Art Hill

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Daily Photos 2011

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April 19 2011 Happy Birthday Dad<br /> <br /> My Dad was born 100 years ago today so this image is a tribute to him. It is a letter he wrote to my Mom in 1944 shortly before spending his fourth Christmas away from her. In it he describes a Christmas party that his army unit held for "about 100 little French kids". My Dad was paired up for the afternoon with an 8 year old boy. They had presents, a meal, singing and a visit from Santa. My Dad gave the little boy an American penny, and English penny and an Egyptian coin. He ended the description of the event saying "I fully enjoyed the whole party. Maybe some future Christmas I'll be helping a son of ours to enjoy the big day."<br /> <br /> Nineteen months later I became that boy and my Dad helped me enjoy 38 Christmases before we lost him. Thanks Dad. And one more thing - I got to ride a camel in front of the pyramids last year and you were right, it was amazing.<br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/Daily-Photos-2010/5529181_hoJ5g#841425782_mwgw3-A-LB">http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/Daily-Photos-2010/5529181_hoJ5g#841425782_mwgw3-A-LB</a><br /> <br /> More photos of my Dad<br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/Family/My-Dad/16677340_SnZCC9">http://arthill.smugmug.com/Family/My-Dad/16677340_SnZCC9</a>
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April 19 2011 Happy Birthday Dad

My Dad was born 100 years ago today so this image is a tribute to him. It is a letter he wrote to my Mom in 1944 shortly before spending his fourth Christmas away from her. In it he describes a Christmas party that his army unit held for "about 100 little French kids". My Dad was paired up for the afternoon with an 8 year old boy. They had presents, a meal, singing and a visit from Santa. My Dad gave the little boy an American penny, and English penny and an Egyptian coin. He ended the description of the event saying "I fully enjoyed the whole party. Maybe some future Christmas I'll be helping a son of ours to enjoy the big day."

Nineteen months later I became that boy and my Dad helped me enjoy 38 Christmases before we lost him. Thanks Dad. And one more thing - I got to ride a camel in front of the pyramids last year and you were right, it was amazing.
http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/Daily-Photos-2010/5529181_hoJ5g#841425782_mwgw3-A-LB

More photos of my Dad
http://arthill.smugmug.com/Family/My-Dad/16677340_SnZCC9

letterChristmasFranceWWIIDad

  • April 27 2011 Red<br /> <br /> A splash of color for another rainy day. I feel like we live in Seattle. It is always raining. This April has had the least sunshine since they started keeping records 118 years ago. I managed to get one decent tulip shot. It was breezy so most of my flower shots just didn't work. More rain, sigh.
  • April 26 2011 Coming at you<br /> <br /> I saw Blink32's out of frame post yesterday and thought it was so cool that I did a little playing around with the Out of Bounds Guided Activity in Photoshop Elements. This isn't that great but I just did a quick one for today's post and wanted something that I could have coming out of the bottom of the frame. The guided activity in PSE does all the work for you but leaves you without much understanding of the process so you don't have all that many options. Still, it's a lot quicker than figuring out all the manual steps.<br /> <br /> I blogged about it here <a href="http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/out-of-bounds/">http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/out-of-bounds/</a>
  • April 25 2011 Rolling Easter eggs<br /> <br /> I was introduced to Easter egg rolling by my wife's family just before we got married. We have continued the tradition for all these years with our kids and now grandkids. It's just as much fun, maybe more now. You get paid a penny by the owner of any egg that you hit on your roll and you get to keep rolling until you miss. The grandkids think it's a hoot.
  • April 24 2011 I actually posted this here by mistake. My real post is<br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/Daily-Photos-2011/15281238_Twnec#1263419039_PSWRr8B-A-LB">http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/Daily-Photos-2011/15281238_Twnec#1263419039_PSWRr8B-A-LB</a><br /> <br /> I just filled up for $65
  • April 24 2011 Christ's Tomb<br /> <br /> This is our first Easter since we visited Jerusalem so I thought this picture would be the best for my daily post. A very humbling experience to have been there.<br /> <br /> I realize that not all members of the Dailies share our faith but if you do then you will understand that Easter somehow means a little bit more to us this year. Having stood where Christ arose into Heaven is an experience that cannot be described. It was crowded then and you couldn't really stop to get the pictures you would have liked. I can't imagine what it is like there today.<br /> Happy Easter.<br /> <br /> My other alternative for today is here<br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/April-2011/16483292_goiVK#1263470671_NwKLG2b-A-LB">http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/April-2011/16483292_goiVK#1263470671_NwKLG2b-A-LB</a>
  • April 23 2011 Bird's Eye View<br /> <br /> The kids were off school yesterday so we wanted to get together. It was a cold miserable raining day so we ended up at the Fullersburg Woods Nature Center. It's in a boat house built in 1935 by the CCC. There's a huge bird's nest inside that the kids can climb up into. Here's a wider shot of the nest<br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/April-2011/16483292_goiVK#1262313154_4KnHX6d-A-LB">http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/April-2011/16483292_goiVK#1262313154_4KnHX6d-A-LB</a><br /> <br /> It's dark inside the place on a good day and no white ceilings so I used direct flash. We all had a great time.
  • April 22 2010 Do my eyes deceive me?<br /> <br /> Yesterday morning I heard a lot of loud quacking and looked out the window. I thought I saw two male ducks flying up out of the pond but it was so quick I couldn't be sure. When they flew back into my field of vision and landed in the grass behind the pond I saw that it was the male and female duck that have been living in our pond for the past month or so.<br /> Hours later we spotted these two swimming side by side in the pond. After a while they climbed out of the pond and sunned themselves together for an hour. No sign of the female duck. We had a male and female duck in the pond for at least 10 years and have never seen two males. Some days we only see the male and always assumed he was there without his partner. Now we wonder if, on those days, we're seeing the married duck or the bachelor duck.<br /> <br /> Update: 10:45 AM The two male ducks were back this morning for a while. Then there was only one male duck and he left. Now the male and female pair just arrived. Complicated :-)
  • April 21 2011 Letter from France<br /> <br /> The address tells me that my Mom was living with my Aunt and Uncle by this time.<br /> Ever since my daughter wrote this blog about blowing up an old envelope<br /> <a href="http://swoon-interiors.blogspot.com/2011/03/out-of-ordinary-art.html">http://swoon-interiors.blogspot.com/2011/03/out-of-ordinary-art.html</a><br /> I've been thinking about it. Last weekend I got the box of letters from my Dad back from my brother. This is about the best of the envelopes - after 65 years some of them haven't aged well. And a lot of the letters we have don't have the envelopes. I like this envelope better than the one from Tuesday's post <br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/15281238_Twnec#1257473471_BZ8MCQh">http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/15281238_Twnec#1257473471_BZ8MCQh</a><br /> because it has a real stamp and is addressed to Evanston Illinois where I was born.<br /> <br /> It's pretty fascinating reading too. Just read a letter from my Dad in August 1945 where he comments on the atomic bomb drops on Japan. I didn't know until today that my Dad's unit was moved to Antwerp Belgium to await a ship back to the United States. Even though the war was over it took a long time to get all the American soldiers back here. It took until the middle of October 1945 in my Dad's case.<br /> <br /> And I've got a couple of new blog entries on composition and metering at<br /> <a href="http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/">http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/</a>
  • April 20 2011 Kyle<br /> <br /> When Kyle was one year old I wrote him a long letter about how thrilled we were when he came into the world and all the things we did with him that first year. Of course I sprinkled pictures liberally through out the letter. I figured it would be interesting for him to read someday. Well, that day was yesterday - he read the letter and thought it was pretty neat.<br /> <br /> Thanks so much for the overwhelming response to the picture and story about my Dad yesterday. <br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/Daily-Photos-2011/15281238_Twnec#1257473471_BZ8MCQh">http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/Daily-Photos-2011/15281238_Twnec#1257473471_BZ8MCQh</a><br /> It jumped right to #3 on my all time most popular. More important were all the wonderful comments. This is such a great group.
  • April 19 2011 Happy Birthday Dad<br /> <br /> My Dad was born 100 years ago today so this image is a tribute to him. It is a letter he wrote to my Mom in 1944 shortly before spending his fourth Christmas away from her. In it he describes a Christmas party that his army unit held for "about 100 little French kids". My Dad was paired up for the afternoon with an 8 year old boy. They had presents, a meal, singing and a visit from Santa. My Dad gave the little boy an American penny, and English penny and an Egyptian coin. He ended the description of the event saying "I fully enjoyed the whole party. Maybe some future Christmas I'll be helping a son of ours to enjoy the big day."<br /> <br /> Nineteen months later I became that boy and my Dad helped me enjoy 38 Christmases before we lost him. Thanks Dad. And one more thing - I got to ride a camel in front of the pyramids last year and you were right, it was amazing.<br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/Daily-Photos-2010/5529181_hoJ5g#841425782_mwgw3-A-LB">http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/Daily-Photos-2010/5529181_hoJ5g#841425782_mwgw3-A-LB</a><br /> <br /> More photos of my Dad<br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/Family/My-Dad/16677340_SnZCC9">http://arthill.smugmug.com/Family/My-Dad/16677340_SnZCC9</a>
  • April 18 2011<br /> "Then will I raise aloft the milk-white rose.<br /> For whose sweet smell the air shall be perfumed."<br /> William Shakespeare
  • April 17 2011 Joey and Jake
  • April 16 2011 Shell Collection<br /> <br /> For the past few years whenever we go on vacation we ask Kyle what he wants us to bring back. He always says shells. I didn't realize how good a job we've been doing until I saw this in his room. And, he has all of the best ones displayed on shelves or his dresser. Some are on stands. So this is just the "extras".<br /> <br /> A couple of new blog posts. <br /> <a href="http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/paint-net-a-good-free-editing-program/">http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/paint-net-a-good-free-editing-program/</a><br /> <a href="http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/shoot-something-different/">http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/shoot-something-different/</a>
  • April 15 2011 Math Jock<br /> <br /> Thursday I showed Kyle how to add up big numbers. He mastered this in about 20 seconds. When we went to his house last night he said he wanted me to write down some more problems and he tackled them with a vengeance. He exclaimed "This is so much fun!" He was particularly thrilled to work his first problem with a result of over 1 billion. He's in first grade. His math homework on Wednesday took him about 25 seconds to finish. It had problems like how much change to I get from a dime if I buy something for a nickel. :-) For the full sheet of problems see<br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/April-2011/16483292_goiVK#1252628617_tJ97pFQ-A-LB">http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/April-2011/16483292_goiVK#1252628617_tJ97pFQ-A-LB</a><br /> <br /> And, I have another new blog post at<br /> <a href="http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/flower-photography/">http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/flower-photography/</a>
  • April 14 2011 Walking on Water<br /> <br /> Female duck in our backyard pond. I had two that I considered for today. The other one is the male duck here<br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/April-2011/16483292_goiVK#1251742852_q7oJS-A-LB">http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/April-2011/16483292_goiVK#1251742852_q7oJS-A-LB</a><br /> but I thought it was only fair to give her equal billing.
  • April 13 2011 Sign of the times<br /> <br /> I'm guessing that they just ran out of 4's. Probably thought having a lot of 3's would be good enough. :-)
  • April 120 2011 He's a standup guy<br /> <br /> I hate to post two duck shots in a row but I liked this one and thought it was a good contrast from yesterday's bottoms up shot.<br /> <br /> I got a similar shot of the female duck<br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/April-2011/16483292_goiVK#1249227149_nfpEi-A-LB">http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/April-2011/16483292_goiVK#1249227149_nfpEi-A-LB</a><br /> <br /> Today's blog post is about a SIMPLE framing technique<br /> <a href="http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/a-simple-frame/">http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/a-simple-frame/</a>
  • April 11 2011 I've got all my ducks in a row<br /> <br /> In our pond<br /> A more traditional view<br /> <a href="http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/April-2011/16483292_goiVK#1247827630_chb74-A-LB">http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/April-2011/16483292_goiVK#1247827630_chb74-A-LB</a><br /> <br /> Another new record for views on my blog yesterday and some individual feedback from some of you. - thanks. Latest post is a quick tip on punching up a photo that lacks zip. (Not that any of you need to know this but pass it on to your friends.)<br /> <a href="http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/quick-fix-for-flat-picture/">http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/quick-fix-for-flat-picture/</a>
  • April 10 2011 Sunshine<br /> <br /> It was warm and sunny and I found more flowers on my walk yesterday. Hooray for Spring.<br /> <br /> And yesterday my blog had the most views since I started it. So thanks.<br /> <a href="http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/">http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/</a><br /> <br /> You can see the simple steps for making a picture like this in today's blog post<br /> <a href="http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/adding-a-new-background/">http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/adding-a-new-background/</a>
  • April 9 2010 Our ducks<br /> <br /> Yesterday was a gloomy drizzly day but the ducks spent most of the day with us. Usually they are in or around the pond but yesterday they took a walk around the whole yard and ending up napping up near our deck. I shot this out the back window.<br /> <br /> I opened the RAW file in Adobe Photoshop Elements, changed the white balance then applied PSE's Smart Fix. All this by way of introduction to my blog post about PSE<br /> <a href="http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/photoshop-elementsan-introduction/">http://arthillphoto.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/photoshop-elementsan-introduction/</a>

  • fotoeffects

    on January 23, 2014

    Such an incredible tribute! Made me cry!

  • Julieanne Mountford

    on January 22, 2014

    This is superb

  • DycasStudios & CaseyElizabethPhotography

    on January 22, 2014

    Art, I just love this photo and letter. I love that it begins My Adorable Sweetheart. I have many letters from my grandfather to my grandmother and vise versa when he was in WWII, they all begin in a similar manor. Why I wonder do we no longer address our significant others in such an endearing way? And the handwriting. It looks just like theirs did. I guess much time was spent on cursive in those days. Thanks for sharing such an intimate and memorable letter.

  • gpssue

    on May 26, 2013

    I really love this Art...thanks for sharing his birthday with us.

  • brickroadphoto

    on May 26, 2013

    What a touching tribute to your dad. A beautiful way to honor a special man and his contribution to our country. Thank you for sharing

  • John Bennett

    on April 20, 2011

    Wonderful tribute to your Dad Art

  • Karl Ronning

    on April 20, 2011

    Such a wonderful and thoughtful tribute. Thank you for sharing!

  • Pearls

    on April 20, 2011

    Such a sweet tribute to your dad, you were blessed to have a great dad. This is a great shot too.

  • Deborah Irene Glessner

    on April 20, 2011

    WOW! This is a fabulous tribute to your Dad. I went to your gallery and enjoyed the rest of your photos of your parents.
    Thanks for sharing.

  • Hillary Yasmer Shemin

    on April 20, 2011

    Art, you brought tears to my eyes and a chill up my spine with this beautiful letter and your commentary. A touching memory of your father and how wonderful to honor him this way..... Thank you for sharing your love and memories with us....

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