Five favourite summer traditions

Ahhhh, summer vacation at last! We spent the first week of our family summer vacation driving madly across the province and back. We visited with siblings and cousins on both sides of the family and made a few new friends as well. There may or may not be a blog post about all that (oy, how am I still THIS BUSY on vacation???) but you can see several thousand words’ worth of pictures on Flickr.

But now we’re home, and we have two more glorious weeks of vacation. While I’m trying not to be too neurotic about the planning and scheduling of activities, I do have a mental checklist of things I would like to do with the family before I have to go back to work after the long weekend. It’s kind of a bucket list for summer family fun!

1. Britannia Beach

It kind of pales by comparison to our visit to Lake Huron, but I still love to visit the beach at Britannia at least once every summer. The kids love to play in the water, and I love to sit on the sand on a blanket at watch them. We must also bring lemonade and plain potato chips, because that’s what we eat on the beach. There will also be sand toys. And probably pictures.

2. Used books and ice cream

I love that we can walk to “downtown” Manotick from our place. There’s no better way to pass an idle summer morning than wandering down to the used book sale in the carriage house of Watson’s Mill and then making our way over to the Hodge Podge Shoppe for ice cream.

189:365 Ice cream at the Hodge Podge Shoppe

3. Upper Canada Village and McHaffie’s Flea Market

If you shoot straight down Bank Street for less than an hour, just before you hit Morrisburg you’ll find McHaffie’s Flea Market, one of the best in the region. (It’s where I got my delightful red wagon, star of many recent family photography sessions!) Once you’ve made it that far, it’s only a skip down Highway 2 to Upper Canada Village. One of our favourite traditions within a tradition is buying a hunk of cheese and a loaf of bread, both made on site at Upper Canada Village, and having lunch on the porch of the little general store. Also terrific for photos, if you’re so inclined!

4. Uno on the porch

Who says you have to spend money to have fun? An after-dinner Uno tournament on the porch is the perfect way to while away a sultry summer evening when it’s too hot in the house.

Uno Boys 2

5. An afternoon at the splash pad

We love the Barrhaven splash pad, but there’s a great one at Riverside South as well. This is another great (and free) way to spend a hot summer day. I love the fact that the boys are now old enough to play on their own, so I can get wet or just sit in the shade and supervise from a distance. An excuse to sit under a tree and do nothing on a sunny summer afternoon? Hook me up!! Got a fave splash pad in your ‘hood? I’m up for a neighbourhood splash pad tour if you care to share. 🙂

Wait, I’m at five already? What about camping in the back yard? A picnic in the park? Andrew Haydon Park? Feeding the ducks at the dam? Maybe I should have made this a list of ten favourite summer traditions. You think maybe this is why I’m feeling so busy, even on summer vacation? 😉

Thanks to my friends at Fisher-Price Canada for inspiring this blog post. I love working with Fisher-Price because they promote the value of play, including families playing together. And aren’t summers supposed to be about play?

Disclosure: I am part of the Fisher-Price Play Panel and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Crowdsourcing input for a new computer

So, my three year old laptop is circling the drain and I’m thinking about upgrading. I’m crowdsourcing random opinions.

I thought the debate was laptop versus desktop. From what I understand, most pro photographers would be horrified to find out I do all my photo editing on a laptop. Desktops are cheaper and better for photo editing, but are not really portable.

But my existing laptop isn’t even portable any more – the battery has been dead for more than a year, so can’t even unplug it long enough to move it across the room. I can still pack it up and take it on vacation, as long as I can find a power source.

Now, though, Macs are in the mix. We have access to software that I thought we could only get the PC version, but we can apparently get Mac. But my Lightroom and everything else are PC, too, and I’ve never so much as used a Mac. Of course, they’re the king daddy of photo-friendly computers, but are also very expensive.

Ugh, I am conflicted and confused. What do you think? This will be mostly my computer, but probably the family computer at one point in its lifetime. I need an excellent monitor, a big hard drive and a whack of RAM. I don’t take it on the road often, but hate the idea of traveling without Lightroom.

I am clueless. I’m only >this< far above choosing a shiny one in blue because it matches my shoes. Any recommendations or things to watch for? I don't even know what criteria to use to evaluate a potential computer. Help!

This week in pictures: Wide, wandering, wonderful

Oops! I was supposed to post this last week before we went on our summer road trip down to southern Ontario. Oh well, better late than never?

Wow, it seems like I took this two years ago instead of two weeks ago! I met with a fun family in the Arboretum for family pictures on a quiet Sunday morning. I’ll share more of the pictures from that session soon, but I loved the serenity of this one as they had a wee picnic with snacks for the kids, right at the end of our session.

Picnic in the park

This is Tristan in his natural habitat – exploring and climbing and being cute.

Tristan in a tree

FromWhereIStand – on a sidewalk mural downtown. Ooooo, shiny and colourful!

#fromwhereIstand - abstract

I drive by this spot every day on my way to work. The way the morning light hits the field always catches my eye. One day early this summer, maybe even mid-spring, I was zooming past and the little canyon was filled with cows. It was such an unexpected sight, cows all over those little hillocks, and the light was divine. And I was incredibly late and for once in my life didn’t have my camera with me. Every day since, I’ve driven past and looked wistfully at the spot, but every day no cows. And then one morning last week, cows! Not a whole herd of cows, like last time, but these two at least. I had to stop, after all that regretting that I’d missed it the first time around.

cow canyon

Lucas on the run:

Freedom

These aren’t my coneflowers, they’re my neighbour’s. The ones I planted the day after I took this are already brown and crispy. I’ll blame the drought and not my embarrassing lack of gardening juju.

Coneflowers

I have been coveting a wide angle lens for a while, and knowing we’d be going down to southern Ontario farm and lake country for our vacation, I figured it would be an excellent time to rent one for the week to take it for a test drive. I got a 10-24mm DX lens from Vistek for a week. OMG how much do I love it??? The nature of a wide angle lens makes it distort anything that it is very close to, and pushes everything else even further away. It’s great for sweeping vistas, which I’ll show you in next week’s pictures, but how fun are these?

wide fun 4

(snicker)

wide fun 2

(snort)

wide fun 3

(guffaw!!)

I love this lens a little too much!

Sorry for the radio silence this week, but I have SO MUCH to tell you about coming up in the next little while. Be prepared to be spammed, as soon as I unpack and clean out the car and get my passport. Passport? Stay tuned! 😉

Porch portraits with the C family

I loved working with this family of five a few weeks back. The kids were shy at first, but it only took a few minutes for them to warm up and start showing off their gorgeous, sparkling smiles. Really, does it get any cuter than this?

Kids on a wagon

This is a family that laughs a lot. It’s hard not to smile right along with them!

CC family

And speaking of sparkles, look at these beauties up close.

CC 1

CC 2

CC 3

When you’re working with three kids under five, not every shot is going to be perfect – but I kind of love this one anyway!

CC 5

After a while, we just gave up and embraced the silly. And it was good!

CC 4

Working with this family was so much fun it was actually play. Who knew family photography could be so much fun? (Um, I did!)

Stay tuned, I’ve got at least two more sessions to blog, and another three scheduled in the next couple of weeks. I’m just about booked up for summer, and the fall is going to fly by if the speed of summer is any indication. If you’re interested in family portraits on my porch studio or photography anywhere in Ottawa, please do get in touch — soon!

And until then, remember to follow your whimsey and embrace the silly! 🙂

Summer family fun doesn’t have to break the bank!

First, I’d like to say hello and welcome if you’re stopping by after this morning’s segment on CBC Ottawa Morning. Hi! It was a great honour to finally meet Robin, Dave and my co-speaker Chris, aka Canadian Dad.

If you missed it, we were talking about the cost of summer with kids. Vacation season is great, but it sure can be pricy. I brought up this topic on Facebook yesterday, and one parent mentioned she and her husband are actually taking consecutive vacations to help minimize the cost of daycare and camps while the kids are out of school. That doesn’t even broach the idea of a $250 day at your favourite water park, or even a $75 afternoon at the movies.

Andrew Haydon Park splash play, Ottawa

I think the city of Ottawa offers some great low-cost and free alternatives for families. I just enrolled the boys in a city-run camp in our community for $160 per kid for a week, which is not outrageous compared to some of the specialty camps I’ve seen. (I’m really glad that Beloved can be home with the kids for most of the summer!)

At our local library, there are some really neat free workshops on Wednesday afternoons, if you want to get in out of the sun for a while. Head back outdoors to one of the dozens of free splash pads and wading pools operated by the city. Many of them even offer free swim lessons, crafts and other free programing. A few years back, I made up a big list of 40 free family activities, most of which are still available. (Note to self, time to revisit and update that post!)

Speaking of old posts, I did an entire series last summer on fun family activities in Ottawa, and family fun in general. I hope to add a few more in the next few weeks when my vacation officially starts.

Fun with sidewalk chalk paint (2 of 6)

You don’t have to break the bank to have a fun summer right here at home. What are your family’s favourite summer excursions?

This week in pictures: The most ecclectic collection yet

Phew, what a week! I don’t think I can easily summarize this collection in a few broad strokes – from a nearly-disastrous photo shoot that turned into one of my favourites to terrible iPhone shots of terribly funny moments, it was a crazy week indeed!

On Saturday, I had a portrait session at the Mer Bleue bog with two families of cousins who wanted to give grandma a portrait of the grandkids as a gift. (I love portraits as gifts!) We had two strong-willed three-year-olds to wrangle, and there was one point about 30 minutes in to the session that I honestly thought of saying, “Sorry, here’s your cheque back — I don’t think I’m going to be able to do this one.” The wonderful parents persevered, though, and we eventually ended up with not just a few but a whole bunch of great shots. This was my favourite of the day. We were trying to get this guy’s older brother just about anywhere into the frame, and while he waited contentedly on the forest floor, I caught this look of wonder as he gazed up at the towering pine beside him.

Babe in the woods

This is the one that will be turned into a gallery wrap canvas for grandma’s wall. I love it!

Pulling the wagon

This is my favourite from my pre-Canada Day walkabout of downtown Ottawa. I *think* those holes are supposed to be in the flag to let the air through.

Postcards from Ottawa-5

It only took about nine hours (whimper) in the blazing sun to put this together on Monday. It replaces the swings and beam that broke off the play structure earlier this year. (I don’t think I realized how enormous our play structure is until I put this one up beside it!) The boys are delighted to have their swings back, and now between the barnboard shelves and this, I am ready to tackle just about any DIY job around the house! (No, the original play structure is not purple, but I was too tired after building the damn thing to tinker with the white balance on the photos!)

new swings

Sometimes, you’re glad to have the camera with you on an ordinary walk down the sidewalk in pursuit of a preschooler just doing his own thing. I found the perfect quote to go with this one: “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” ~ Nietzsche

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. ~ Nietzsche

I was on my way out, to the drug store I think, when I pulled out of the driveway and saw the setting sun shining on my neighbour’s lilies in the sprinkler and I had to stop. I still don’t know which of these three I like best. This one has a very large aperture, and the fast shutter speed froze the drops in motion:

sprinkler studies 1 of 3

This one has a deeper depth of field (smaller aperture) so the shutter had to stay open longer. The drops become streaks in the longer exposure.

sprinkler studies 3 of 3

This one sort of splits the difference aperture-wise, but gets in closer to the lilies. And then the sprinkler got in closer to me and I got wet! I’m hoping the neighbours didn’t notice me crouching on the driveway and dodging sprinkler streams!

sprinkler studies 2 of 3

Which one do you like best?

Heh, this is my friend Justin. He was chosen to assist at the amazing Joe McNally lighting seminar I attended on Thursday – a kind of a big deal! I took a look at the breathtaking array of Nikon gear he was shepherding (not one, not two but THREE D4s, and about a mortgage worth of lenses) and asked Justin if they’d notice if he gave me one or two. This was his reply. (My iPhone maxed out its low-light capabilities in this one, thus the terrible grainy quality.)

Is that a lens in your pocket or...

This is where I will be today! The boys “helped” me scout out a good location for a family portrait session at Ottawa’s arboretum on Friday, and we found many climb-worthy trees.

Three nuts in a tree

In the funny way the universe works, the last time Justin (above) got mention on the blog was also the last time I was at the arboretum, for our fun photo shoot as part of Kym’s 100 strangers project.

Now I’m off to the arboretum for some family photo fun – what’s up with you this sunny Sunday morning?

Porch portraits with Karen’s family

Going in to the portrait session with Karen and her family, I had mixed emotions. First, I was excited, because Karen and I had been having fun with our correspondence, and I was excited to meet her. She’s a hilariously loquacious blogger, and told me she only coerced her husband into the photo shoot by telling him I was a good ole Manotick girl, because he grew up here.

But on the other hand, I was scared. I think I’m pretty good wrangling little kids for portraits, largely from my daily experience wrangling three rambunctious boys. But Karen? Has (whispers) teenagers. I was pretty sure going in that my deep repertoire of knock-knock jokes and “who has the smelliest farts in YOUR family” tactics were going to tank with teenagers. And then our scheduled session got rained out. It poured! So I had an extra week to stew in my anxiousness.

I needn’t have worried. These? Are some of the sweetest, most photogenic teenagers one could ever hope to meet.

Look!

K family 4

The kids were great, and Karen and Scott were hilarious. It was one of those sessions that just fly by. Every idea I proposed, they ran with it – they got down in the grass, they played with the frame, they even sat on my wagon.

framed!

They were rockstars!

K family 2

And they were ridiculously photogenic. When Karen showed up in orange Chucks, I knew I had a friend for life.

K family 3

I should just give you the password to their proof gallery, because there’s not a shot I took that day that I didn’t love. This was a terrificly fun day, and I am no longer scared of teenagers. Well, at least, not other people’s teenagers. 😉

Shopping for kids or shopping with kids?

I was chatting with a friend over coffee the other day. She was regaling me with tales of taking her son and daughter shopping, and how she’d spent hours in various change rooms watching her clothes-loving divas try on dozens of combinations.

Hmmm, I found myself thinking. Have I ever been in a change room with my kids? In fact, have I ever let them choose their own clothes in a store? I honestly can’t remember a single time. Last month I showed Tristan a handful of open browser windows and let him choose between three styles of deeply discounted shorts I had picked from the website of one of my favourite stores, does that count?

Lucky for me, the kids are not terribly fashion-conscious. Yet, I should probably add. I get most of their clothes either on sale at a few favourite stores, frequented on lunch breaks from work, or from the ultra-convenient clothing section in the middle of the grocery store. (Those people are smart, I tell you, putting decent quality, affordable clothes right there in my face like that. Convenience trumps all!) And we have a magic clothing Granny-fairy who occasionally deposits bags of new clothes for the boys on the porch while we’re at work. Aside from having to make a few returns for sizing issues, I’ve never had a boy reject a piece of clothing I’ve bought for him.

But after listening to the tales of my colleague, I’m curious. Do you shop for clothes for your kids or with your kids?

(This post was also inspired by my friends at Fisher-Price and Mom Central Canada. Disclosure: I am part of the Fisher-Price Play Panel and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.)

Happy Canada Day!

Here’s a little set of postcards to for you from the nation’s capital, because Ottawa is never so beautiful as when she’s decked out for Canada Day on a perfect summer day!

Postcards from Ottawa-5

Postcards from Ottawa-4

Postcards from Ottawa-2

Postcards from Ottawa

Postcards from Ottawa-3

(That’s all the beauty of Canada Day in Ottawa without the crowds, captured on a sunny Friday afternoon as Ottawa braced for the onslaught of tourists and patriots.)

Happy Canada Day!