I've been so busy living life, that I haven't had time to blog it. When I wasn't busy, I was sick. Now that there is a lull in the activity, at least for a few days, I want to get caught up. Here are some highlights from the last few months.

My 10 year old gave an energetic and compelling performance as The Duchess in a children's music theater production of Alice in Wonderland. She got the Duchess' annoyed scowl down cold, and she was the only kid whose lines and songs we could still hear even when the mics went down. She also played a butterfly, an iris, and the Six of Spades It was her first experience with stage acting and she is completely hooked. Watch for her name it lights, because she's set her sights on Broadway.


Spanning mid-February to late May I was sick. Sick, sick, sick. It wasn't pretty. First was seasonal allergies. Trees hate me and are trying to kill me one speck of pollen at a time. Yes, trees around here start pollinating in February. Then I developed, ignored, finally went to the doctor for, and recovered from bronchitis. By the time my bronchitis cleared up, the trees were done pollinating and now I expect to feel pretty good, at least until the fall weed pollen season starts. Weeds hate me too.


The spring blossoms in my yard have come and gone, and we got the garden planted. Actually my 12 year old son planted the flower and vegetable gardens because I was sick sick sick with that blasted bronchitis. I sat in the shade and between coughs I tossed orders at him about where I wanted stuff planted. He did a great job. We put in 20 tomato plants this year, and they are growing like crazy. Salsa season is coming. Mmmmm....
We camped at Zion National Park over Memorial Day. I had been trying to get into shape to hike the trail to Angel's Landing, but my respiratory system was still too fragile from the bronchitis, so not only did I not hike Angel's Landing, I couldn't even handle the easy stuff. I stayed at the camp with the little ones and enjoyed the incomparable scenery while my husband took our two oldest kids up to Angel's Landing, along with my brother-in-law and niece. The kids came back talking about how it wasn't really that hard of a hike and the sheer cliffs on both side of the trail weren't scary at all. Whatever. Did I mention how proud I am of them? I am. Click here for a whole pile of Zion pics.


The end of May was birthday week. We have birthdays on the 23rd, 24th and 27th. My baby turned 3, my husband stepped one notch closer to 40 (but he's not there yet), and my second born turned 11. By the end of the week we had all pretty much ODed on birthday cake. Little Miss had been dropping not-so-subtle hints for months that she really really really really wanted a bike for her birthday. We had fun granting her heart's desire, but not before we tricked her into thinking she wasn't getting one. It suppose was a little mean of us, but I was proud that she was so gracious about the modest decoy gift we gave her when she thought there was not going to be a bike. My baby is growing up.


Ash finished 6th grade and waved a forever farewell to elementary school. He'll be at the Junior High next year. He is ready, and I couldn't be or more excited for the new adventures and experiences he is about to have. I'm so impressed with the fine young man he is becoming. I feel blessed and grateful he is my son.


Ice cream truck season is here. Little Miss had tried several times to catch the truck, but by the time she would hear it coming down the street, run inside for permission and money from me, and run back out, the truck would be gone. Standing in the front yard, money in hand with no truck in sight made for some pretty dramatic moments from all three of my girls. After her birthday came and went, the same thing happened, but this time I suggested, "Why don't you get on that new bike of yours and go catch the truck?" Her eyes lit up and before I could hand her the money, she flew out the door. A few minutes later I could hear the music getting louder and around the corner comes Little Miss on her bike, pleased as punch, with the ice cream truck following her home. I love her tenacity. The ice cream truck driver got a pretty good chuckle out of it too.


All four kids finished a round of swimming lessons. It was the first time for my two youngest and a refresher course for my two oldest.


One of our favorite spring events, Art City Days have come and gone. As always, we loved every minute of it. At the parade, I'm not sure which was more entertaining, the parade entries, or watching all the kids and some grown ups clamor for the candy that was tossed from the floats.


Dancing, dancing, dancing, dancing, a little bit of singing, and more dancing. The final push of dress rehearsals and performances consumed a lot of our time during the end of May and the first half of June. It was worth every minute. Clockwise from the top left, my 11 year old in her Irish dance performance, as Time 'O Clocks counting down to midnight in Cinderella, performing a tap number to "King of New York", in her "Under the Sea" Jazz number, singing as Jacob in "Joseph's Coat", and my two youngest as Bluebirds in Cinderella.


The biggest moth I've ever seen stopped by our back porch and visited for a few hours before dark one evening. It didn't move from it's spot on the lawn chair despite a lot excitement and several close encounters of the kid kind. I am guessing it had just hatched from a cocoon and it's wings were still drying, but that is only a guess. It was gone later that night.


This morning a very enthusiastic Little Miss boarded the bus for the 5th Grade rite of passage, her three day camping trip to Shadow Mountain. I have no doubt she is going to have the time of her life.


The icing on my spring cake was when my parents from Wisconsin stopped by for a two week visit, but that's another blog entry.

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Happy Mother's Day!

Lately my mind has been buzzing with some new portrait ideas. So last Friday when my phone rang not once, but twice requesting Saturday sessions, I could feel my creative juices getting primed and ready to flow. Then I woke up Saturday morning to the sound of pouring rain. No problem! Instead of bagging the morning session, we just let our plans evolve a bit. We made a quick run to the second hand store to pick up a $6 satin dress and headed out into the rain and mud to trash the dress and have some fun. The dress she is holding isn't the one she ended up buying, but you get the idea. For the shot of her feet through the dressing room door, I was laying on the floor under a clothing rack with my ginormous camera, hoping that the security guards wouldn't notice. A few minutes later I was kindly asked to not take any more photos inside the store. "Of course, sir. My apologies." Plus, I already got what I wanted.



Next we headed out to some fun locations. It was still raining, but it had let up quite a bit, so we decided to save the dress for later and get some regular clothes shots first. Yes, she looked this gorgeous even in the cold rain. Lucky girl.



By the time we had finished shooting at the old truck, the rain had all but let up and the sunlight filtering through the clouds made for perfect portrait lighting, so we tried a few more locations around town. The last stop of the day was a spot on the train tracks just outside of town. As promised, we got the dress nice and muddy. It was $6 very well spent.





After a quick lunch with my hubby, I was back out to get some shots for a friend of mine that was looking to update the head shot in her modeling portfolio. Yes, I got to photograph two drop dead beauties in one day. I had so much fun. Hopefully these two young ladies are as pleased as I am with the fruits of our labors because I think it was a very good day.

It's official. I am now the owner of a bona fide business named "Whole Grain Photography". Even the IRS is in on it. I have an identification number from them and everything. If you've been paying any kind of attention lately, and really why would you, you might have noticed that my blog address has changed. My new home page is at www.WholeGrainPhotography.net . So far there isn't much to see at that address, but I've got plans. So many plans. Hopefully some of them will actually launch soon. In them mean time, here are some of my favorite shots from lately.





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When I was a kid, I would save my favorite Easter egg so I could look at it and think happy Easter-colored thoughts for as long as possible. To protect it from those that might not fully appreciate the artistry of my egg, and thus eat it too soon, I would keep it in a basket in my room. My closet obviously wasn't refrigerated, so it didn't take long at all before what was once a treasure became a well dressed hydrogen sulfide stink bomb. One year, after hording my egg for a few weeks, I actually cracked it open, just to see what was going on under that pretty shell. I never tried that again.

This morning when Baby G and I were munching some colorful (and fresh) boiled eggs for breakfast, I noticed something. She wanted to eat her favorites first. There was one egg, a polka dotted one her dad helped her make, for which she expressed a particular fondness. It was the first one she reached for and she handed it to me to peel for her. Even as I was smashing it on the counter to crack the shell, she was looking on in admiration and anticipation while chirping away about how pretty it was. As soon as it was peeled, she ate it hastily and joyfully. Then she started looking through the carton for her second favorite so we could repeat the whole process.

I was really proud of her at that moment. She seemed to instinctively know something it took me much too long to figure out. If something is truly special, the best way to preserve it is to devour it. A treasure becomes meaningless if we allow it to sit and decay. The better way is to take in every nuance and decide of the treasure is a worthy one. If it is, then without further delay make it a part of you.

After she had eaten a few of them, she went back to the carton of eggs, selected another treasure and told me, "This one is for you, Mom."

2 Nephi 32:3 -- Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.

Happy Easter!

(To see a slideshow of some of my favorite images from the Easter season, click here.)

My Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 lens recently arrived. With that beauty in my hot little hands, as well as my other new gear, I've been itchy to do some portrait sessions. This week I had two of them and I have to say that I am REALLY loving my new kit. My old Pentax K100D could only go down to an ISO of 200, but my new K20D can get down to ISO 100. Combine that with the much higher resolution of the K20D and the sweet glass I've got on the front of it, and I can get a happy boost in the quality of my images.

The first session was mostly for some business head shots, but we also wanted to have a little creative fun.


Pentax K20D and DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 lens at 75mm, f/5, 1/100 sec, ISO 100
Strobist info: Vivitar 285HVs and 40" shoot through umbrella from camera right. Reflector placed at camera left. Model (he'll love that I called him that) placed in front of window with white cloth over it to create the bright white background. Flash fired with Cactus V4 wireless triggers.


Pentax K20D and DA*16-50mm f/2.8 lens at 29mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 200

The second session I did was a super fun Easter dress shoot at the Springville Museum of Art. My little subject (aka Gracie) was a dream to work with and she let me try some experimental techniques that I've been mulling over for a while now. At one point during the session, when I was directing her for one of the experimental shots, I said to her, "You don't mind being my guinea pig, do you?" She perked up to that and said, "Guinea pig!?" Apparently she's been trying to convince her parents to get her a pet guinea pig. I saw her wheels start turning and she was figuring if she could be good for me and we could end up with some photos her mom loved, then maybe she'd have a little more leverage for that new pet of hers. Here are some of the fruits of our labors.

This is a clone, or multiplicity image. I first tried this technique quite a while back, and since then I've dabbled with it, but this is the first time I've attempted it with this level of complexity. All 7 shots were layered on top of each other in CS3. I cut out the background in all but the shot of her in the front, which became the background (bottom) layer. Then I reduced the opacity in the top six so she appears to be fading away. I also have a version of this where all seven of her are full opacity (not see-through) but this one is my favorite. : )

Seven exposures, taken in quick succession with Pentax K20D and DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 at 29mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO 400.

This is a slow shutter zoom technique that I've played around with simulating in Photoshop, but this was the first time I've done it in-camera other than goofing around at home. So you can still see Gracie, I took two shots, one for clarity and one for the zoom effect, then stacked them on top of each other.


Zoomed exposure: Pentax K20D and DA*16-50mm f/2.8 lens at f/5, 1 sec, ISO 100, and starting at 50mm then zooming out to 16mm while the shutter was open
Portrait exposure: Pentax K20D and DA*16-50mm f/2.8 lens at 39 mm, f/2.8, 1/13 sec, ISO 100

There was nothing experimental about this one. It's just simple, and sublime. Working out of the box is great, but sometimes the classic looks feed my creative soul too.

Pentax K20D and DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 lens at 50mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO 160

Of course we had to have a nice a close-up of her adorable smile!

Pentax K20D and DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 lens at 123mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 640

I think these last two ended up being my favorites. In the first one, I left a strip of blank wall at the left of the frame so I could personalize it for her in Photoshop. I added her name and a fun texture to give it a trendy vintage scrapbook kind of look.

"Gracie": Pentax K20D and DA*16-50mm f/2.8 lens at 50mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 640
"Life Imitates Art": Pentax K20D and DA*16-50mm f/2.8 lens at 43mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 125

When I saw the painting of a little girl sitting against a wall reading a book I just knew I had to try a "Life Imitates Art" type shot with Gracie. I hadn't brought a book along, but her mom's planner made a nice substitute. To finish it off and add a bit of mood, I added lighting effects and a texture with Photoshop. I think it gave me a pretty nice result.

So what do you think? Did Gracie earn herself a guinea pig? If my two cents count for anything, I'd say she earned at least 14 rodents and she should totally get to choose the species. Her mom can thank me later.

It's that time of the month again. No not THAT time, I mean time for a fitness progress report. I've been at this for 151 days now. Five months. It's gone fast. I'm noticing a big difference in how my clothes fit. I'm wearing stuff I haven't been able to wear for years, and my jeans are getting baggy to the point that they look sloppy. In this month's self portrait, my t-shirt is a size XL, as opposed to the men's size XXL t-shirt I had on in all the photos up until now. I even had a size L on a few days ago. A few months ago, size L would have been impossible for me to wear without seriously testing the integrity of the fabric, The change feels good. Here's the pic:



This month was tough. After last month's blog proclamation to tackle Angel's Landing, I started feeling a little scared by the prospect. I'm not so scared of the terrain, although that's part of it, but mostly I'm scared of embarrassing myself because of my lack of physical fitness. It was my same old dumb defeatist attitude doing it's ugly work. I started thinking things like, "What if my Mother-in-law, nearly 20 years my senior, out-hikes me again?" "What if Scott can't enjoy the hike because I'm too slow for him?" Indulging these self doubts was a very bad place to be and I found myself on the brink of self sabotage. I was laying the groundwork to start making excuses for why I can't go on the hike, just like I've done so many times in the past.

The situation was compounded by a nasty battle with some kind of virus that has been camping out in our house for most of the month. If I wasn't sick, I was taking care of someone else that was. Consequently I found myself only making it to the gym about once a week, and sometimes less, for most of the month. It didn't take much of this before I was feeling the negative effects of my inactivity, both physically and psychologically. I started feeling pretty down. I was angry at myself for feeling too weak to get over there. And even angrier when I realized that part of me was looking at it as a potential excuse to get out of hiking to Angel's Landing.

What I needed was a good kick in the pants to snap out of it, and my Dad gave it to me with some timely advice. He basically told me to stop beating myself up. The important thing to remember is to JUST KEEP MOVING FORWARD, no matter how small the steps need to be. There will inevitably be bad days, and even bad months, but stressing about them is only counterproductive. He repeated his oft recited credo, "There are no problems, only varying degrees of opportunity." As much as I hated to admit it, because it meant giving up my self pity, he was right. Onward and upward.

After a two week break, I finally made it back to the gym on March 30, and have been doing well since then. I had to laugh when I put on my iPod for that first workout and the very first song to spin up was "So What". I don't generally take my philosophical attitudes from Pink, but in this case I found her kind of empowering. So what if my mother-in-law can hike circles around me. She always has been able to, and I'm really proud of her for staying fit. So what if my month didn't go as planned? I'm still showing up and getting back on the horse. Actually it was a treadmill, but I think you get what I'm saying. Sometimes it's good to feel a little like a rock star and say "So what".

Here are my stats:

	STARTING STATS-----	LAST MONTH-----	NOW-----------	30 DAY CHANGE-----	OVERALL CHANGE-----
Weight	228 lbs	217.6 lbs	216.8 lbs	-0.8 lbs	-11.4 lbs
Body Mass Index	33.7	31.7	31.5	-0.2	-2.2
Resting Heart Rate	85 bpm	75 bpm	74 bpm	-1 bpm	-11 bpm
Waist	45 in	40.5 in	40.5 in	0.0 in	-4.5 in
Hips	57 in	48.0 in	47.5 in	-0.5 in	-9.5 in
Time to walk/run 3.2 miles	59:20	56:14	55:37	-00:37	-04:43
Fastest Treadmill Speed (Sustained for 1 min)	3.3 mph	4.7mph	6.0 mph	+1.3 mph	+2.7 mph
Time to bike 12.5 miles	45:00	34:45	34:45	0:00	-08:15

As a side note, when I look back over my fitness reports, I find it a little alarming how often I mention pop music as a motivating factor to get me moving. I wish I could say my inspirations come from classier sources like reading some of the great classics of fitness literature. (Is there even such a thing?) But in the spirit of being myself and telling it like it is, I have to admit that it's most often pop music that gives me the humor and rhythm to keep going. What can I say? It's got a good beat and you can run to it.

Next check-in, May 5th.