a berry good time

At the berry picking farm you first must weigh your empty berry basket, after which the farm worker takes a piece of masking tape and marks the bottom of the basket so that when you return with your load the worker can subtract that amount from the total berry weigh-in.

I joked with Bean that we needed to weigh her before we began picking, mark her bottom with a little piece of masking tape, and then sit her on the scale when we returned to weigh her berries. It was an act of great will for her to not munch her way through the berry patch.

We found a life-sized strawberry ripe for pickin'....

Adding to the stash...

"One for my basket, and one for me."

Gotta wear the appropriate shoes...

This is the apple orchard you can pick apples in during the fall. 

The light in there was so beautiful I was crying for a chance take my camera in there.

Waiting to be weighed...carried to the car. Officially hers to eat as she pleases.

This is the fourth year we have kicked off our summer with berry picking and every year my son
is Mr. Intense about it. He is the master berry picker and makes sure we have enough for cobblers and pies. Can I tell you that in just the last four days I have eaten so many berries that Bean and I have a rash? Happens every summer and then our bodies adjust.

Here is the berry pickin' gang. Note the child second from the right. She's mine.

I love summer simply for the fruit it brings. Don't you agree?

summer love berry bus

Just a little snapshot of one of our annual summer kick-off traditions: pik-yor-sef, and et-yor-sef berry pickin'.

This is week two of my summer love series. Fridays, a few photos of our summer fun, few words.

Stay tuned for more summer love berry bus photos on Monday. (Oh yes, there's more evidence of eating before paying.)

Have a happy weekend!
t

linked: sun (and popsicles)

Happiness is: holding your very own orange popsicle. 

Wait. Better yet, happiness is: the summer sun, kissing your very own popsicle.

Happiness is also: having a friend who will hold your purple popsicle 

while you retrieve a bowl of pretzels.

Happiness is: summer + sun + friendship + popsicles. 

This week I had the honor of choosing the linked up theme with my linky friends Michelle and Stacey. I made a quick decision to honor the start of summer with the theme of "sun" and then I proceeded to spend a week and a half of not capturing it. What was I thinking? What I was not thinking was that "sun" is kind of an ambiguous theme and so I every time I set out to capture it I came home with a "sun fail". Then Michelle announced that her pictures were ready and blog post was written (teacher's pet) and I was beginning to wonder how I was going to pull off this assignment. There was a moment when I considered emailing the gals to tell them that I had failed to complete the task that I had assigned. (What a geek.)

So with some major resolve, I brought my camera with me to Bean's art class/swim time and attempted my sun thing one. more. time.

And then...........some magic happened: the popsicles came out.

And the sun arrived to kiss them all and christen them as the true beginning of summer.

And I snapped away.

And I exhaled in relief.

And now I can say that happiness is: completing my linked up "sun" assignment with seconds to spare.

Now go and visit Michelle's June 16th blog post for her sun goodness. (click here)
And Stacey's June 16th blog post too. (click here)

I am eager to see how they interpreted the "sun" theme!

seeing double

What is like to wake up every morning to your own face smiling back at you?

To never be alone, be without a friend?

To share a birthday?

To have people (or...ahem...someone like me) confuse your names?

To out-number your big brother when you gang up on him?

To struggle for your own identity...or take comfort in the similarities?

To share a closet full of clothes...or want your own closet full of clothes?

To share the same messy room...or clean room?

To share experiences with someone who will be a back up in case your memory fails?

To know each other better than any one else could?

Tell me girls, because I have always wondered what it would be like to be a double of someone else. Two humans formed from the same mold; replicas with intricate and subtle differences. I wonder if you take comfort in your doubleness or if you seek ways to individuate. I guess it might be different for every set of doubles and yet, I will never know. I share no mirror image with another. I am me, and I am all I have.

So tell me, what is it like to be a twin?

******

My Picture Inspiration assignment this week was to photograph "a coupling". Two subjects, together, identical or not, but somehow fitting of each other. I chose to capture an identical coupling in human form. How could I pass up this opportunity? If you had a photo assignment such as this and there were twins standing in front of you, wouldn't you be begging/bribing them for a photo too?

I see you sitting there in front of your computer screen, nodding your head "yes".

Thank you.

spontaneous

So this is what happens when I invite you over to my house for pizza on a Sunday evening and I have not seen you in a while because I have spent the last month working 40 hours a week and you have been cooped up inside your house with your brand new baby and a four year old...

Yes, when I invite you over for pizza on a Sunday evening and I have not seen you in a long while and you have just had a baby, I drag you outside in the beautiful light for ten minutes and take oodles of pictures. You may scold me for including me in so many of the pictures because you did not realize it was going to be a "mommy and me" shoot but I don't care. I wish I looked half as beautiful as you "as is" right after having my second child. Sheesh, look at you girl. You are one beautiful mama. (Even if you are sleep deprived and going bonkers with your four year old.)

Taking these photos filled my soul.
I think I need to invite people over for pizza more often.

friday: summer love

I am leaving the umbrella Friday posts behind and stepping onto the Summer Love Bus on Fridays. Few words, just snapshots of our summer captured in digital goodness.

Yesterday was our first official summer vacation beach day. The weather was perfect. One summer love bug was ready to fly...

Happy summer!
Happy Friday!
t

roller blading (and a little addiction of sorts)

Do you remember summer evenings when you were little? I do. In my little world and era, we used to bolt outside after dinner and spend the extra hours of daylight riding our bikes, building forts, and roller skating. When the sun went down we would tumble through the door in a sweaty mess and gulp down a sweet dessert because we had burned through our dinners and our blood sugar levels were super duper low. Good times.

So yesterday evening when I stepped outside after dinner with my camera, to get to the business of completing my Picture Inspiration assignment, Bean followed me out and donned her roller blades. The weather was beautiful, the sun was out (finally!), and she and her brother enjoyed those extra daylight hours.

Clinging to Daddy for support...

As she rolled towards me she gave me her photographic poses...

My Picture Inspiration assignment this week was to capture "double vision" in the form of a diptych. A diptych is a photograph that is comprised of two different or identical images, that are placed side by side to form one image. The "one image" then makes its own statement.

When I first saw the assignment I had to smile. My instructor had no idea how much of a diptych girl I am. I am a bit obsessive with them as they can be addictive. There is something about them that can convey detail and story in a way that one image cannot. I love to pair photos, and if you have been around here for any length of time, you will know that this is true. :)

I love to put similar photos from the same moment side by side to convey a little story. Below, Bean is in her Paris Hilton camera moment. (I seriously thought she would out-grow this phase.) I loved putting these two images together to embrace this one moment, this one part of the story of our evening.

Here she is trying to use Daddy's car for support...

My obsession is not limited to diptychs. I often play with similar images until my eye is pleased with a grouping. I guess this would be called a triptych? (Must google.)

The PI assignment however, was about using two images to capture something at different angles. I knew right away that I wanted to capture Bean's roller blades so I purposefully attempted several perspectives. In the end I paired these two images because I loved the detailed close up, eye-level image of the roller blades contrasted with the wider angle shot from above. This way we could actually see Bean in the roller blades, and in the motion of using them. This is one of my favorite ways to use a diptych: a detailed shot alongside a wider angle, contextual shot. 

So there you go, my addiction has been outed. Though I figured it would not really be a surprise to any of you. But, admitting it is the first step right?

Now go try a few yourself, and then you can blame me later should you discover your own obsession with them. Here's to more beautiful summer evenings, and diptychs!

my current favorite sweetness

One of my favorite little smiley faces. Every time I see her and her mama on our school campus I have to stop and coo over her. This time I happened to have my camera!

She is seriously cuter than this in person. If that is possible. And all of her three older sisters are equally as adorable. They all look like their mom. :)

And since I am posting photos of her baby on my blog I thought I'd give a little shout out to mama and her crafty goodness. Her facebook status updates are always full of her crafty, baking goodies that put to shame any domesticity I possess. She is also a photographer and does a bit of graphic designing for our school. All this with four girls and a house that she keeps clean. Whatever...

Ok, so go give her some love on mama's Rockin' Cali Girls blog. She also has an Etsy site. She embellishes little baby clothes and socks with her rockin' sewing skills. Click here to go visit her and then come back and convince me that I do not need to have another baby just so I can have that little Mickey-eared onsie. Though another baby might keep me from stealing hers...

She's my current favorite sweetness. :)

p.s. If you need some more kid cuteness, please click here. I promise it will make your day. (And inspire you to greatness.)