These past few weeks have redefined the word “busy” for me. There have been several presentations for work and outside of work, class trips, celebrations, BBQs, meetings, and everyone in the family has been taken out by one illness or another. I kept taking pictures through most of it, although I think I did miss a day or two, but I’ve entirely forgotten to blog about them. Here’s a couple of my favourites in a catch-up post.
Considering the number of family portraits I produce in a year, you’d think I’d be better at cranking out one or two of my own family every now and then, eh? So I made sure to snag the opportunity when I had everyone (more or less) cleaned up for our dear friends’ wedding anniversary recently to get this photo of the five of us. I do love it!
Speaking of wedding anniversaries… you know the kind of friends in your life who are the very first ones you call when something goes wrong and also the very first ones you call when something goes right and you can’t wait to share the news? These are those friends for me. We’ve all been friends since high school and they are so deeply woven into the fabric of my life that they are definitely more family than friends. And they celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary this week (how is that possible when we’re all still 17 years old?) by renewing their vows. How wonderful is that?
We’ve discovered a new favourite path for family walks along the Rideau River, so whenever we get a break from the rain we try to get out for a wander.
Speaking of rain, at least it has been good for the flowers. These are columbine in my mother’s garden.
And also speaking of rain (oy, the rain), when I saw this guy in Starbucks on a rainy morning, I kinda had to take his photo. I’m not usually one for surreptitious street photography but I love how this came out!
I know people spend a lot of time trying to get rid of dandelions, but I think they’re lovely, especially when they seed.
(Sorry neighbours!)
Is it summer vacation yet?
Have I ever mentioned that I won our school district’s speech competition when I was in Grade 7? I have always loved public speaking. I’ve been really lucky in the last few months in that I’ve had a terrific number of opportunities to do what I call my “blog and pony” show to internal GoC audiences, talking about how we’re using social media to connect with Canadians in a government context at work, but this opportunity was especially exciting for me. I had the great honour today of speaking at the Social Capital Ottawa conference on a topic very dear to my heart: how to find, use and share photos online without getting sued. (Remember my infographic?) I love this topic because it’s at the intersection of a whole whack of things I’m passionate about: social media, blogging, sharing and photography.
This whole experience has been a HUGE learning curve for me – and I thought I was pretty knowledgeable when I proposed the topic! I learned SO MUCH about copyright and how not to violate it. Did you know, for example, that the DMCA does not necessarily apply in Canada? Or that “fair use” is an American concept and different from our Canadian “fair dealings”? Or that “royalty free” does not mean “free”? (Okay, I knew that last one, but I didn’t know it eight years ago when I started blogging.)
But I learned some other really neat stuff, too – like how to build a Powerpoint deck that doesn’t have 800 words on every slide (unlike almost every Government of Canada internal “deck” I have ever seen), and how to share a presentation on slideshare, and how to administer a quiz and record the results in real time using Google docs, and how to use storify to capture a story on Twitter. And now I’m going to wrap it all up into one big bundle and blurt it out here for your adoration.
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What a week! For the long weekend, we zoomed down to London and Windsor for a wedding – more about that in a minute – and a crazy-quick visit with family, stopped off in London for more family, and then zoomed back home again. 1750 km and 18 hours in the car over four days – my kids are awesome road-trippers! There was so much photo fun to share that it took an entire week to share.
The kids were amazing in the car. We left Ottawa at 8 am on Friday, drove through an earthquake (didn’t feel a thing) and barely stopped until we arrived on the other side of the province in Windsor in time for dinner. There were a lot of electronic devices, a whole whackload of “are we there yet?” and a lot of this going on:
The bride and groom live in a little town just outside of Windsor called Amherstburg. They have a gorgeous place right where the Detroit River opens on to Lake Erie, and we passed a fun morning playing there before the wedding.
(Not our dog – he came with the beach!)
And then there was a wedding! How sweet is this? Beloved’s dad and his girlfriend have been together since before Beloved and I met. They happen to share the same birthday. On their mutual birthday last year, she asked him to marry her! And they say it’s the younger generation who are throwing tradition to the wind. So this lovely couple, my sweet in-laws, tied the knot during a beautiful afternoon ceremony on a deck overlooking the river. You couldn’t ask for a more perfect day for a wedding.
Adorable, yes?
And then, we zoomed on over to London for a quick visit with my brother and his family. I heard it was cool and rainy here in Ottawa, but it was summery perfect in London. The freshly opened pool was fresh enough that the kids were welcome to go in but there was no way I was dipping anything more than a toe into it. Brrr!
And then up early the next morning to be back in Ottawa in time to pick up Bella at 6 pm. Phew, what a trip! A sunny, warm, colourful, wonderful trip filled with family, love, laughter and fun – it doesn’t get any better than that. 
If you’d like to see more from the weekend, there’s a set on Flickr with more.
Tulips, kids, fuzzy puppies – talk about an easy week for taking pictures!
Do you even need a narrative for this? First there was one silly kid on a stump.
Then there were three silly kids on some steps with a puppy.
Then the puppy rolled around in some flowers.
Oh, did someone say flowers?
Then I had to go back and revisit one shot because I knew I had it almost right but not quite right.
What’s that, you say? More puppy? Well alrighty then.
It doesn’t get any easier than that, does it?
Hey! Did I mention I’m doing a presentation at Social Capital Ottawa this year? I am so excited about it! And it’s a topic that is becoming more and more dear to my heart – how to find and use images for your website, blog and social sharing without violating copyright and getting sued in the process. It true that I have a vested interest in this issue from a photographer’s perspective, but I also think this is something that should be of interest to anyone who blogs, has a website or has ever shared a photo on Facebook or Pinterest. Here’s the session description:
Royalty-images aren’t free: finding and using images online without getting sued
There’s no doubt that images make web content more compelling. Studies show that content with imagery generates more social shares, more comments and more interaction. But what if it’s not your photograph? How do you find great images you can use, legally and at low or no cost? Can you use photos from Pinterest, Flickr or Google Images on your site — without the permission of the photographer? Can you get sued for doing it? In this session, we’ll answer these question and more.
Here’s a few more questions we’ll examine in this session: Does providing a link or credit to the source allow you to use a copyrighted image? Why aren’t royalty-free photos actually free? What is “creative commons” and how can you use it to find photos you can use? Can you use a photo if you digitally alter it? What do terms like fair use, public domain, attribution and copyright really mean for bloggers, Facebook page authors and website owners?
In this session you will learn strategies for finding great images that you can use on your blog or website, and how to protect yourself from serious legal consequences from running afoul of copyright legislation.
Following this presentation, participants will know how to find quality imagery to augment their blogs and websites, both for a fee and for free. Participants will have an understanding of some of the legal and illegal uses of imagery on blogs, websites and social sharing sites like Facebook and Pinterest. Participants will also have a greater understanding of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) the risks and consequences of violating copyright law in Canada.
I won’t steal my own thunder by replicating my presentation here. That would also presume, incorrectly, that I was ahead of my usual procrastination curve and had the entirely of my presentation ready for public consumption a whole week ahead of when I’m supposed to hand it in. I did, however, want to dazzle you with my mad infographic skillz. I’ve got a vested curiousity about infographics as I’d like to start seeing us use them at work, so this was a perfect opportunity for me to see how easy/difficult it would be to pull one together. (Verdict: difficult to organize the information in my head ahead of time and figure out how I wanted to lay everything out but fairly simple to actually create the infographic. I used Piktochart for this.)
Feel free to pin and share – I designed this one for sharing!
My first infographic. I’m so proud! 
As we get closer to the conference (it’s June 1, have you bought your tickets yet?), I will leak share a few morsels of the content, and I’ll probably write it all up in a bit more detail afterward. I’m saving the good stuff for the conference, though, so you might as well come!
So, how ’bout that weather, eh? We had seven months of winter, two transitional weeks of spring and BOOM! Summer in May. And I am totally fine with that.
I don’t know whether it is the warmer temperatures or long hours of sunshine or just the fact that I’ve finally shaken the ennui that’s been dogging me for months, but my world was incredibly photogenic this week. (If you follow me on instagram, you’ll see what a prolific week it was.) Here’s my favourite signs of spring summer this week:
Hard to believe the daffies were still just waking up last weekend, but they were.
On Sunday, we celebrated the triumph of summer over spring with one of our favourite fair-weather activities, a ride down to McHaffie’s flea market near Morrisburg. We didn’t actually buy any of these things, but I loved each of them. Raise your hand if you had a suitcase record player like this when you were a kid. *raises hand* Mine was green.
I already told you how amazing We Day was, but I still owe you a post from the boys. It’s coming, I promise!
We are spending a LOT of time in the backyard. She’s an excellent fetcher!
And then not only did the daffies wake up, but the tulips did, too!
I’ve been wandering around, Instagramming downtown on my lunch breaks. These were all from the same day, but I thought they were shareworthy. The scaffolding on the National Gallery is fascinating to me. Apparently they are turning the scaffolding (necessary for repairs on the window seals) into some sort of secret art exhibit to be unveiled later in May. I’ll keep you posted! In the interim, I think the scaffolding is a bit of an art project in itself!
The Ottawa River may yet spill her banks enough to flood the bike path at the base of Parliament Hill, but I’m pretty sure the basement of the Parliament Buildings will remain safe and dry.
Bikes! (I chose this one as the official photo of the day.)
And last but not least, we paid our first visit with Bella to the dog park in Manotick. It’s still pretty mucky and I am not yet ready to let her off leash lest she (a) make a run for the river or (b) run off home with a better family. While Bella was a little overwhelmed by all the other dogs, Lucas loved the park!
So apparently it’s summer now. What are YOU doing this weekend to celebrate?
