Beauty surrounds us - Moving on

Lots and lots of beauty around us these spring days with 70+ temps and clear skies. The allergens are killers but the beauty surpasses it all.

Here's a couple of shots from around and then a couple of the full moon rising over the mountains. Lacking a tripod for the full moon, I had to settle for resting against a lamppost and taking the 6400 iso to get any kind of a shot. Actually like the moodiness of them.

Neighbors planted a beautiful maple that gets highlighted by the sun every morning

Old maple seeds provide a wonderful line and shape contrast.

Zona Irene Johnson - Rest in Peace; 1921 - 2013

Some of you have read of the adventures that my Mom, Murphy and I have had. We've had some good times over the past years since Dad left. Pretty much have seen her every week for the past 5 years. Well, Mom died this morning at 4am so no more adventures with her.
My sister Nanci wrote up the excellent obituary below. Words are only our feeble attempt to convey our feelings but they are what we have. I have a lot of photos of Mom but no decisions on what to do - book, etc. We'll just have to see.

Goodbye Mom!

Zona Irene Johnson, 92, of Ely Minnesota passed away peacefully in South Jordan, Utah, on April 26, 2013. 

Zona was born to the late Sanders and Cora Olson, on April 17, 1921, in Meadowlands, Minnesota.  She obtained her teaching degree from St. Cloud State Teaching College, and started her career in a one room schoolhouse in rural northern Minnesota.   She married the late Glen Johnson in 1943, and after living in Cloquet for a few years,  they moved to Ely in 1952. 

Zona continued her teaching career in Ely, and pioneered the Special Education Program in the Ely schools.  She and her assistant and good friend, Roberta Patterson were passionate about making a difference in these special children’s lives for 18 years. 

Zona was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church of Ely, The Weavers Guild, and the Ladies Auxiliary.   She and Glen loved to travel and made trips to Alaska, Gulf Shores, Alabama, Denmark and Australia.   Zona loved the outdoors and spent many hours fishing, snowmobiling, walking, picking raspberries and blueberries, swimming and boating.  She was an avid reader and chocolate chip cookie maker, and had a fondness for chocolate Dairy Queen.   

Zona is survived by five children, Sandy Heidergott  (Kurt, deceased) of Bellevue WA., Gerry Johnson (Diana) of Salt Lake City, Utah, Sharon Allhands of St. George, Utah, Nanci Johnson (Raymond Paschke) of Port Orford, Oregon and Glen Johnson, (Michelle)of Brainerd, Minnesota.  She is also survived by four grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and two grand-puppies. 

Funeral services are being handled by Bauman Funeral Home and will be held at a later date. 

The family would like to extend their gratitude to the staff of Carrington Court in South Jordan, Utah, for their love and care of Zona for the past three years. 

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to The Alzheimers Association.  

Somedays

Somedays things come together for you - you are at the right spot at the right time and you have your camera and you hold it steady and you compose it the way you want ....... And you get the shot you saw in your head!

The Eyes have it.

To use an overused expression, but the eyes of Murphy and Fuzzy caught me yesterday. What are they thinking or trying to tell us?

Care place

Mom has been a resident here at the Memory Care place for the last couple of years. The environment has been very good for her with lots of social interaction, a very caring and concerned staff and a great facility. I took this photo yesterday as I took a break from being by her side as she moves along the path to another world.

Flowering trees in spring

The flowering trees are so beautiful, the white and pink blossoms just thrusting themselves into life! Capturing them with a camera to get that specialness can be a real challenge - often the wonderful flowers look pretty blase'!
Here's a shot - using a dark background and isolating the flowers a bit - amping up the luminance and saturation a bit to try to capture that light that is in those flowers in the sun!

Spring at the refuge

I took 'the boys' - Murphy and Brodie - out for a walk at the Farmington Bay refuge. Now at this time of year you cannot take dogs into the refuge itself for the safety of the breeding birds and their babies. So we walked a portion of the exterior on a trail.
The weather was springlike - sprinkles and sun - and the clouds and light played around on the hills. The boys ran and played together and then waited patiently for me to catch up (I had the treats)! Various types of ducks displayed various behavior, your guess is a good as mine!
Enjoy!

Big sky could day

Geese were flying

Light, clouds and shadows on the mountainside.

Waiting for the guy with the treats!

Canadian Goose and American Avocet - plus female Avocet on nest.

Breeding season brings out the best colors in the male ducks - plus some interesting behavior!

Award of Excellence

We were fortunate to be able to attend an awards dinner at UVU in Provo last night; one of our friends was honored with the Presidential Award of Excellence at the event. Dr. Glendon Parker has done some great things while there and supported a significant number of students being successful!
And you might never know it from his mischievous grin!

Springville Museum of Art Spring Salon

The Springville Museum of Art (SMOFA) holds a statewide call for entries every spring called the Spring Salon. They have excellent jurors and the artwork selected is excellent. You can see them at www.smofa.org.
I entered two pieces and one was selected by the jurors for the salon.  The selection, which I titled Twins was photographed on the California coast during our visit to Sea Ranch over President's day this year. It is a photo composite as I added the cloudy sky at the top to remove the jumble and distractions that were there in the original photo.
Diana says that at first she didn't like this, but it is growing on her!  She also didn't like the one that won an honorable mention at the Bountiful Davis art Center.

Snails

There are always a lot of small snail shells around the gardens. For some reason this larger shell caught my eye - perhaps because I had just read the article on the large snails in Florida that they are hunting down.  Apparently those snails eat everything in their paths including the stucco on houses! Another example of a foreign invasion.
Anyway, I used my 105mm f/2.8 to take this and you can see the very narrow depth of field, despite being very close to the shell when I took the shot. Also a reminder that these are often best shot with a tripod or support for the camera as any vibration is hard to suppress.

Cassin's Finch

We get a lot of house finches at our backyard feeder and I had not paid much attention to different finches until I saw this one.  Our daughter correctly identified it for us and now I will look a little closer to see whether the finch is a house finch or a Cassin's.

What's tall with orange flowers?

Fritillaria - and they grow right outside our front door. Normally part of the '2nd wave' of flowers in the spring, these beauties do not handle cold very well and we often find them looking a bit frostbitten after a cold night. But they usually bounce back and give us great beauty.
They come in yellow also and perhaps other colors.
Here's a couple of morning shots.

Party photos

At a birthday party for 5 year olds there is a lot of energy in the air! Later on, after cake and candle blowing and present opening, the energy dies down (sometimes).
Here's a couple of shots - one at the beginning and one toward the end - that symbolize that for me.

Ready to party!

Ready to rest!

Keep searching

What about those shots you take and you know that there is a photo in there somewhere? Something triggered you to take it - what was it?
I had one of those today - I liked the water stream hitting the water, not sure I liked the frog, much of the background I didn't like but wait - what is that way down on the bottom?  It is a pattern that I did not notice until looking at the photo on my computer.
Studying the photo(s) now alerts me to more possibilities the next time this occurs - the sun was only out for a minute or so when I took these shots. Perhaps I can find a full frame composition that I like.

Full frame shot

No Frog - note the pattern in the bottom right

Nature's pattern

Tulips in the spotlight

We attended Carmen's 5th birthday party yesterday and outside there were some tulips making a beauty statement - very quietly, of course. I love these colors and captured a couple of shots for you.

Spring, flowers and sunlight

We are experiencing a wonderful mix of sun, clouds, rain and sun. Diana and I walked around last night and savored the new buds, spring flowers, rebirth of the garden as well as checking out the fast growing dandelions!! A wonderful springtime to be alive in, despite the allergies that it brings with it.
Here's a few shots from our walk around last evening as the sun was setting. Fuzzy came along!

Easter Bunny Lives!

On Easter Sunday, early in the morning, the Easter bunny came to our neighbors. They have a 2+ yr old daughter and this was probably her first real easter. Unfortunately I wasn't there to capture her facial expression when she opened the door, but what fun!

Purple