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Madison Family Documentary Photographer |12# Watermelon

The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes, and surely it is in the everyday things around us that the beauty of life lies. Laura Ingalls Wilder

The light flickered and filtered its way through the trees on a late August evening. The sun was setting earlier, the buzz of school in the air, the garden was lush with a late season bounty. I found Karsten  getting cozy on the parked Grasshopper mower, Hazel snuggling a soft barn kitten, and Ryan raking a bounty of windfall apples for the hogs. Sarah grabbed her woven baskets, a pair of scissors, and led the way through roaming chickens toward the garden. Hazel snipped towering, brightly colored flowers, gathering and arranging them as she went. Karsten finally cut loose the watermelon he cultivated all summer, carried to the edge of the garden, and then went back in for heavy, silky ears of corn.

Dad rakes up crabapples from tree. Chickens roam the grounds, daughter looks on.Girl cuts and holds fresh wildflowers. Straight view of boy holding kitten in a field of corn and wildflowers Girl cuts and holds fresh wildflowers. Girl snuggles newborn kitten in afternoon light Boy carries watermelon. Boy shows off two ears of corn from the garden, Chicken roam the field, mom waits in the background We moved into the barn, where Hazel placed warm eggs in a cool, steel bowl.Girl gathers a bowl full of eggs from hens. Girl inspects an egg that has several ridge. In the barn.The twins look out of the barn. Summer saturated blues and greens and yellows are deliciously layered and textured below.Black and white profile of two young kids looking down.Black and white portrait of a boy and a girl.View from inside a barn looking out into corn field, blue skies, and trees Boy looks over the ledge inside a barn. Ryan takes the crab apples out to the hogs.Man walks through clover field with buckets of crab apples; man feeds 8 hogs crab apples. Girl hoists heavy watermelon, mom gathers corn, boy grabs baskets of flowers in the field. Boy and girl inspect the garden bounty while mom looks toward them. The sun is shining through the trees, the house is in th background. Focus on boy carrying a heavy basket of corn across his shoulders. Mom and sister wait for him 20ft away. Boy points to wavy egg in bowl girl holds; mom holds handful of cherry tomatoes and scissors.In the upper garden, Sarah & the kids harvest tomatoes, peppers, and basil for dinner.
Boy inspects cherry tomato in the garden. Sun flare shines in. A garden basket sits on the path. Girl makes a concentrating grimace as she peels a ground cherry. Sun flare enters the frame camera right.Boy puts peppers in garden basket that mom is holding out for him. Daughter is walking out of the frame. Picnic table full of garden flowers, peppers, tomatoes, and fresh eggs. Sun shines on girl holding a basket of corn across shoulder. The twins alternate between having quiet time in their rooms and helping with dinner prep. Camera left is warm bedroom and then long view down the hallway of boy playing with a toy crane. Dappled light on twins in a bedroom sharing a doll and a truck with each other. Hazel listens to Ryan tell stories of shucking corn as a kid.
Dad sits in rocking chair and girl sits in grass, sun is shining. They shuck corn.Textured basket of yellow corn in green grass. Dad carries baskets of shucked corn. Mom de-stems basil and puts on platter with peppers and tomatoes. Family map of Europe on living room with late day light coming in. Top down view of boy playing with red fire truck on green carpet. Mom stretches across table set for dinner. Four family members sit at the dinner table, hands clasped in prayer.Family of four sit at the dinner table and eat. Their amazing summer feast included freshly picked corn on the cob, peppers, tomatoes, grilled eggplant, basil, cheese with from-scratch mayonnaise all on homemade bread. Their amazing summer feast included freshly picked corn on the cob, peppers, tomatoes, grilled eggplant, basil, cheese with from-scratch mayonnaise all on homemade bread. Portrait of a smiling girl at the dinner table. Mom smiles at young boy who is struggling to eat bread without his two front teeth. Mom stands behind son and pours a glass of milk. Dinner table has a platter of peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, basil, and cheese.Top down view of chair with tiny circle holes and a napkin with squares laid on top. Mom and Dad pass food across the table Sarah weighs Karsten’s watermelon, which comes in at a whopping twelve pounds. A watermelon sits on an old scale, measuring in at 12 pounds. Mom is in mid-slice with a large chef's knife as she is about to cut into a watermelon. Two kids look on. Mom slices the watermelon and is surprised. Daughter claps joyfully as the watermelon is split. Mom puts triangle pieces of watermelon on a plate. Fresh brown eggs are in a bowl in the foreground. Kids bite into watermelon.A child's hand takes a watermelon slice from a white plate.Mom and daughter touch heads and smile over eating watermelon.Girl holds eaten watermelon in hand, only the rind and small bits of watermelon remain. Mom and daughter in foreground, framing young, smiling son. Girl is holding watermelon rind. The remnants of the dinner table. The light is low and the the table offers lots of shadows and highlights of a finished meal. One last walk around the farm before the sun dips. Hazel takes a picture of two cuddly barn cats.Two cats lying on top of each other wiht girl in background taking their picture with small camera; focus on girl's camera taking cat's picture Boy gets piggy back ride from mom at the farm fields Girl sits on swing on a play structure at the end of the day.Please check out Odyssey Farm, LLC for more information about Ryan’s heritage breed hogs! You will not be disappointed by the dedicated care, organic and environmental approach, and superior quality of his work.

 

xo, Jen

 

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