an american-italian thanksgiving

These things

say

'Thanksgiving'

to me:

Canon 6D + Tamron 24-70 lens
LR preset: kk_earthywgrain

PS textures: kk_waterfront1 and kk_waterfront21

as seen on Instagram
iPhone 6 captured with Camera+ app
edited with Leonardo and Stackables apps

family heirlooms

now in my keep:

ravioli rolling pin,

collander,

macaroni pot,

Italian embroidered linen tablecloth
and matching napkins

(a wedding gift for my folks in 1953)

***

This is what

Thanksgiving dinner

looked like

in our family:

homemade ravioli

with

homemade ricotta filling

and

the best ragu

you ever tasted.

We kids never had a traditional

Thanksgiving turkey dinner

until we were

grown

and living on our own.

For the record,

none of us

ever objected.

Also for the record,
we considered ourselves
Americans
of
Italian/Irish/Swedish
descent.

Greg, Cindy, Mom, Grandpa,

'Dudie,' Adrienne, Lissa

(Dad was behind the camera)

Thanksgiving 1966

at Dudie & Grandpa's house

Dudie wisely got out her best

plastic faux lace tablecloth

for us kids

(tomato sauce stains quite reliably)

Greg, Cindy, Adrienne, Lissa

making ravioli with Grandpa

in our kitchen

November 1969

See the rolling pin?

The tradition continued

- in a way -

when we kids

had kids,

only now it's

Christmas Eve

dinner...

Linking up with

Texture Tuesday

Be Still 52 (week 25)

Happy Thanksgiving!

baby spoon

a simple little still life

for our

Be Still 52

assignment

for Week 10:

playing with

lighting direction...

and spoons.

***

Notes:

Quickly assembled

Friday morning

before work:

The silver spoon and dish

were my mother's

as a baby.

(I know I should get out the silver polish

but the tarnished patina is so lovely!)

+

a wonderfully old, humble washcloth

from I don't know where

+

daisies from our garden

+

a very old children's book.

I played for over an hour

with various

ISOs, shutter speeds, apertures and angles.

I tried flash, but it diminished the shadows,

so I practiced holding the camera

v e r y steady.

I repeatedly repositioned the little table

with an eye for directional shadows.

Lillian helped with the setup...

...and then she just relaxed

and let the process

evolve on its own.

Feline 'insight' maybe?

CAMERA

Canon EOS 6D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens

Manual Mode

both photos:

ISO 1600

f/5.0

1/30 sec

LIGHTROOM

I 'painted' in some basic edits

to emphasize

dramatic light/shadow play;

applied two of Kim's presets:

sharpen still life

&

kk_summersun

then I kept playing around

in the Develop module:

I de-saturized the yellows and greens

and applied a faded split tone

(blue highlights + pink shadows)

to keep things cool.

Then I synced the edits

with the second photo

and fine-tuned things there too.

PHOTOSHOP

Just two layers of

kk_pinitonly4

Soft Light ~30%

Vivid Light 15%

masking off the spoon

***

Linking up with

Be Still 52

Friday Finds

Texture Tuesday

a job worth doing

Etching brush and ladle

belonging to

Joe Toomey

I often heard this saying from my mother, who likely heard the same words from her father. I assumed that Grandpa Joe had coined the phrase himself, but eventually realized that it is an old proverb.

***

John Joseph Toomey, my "Grandpa Joe," was born August 7, 1894, in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, to Michael and Ann (Murphy) Toomey. Joe's father, a railroad worker, was "gone a lot," leaving his wife and two young sons to fend for themselves. Ann died when the boys were very young, so their aunt, Ellen (Murphy) Baker, raised them.

Joe's childhood was spent in the loving care of his Aunt 'Nell' and her family, where he learned the value of hard work and a good education. There on the Baker farm in Wisconsin he grew up, working alongside the hired hands, and attending the local one-room school.

After high school, Joe worked on the railroad while taking correspondence courses from the University of Wisconsin. He eventually saved enough money to attend classes at the university, working in a fraternity house kitchen and typing term papers to make ends meet. He never did graduate.

In his late twenties, Joe went to work for the Minneapolis Tribune, which was founded by his cousin, William J. Murphy. Eventually, he was sent to Los Angeles to learn the rotogravure process, including photoengraving and etching, so that he could set up such a department at the Tribune. Joe worked at the Tribune until 1940, when the newspaper was sold.

***

Notes:

SETUP
Backdrop: plywood scrap, painted white and roughed up
I actually 'skated' the plywood over gravel.
+
Shop rag from Home Depot (already a bit dirty!)

I didn't spend a lot of time setting up;
just figured I'd see what happened
and deal with it
in a Wabi Sabi fashion.

original photo

SOOC

LIGHTROOM

Lens Corrections:

fix distortion, perspective, and angle

Crop:

Rule of Thirds - sort of

ample empty space

Presets:

Kim's Light&Airy Workflow

after Lightroom edits

cropped and ready for
Photoshop edit

PHOTOSHOP

Cloning to fill in the right side
kk_rainyday Soft Light 35%
another layer of the same at 47%
+ a layer mask to bring back some clarity
kk_grungedup_2 Multiply 35%

Fonts:
Old Newspaper
Dear Joe
(I know...too easy)

***

Linking up with

Be Still 52 - Day 3

Start to Finish 2 - Day 10

a mother's day album

So here's where my heart is

on this 

Mother's Day

***

Let me

illustrate with

some photos

from

the past

May 1960

Wheat Ridge, Colorado

Our family

with Mom

at the center

(I'm just 2 weeks old here)

Mom was 8 months pregnant

with me

+

three small children

in tow

when they moved in

this brand-new house

just a few weeks

before

June 1989

Toronto

My parents

came to visit

when Kelly (our first)

was born

 Grandma and Kelly

Grandma, me, and Grandpa

with Kelly

Not quite

two years later...

Grandpa and Grandma

came to Toronto to meet

our little 'Enna'

with Kelly (22 mo) and Erin (3 mo)

And now...

a few 'selfies'

from

Kelly's

Instagram

album

this year

 March 5

March 28

May 8

***

Making the decision

to have a child

is momentous.

It is to decide

forever

to have your heart

go walking around

outside

your body.

Elizabeth Stone

Happy Mother's Day

Mom!

and

to Kelly:

Welcome

to the

Club!

re: ephemera, wabi-sabi, still-life, and light

Start where you are.

Use what you have.

***

So

I started with

a scrap of

ephemera

from my Dad's

old stamp collection

'stash'

and dug up

this old chunk

of wood

and sifted

through

some

old potpourri

and

sorted

through

some

old buttons

and

in a

free-flowing

wabi-sabi

state of mind,

I

quickly

composed this

little

still life

it was if a story

was unfolding

as I assembled

the bits and pieces...

I've been to Wyoming

'though I don't know exactly where

Upton is.

Champa Street

is in

downtown Denver.

I searched for

some

early morning

light

and

the rest

is

history.

Or

rather

photography.

***

CAMERA SETTINGS:

Camera: Canon 6D (full frame)

Lens: Canon 28-135mm

Focal Length: 135mm

(Lens Image Stabilizer turned off for tripod use)

Mode: Manual

Auto Focus (center point focus) with Evaluative Metering

ISO 400, f/18, 1.3 sec

(I was going for 'tack sharp'

to emphasize the

assorted textures

and

light/shadow play)

***

PHOTO EDITING:

Lightroom:

lots of experimentation

with

cropping, snapshots

presets (mainly Kim's LightAiry Workflow)

then edited in

Photoshop CC:

just a bit of

layering

from Kim's Home Sweet Home Set

kk_hsh3 (Multiply 52%)

kk_hsh (Overlay 17%)

***

Linking up

with

Start to Finish 2

Friday Finds

(late as usual)

friday finds: albuquerque part 3

Today I am concluding my armchair journey to Albuquerque. It's still in keeping with historical, cultural, and architectural themes, but I am fast-forwarding a few hundred years to the late 1940's.

It's time to "get your kicks on Route 66" and here's a little music video to get you in a nostalgic mood:

I couldn't help but hear the fabulous velvety voice of Nat King Cole

on that hot sunny day five years ago

as I made my way along Central Avenue SW (the old Route 66).

Admittedly, this is a little before my time, but it puts me in mind of the many summer vacations

with my family, when I was a kid in the 60's and 70's. 

We stayed in more than a few motels like this -

many with a quaint name or homey atmosphere

to remember them by.

We ate in many an eatery back in the day.

Some of the old places have been restored and/or are still in business today.

I'm not so sure about "steak fingers" and eggs. Meh.

This old neon sign is wonderfully grungy.

I hope someone rescues this bit of Americana

but it's kinda big...where would you put it?

Do you suppose today's big SUVs would even fit in these carports?

Here's a place with some attractive features.

No WiFi though, and thanks, but I've got my cellphone.

Many sites are now obscured behind chain link fences,

I suppose to keep away vandals and vagrants.

Or nosey tourists with cameras.

I wonder who actually owns these run-down old properties

and what, if anything they plan to do with them.

I can still picture my mother doing a 'recon' before the whole family trouped into the place

(motel or restaurant).

She sure had an eye for a clean bed and bath, but sometimes

we had to settle for somewhat 'less than hygienic' accommodations

(aka a "flea bag")

especially out in the middle of nowhere.

If Mom saw tablecloths on the tables, then chances are it was safe to eat there.

She also checked out the menu, with taste and budget in mind

(Mom + Dad + four kids + two grandparents...that's a lot of tired, hungry people to feed).

***

I know there was probably a more efficient way to 'batch process' these photos, but I wasn't in the mood to spend the time to figure it out. So here's what I did:

In Lightroom 4  I cropped each photo, keeping the original size ratio, then treated them with the following presets:

1. Dave Delnea's CyanSkies Look3
2. His Backlight Vertical Left 
3. His C+V Washed Vintage 001
4. Lightroom's Rounded Corners White (in hindsight, I would have increased the width a bit; as you can see, only the corners show up)

Here's a screenshot of my Photoshop CS6 processing:

***

Linking up with

Friday Finds

Texture Tuesday

Weekend Walk