Today we left the house bright and early at 8:30 am to catch the 10 am train and everyone was very excited. Here are two factors that I didn't consider, the length of the train ride and the length they left us at the actual pumpkin patch, I thought somehow the people running the thing would be a little more with it than they were.
When we got there Erik was super thrilled and couldn't wait to get on the train. He was walking all long the train maybe trying to find a way in, or maybe just exploring.
The trip is even more exciting because Grandma decided to go along for the ride and better yet, she bought cookie and much to mommy's dismay gave it to both boys.
So the train ride was the most fun and exciting part of the entire trip. I bought a seat for Erik and Elliot was suppose to sit on our lap, but there was enough room for him to have his own seat. Thank goodness, because Elliot was really into showing off what a big boy he was that day and was definitely proud to be sitting in his own seat.
Today was just one of those off days photographically. Maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, maybe my expectations are more than they should be, but whatever it is I really struggled to take pictures inside the train. I tried my flash, I tried manually metering, I tried different focal lengths. The results are great, but it was definitely something I had to work at today.
Although I struggled, Elliot was super adorable on the train. This was his third train ride, but the first one where he really got excited and got to be a big boy. It was so much fun sharing and watching his expressions that day. I only captures 1/8 of what he was doing.
I have a lot more pictures, but they will be posted on my family blog if anyone else is curious.
So we got off the train and my initial impression is a feeling of being underwhelmed. The entire pumpkin patch is TINY and then if we wanted to do anything extra we had to pay $3-5 per person. Also the location was completely uninspiring photographically and I really had to search and dig deep in myself to find something I liked and take pictures. After taking pictures the first 20 minutes we were there I ended up putting my camera away because I was underwhelmed.
What I wanted to shoot was some cute shots with interesting vegetation or flowers in the background or pictures of the boys browsing rows and rows of pumpkins to pick out the perfect one. BUT we didn't even take a pumpkin home with us.
They had a lot of extras at the pumpkin patch, but either Erik was following our less than excited reaction, or he just didn't want to try anything today, but whatever it was he just didn't like the pumpkin patch very much today. He did enjoy the hay maze which luckily was free.
So there are a couple things I learned on this Pumpkinliner trip. First, is that I should not expect much for the pumpkin patch. Second, they leave you there with no way out and we were stuck at the pumpkin patch for two hours with not much to do since Erik wasn't interested in the activities. (an hour would have been enough) Third, some days you really need to reach deep inside yourself to find your photographic inspiration and some days you won't have it. This is especially true when you are emotionally affected in a negative way to an environment. With all the negatives I have to say about the pumpkin patch itself, the kids did have a good time and enjoyed spending time with their family, which is all that really matters sometimes.
No comments:
Post a Comment