A Sunny Day Photo Trick

50mm | ISO 100 | f/2.8  | shutter speed 1/125

I have artichokes! At least four at this point. One is almost ready to pick, three others tiny, but growing. They make me feel like an accomplished gardener, although they didn't really require much. Perhaps I shouldn't admit that here?

I was in the garden today in bright sun and needed to document the progress. I need to remember what it looked like before I pluck it from the vine and eat it for dinner!

With the bright sun at my back I stood in front of the artichoke plant. It's about 3 feet high and three feet wide, so I leaned in. With my body casting nice open shade over the artichoke I snapped. It works in a pinch!

Do you have a trick for creating or finding open shade on a sunny day?

Blog Action Day - What Scares You?

Once upon a time there was a little boy. He had to listen to his parents talk since he couldn't talk much himself. One day he heard his momma say, "that really scares me." He worked really hard, struggling a bit to find the words and asked,"what scares you momma?"

She paused for a long time. Because he was a little boy.

"Global warming," she said.

And he understood. Even though he was little he understood wasting and driving the car too much and not putting things in the recycle bin made global warming bigger.

And he understood if global warming got bigger some things wouldn't be the same anymore. The parks. The playground. The backyard. The air he breathed. The world he lived in.

So he was happy to ride behind his mom's bike to school. He was happy to wear clothes someone else had used. He was happy to help in the garden, well most of the time anyway. He was happy to be a vegetarian, even if he wasn't quite sure what that meant. He was happy to use a cloth napkin and didn't even know what a paper towel was.

Because he knew. He knew he was making global warming smaller. In his small way. Because he was small.

And for the big people he thought they should do more. Because one day he would be big. And he knew he had lots of things to do in the world. And he didn't want Global Warming to be the only thing he thought about. He understood though. He understood doing things differently is hard. He understood habits, even if he was only little.

His momma said, maybe if the big people understood more. Maybe they'd do something different. So she showed her friends this video:

And she pointed them toward information. And they hoped. They hoped people would do their small part too.