Month: August 2010

In which she joins the iPhone generation (plus! A giveaway!)

For my birthday this year, Beloved and the boys got me an iPhone. Yay! Like so many people I quizzed in my six-month long quest for info on iPhones, I found that although I wasn’t quite sure why I needed it when I set out, as soon as I had it I found it indispensable. I use it as a camera, for on-the-go connection to the Interwebs, to find the nearest Tim Hortons, as a GPS when we are traveling and, hmmm, what else? Oh yes, a phone!

When I first signed up to be a part of Mom Central’s My Living Stories blog tour, I only had the iTouch and wasn’t sure if we’d be getting an iPhone or not. And to be totally honest, once I had the iPhone I wasn’t sure if I wanted the boys rubbing their grubby little fingers all over it! But I was interested in the idea of apps for kids, so I signed up, thinking if nothing else I’d try them out on the iTouch.

And I liked the idea behind My Living Stories. They’re classic stories turned into an animated storybook application for preschoolers. In their own words,

The My Living Stories apps combine beautiful artwork, narration and interactive features in an easy to use platform that is perfect for preschoolers to read along all on their own, without any help. My Living Stories are a great solution for entertaining on-the-go or as an aid for teaching children to read at home. The apps allow for your child to read along with English or French narration or read the stories themselves. Interactive sounds and animation bring stories to life. Another great feature is the ability to record your own voice to go along with the story (this feature requires an iPhone or iPod Touch with microphone capabilities).

I’d downloaded the Princess & the Pea, King Midas, and The Tortoise & the Hare, but hadn’t yet had a chance to show them to to the boys. Then we went out for dinner to Lone Star with my folks (on my birthday, in fact!) and Lucas informed me about 90 seconds after we’d placed our order with no room for negotiation, “Me all done!” And I’d completely forgotten my restaurant distraction bag of tricks (playdough, crayons, books, dinky cars) at home. And then I remembered the iPhone.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Decode Entertainment (the makers of My Living Stories apps). Not only was Lucas captivated, but the big boys crowded around and all three of them were engaged through all three of the storybook apps. And we managed to eat, pay the bill and escape with neither the toddler nor the birthday girl melting down. Success!

To be completely honest, I still have to poke around with the apps to figure out a few things — mostly because the iPhone itself it still so new to me. I had to read the story myself, but you are supposed to be able to hear the story being read. And, even more cool, you can record your own voice reading the story.

And now, the giveaway! Mom Central is sponsoring the My Living Stories blog tour, and is providing a $25 iTunes gift card to share with one of you. Yay for freebies!!

If you’d like to be entered in the contest, please leave a comment below and tell me which of the My Living Stories apps you would choose or suggest your favourite kid-friendly app. (Note: you seem to need to open the link to the apps through iTunes. I searched and searched, but this was the only way I could figure out how to link to it!)

Here’s the details:

1. This giveaway is for one $25 iTunes gift card.

2. You must be a Canadian resident to win.

3. I’m not the only blogger running this promotion, and you may enter the contest on multiple blogs; however, you are only eligible to win one iTunes gift card as part of the My Living Stories contest.

4. To enter, leave a comment below telling me which of the five My Living Stories apps most appeals to you. Or, suggest a kid-friendly app that you recommend.

5. A winner will be chosen using Random.org based on all eligible entries.

6. Contest closes at noon on Friday 6 August 2010. The winner will be contacted via e-mail within 24 hours.

7. You must be willing to share your contact information with Mom Central Canada to collect your prize.

Disclosure: I am participating in the My Living Stories program by Mom Central on behalf of Decode Entertainment. I received three free apps and a gift card for my participation. As you know, the opinions expressed on this blog are entirely my own.

Jeff and Meghan’s Wedding

On 21 July, a perfectly blue and clear Saturday afternoon, Meghan and Jeff got married in a charming ceremony at the Rockcliffe Park gazebo. I couldn’t have asked for a more joyful, sweet and (phew!) photogenic couple for my first wedding shoot!

After a sweltering week, we were blessed with a breezy and relatively cool day for the wedding, but that didn’t stop me from sweating through the day. Weddings? Are a LOT of work. And also? A LOT of fun to photograph. Especially when you have an adorable couple who never stop smiling, laughing and looking at each other with obvious love throughout the day.

See?

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I’m slowly learning to love taking pictures of people as much as I love taking pictures of stuff, but I have to admit that I could have played with endless permutations and combinations of the rings and the bouquet and the shoes and the delicious little details of her dress like this for hours — if we didn’t have that whole pesky wedding thing to get to!

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The bride and her bridesmaids had an 18th floor suite at the Delta to get ready, but I was so busy taking pictures that it wasn’t until the very last minute that I noticed this spectacular view. (And isn’t it the perfect backdrop for such a gorgeous bride?)

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This is one of my favourite shots of the day. A girl and her daddy, both in the moment and loving it.

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These two monkeys, on the other hand, were behaving just long enough for me to capture this classic shot — before they found more mischief to get into. Adorable, no?

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Everything about the afternoon was delightful, and Meghan and Jeff never stopped smiling for a moment, right up until the car drove away with them still grinning.

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Here’s a few more of my favourite shots of the day, or you can see the full set on Flickr.

Meghan and Jeff's Wedding mosaic

Well, not quite the full set. I gave the bride and groom a set of 200 images, of which I posted 30 to Flickr. In total, I almost completely filled an 8 GB memory card with 1224 images of the day! Eep!! I think I just about wore out the shutter on my poor old Nikon. 🙂

Thanks, Meghan and Jeff, for allowing me to be part of your amazing day. I hope each day of your lives together is filled with the sweet bliss that was the essence of your wedding day.

“Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death” ~Hunter Thompson

Here’s something you likely noticed about me: I’m always up for a new adventure. There are some thrills, though, that I have purposefully avoided in my life, and riding a motorcycle has always been one of them.

In fact, up until last week, I’d never been on a real motorcycle before. I grew up in a family biased against motorbikes — my grandfather witnessed a horrific accident in which a motorcycle rider was killed, perhaps even decapitated if my memory of the story is correct, and his fear of bikes was passed on to my father and to me.

My brother Sean, on the other hand, happened to marry into a family of people who have their M-class licenses and love motorcycles. When he mentioned a year or so back that he had his own bike, I admit I was surprised, and worried. Bikes to me are dangerous and reckless machines, even in the hands of reasonably responsible people.

But I was also just the tiniest bit intrigued. I’ve long admired their fluid lines and shiny chrome bits, and admit to being curious in a very hesitant sort of way. Which is how this ended up happening when we visited my brother’s family last week:

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Yeah baby, that’s me on a motorcycle, entrusting my life to the same kid I spent most of my childhood looking for new and unique ways to make miserable. Right about the time this was taken, I was thinking I should have been a whole lot nicer to my brother when we were kids!

He took me for the most amazing, exhilarating ride through the concession roads and secondary highways near his home in Georgetown, and I was astonished at how much I enjoyed it. Um, once I started breathing and stopped clenching my jaws and butt cheeks in terror, that is.

So now that I’ve logged a good 20 minutes of saddle time and am a professional motorcycle passenger, here’s five things I learned about motorcycles:

1. It doesn’t take long for you to get used to the alarming way the ground rushes up at you when you bank to make a turn, but the first few times you turn a corner you’re sure you’re road rash.

2. To truly enjoy the experience, you must first stop envisioning the potential 24 point newspaper headlines describing the horrific crash and grieving family you left behind.

3. You don’t have to hold on tightly enough to leave finger prints. Through two layers of leather. (Sorry, Sean, hope the bruises heal soon!)

4. Riding in the snow is obviously out, and riding in the rain is only for the truly dedicated. Riding in long pants, an armoured jacket and 3/4 length leather gloves is also no treat when the humidity nears 40 degrees.

5. Oh my sweet lord, it’s a LOT of fun. I liked it waaaaaay too much. As soon as I unclenched my sphincter, anyway. Once I relaxed and started enjoying the ride, I could immediately imagine a perfect afternoon spent on the bike with a camera stowed safely inside my jacket, doing carefree loops around the Niagara escarpment and stopping here and there to take pictures as the spirit and the prevailing wind inspired me.

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Aside from the amazing feeling of connection with the environment that I felt on the bike, like we were a part of the landscape instead of merely passing through it, what amazed me was the instant admission into the club of cool as soon as I donned the motorcycle jacket and helmet. I couldn’t believe how many people raised a hand in casual salute as we drove past, including one elderly gentleman standing beside his car who waved at us with happy enthusiasm as if we were Peter and Jane Fonda.

(Less cool was standing in a parking lot with two bike dudes looking on in amusement as my brother untethered my helmet for me just seconds before I hyperventilated. Apparently I need to practice my cool just a wee bit more.)

And the quote I used in the title of this post? Totally appropriate and totally true. I hadn’t wanted to go any faster than 50 or 60 kms an hour, but when I looked over Sean’s shoulder one giddy moment and saw the speedometer creep over 100 km/h on those back country roads, I felt a crazy kind of blissful freedom I never would have expected. I still don’t think I’d ever want to actually drive one. Too heavy, too complicated, too much risk. But to ride along as a contented passenger behind someone as capable and trustworthy as my brother? In a New York minute.

I don’t know what’s more astonishing, that I’ve come to love riding a motorcycle or that I’ve come to appreciate my brother as capable and trustworthy. Who would have guessed it?