5-26-2008

Blog #197

David

Salute to Mathew Brady

   I wanted to see if I could take one of my Burton Civil War photos and make it look authentic.  Obviously I made it black and white and flattened the contrast taking out the true whites.  Photos from the Civil War era had very long exposures and poor depth of field so I blurred the parts that were close and far.  The long exposure times meant that all photos were posed and never in real time action; the photo I choose was one of the few that could pass as posed.  The soldier in the foreground with his back to the camera just didn't make sense for a posed photo, so I took him out.  I added emulsion streaks and corner flaws as well as spots throughout.   Most of the flaws were lifted from actual Civil war photos.  Overall its still sharper and less "damaged" than most period photos.

And here's the original:

5-26-2008

Blog #196

David

Ballet Recital

   On Saturday we attended Svea's and Brigitta's ballet recital.  They both did a great job.  I took some movie clips.  The poor lighting, our seating position and the poor zoom in the Canon's movie mode, gave me much useless footage.  Joan, however, took a nice snapshot of the sisters.  (This is the one time each year that they get to wear make-up.)

Burton Civil War Reenactment

   Yesterday Papa joined us for an hour drive to Burton, Ohio where they held the 23rd Annual Civil War Encampment and an hour long battle reenactment.  It was fabulous, as was the weather.  The girls met Abraham Lincoln.

There was an authentic encampment

A pre battle pep talk

Milling about before the march

Svea took pictures as well.

Charge!

Preparing for battle

The Union fires

The Confederacy fires

Women in period clothing watch (Svea took this one)

The girls pose with the fine men of the Company E of 4th Regiment, Ohio Infantry

We were given a leather working demonstration

And a lesson on broom-making

Many people were dressed in period clothing

Open tents of the encampment

Sitting down for a break

I loved the working saw mill

Farewell!

We stopped for ice cream before heading home

I put together a Windows Media slideshow and a movie of the reenactment.  Each are about 2.5 minutes long:  Burton Civil War Reenactment Video & Burton Civil War Reenactment Slideshow

Cuyahoga Falls Memorial Day Parade

   Today Brigitta marched in the Cuyahoga Falls Memorial Day Parade with her IHM Daisy/Girl Scouts troop.  Joan, Svea, Annika and I dropped off Brigitta and drove to the end of the parade.  Oakwood Cemetery was the end of the route so walked through and read gravestones while we waited for the parade to reach us.

The end of the parade and entrance to the cemetery was adorned with over 4,000 yellow ribbons.

   Each ribbon had a tag with the name of a fallen Gulf War soldier.  I decided to read tags until I found a female soldier.  Once at home I researched the one I found.  Sgt. Cari Anne Gasiewicz, 28, spoke fluent Arabic and served as an interpreter in a military intelligence unit of the Army; she was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq.  Also in the picture are the tags of of Joe J. Garza and Juan Guadalupe Garza Jr.  Army 1st Sgt. Joe J. Garza, 43, was killed in a vehicular accident in Baghdad. He was my age when he died.  He had three children and had been married 24 years. Marine Pfc. Juan Guadalupe Garza Jr. was killed by a sniper; he was newlywed.  The ribbons and research brought Memorial Day home for me.  (The portraits are not part of the tags.) 

As I walked through the cemetery a second time, Joan and Svea amused themselves by making critters out of found objects.  (Picture by Svea)

The Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi was my favorite.

Local veterans killed in action

We were delighted to see some of the reenactors of that we saw yesterday in Burton.

There she is at the end of the two mile parade route!

5-15-2008

Blog #195

David

Harriette & Joan - Student & Teacher

   Yesterday Harriette began piano lessons; the student just before her was eight decades her junior.  She will be taking lessons every Wednesday; we are excited and proud of her.

   Yesterday Joan accepted a job; she will be the Mommy-and-Me teacher at Treehouse Preschool.  This is the same preschool in Tallmadge that Annika and her big sisters have attended.  Beginning this fall Joan will have one, possibly two, classes a week.  The classes are only an hour and 45 minutes long.  Considering the attention span of two-year-old students, however, Joan will have to plan and prepare quite a few activities to make their first school experience fun and educational.  She is looking forward to it and is brimming with ideas.  I'm thrilled for her.  She has such natural talent and creative ideas when it comes to children's activities; I know that she will do a great job.  Annika will be attending preschool three days a week at the same time, right down the hall.  Joan finally has an opportunity to make use of her architecture, interior design and science degrees!

   The end of the school year is fast approaching and I am swamped.  I have after school and/or evening school activities everyday this week except Tuesday; I managed to get a bike ride in that evening.  Yesterday was the last Photo Club meeting of the school year; I caught the invisible bug.

5-11-2008

Blog #194

David

Happy Mother's Day

We celebrated Mother's Day today with a short hike at the Seiberling Nature Realm and lunch at Hibachi Japan; everyone had a great time.

5-10-2008

Blog #193

David

Brigitta's First Paddle

(And Capsize)

  We went boating today; all five Halls went to Mogadore Reservoir.  Joan paddled the Sprinter, I took Annika and Svea in the rowboat and Brigitta paddled the Kiddiyak.  She was a little intimidated at first but quickly gained confidence.  Like Svea, she had trouble avoiding stationary objects, such as the shore, but she improved as she went.

Brigitta paddles through lily pads.

  I followed her through these pads.  Rowers sit backwards in rowboats so my back was to her when she capsized about a minute after I snapped this shot bellow.  We had been watching the wake of a very large fish (or maybe two or three); it moved enough water to rock the rowboat noticeably.  I heard a sound from Brigitta's boat and turned in time to see the last part of her capsize.  She popped right out of the water and was not happy.  Most of her hair stayed dry, so her life jacket must have done a good job of keeping her head out of the water.  In spite of the fact that she usually loves being in any sort of water she clearly expressed displeasure with this particular situation.  This area was shallow enough that she could stand chest deep.  The bottom was icky.  I pulled her into the rowboat and managed to drain the Kiddiyak.  Svea then took a turn paddling.

Svea paddles out of the lily pads as Joan coaches.

Brigitta was befriended and amused by a small dragonfly that landed on her.

She wanted to keep it.

Svea paddled into a cove that had beautiful blooming dogwood trees.

Joan and I coached Svea through turning versus overcorrecting.

All three boats on the Volvo.

We stopped for ice cream cones on the way home.

Our invisible daughters.

5-7-2008

Blog #192

David

Svea's First Communion

  Svea made her first communion on Saturday at Our Lady of Victory and then again with her class at Immaculate Heart of Mary on Sunday.  She went through both the Parish School of Religion's first communion program at Our Lady of Victory as well as her classroom religion studies at Immaculate Heart.  Here she is pictured below with our priest, Father Hengle at Our Lady of Victory Church.

Here she is pictured below with her sisters at Our Lady of Victory.

Our dogwood tree in front of our house is in full bloom.

With mom in front of the dogwood tree.

Here she is with her classmates at Immaculate Heart of Mary on Sunday.  Nana bought this Celtic cross for her in Ireland when she was just a baby (Svea, not Nana).

We had purchased a digital camera for her birthday, with the intent on giving it to her early so that she could use it in Alaska this summer.  This seemed like an opportune moment to give her her main birthday gift.  Svea requested a bible as her first communion gift; Annika is perusing through it as Svea shows her camera and Brigitta smirks.

Many of the Kelly relatives attended Svea's First Communion party as well as a few friends and neighbors.  Svea enjoyed cutting her cake.

I really did a pretty poor job with pictures at the party.  The next two shots are just proof that we really did have a party.

Svea Turns Invisible

Annika's last day of Mommy and Me

  Annika's Mommy and Me class went to the Akron Zoo today, marking the end of the school year.  She and Joan had a good time and the weather was nice.

I biked 33.3 miles yesterday.