Gosh, that's a boring title. Sorry.
Anyway, 14-yo entered a competition for expat kids. The challenge was to make an audio-visual presentation about your life in a different culture. He wasn't short-listed as a finalist. If you want to see the entries that were, you can go to this facebook page, and vote for a winner in each of the two age categories.
I thought his was rather good, though, so I'm sharing it with you. The images are all from our own camera, and I think it really does give a little flavour of what our life is like here. (Apologies for the picture quality.)
Showing posts with label pictures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pictures. Show all posts
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Monday, January 11, 2010
Photo meme
I’ve been tagged by Heather, at Notes from Lapland (and you think you've got lots of snow in England?), to show you my favourite photograph, and tell you why it’s my favourite. I’m going to have to cheat a little here, because I don’t think I have a favourite photograph, per se. I love the ones that sit on my desk here, but I’m not going to post them because I don’t want photos of my kids on the internet. And of course they are of my kids. I’m so predictable. So I’m not going to show them to you, but I will describe them for you.
One is a headshot of 5-yo, taken in Colorado two years ago. It’s not a terribly good photograph. There are telegraph poles and wires in the background, and she is half in shadow, half in sun. She’s wearing a baseball cap belonging to one of her brothers, and that black curly mass just below her chin is her father’s head – she’s sitting on his shoulders. But here’s why I love it. I emailed it to a friend and she said “what a great photo – when you look into her eyes, you can see into her soul”, and that’s exactly right. It’s one of those rare photos where the subject is looking into the camera, but somehow their awareness of the camera doesn’t get in the way of what the camera sees. So yes, I love her wispy blond hair, her little button nose, her smile. And yes, I love the memory of the moment I took that picture, on a sunny day in the mountains. But most of all, I love looking into her 3 year old soul. She has a beautiful soul. Yesterday she was telling me how she had had to pretend she believed in Santa, because although SHE knows the secret about it, Grandad doesn't, and she hadn't wanted to spoil it for him.
The other photo is of the two boys and me. They are 4 and 1, (I wish I had written dates on the backs of photos, and could be more precise). I’m sitting on our bed, and I have one boy on each leg. You can tell from the awkward angles of my arms and hands that it was quite a feat to keep them there. They are naked (legs are positioned to preserve modesty), and I know it is just after their bath-time, because there is a towel draped over the bedrail (which means that the younger one was sleeping in our bed at the time the photo was taken – although that bedrail probably stayed there for a while afterwards, as these things do). We are all grinning. The photo perfectly captures those fun bathtime and bedtime moments. We used to bath them together, and then put on music and let them dance around on our bed (dance, not bounce, before you throw up your hands in horror), before putting on their pyjamas and reading them stories. I can hear now in my head, as I type, the cd of Scottish Folk Music that we often put on, which I was given as something of a joke, I think, when we moved to Scotland, but which grew on me and became a favourite. It was either that, or the Gypsy Kings, or Something Fischy, or nursery rhymes, or jolly Christmas tunes.
The boys have a strong resemblance in the photo, which has faded over the years. Their bodies both have that lovely soft pudgy small-child look about them. The 1 year old has those rolls of chubb on his arms and legs, and a big tummy. He is skinny as a whip today. We all look so relaxed and happy. The photo was posed, but it captured one moment that could have been a moment from any number of evenings. The boys are looking at the camera, but you can see they’re not going to sit still for long. They are ready to get off my lap and on with the dancing. I wonder what music we were playing that night?
I am going to tag
Paradise Lost in Translation, who always has an interesting angle on things, photographically or otherwise, and who might post a photo of herself wearing a dress with a gecko embroidered on the back - or might not,
Reluctant Memsahib, who definitely knows how to post a great photo (are you still blogging out there, Reluctant Memsahib?),
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, because there should be more people who post pictures of tuna costumes, and
Elsie Button, for no particular reason. Oh, except for that memorable photograph of a malteser which she once posted.
And in case you are cross with me for not actually displaying a photograph, I will do so in my next post - promise.
.
One is a headshot of 5-yo, taken in Colorado two years ago. It’s not a terribly good photograph. There are telegraph poles and wires in the background, and she is half in shadow, half in sun. She’s wearing a baseball cap belonging to one of her brothers, and that black curly mass just below her chin is her father’s head – she’s sitting on his shoulders. But here’s why I love it. I emailed it to a friend and she said “what a great photo – when you look into her eyes, you can see into her soul”, and that’s exactly right. It’s one of those rare photos where the subject is looking into the camera, but somehow their awareness of the camera doesn’t get in the way of what the camera sees. So yes, I love her wispy blond hair, her little button nose, her smile. And yes, I love the memory of the moment I took that picture, on a sunny day in the mountains. But most of all, I love looking into her 3 year old soul. She has a beautiful soul. Yesterday she was telling me how she had had to pretend she believed in Santa, because although SHE knows the secret about it, Grandad doesn't, and she hadn't wanted to spoil it for him.
The other photo is of the two boys and me. They are 4 and 1, (I wish I had written dates on the backs of photos, and could be more precise). I’m sitting on our bed, and I have one boy on each leg. You can tell from the awkward angles of my arms and hands that it was quite a feat to keep them there. They are naked (legs are positioned to preserve modesty), and I know it is just after their bath-time, because there is a towel draped over the bedrail (which means that the younger one was sleeping in our bed at the time the photo was taken – although that bedrail probably stayed there for a while afterwards, as these things do). We are all grinning. The photo perfectly captures those fun bathtime and bedtime moments. We used to bath them together, and then put on music and let them dance around on our bed (dance, not bounce, before you throw up your hands in horror), before putting on their pyjamas and reading them stories. I can hear now in my head, as I type, the cd of Scottish Folk Music that we often put on, which I was given as something of a joke, I think, when we moved to Scotland, but which grew on me and became a favourite. It was either that, or the Gypsy Kings, or Something Fischy, or nursery rhymes, or jolly Christmas tunes.
The boys have a strong resemblance in the photo, which has faded over the years. Their bodies both have that lovely soft pudgy small-child look about them. The 1 year old has those rolls of chubb on his arms and legs, and a big tummy. He is skinny as a whip today. We all look so relaxed and happy. The photo was posed, but it captured one moment that could have been a moment from any number of evenings. The boys are looking at the camera, but you can see they’re not going to sit still for long. They are ready to get off my lap and on with the dancing. I wonder what music we were playing that night?
I am going to tag
Paradise Lost in Translation, who always has an interesting angle on things, photographically or otherwise, and who might post a photo of herself wearing a dress with a gecko embroidered on the back - or might not,
Reluctant Memsahib, who definitely knows how to post a great photo (are you still blogging out there, Reluctant Memsahib?),
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, because there should be more people who post pictures of tuna costumes, and
Elsie Button, for no particular reason. Oh, except for that memorable photograph of a malteser which she once posted.
And in case you are cross with me for not actually displaying a photograph, I will do so in my next post - promise.
.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Picture this
Everyone is playing this picture tag game, and Nappy Valley Girl has tagged me. The rules are:
Go to the 4th folder in your computer where you store your pictures
Pick the 4th picture in that folder
Explain the picture
Tag 4 people to do the same.
This is very exciting, since there is something I've been meaning to write about and show you all for ages and ages, and haven't got round to it, and now I have to. This involved a small amount of cheating, but very minor stuff. You will see, when I explain the first 3 attempts.
1) The 4th folder wasn't a folder at all, but an icon which was a short-cut to opening Mozilla Firefox. So I just ended up on the BBC World News home page. I deleted the icon. What was it doing there anyway?
2) The new 4th folder contained lots of different pictures of a soccer ball, downloaded from the internet. The folder title was "11-yo's soccer logos". I didn't think that was very interesting for you all, so gave myself permission to pass on.
3) The next folder was titled "11-yo's aeroplane pictures". There were only 3 pictures in it, so I could pass on without even being guilty of cheating.
So on the 4th attempt at finding the 4th picture in the 4th folder, I found this.
Here is the story behind it. When we moved into our new home, in April 2006, having moved half a world, camped out with the sister of one of Husband's colleagues for 2 weeks, and rented a small duplex for 4 months, we wanted to do something special in the children's bedroom. It seemed important. Our two youngest were sharing the largest room.
Husband had bought a painting done by one of his students (he's a Philosophy teacher, but as you probably know, a US degree covers a whole range of subjects, so this girl was an art major taking one of his philosophy classes). I really loved it. It showed a boat on a lake, and was dreamy and impressionist. "Do you think she does murals?" I asked Husband, and that's how it all started.
This was Mylissa's first mural. We weren't very easy clients, or perhaps we were ideal clients, in that we didn't really have a clear idea of what we wanted. I just asked for it to be dreamy and impressionist, and of the sea. Oh how I missed the sea, which we could view from our bedroom window in the house we'd left in Scotland. We painted the room blue, she brought lots of pictures from books and websites, we told her which ones we liked and which we didn't, and she made a start.
It was a mutually very happy arrangement. Mylissa took her time (um, nearly 4 months actually - in sporadic evenings and week-end afternoons) during which period the room pretty much became her studio, and the 2 children slept on our bedroom floor. She didn't charge us nearly enough, and wouldn't. She had most of the vision, but we would chip in our ideas: how about a bird here, or a few fish there? We had a lot of fun doing it, and I loved seeing an artist at work. What a mysterious world is the world of the painter.
We couldn't have been more pleased with the result. The mural is on 3 walls. There's a tropical island, with a sunset and dolphins. There's a boy's side of the room, with a shipwreck (in the photo above), and a sailing boat in the distance. There's a girl's side, with mermaids lazily investigating a treasure chest, and a hazy castle in the clouds. Deep down, I know the mural is really for me, not for the children, although they do love it too.
Mylissa did a couple of murals after ours, but then went off to Hollywood to do clever things with Blu-Ray. Her creativity was, in a way, a key to unlocking some element of mine, which is something else I need to tell you about. Another time. Meanwhile, it's very hard to do the mural justice, but I thought you'd like to see a few more photos of it.
Here's a close-up of that wreck. I was going to say "you can't really see the detail", but you can if you click on it. It's worth a look.
Mylissa added a little Pikachu just by the door of the room (he's a Pokemon for those of you who don't know). We discussed putting him on the sailing boat or the island, or letting him hang out with the mermaids, but for the sake of artisitic integrity, she found him a spot out of the picture.
I am tagging Elsie Button, Potty Mummy, Expatmum, and Antique Mommy. And Pig in the Kitchen which makes 5. It's the new 4. Didn't you know? (But Pig, you're not allowed a food photo; it's got to be something else.)
Go to the 4th folder in your computer where you store your pictures
Pick the 4th picture in that folder
Explain the picture
Tag 4 people to do the same.
This is very exciting, since there is something I've been meaning to write about and show you all for ages and ages, and haven't got round to it, and now I have to. This involved a small amount of cheating, but very minor stuff. You will see, when I explain the first 3 attempts.
1) The 4th folder wasn't a folder at all, but an icon which was a short-cut to opening Mozilla Firefox. So I just ended up on the BBC World News home page. I deleted the icon. What was it doing there anyway?
2) The new 4th folder contained lots of different pictures of a soccer ball, downloaded from the internet. The folder title was "11-yo's soccer logos". I didn't think that was very interesting for you all, so gave myself permission to pass on.
3) The next folder was titled "11-yo's aeroplane pictures". There were only 3 pictures in it, so I could pass on without even being guilty of cheating.
So on the 4th attempt at finding the 4th picture in the 4th folder, I found this.
Here is the story behind it. When we moved into our new home, in April 2006, having moved half a world, camped out with the sister of one of Husband's colleagues for 2 weeks, and rented a small duplex for 4 months, we wanted to do something special in the children's bedroom. It seemed important. Our two youngest were sharing the largest room.
Husband had bought a painting done by one of his students (he's a Philosophy teacher, but as you probably know, a US degree covers a whole range of subjects, so this girl was an art major taking one of his philosophy classes). I really loved it. It showed a boat on a lake, and was dreamy and impressionist. "Do you think she does murals?" I asked Husband, and that's how it all started.
This was Mylissa's first mural. We weren't very easy clients, or perhaps we were ideal clients, in that we didn't really have a clear idea of what we wanted. I just asked for it to be dreamy and impressionist, and of the sea. Oh how I missed the sea, which we could view from our bedroom window in the house we'd left in Scotland. We painted the room blue, she brought lots of pictures from books and websites, we told her which ones we liked and which we didn't, and she made a start.
It was a mutually very happy arrangement. Mylissa took her time (um, nearly 4 months actually - in sporadic evenings and week-end afternoons) during which period the room pretty much became her studio, and the 2 children slept on our bedroom floor. She didn't charge us nearly enough, and wouldn't. She had most of the vision, but we would chip in our ideas: how about a bird here, or a few fish there? We had a lot of fun doing it, and I loved seeing an artist at work. What a mysterious world is the world of the painter.
We couldn't have been more pleased with the result. The mural is on 3 walls. There's a tropical island, with a sunset and dolphins. There's a boy's side of the room, with a shipwreck (in the photo above), and a sailing boat in the distance. There's a girl's side, with mermaids lazily investigating a treasure chest, and a hazy castle in the clouds. Deep down, I know the mural is really for me, not for the children, although they do love it too.
Mylissa did a couple of murals after ours, but then went off to Hollywood to do clever things with Blu-Ray. Her creativity was, in a way, a key to unlocking some element of mine, which is something else I need to tell you about. Another time. Meanwhile, it's very hard to do the mural justice, but I thought you'd like to see a few more photos of it.
Here's a close-up of that wreck. I was going to say "you can't really see the detail", but you can if you click on it. It's worth a look.
Mylissa added a little Pikachu just by the door of the room (he's a Pokemon for those of you who don't know). We discussed putting him on the sailing boat or the island, or letting him hang out with the mermaids, but for the sake of artisitic integrity, she found him a spot out of the picture.
I am tagging Elsie Button, Potty Mummy, Expatmum, and Antique Mommy. And Pig in the Kitchen which makes 5. It's the new 4. Didn't you know? (But Pig, you're not allowed a food photo; it's got to be something else.)
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