Hangin' Out with the Grandmunchkins

Earlier today, my husband Jack and I rounded up two of our four grandkids -- that's Jackie on the right and her brother Jarrett on the left -- for an outing at the park. Here, we all agreed, we'd hand them each one of our less-expensive cameras and encourage them to better their photography skills. We've done this before on several occasions, with limited success; their attention spans and focus, so to speak, don't last long. And, at the ages of 11 and 7, respectively, their taste in photo subjects runs more toward their own fingers and noses (and, amid lots of giggles, grandma's backside) than anything of real value.

But you never know. Last year, for instance, in between all the trash each of them ended up with a few (I emphasize, a few) nice photos, and, with their permission, we entered one by each of them in the park's annual amateur photography contest. And wonder of wonders, both were rewarded for their efforts: Jackie with a third place ribbon and Jarrett with an Honorable Mention, both in the Youth division.

So it was that we set out today. We started in the rose garden in Fellows Riverside Gardens near the park's visitor center. Each summer, the garden is awash with brilliant color as hundreds of roses -- reds, yellows, oranges, whites, pinks and everything in between -- are everywhere you look. Jackie was using my Sony Cybershot while Jarrett had Jack's tiny Casio. I, meanwhile, opted to use both my Canon EOS Digital Rebel with a heavy-duty macro lens, enhancing filter and monopod and my small Canon PowerShot Elph, which has a fantastic macro mode.

Everything went just fine for a while, even though it was a gloomy, muggy day -- we happily snapped away at the multitudes of coneflowers and daylilies in the parking lot and bordering the visitor center. Then, since there was a flower show inside, we wandered through that, cameras at the ready, before heading out to the rose garden.

Then to our great dismay -- just as we were ready to enter the garden -- the heavens decided to rain on our parade. "Don't let the rain come down," I hummed to myself as we all scurried back inside the building to keep our precious equipment from getting soaked. When it eased up a bit, we made another attempt at shooting outdoors, but that, too, proved fruitless. Not only did it start to rain again, when I got to the rose garden I discovered that hardly anything was in bloom. Most of the crop was in disarray, weatherbeaten and chomped over by beetles. Perhaps, I thought, the rain was trying to tell us something!

We drove on to the lily pond, but here, too, it was sprinkling and much too dark to get decent photos. So, we came home (by way of a Long John Silver's, where we had lunch) and downloaded what few photos we'd been able to take. Not surprisingly, neither of us had much to show for the outing. But not so Jackie and Jarrett! Oh sure, there was the smattering of stupid photos plus flowers and landscapes blurred almost beyond recognition. But there, in the midst of all that junk, were some real gems. In fact, they managed to get at least two apiece that not only are good enough to enter in the contest, but they're better than either of us managed to get.

Hmmm. That's not supposed to happen. Pretty soon, we'll be getting lessons from them!

Run for the Roses

Ah, the rose garden! Reportedly, this wonderful place -- located at the back entrance to the D.D. and Velma Davis Visitor and Education center -- is the most popular place in Mill Creek Park. Anyone who visits this time of year would understand why: everywhere you walk in this garden, you encounter some of the most beautiful roses you'll find anywhere. At every turn, you're greeted by arrays of reds, pinks, oranges, whites, yellows and even some that combine two or more shades in one.

On our July 6 visit, I wanted to avoid the direct overhead sunshine, so since our choices were fairly early in the morning or in late afternoon, we opted for morning. By the time we arrived around 10, though, the sun was a bit stronger than I'd have liked, but it was doable.

Of course, I hauled in my trusty Canon EOS Digital Rebel (a hand-me-down from my husband, Jack, when he got his new Canon Digital Rebel XTi). Mine, for the record, is equipped with a powerful Canon EF 100 f/2.8 macro lens, which I acquired courtesy of our good friend Amanda, a skilled photographer from West Virginia. This time out, though, I wanted to try another camera.

I've always carried a pocket-sized, all-purpose camera wherever we go, mostly as a back-up and partly to use when lugging the SLR is just too bulky to deal with, like on a hiking trail. For several years, my back-up of choice was a Sony Cybershot DSC-P200; but recently, it developed a couple of "shadows" on what I assume is the sensor -- there's no way to remove them -- that are obvious on photos of something plain like a clear blue sky. No, I said -- that simply won't do.

So, I forced myself to go on a camera quest and ended up (with Jack's help) with a Canon Powershot A590 -- a bit bigger than I'd like, but we've had very positive experiences with the Powershot series and the price was right. When I got it home, I discovered that it has an easily accessible macro mode -- and the few times I tried it, it worked quite well.

Trying to get good macro shots of roses, though, would be the real test -- and believe me, the camera got a good workout on this occasion. All told, I took nearly 300 photos, mostly of roses, about a third of which were with my new "baby." And guess what? It performed like a pro. In fact, in the end I deleted more less-than-perfect photos from this camera than I took with my SLR!

That said, this is a wonderful time to visit Mill Creek Park. After we left the rose garden, we found relief from the 85 degree heat -- and quite a few more photo opps -- inside the visitor center. Ah, but we were hungry. No problem! There was no line at all in the cafe, which on Sundays serves up a fabulous brunch catered by The Georgetown -- at $12.95 per person, it can't be beat. We sat at a window overlooking Lake Glacier (choosing that instead of on the outdoor patio because of the heat) and chowed down on breakfast goodies like scrambled eggs and biscuits with sausage gravy and then moved on to entrees like chicken francaise and two kinds of pasta. Dessert was fresh fruit -- strawberries, pineapple, grapes and two kinds of melon -- and generous slices of delicious cherry pie.

For an encore, we wandered around the well-landscaped parking lot and found a number of other floral treasures to "capture" -- in fact, that's where I snapped my pick of the day's litter and one of my all-time favorite photos -- a beautiful pale peach daylily.

That was, or so I thought, another wonderful day that ended too soon. But then, more great news: First, an em-mail message brought me the news that my black-and-white photo of the grist mill at Babcock State Park in West Virginia. That was followed a couple of hours later by another message informing me that the same photo was selected as the June Photo of the Month in the Black & White category at MyParkPhotos.com. Wow, I said -- it doesn't get much better than this!