I've been waiting and waiting for them to publish this issue, because I have four photos in it. First, in the Contents, or "On the Menu" section, in the top middle is my photo of the Ready Brothers, who I wrote about in an earlier post. They are two lobstermen who started a really amazing lobstering business called Catch a Piece of Maine: 
The next photo is a scan of the page that has another photograph from the morning I went out on the Ready Brother's lobsterboat. This shows Portland Headlight in the background as they prepare a trap for resetting:
Finally, near the end of the magazine, are two photos of the Boyd Street Garden in Portland's East End neighborhood that I took for David Buchanan's regular quarterly column. I'm really happy about getting these photos into this wonderful magazine and can't wait for a chance to sit down and "consume" the entire issue at my leisure. I hope I will get the opportunity to provide more images for them in the future as it was really fun! Thanks for reading everyone! Cindy
Finally, near the end of the magazine, are two photos of the Boyd Street Garden in Portland's East End neighborhood that I took for David Buchanan's regular quarterly column. I'm really happy about getting these photos into this wonderful magazine and can't wait for a chance to sit down and "consume" the entire issue at my leisure. I hope I will get the opportunity to provide more images for them in the future as it was really fun! Thanks for reading everyone! Cindy
It is actually comprised of three bracketed shots that were taken to expose for more full highlights, midtones and shadows. It's called HDR or High Dynamic Range photography. I really like the effect, which to me looks a bit like an old re-colored postcard. My father put it together for me using an HDR program called Photomatix, which I don't have yet.
I really like the rich, golden light and saturation of colors in it. It's a new favorite of mine and I hope you like it as well. 
I was intrigued by how run-down the house was. I wish I knew how old it was, but I'm guessing late 1800s because it seems to have Italianate design in addition to the nifty lookout cupola on the top. And I love the counterpoint of the intense blue sky behind it, as today is grim and gray outside. 
Just an interesting take on a church steeple really--nothing too exciting this time around. . . But as always, thanks for looking! ;-) 
and: 
I finally managed to grab her and stuff her back into the toybox, but I had no sooner finished that when I turned around and discovered where all of our damned money's been going!
I managed to grab the five, but he wolfed the dollar down like a greedy pig. . . I stuffed him in the toy box along with the baby doll, who kept knocking on the lid and crying. And then, I turned around and discovered that I was surrounded by a horde of vicious Littlest Pet Shop figures: 
"Play with us! Play with us!" they whispered, all together, like something out of a horror movie. I backed away with them following slowly along until I got to the bedroom door, ran out into the hall and slammed the door shut on the whole awful experience. 
This one is pretty vampy! 
Here she is being melancholy. . .
I call this one The Message, because it looks to me like she has a glowing message or letter held under the hand that is on the bricks. A sad message, by the looks of it. . .
And finally, here she is watching out the front door in anticipation of trick or treating!
It's pretty simple actually. I set up a black cloth on my dining room table, which is next to the deck door, which provides good sidelight. Then I set up my fruit(s) or vegetable(s) and putting my camera on the tripod, set it on f/22 to really slow the shutter down, and I used cloudy natural sidelight with no other lights to take these photos at somewhat long exposures of 2-5 seconds. 
The long exposures and cloudy, diffuse natural light seem to allow for rich, saturated colors in the pictures, despite the fact that when I set them up, you'd think they'd be the worst, underexposed, drab looking pictures ever.
In fact, I was just desperate to photograph something when I started this project last week. I didn't have time to leave the house and find a landscape and the light was wrong anyhow--it was cloudy! So when I set up, I thought, "Girl, you must be crazy. These are going to be ugly!" But after a little tweaking of the exposure times and aperture, this was what resulted. I'm quite happy with it. What do you think?
And then we came to Portland Headlight--my first view of it from the ocean ever! 
How about THAT view from your office?! Although, I'm sure Winter, spent harvesting lobsters on an open boat isn't nearly as much fun. . .And then it was time to set some traps: 
And:
All too soon we were headed back to the "real" world of being a mother and a hypnotherapist--my eight year old was waiting at home and I had a client at 10, so I had to say goodbye. It was so much fun! Thanks Brendan and John! 
We saw some beautiful Jewelweed bushes and they popped some of the seedpods--the pods, when touched, fly apart as if they are held together by springs.
They pretended that they were princesses in the magical Cloud Kingdom they were looking at as we walked back. The clouds were literally gorgeous. Maya wants me to print out one of the photos and make them Cloud Kingdom Passports, which I think I have done, but have removed from the post. There were these incredible clouds they called the Cloud Covered Kingdom. They're quite happy with them and I'm going to have them printed up somewhere so they can each have one. Membership to an elite kingdom. . . Isn't that we all wish for? 