fortunately and unfortunately: tuesday randomness.

Fortunately unfortunately, today was my last day of volunteering at Max's school (I think...)

My favorite part of volunteering this year was sharpening a big pile of pencils at home. (Wow. That makes me sound really awful, doesn't it? Well, that was my favorite part of at-home volunteer work.)

My favorite part of in-class volunteer work was getting see all the kids in the class and my little Maxwell. Getting a glimpse into what a portion of his day is like.

My fear about volunteering this year was breaking messing-up the laminating machine. (First world fears and problems...I know. Ridiculous.)

Unfortunately, today I did something wrong while using the laminator. I wouldn't say I broke it exactly... But it was unusable by the time I was finished using it.

Fortunately, I finished my laminating project before it broke stopped working.

Unfortunately, I had to stay a bit longer to complete my task.

Fortunately, I got the chance to talk to the principal about first grade next year.

I really enjoyed sharpening these pencils.
I really, really enjoyed taking macro photos of these pencils.
I really like simple tasks that leave you with a strong sense of getting something simple done quickly, and checked off the "to-do" list.
Like vacuuming...but I won't get into that now.

You know what else I really enjoy?...
The smell of crayons and looking at all of those colors.
But that's a different post.
With a different set of macro photos.

Oh and then I went to the store and took an item off the shelf of a perfect display (if you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw it.)
Again, that's a different post...maybe for tomorrow.

It's a Tuesday.
Mine was pretty good.
How was yours?...

(does anybody else have vivid memories of writing "fortunately and unfortunately" stories in elementary school?...)

slice of life: haagen dazs (aka how come he gets the last one?)

   

The little stinker took the last one. I thought he was going for a popsicle and I turn around to see he's got the last Haagen Dazs. With nuts!!
When I showed Eric the photos on the back of my camera he said, "How come he gets the last one?"
I told him it was only because he didn't get to it first. HA!



Max had a few bites.
And then you know what he did?
He tossed it in the garbage. I kid you not!
That kid of mine tossed half a Haagen Dazs with chocolate and nuts in the garbage.

(I won't tell you if I grabbed it out of the garbage and rinsed it off or not...)

the (mini) mariners.

I took my big girl camera to the t-ball game Friday night. It was a warm day, but a little hazy so I knew the light would be good - and not too harsh. And I was kinda thinking it might be the last nice weather chance at photos (as I sit here typing and watching it rain...)
There was way too much going on in terms of people, colors and other distractions to leave these in color. The beauty of black and white is it's ability to alleviate some of the visual chaos in photos where it's near impossible to clone out every extra person, cars, and all those other distractions.

i see his future self.

After I posted the link to Tuesday's post on FB, a friend commented and said, "He doesn't look like a little boy in that pic! I can see the future!" And she hit the nail on the head!
I see the future, older Max in these photos.
It makes this mom happy and sad all at the same time.
Anyway, I thought I'd post the rest and tell you what I did to the SOOC shot.

Here is the image SOOC:

Not too bad. I was smitten when I saw it - more for the look on his face and the light.
So, in Lightroom (recent purchase that was worth every.single.penny!) I cropped and then applied the following:

exposure +.33
contrast +10
whites +10
blacks +5
clarity +5
vibrance +5

I didn't do too much to the image...
Then using my VSCO presets I applied:
sharpen +
vignette +++
tone: kodak

That was it. I didn't want to do anything too drastic. I don't think the photo needed much editing.

Then I decided to try a black and white edit. I made one in LR, but I haven't been happy with my prints of black and whites I've created in LR (they look a little green to me.)  Still working on that. So, I opened in Elements and used Florabella B&W and this is what I got:

I really like the high contrast, but I wanted to see what a little haze would do, so I applied the Florabella BW Tints & Hazes and turned on the Milk Haze at 15%. I kinda like it. What do you think?... I think the haze brought out a little bit more detail.

Anyway, here are the rest of the photos from that day.

Someday I'll master making collages. It's just sometimes too much work for my lazy self. I'm lucky if I get photos posted at all!

Happy almost Friday, friends.
a.

this is why.

He had just gotten his hair cut and they put some wax hair gel in his hair. It smelled like grapes.
He smelled like grapes.
He didn't like his new stylish "doo" and he kept messing with his hair.
Dad was getting the sprinklers working for spring and summer, and Max was playing in his Bronco.

I saw my chance and I grabbed my camera.
And I caught this little moment.
This little moment that when I look at it speaks volumes to me.
There's a look in his eyes...
And the expression on his face...
His messed hair and pen on his hands.
I can still feel the moment I snapped the shutter.
Sometimes you capture more than just pixels on a sensor.
Sometimes you capture an emotion, a feeling, a little piece of the person.
I did just that in this moment.

And this is why I take pictures.
This is why I love photography.
This is why I am a photographer.

gameboy boy.

Max has had this old Gameboy for awhile now. The other day while playing Tetris he asked, "Is this a toy from the olden days?" I chuckled and said, "Yes. It is from the olden days." Then he says, "It was made in 1989." (I guess there was a manufacture date on it?...) And I chuckled again and said, "Yep. Waayyy back when I was a junior in high school and daddy graduated from high school."

Couple this with the fact that I'll be forty in less than two months, and I feel old, friends.

And while he has told me he doesn't like me to post photos on the blog of him sucking his thumb, well, I'm going to anyway. 'Cause I'm mom and I can do that. ;)

Happy weekending, friends!
a

morning light.

Anyone who knows even a little bit about me knows I'm not at all a morning person.
But today, as I was up early to get Max off to school early (he's PM kindergarten, but every other Wednesday they go all day...crazy...) I noticed the lovely morning light streaming in.
Of course it streams into the messiest places in our house in the morning -
the laundry room, the master bathroom, the toy littered family room.
But then it got me thinking that really, it's the messy places in our life that most need illumination, right?
The dark, dank, dirty, disastrous places of our being that are most in need of that lovely, graceful light.
A few bright, warm rays to rouse us to a new day, full of possibility.