This week in pictures: Family fun and wintry weather

I took a LOT of pictures this week. I had every intention of writing a separate blog post about at least two days’ worth of these photos, but it’s just been so busy that I didn’t have the chance to get to my keyboard. So be warned – this is going to be long!

On Family Day, I had a blast doing my first corporate photography event, taking pictures at Old Navy’s Funnovation Imaginarium. It was great working with Old Navy, the Yummy Mummy Club and all the families who came out to play. I was particularly honoured when THREE different families mentioned that they’d taken my Family Day fun suggestions from earlier in the week and had tried out all three events. It’s such an honour to hear things like that and it’s really why I love this blog so much!

Anyway, here’s some of the Family Day fun:

(It’s only now, four days later, that I’ve recovered fuctionality in my legs. Three solid hours of popping in and out of squats on the concrete floor to get kid-level shots turned my quadriceps into absolute jelly – I couldn’t walk properly all week. Of course, it was totally worth it. Another couple of events like this in a year and maybe I can give up my gym membership!)

I had mixed success with landscape-y type photographs this week. I drive past this spot on River Road often, and something about it always draws my eye. I stopped for a few quick pictures on Sunday and liked the criss-crossing power lines and the line of the fence and the horizon line and the lines of the sun flare all pointing in different directions – but the final image doesn’t thrill me. Meh, they can’t all be winners.

On the other hand, I love how this one turned out. I’m beginning to think it’s not possible to take an unlovely picture of my mill. (Yes, mine.)

And if that’s a perfect winter day for brilliant sunshine and colour, I love love love the simple minimalism of this one that I took during yesterday’s snow squalls. I can’t tell you how long I’ve been looking for an isolated tree like this one to take a shot just like this.

Technically, this isn’t a great shot (it’s a little soft, and eek, the clashing colours of their jammies and the sofa!) but it’s still one of my faves for the week. Thirty years from now, I may enjoy my collection of Mill shots, but these are the ones that will warm my heart. This is the boys analyzing the Citizen’s list of Top 100 Children’s Books from earlier in the week.

And this one, too. Not an amazing shot, but it makes me smile. Lucas is a scary shadow monster, if you couldn’t tell. A very gleeful shadow monster. 🙂

These last six belong together, and are proof that outdoor portraits in the winter can be just as lovely — if not moreso! — than in the summer.

True story: I was surfing my pins on Pinterest, looking for inspiration on something to shoot last Saturday afternoon, and I stopped to refill my coffee. I looked out and the boys were climbing to the top of the play structure and jumping off into the snow. I was about to bang on the glass and wave my fist and tell them to quit it when I saw how the late afternoon light was hitting them — and then I didn’t need Pinterest for inspiration any more!

While I usually have my 50mm lens on my camera, I broke out the kit lens so I could take some wide angle shots. Any focal length shorter than 30mm or so will give you enough distortion to make things far away seem further (like his head and the treetops in this shot) while making closer things look larger (like his boot and the base of the play structure.)

Same idea here:

I zoomed back out to 55mm for these ones, to get a little closer and make a more traditional portrait.

Moral of the story? The inspiration you’re seeking is right in front of you (or, in this case, behind you.) All you have to do is embrace it.