Apple Picking via Public Transportation?

Details

Parent Category: Advice - Activities

Category: Activities Advice Articles, Fall Fun

Want to go Apple Picking but you don't have a car?  Here are a few options:

NOTE: The actual apple picking only takes less than an hour-- so consider another activity (many farms have harvest days and corn mazes) so you don't travel 4 hours for a very short visit. 

Read more...

Fall Fun: It is Apple Picking Time!

Details

Parent Category: Activities Advice Articles

Category: Fall Fun

image made available here via a Creative Commons license

Park Slope Parents has an extensive list of apple and fruit picking destinations HERE with tips & suggestions from fellow parents. Make sure to call these places before you trek out (we got to one place and they were out of apples in one field and not opening another one for a few hours!). 

NOTE: As one member pointed out, "In my experience, the actual picking time is an hour or less. So it may be a good idea to schedule another outdoor activity collocated with or nearby to an orchard. The better to enjoy a fall day, and increase the ratio of outdoor family time to drive (& traffic) time."

Columbus Day is a DOE school holday, so if you don't make it out in the next few weekends, perhaps that's a day for an adventure!

Don't have a car?  We've got a list of places you can get to by public transport here.

Now all we need is the perfect Apple Pie recipe...

Taking Fall Photos of your Kids

Details

Parent Category: Activities Advice Articles

Category: Fall Fun, Home Life

It's FALL and the leaves are beautiful right now.  Take some time to use the backdrop of the fall to get some great photos of your family. 

Tips:

- Take photos of leaf fights and kids throwing leaves up in the air.

- Look for contrasting colors (bright yellow leaves against a dark colored rock).

- Have the kids lay down in the leaves or buried in the leaves. (For older subjects take photos from head to toe to avoid double chins!)

- Kids don't have to be in fall colors-- other colors such as blue and green "pop."

- Photograph during sunrise or sunset for the best light and color.

- Photograph outdoors when your shadow is longer than you are, usually in the afternoon (Today near the 9th Street Playground the sun was going behind the buildings around 4:00)

- Take photos with the sun coming through the leaves but use a tree trunk or something else so so there's no direct light going into your lens.

- If you are taking portraits, consider turning on your flash to get both the leaf color AND your kids faces. Okay, it's a bit 80s, but use the sun to backlight your hair from behind (using a flash to light up your face-- but stand back so the flash isn't too stark. Lay on the ground with your subject above you so you get the leaves and tree limbs as part of the background. (Double check that there's not a big limb as a horn).

Okay-- more techy stuff:

- Use a Polarizing lens if you've got one.

- Underexpose your shots slightly

- Use portrait mode to blur the background.

- Use your macro setting to shoot close shots of light shining through the leaf with the veins showing through.

- Use a short depth of field in order to blur the leaves and JUST get the color while keeping the person in focus.

FINALLY-- Go with another family and swap taking a family portrait-- it's good to have the WHOLE bunch of you. And Moms-- make sure to get photos of yourself!

ENJOY THE FALL!

- Susan Fox