Sunday Stills: Halloween

The challenge this week was Halloween.

The first one is my "Sad Dragon". Blake decided he did not like his costume, which is a pirate dragon, and pouted about it for about 5 seconds. He is over it now. The thought of all the candy he's going to get cheered him up. :)



For this one, we turned off all the lights and I set the camera on the table to get a shot of the halloween house that my niece, Ava, created. The purple is a little purple light her mom put on the inside.



And, because it was so cute, I had to get a shot of the house from the top too.

Sunday Stills: Fall Foliage

This week's Sunday Stills is Fall Foliage. It's a little late for us to get great pictures of fall foliage. I've been on the lookout all week, but it's either been dreary or raining. Today it was doing both again, but I managed to get a shot of this maple leaf on my way home from groceries. A little bit of processing to enhance the mood, and here it is:

Calgary: Out of the comfort zone

Now that my 365 day project is done, I'm at a bit of a crossroads with the photography thing. I don't want to be forced to take a picture to a deadline for a long while yet. But, I still want to take pictures and get out of my comfort zone.

George and I went to Calgary for the weekend -- a sort of mini-working-vacation. I was helping him out at a tradeshow / seminar event. My first one. I met lots of interesting people and learned that, yes, I could wear high heels for three days straight. My feet actually felt funny when I put on my flat shoes Sunday night.

Because we were downtown Calgary, we were pretty much a short walk from everything. The Calgary Tower was across the street, and Stephen Avenue (a historic walking/shopping district) was a half block away. So, all of this made for some interesting, and different, pictures.

I posted a few of them, including the ones with snow, for my Sunday Stills project.

But, here are some extras. We  hit the Calgary Tower on Sunday night after a very tasty dinner, and a few drinks (I ordered a glass of wine, they brought me a half litre - happy days). You travel 525 feet up an elevator to get to the top of the tower. There, you can stand on a glass floor and look down at the city street below. A little freaky. Here's my self-portrait shot doing this.



And, just to prove George is conquering his fear of heights (or maybe had too many double caesars at supper), he did it too! (Note: He admitted after the trip that he's closer to flying to Europe...maybe even next year! I'm writing this down so I can show it to him in 6 months.)



But, my favourite shot from the weekend is the one I took on the way to dinner. We were walking along Stephen Avenue when I saw this man sleeping on a bench at the base of a sculpture. I took one of him from the front, but as I walked past I saw the contrast between the Indigospirit storefront and this poor guy. (And it was damn cold too.) I've always wanted to have the guts to take a picture like this (strange, I know). And I'm glad that I did it as I think it tells an interesting, if incomplete, story.



For more shots of Calgary...

Sunday Stills: Cars

Yes...I know that it's actually Tuesday night and I'm just posting my Sunday Stills for this week: Cars. George and I have been in Calgary since Thursday and just got back last night, so I've been catching up today.

In honour of the big city, you'll note a certain theme to this week's photos. The first one was Friday morning, when it started snowing! Yes, snowing. I'm just not ready for this one. The hotel across the street had a steady stream of taxis out front, so I got this shot through my hotel window.



And more snow, with cars and a city bus waiting for the light.



Next, cars from 525 feet up in the Calgary Tower, looking down through the glass floor:



Next week, I'll try to be a little more on time.

Happy 60th Birthday!

My mom turned 60 last week, so we celebrated with a big party organized by my Dad, with some last minute decorating help from my Aunt and I, and some strategic wine testing by my husband and brothers [guest edit by George].
The party was supposed to be a surprise but, as most people know, my Dad can't keep a secret worth a damn. So, the cat was out of the bag about a month ago. (We KNEW he wouldn't be able to hold it in.)
Despite the lack of surprise, the party was still a big success. About 65 friends and family had a buffet meal to celebrate while sipping [chugging] punch and Erie Shores wine.
For entertainment, the grandkids did a little poem for Gramma as well, written by Faith. Each of the kids got to hold up a decorated letter that stood for one word, and they either said (or had help saying):
G reat
R eally fun
A rtistic
M agnificent
M arvellous\
Y oung (ish)

Happy Birthday Mom! (More party pictures...) (And Happy Anniversary to the parents - 39 years on Saturday.)

Sunday Stills: Billboards

This week's Sunday Stills challenge was Billboards. When I saw this one go up, I knew it was going to be pretty tough -- we just don't have that many billboards in our area, at least not interesting ones like you see when you are driving around the US (the king of billboards).

So, here are my non-traditional billboards.

The first one is courtesy of the farm market I stop at for fruits and veggies on the drive home. I took this one with the cellphone as I was on my way out of the parking lot after stocking up with Thanksgiving veggies.



And, here's a throwaway attempt - a homemade billboard at the fruit and veggie stand near my parents' farm. It reminds me that sweet corn season is almost done. Sigh. I'll let you decide if it qualifies as a billboard.

365 days later

On September 24, 2010, I officially finished a year of taking pictures. I can  hardly believe it.

The whole thing started out with an email from January to our group of photo friends. She asked if anyone was interested in a 365 days project -- taking a picture a day for an entire year. At the time I was on my Ireland/England trip for two weeks, so I was already taking a bazillion pictures a day. What was 351 more days? Right.

Anyhow, my first picture started with a bang, although a little foggy. The Cliffs of Mohr:



Things got pretty eclectic from there. Over the year, I've taken a picture of a complete stranger in the parking lot at Walmart, a minor celebrity (Anna Olsen), and too many pictures of my family to count. I've taken pictures of toys, tea cups, flowers, footwear, and food. I've also documented injuries, surgeries, and sickness.

Through the whole year, I've been posting my pictures publicly on flickr, which then show up in facebook. So, I've gotten some lovely comments along the way, and a few people "in real life" talking to me about photography when I least expected it. It's been a great learning experience, on the taking side and the developing side (Adobe Lightroom is the best software program EVAH!).

Lessons learned?

• Have a camera with you all the time. My cameraphone got me through many days. I even took to  driving to and from work with the camera in the trunk. 
• It's not the camera, it's the photographer (although good lenses really help).
• A piece of white bristol board and a willing assistant are a photographer's best friend.
• (Almost) anything can be a picture with the right composition.
• You've got to work at inspiration. Some days it just doesn't come to you, so you're sitting there taking pictures of marbles 
• I heart Adobe Lightroom.

The only bump over the 365 days, which I discovered on the last Friday of my project, is that I missed ONE DAY! I couldn't believe it, but April 3rd has no picture. I'm pretty sure I actually took one as it was Easter weekend, but somehow it either didn't get off my camera, or I accidentally deleted it. I have to say I was pretty upset when I figured this out. So, I vented to my photo friends and they basically kicked me in the butt -- what's one day in 365? I kept at it, which is what counts.

Oddly enough, the only day I really felt a lot of pressure to take a "perfect" shot was the last day. What should I do to end it all? I was talking to A. at work, and she nailed it for me. Self-portrait. So, here's the shot, me holding a mirror, standing next to my back patio window where I've taken many, many shots over the year, happy to be done.

Catching up on some birthday wishes

September was a bit of a crazy month, so I'm a little bit behind on the blog postings.

We had a couple of family birthdays in September. First, we attended a kid-tastic birthday party for my nephew, who turned 5 this year. The party was at one of those indoor play gyms where the kids can run around like crazy for 2 hours. Somehow we fit in snacks and cupcakes. The birthday boy actually doesn't like cake, so he ate cucumbers instead. (If you're a parent, this means you get to have a certain smug smile on your face when you say, "He hates cake, but he loves vegetables!")



The next birthday was my brother, Duncan. He's a year younger than I am, so I won't be revealing his age. But, as you can see from the picture, you can tell that Faith comes by the red hair naturally. (And, you'd be surprised how often I can say, "Faith gets her red hair from my brother" without getting some really odd looks.)

Sunday Stills: Red & Green

Someone asked me this week what this Sunday Stills thing is all about. Sunday Stills is a blog written by a couple of photographers. Each Sunday, they post a photo challenge. You have one week to get a photo and then post it on the blog the next Sunday.

This week's Sunday Stills challenge is Red and Green. Since it's not Christmas, I thought this one was going to be a giant pain, mostly because I'm only a fan of red and green together at Christmas time. But, then, I looked at the trees around our place, and their brilliant fall colors.

The  kids and I went for a walk Thursday night. The mission: find red leaves. We came home with handful, although by the time we got home it was too dark to get a decent picture. A nice reminder that fall equals shorter days. So, I wrapped them in some waxed paper and put them in the fridge. Crafty, eh? The next day I braved the wind and got a shot of the leaf in our backyard. The kids used the rest for a "craft project".