Category: Photography

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?

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?

Winter seemed so reluctant to leave us this year, with a long, cool and slow start to spring, so when the flowers arrived in riot of colour this week, it was almost shocking. Already? Well yeesh, it’s almost May, yes already! As you’ll see, I was helpless to resist each new arrival, each of which popped up literally overnight in my unkempt but still lovely garden.

(That last one is my favourite! It’s now the wallpaper on my iPhone. 🙂 )

On my day off I had 40 minutes to kill before picking up Lucas from school, and so on an impulse I parked in a little lot I’d driven by a million times before and took my camera for a little hike near the Rideau River. I found an AMAZING location for family portraits – how has this been around the corner from me for three years and I never noticed it before? Also a lovely spot to take the boys (and the dog!) for a wander as soon as the trails dry up just a wee bit more. I was enamoured by this big old tree, patiently waiting for spring in the sunshine.

Bella sort of fits the “nature” theme this week. While she had clearly been missing the banks of snow during the messy and wet transition to spring, now that the yard has dried out she has absolutely loves being able to play outside. She is, to our initial dismay, an inveterate digger — but it only took about half an hour to teach her that digging in the sand under the playstructure was allowed and even encouraged, while digging in the lawn makes the lady of the house shriek like a banshee. Quick learner, she is!

And finally, just some pretty blue skies, an ethereal cloud and some maple buds, overlaid with texture for a bit of a painterly feel.

Spring! YAY!

🙂

April really is the cruellest month when it comes to weather, if not photographic opportunities. From snow to a humidex and back down to snow again.

After a long winter, it was finally time to pull out the sidewalk chalk. Lucas has been playing hopscotch at school, so he asked me to make one at home for him after his turned out a little, um, small.

Can you guess who wrote in the numbers? (Hint: not me.)

Then we had the first scilla and crocuses peeking up and we enjoyed those very much!

It’s been fun watching Tristan take a bit of responsibility with Bella, both in taking her for walks and engaging her when she’s in need of a little play.

The current theme of the photo workshop I’m taking with Harry Nowell is longer exposures. I keep forgetting to pull out my tripod and my filters to help me slow down the exposure, but I did find a slow shutter app for my iPhone and I used that for a one-second exposure of the Mill to make the rushing river water look smooth like this.

Much as I’m excited for the arrival of all of spring’s greenery, I do love how the light pours into the house this time of year before the leaves come out and provide their lovely shade.

This may be my favourite shot of the week. Bella was off in the corner of the porch and I wanted to get a shot of her coming toward me so I sat down and lined up my iPhone then called her. When she saw I was at puppy level she not only came over but – well, you can see the enthusiasm in her approach! All four feet off the ground!

It’s freezing again this morning, but at least each ridiculous leap back and forth lands us a little bit closer to summer. Once we get past the chance of snow this afternoon. April isn’t cruel, it’s just plain crazy.

It looks like I completely forgot putting up a post last week for the daily photos, which were pretty much all puppy pictures anyway. So here’s this week’s photos and a few leftovers from last week, too.

I love this photo of Simon and his best buddy, snapped quickly in the school parking lot after school. Much as a cringe when people compliment my camera (“your camera takes lovely photos!”) I have to admit that a good camera can turn even the quickest snaps into a wonderful portrait!

Poor kids can’t even eat breakfast in peace without someone turning a lens on them…

… so I spend a LOT of time taking pictures of the not-much-more-patient-with-my-camera pets! 🙂

A tired puppy is a good puppy. We have done a LOT of walking these past few weeks!

Bella and Willie have not exactly become friends, despite Bella’s best intentions. (Intentions to chase Willie all over the house, that is!)

I was making a recipe that called for two cups of wildebeest, but wouldn’t you know it, we ran out of wildebeest just last week, so I substituted a lemon and a cup and a half of cat.

I was delighted earlier this week to discover what I thought were crocuses (croci?) blooming in the garden, but apparently these are mini-irises. Who knew? Anyway, poor things are now buried under 10 cm of snow and ice pellets. Hope they’re hardy!!

And while the vast majority of Ottawa (and most of Eastern Canada, likely) complained bitterly about a snow storm in mid-April, Bella alone was delighted. Born on Christmas day, she’s only ever seen snow-covered ground, and I think she’s been perplexed by its absence this past week or two. You can see how delighted she is to have her snowy ground cover back!

It’s a good thing I ran out of pictures, because as I type Bella is walking around the living room clearly looking for mischief. Here’s hoping next week’s photos are filled with more flowers and less snow! 😉

I managed to avoid taking a whole week of Bella photos again, but I was so busy working with her on housetraining and other doggie manners that I missed taking a photo a couple of days this week, and relied on quickie iPhone snaps to fill in a few more gaps.

Some photos just beg to be taken, although I do wish I’d had a little more time to play with this and maybe try to remove that glare from Beloved’s glasses. In a house full of boys, Bella has easily stolen the role of Daddy’s Girl.

Of course, part of my dog training regimen has been teaching her to pose for the camera.

Have you heard about the wild turkey problem in Barrhaven? We saw them for the first time a few months ago, and when I saw this pair stopping traffic on my way home from doing errands early one Saturday afternoon, I had to stop and snap a few photos. I thought I had a really great video of them attacking a Mazda as it backed up and tried to drive around them (they really are fearless!) but apparently I’m a better photographer than videographer – I didn’t manage to turn on the video button. Just another couple of turkeys on the fowl prowl in suburbia…

And look, more signs of spring – buds on the birch trees in the back yard!

And last but certainly not least, one of the surest signs of spring: Easter egg decorating!

Hope your Easter was filled with spring and sweet treats!

You can hardly blame me. (Almost) an entire week of puppy pictures? For one thing, she’s already grown since we got her, and I’m glad I’ll have more than the two or three photos I have of Katie’s entire first year. Also, cute puppy is the low-hanging fruit of the daily photo world. Finally, the kids are breathing huge sighs of relief that I finally found someone else to follow around the house with my camera.

I think this is where they get the expression “puppy dog eyes” (sorry about the watermark in this one – sometimes I’m too lazy to go back and adjust them when they fall in a poor spot like this):

Mixing it up with a take on the “from where I stand” meme, with puppy shenanigans:

Maybe a little bit of B&W?

This was her first on-leash walk, which went pretty well. Things pretty much went downhill from here. She’s finally gotten acclimatized to playing outside in the yard, but she hates going for walks (which is unfortunate, since it’s one of the things I was most wanting out of a dog.) It’s come down to me carrying her down the street a ways, and allowing her to pull me back to the house in a desperate scramble. I’m hoping with practice and warmer temperatures (and puppy class next week) the walking-on-leash thing will improve. It also didn’t help that I was carrying her down the driveway Thursday morning before work and hit a patch of ice, launching both of us into the air before we crashed collectively to the pavement. Where exactly is spring?

Speaking of spring, and the non-arrival thereof, here’s the only non-puppy shot of the week – dawn on the first day of spring in the backyard. Lookit those tulips and that green grass – the very picture of spring, don’t you think?

Remember I said I was taking an online photo course with Harry Nowell? The topic this month is taking photos without looking through the viewfinder. I was trying to take low-angle photos of Bella playing in the living room, but she ran towards me to jump on me every time I hunched down, so I pre-focused the camera and put it on the floor, and just reached over and pushed the shutter a few times. The ones of her playing didn’t turn out but I love this one of her sitting and watching me! (Note to self, clean floors before next photo session.)

Last but not least, you can see how Willie is adapting to life with Bella:

Funny to see the tables turned on Willie, and to see Bella pestering him the way he used to pester Katie. 🙂