Category: Photography

Yikes, I have been so crazy busy this past week that I’m a whole week behind on my 365 posts. I have managed to take a photo each day (actually, a couple of times I took more than a hundred pictures each day!) but despite spending hours with Lightroom and Photoshop, I never did manage to get a post written about them. So here’s the pictures from the penultimate week, July 1 through 7. With any luck, I’ll get last week’s pictures up by the beginning of August!

This one is the finalé from my Dog Meets Cat love story. This one is my favourite, and while I loved the idea of storyboarding all the pictures, I think this one is lovely on it’s own — the cat behind the curtain has a kind of ethereal quality that reminds me of a Nicholas Sparks / Audrey Niffenegger alternate-universes kind of love story, yanno?

We bought a membership to the Manotick community pool (I know, we’re “club” people now, I can hardly get over myself!) and have been spending a lot of time there. Glen at OttawaStart.com used this picture on his OttawaStart guide to swimming in Ottawa – fun, eh?

I’ve been reading Judy Blume’s Fudge books to the boys, from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing to Double Fudge. In one of the books, the boys go to the mint in Washington, which inspired the idea for a trip to the Byward Market to visit the Royal Canadian Mint, a destination none of us had ever visited. It was okay, not quite stimulating enough for the wandering three-year-old, but the big boys were interested enough in the 20-minute tour. They were a lot more interested, though, in the excellent milk shakes at Zak’s Diner (hadn’t been there in 20+ yrs!) and the visit to Sugar Mountain. In all, it was a fun day downtown playing tourist — if you haven’t done it recently, you should try! We ran out of steam before we made it over to Parliament Hill, so we’ll have to make another trek on a different day for that one.

I love composition of this photo of the boys perched on a box beside the National Gallery, lost in a sea of lilies. I also love the patiently indulgent expressions on their faces, too: I’m not particularly enjoying this, but it makes mom happy, so I’ll endure it.

This was from our rainbow cupcake adventure day. Hmmm, I think we’re due to try this one again! *drool*

We went on this massively weird road trip that was supposed to be a quick trip up to Kemptville to check out a flea market and maybe have some lunch. The flea market didn’t exist, and I couldn’t get a cell signal anywhere in Kemptville so I couldn’t rely on my iPhone map for directions. There must have been a classic car rally nearby, because at one point we gassed up and there was a 1978 corvette, and two other early 1970s vintage cars gassing up at the same station. We decided to truck on to Smiths Falls in search of other flea markets we’d heard vague reference to with no map and no real plan. We found these two old flea markets that were more junk shop than anything, but they had some fascinating stuff. It was a really surreal kind of day!

In particular, I was charmed by this set of 1960s-era salon hair dryers — remember these? I remember being terrified when the hairdresser used them on me when I was a kid. These ones even had little ashtrays in each arm rest — pure vintage awesomeness. I wanted to buy them just for the conversation-piece value of them, and Simon thought they looked like something that might launch him into orbit!

I finally enticed Kerry all the way out to Manotick (she was fixated on the fact that she passed dairy farms on the way out – she’s such an urbanite!) and we had an excellent adventure involving burgers at the Side Street Grill, a visit to the Mill, a browse in the used book sale that goes on every day across from the Mill in the carriage shed, and ice creams and coffee for dessert. Really, despite the fact that it threatened rain the whole time, it was a perfect little wander. I’d promised Kerry a portrait months ago, and so we set up an impromptu portrait session on the dam. Isn’t she gorgeous?

There are people who do entire 365 projects of self portraits and I have such admiration for them. I can barely stand to take one of myself every couple of months, but I did like the light in my room as I was sitting on the bed teaching myself how to better use my speedlight. (This is a natural light picture, though – the flash is on the bed with a book behind me!) I called it “Portrait of the artist in her natural environment” – with tongue firmly in cheek.

One of these days, I might even take a self portrait without the camera stuck to my face…

Help! I need more models!

I’ve really been enjoying taking pictures of people rather than stuff lately. The daisies in the garden are gorgeous, the sunsets are spectacular, but what I really want to take are portraits. Thank goodness the boys are reasonably indulgent to mom’s camera habit. (Okay, actually, they’re just easy to bribe.) It wasn’t until I started putting this post together, though, that I realized that every single picture this week save one was of the boys — and the last one was of the cat.

Really, I need more models!!

My friend Yvonne gave us this kiddie-sized wicker sofa, and it fits in perfectly on the porch. When I brought Lucas out to take his picture on it, I was just planning on a straight-up portrait of him sitting on it, but he had other ideas. I just laughed and snapped as he created the various poses for me, all without any direction at all. Clearly, I am grooming him to be either a Calvin Klein model or a circus clown.

Not to be outdone, the next day I had all three of them in on the action. I figured if I was going to offer porch portraits, I’d better make darn sure I could do it properly.

I had it in my head to do an entire week of porch portraits, but the porch version of this idea wasn’t coming together, so we moved it onto the lawn. It’s far from my original conception, and yet ended up being one of my favourite pictures of the boys, ever.

I’d remembered taking pictures on the little bridge beside the boys’ school on the first day of school in September, so I snapped one to memorialize the last day of school in June. They’ve both grown up so much in the last year, haven’t they? I love how these work together!

(It’s been at least two weeks since I used the vintage frames — that’s enough of a gap, right? 😉 )

We now interrupt this boyfest for a catnap…..

While all of Ottawa headed downtown to meet Will and Kate for Canada Day, we headed in the opposite direction. Much as I would have liked the crowds and excitement, I know the boys would have been bored and tired and probably not very happy. So we went to Calypso and had the best day at the waterpark ever — can you believe Lucas went on the big waterslides with me? He’s fearless! I didn’t bring my camera (!) and couldn’t really see the screen on my iPhone when I snapped this one of Simon, but it’s a happy picture of a fun family day, and the Instagram processing emphasizes that for me.

Speaking of family fun, it’s the little moments that make good memories, don’t you think? We wandered about Manotick one sunny morning to celebrate the start of summer, checking out Watson’s Mill and the toy store and stopping for lunch, and then on the way home we stopped for home-made ice cream at the HodgePodge Shoppe.

When I started writing this post, I wasn’t quite sure what the weekly theme would be, and then I realized it was as simple as this: happy. These pictures all make me happy. What a great way to start the summer!

Edited to add: Oops, I almost forgot — Thursday was the end of June, so here’s the monthly mosaic, too!

When we adopted Willie last weekend from the animal shelter, it wasn’t only because kittens make for excellent photo fodder. At least, that’s what I keep protesting. *wink* Truth be told, I’ve always been a dog person, and even though we’ve had cats for many years, I was unprepared for how quickly the little furball would endear himself to me! I’m only a few shutter clicks away from my official membership into the crazy cat lady club.

And hey, milestone fun this week – yesterday’s picture was 183 of 365, the half-way point. Hmmm, doesn’t seem nearly as momentous an achievement as it did the first time I did a 365 project. Maybe because I can’t really imagine *not* continuing this project for the foreseeable future?

I did manage to tear my lens away from the furball a few times this week, though. Last Sunday, we invited my parents over for a Father’s Day dinner, and then roasted a few marshmallows over the firepit as the perfect day descended into evening. The light as the boys played on the tire swing was magical, and something about this one epitomizes summer for me.

After a long stretch of sunny, dry weather, we’ve had quite a few days of rain. I liked this picture and the raindrops a lot when I took it yesterday, but looking at it this morning only reminds me of the torrential downpours from last night that seem to have flooded something from our well and caused water to (yes, sign, can you believe it?) flood into the basement. It’s not a lot, but enough. The well guys are coming this morning to look into it for us, but I’ve heard that a lot of people in Manotick had problems with flooding last night. 🙁

And of course, there were a few (!) cat pictures this week. This one was actually taken at the shelter, just when we were choosing Willie. It was nice to see on the LAWS website that the female orange tabby we were also considering was also adopted on Saturday. I love happy endings!

He’s kinda cute, and poses for pictures better than the kids!

He seems to like the patio door in my bedroom — the only place in the whole house with curtains. Admire them now, I fear they may not last the summer. 😉

This one made us laugh. We’d just finished dinner and the boys were searching the house for Willie. Tristan eventually found him in the closet in his bedroom, just about the most isolated corner of the house. He’d tipped over a bin of stuffies, and then curled up and gone to sleep with them. I know he’s happy with us, but in the shelter he was in a cage with half a dozen other kittens — maybe he’s wondering where they went?

After a week of cat pictures, I was feeling disloyal, so here’s a portrait of my first baby, the patient and always delightful Katie. You can read the whole story in her expression, eh? “Really? More pests in the house? Sigh.”

And this one wasn’t an official picture of the day, but it makes for a fun post-script, no?

You know what I just realized? I’ve inadvertently named our pets after the Royal Couple, who happen to be due to visit here this week. Willie and Kate. Ha!

Funny how the Muse comes and goes, eh? The last two weeks, I was definitely just going through the motions with the photography thing, but this week my spark reignited and I’m feeling passionate about pictures again. It was a very photogenic (and more than a little bit silly) week!

I love this picture, partly because I love the components so much. The blinds on the windows were one of the things that drew us to this house last summer, and I love the way the morning sun comes through them. The harvest pine table made from reclaimed wood was something I coveted for half a year before we saved up enough for it, and it makes the perfect centrepiece for a family dinner. And speaking of centrepieces, the vase is an Ikea special with a couple of fake flowers, but it makes me happy every time I look at it. It’s all about the little things, isn’t it?

And daisies, yes, I have always had a thing for daisies.

Also from the garden, these peonies still wet from one of those brief and blissful overnight showers we had this week. I like this one enough I’m thinking about hanging it up somewhere but, erm, we’re kinda running out of wall space!

And this? Well, there’s no real story behind this one, except that it makes me happy to have my toes painted to look like I’m keeping a box of smarties in my shoes.

(I am close to overusing the vintage frame effect, I know, I know, but I really like it!! Step away from the cheesy effects, DaniGirl….)

I supervised my first class trip this week. 🙂 The grade threes went to Upper Canada Village. These are two of the three kids in Tristan’s gang this year, sweet kids who made him feel welcome and at home in a new school. And sadly, one of them and the one not shown are moving to a different school for September… poor Tristan, the child who hates change.

You already saw this picture of my precious porch earlier in the week, but for the sake of the project here it is again. I’m excited about the porch for another reason, too, which I’ll tell you about in a couple of days. 😉

And, closing out with the leitmotif of both porches and overuse of the vintage frame, plus a good dose of my love of the random and absurd and inexplicable, is this found treasure. Here’s how I captioned it on Flickr:

Porch and front door used to be best friends. Then one day in 1975, that all changed. No one knows what happened between them, but they’ve been avoiding each other ever since.

The alternate caption was: “George! The damn porch is wandering again!”

Seriously, WTF? How does this happen? I totally love the absurdity and would buy this house just for the conversation-piece aspect of it. How exactly do you miss the porch when you install the front door, or vice versa?

I wish you a week full of beauty and random silliness!