spring creeps in

It's been such a funny disjointed winter. Had you heard that thing about New Year's Eve, where whatever you're doing at midnight is the "theme" for your year? Have I talked about this yet? Seriously, I can't remember. So, I thought we'd be in for big excitement this year based on our New Year's Eve. Fireworks! Dancing!

Hmmm. I got it wrong. I think the theme for this year was hunker down. For this winter, at least. We've definitely gone into survival/hibernation mode around here. And then that snow. Things have been disjointed and weird. My classes are keeping me busy, but even they've been on the skids a bit with lots of canceled sessions and make-up days.

I'm also taking a class. Embrace the Grain, with film photog extraordinaire Joyce Kang. It's been exciting and fun and hard. I've gained some empathy for my own intro students as I struggle with understanding. My first scans should be arriving at the lab today (black and white, YIPES!), so maybe (maybe) I'll share some here. That was a big push out of my comfort zone, but you know what? I'm getting ready to load another roll of B&W in the camera today.

But the weather is warmer. Capricious March. (one of Cal's vocab words this week. "Capricious." Not "March.") Baseball practice started last week and games start this week. I love the frenetic pace of it all. But it takes getting used to, no lie. The laundry change alone takes getting used to! Practice pants, uniform pants (why are they ALWAYS white!). Crock pot dinners, altered car pool schedules. Everything has shifted. Time speeds up in the spring.

And blogging. I'm not even sure how to blog anymore. Monday, Wednesday, Friday? Tuesday, Thursday? Never?! I'd love to recapture the structure of this space, but my weeks have felt more reactive than anything. I don't like that. And yet the rhythm of blogging grounds me and keeps me feeling connected to the me-ness of the crazy days and weeks ahead. And you! It keeps me connected to all of you. I'll figure it out. In the meantime, I'm here today. And I'll be here Thursday. And Friday is another installment of One Kid, One Roll, Once A Month. I'm loving that project!

What are you loving these days? Life as it speeds past?

our snow, on film

It's been warmish for a couple of days, but I know better than to trust March around here. There's every likelihood that we'll be in the forties with rain well into April. Frankly, I'd rather have snow. Still, before it gets too, too warm (we have crocus blooming in the front yard!), I wanted to share some of the snowy shots I got on film this year.

The shots here, although on a couple different rolls, represent a bit of a breakthrough for me. When I send my rolls into the lab for developing, I choose the "package" that includes feedback on my work. Because I'm still (forever?) learning, I figure that any feedback I can get will help me grow and learn even more. They're usually very gentle. They always find something good to say, but they'll let you know which shots are not properly exposed. With this latest batch I had four rolls come back (these snow shots included), and my feedback on each said that my exposure looked good. This was nice to hear!

And plus, the snow. I'm so happy to have these shots of our river and my family in the snow. Our dogs could walk on top of it and we nervously watched one dog walk out on the river (We didn't like that at all.). It was beautiful in sun and cloud, and no matter what it was a winter to remember.