Depth of Focus

As referenced in a previous post, I bought a new camera (pictured above) and signed up for a photography class. The class is 6 hours every Saturday for 4 weeks.

The first class was just chock full of information with the main topic being: Depth of Field (Basically, are things in front of and in back of your subject in focus, do you want them to be?).

What I noticed, really, is that my own personal depth of focus is pretty narrow... meaning, my attention span has definitely decreased since the last time I was in any kind of school situation. Vocabulary words were just flying by me (things like aperture, f-stop, ISO). The only thing I had focused on when setting up my camera was auto (as in auto focus, auto white balance, auto everything). The first thing we did in class was set everything to manual... scary! By 2pm I was ready for a nap!

Anyway, I did my homework as diligently as I had always done in school. The homework assignment was (on all manual settings), to choose 5 subjects (from a list) and do a Depth of Field Study using existing light sources only (no flash) on the lowest f-stop setting and highest f-stop setting available with the lens were were using, adjusting shutter speed as needed (for light).

Two of my subjects were Garden (i.e., roma tomatoes from our garden) and Feet. I have included the photos here.

Example of Wide Depth of Field,

everything is in focus, even the trees way over

in Rex's yard

Narrow Depth of Field, pretty much just the

tomatoes and part of the table on the same plane

as the tomatoes are in focus

Wide Depth of Field... The railing is in focus...

Well, you get the "picture"

Sibling Chronicles: Chapter Three

Chapter Three of my Sibling Chronicles is devoted to a trio of brothers all born in the month of September.

First, my sibling number four is Christopher Shawn Fleming, born September 12, 1972:

I remember waiting and waiting for Chris to be born.

I was with my cousin Lisa at her house. It was getting very

late and Aunt Babe (George's sister) made us go to sleep.

We made her promise she would wake us up the minute the

baby was born. Chris was born some time in the middle of the

night and Aunt Babe did NOT wake us up. We were pretty

mad in the morning, but well rested. Even though my Mom

had had me and my sister before Chris, she was in serious

labor, he was breach and somehow she managed to

deliver him without a C-Section. When I went to the hospital

to visit my new baby brother, all I remember was that he

was a cone head--a major cone head!

Obviously the cone head part went away and

he turned into a pretty cute kid.

How classic is this 1976 picture with the

Bicentennial backdrop. Chris was 4 years old.

Chris really was about the sweetest little

kid. I honestly cannot remember him doing

anything naughty when he was little.

It was really great having a much younger brother

on Halloween because even though I was way too

old to go trick-or-treating, it was fun going out with

Chris and he was very generous with sharing his candy.

Vintage Chris in elementary school...

already the preppie with the Izod Sweater

and turned up collar

Our family at Timberline. This would be the

summer after my freshman year at ASU. George

kind of reminds me of Chevy Chase in this picture.

I threw this one in because it is at my first apartment

away from home and away from the dorms at ASU.

The apartment complex was called Palm Tree Village

and my blue Toyota Celica is visible in the parking lot

below. Chris came to visit the summer of 1984.

I ended up selling that Celica to Chris when he was a 

senior in High School.

Senior Picture

Chris & Akiko on their wedding day, obviously.

I had to get really creative here because I asked

for some wedding photos, but Chris has not sent

them to me yet. Thanks to Byron and Michael, I know

how to take a snapshot of anything on my screen and Chris and

Akiko's wedding photographer was kind enough

to still have their photos up on his website

over a year later... Akiko got married in

a traditional western style dress (below) and then

changed into traditional Japanese Kimono for the

evening reception (above).

Wedding Day, May 1, 2007

(no point in feeling guilty, Chris, about not

sending me the pictures... although I would

like to have a better quality version of these

two photos to put in frames--I guess I could just

order them from your photographer :-) 

Chris & Akiko, last month at the top of Mt. Fuji

Chris is a pretty great brother and brother-in-law and Uncle

and we miss him lots when he is at his home in Japan. We

really look forward to his visits and hope, some day, he will

choose to live in the US. But if he doesn't, we understand and

we still love him anyway.

And... then there were twins....

My youngest siblings, siblings number nine and ten, were born September 15, 1981. So, since I am not doing these Chronicles in order, this is not the last post about my siblings, but these are, indeed, my last siblings:

The whole Loy and Karen Godsey bunch:

clockwise from baby on the left... Benjamin Scott,

Kimberly, Byron Gene, Jill Marie, Andrew James,

Sarah Jane and Elizabeth Lynn.

I believe the story goes that the doctors were calling the babies:

Baby A and Baby B. Baby A was born first and then Baby B eventually

followed his brother. The ironic part was that Baby "A" was named

Ben and Baby "B" was named Andy. Not sure why...

Ben on the left and Andy on the right

(on the kitchen counter in Grandmother and Grandads

little rental house that the Godsey Bunch lived in for a short

period of time before moving to Caballero Circle... the house that Betsy

doesn't have any pictures of and that had something called

a "Swamp Cooler" which didn't keep things very cool)

again, Ben on the left and Andy on the right

this time Andy is on the left and Ben on the right

(the caption on the back from Karen reads: "must not

have been going too fast--still had one hand free

to suck thumbs.")

Still love the bathtub photos... I took this one

myself on their first birthday after they made huge

messes of themselves with their cakes. This is a personality

picture to me... Ben's personality "I don't care if you are six

times bigger than me, you can't keep me in this bathtub if I

don't want to be in this bathtub!" Andy's personality "Poor me,

poor me, poor me... come on Kari, don't I look pathetic enough for you!"

Benjamin Scott Godsey, born September 15, 1981

Ah, one of my all time favorite

"dirty kid" pictures and who doesn't love

ET, a classic, just like Ben.

There really wasn't another Godsey kid

like him. Ben always had a very assertive personality.

He had a little temper for a while and liked to chase

his siblings around and throw things through windows,

but when he wasn't doing all that, he was very very sweet.

By this point, 2nd grade, Ben had developed

a much more focused outlook and I really thought

he was going to be a policeman.

Ben didn't become a policeman, but

he did marry the girl of his dreams, Nicole.

And they have a beautiful little family:

Ben, Nicole, Tyler & Madison Godsey

and two great jobs, a beautiful house they built themselves and

a pretty impressive life for a couple of "kids" still in their twenties.

Good job Ben!

Andrew James Godsey, also born September 15, 1981

Andy... so quiet, so sweet, so gentle....

so thoughtful

just always looking to have a little fun....

okay, a lot of fun (he and Byron have

this in common, I think... ). So what happened to

that sweet little kid, well, he became a pretty sweet

big kid and even though he is just in Salt Lake City, we

miss him a lot too. 

but he has Lindsay to keep him company, so

we don't feel too sorry for poor big Andy... (sorry

Lindsay, I had to "steal" your photo too, but it is so

gorgeous so I hope you don't mind sharing just one

with my friends too!)

So, I must say, I feel pretty proud of all my brothers...

They turned out real good!

(Don't worry Byron... you will probably get a sibling

blog all to yourself because you are the "special" child... well,

maybe that is not the right word... "golden" child--something like that).

Mayhem at the Lubitz House

Lily turned 3 months old last Saturday and our house will never be the same. Cats and humans alike scramble to find shelter from a 20 pound puppy (scratch that--25 pound puppy! Lily had a weigh in at the vet today and has gained 11 pounds in the past 3 weeks!!!).

Chloe is constantly on alert for the monster that

is "Piranha Dog"

Stinky is in denial and therefore immerses

herself regularly in a good game of Madden 09

Meanwhile, the beast thinks to herself....

Draggin' around Joey's old Beanie Babies is super fun

and chewing up Mommy's Catalogs is a blast

Pretending not to chew on Sammy's big ole tennis shoes...

really tuckers a girl out!

Guess Who is 17!

Yeah, I know, technically it is still Sept. 6th and Joey turns 17 tomorrow, however, tomorrow is a busy day and I really wanted to try out this adding a video to my blog thing. Right now it is 11pm and that is when I started pushing... 17 years ago, on a Friday night at 11pm. Joey was born FOUR LONG HOURS later on September 7, 1991 at a little past 3am--but who can really remember the details, right??? Don't get me started....

Happy Birthday Joey!

Countdown to Halloween

Pink Anemone in Backyard

                                                                                           

White Anemone in Backyard

55 Days to Halloween and Counting...

So, I was driving to a friend's house a week or so ago and noticed that her neighbor has some rather large, rather orange pumpkins. I was so jealous... Byron called it "Pumpkin Envy" and that is exactly what it is. Now, granted, that guy only had about 3 pumpkins total (that I could see) and we have quite a few more pumpkins than that, but how did he get his pumpkins so big and so orange in August. I guess he got a good early start, probably indoors where nothing got to the delicious little seeds. Anyway, we didn't get quite the early start, but we DO HAVE PUMPKINS, lots and lots of pumpkins especially the mini ones called "Jack-be-little" and "Baby Boo".

Oh, and I got myself a new camera last night and needed something easy to photograph (you know, easy as in doesn't wiggle when you take a picture of it like puppies and kids).

12 week old Lily finally sat still for 3 seconds

So, I just barely figured out how to set my camera to all the automatic settings and get a lense on the thing and I ran out the door to take pictures of our "harvest". I know this is a little self indulgent (so many pictures), but it is good practice--and I need practice. I start a photography class in two weeks and I am a little worried I will be way out of my league.

My main focus was squash and pumpkins, but I also got a little carried away with other veggies and flowers. I also remembered that while I was at work a couple weeks ago Joey had gotten overzealous with the squash picking and plucked the only Hubbard squash growing in the yard (way too early to be picking those guys... they are supposed to get huge). C'est La Vie... there's always next year.

Delicata, Hubbard & Butternut Squash on the

Dining Room Table

I'm pretty happy with the way these photos turned out

inside the dining room... I wish it didn't take so long to download

them to the blog in a larger high quality format. Anyway, here is our

favorite squash, the Delicata. Michael and Sammy think it tastes

like pancakes. Ha!

There is one plant I probably won't get for the garden

next year... Summer Squash. This one summer squash is about

8' around (picture is taken from the deck about 15' above the

plant) and was the first thing in the yard to produce.

We have harvested dozens and dozens of squash already....

and the thing is still blooming like crazy.

I think I will start plucking the blossoms and make

stuffed squash blossoms for dinner next week--and then

we will say good-bye to Mr. Squash, I am getting sick

of Yellow Summer Squash!

We have so many tomatoes that need to ripen (I'm

sure like everyone else... this hasn't been the best

August for ripening tomatoes)

But we have enjoyed quite a few yellow cherry tomatoes

and a few red romas

Pattypan Squash

Beautiful Jack-be-Little Pumpkin

Echinacea Flower

Japanese Eggplant ready to pick.

A couple nice big green pumpkins that still have

55 days to turn orange!

Its just about time to say good-bye to the

blackberries. We let them grow in one section of the backyard so that we could

enjoy them, and I did make some delicious Blackberry preserves

last month and put them in a coffee cake that didn't quite get

cooked enough... I may try that one again.

Butternut squash that Joey did not pick. I'm sure

they will ripen before it freezes...

My two Cinderella pumpkin plants have only

produced one pumpkin so far

even though they are putting out blossoms like crazy...???

The cucumbers took forever to come on, but now

we have lots... I even made my first bread &

butter pickles this morning.

The Ancho Chiles are getting big... supposedly

they are going to turn red? This is my first

time growing them and I don't know what I will

use them for--where is Bobby Flay when you need him?

A little "Baby Boo" next to a big green monster.

Hey, I think I see some orange on that green...

The kids are back to school and summer is almost over...

Time to plant the winter crops!