Category: Photo of the Day

Can you tell I had fun with the crab apple tree in the front yard? I’m sad that I never got to take advantage of it as a backdrop for portraits, but delighted that I got to take advantage of it as a subject for portraits!

Now I’m knowledgeable about apple blossom parts – those bits sticking up are the pistils, and the yellow bit on top is the anther. I love how the various parts of the blossom and leaf swim into and out of focus, depending on where the very thin field of focus falls, to give you hints of what exactly you’re looking at but not the whole picture.

I may have one or two other crab apple blossoms yet to share. The photos seem to have a longer lifespan than the blossoms themselves!

I took this photo on the weekend, and didn’t get a chance to upload it before my computer turned into the dreaded blue screen of death. It blue-screened on me once and restarted fine, but the next day it crashed utterly and completely and I couldn’t even re-boot it in recovery mode. It took a call to Apple support and a trip to the Genius Bar, and my MacBook was diagnosed with a failed graphics card – 64 days before the three-year Apple Care warranty was about to expire. Long story short, I was saved a $750 repair bill and had to deal only with four and a half long days without my computer. I missed it so! much! While it was at times liberating to not have my computer calling my name rather constantly, my life is just too big to comfortably share on the four inch screen of my iPhone!

And so, here is the photo I took Saturday and didn’t get a chance to share with you.

Ironically, just five days later and there is nary a petal left on the tree. The blossoms are so lovely, but so ethereal. I didn’t do much processing to this – the neon colours are more or less as nature presented them under my macro lens. The sharp edges come partly from the sharpness of the lens itself, and partly from a bit of a torque to the sharpness in post-processing.

I really love the contrasting colours though! What do you think?

Oh look, MOAR DANDELIONS!

This may be my favourite dandelion portrait ever, and I love how the grass was rendered creamy smooth in the background. Weeds? Maybe, but pretty ones.

Why yes, in fact we ARE still playing with the dandelions.

Just wait until you see the fun we have when they go to seed!

Are you still diligent with your spring weed control or have you too ceded to the dandelion invasion?

I almost overlooked this eensy-beensy mushroom growing on a stump, but when I saw it, I was completely charmed by it.

Doesn’t it look like the kind of place fairies might hang out to play?

Companion piece to yesterday’s photo of the day:

Uh oh, I don’t have a third one in the series and I cut the grass. We’ll have to go find someone else’s dandelions so I can make my triptych!

It’s portrait season and the porch is open for business. I’ve got new gear, new props and new ideas – if you’re interested in fun, candid family photography, get in touch and we’ll book your family’s custom photography session today!

So I’m kneeling at the edge of the tulip bed in a skirt with my iPhone, trying to frame this shot without exposing my netherbits to the spring sunshine and I’m aware of the dude who has come up behind me with a tripod and ginormous lens but I’m almost done and I’ll soon be out of his way.

A second guy comes up and asks him if he’s done yet and the first guy says quietly but clearly enough for me to hear, ‘Just waiting for amateur-hour to get out of the way.’ I shoot them an evaluative look over my shoulders and decide I’m feeling cheeky.

“You know,” I say, with a bit of a smile, “I made over three grand last year selling photos that I took with my iPhone.” Dude #1 looks somewhere between chastened and mortified but dude #2 is fascinated and we chat amiably for 10 minutes about selling stock while dude #1 sends death-glare eye daggers at his buddy.

Also? Because tulips!

(Sorry if we’re friends on Facebook and you’re seeing this story for the second time, but it was too fun not to share on the blog.)

I had the great pleasure of being the official parent council photographer for the school walkathon yesterday. Could you imagine a more perfect day for it? We’re new to the school, but apparently the 5 km walkathon is a 15 year tradition.

The kids had a blast – a very wet blast, in fact. It’s always a good time when one of the teachers moonlights as a volunteer firefighter!

Fun, right?

Funny aside: we were meeting with the volunteer route marshals in the morning when someone mentioned that a construction company had unexpectedly laid fresh new sidewalks that very morning on the walkathon route. One thousand teenagers and freshly poured concrete? What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

This was my first major event with a school that will probably be a part of our lives for more than a decade, and I came away with a huge smile on my face. That’s a good day!