Easter is right around the corner, right?
Tag: forest
Foxy Forest Tea Party
It’s been a while since we’ve gone to the local forest, I think I’m getting cabin fever. Tomorrow will be a forest day! But for now, here’s a little tea party. =)
Let Them Eat Crow
Ok, not really. But it’s an idiom that kept repeating itself in my head today. I needed to get out of the house, take a day of from painting and kneading clay, so why not do an impromptu shoot with the kids? First I needed outfits. I had this idea to make Anna match Tiarnan’s height by standing her on a chair, with a beautiful, full, lovely gown that hung down to the ground. Sadly, after checking the local thrift stores, I had to settle for two dresses: one short, velvet, and green, and the other a black halter that was much longer. Â Tiarnan scored a nice ugly suit, tie, and Rockport shoes for $7! Now, the reason most of my photos are in the forest is because that’s where we live. We’re surrounded by trees, and I’m not about to haul the kids into one of the abandoned buildings (hello next door house)…
The premise is that these two had gotten dressed up to go to a dinner party, where birds were “all the rage”. However, on their way walking to the party, Anna fell, the cage hit the ground, and their bird escaped. They’d spent hours in the woods looking for the bird with no luck. The end. Yeah well it was impromptu, right? All I can think of these days is the paintings and all those ideas floating around. =P
In Dreams and Top 5!
Guess what?! I got to be the first guinea pig to act as a guest picking the Top 5 over at Froknowsphoto.com! The theme was “City” and I tried to stick to the theme. There were a lot of great photos, and narrowing it down to 5 was actually harder than it might seem. Really made me appreciate, even more, what Jared Polin does just on the weekend themes. I skyped with Jared to explain my top 5 picks and the new theme. (I picked that too!)
So the new weekend theme is, “In Dreams”, because I wanted to try to make it fun and creative…but still allowing a WIDE variety of submissions. I mean really, we all know how vast dreams are. My submissions are two different themes. First being the “Eternal Bath”, which could go two ways. One, dreaming of bubble baths that never go cold (hello right?), or darker with dying in the tub. Don’t ask, nothing I’ve personally dreamed of but the idea was there.
The other idea involved Anna, which I can’t help but photograph her, she’s such a willing model! The idea is that in dreams she’s lost in the forest, afraid, until she happens upon a family of forest elves and ends up helping them collect acorns. My mom just happened to have these old elf dolls that she put on my son’s shelf, much to his disapproval. He thinks they’re a bit creepy.
The Woodlands
One thing I absolutely love about Pennsylvania is the woods. Waking up early in the morning to drive around the forests, looking for deer and other wildlife to catch a photo of. We’re a little intimidated to actually go IN the forest, because there seems to always be hunters lurking about. That and black bears.
Walking to School
This is something I think we only did when we lived Palm Springs, and that walk included a skateboard. In Los Angeles I rode the bus with *the* coolest driver, Mr. King, with his black finger-less leather driving gloves. But I digress. Here’s my last picture post for “school.” I’m moving on…
This last shot Anna set up and wanted the photo taken with the Lensbaby. Â I happily obliged.
The Hunter and The Deer
The new theme for this weekend is, “Victory/Defeat.” Trophies were the first thing that popped into my head, but not your standard winning trophy you’re awarded after a job well done at your sport. I’m going to go ahead and blame the fact we’re in Pennsylvania and always out looking for deer to photograph. Anyhow, hunting came into my mind. I mean, hunting for “trophies”, not hunting to feed your family. You do what you have to do! So yesterday I whipped up some paper mache antlers (I’m totally aware female deer don’t have them, but it’s fantasy) and a bow for my son.
 
 
Thankfully my children are always willing to be my models, especially when one gets a new play bow out of it, and the other gets to look like a deer. =)
The Reflection
I usually have a few pieces of paper in front of me where I randomly scribble out ideas for both paintings and photographs. One of my ideas was Anna in front of one of our old armoires, holding a doll, with the reflection being a ‘darker’ version of Anna reaching out for the doll. Due to lighting situations in the house, I changed it to a tall mirror in the forest. My mother kept asking when I was going to do that particular photo, and I kept putting it off. Well this weekend’s theme being “reflections”, my mom turned to threats if I didn’t take the shot… haha =) So we went out this morning and got it done. It’s not as dark as maybe I’d wanted to go initially, but I’m ok with that. The only problem is, I can’t decide if I like the black and white version, or the colored.
I took a little ‘behind the scenes’ of Anna in character. She’s always so willing to participate in photographs!
 
Chasing Fireflies!
The fireflies are out! One of the best things (aside from owning our house, having chickens, no shootings…) of moving to this small Pennsylvania town, is the fireflies! Growing up in California, I never saw a firefly, so it’s not only thrilling to my children to go out and catch them, it’s thrilling to me. Well, ok I don’t actually touch them because they’re still bugs and that’s just not going to happen. Instead I sit and watch the kids run around, jump up, slowly and steadily reaching hands out to catch one. Then I request a few be put in a jar so I can try to photograph them. =P
We’re actually heading to a forest area this weekend to see the Synchronous Fireflies again, and I can’t wait! It’s the most awesome sight seeing them light up at the same time. Sitting around a low fire, listening to the water in the creek flow by, and watching the forest light up.
Ok, technically that’s glitter, but it was earlier this year and I needed to recreate fireflies. =P
Forest Tea Party
Every now and then I like to try to recreate my paintings in real life. This time, however, I wasn’t going to bring the cats to the forest, so I used my daughter and her giant teddy bear. Â They enjoyed a nice little tea party in the forest.
