Cascadian Farm Organic Goodness

Hi. I’m Craig Weakley, Director of Organic Agriculture for Cascadian Farm. When I’m not at work, I enjoy spending time outdoors engaged in one of my favorite hobbies: nature photography. Nature has been an inspiration to me since I was a kid. My camera allows me to capture images of nature’s beauty that I can share with family & friends. I’m happy to share some of my favorite photos with you and hope they will help to connect you with nature’s beauty and inspire you to take action to protect wildlife and wild places.

The Skagit Valley is the temporary winter home to thousands of migratory snow geese. The mellow evening light allows the camera to capture the beauty of these birds.

Mount Baker is the icon of the North Cascades. I took this photo from the Sauk Mountain Trail - one of my favorite summer hikes (the trailhead is within a few miles of the Cascadian Home Farm).

Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park. Bet you haven't seen it from this perspective... late evening backlighting produced this stunning image.

I love the beauty of the National Parks of America's southwest! Here's a sunset shot of Park Avenue in Arches National Park.

Oregon's Historic Columbia River Highway provides access to several beautiful waterfalls. The short hike (2 miles) to Triple Falls gets you away from the crowds & provides many opportunities for great photographs.

In the spring, the Skagit Valley explodes with the incredible colors of the tulip fields. Early morning provides the soft light and still air needed for great flower photography!

Experiencing the fall elk rut in Rocky Mountain National Park is a real treat! I captured this photo at sunrise in the West Horseshoe Park area.

Here's a male California Quail - the photo was taken close to home in the Anacortes Community Forest Lands. Quail are difficult to photograph because of their constant, quick motion - the top notch is always moving!

My favorite wildlife photography subjects are the Orcas of the Salish Sea (Puget Sound). This shot captures the beauty & grace of Lulu's (L53) breach in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Katmai National Park (Alaska) is an amazing place to photograph wild grizzly bears! It was fun watching these two cubs wrestling with a salmon (caught for them by their mom) on top of the waterfall in the Brooks River.

How does nature inspire you?

Using photography to help children appreciate our earth

Behind the lens, the world becomes a canvas – and all we have to do is find ways to capture the scenes. As photographers, we become more observant, more curious, more contemplative.

Teaching our children to look at the world with the eye of an artist helps them to look deeper and become more appreciate of the beauty – and damage – before them.

Are your children asking to borrow your camera? Are they grabbing your iPhone to click a picture?

Capitalizing on your child’s budding interest in taking photos can be a wonderful opportunity to help them learn more about nature – and of course introduce them to the incredible world of photography!

Where to start?

It may seem daunting – how does one teach a child the skill of photography, especially if you aren’t already a photographer?

Fortunately we live in a digital age – and photography has never been more accessible!

Here are 3 tips to get your child started taking photos:

1. Provide your child with a user-friendly digital camera that has an auto setting, and is equipped with a zoom lens.

You can choose a point and shoot camera or even an entry-level DSLR for a child who is responsible and old enough to take care of it. DSLRs also have auto settings, so a basic, light weight DSLR is can actually be a reasonable option for an older child if your budget allows. 

I recommend providing a camera with a zoom lens. This will give your child the added creative freedom and excitement of changing their focal length and working on composition. (Of course, using a fixed lens is another creative challenge that they will want to tackle one day too!)

I remember the first camera my dad gave me when I was a teenager. It was a high quality point and shoot with a zoom lens. I fell in love with photography with that camera on a trip to Prince Edward Island. The beautiful landscape was perfect for me to practice composing shots. When my dad saw my photos and praised me for my good eye, it meant the world to me.

Several years later, when he died, I inherited his Canon EOS SLR and lenses. It was before the Digital SLRs were available and so I “cut my teeth” on that film SLR, shooting my son’s first three years of life with my dad’s camera.

2. Teach your child the basics – and no worries, the internet can help!

The art and skill of photography takes a lifetime to learn. But everyone needs to start somewhere! It is amazing how a few basic concepts can radically improve anybody’s photos – even a child’s!

Teaching your child photography tips like “The Rule of Thirds,” getting in close, and checking their backgrounds, can empower them and help them to surprise you with their shots!

Digital Photography School.com has a great post about lessons to teach your child about digital photography. It also links to more of their posts that explain the concepts in greater detail which is perfect for an older child or teenager or for you to read and teach them. http://www.digital-photography-school.com/13-lessons-to-teach-your-child-about-digital-photography   

3. Let them shoot – and then review the shots with them later

The best way for all of us to improve as photographers is through trial and error. We need to shoot hundreds of shots to get a few that turn out the way we want them to. And the more we experiment, the more we learn.

So encourage your child to get shooting. Remind them that everything from a flower, to an old bridge, to a dirty shoe can be their subject. They are the storytellers and they can tell whatever stories they want to.

Take your child out into nature, on hikes or to parks – wherever you can find for your child to explore with their camera.

When it is time to download the photos and choose what to print, if your child wants you to, sit down with them and talk about the photos together. Listen to your child about what they were trying to achieve and offer encouragement and feedback.

Then celebrate their shots by allowing them to print their favorite photos and make albums for themselves and family members, or even print photo books online.

I am so grateful that my father provided me with cameras and passed on his love of photography to me.

When I have my camera with me I am never bored. Looking at the world through the lens allows me to slow down and look for beauty – and I always can find it somewhere. My camera helps me appreciate, even more, the world around me.

YOUR TURN: Do your children like to take photos? Has it been hard for you to “hand over the camera?” If you are a photographer, how old were you when you first picked up a camera?

Photos by Janice Croze

Getting the kids outside (and excited) for a family “nature” walk might not always be the simplest task. So, if you are able to pull them from their video games and TV, you want to make sure that everyone has a great time!

I find a few simple tricks ensure that everyone enjoys the fresh air and the wild world waiting for us to explore...

1. There is magic in a mud puddle.
When you set off on your walk, don’t fixate on your destination. What your kids remember (and enjoy) the most might be found in the mud puddles or wild flowers they find along the way. Enjoy the journey – because with little ones in tow, you might not even make it to your “destination!”

2. Age matters.
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges to family outings is taking family members’ different ages into account. Try to plan your trip with age appropriate expectations. If little ones are coming along, keep the walk shorter with more “observation” time. An option is for one parent to lead a faster track, with one parent bringing up the rear. If you plan on splitting up, bring walkie talkies or cell phones that will allow you to stay in contact with each other.

3. Boys Scouts know what they are doing!
Being prepared is critical when heading out into the woods. Make sure you load on the sun block and bug spray, and pack supplies such as snacks, water, tissues, band-aids, compass, and bear-repellent. If you are planning a long hike or going into the back country, make sure you take emergency supplies, map, and let someone know your plans!

4. Count to five.
To keep my kids entertained or focused on a walk, I often suggest we make a list of five things. It can be to find five different kinds of leaves, five different sounds they can hear, or even just five things to report when we get back. One trip my son even included reporting to Dad that our puppy tried to eat horse manure! I am not picky – it made the kids laugh and fun is what it is all about!

5. Pack a camera – and not just for you!
If you have an older child, giving them a camera to take photos along the way will not only keep them interested, it can help them notice things they may otherwise miss. As well, it is a great way to see the world through their eyes when you look through their shots together after the trip is over.

BONUS TIP: Be flexible!!! As in every aspect of life and parenting, being flexible is usually the key to success! If the kids tire sooner than expected, if the bugs are biting too hard, or if no one is in the mood to find five things to collect – no worries! Focus on the positives and you will always have a great time together!

Photos by Janice Croze

My kids live a suburban life.

We pile into a minivan to go to an indoor hockey rink. We shop in huge box-shaped stores all lined up at the end of a massive parking lot. And we go for walks with our dog on a leash, along tree-lined streets with matching houses and primped lawns.

But despite our suburban surroundings, I try to keep a little “back to nature” alive in my kids.

As often as possible, we purchase our fruits and vegetables from the farm market down the street. We vacation in the wilderness, tucked in cabins perched next to lakes. And thankfully, with the green space behind our house, we can abandon the sidewalks and run through thickets and swat away bugs.

My favorite part of this summer, and I bet my kids would say the same, has been our almost daily wild blackberry picking.

Together, we push back prickly branches and maneuver past thorns to find these ripe, juicy blackberries.

We have spent hours these past few weeks in the blackberry bushes popping delicious berries straight from the branches into our mouths. And those we didn’t eat while we picked made it back to our kitchen were we spent the evening baking berry crisps together or packing our bounty in bags to freeze for winter.

Not only was it incredible family time out in the fresh air and then baking from scratch on warm August nights, but my children got to get their hands dirty gathering food – right from where it grows.

Our experiences this summer reminded me to continue to search out more opportunities for my children to be involved with food at the “ground level.”

I am planning on bringing my family with me to visit Cascadian Farm in October for their Harvest Festival, so my kids can learn more about organic farming and how we can make farms that respect the environment and produce healthier, safer food.

This fall we will also visit local farms to go apple picking, pull our pumpkins right from the fields where they ripened, and buy our squash and potatoes from the farm that produced them.

What about your family? How have you inspired your kids to discover “where food comes from?”

I would love to hear your ideas about how to keep our kids closer to our earth!

Photos by Janice Croze

I don’t like bugs.

In fact, while my older sister encouraged her boys’ interest in insects and bought bug collecting kits, I did not. I steered my son away from insects and silently hoped he wouldn’t develop an appetite for bug hunting.

And to be honest, my aversion to insects sometimes impedes my enjoyment of the outdoors. There are a lot of bugs on a wilderness adventure!

But as long as I don’t have to be the one picking up the insects, (be proud of me though – on a preschool bug hunt, I picked up bugs with my bare hands for my troop!) I do try to spray on the natural bug repellent and get outdoors with my children.

Our family is fortunate to spend a week every year at summer camp and we get away a few times during the year to my family’s wilderness cabin where my kids have plenty of time to get down and dirty with nature.

And when we are at home, we have a wonderful green space behind our house that we play in every day with our dog. There are short trails through the brush where the kids climb through twigs and sticks and play “fort.”

But sometimes it can be a challenge to find quick, creative ways to get our kids out enjoying nature. We want to build an appreciation for the earth in our children and spending time exploring is often the best way!

As a working mother, I don’t have a lot of time for extensive preparation or day-long activities, so most days I have to work with what I have got – a dog, a small backyard and a green space.

We play in the dirt – I am not a big gardener, (remember I’m not fond of bugs,) but my two year old daughter loves to dig in the garden, fill and empty her water can, rake, etc, pretending to “garden.”

We picnic, play sports, and have lots of dog-play dates where neighbourhood dogs come and play with our dog.

We pick flowers and gather leaves. And we collect rocks – lots of rocks. (For some reason, kids love rocks!)

Recently I found a site called Nature Rocks that has a free summer activity guide and even an activity tool where you type in your time available, your location, (i.e. backyard, community or regional,) and the age of your children. It then offers you a list of creative ideas for you to get out into nature with your kids.

I am thrilled to have found Nature Rocks and I will be using it regularly to add some variation and creativity to our family’s playtime. And I bet as I do, I will get more comfortable with those bugs!

How do you incorporate nature exploration and appreciation into your children’s lives?

Photo by Janice Croze