The Gates-Lee Home at Woodstock Farm

I discovered Woodstock Farm when a client of mine hoped to do her family's spring photo shoot at somewhere farm-like with spring flowers. Having been snowed out of the Skagit Valley tulip festival, I was looking for a local place that would fit the bill. I knew the Bellingham Parks Department had purchased this property and it was open to the public, but had never ventured to check it out until recently. I am so thankful for that prompting from my client (not to mention the snow) because I discovered one of my new favorite places in Bellingham! The farm sits on one of the most scenic pieces of property in the area and the house (known as the Gates-Lee Home after the farm's founding family) is a treasure to behold.

I was fortunate to cross paths with Terry Wahl, a parks department employee on the day of that first visit because he gave me exactly what I was hoping for... permission to use the property for photo shoots! Of course I told Terry I would be happy to share my photos for parks department use : ) After we got that business out of the way, I spent some time wandering the property with my camera, excitedly taking photos to share with my client to show her what I'd found.

Terry had mentioned the house was unlocked while he was there working, so I got to wander around its mostly empty rooms. I had so much fun discovering all of the little old school details from the door knocker to the faucets to the door knobs to the light fixtures. Everywhere you look there is something interesting to look at!
I was really captivated by the filtered light in this bathroom...
I think my favorite thing I found in the house were these old magazine covers pasted to the wall inside what was young Gladys Gates' closet.
I was really intrigued by this tiny little shower room... I opened the door expecting to find yet another closet and was surprised to find a shower and sink!

More light fixtures...!

Hey that's me!

I found this photo on the parks department website for the farm. It doesn't include a date but I know the home was originally built in1912 and the addition was finished in 1923. Here is what the house looks like today!A note to anyone who is interested in checking out Woodstock Farm for themselves... there is no public parking available at the site and there are private residences on the property. Access to the farm is by way of trail with parking at the North Chuckanut Trailhead.

The Joy of Photography.... Kindergarten Style!

We all have our "happy places" around town and Gardenview Montessori is near the top of the list of mine. I've been the school's "official" photographer for the past few years now and it's my number one place to go if I'm feeling a little low because hanging out with children always makes life seem just a little less complicated. For all the joy the Gardenview kids and families have given me, I decided this year I needed to give something back! I had always thought doing a photography project with the kids would be fun and had the idea that coupling the project with the Essence of Bellingham photo contest would give us a good framework to work within. I threw out the idea to Kelda, the school's teacher, and she loved it!

The photo contest is open to kindergarteners so we focused the project on the children who are about to graduate from Gardenview- which was *completely* unfair, as I was emphatically told by one younger student. (Did I just say hanging out with kids makes life seem less complicated?) Thankfully I could blame the contest rules so I could escape the permanent "big bad meanie" label : ) It looks like the photography project might have to become an annual thing!

The project started when I went to the school and talked a little about the art of photography with the kids. Being a mother and working with kids as much as I do, I'm familiar with the attention span of the average 6 year old, so I wanted to keep things pretty simple. I basically just talked a bit about how taking pictures is more than just pointing a camera and pushing a button... it's a decision making process in which we really look at everything in a scene and decide what we want to be in our picture, then moving our body to the right place to capture it. We talked about Bellingham and the places here that we enjoy, and I showed them the photos I have entered in past contests. After that was a quick lesson in handling the camera- how to zoom the lens in and out and which button to push to close the shutter. Then we were off and running around the school grounds to take some practice shots.
A few days later, Kelda and I took two groups of three kids each to two different locations that we felt were good places to capture the spirit of Bellingham. The first group of kids, Rhea, Kyana and Roman, ventured down to Zuanich Point Park for their photo shoot and we had so much fun! We had a camera for each of the kids to use so everyone was constantly shooting pictures. I loved seeing what each child decided to document, and how different their photos were when taking pictures of the same things. Of course I had my camera with me to document the fun and here are a few photos I took of these young photographers in action...

I thought it was pretty clever of Roman to try taking a picture through the telescope at the park! We thought it would be fun to mix up the shoot locations for each group of kids, so later that afternoon, Kelda and I packed up the car with Aliza, Claire and Fiona and headed down to Maritime Heritage Park which was a good starting point for shooting in a few fun spots. Here are some photos from our afternoon adventure in photography...

I think I might have started a trend of taking pictures of your own shoes among this group of kids. Someday I will post a blog of the series of photos I've taken of my All Stars in various locations : )The kids took turns using my extra DSLR camera, so to be able to tell which pictures were created by whom, I snapped a picture of each child at the beginning of their turn. Here are those pictures and each child's contest entry that I like best! (You can see the rest of their entries here.)The Sign WorldBaby Geese SwimmingPlaying FetchAliza Picking FlowersRushing Over Rocks

Rocky Beach

And finally.... a few fun photos the kids took of each other... and Kelda... and me...

Photo by ClairePhoto by Claire
Photo by Fiona
Photo by Roman
Photo by RheaPhoto by KyanaPhoto by RheaPhoto by RheaPhoto by RomanPhoto by Roman (who was very reluctant to give up the camera : )

All of the kids' photos are officially entered into the contest and now we wait to see what the judges think of their work! Of course *I* think their photos are fabulous and I am so glad I decided to take some time out of my busy schedule to have a little fun, which isn't always easy for me to remember to do... maybe I should go make a promise to that sassy too-young-to-participate Gardenview student right now : )