Opportunity Knocking

Recently I was contacted by a friend about an opportunity to become a published photographer. As you might guess, I said I was definitely interested. Well this past week things began to materialize.

It might be noteworthy to mention that the book that these photos will be for are about Garden of the Gods and its history and people. I spent the day with the author at Garden of the Gods shooting numerous photos. I learned a lot about the place that I didn't know in the process. We discussed other areas she would need photos of, and timeline, as well as discussed a later meeting date to review the final selections.

As it turns out, this works perfectly. Next weekend, I have a class taking place at Garden of the Gods, preceded by an early morning shoot in the park, followed by a critique. Just the thing for this project I think. To say I'm excited it putting it lightly. This is just the thing I need to start my photographic portfolio for my second career :).

Teaching Faith

A recent post on a blog I frequent has me thinking out loud, so-to-speak. My AnyMommy friend wrote a post about teaching her kids faith while still teaching tolerance of other's beliefs. Which raises a good question, just how DOES one achieve this?

When Beosig and I first had Kiernan we had the religion discussion. Both of us come from different backgrounds, and the beliefs are not the same. Similar, yes, but not the same. Neither of us attend any church regardless of our beliefs, yet that does not mean that we do not believe.

Our neighbors are very religious folk, and there was a time I did ponder entering Kiernan in bible school with their kids to get some exposure. I am fully prepared to answer the inevitable questions about it all, and completely expect I will have to research for some answers depending on the question. Much like Stacey, (aka AnyMommy), I too have concerns that by attending bible school the education received will be slanted towards certain beliefs and that one way is better than all others which is not what I want.

So how do we go about teaching faith without teaching it in such a way as to ensure that no ONE way is the BEST way?

I was personally raised in a family who is split. My Mom's side of the family is Catholic, my Dad's side of the family is Mormon. To say I have mixed feelings is a serious understatement. It left me so confused that honestly half the time I do not know WHAT I believe.

The Mormon church made it all so appealing to kids by having many, many organized fun activities on weekends and evenings, but I was not permitted to attend for reasons I am unsure of. Perhaps a good thing, I really do not know. The Catholic church my Mom attended had few, if any events geared towards kids, so honestly I had no desire to attend. I was forced to attend though, for many years. It made me resentful to be forced into doing something I had no interest in. It also made me more mindful as a parent to realize that Iwill never force Kiernan into doing things associated with faith. I want him to go because of his own desire, or perhaps curiosity, not because I wish to make it so. My ultimate desire for Kiernan is to educate him in what is out there in order to ensure tolerance of other faiths and beliefs, because in my eyes, there IS no "best" way to believe. To believe otherwise simply breeds hostility towards others, and there is enough of that in this world without encouraging that in children.

Living in Colorado Springs, I see VERY strong influences by Focus on the Family. Many of which I disagree with personally, but that doesn't mean I dislike their faith or think they are "wrong", I just do not believe in the same way they do.

So dear readers, I leave it open to comments and suggestions. How do you suggest teaching faith in a non-slanted, non-biased way? Is there a book or a website, or even a method that you have used or seen in practice that achieves this?

Off to the Races!!!

Since I was a girl, I've always had a certain fondness, as many girls do, for horses. It started with the "Blaze" series in children's books. It lead to Black Stallion and subsequent books. I remember begging and pleading for a horse as a kid and my pleas falling on deaf ears. Then my close friend at the time got a Shetland pony and we went riding together. After she moved away, the whole horse subject matter was temporarily moved to a side burner, but the desire never died.

There's something about horses, 1,000+ pound creatures that move fluidly and gracefully in every manner of their being. Creatures that could trample us if they so desired. Yet somehow, we manage to tame them and they accept us as passengers on their backs. There is absolutely nothing on God's great earth that is more beautiful to watch than a horse running.

Living in small-town Great Falls, Montana, we just so happened to have a race track. I went to watch the races every year during the fair. Being a small town, I was able to get right up front, close enough to taste the dirt as the horses went flying by. I love the horse races and everything about them. The crowds, the anxiety of the horses coming onto the field, the trumpet announcing the loading of the horses into the gate, the quiet just before the starting bell and the gates flying open and then the fun begins!

 The horses leap into action! The ground shakes as the horses thunder down the track. Dirt flies into the air behind them.

Having seen Secretariat when it came out in the theater, I told Beosig to get it for me for my birthday. The movie appealed to my desire to see horses run, and it is shot from an angle unlike other horse race movies I have seen previously; from that of the back of the horse. Well Beosig delivered.

If I had all the free time in the world that I would like then I would have watched it about 20 times by now. Sadly that is not the case and my 3 year old does not completely agree with my own desire to watch the movie over and over. Perhaps I can change his mind by taking him with me to a race or two while visiting my hometown later this year... It could offer a great opportunity for some photography work too!

Catching Up

My last post was in early November and I'm feeling a little neglectful of my blog readers. Lots has happened, so I'm going to throw it all into one post that will probably turn out to be relatively lengthy so bear with me.

In mid November I had my first visit to Kiernan's would-be preschool. Now Kiernan was only 2 at the time so this is a little early, but we had recently talked with his daycare teacher and she mentioned she thought he could benefit from some speech therapy. One thing led to another and we ended up going in for evaluation to see if he could enroll in the local school-district funded program called Child Find. Kiernan's evaluation determined he fell into the bottom 7% as far as his speech capabilities so we managed to get into the program. The way it works is he sees a speech therapist 2 days a week at the preschool (which also happens to be in the elementary school) he would normally attend.

I was in a bit of a culture shock I guess when I visited the school the first time. The doors were locked, and had badge readers on the doors. There was a check in routine in the office for visitors and the doors only unlock at the last few minutes before class begins for the day. The bell to indicate school beginning, and class ending wasn't so much a bell as a buzzer of sorts. Man, school was never like that when I was a kid, we could come and go all day and the office was on the second floor, far removed from the main doors. Wow, post Columbine school is different.

Kiernan attended his first day of preschool on November 29th. He LOVES it there. He often asks to go see his teacher, Debbie even on days he is not due to attend preschool. His speech has improved, and we have even gotten comments of the same from his teachers at daycare.

The end of November brought Kiernan's third birthday. Three! Where does the time go? We again did a shared birthday party with our friends in Castle Rock who have a son that is 2 days older than Nathan. Sadly, I have yet to go through the photos, so I'll try to get those done soon and post some.

Sometime around the end of November or beginning of December Kiernan decided it was time to be a big boy and graduate out of diapers! We are both elated at this. It has been trying, but he is now able to make it all day at school with no accidents (most days). We worked on achieving the same at home, and got down to about 1 accident a day, so definitely progress.  He still wears a diaper at nap and bedtime as he seems to have no control then, but it will come with time.

December came and we did a couple of fun things outside in the beautiful weather. Kiernan has a certain fondness for Christmas lights that became apparent this year. I was thankful for this as it brought back the Christmas spirit that I had lost years ago thanks to Beosig's less than enthusiastic response to the season. Something about ghosts from his childhood...whatever. I don't hold it against him, but it did kill my spirit outright. I used to be the type that would easily spend 8 hours or more decorating the house for Christmas. Not for many years however. Alas I digress.

Our local zoo had a huge display of Christmas lights. I thought Kiernan would enjoy them. Little did I know how much I would enjoy them as well! It was amazing! I plan to go next year as well. The cold night air (which wasn't all that cold) made maneuvering through the zoo so easy! The animals were very active, particularly the big cats, however due to the sheer number of people, and lack of a tripod, I was unable to get a good pic of most of them save the snow leapoard. She's so beautiful. All shots on the above link were with a HAND HELD  camera. I'm fairly impressed they came out as well as they did. The one of the tiger head lights was blurred, but semi-intentionally to make the lights stand out more. I honestly couldn't tell you who was more excited about this outing, Kiernan or me.

Kiernan helped us decorate the Christmas tree this year. He enjoyed putting decorations on the tree, and taking them off,  showing us and telling us what he had, asking the color, and then hanging the decoration back up. Wash, repeat ad nauseum. It was cute.

Also in December on Christmas eve, we went to a place in south Denver called the Wildlife Experience. I happened to drive by one night and see all these beautiful Christmas lights outside the place and so thought it would be fun to go see those. They called it the "Winter Wonder Lights". These were neat too, but honestly I enjoyed the display at the zoo more. Beosig failed to prepare properly for being outside in December, and was freezing his rear end off by the end of the visit. Really, it had been balmy temps in December so I guess I can't say too much but still... We did get to see Santa claus there, and this was the first time for Kiernan. As it turned out he was too shy to speak to him, let alone sit in his lap. Ah well, maybe next year. We did get a picture of him giving Santa a hug though! There will be more photos posted to that link later, just haven't had time to go through them yet.

Kiernan particularly enjoyed Christmas day and opening gifts. So much so that he "helped" his Mom and Dad open their gifts as well. We stayed home, just the three of us and I fixed us some prime rib for dinner, a first time for me. It turned out quite good if I say so myself. However the cost makes it a bit prohibitive to do with any frequency. Prime rib is my fave though!

For New Years Eve we went to a friend's house in Castle Rock. There was lots of grazing, no real meals per se, but lots of snack food, and plenty of good company. I was good and only had a sip of champagne at midnight. The temperature that night when we left was a chilly -15F. Kiernan did well, and despite our best attempts to get him to sleep until new years he was so excited he managed to stay up until the ball dropped. I'm sure other parents would berate me if they knew.

I guess that sums up the rest of the year.

Halloween

This was a Halloween full of firsts for us all. This was the first year we have taken Kiernan trick-or-treating and the first year I have carved a pumpkin - EVER.

As we don't live in the city, people don't trick-or-treat out here. Usually daycare has this thing where they take the kids through the building and they visit the offices upstairs for trick or treating and then do some sort of parade type thing through the school rooms. I never gave it a second thought. This year though, I thought maybe we should try trick-or-treating and see how it goes. No Halloween is complete without a jack-o-lantern, so we planned to carve a pumpkin as well. A couple weeks ago we went to a local pumpkin patch and got a pumpkin while we were there as part of the entry fee.

In an effort to make Kiernan feel involved, I let him scoop the pumpkin out. The rest was pretty boring for him really. We got one of those pumpkin masters kits and I let him choose the design. He settled on a bat design with lots of small openings, but I hesitantly agreed. It took about 40 minutes, but this was the end result. Not bad if I do say so myself.

I called a friend who lives in town and asked if we could tag along for trick-or-treating. Kiernan was a tiger this year. I seem to sense a theme here. Year one - a lion; year two - a dragon; year three - a tiger (his choice not mine).

At first Kiernan didn't want to wear his costume at all. He had already refused to wear it at school even though all his classmates were dressed up. It was a fight to get it on him that night too. He complained repeatedly until we began the door-to-door knocking. At first he was unsure and shy about it, but as the night wore on he got the hang of it, running up to the doors and ringing doorbells.

I'm sure the three of us were quite the site to behold. As I was barely able to convince Kiernan to wear his costume, I certainly wasn't going to push him to wear the head piece and gloves. So Beosig donned the tiger head and I wore the gloves on my hands.

I wish I had my camera with me because some of those decorations were excellent at the houses we visited. There were a number of them that got these eyes that lit up and blinked and made sounds and tied them into their bushes. It made it look like you were being watched as you walked up the driveway. Neat. Then there was one house that had a giant black spider that was all lit up with green and pink lights and the legs very slowly moved. That freaked Kiernan out a bit and it took some coaxing to get him to go past it.

All in all, a pretty good day, with the added bonus of a ton of candy-booty for Kiernan. 

And The Winner Is...

Ok well I was hopeful, but no, the winner of the photo contest was not me. I didn't even place. I'm ok with that though. However, I'm a little upset about the winning photo. This is a Balloon Classic - it's all about hot air balloons. Would you like to take a guess what the winner's photo was of? No, not hot air balloons, not even remotely. It was a photo of a dandilion gone to seed. WTF?!?!

No, I'm not a sore loser. I am a little pretty upset that the winner had nothing whatsoever to do with the subject matter at hand. Seems rigged to me. I entered a local contest hoping for fewer entries and better odds and that is what they pick? The rest of the winning photos I can see, but that one just ticks me off. If anyone sees why that was the winning photo and understands what the relation is to the subject of hot air balloons, please share because clearly I'm missing it.

Check it out for yourself here.

I'm not discouraged and I will enter again in the future, but I think next year I'll be attending the balloon glo as well. For those not familiar this is an evening event where the balloons are all secured to the ground but they are inflated and they fire up the flames to cast a glow. It is rumored to be spectacular at night and hard for many to photograph as point & shoots don't do so well in low light. Maybe next year they'll have better judges. A dandilion...give me a freakin' break already.

First Photo Contest Entry

I have officially entered my first photo contest. It's the Colorado Springs Balloon Classic Photo Contest. It's a pretty small contest, with fairly small prizes, but I'm excited just the same. Grand prize is a hot air balloon ride for two.

Back on labor day weekend, I got Kiernan out of bed early and we went downtown to watch. I'd never been to the balloon classic but thought it sounded like fun. I had no idea what to expect, so I just packed my camera and a couple of  jackets and off we went.

When we got there, there were so many people that I had to drive around for about 10 minutes looking for a parking spot. I ended up parking in some little neighborhood on the other end of the park, not anywhere near where I had intended. It turned out this was a good thing though!

We got to the park and we were on the end overlooking a pond. The contest was already starting so I found a spot on the ground for us to sit, got the camera ready and prepared. It was a brisk morning for September, and I was very glad to have had the forethought to pack our jackets. We ended up sitting next to this friendly older couple who had been to multiple Balloon Classics and were able to give me some of the details.

Take Off

Beginning the Descent

As it turns out we were in a great location for the take-off. The balloons would take off from the other side of the park, come up over top of the trees towards us, and then some of them would descend to the water, touching the bottom of the basket and then rise up again to go over the trees behind us and beyond. The older couple near us explained that this is part of the contest and it demonstrates control of the balloon. It was awesome! We both had fun, me because I got some excellent photos and Kiernan because hey, what's better than huge balloons for a 2 year old?

Touchdown!

Balloon Over Pikes Peak

 I took over a hundred shots and selected a few for minor cleanup and entry once I heard there was a photo contest. This could be the break I'm looking for. A chance to get my name out there if I am lucky enough to place in the top 3 for the category I entered in. This is a very small contest, and not well advertised, so I'd say chances are actually pretty good. I've included the photos I entered in this post for your enjoyment.