Just Listen and Watch.....

I love to wake up early and just listen and watch as the day begins. The hush of night comes alive as the light breaks. We live on the lake and it is wonderful to begin my day here. Our living room is situated with windows on the east and the sun porch on the west. The lake is open on the west and through the fence row on the east. First, the hush is broken by frogs and other creature noises, then as the dawn breaks, oh my, the many beautiful songs of the birds begin. Robins, cardinals, blue jays, sparrows, red winged blackbirds, finches and many other types sing with joy as the day begins. Even woodpeckers break the silence. We have two woodpeckers close by and this year they have moved from the east side to the west side. And of course there are the geese and ducks sometimes quite noisy but as the spring turns to summer they are not as prominent, probably many have headed north.

As the sun rises the beauty of God's creation is revealed, the ripples on the lake, the dew drops on the leaves and grass, the beauty as the sun touches the tree tops, how can you have a bad day with such a lovely beginning? Even on cloudy mornings there is much beauty, in the spring, it is lush here and full of life with so much to appreciate. Yes, I thank God every day for this gift, just how can I have a bad day?

The McClure Guesthouse is about to be complete, as we walked through Thursday evening I looked at Mike and asked if he would move back in to our beautiful Victorian and he shook his head yes. But today as I sit here; I think that I do really love starting my days here in the natural beauty God created for us. So, I will share our beautiful vintage Victorian as a Guesthouse, with those who wish to step back in time for a moment.

I recommend that if you ever get the chance, don't sleep in, start your day with God's early morning gift, the beauty and sounds of nature.

SMILEY-GRUMPY-DOPEY

Words, descriptions, characters the above are all of these. Today they describe me and perhaps always are akin to me.

Smiles are essential in my line of business, in my attitude to the world, in my answer to unhappiness and "just because" I don't want too many wisdom lines (my name for wrinkles).

I hate to be Grumpy, but as many know, I can be and so can you, we all have "bad" moments and then it makes us this way, but experience a Smile during this time and voila being Grumpy can disappear!

Oh yes, I can feel really Dopey at times. And I am sure this is a way many of us have felt, however as a result of this I can feel Grumpy or I can Smile and it makes my Dopiness seem more acceptable.

I love the 7 Dwarfs and relate to them daily, as I am sure many of us do.

So don't be Bashful just ask Doc as you are being Sneezy, why you feel Grumpy and Dopey, perhaps he will advise that this is why you are Sleepy but take a nap and then you will be Happy.

Oh yes, and by the way SMILEY is my private dwarf, an essential part of my life. After all note my blog title. Hope this makes you Smile!!

It really is a SMALL WORLD!

When I was young, Europe, Africa and even Alaska were so very far away from my place in the "burbs" of Chicago. We learned about the "Wide World" from bits and pieces on the news at night or in the newspapers. Encyclopedias were important as well as the library to seek out countries in South America, info about the Arctic and even about New York or Washington DC. Now at the flick of a button we can really experience all of these pieces of the world via the Internet. I wonder now how it is for school children to really learn about the mysteries of these countries and places when it is so "easy" to "check it out". No more mystery and excitement of discovery, "just Google" it and there it is. Can you imagine what our world would have been like if Christopher Columbus "just Googled" our continent. Or the Pilgrims "just googled" the new world and decided "not for us". Part of the experience of learning for me, was always the search for the right information for the project I was working on, and I learned so much more with this way of searching versus "googling", because along the way different paths of information were there for my learning and discovery. Now children "google" and find ONLY the info they need, how sad.....and now yes, I do believe that it will be for them "a small world" because with the Internet, exact information is stored right there, and it can be limited to just what you want to know, no extra avenues or paths to experience and learn about [unless you "google" more], how sad for students these days and so very easy and small. Yes it is a "small world" don't you agree?

LOOK AROUND

Look around and what do you see? Today on the way to work I counted the different colors of nature that were all around me and I counted [in the long three mile drive], 26 different colors in flowers, leaves and ground cover. It was so nice to be able to look around and appreciate these colors, especially since it was such a dreary day. I love spring and I love fall and you know I am sure it is because of the colors of each season.

I believe when God created the world he must have had one huge art pallet with oodles of color choices.

Now we have so many things in our lives which require choosing color: paint for your home or business, cars, hair, clothing, nail polish, jewelry, make up and even food.

Do you recall in the Wizard Of Oz when Dorothy stepped out of her home into OZ, what a difference it made that the movie was then in color? That to me was a great way to let us really appreciate color.

This weekend we are photographing a Prom and the Prom Committee made a request that we offer regular color photographs and the choice of Black and White with "Color Wash" only in the background flowers, it should be interesting to tally up the choices. It will be their choice and it will be unique, but I wonder how many will make the "Color Wash" photograph choice over the traditional color photograph. Especially with all the choices of colors for the beautiful prom gowns.

Don't get me wrong when done right there is nothing like the rich, classic Black and White portrait, but then God gave us color too and we can have beautiful color portraits.

Take a moment and look around, how many colors in nature do you see?

Be sure to Thank God, I did :-)

LOVE The Natural Thing!

Yesterday as with many Saturdays, we photographed a wedding. The day was beautiful. This was good as the venue for the Wedding was outdoors.

Friday evening we went to the rehearsal and I am thankful that we did because this was a totally new type of wedding ceremony for us. The couple was from the state of Washington, they found us via the Internet and with a recommendation from Chris' (the Groom) Grandmother. The wedding was taking place at Chris' Grandmother's farm. A home place where Chris had many wonderful memories and wanted to add one more I am sure. The wedding took place by a very old and beautiful, sturdy oak tree. There were numerous rituals that were part of the ceremony, it proved to be something quite interesting to experience.

Yes, I am glad that we attended the rehearsal on Friday evening along with the intimate gathering of family and friends that were very special to the couple. We learned just how the ceremony would unveil. It was vitally important to the couple that through our photography, this wonderful day would be preserved for them.

Just as with any different type of experience, we had a difficult time accepting such a unique wedding ceremony. Communing with Mother Nature, Father Sky and the Mighty Oak as the altar, seemed hard to grasp as a true wedding venue.

However as the hours have passed since the wedding, I find myself respecting this couples true love of nature and most certainly of each other. I truly feel ignorant and small when I realize I found myself initially amused at this couples choice of Ceremony celebration.

It was beautiful and so much THEIR OWN, how lovely that they were able to have exactly what they wanted, utilizing the gifts we have all been given. It was not necessary to rent a hall for the reception, and God's gift to all of us is the beauty of nature, so why not have your ceremony and celebration in his beautiful setting.

Yes, I was apprehensive about an outdoor wedding in April, but GOD blessed them with a beautiful day. Culture seems to insist a wedding in a church is essential, but you know GOD gave us nature and it's beauty, not buildings.

And remember....... Man & Woman did begin in the Garden of Eden.

REMEMBER WHY

A Star in the sky, Shepherds, Wise Men, you and me.

Just about 3 and half months ago we celebrated Christmas, the birth of Christ what a joyous time of the year and not because of Santa's gifts but because of GOD'S Gift to us.

We are now about to celebrate the joy of Easter.

But today through Saturday is a time for reflection of what happened to GOD'S gift to us. The back stabbing, the lies, the torture and finally the death of Jesus Christ.

My, my it sounds a lot like the world we live in today, doesn't it?

This Sunday Christians will celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord, ALLELUIA!

When do you suppose we will celebrate the Resurrection of our World, and return to the Peace, Love and Joy that GOD wanted us to have in our world?

The star in the sky is still there; those of us who attend Church or Synagogue, know our Shepherds; perhaps there are still Wise Men about; and yes there still is you, me and GOD.

This Sunday when you are in church celebrating Easter and all it's meaning or even during Passover when you are in Synagogue take time to think and Celebrate with Hope, for a future full of love, peace and joy with our Lord. I will be doing just that.

Thank you GOD for being there with us and for us, always.

CAPTURED

I suppose you think I am going to write about something, someone or myself being captured. Perhaps that is right. My way of capture is with one of my cameras. I have been fortunate in the past 31 years (oh my that sounds so long!) to capture thousands of people, numerous animals and a multitude of nature and scenic photographs. I think that calling this a "job" is unfortunate, because I enjoy this aspect of my "job" immensely. Of course all of the nitty gritty details to accomplish the delivery of the product we create is tedious, however the end of it results in such satisfaction.

The art of Capture is such fun and very thought provoking. Creating the image can and usually does take planning, the best part is the actual capture and end result, a photograph which creates a memory, that can touch your heart. At least that is my intent.

When a disaster takes place (tornado, hurricane, flood, fire) and you may see on the TV the people affected, many say they were able to save their photographs or perhaps they lost their photographs. For me this shows that these images they saved or lost were so very important, a preservation of a memory .

In this day of Digital photography capture is so much easier, however it is making people comfortable. It is essential to get a hard copy of the image because......

......a camera can break, be lost or stolen. A memory card can fail and because of the newness of digital imagery saving to a hard drive, CD or DVD may not be permanent. Please make sure to get a picture you can hold in your hand, frame or put in an album. It will then become a permanent memory for you to share with the future. Please do not wait, because any of the above can happen at any time!

OK enough lecturing. It is such a joy to see peoples faces when I present their photographs to them. My husband is very gifted as a photographer I suppose you could say it is in his blood, being third generation and all. I am so lucky to have learned most of what I know from him. We are fortunate to be able to Capture Memories for others, in our Studio literature we call it "Memory Insurance" and I really believe it is.

We connect with many people at the time of the loss of a loved one. They need a picture of their loved one for the funeral or for themselves. I am sorry for people at this time in their life. However, I am thankful we can give them this memory we have created. To be able to see a little glimmer of comfort when I give them their photograph lets me hope that they will be able to get through this very sad time, a bit easier with this picture of their loved one. And because of the photograph, the memory will be with them always.

I have many photographs of my Dad at work and at home, often I look at them for comfort, encouragement and even advice. The picture is a piece of my Dad and I am so happy Mike captured him for me, such a treasured gift!

I am sure you all are thankful for the pictures you have, to keep memories, yours forever.