Month: September 2011

Friday Family Fun: Apple Picking!!

Apple-picking is one of my favourite summer-into-fall family traditions. On a crisp autumn day, there is nothing better than blue skies, green grass and fresh red apples. And there is no better snack than a tartly sweet juicy apple – I’m drooling just thinking about it!

The apple-picking season is just getting underway here in Ottawa, and there is no shortage of great places to go — so no excuse not to get out and enjoy the fresh air before another endless winter is upon us. 😉

Perfect apple

I found this great list of apple orchards in and around Ottawa – there are more than a dozen of them! Here’s a few of our favourites.

1. Kilmarnock Orchard

This is my hands-down favourite place for apple-picking. Kilmarnock is about an hour south of town, along the Rideau River just around the corner from Merrickville. It’s picture-postcard lovely, and after you’ve picked your bushels full, you can poke on over to Merrickville, the “jewel of the Rideau” for lunch and boutique shopping. I wrote this post after our first visit in 2005, and here’s another one from 2009. (Stay tuned for the 2011 version soon!)

Simon-picking

2. Cannamore Orchard

While Cannamore Orchards, also a little less than an hour south of town, may not be *quite* as picturesque as Kilmarnock, it has a lot of other fun stuff to engage and entertain kids of all ages. There are wagon rides, mazes, play structures, and even a few animals to pet. I blogged our Cannamore adventure from 2007 here.

3. Apple Hill Fruit Farm

If you’d like something a little closer to home, how about the Apple Hill Fruit Farm on Jockvale, just off Prince of Wales beside Stonebridge/Barrhaven? The Welch family has been operating this small pick-your-own and pre-picked apple orchard for more than half a century!

243:365 Autumn apples

What say ye, bloggy peeps? Any other hidden apple orchard treasures in the national capital region worth checking out?

The Nikon D7000 versus Fisher-Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera: A digi-cam showdown

I laughed out loud when I saw that our friends at Fisher-Price had sent us a Fisher-Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera to test-drive. If any family loves cameras, it’s this one!

FP porch 4

So it seemed a natural to compare my favourite camera, the Nikon D7000, to Lucas’s (and Tristan’s and Simon’s!) new favourite camera. Here’s how they stack up in a head-to-head comparison.

1. Specs

Key features for the Nikon D7000 single-lens reflex digital camera:

• 16.2MP CMOS sensor
• 1080p HD video recording with mic jack for external microphone
• ISO 100-6400 (plus H1 and H2 equivalent to ISO 12,800/25,600)
• 39-point AF system with 3D tracking
• New 2016 pixel metering sensor
• Scene Recognition System (see 2016 pixel sensor, above) aids WB/metering + focus accuracy
• Twin SD card slots
• 3.0 inch 921k dot LCD screen
• New Live View/movie shooting switch
• Full-time AF in Live View/movie modes
• Up to 6fps continuous shooting
• Lockable drive mode dial
• Built-in intervalometer
• Electronic virtual horizon
• Shutter tested to 150K actuations

Key features for the Fisher-Price Kid-tough Digital Camera:

• Two-eye viewing—easy for kids to look through
• Stores over 2,000 pictures!
• 256 MB built-in memory
• Sturdy, dual hand grips for steady shots
• Big buttons—easy for little hands to use
• Enhanced low light performance—no flash needed!
• 1.4” color screen lets kids see pictures they’ve taken—instantly!
• 4X digital zoom
• Enhanced low light performance

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Verdict: the D7000 wins by a nose on this one, for versatility and breadth of features. Although if you’re easily intimidated by sophisticated electronic gear that’s smarter than you (*cough*likeme*cough*) then you may prefer the simplicity of the Fisher-Price camera. (I’ve been using the D7000 every day for more than six months, and I have no clue what the built-in intervalometer might be!)

2. Price

The Nikon D7000 with kit lens is currently retailing in the neighbourhood of $1,500. The Fisher-Price camera, with no requirement for additional lenses, can be yours for less than 1/10 of that!

FP porch 3

I think the Fisher-Price camera is the clear winner here.

3. Photo quality

The Nikon D7000 quality is so terrific that more than one person has told me they wished they could afford one so they could take pictures as beautiful as mine. 😐

The Fisher-Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera falls a little short of this on the picture-quality spectrum. This is where the Nikon shines. Although I must admit, the kids enjoy the act of taking pictures far more than they care about the actual pictures. And really, when they take 75 pictures in a row of Sonic the Hedgehog on the TV or a four-photo montage of their favourite stuffies in various poses, I don’t think we need more than a couple of hundred pixels per image to get the full impact of each photo.

FP porch 1

4. Software

While the Nikon comes with it’s own Image Capture software, you will most likely want to purchase a post-production workflow management software like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom to process the resulting jpeg and raw files. The Fisher-Price camera comes bundled with its own free Kid-Tough digital studio, and if you accidentally throw it away in a clutter-busting burst of misplaced energy (ahem) you can always download a free copy from the Fisher-Price site. The digital studio is a fun photo editing program that older kids will love, including easy photo fixes, frames, and silly photo effects.

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This one goes to Fisher-Price for both cost and simplicity. And fun!

5. Ease-of-use

You can, in fact, use both of these cameras in point-and-shoot mode. The Fisher-Price camera has an almost epic shutter lag, which takes quite a bit of getting used to, but its two-eye double viewfinder solves the problem of my ongoing inability to shoot with both eyes open and cures the headache I often get between my eyes after an hour or more of squinting into the admittedly-capacious viewfinder of the Nikon. Both have rubberized grips, an ergonomically-pleasing shutter placement and a comfortable but not overwhelming heft to them.

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Final point goes to Nikon for including a rechargeable battery and neck-strap in the box.

6. Durability

One summer evening I suppressed a cry of terror as I watched in slow motion as my beloved Nikon tumbled in slow motion off the seat of an Adirondack chair and on the thick grass a mere eight inches below. I held my breath in painful anticipation as I flicked the power switch on and waited an endless moment for the camera to power up. It was fine, thankfully, and I promised myself that I would never be so careless with it again.

On another evening, I watched the Fisher-Price camera bounce merrily down six wooden steps and roll out the door onto the porch without flinching.

FP porch 2

This one goes handily to Fisher-Price.

I think it’s clear which camera is the big winner here. 😉 I highly recommend both the D7000 and the Fisher-Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera. You won’t be disappointed with either of them!

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(Disclosure: I’m part of the Fisher-Price Play Panel and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. However, as always, the opinions on this blog are entirely my own.)

(I’m also completely open to receiving special perks from Nikon Corporation, ahem.)

Mothership Photography newborn sneak-peek: Adorable Baby Lucas

I had the wonderful pleasure this weekend of meeting Luke (great name, eh?) and his folks to take some newborn portraits. It was one of those afternoons when everything seemed to click, from the shutter to the conversation between the grownups.

And Luke’s mom has the most amazing taste in funky vintage finds, like this terrific Coca Cola cooler. How cute is this?

red storyboard

And the cooler is pretty cute, too, eh? 😉 Lookit that little guy, all of four weeks old and holding his head up already. He was such a fun baby to work with!

From warm reds to cool blues – how about this vintage sleigh? I totally loved working with the Moffatt family, their easy-going nature and their great sense of fun!

blue storyboard

Luke’s daddy (you may know him as Ottawa councillor Scott Moffatt) is quite the golfer, so the name Ben Hogan means a lot more to him than it does to me. (Recognize that ‘thousand mile stare’? Little guy drifted off to sleep right there in the golf bag!)

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Of course, I couldn’t imagine making portraits of a newborn without capturing those soft, sweet cheeks and delicious baby toes!

254:365 Baby bits

Finally, the poor guy had had enough of me and my camera, and I had to call it a day…

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Thank you to the Moffatt family for supporting local business in our community and letting me come over and play with Luke for the afternoon! It was a pleasure to work with all of you, and now I’ll be scouring the flea markets and junk shops for my own vintage coke cooler! 😉 The full gallery will be up in another day or so — but I couldn’t resist sharing a few favourites right away!

I’m almost completely booked up for the fall, so if you’re looking for a family photography session with a particular date in mind, be sure to get in touch sooner rather than later!

Project 365: Crossing the rural-urban divide

I was worried that the commute from Manotick to the Byward Market every day would prove long and tiresome. It is on the long side — I’m averaging 35 to 40 minutes — but it’s such a gorgeous drive that I’m quite enjoying it. (Ask me again after a blizzard in February and maybe I’ll change my tune!)

What’s interesting to me is the sheer diversity of the drive. I start out in rural farmland, passing cows and barns, and I follow the Rideau River / Canal all the way downtown, through suburbs and down Colonel By Drive, past Old Ottawa South and the Glebe and both universities, all the way to the Market. It goes from capacious and rolling fields to the sharp concrete edges of downtown; from serenity to bustle; from wide-open spaces and the smell of nature to crowds and the competing smells of cars, restaurants and progress. (I notice these differences most keenly in the morning, because let’s face it, the traffic at 4 pm may be worse on Bridge Street in Manotick as it is on Sussex Drive!)

All that to say, the juxtapositioning of the rural and urban experience seems to have informed my picture-taking this week. There was, for example, this improbably blue barn resting quietly in a very yellow field that just begged to be photographed. I wish I’d had a more standard lens on instead of my lensbaby, to really make that colour contrast pop, but as they say, the best camera/lens for the job is the one you have with you!

251:365 Improbably blue barn in a yellow field

In contrast, I love the effect the lensbaby had on this picture. To the left is the US Embassy (who apparently don’t take kindly to photographers, but I’ve never had a problem) and straight ahead is the glass dome of the National Gallery of Canada. I love how all the lines converge on the red pop of the flags.

248:365 Lensbaby patriotism

And then, back to the rural thing. I think I’m fascinated by farms and barns just because they are so completely removed from my experience. When I saw the sky the morning I took this, I knew I just had to watch out for the perfect shape to silhouette and show it off. As I said in the caption on Flickr, “Phallic symbol? What phallic symbol?”

250:365 Sunrise on the farm

This was an idea that didn’t work out like I’d expected, but I didn’t really have anything else for the shot of the day. And didn’t these things used to be way more colourful? (We used them for the favours at our wedding.)(Not these ones.)(Although they were stale enough that they could have been.)

249:365 Hello lensbaby

This is a new treasure I found in a junk shop. Can you believe it only cost me $5? What a steal! It’s a Yashica Electro 35 from 1966, one of the most popular and populist rangefinders. It was apparently the first electronically controlled camera. Best $5 paperweight ever! 😉 It’s also my favourite picture this week because I saw this style of picture somewhere else and deliberately set out to mimic it. I wouldn’t have been able to do that a year or two ago, but I did and I was pretty pleased with myself and the result.

247:365 A new treasure from the junk shop

At the risk of treading into Stuart Smalley territory, I thought it would be fun to try making some of these poster-type things I’ve seen all over Pinterest lately. I really love the sentiment!

246:365 Everything will be okay

I promise, the next one will say, “I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And doggone it, people like me.” 😉

Friday Family Fun: The summer fun we didn’t have

You know how you set out at the beginning of summer with a kind of a checklist in your mind called “fun things we must achieve as a family in order to consider this summer a success”? What, it’s only me that sees summer fun as a project to be achieved?

Anyway, this summer took an odd turn when I found out on the day before I went on vacation that I had to invest a good portion of my summer holiday preparing for my French exam. It all ended well, but it was definitely one of the more stressful summer vacations, and the summer family adventure checklist went out the window. While we had lots of little excursions, I feel like the list of ideas in my head has more left undone than done. It’s kind of a vacation version of my eyes being bigger than my stomach — my perception of our capacity for summer adventures was a little out of alignment with the actual circumstances of our summer. Having said that, here’s five ideas for Ottawa family adventures that we didn’t quite get around to doing this summer.

1. Port Elmsley Drive-In Theatre

I’ve been twitchy to go to eastern Ontario’s only drive-in theatre for years. We used to go all the time as kids and later as teenagers — I’ve always loved the drive-in. This one is about an hour’s drive from Ottawa, just outside of Smiths Falls. This is the last weekend of the season, and they’re playing the Smurf movie. We’ll definitely have to put this one near the top of the list for next summer!

2. EcoOdyssée

This is another adventure I’ve been meaning to check out for years. It’s a mixture of a pedal-boat adventure, mazes and a sort of eco-scavenger hunt. From their website:

Located on an enchanting site, Eco-Odyssée is a water maze that comprises an estimated 60 intersections spread out over more than 6km. Choose the adventure that suits you and enjoy the splendor of the marsh environment from your paddle boat. Learn to identify the numerous animal and plant species that live in the marsh, concealed within the forest’s greenery. You will be charmed by this journey of discovery.

They’re located just past Wakefield in Quebec, about half an hour from downtown Ottawa.

3. Dow’s Lake pedal boat and canoe rental

Don’t feel like the full-meal-deal for the EcoOdyssée? How about a leisurely pedal across Dow’s Lake? You can rent pedal-boats, canoes and kayaks. I may still find the time to cram this one in!

4. Lafleche Aerial Adventures and Caves

This one is on the Quebec side of the river too – maybe that’s why we never quite got enough momentum to make our way over there? Regardless, this seems like an awesome day of adventure to me! Lafleche seems to offer something for everyone — treetop rope bridges, zip lines, rock climbing, and cave spelunking. I can’t wait to check this one out some day!

5. Chasing the sunset at Britannia Beach

The beach is officially closed for the summer (boo!) but you should take advantage of the earlier sunset and take the family to watch the sun set from the point at Britannia Beach.

3 Jumping

There are rocks to climb, ducks to chase (or, erm, feed) and stones to be skipped into calm waters. For those of us who spent a summer landlocked, it’s a beautiful way to enjoy the spectacular beauty of the sun setting across the water. We may yet head out this weekend, if the weather holds out.

While summer may be over, I have lots of ideas left to share (and apparently lots of adventures yet to achieve!) If you enjoyed these, I may continue the Friday Family Fun series on a more sporadic basis through the fall and winter. And if you’ve got insight into any of the adventures I mentioned today, I’d love to hear your thoughts!