Postcards from the Mothership – Page 36 – From there to here, from here to there, Funny things are everywhere

Photo of the day: Family fun on the Rideau Canal

When the last of your Christmas family visitors happen to arrive on the first day that the Rideau Canal is open for the season, and they’ve never visited the world’s longest (or is it largest?) outdoor skating rink, and the temperature rises above minus 10C for the first day in a week, an extended family excursion for Beavertails seems almost inevitable!

(Can you believe that my wee baby Tristan is the second-tallest person in this photo? It’s been a fun holiday game seeing which adult family member he has outgrown over the holidays!)

Photo of the day: Owl in motion

You might argue that this is not a photo at all. It’s bits of two photos, actually, plus a filter, and a colour tweak, and some contrast.

The snowy owl is from a photo I took about this time last year. Have you ever driven the roads south of town, around Eagleson or Barnsdale or Leitrim, and seen the clusters of photographers with their ginormous lenses, shooting towards farmers’ fields? They’re likely on the hunt for a capture of the snowy owl, which is such a highly sought after prize in the local photographic community that people guard the locations of their photos with a ferocity matched only by the pride they exhibit in sharing their captures. I got lucky – we were on our way home from a ski trip and I had my camera in my car when Tristan noticed this snowy owl perched at the top of a telephone pole on Moodie Drive near Brophy. We’ve seen them often since – if you’re driving the rural farm roads south of town, just watch the tops of light poles and farm fenceposts and you’re likely to find one.

The background photo was one I took a week or so ago. Once again, it was Tristan and me in the car – he seems to be the one most indulgent of my occasional need to pull over and take a photograph. The sun was setting on a moody, chilly day and I loved the texture in the sky as the sun poked in and out of a film of clouds. I stopped on Eagleson just south of Fallowfield to snap a photo of the sunset with the silhouette of a farmer’s field in the foreground.

As we drove further south on Eagleson toward Manotick, we laughed to see not one but three clusters of photographers with massive lenses pointing towards tall poles. We drove by too quickly to be able to resolve the owls, but I’m quite sure they were there. I had only my wide-angle lens with me, and no mittens on a raw cold day, so it was easy to resist the temptation to stop. But I was inspired – how would my previously-captured snowy owls look against this dramatic sky?

Here’s the answer!

I wasn’t completely in love in love with the composite, partly because the light on the owl was coming from the wrong direction and partly because I was a little sloppy with my selection and extraction but too lazy to go back and re-do it. I wanted something a little more dream-like and moody, so I added the painterly texture, and then played with the tones until it had this low-contrast, blue vibe.

Not so much a photograph as a digital painting, but I’m happy that I achieved the mood I set out to convey. Have you seen the snowy owls? It’s a fun afternoon out to go looking for them with the kids!

Photo of the day, #TBT version: Pining for summer in PEI

It’s minus stupidly cold with the wind chill, and my darling Nikon has gone back to the mothership for service, so I decided to post a warm summer #TBT (Throwback Thursday) photo as today’s picture of the day. Then I realized that somehow I had missed including this, probably my favourite photo of 2014 (it’s hanging as a canvas in the living room!) in my end of year roundup of favourite photos. That made this an excellent and easy choice for my #TBT photo of the day:

We’re counting down to TWO weeks in PEI this summer. Twenty-seven weeks and counting!!

Photo of the day: Typebars

When I asked Beloved to digitally sketch me a camera for my new photo website design, the original idea was a vintage typewriter for the blog and a camera for the photography site. And maybe, just maybe, a tattoo of each on my left and right wrists. We ran out of time (and, ahem, attention span) before he could sketch my typewriter, but since I had it out on the table I figured I’d point my camera lens to it instead. I never get tired of taking typewriter pictures!

I wanted a vintage vibe with a slightly grungy feel and I knew as I was taking the photo that it would be in black and white. Usually I like a lot of contrast with rich deep blacks, but in this one I went for a more “matte” effect – I pulled the black sliders to the right so the data in the histogram stops well short of the left side. Then I boosted the grain to enhance the old film feel. I can picture this one as a big canvas over an antique desk in writer’s garret. 🙂

What do you think of the new watermark? I fear it’s a wee bit too busy, but I liked the idea of incorporating the camera while keeping the copyright symbol. I’ll have to see it on a few more photos to decide one way or the other, I think.

An outright ban on toboganning – is that where we are headed?

Remember waaaaay back in 2007 when we had a great conversation about a proposed helmet law for toboggans? Here’s the next iteration of the bubble-wrap-your-kids movement: apparently some cities are banning tobogganing altogether.

According to this article in the National Post, a ban on everyone’s favourite winter pastime is going viral across US cities. “Dubuque, Iowa, is set to ban toboggans in nearly all its 50 parks. Other cities, including Des Moines, Iowa; Montville, New Jersey; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Columbia City, Indiana, are following suit by restricting certain runs or posting signs warning people away.”

This is, of course, a liability issue, so it’s no surprise that our more litigious southern neighbours are more trigger-happy to ban tobogganing than we might be (although apparently some Canadian cities like Hamilton have implemented similar bans.) I would not argue that tobogganing can be a dangerous activity – I ended up in the ER and on crutches for a week or so myself in Grade 9 after trying to surf down a hill standing up on a sled and severely spraining my ankle when I jumped off to avoid a tree, and I was probably six when the sharp edge of a toboggan split open the skin on my nose when I collided with a kid pulling his sled up the hill I was sliding down.

But I would still in no way support a blanket ban like this. I very much agree with the expert doctor cited in the article. Dr Charles Tator, a brain surgeon who works with an injury-prevention charity, acknowledges that tobogganing can be as risky as diving, snowmobiling or parachuting. However, the article says Dr. Tator does thinks rather than banning sledding, cities could take steps to make sledding safer by removing obstacles like trees from designated sledding hills. He also encourages kids to wear helmets.

Winter activities seem more fraught with peril than summer ones. While biking and skateboarding and tree climbing have their own risks, injuries seem both more likely and more severe from activities like skiing (ask me how many times I wiped out on my first runs down the green run last year), skating and tobogganing. Anything that involves hurling yourself across a slick surface is just a little bit crazy, right? But so is living in a climate where we live with ice and snow for so much of the year. On days like this, even going for a walk down an icy sidewalk in -40C windchill is fraught with peril, but we’re not going to ban that, are we? (Ahem, except in the schools, where apparently outdoor recess gets cancelled if the temperature falls to -20C with the windchill. But I digress … that is a post for another day.)

What do you think? Is banning tobogganing the answer? Is the onus on the sledder or the owner of the hill to take precautions and minimize risk? Or should we just hop on a sled and get over ourselves?

Photo of the day: Ice and sunlight

Well hallo winter, you’re a bit late this year aren’t you? Came back with a vengeance though, didn’t you? Snow, several hours of freezing rain and then a flash freeze? What a delightful Monday.

I nearly froze my aperture off taking photos in the park on my lunch hour. Ah well, at least it’s pretty.

*whimper*

Is it spring yet?

A new year, a fresh start

Some people head to the gym in January to work off those extra cookies. Some people put away the Christmas decorations and use the opportunity to clean house and purge. Not this girl. Nope, I spent hours on my arse staring at my computer this weekend – but I’m pretty darn happy with the results!

First, I overhauled my Mothership Photography site. That’s a task I’ve been meaning to take on for years, almost right from the time I launched in back in 2010 or so. My graphic design skills have improved immensely in the past few years (did I mention I even toyed with the idea of going back to school part time for graphic design?) and I love the bright clean new look.

Here’s the before and after:

Much improved, right? And how much do I love the little camera logo that Beloved sketched out based on an idea I had but couldn’t quite pull together? I love it so much that it may just be my next tattoo! 😉 I’d love it if you took a little tour around and let me know if you see any problem areas or if, yanno, you just want to heap me with lavish praise for my mad web design skillz.

And speaking of mad design skillz, the bloggy header had started looking a little stale to me a while ago, too, so while I was at it, I freshened that up too. I think it’s much cleaner and I like that the two sites have matching fonts. Here’s the new headers:

Worth the investment of six or eight hours on a snowy January weekend, right? Now I’m ready for a terrific 2015. And about that neglected house cleaning…. 😉

(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday: 50 favourite photos from 2014

Wow! 2014 was an amazingly photogenic year. I could easily post 50 favourite photos just from our trip to Prince Edward Island alone (yes, I know, I’m on about PEI again – I never really stop thinking about it!) or 50 favourite photos of fun family adventures with the boys. I probably even have 50 photos of Bella and Willie, and 2014 was my most successful year with Mothership Photography, so I’m sure I have 50 favourite portrait session photos I could post.

I’ll restrain myself, though. Some of these are dear to me because of the moment they captured, or the memory they evoke, or even the fact that I look at them and think to myself, “wow, I made that?” Every single one of them, though, makes me smile. They’re in no particular order.

Happy sigh. Thank you to everyone who was a part of this year, whether that was letting me get you in my viewfinder or letting me interrupt whatever it was we were supposed to be doing so I could take a photograph or letting me share my treasures with you. It’s been a beautiful year, and I cannot wait to see what 2015 has in store!

Happy new year!

Crowdsourcing: What books do I need to read in 2015?

It wasn’t so much that I was resisting getting an e-reader of my own up until now. Beloved got a Kindle way back in the day when they first came out, and I’d use his every now and then, but it was attached to his credit card and it was always a bit of an inconvenience to get him to buy books for me. Besides, I’ve always been loathe to pay for books when the library has stacks of them for free. Then, my mom upgraded to a Kindle Fire and I inherited her old Kindle loaded with hundreds of books, and that kept me busy for a while.

Still, while there is a lot of overlap between what my mom likes to read (Stephen King, John Sandford, Janet Evanovich, John Grisham, Kathy Reichs, just about any of the good mystery series out there) and what Beloved likes to read (everything from classics to comic books), it just seemed easier to get a Kindle of my own so I could cater to my own eclectic tastes without having to be 357th on the waiting list for interesting new books that come out.

So that’s what Santa, erm, I mean Beloved, got me for Christmas. Hello 2008, I have a Kindle of my own! Of course, now I have to fill it up, which is where you come in.

Thanks to Goodreads, here’s what I’ve been reading lately – although it’s not incredibly accurate. For one thing, it’s got all the books I’ve read out loud to the boys. For another, it’s missed a few that I’ve tagged as read. I know for a fact we read Anne of Green Gables last year as well as at least one or two others in the Hitchhikers trilogy, and I’m sure I read at least one more Neil Gaiman and Gillian Flynn – and yet they’re not showing up here even though they’re on my Goodreads shelves. Who knows with my Swiss-cheese memory what else could be missing? Weird thing is they show up individually, just not in this list. *shrug*

Covers of books I have read recently

I’ve just started reading The Rosie Project, which seems cute but I’m having a hard time not hearing Sheldon Cooper as the narrator. People have raved about it, though, so I’m curious to see where it goes. I’ve been meaning to read Terry Fallis’s The High Road for quite a while now, so that might be next in the queue.

What say ye, bloggy peeps? What do I need to read in 2015?

Photo of the day: Birthday Bella

I took so many photos over the last few days, and I’ve barely edited any of them – and clearly I’ve shared almost none of them. I decided a while ago that Christmas photos are more for documentary purposes than fine art or even sharing. I heaved a huge sigh of relief when I gave myself permission to simply enjoy Christmas without trying to turn every moment into a perfect piece of art.

Having said all that, when the presents are all open and the kids are playing with their new booty and we’ve entered that zen period of calm late Christmas morning, it’s a perfect time to try to capture a last little bit of Christmas magic. I was trying to get a nice defocused shot of the shapes of the Christmas tree lights when a curious pup stuck her head into my frame. And I remembered – hey, Christmas day is Bella’s birthday, too.

Happy 2nd birthday Bella! Let’s hope this is the year you learn just a wee bit more impulse control. (But we love you anyway!)

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