Category: Photography

I was worried that the commute from Manotick to the Byward Market every day would prove long and tiresome. It is on the long side — I’m averaging 35 to 40 minutes — but it’s such a gorgeous drive that I’m quite enjoying it. (Ask me again after a blizzard in February and maybe I’ll change my tune!)

What’s interesting to me is the sheer diversity of the drive. I start out in rural farmland, passing cows and barns, and I follow the Rideau River / Canal all the way downtown, through suburbs and down Colonel By Drive, past Old Ottawa South and the Glebe and both universities, all the way to the Market. It goes from capacious and rolling fields to the sharp concrete edges of downtown; from serenity to bustle; from wide-open spaces and the smell of nature to crowds and the competing smells of cars, restaurants and progress. (I notice these differences most keenly in the morning, because let’s face it, the traffic at 4 pm may be worse on Bridge Street in Manotick as it is on Sussex Drive!)

All that to say, the juxtapositioning of the rural and urban experience seems to have informed my picture-taking this week. There was, for example, this improbably blue barn resting quietly in a very yellow field that just begged to be photographed. I wish I’d had a more standard lens on instead of my lensbaby, to really make that colour contrast pop, but as they say, the best camera/lens for the job is the one you have with you!

In contrast, I love the effect the lensbaby had on this picture. To the left is the US Embassy (who apparently don’t take kindly to photographers, but I’ve never had a problem) and straight ahead is the glass dome of the National Gallery of Canada. I love how all the lines converge on the red pop of the flags.

And then, back to the rural thing. I think I’m fascinated by farms and barns just because they are so completely removed from my experience. When I saw the sky the morning I took this, I knew I just had to watch out for the perfect shape to silhouette and show it off. As I said in the caption on Flickr, “Phallic symbol? What phallic symbol?”

This was an idea that didn’t work out like I’d expected, but I didn’t really have anything else for the shot of the day. And didn’t these things used to be way more colourful? (We used them for the favours at our wedding.)(Not these ones.)(Although they were stale enough that they could have been.)

This is a new treasure I found in a junk shop. Can you believe it only cost me $5? What a steal! It’s a Yashica Electro 35 from 1966, one of the most popular and populist rangefinders. It was apparently the first electronically controlled camera. Best $5 paperweight ever! 😉 It’s also my favourite picture this week because I saw this style of picture somewhere else and deliberately set out to mimic it. I wouldn’t have been able to do that a year or two ago, but I did and I was pretty pleased with myself and the result.

At the risk of treading into Stuart Smalley territory, I thought it would be fun to try making some of these poster-type things I’ve seen all over Pinterest lately. I really love the sentiment!

I promise, the next one will say, “I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And doggone it, people like me.” 😉

You might have noticed the sparse blogging this week. This past week and the one coming up mark a crazy end-of-summer transition time that encompass not only back to school for the boys and Beloved, but a new job for me, a new caregiver for Lucas, and an impromptu 24-hours-notice visit from my brother and his family. All very good things, but I kind of feel like I’m living in a whirlwind these days!

You’d never know it from the serenity of this picture, though. As the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, I’m seeing a lot of this delicious mist swirling on the Rideau as the sun crests over the trees. (I know the purple loosestrife is a pestilence, but it sure is a purty pestilence.)

Flowers like rain, even if rambunctious kids don’t.

I can’t decide if this one is overdone. The apples are great, but maybe the dollar-store fall garland pushed it beyond yummy into hokey? Hmmm, might have to revisit this one later in apple season.

As I mentioned a few times now, I’ve gone back to my old job downtown. The 45-minute commute is a bit of a drag, but I have to admit that I am excited to be back down in the Byward Market again. The energy in the Market is the polar opposite of the serene tranquility in the misty river shot above, but it’s kind of nice having both in the same day.

My very first day was also the second day that Jack Layton was laying in state for public condolences on Parliament Hill. I had hoped that maybe I could make my way over there, but first days have a mind of their own and it didn’t work out. I was, however, able to stand at my new office window and pay my respects as the 15-gun salute was fired. Such a terrible loss for all of us. I’m glad I have this picture, to remind me of the excitement of my first day and the jaw-dropping shock of this gorgeous view all playing out against the backdrop of public grieving. Rest in peace, Jack.

On the other side of the building, of course, lays the bustling Byward Market, which is both a gustatory and visual festival of tastes and colours. Harvest season is a such great time to be near the Market!

This is my niece sharing her discovery, a wooly bear caterpillar (which will become, I found out thanks to the Interwebs, an Isabella tiger moth.) I love the combination of the chipped red nail polish and the dirt on her hands — my kind of girl!

You know I’ve hung out my shingle as a family photographer, and I have to tell you, it’s turning into a fun and lucrative little endeavour. But for all the great family pictures I’ve taken, I’ve never really gotten one of my own extended family that I loved. Until now, that is.

You can see that they genuinely love each other, and isn’t that what it’s really all about?

No big themes, no new toys this week, no deep thoughts; just rich saturated colours, cute kids and yummy light. There is something to be said for keeping it simple.

Nothing says ‘summer’ like a dripping kid fresh from the pool, wrapped in a colourful towel, right?

Then again, a kid on a swing is another great way to define summer. (I love his smile, but I may be biased.)

If you read my post from a few days ago, you would be correct to assume these are not my flowers. Luckily, I have neighbours who are far better gardeners than me!

I have a real acorn thing. I can’t help but collect them if I happen to see an oak tree shedding them. But, I’ve never actually noticed one growing on the tree before. I am ridiculously pleased about both this discovery, this photograph, and this quote I found to go with it: “Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who stood their ground.” Ha!

Another joy from nature this time of year is the bullrush. I don’t know why I am fascinated by these things, but I am! I like how desaturating this turned it from a bullrush in a ditch beside the school into something more about shape and form.

One of the other great things about late summer, aside from the golden, delicious light, is the morning fog that is a gift from the cool nights and humid mornings. I love how this looks almost like a fairy garden to me, and composed it so you feel invited to let your eyes walk from the dark foreground, through that gate and right into the light.

This last set is a trilogy that I wanted to put up as its own blog post, but I clean ran out of time.

This shot is the keeper. Lucas loves kitty, but I do suspect the love is unrequited.

Five seconds before:

Five seconds after:

(I think the expression on Willie’s face is priceless. And the fact that Lucas’s face is still attached to his head is a testament to Willie’s good nature!)

I hope your week is filled with delicious colour and gorgeous light!

I had fun with my Lensbaby Composer Pro this week, and left it on my camera for the whole week. I’ve learned a lot about getting the best possible images from it, but I may have developed a permanent crick in my left eyebrow from squinting one-eyed through the viewfinder, trying to find the focus. (Do you shoot with one eye or two? I’m so impressed by people who have mastered shooting with both eyes open, but I simply can’t do it!)

I also happened to read online that finding that focus spot is a lot easier if you use the “live view” LCD preview on the back of the camera instead of the viewfinder, but I’m not sure that’s a habit I can comfortably develop either. I think I’m just destined to have more wrinkles on the left side of my face as I squinch my eye closed! I’m also finding that my D7000 is underexposing my Lensbaby shots by at least one stop, sometimes as much as two stops, so I’ve started to shoot a bit more in manual mode. Ah, back to the good old days — manual focus AND manual exposure control. Glad I learned how to do all this stuff years ago!

I was actually trying to cut the grass when I noticed the light hitting Tristan as he played on the rope hanging from the treehouse, and stopped the lawnmower to go inside and get my camera for this one. I simply can’t resist delicious light!

There’s not a lot of explanation for this shot, I just find myself drawn to fences and fence posts and things like this. Go figure!

Speaking of things to which I’m drawn, oh look, it’s Watson’s Mill again! This is a reflection in the river turned upside-down so it’s right-side up.

One of these days I’m going to write a post about all the flowers that didn’t grow in my garden this year. These are courtesy of a neighbour. (Even after fixing this up in Lightroom, this one still seems a little muddy and underexposed to me. Hmmm.)

This would have probably worked much better if I’d had a normal lens on my camera, but the Lensbaby was all that was within reach. Every morning around 6:30, Katie and Willie have a little play. I loved how Willie ended up in the MouseTrap box that Lucas had been playing with.

It’s been a while since my beautiful old Underwood has been in my photostream!

And finally, I took this shot one evening last weekend when we were at the Manotick aquatic club. I like the near-abstract quality, and the sense of motion that the stretched Lensbaby bokeh gives to the image. (It’s Simon riding the cresting Daddy-whale!)

So what do you think of the Lensbaby shots? I’m really pleased with it, although I think it has a reasonably limited utility. I’d like to try some more portraits with it, and it should be fun to take downtown with me to explore the Byward Market one lunch hour. And I think it’s the perfect lens for fall colour. But let’s not rush into fall just yet!

It took three posts about 365 this week to do it, but I’m finally all caught up. Yay! And sorry for the glut of pictures this week. Well, not really. All these years, I’ve always said that I can only blog what’s in my head, and my brain is pretty much entirely in the shape of a camera body these days!

One of the things I never did get around to blogging this week is that it was my birthday on Monday. It gives me a certain geeky delight to finally be the answer to Douglas Adams’ Life, the Universe and Everything — 42!! And my birthday present from my parents, Beloved and the boys was something I’ve coveted for a long time, a Lensbaby Composer Pro lens!

What’s a Lensbaby? It’s a creative effects lens that turns on (in the case of the Composer line) a ball and socket, allowing you to selectively focus. You know how you can blur the background with a shallow depth of field by opening your aperture up as wide as possible, aka using the smallest f-stop number? With that, you can only blur out things in the frame that are behind or in front of your flat plane of focus. The Lensbaby allows you to blur out things in the same plane, and you can move the “sweet spot” of focus around the frame by twisting the ball and socket part of the lens. It gives a very dreamy kind of look to pictures, and a bit of a stretched perspective to the very edges of the frame.

It took a bit of getting used to it. This first picture I took was of Katie (since she was my first “baby” she seemed like a good first subject for my Lensbaby!) and while you can see the selective focus at work, it’s not a stunning example of the lens at its best. The sweet spot is about half way up her snout, and with an ordinary lens using a small depth of field, her paw should be in focus, too, because it’s the same distance from the camera as her nose.

The thing about the Lensbaby is that it’s a partly manual lens — you set the aperture from a set of magnetic rings you actually drop into the camera (so no changing apertures on the fly) and you can set your camera to aperture priority mode so that the camera chooses the shutter speed. I found, though, that the exposures were a little hit-and-miss and I’ve switched over to manual mode a few times to get better control. The hardest part, though, is controlling the focus. I used to be quite adept at manual focusing, because with my D40 and my 50mm lens, I had to manually focus all my shots. I’ve gotten lazier, or older, or less able to focus, though, and the manual focus thing is a little tiring. Worse, though, is figuring out whether the subject I’m trying to focus on is actually in the sweet spot or maybe I’ve got the sweet spot pointed somewhere else and the spot that I’m peering at will never actually resolve no matter how much I tinker with the focus. It’s definitely a learning curve. But when you get shots like this one, I think it’s more than worth it.

And when I went poking around Watson’s Mill one perfectly still and perfectly gorgeous summer morning, the Lensbaby and I had a grand old time. Lensbaby + Watson’s Mill + perfect summer morning = bliss.

Speaking of summer, is this not a perfect summer picture? I planted two whole packages of sunflowers this year, and even sprouted one inside (it was a Mother’s Day gift) and transplanted the seedling into the garden. You know how many sunflowers I got this year? None. Apparently while I may take pretty good pictures, I suck as a gardener. Lucky for me, there are publicly consumable sunflowers available!

Thank goodness, there are perennials in the garden that don’t require any care from me, like these yellow daisies.

I took this picture at about a quarter to six one morning while I was studying for my French test, and at the end of the day realized that I hadn’t picked up my camera again for the whole day – and so this became the picture of the day, my bedheaded boy.

Apparently sleep was an unconscious theme this week!

And finally, last but certainly not least… I mentioned that Monday was my birthday, right? What better way to spend a birthday than doing porch portraits of the two-week old son of a friend? Baby N is by far the youngest visitor to grace the porch, and he wasn’t really interested in being posed. Holy cats, the newborn photography thing is a LOT harder than it looks. We did manage to get a few good shots, though, and while we tried to get him all tucked up on top of the scale (his mom is hovering about half an inch outside the frame) that last leg would not stay put — and in the end, I kind of like it dangling like that. Isn’t he perfect? I think I might need another baby after spending time with him. Um, don’t tell Beloved.

From Lensbabies to lovely babies, it was a photogenic week!

Remember last time I did the 365 project, and I ended up having 366 pictures in it because I lost count? Yeah. The hardest part of the 365 project was counting to 365! And now, I’ve somehow gotten myself all out of sequence in being so behind. I’m on track for numbers, but somehow ended up with a week that has an extra day. Hmmm. Oh well, so this catch-up edition of my weekly 365 post is a little longer than the others.

Anyway, you can see why I went into communications and not, say, astrophysics as a career. I actually find astrophysics absolutely fascinating, but you probably need to be able to do things like, um, count. And keep track of things with a modicum more accuracy than I seem able. “We found an extrasolar planet with an atmosphere remarkably similar to the Earth! Where is it? Um, somewhere to the left of M31, give or take forty light years…”

Speaking of the intersection of paying work and photography (also good that I don’t rely on my segue ability for a paycheque, isn’t it?) I have some exciting news this week. I’ve been approached by Getty Images to license some of my photographs. Fun, eh? Stock photography doesn’t pay exceptionally well, mostly a couple of dollars per licensed image from what I can tell, but it’s more than what the photo was making just sitting there looking pretty on Flickr. I’ve seen some photographers making in the hundreds of dollars per month, but they have a lot more images and frankly, some pretty amazing work.

This is the first image up for licence, and there are about half a dozen more in the works.

Who would have ever guessed at the beginning of my first 365 project in 2009 that it would lead to all these paid photography gigs? I can’t believe how much things have taken off this month — it’s very exciting!

Speaking of 365 projects, didn’t I say this was supposed to be a post about catching up? Here’s what I set out to show you today. When I went downtown for my job interview with the CRA, I was sitting at a traffic light and admiring this view of Parliament Hill. I never fail to be humbled by this view! (Even though I am not really looking forward to the commute back downtown to the Market from Manotick, I am looking forward to all the gorgeous downtown photo opportunities!)

I was going for a sort of a chiaroscuro effect with this one – just a little bit of low key light on his face. Not entirely convinced it worked, though!

This too is a bit of a play with chiaroscuro – I’ve been thinking a lot about light lately!

I haven’t had as much time as I would have hoped to play with my camera even though I’m on vacation because I’ve been spending at least an hour or two each day studying for my infernal French exam. (I went to write it yesterday, managed to write the grammar test and then they sent us home because the AC was broken and they were shutting down the building!! Gah! I have to go back today to write the reading comprehension test!) Anyway, if you’re going to spend hours of your vacation studying for a French exam, there are worse places to do it than on the porch!

I love this picture so much that I almost hate to bury it deep in an extended 365 post. I’m betting you can figure out where I took it! 😉 (Have I mentioned how much I love the Agriculture Museum lately? If you haven’t gone recently, you must!)

You know my life is a little out of control when something as wicked-cool as the Social Capital conference happens and I can’t even get around to writing a blog post about it. But it was a week ago Saturday and it was *awesome*! One of these weeks I hope to write a proper blog post about it. This is from the round-table discussion I hosted on photography and Flickr — it was a great little chat!

Did I mention it’s been insanely busy? French test, conference, interviewing and scrambling for new job, and two (TWO!) portrait sessions for Mothership Photography this week. Yikes! This was from a session I did at a local park on that day when the heat blazed its way well past the 40C mark. It was crazy hot, but I had a great time with this toddler, his parents and his grandparents, chasing him all over the playground. Picture a not-quite-two-year-old on the loose in the playground wearing nothing but his diaper and a kilt. I know, adorable, right?

This was from a porch portrait session I did last weekend. The kids were all dressed up for family portraits, but once we had the formals done, their parents let them have some fun on the playstructure and the treehouse in the back yard. I love love love this — there’s something dreamy and lovely about it, don’t you think?

And finally! We ordered Chinese food one night, and Tristan didn’t agree with my fortune cookie, so he made me up one he thought was more appropriate.

Good fortune, eh? I’m a lucky girl.

Lacks “focus” — get it? Ha, I slay me.

I’m all over the place with the 365 project this week. Kid shots, car shots, flower shots, and even the return of TtV. (Actually, these aren’t this week’s shots — I’m still a week behind. These are last week’s pictures. I swear, I will catch up to myself eventually!)

You saw this one already, as part of my photo essay on our nightly vacation porch Uno tournament. I love the light in this picture so much it makes me want to frame it! The picture, that is. Not the light. Ugh, lacks focus, right?

And speaking of Lucas — is this not the biggest dandelion you’ve ever seen?! It’s bigger than my fist! If this is how big the dandelions are now, the mosquitoes must be the size of pterodactyls!

I drive past Jack May Pontiac on Prince of Wales every day on my way to work, and just about any other time I head toward town, and have been admiring this gorgeous green chevrolet for weeks now. Finally one morning I had to stop to admire it with my camera. I’m just glad I didn’t set off any security alarms, poking around in the lot before anybody had shown up for work! It’s a 1953 model, and the sticker price is a little less than $20K.

From green to yellow: this beauty was in a vase on my mom’s kitchen table, and I didn’t notice until I had my lens practically touching it that it had a neat double bloom. I added a bit of texture to give it that grainy, gritty feel — just a little bit of extra flavour.

I’ve been so busy working on portraiture and other camera techniques that I’ve barely taken any TtV shots lately. When I saw these daisies in bloom in the back yard, though, I thought they’d look lovely through the viewfinder of my Duaflex.

I got an action to create faux polaroids in Photoshop from Rita’s Coffee Shop Blog a while ago, and this picture of the boys at the Long Island Locks seemed like the perfect place to use it because it has a timeless vacation snapshot feel to it. I could put it in the album beside my old of my brother and me in the late 1970s and it would fit right in!

I was getting ready for work and noticed Willie “helping” Tristan draw (on the kitchen table. Sigh.) The backlighting from the window created a great silhouette.

As I said in the original caption, it’s hard to draw pictures of Sonic the Hedgehog when your pencil keeps getting attacked by Willie the Cat!

Oh my goodness, do I ever owe you guys a post about the craziness that is my life right now. But first, I have to clear the backlog of posts I didn’t write last week. And um, maybe a few from the week before. Like this 365 post, covering a week now almost two weeks in the past. Eek!

So let’s get right to the pictures, shall we? Lacking any better segue than that, the week started as any week should: with cupcakes! (You might remember this was part of a Friday Family Fun post on how to make rainbow cupcakes.)

Here’s how far behind I am – this picture is from Blog Out Loud Ottawa, which happened on July 7. It was a truly amazing night, with 21 bloggers reading one of their favourite posts to a packed house at the Prescott Hotel. I loved that this year the posts ranged from sidesplittingly funny to heartrendingly sad and covered all the ground in between. And yes, I read a favourite post of my own. And yes, I did manage to keep my shirt on this year. 😉

Willie continues to grow more tolerant of Katie. I can’t say I blame him for being cautious, her head is bigger than his entire body!

There’s a trestle bridge over the Jock River off Moodie that I have been eyeing for years. I finally stopped, but didn’t like much any of the shots I took except this one. I like all the triangles.

Oh look, more pet pictures! *cough*low-hanging-fruit*cough*

This is another one I’ve had my eye on for a while. (Can you tell it’s vacation time, I’m chasing down all the pictures I’ve had stored in my head!) This 1953 Chevy is sitting on the lot at Jack May Pontiac on Prince of Wales, and I admire it every time I drive past. It can be yours for just a little under $20K!

And finally, again with indicators of vacation mode — yep, I broke out the TTV contraption again. Something about daisies and TTV just go together in my brain.

Okay, that brings me up to the middle of last week. Here’s hoping I can make a move toward catching up this week — but I’m not counting on it!