From there to here, from here to there, Funny things are everywhere
Oops! I accidentally saved this as draft and then wondered why it didn’t post!
Here’s my wee babies, all grown up on the first day of Grade 2, Grade 6 and Grade 8.
Handsome devils, eh? They get that from their father. 🙂
So far, the year is off to a good start. Crazy to think that next year, I’ll have one in elementary school, one in middle school and one in (gasp!) high school!
Sigh. I like autumn with it’s new faces and new schedules and new friends, but I’m always sad when summer ends.
Happy end of summer, y’all!
The boardwalk at the Chapman Mills conservation area near Barrhaven has always been one of our favourite places for a wander on a summer day. I have dozens of photos of the boys on the boardwalk going back to when we had Katie and before Lucas was even in the picture, so to speak. When I’m going places that we’ve been many times before, I find taking along a different lens lets me see things in a new light, and yesterday felt like a fish-eye kind of day.
Awesome tree, right? This one and the one below were amazing.
(Sigh, not a toddler any more.)
That last one is the inverted reflection in the water. I wasn’t actually thinking about cropping it and flipping it like that when I took it, but I liked it after I played with it.
Anybody want to go for portraits down at Chapman Mills? My models were patient enough, but I had way more more ideas than they had patience. Sometimes I wonder what their future selves will think of these childhood family adventures where my camera is like the fourth needy child. To their credit, though, they are generally patient with the obsessive picture-taking. So far. 😉
It always tickles me when the various streams in my life converge and diverge.
A while ago, someone on Facebook made a passing mention of avocado toast. Specifically, avocado mashed with fresh lime juice and sea salt on toast. I’m pretty sure I drooled, and I can tell you for sure that I tried it right away and it rocketed up to one of my favourite breakfast/snack treats. Three of my absolute favourite flavours on crispy, crumbly toast? I may be drooling as I type this.
Then I was tickled a few days ago when I came across this article on The Kitchn: 11 Easy Ways to Fancy Up Your Avocado Toast, where the author waxes nostalgic “for the good old days when avocado toast was something novel, a little breakfast secret to share with friends. Avocado toast these days, well, it’s gone mainstream.” So avocado toast is not only delicious, but trendy? Who knew? (For what it’s worth, I am not overly enamoured by any of the 11 suggestions and will happily stick with the sublimely simple avocado, lime and sea salt.)
Any doubt that avocado toast was a genuine phenomenon was erased when Getty Images put out a request to photographers this week for images of — avocado toast. “Move over cereal! The latest coveted breakfast is avocado on toast!”
Who knew? Well, aside from me. And, erm, everybody.
But heck yes, I will take photos of my avocado toast before I stuff it into my hungry gob.
And, the other revelation of the day? Food photography is HARD, y’all.
Funny aside: the other photo themes Getty was soliciting this week were lighthouses and photos of your feet in various places. It’s like they were reading my mind, or at least my blog. I think I uploaded more photos to Getty this week than I have so far in 2015!
So anyway, back to avocado toast: have you tried it? Do you love it? Do you have a fancy variation that needs to be shared? If you’ll excuse me, I still have four avocados and limes calling my name…
Any weekend with Saturday AND Sunday portraits and wall to wall sunshine is an excellent weekend indeed. Are you ready for another dose of unbelievable cuteness?
How about these guys?
I know, right? We’ve reached maximum levels of adorableness on the porch. How could it possibly get any cuter than that? And you know what? Mom and Dad and Nana came along for the ride, and weren’t they just the nicest people? These guys made me work for the portraits and I was a hot mess by the time we were done, but it was so worth it.
I hope your weekend was as full of sunshine and smiles and belly laughs as mine was!
Maybe it’s because I’m a big sister myself, but there is something about this photo that I love – big sister and baby brother in the flower garden. I knew from the moment the shutter clicked that it would be a keeper.
We had lots of more formal poses with mom and dad and the kids, but it’s these little in-between moments that often end up being my favourites. Sunshine, flowers, cute kids, and friendly people? I can’t think of a better recipe for a lovely Saturday morning.
How much do you love this little guy’s toothy smile?
Isnt’ he cute? Lookit that twinkle in his eye. He came with his folks for family portraits on the porch last week, and since he’ll be starting his very first day at school in September, I thought it would be an excellent time to pull out the vintage school desk I picked up for a song last year. I love that moment when I feel like I’ve connected with a shy subject and their personality shines out.
I’m happy to incorporate back to school poses as part of my porch portrait sessions this autumn. I’ve got stacks of vintage books and a few fresh apples to complete the look! Spots always book up quickly in the autumn (whimper – summer, I hardly knew ya!) so please do get in touch soon if you’d like to book your family’s portraits.
I have been trying to get out and walk on my lunch hour as much as possible, or, on the recent days when it has been stupidly hot, early in the morning. I keep meaning to bring my camera, but my iPhone and Instagram seem to be filling the niche. And then when I get home, I completely forget to share them on the blog, so I’m catching up.
This is my favourite. I am in love with Parks Canada right now, between the PEI National Parks discovery programs and an awesome local program I just learned about and will tell you about soon. I never get tired of watching the Parks employees hand-cranking the locks, and especially loved the shapes and clean lines of this overhead action shot.
It was the movement in the water and how it played with the reflections of the “Puzzle Palace” on the Rideau Canal that caught my attention in this shot. I may have gone a wee bit overboard with the filters. It was so hot my filter filter got fried.
Is this not the definition of summer? Again, heavily processed, but I like that sometimes.
I wish I had had my big girl camera with me for this. I was walking by the War Memorial on Elgin Street and happened to notice that one of the Ceremonial Guards was wearing a turban, and his army-green turban had the same insignia of the hat of the guard standing behind him. I loved what it said about being Canadian, and multicultural. I debated between moving closer so you could see him more clearly and framing the shot so you could see the entire Cenotaph, and eventually noticed the angle that included the black-eyed susans in the foreground. I was crouched down taking this shot with my iPhone when a guy with a much bigger camera and a pro lens squatted down beside me and said, as he looked through the viewfinder, “Nice choice on this composition!” I would love to see what he ended up with, but I’m pretty happy with this version.
Here’s a bit of a zoomed-in version:
It makes me so happy being able to get out and exercise my body AND my brain. I never forget to be grateful that we live in such a photogenic city.
It went something like this:
**ring ring**
Hello?
DaniGirl! It’s the Universe calling. Long time, no chat!
Universe! Hey old friend, what are you doing in a photo of the day blog post?
There was a disturbance in the force and I had to check it out. You were radiating happy when you were out playing with your camera in the morning’s first light in a sunflower field. What’s up with that?
Oh wow, those sunflowers! So many, so gorgeous, and what a perfect morning for it. Who knew there could be so many varieties? Some were easily 10 ft tall, some were purple, some were tiny. It was photographer heaven! I’m not surprised I was radiating happy.
Were you surprised to find such a treat so close to home?
I really was! I’d been chatting with the owner of the farm online since February, and I knew she was more or less local – but I didn’t realize until I went out there that she’s literally 10 minutes away from my house in Manotick!
How did you find out about the sunflowers?
The owner, Kristie, sells cut sunflowers for $5 a bunch, and also sells sunflower stalk kindling and makes art out of the stalks. She makes trellises, frames for chalkboards and mirrors, all sorts of interesting designs. We started chatting on line, and I asked her if it would be okay if I came out to poke around with my camera when the sunflowers were in bloom.
She sounds lovely.
She truly is! And the sunflowers are incredibly lovely, too. She planted more than 7,000 seeds, and nature helped jumble a lot of them together, so the field is like a crazy quilt with sunflowers every which way. They are every colour you could imagine – yellows, oranges, purples and pinks! Who knew sunflowers came in pink and purple and black? Each one seems to have its own personality.
I’m sensing a bit of covetousness here.
It’s true! Living in an old farmhouse surrounded by sunflowers? Move the whole shebang to PEI, plunk it down by the ocean and it’s DaniGirl’s House of Dreams!
I’m also sensing a bit of conflict.
Sigh, yes. I have a bit of a dilemma. I’ve found this incredibly photogenic field of sunflowers practically around the corner from me, and part of me wants to go there every day and just take pictures – morning light, hazy light, twilight, macro, wide angle, details, bees, tight crop, shooting up, shooting down — I had a hard time leaving in the first place!
Did Kristie mind the idea of you taking photos?
Not at all! She was so nice, and she was even open to the idea of me hosting sunflower photo sessions in her field. How fun would that be? People love sunflowers!
Very fun and very popular, I’ll bet. So what’s the problem exactly?
So here’s my dilemma. As I said, people love sunflowers. I see postings in local photography groups all the time with people asking for sunflower fields. If I tell people about this treasure, it’s not my secret sunflower place any more. But Kristie is trying to sustain a business of sunflower farming, and I can help promote her. Aside from the photographers, I know lots of people who would love the idea of just dropping by her place 15 minutes outside of Barrhaven to pick up a bunch of fresh-picked, locally grown and truly beautiful sunflowers for only $5.
Ah, I see. Photographers are a little proprietary about good locations, are they?
Well, yes, that’s true. But I also would want people to be respectful of Kristie and her field. Maybe everyone who goes out there to take photos also makes sure to make a donation, or buy a bunch of flowers on the way out? That way she can have a sustainable business, and we’ll have a beautiful local sunflower field for years to come! She was telling me a little bit about the work involved, and it’s neither cheap nor easy to grow that many sunflowers!
So how do people find this hidden sunflower treasure?
You can find Kristie’s Keys Sunfields page on Facebook, and you can pick up fresh sunflowers at the end of the lane from 9 am to 8 pm at 5939 First Line Rd. If you’d like to pay a visit, please message her first.
And when will you be hosting your sunflower field portrait sessions?
I’m working on the details for that, but it will be a weekend in the near future. Spots will be very limited, though – if you’re super keen, message me for details and I’ll put you on the waiting list. Watch this space for an announcement soon!
I’ll make an appointment with my stylist and get back to you. You’ll need a wide, and I mean w-i-d-e angle lens for me, though. Lovely sunflower photos, by the way!
Thanks Universe! I’m glad you checked in. We’ll chat again soon!
Although we’d had a loose idea of what we planned to do pretty much every day of our epic PEI trip, we awoke the morning of the final day with no clear plan. We chatted as a family to make sure we’d done just about everything we’d wanted to do, and discussed how we wanted to invest our last precious hours. The forecast was rather grim, with grey skies and thunderstorms pending in the afternoon. The boys wanted to visit a Cows store for ice cream and souvenir t-shirts, and I wanted MOAR BEACH. The choice was clear: Cavendish!
The boys got their t-shirts and stuffies and browsed the kitschy shops on the boardwalk, and I looked speculatively at the heavy grey clouds, which seemed to want to disappate. We debated various beach options: Cavendish is right there, and we had not yet visited it on this year’s trip. Basin Head, our hands-down favourite, was a good hour and a half away. Brackley? Greenwich? Nope. As occasional peeks of sun broke through the clouds, I checked the tide tables. If we leave RIGHT NOW, we should arrive at Thunder Cove well before the tide climbs high enough to cut us off from the arch and teacup yet again.
As we drove, the peeks of sunlight grew in intensity, the clouds thinned, and by the time we pulled off on Thunder Cove Road, the forecasted thunderstorms had given way to unexpectedly sunny skies. Beloved and Simon found a comfy spot to park our blanket and sandcastle building tools, while Tristan led Lucas and me down the beach the 800m or so toward the rock formations.
As we got closer, I began to suspect that we were to be thwarted yet again. The waves, considerably calmer than our last visit, were nevertheless lapping gently at the foot of the cliff we had scaled. Tristan had already scurried up and over the rocks when Lucas and I arrived, and I tried to convince Lucas to walk through the seaweed-choked water to go around the rocks that we couldn’t climb over last time. Lucas took one look at the seaweedy waves and abjectly refused. I couldn’t say that I particularly blamed him, but there was no way that I was going to have come all this way not once but twice and be kept from the rock formations yet again. I’d even checked the tide tables! I was unsuccessfully trying to convince him to hop on my back for a piggy-back ride, and simultaneously trying to discern whether there were any jellyfish or sharks or killer whales hiding in the seaweed-tossed waves, when Tristan called to us from a ledge above.
“Come up!” he called. “There’s a path!”
Right. A Tristan path and a mom path are not the same. Mom paths are wide, have directional markers, and are maintained by the province. Tristan paths have scree, toe-holds and vertical drops. Regardless, turning back was not an option (oh you stubborn woman!) and the waterward option was less than palatable. Up we went to inspect Tristan’s path.
We started off where we ended our adventure last time, on a ledge that wraps around the edge of the cliff but becomes narrow, scree-filled and entirely inappropriate for seven year olds and those on the eve of their 46th birthday.
I scowled and began to protest, but Tristan said, “No, look, we can go up and over.”
Oh good, higher is the direction I wanted to go. Not. But up we went, and to his credit there was a path, an actual path for humans and not just billy-goat kids, through the marran grass.
What goes up must come down. Tristan skipped down, Lucas scootched down, and I eased down, one tentative, baretoed step at a time. Tristan coached me on each step.
And then – success!
We made it to, and through, the arch, and on to the teacup.
My trophy photo. In two weeks of grey skies, I love that we a beautiful blue backdrop for this one!
And then, back up and over we went, some of us more quickly than (ahem) others.
For Tristan, the final descent back to the beach was as easy as one big leap.
Then he climbed halfway back up to hold my camera for me while I scootched and slid and picked my way down one careful step at a time. Lucas was half way down the beach by the time I got down.
And look at that sky, that cloudless perfect blue sky. One could weep for all those grey cool days, but instead, we celebrated the sun by playing in the waves.
And so the tide begins to turn on my relationship with Tristan. I never would have made it up and over those sandstone cliffs if he hadn’t been there. It was partly sheer stubbornness (if he can do it, I can do it!) and partly his genuine conviction that of course we could get over the other side that motivated me. I see a sea change here, and I’m not sure if I’m ready for it. But at the same time, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Is there anything better than an adventure and exploring on a sunny summer day? Of course there is – when you share it with a friend!