These are just a few of the many expressions that drifted across Henry’s face as he played a game of Mancala (thank you, Debbie!). No one could ever accuse him of being self-conscious!
Layers of Colour
Don’t you think colour looks better than color? One of my favorite quotes is “Keep calm and fake a British accent,” so this is in that spirit (nothing to do with Brexit. . .).
The above is from last week’s trip to the Grand Canyon. The hazy sky desaturated the colors, which I brought back with Lightroom’s Dehaze brush and some other adjustments. THEN I added a very slight adjustment with Topaz Glow, which is such a cool little plug-in- it does things I don’t know how to do otherwise. Very fun! The frame is from On1 Effects.
Going to Miss These Guys!
Junior Rangers!
We are having a major heatwave, so our two days at the Grand Canyon were punctuated by frequent stops to refill water bottles and stand in the shade. The highlight of the trip was the boys being sworn in as Junior Rangers by a close family friend of theirs, who is indeed a big important ranger at the Grand Canyon. The boys completed all the required pages (at different skill levels) of their official Junior Ranger books and then were sworn in front of a small crowd of curious tourists. They already have badges from Yellowstone, but this particular badge was significant because of the friend that did the ceremony for them. A sweet moment! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of them wearing the badges. . .
And here is a shot of the canyon (I’m amazed it’s as sharp as it is, since it was too hot to carry a tripod and the railings were too hot to lean on to steady the camera!):
First Look
We just returned from the Grand Canyon and had the joyful experience of watching the boys have their first look at one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Here’s Henry taking it all in:
Happy Father’s Day!
When your family lives in three different states, it’s a rare day when you can all be together. Caitlin and the boys have been here a week, and Matt drove in on Thursday- what a joy it’s been to have both kids and grandkids with us. We are missing Justin, Caity’s husband, because he used the week to drive (pulling a trailer) from their previous home in Yellowstone to the new one in Anchorage, accompanied by his brother, Kris and the family dog, Penny.
Happy Father’s Day to the proud Papa in this photo, to the absent daddy in Alaska, and to all the wonderful dads out there!
The (little) Magician
Henry and Miles were both entranced by The Magician, the photo I took of our friend Dale a few weeks ago. I asked them who they thought was in the photo, and Henry tentatively asked, “Santa?”. When I told them that it was someone they knew, they both realized it was Dale. They were curious about how the magic got into the photo, so this morning we re-created the photo with Henry as the magician. I think he enjoyed being dressed up and posing more than seeing how the magic got into the photo.
After viewing the print, he said there was one thing he didn’t like about the photo- his FACE. Caitlin says he doesn’t like mad or sad faces in books. He certainly enjoyed making all sorts of faces for the camera!
The Master Builder
We ordered some new lego sets for the boys before their arrival, including a huge ship for Miles. He completed it with no help within hours- he’s pretty amazing!
They’re Here!
Life is busy and fun right now, because our daughter and sweet grand-boys are here! They are moving from Yellowstone to Anchorage, Alaska, and are visiting with us for two weeks while they are in between houses. They arrived Friday evening, and we spent most of Saturday at the new Legoland Discovery Center and Aquarium in Phoenix- a fun way to begin our visit together. We will be busy keeping them entertained over the next two weeks, so my blog posts will be intermittent.
There were LOTS of Legos to play with.
Miles LOVED building structures and testing them out on the earthquake table.
Assembling Lego cars and sending them down a ramp was a lot of fun.
Yup- life is good!
The Dark Side
I’ve been experimenting with some new (to me) Photoshop techniques which are a departure from my usual style- if I indeed have a style. No textures, more obvious textures, frames, and now this:
What? A black background? Drama? Not my usual thing, but I like the effect on this photo.
And now this:
Holy Cow! If you use Photoshop, you probably recognize the Topaz Glow filter (a new purchase), which I used almost full strength on this photo. A little over the top- but FUN!
Go Away!
The perfect photo would have had a crow sitting on the scarecrow, but it was not to be. However, there were birds everywhere- just not in my photo!
Bucolic
bu·col·ic
adjective
1. of or relating to the pleasant aspects of the countryside and country life.
Shot at the community garden by Joe’s Farm Grill
Made for Climbing
After we picked up our friends, Joan and Rudy at the airport in Mesa a couple weeks ago, we had an al fresco diner dinner under the trees at Joe’s Farm Grill in Gilbert-what a delightful place! We fell in love with the HUGE trees that seemed to be made for climbing- in fact, NO CLIMBING signs were everywhere.
Wouldn’t you love to sit in the fork of this tree?
Love Locks
Spotted in Jerome:
I love this new-ish tradition- although I know it can be viewed as vandalism.
Elvis. . . and the dead
I know I posted a photo of this store display Elvis before (with Joan)- but the juxtaposition of Elvis with these Day of the Dead skeletons amuses me.
melinda anderson photography 