Photography as Hobby Part II

Candid. A term I learned fairly early on in my snapshot days. As the word relates to photography, it means taking pictures of subjects acting naturally or spontaneously without being posed. Less of having the kids standing in stair steps, saying 'cheese' and more of capturing them unaware. Kari was playing in the sand and pebbles along the river in Jester Park when she looked up just in time to see me taking her picture. (Note the closed right hand - full of small rocks, I'm sure.) This has always been a favourite picture of mine.

Now, this one is really candid! What a happy child playing in the dirt. Not only playing in, playing with. How did she know the benefits of facials at such a tender age? Another favourite photo.

Preston looks absolutely delighted in this picture. Or is he just grinning because he had spilled his cereal bowl? One thing is for sure, we all enjoyed trips to the farm to see Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Louis. He was probably just happy being there.

What was Doug thinking last November 14? He was holding his little grandson, Rodney, whose first birthday we were celebrating. Was he thinking about being a Grandpa? Was he wondering why his Mom couldn't go anywhere without a camera? Maybe he was just thinking about another piece of birthday cake.

Back to my attempts at capturing scenic moments.........

Early this spring, on a day I didn't think the storm clouds looked all that threatening, we stood on our deck and watched a tornado form then touchdown only a few miles west of us. I managed taking several photos of it before it went back up into the clouds. I've seen many tornadoes from a distance in my lifetime, but this was only the second time I was this close to one and the first time I got pictures.

How many times had we whizzed down I-40 in northern Arizona without ever taking the short side trip to see Meteor Crater? Watching episodes of Meteorite Men with Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold on the Science Channel got us interested in meteors, so on our way to visit Lorrie and Kevin and the boys in February, 2010, we finally stopped at this fascinating place.

I had assumed it was a national historic site, but it is owned by the family of the man who first identified it as a meteor impact strike, Daniel Barringer, which means we had to pay admission instead of using our National Parks Pass. But it was worth it. The visitor center has an interactive discovery area, a wide screen movie theatre which shows "Collisions and Impacts", a gift and rock shop, the Astronaut Memorial Park and walking trails and viewing decks around the crater rim. From where I took this photo, it is 550 feet down to the bottom of the crater - one place visitors are not allowed to go. Meteor Crater was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1967. It is also known as Barringer Crater and Canyon Diablo Crater.

We were headed to Winterset to visit Preston's one day when Bud said, "Did you see that heron?" "What heron?", I asked. He was already turning around. "That would make a good picture", he informed me. Just west of the intersection along Hwy 92 on the south side of the road is a small pond. When there has been enough rain, the overflow spills out in a small waterfall. This stately heron was perched at the edge of the fall. Bud was right, of course, it did make a good picture.

On the Monday after Christmas, we had a lot of fog which sent me out in search of photo ops. I love all the hoar frost on everything. This photo of spider webs on the hen and chicks in my strawberry jar was just one I took that day.

The one I took of the frost on the trees near the Civil War Monument and the flags in McKinley Park tell a better story of what the weather was like. Looking at pictures of snow is one way of trying to stay cool on this very hot (97 actual, heat index 105 degrees) July day.

If it weren't quite so hot, we could go fishing down at the pond; maybe get this big catfish back on the line. It was just a year ago when Bud had it almost landed before the line broke. Once again I was going for an artistic shot. The fish was thrashing back and forth causing splashes and swirls in the water. I almost succeeded.