You Are Unique

Just like everybody else.

That was my first thought when I saw this line-up of clothes pins.


Click for larger image.

Walk A Mile...

Walk a mile in someone else's shoes, huh. Well, my little sister takes that advice literally.

When Sam is bored, she'll go into my room and find whatever pair of shoes I left out. Whether they are flip-flops, or high heels (heel highs, as Sam calls them), she'll wear them.

She usually decides to do this when someone is trying to sleep downstairs, or when someone is trying to watch a movie. And she prefers the loudest, clompiest shoes she can find.

Today, I came home from church, and kicked my heeled sandals off inside my bedroom door, and forgot about them. A few hours later, when I was trying to talk with my parents, we heard the familiar "clomp clomp" echo through the house.

I turned around, and there she was, in all her fancy-footed glory. I ran and grabbed my camera, flopped down on the floor, and snapped the picture.

In the end, I was covered in sand and loose cat fuzz, but I think this picture was worth it. What do you think?


Click the image for a larger version.

A Bug's Life

Today I went wandering around out in the yard looking for a picture. I took a few of the flowers in my Mom's garden, some wet leaves in the sunlight, and finally I made my way to the beebalm.

At first I just wanted pictures of the flowers, then I spotted a bumble bee gathering pollen. And then I saw it.

My sisters call it a humming bird moth. I call it hard to photograph.

This bug, whatever it is, obviously did not want its photo taken. It took me about 10 shots to finally catch it.



This bug's wings moved so fast, you can see the blur in this photo. Click on it to see the bigger, clearer photo.

Frizzy Curls

This week, my church has been putting on a Vacation Bible School. It runs from 9:30am to 11:30am, so we are usually up and out of here pretty early in the morning. It's a long, busy day, and my little sister Sam usually only gets a nap on the ride home. So, by the time this picture was taken, about 5pm today, she was pretty tired, running on empty. It was a humid day, so her hair had spun up into ringlets all over.

I don't really know why I love this picture so much. She's not smiling, her hair is a wreck, she's tired. But I love it. Maybe because it portrays the end result of the fun-filled, fast-paced day of a three and a half year old. How long has it been since we experienced that?


There are more pictures of Sam on my Flickr account if you are interested. Leave comments, and let me know what you think!

Casco Bay Car Show 2006

Today I had the privilege of photographing the Casco Bay Car Show in Freeport, Maine. I was a little nervous when I woke up this morning that no one would show up. Why? Because it rained all day yesterday, and all night last night, and it was still spitting when I woke up. But I gathered up my camera and as many batteries as I could find and trudged to the field for the show.

By 7am, there was a grand total of 2 show cars on the grounds. We were getting really concerned. Stories were going around about last year, "By this time last year, we had cars lined up to the road!" "We had over 300 cars!" "There was so much sun last year!" Hmmm.

9am rolled around, and cars started coming in almost steadily. Many were damp and rain splattered. All had mud from the field. As soon as a car parked, its owner was out of the car, popping the trunk, and pulling out rags and polishing cloths. Every part of the car was wiped down, including tires and engine. One could see their face reflecting in the chrome rims that dotted the grass. Some engines were so immaculate, you wondered if they were ever dirty.

Even the youngsters grabbed rags and polished what they could reach.




There were many categories this year, Best of the 80's, Mini Trucks, Kit Cars, and Works In Progress, just to name a few. Every color imaginable was present, red, green, blue, purple, yellow, orange, and of course, black.

The grey clouds were ominous all day long, only breaking momentarily here and there to tease us with sunshine. Puddles were everywhere, there wasn't a dry shoe on the grounds. A few people abandoned shoes completely, opting instead to go barefoot.

There were a few who saught out the puddles for squishy goodness and splashing.


Seeing the pure joy on their faces made the puddles not so bothersome.

By the end of the day, the awards were given, and the much awaited "Best Of Show" was about to be announced. Everyone hoped it would be their car or truck. When the name was read, there was obvious disappointment on some faces, but everyone was very gracious, and the winner was applauded enthusiastically.

And the winner of the day is...!

Congradulations to everyone who won a prize! And to those who didn't, there's always next year. I hope to see you there!

Summertime

Summertime is sunny. Don't you think? It's warm, and sometimes breezy, usually really nice. It's laundry-hanging weather!

The other day, laundry had been hung on our back clothesline. It was getting to be later in the day, and the things were dry, so I went out to take them down and bring them in.

I started closest to the house, bath towels were hanging there. They had dried slightly stiff and scratchy from lack of a dryer sheet tumbling through them. I worked my way down the line, through t-shirts, dish towels, Sam's dresses, and a few more bath towels.

The laundry basket was almost full when I came to a spot on the line that lined up with the setting sun. I stood there for a minute, just looking (and waving at the cloud of mosquitoes and horse flies that were surrounding me), before I called for my sister to bring me my camera.

The sunshine filtering through the trees made the dress and clothespins in front of me glow with such life, it was beautiful! I hoped my sister would make it back with my camera before the light shifted and I lost the shot, or before I was carried away by the bugs.

She made it.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! I will have something up here soon. Keep checking back!

-Ashley