a second, as I achieve focus and start snapping away, it is spooked and takes off.

Photography can benefit from patience, also the occasional wandering mind to help pass the time and alert the eye to other photo worthy subjects in the area doesn’t hurt. I am not through yet. My spot is waiting and I dare say the birds are becoming accustomed to the occasional visitor. I will be on bird bath stakeout again soon. I want the shot of the water flying as the birds wiggle and splash in the bath and I will get it!

With perseverance, persistence and a bit of meandering,

~Sue

Thanks for the Opportunities

Posted on November 20, 2012 by backyardsisters

Thanksgiving is a couple of days away and while a great deal of my time lately has been devoted to perusing recipes, in my recipe box and magazines; reading the accompanying articles about planning the meal and following countdowns to the feast, creates nostalgia for Thanksgivings past. The urge to take a break from the food planning, sent me to my photos. Thanksgiving offers a wealth of opportunities for photography. The table alone can hold many items which make excellent still life subjects.

Try some macro photography as well…

The action in the kitchen presents another chance to capture memories from the mashing of the potatoes to the slicing of the turkey, every activity is worthy of a memory – even putting the turkey down for its’ rest before slicing.

Here’s a tip: if you are in the vicinity of the turkey as it is being sliced, you may be called in to service as a taste tester!

After the main meal, before dessert, there is nothing quite like a rousing game of photo tag for allowing your food to digest.

These reminiscences are fond ones. Recalling the fun of preparing and sharing the meal with loved ones warms my heart. One thing I did notice while flipping through my photos, I don’t have many pictures of the food. This year, along with my usual people pictures, I am going to make an effort to capture the food in all its’ succulent glory. Better get back to those recipes and deciding what to make for my veggie side dish.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

~Sue

backyard sisters

Saving ordinary moments from the brink of oblivion

Tag Archives: photography

Embracing the Blur

The Weekend Dish – Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Lessons from winter

It’s a Wild Life

The Weekend Dish – Thank You

Rock, paper, scissors…

Pay Attention and Focus

“Get up! Get up!”

waiting and watching and wishing and hoping

Thanks for the Opportunities

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