Category: Photography

There may not be much snow on the ground, but it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the 365 project!

We had such a busy day on Saturday that a single photo just wasn’t enough to cover it. First we went to Hillcrest Tree Farm to choose and cut down a Christmas tree. Then Simon and Beloved rode the Beaver Scout float in the Manotick Santa Claus parade while the other boys and I watched. Then we headed home to decorate our full, fat, lovely tree, and finally, not represented in this collage, we celebrated Beloved’s 40th birthday. Phew, that’s a lot of activity for one Saturday!!

(Funny, in one of their odder choices, Getty Images invited the collage for license, and while I’m tickled, I can’t imagine what purpose anyone except me could possibly have for it!)

This one was also invited by Getty the same day I posted it. Okay, I admit, I can see this one as a Christmas card. 😉 (And it’s a damn good thing he’s so cute, too, because I took this the day after Willie jumped up on the kitchen counter and knocked my camera off the counter and on to the tile floor. Lucky for him, the only damage seems to be that the protective cover over the LCD screen snapped. Yikes!)

And more Christmas cheer! Did you know that the real Santa hangs out at the Home Hardware store in Manotick? Who would have guessed it! Seriously, he’ll be there again next Sunday December 18 and it’s worth the trip out there to see the kindest, sweetest, most twinkly-eyed Santa ever — and the free hot chocolate bar with sprinkles was a big hit, too!

(Lucas is looking a little wan in the picture because he’s only just barely overcoming his shyness with strangers. Santa was awesome at putting him at ease!)

This is how I captioned the following shot when I posted it on Flickr: “It’s 5:45 pm, it’s dark, I have a hundred things I’m supposed to be doing, not limited to laundry, making dinner, making lunches, reviewing homework, and sweeping up dog hair, and I don’t have a picture of the day. I look at the lasagne baking in the oven. Nope, that won’t do it. I look at the two kids watching TV. Nope, that won’t do it. I wander around to find the pets, hoping they’re doing something adorable. Nope, nada. I scan my memory, wondering if I have anything sitting in Lightroom that I can pass off as today’s picture. Nope, nothing.

Then, from the other room, the dulcet tones of my oldest plucking out Jingle Bells on the guitar. That will do it!”

This one might look a little familiar — I took nearly this very shot back at the beginning of the 365 project last December. Sue me, it’s been a chore finding photogenic somethings I haven’t snapped to death, especially with only a couple of hours of flat cloudy grey daylight each day!

It was tough choosing just one picture from our sneak-peek tour of the new Ikea, but the colourful towels finally won out in the end. And funny, the morning after I posted this, the Ikea merchandiser who set up this display sent me a note on Twitter saying she liked my picture. The internet really does make a small world even smaller!

Yesterday I went out on my lunch break with my Lensbaby affixed to my camera, specifically looking to shoot a Christmassy kind of shot down in the Market but the light was grey and flat, and nothing looked particularly festive. I’d taken a couple of half-hearted shots, but nothing was too interesting, and I was just about to give up when these fat, white snowflakes started to drift down. It was *exactly* what I had in mind!

And here’s a fun bit of news related not to this 365 project but the one I shot in 2009. I sold my first photo to a magazine this week!! Ottawa Magazine was looking for pictures of the old change huts for skaters on the Rideau Canal (I’m guessing to contrast them to the new fancy ones that the NCC installed this year) and they bought this picture to run on the back interior page of their winter issue!! How fun is that?

My first paid print credit. Woot! And one of my pictures may (or may not) be used in a Mazda commercial in the new year. I’ll keep you posted!

Zoom zoom zoom!!

There’s no cohesive theme to the 365 project this week. In fact, I’ve been bending the rules near to breaking — only 20 days left!

Speaking of days left, remember last time I did this, and ended up with 366 pictures in my 365 project cuz I couldn’t count to 365? So I know I started this project on December 23 this year, and I know I haven’t missed any days, and yet somehow I am due to end on December 24 — that’s 367 days. Gah! Clearly, the hardest part of a 365 project is counting to 365.

So speaking of broken rules, this is a picture that I actually took back in October on our very photogenic trip out to Pakenham. It got lost in the shuffle, and when I stumbled on it recently, I really liked it. I also really like the Flypaper Textures I downloaded recently, and am madly in love with the intersection of the two:

Don’t you love the painterly effect? (You probably either love it or hate it. I love it!) The building is St Peter Celestine Church, consecrated in 1893. Click through the link if you like reading historical accounts of early Ottawa — something else I love madly! I’m going to have to go back out to Pakenham for more exploring soon.

The texture didn’t work out quite so well on this one. I like the subject, and loved the way the terraces lead down the hill from the Parliament Buildings to the Canal, but the day was so flat and grey that everything looks quite washed out. I tried to add a little something to the sky with a texture, and it’s better — but still not as great as the church picture.

A little closer to home, this is the photographic equivalent of low-hanging fruit. I could take this picture every single day at our house — a boy, a pencil and a blank piece of paper.

I liked the repetition of all the chestnuts and the bit of burlap for contrast and context, but I should have slowed down and stopped down the aperture a little more to get more of the nuts in focus — but the guy in Farm Boy was giving me the stink eye for photographing his nuts, and I felt I should move along.

These ornaments are on my Mom and Dad’s Christmas tree. They make me happy. 🙂 (Other things that make me happy include Instagram and lazy iPhone photos-of-the-day!)

I picked up this baby at the end of the fall flea market season, but haven’t found the right shot to show it off quite yet. Not quite sure this is the one either, but it was the best I managed so far. This is a Brownie Super 27, an early point-and-shoot from the 1960s. I got it in its box for $5 — hard to resist a steal like that! It has two apertures, “SUNNY” (f/13.5) and “CL’DY BR’T” (f/8), and two focus zones (3 1/2 to 6 ft and beyond 6 ft), and the flash hides behind a little pop-out door. Fun, eh?

And last but definitely not least, probably my favourite picture this week. He was “helping” me hang this giant Costco wreath when it attacked him.

Oh the cuteness!

I can’t believe I’ve got more than 90 per cent of my second 365 project in the can. Did this year just fly by or what?

This week’s pictures are all over the map. Actually, that’s not quite true — they were all taken within or around Manotick. But I couldn’t really come up with any sort of cohesive theme outside of “I really don’t have time for Project 365 this week!”

I like it best when cuteness asserts itself for the photographic taking, like when Willie hopped up onto the table to try to entice Tristan away from his homework. I thought him settling in on the Petit Robert was pretty cute, but the yawn was an unexpected bonus that I just happened to be ready to catch.

I tried to play with a longer exposure and pan the camera with the movement of these geese, but I’m not thrilled with the result. It was an idea better in concept than execution, I think, but it was the best of the lot and I didn’t have any other pictures for the day. It was fun spooking a giant flock of geese into flight just by stopping by the side of the road, though!

When I saw this stump with its little ecosystem, it looked like a faerie playground to me. 🙂

And then we had snow! I was pretty excited to see how much snow fell when we woke up on Wednesday — and by the time we got everyone into their boots and ski pants and scarves and hats, I was pretty much done with winter. Lucas seemed plenty perplexed by the white stuff!

I’ve been playing a lot with textures lately, and I really love the effects from the Spring Painterly sets from Flypaper Textures. I love how the brush strokes and deep blue hues transformed this rather mundane photo into something moody and a little mysterious. I’m really pleased with this one!

I used another texture from the Spring Painterly set to enhance this picture of some fall berries.

And last but definitely not least — yes, it’s that time of year again! We hauled out the Santa hats and turned the porch into a portrait studio again. This one is one of the outtakes, but I like the expressions on their faces and the interaction.

At the end of the day, they’re still my very favourite subjects to photograph. 🙂

It seems I’m doing most of my picture-taking at sunrise and sunset these days. Not really surprising, since they bookend the work day, and with continuing mild temperatures, dusk and dawn are pleasant times to be out hunting for interesting shots.

These spiky, weedy things, for example. I have no idea what they are, but they make an interesting silhouette in front of the rising sun, don’t you think?

And this one, too. The morning sun blazing through a couple of branches and falling on some but not all of the leaves made an interesting composition early one morning. Tip: look for triangles when you’re composing your photographs — threes and triangles always seem to have extra visual appeal. Why do you think I had three boys? 😉

This is a sunny beauty of another sort. May you find in your life the joy of being three years old and on a swing!

I am drawn to old barns, especially the really decrepit ones. I couldn’t get far enough back to get all of this one in the frame without falling in the ditch on the other side of the road (apparently there *is* a limit to how far I’ll go to chase a picture!) so I’m not entirely satisfied with this one — but it’s close enough.

I took this one last weekend when we visited my brother’s family. It always warms my heart to see the boys interacting with my parents.

With this long, lovely and mild autumn, I’ve been slow to get all the leaves raked up. I’d stuffed more than 20 bags myself over a couple of weeks when I finally bribed enlisted the boys to help me. I filled another three while they jumped and tossed and eventually filled this one. With nearly 30 bags filled, I think we’re finally ready for the inevitable snowfall.

Speaking of snow, how do you like these spectacular squall clouds? As I was driving home on Thursday, I was on the lookout for the perfect foreground for these towering snow clouds, and when I saw the baled hay in this field I knew it was perfect. (I’d stopped and taken quite a few others, but I love how the light behind me makes the field golden, and how those giant clouds dwarf the huge trees in the foreground.) Ian Black featured this photograph on his weather report on the CBC Ottawa news on Friday night. 🙂

Not long now and you’ll be seeing a lot of snow pictures, I think. How much longer can this blissfully mild autumn interlude last?

There was a stat quoted in the Ottawa paper the other day, to the effect that in the 75 years they’ve been keeping records there has never been a year that no measurable snow fell before Remembrance Day. Hasn’t it been just the most lovely, pleasant autumn?

The photo ops have been throwing themselves at me this week. I haven’t so much sought out pictures as have tableaus call out for my attention, like the setting sun silhouetting the last of our pumpkins just before I put it out in the compost bin. (The pinecone was an afterthought but I love the way it refracted the setting sun behind it!)

And with the change from daylight to standard time, it’s no longer pitch black when I drive to work in the morning, so I can be seduced into being late for work because I stopped to take pictures of the thick morning fog. Like this:

On the other end of the day, though, it’s barely dinner time when the sun sets, and when you see a gorgeous magenta-orange sky you have to run out and leave the pasta to boil over while you take a few pictures like this:

I did a portrait session with my BFFs and their extended family, and although I had to twist a few arms to get them to do a leaf toss shot for me, it ended up being one of my favourites from the day. 🙂

You could say i was board when I took this one. 😉 I just liked the tinge of colour, the iron handle and latch, and the repetitive pattern of the boards.

Sometimes the whole photography obsession can get annoying, like when you’re raking the leaves and running out of daylight and you like the way the light hits a couple of pinecones you just raked out of the pile so you drop the rake and pick up the camera and suddenly it’s 20 minutes later and you have a lot of great pictures of pinecones but half a lawn of unraked leaves.

I was trying to think of a good tribute shot for both 11-11-11 and Remembrance Day, and when I found this fallen tree and stump I knew it was exactly the thought I wanted to express.

So do you think we could be lucky enough to hold out until December for the first snow shot?

The days are getting shorter and the light is low in the sky, but it’s been such a beautiful, mild autumn that almost all my pictures were taken outdoors this week.

On the weekend, I had the great pleasure of meeting the Pietersma family. Have you ever seen the Victorian tinsel and gorgeous tin stars that Lee Valley Tools carries at this time of year? I am totally addicted to the stars and they’re one of my favourite holiday decorations (that may creep out into the house for everyday decorations one of these days!) After our session, I was delighted to find out that this family makes all those stars and the tinsel. Isn’t that awesome? It’s not every day you meet a tinsmithing family! (And also? Incredibly charming. I hope my boys grow up to be as polite as these big boys were, and the twins were good as gold as well.)

No big story to this one. It’s a vine snaking over the brick wall of one of the many cobblestone courtyards in the Byward Market. I just liked the colours and form.

Speaking of colours and form, more low-hanging fruit — erm, leaves.

I saw this tableau out of the corner of my eye and very surreptitiously grabbed this picture shooting from the hip. I loved the pattern of the boots but didn’t want to freak out the strangers wearing them by being obvious about taking pictures of their feet!

I wonder if there’s anything worth examining in the fact that I am fascinated by things that grow in ditches? I’ve admired these weedy things for weeks. I love how the setting sun plays in the puffiness of whatever they are — kind of a cattail/wheat/bullrush thing? (I am such a city girl.)

We had such a good time on Halloween that I ended up with a bunch of snapshots, and only mediocre ones at that, but together they paint a pretty good picture of the fun we had. (Halloween this year further reinforced my theory that it’s actually still 1975 in Manotick. The boys ended up with things like full-sized chocolate bars and cans of pop in their loot bags, and at one point a pumper truck from the Ottawa Fire Department was driving around the ‘hood handing out candy! And also? I beamed with pride for days after watching how well-mannered they were in trick-or-treating, and hearing people comment on their well-manneredness and cuteness. We’re doing something right!)

And speaking of Halloween, did you hear about the Giant Pumpkin Rampage?

It was an epic struggle but Farmer Brown finally managed to get the giant pumpkins back into their cages under lock and key. God help us if they ever escape again…

🙂

You’d think if there were a weekly theme to the colours in my pictures the week before Halloween, those colours would be orange and black, but I’ve got more of a green and red and gold thing going on this week. Maybe it’s that whole “Christmas starts earlier each year” thing again? That seems to be a bloggy theme this week!

There was nothing Christmasy about our visit to Millers Farm to pick pumpkins, though! I am totally in love with their little pumpkin house – isn’t it great? (Except, it must be extremely crooked, because it’s still driving me a bit crazy that I couldn’t make all four sides of the frame line up with the edges of the photograph no matter how much I tinkered!)

This is something a little different, but I love how it turned out – the reflection of autumn colours and late-afternoon sky on the Rideau River. I’m looking around for somewhere to hang this one in the house – but I’m starting to run out of wall space!

I’d like to hang this one on the wall, too. I found this little pile of vintage books in a corner of an antique shed and was immediately drawn to both the colour and the composition. I played with some Kim Klassen textures to finish it off.

I have two leaf shots this week. (The leaf season is quickly coming to a close!) I’ve taken a bunch of leaves-on-steps shots over the last couple of years because my eye is always attracted to them — but I can never seem to make them work. My eye likes the subject but the camera apparently feels differently! Anyway, this is good enough, but only barely.

This one has been done to death, by me and just about anyone else who likes to take pictures of autumn leaves (low hanging fruit!) but I still like how it came out. The sun is shining bright and low in the sky behind the leaf, giving it that nice glow and bringing out the detail of the veins and making the edges pop, but I kept the angle low to keep green grassy background completely framing the leaf and to keep the sun from flaring. I’m using my 50mm f1.4 lens “wide open”, which gives the grass in the background that nice smooth blur, but the plane of focus is so small that you can see the right edge of the leaf has wandered out of focus because I was focusing on the left side. It’s probably a difference of a couple of millimeters, but enough that it’s no longer as tack sharp as the other side. Oh well.

Peppers from the Byward Market. I liked how the ones near the edges were mostly solid colours and the ones in the centre seemed to be the mixed-colour ones. Yum!

And finally, if you know Ottawa you probably recognize this location. It’s the main entrance of the Canadian Museum of Nature, one of the city’s best places for families. In addition to the stunning architectural details on the door itself, I was drawn to the difference in scale between the very big door and the very little boy.

Think I can wrest a few more leaf and fall colour shots out of the season before the snow falls? Tune in next week to find out!

(Are you interested in the technical “how I did this” and “why I did this” explanations? Or are they pedantic? I can never decide what kind of details to include in these posts.)