Powder Point Bridge In Winter

It was a chilly day with a biting wind down at Duxbury Beach today (in Duxbury MA) This is the Powder Point Bridge. Shortly after this image was taken, there were some heavy but brief snow squalls blowing through the area.

Wordless Wednesday 12/28/16

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus

Well hello!!! I hope you enjoyed your Christmas Day yesterday, and to all of my Jewish friends and followers, Hanukkah Sameach!!!

We had a wonderful day yesterday with our family. One of the highlights of the day was our birthday party for Jesus. Ryleigh is only three yrs old, but she has an understanding of the true meaning of Christmas, and she amazes me. She wanted to blow out the candles for baby Jesus. :-)

Island Grove Abington MA

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah from my family to yours!!!!!!

Christmas Memories

I hope all of your Holiday plans and "to do lists" are going well. One thing I find very bothersome is when people complain about the "stress" of the Holiday season. This shouldn't be stressful! It is a time for us to celebrate and we shouldn't lose sight of the meaning of the season.

So today I started my holiday baking. It's funny how the little things in life can bring back such strong memories. I'm sure it happens to you as well. As I was making my apple pie, I grabbed the measuring spoons out of the drawer. These measuring spoons belonged to my Mother....they are very old metal spoons, but are still very usable. As I grabbed the spoons and looked at them, childhood memories of me baking with my Mother for the holidays came flooding into my head. I grabbed the spoons tightly and tears came to my eyes. I miss her so much. It will be three years this February since she went home to Heaven but I felt her presence as though she were baking alongside of me today.

It's funny how an object such as measuring spoons can do that to you.

And here's the final product........an apple crumb top pie that I bake for my Father every year. He loves this pie and I love to bake it for him.

Wordless Wednesday 12/21/16

Seagull Landing

                                                   "Shelter From The Storm"

Juvenile Swan Island Grove Abington MA

We had some snow here today so I went down to the local pond (Island Grove) with my camera to take some pictures.

This is a first year juvenile swan.......with an attitude. Typical teenager......

Wordless Wednesday 12/14/16

Country Christmas Tree

Most of the house is all decorated for Christmas. I put everything up about a week ago. The only thing not up yet is the "Family" Christmas Tree. I have my small "country" tree up in the living room. It is decorated with all ornaments that I love.

 The Family Christmas tree goes up in the family room. The ornaments and decorations on that tree are simply treasures to me. Many of the ornaments we have had since we were married. Then there are all of the ornaments the kids made in school throughout the years. Plain and simple.......these are priceless.

Here is one of my ornaments from my "country" tree.

Isn't he adorable?????

Marshfield Pond VT , Black and White

I was thinking about what to post today on the blog, and while going through my images, I decided to make one of my Fall images into a black and white photograph. I'm a lover of color, and don't usually do much black and white photography but decided to go for something different today.

A good black and white photograph has pronounced shadows and shapes. It also has a good deal of contrast. A good black and white image also has white "whites", black "blacks", and various tones of gray. I decided that I would give one of the Fall images I made after sunrise at Marshfield Pond in VT a go with black and white processing. I used Nik's Silver Effex Pro2.

I was fairly happy with the result.

Wordless Wednesday 12/07/16

First Snow Of The Season

And so it begins........

We had or first few flakes of snow for the season today here in Southeast Massachusetts.

I phone picture taken out the window at work today.

Doggy Belly Rub

It's been forever since Rudy has made an appearance here on the blog. I was sitting here watching the Pats game (how about Tom Brady!!!!) and Rudy jumped up on me to get a belly rub. I happened to have my camera with the 35 mm f1.8 lens attached right beside me. I thought it might be fun to document the belly rub.

Someone needs a bath and a haircut as well..........

Christmas Photo Shoot Test Shot

Yesterday was a fun but very tiring day. I set up a pseudo photography studio in my bedroom, and had all 3 Grand Kids over to shoot their Christmas photos.
I tip my hat to all of the professional portrait photographers out there.....especially the ones who shoot children. It's a lot of work and it's not easy.  At ALL!

The image I am sharing today is the very first picture that I shot of the day. I had Ryleigh lay on my bed to do a test shot. (I set up Christmas lights hanging off my headboard)

I was fairly happy with this image, and I loved the bokeh that I got from the Christmas lights. I was thinking "this is going to be easier than I thought." Boy, was I wrong!!!! It was extremely difficult to get a decent shot of 3 year old Ryleigh with her 2 and 1/2 month old brother. One would look good, the other one not so much. And visa versa.  Then there was almost 7 month old Henry who refused to smile for Nana's camera. He would just stare at it with a straight face. It took an act of Congress to get him to smile.

Nana was very tired by the end of the photo shoot. :-)

I will share some of the Christmas pictures I got of them, along with the set up that I used in a few weeks. (Don't want to put them out publicly in case they use them for their Christmas cards.)

In the meantime I hope you enjoy this picture of my pretty little Ryleigh!!! xxoo

Porch Sitting

I had to put on the brakes and then back up the car when I saw these two sitting on the porch as I was driving by. This was one photo op I didn't want to miss. The Fall reflection in the window was an added bonus.