This week in pictures: Daffies and other spring delights

Funny, I’m just now realizing why I am so much more prolific with my photo taking in spring, summer and fall than I am in winter – many of my favourite pictures are taken outside. Just like eating outdoors makes any meal taste a little better, fresh air seems to add something to my photography mojo as well. I suppose that explains why I decided to set up a photo studio on my porch, eh?

This week’s pictures were almost entirely a love song to spring, and what says spring more than silly yellow daffodils bobbing in the breeze?

Daffilicious

I love how they grow in banks like that. The ones above were in the park across from Manotick’s Mill, but this guy is growing in my own garden. I slid my iPhone underneath him pointing up to get the yellow to pop against the blue sky.

Hipstadaffy

Speaking of gardens, Lucas and I had a most delightful afternoon examining each dandelion and pansy that have popped up in the grass in front of the house this week. The next day, I had a bit of a surprise when i reached my hand into my jacket pocket and pulled out the damp, wilted lot of them!

Garden collage

Despite the scowly forehead, I can assure you that Tristan was having a great time during our first backyard marshmallow roast last weekend!

First campfire of the season!

This one I’m not sure about. I tinkered with it for quite a while and still couldn’t get it quite where I wanted, but it’s close – and I kinda had to make dinner for the kids, so that also dictated its degree of doneness.

smile for mommy

I didn’t realize until just now that apparently hand-holding is also a bit of a theme this week. This one is Lucas and Beloved on a family walk.

Walking with dad

And I saved the cutest for last. This is Lucas and the daughter of one of my oldest, dearest friends, who also happens to be a raw food chef and culinary teacher. We were walking from the coffee shop to the park one beautiful spring morning when Catalina spontaneously grabbed Lucas’s hand.

Lucas and Catalina

Does it get any cuter than preschoolers holding hands?

How one little puddle made a big splash

It was a year ago this week that I took one of my favourite pictures of all time, Lucas jumping in the puddle.

125:365 Puddle jumper

We were on our way back to the house, having just walked the big boys to school. Remember how wet and rainy last April was? And I was going to try to keep Lucas out of the puddle as we walked by, but I had my camera with me (as always) and so I figured, what the heck, we’re not going anywhere but home. Let him have at it. And did he ever! I knew the second I clicked the shutter that it was a winner. Sometimes you just *know* when you’ve nailed the shot.

This photo is the closest I’ve ever come to going “viral”. It’s all over Pinterest and Tumblr, largely without my credit. Every now and then I do a google search on it, and recently found a Tumblr post where it has nearly 600 likes and reblogs. Oy! When I posted a comment on another blog that (mis)credited the Tumblr blog as the source, I wrote that in fact I was the original photographer, and the image is not only copyright but for license on Getty, and would she mind please removing it from her blog. To my surprise and utter delight, she asked my permission to buy the rights to the Web size, so she could keep the image in her blog post. How awesome is that?

This was photo was among the first set of images invited for license from Getty Images, and among my first sales, too. It’s sold four times now, as a matter of fact, earning me well over $100 in royalties. In fact, a fellow Getty Images contributor posted this comment on the Flickr photo just yesterday:

I’ve been looking at this image for months every time I’m at the checkout at my local sainsbury’s supermarket in the UK. I knew I’d seen the image on flickr somewhere and only realised it was yours when you posted in this months sales. It’s on a leaflet for some service they are offering. Have you seen the sainsbury’s use? If you haven’t i’ll pick up a leaflet next time I’m in and take a photo of it for you.

How fun is that? He’s just outside of Glasgow, Scotland (where my mom was born) and he’s kindly offered to send me a few copies of the pamplet next time he’s out doing his groceries. Edited to add: And here it is!

Found in the wild - Sainsbury's

But that’s not the most awesome thing that has come out of this silly, happy picture. Check THIS out! Last autumn, I received an e-mail from Brian Seed, a local painter and member of the Manotick Art Association. He had come across the picture I don’t even know how, and wrote me a lovely e-mail asking my permission to create a watercolour painting from it. Really, awesome or what?

But, I wasn’t sure if I could give him that permission. By licensing the picture through Getty, I gave them the right to decide who could or could not create a derivative work. I wrote a very apologetic e-mail, saying I wish I could have given the rights, and explaining the situation. To my delight, he replied that the fee was entirely reasonable and the next month there was the sale on my royalty statement.

Fast forward to today: Mr Seed sent me a quick note to let me know the painting is done, and will be featured in the Ottawa Watercolour Society juried show next week at St Brigids, and in next month’s Manotick Art Association annual show next month, if it doesn’t sell first. And he sent me a photo of the finished painting:

Puddle!WC

Is that not the most awesomest thing ever? I can’t even begin to express how delightful this is – such an honour, and such a lovely painting!

I have to admit, even though I’m annoyed at the unsourced use of this picture all over Pinterest and Tumblr and the rest of the Internet, I do love that the joyous abandon of the picture has so resonated with people. My lesson from all this? Take your camera with you EVERYWHERE, even on a rainy grey day on a route you’ve walked dozens of times before, because you never know where beauty and joy (and potential royalties!) might be waiting to leap out.

They’re back: Perfect Porch Portrait Manotick Mini-Sessions!

Did you know it’s just over three weeks until Mother’s Day? And you know what would make a really terrific Mother’s Day gift? Family portraits!

I’m absolutely delighted and really quite excited to offer another year of perfect porch mini-sessions at our home in Manotick. These were a huge success last year, and I’ve got some great new ideas for this year.

So what’s a mini-session? Here’s what you can expect:

  • a 30-minute session on my porch and in the yard and gardens
  • 10 – 15 custom edited proofs to choose from
  • one 8 x 10 or two 5 x 7 prints
  • high-resolution digital negatives to match the prints you choose
  • Cost is $150
  • Gift certificates are available

This is a great package for families, kids, teens, grads, or even engagement photos – and of course, it makes a wonderful Mother’s Day gift. Sessions are available by appointment evenings and weekends, with very limited weekday availability – and it’s first come-first served! Contact me or send an e-mail to danicanada(@)gmail(dot)com to book your appointment today!

Here’s just a few of my favourite Perfect Porch Mini-Session photos from 2011:

Porch portraits

Here’s what some of last year’s clients had to say:

“We really had a great time with you, and we just love the photos. Thanks again!”
~ S., October 2011

“Thank you so much!!! We loved working with you and looking forward to working with you again soon!”
~ J., September 2011

“LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!! [We] just looked at the pictures together […] They are absolutely gorgeous. You did such a great job! I can’t believe how well the family shots turned out…thanks for making us all so comfortable!!”
~ J., July 2011

“Words cannot describe how much we love the pictures. They are amazing! […] Thank you so, so much. Seriously, we were all blown away by how great a job you did (far exceeding my admittedly high expectations).”
~E., July 2011

Don’t wait, book your Mothership Photography Perfect Porch Mini-Session in Manotick today! πŸ™‚

Why I think Indigo Kids is awesome (part 2 of 3), and a giveaway!

This is the second in a set of three posts about how Indigo Kids makes birthday party preparations painless and maybe even fun.

Last time, I mentioned how impressed I was to find rows of pre-wrapped (and FREE-wrapped, no less) gift selections at my local Indigo Kids last autumn. Fast forward to March of this year. Tristan’s birthday party had snuck up on me, and I found myself the day before his party with out-of-town guests on the way and a huge to-do list that included buying groceries for 11 and finding something in lieu of a loot bag.

I feel very conflicted about loot bags. I’ve always been vaguely opposed to sending kids home with bags of dollar store junk that will spend 2 minutes being played with (if that) and several lifetimes in a landfill. Or the bottom of the toy box. But lately, the boys have been coming home with increasingly elaborate loot bags from the parties they’ve attended, and it’s clear that parents are spending upwards of $10 or even $20 per loot bag. I swear, there have been times I’ve felt guilty that I may have spent less on a gift for the party than the parents spent on loot bags!

I don’t remember who gave me the idea for $5 gift cards to the candy store as an idea to replace loot bags, but I loved it and filed it away in the steel trap that is my brain. And there it stayed, for at least two or three birthday parties. But this year, something tweaked it loose and I remembered it just in time for Tristan’s party. The party attendees were coming not only from across town but across the province, so I’d figured in lieu of a local candy store, I’d give the kids $5 gift cards to Bulk Barn. When I mentioned this in passing to Beloved as I was heading from the grocery store to the Bulk Barn the day before the party, he didn’t seem to think it was a great idea. And the more I thought about it, the more I was no longer sure it was a great idea either.

I was short on time, with houseguests pending at any minute, and my choices were limited. I could get $5 grocery store cards. That didn’t seem like an improvement over the Bulk Barn. I looked around the plaza. Movie gift cards? Maybe. Walmart? Um, no. And then I saw it. Of course! Indigo!!

So I headed over to Indigo and picked up $5 gift cards for everyone. And then I wandered over to the card section, hoping to find actual loot bags, because I’d also noticed Lego mini-figures on sale for 20 per cent off (woot!) in the Indigo Kids toys section, and I had mini-chocolate bars to round out the loot bags. But the stationery section had no loot bags.

I’d resigned myself to personalized ziploc bags as I headed back to the Indigo Kids section to pick out the mini-fig bags, and asked the clerk almost as an afterthought if they carried loot bags. “Oh sure,” she said. “How many do you need?” She pulled a handful of bags out of a drawer and I realized that they were not for sale – they were free! Free loot bags! How awesome is that?

I know, you’re sad that you couldn’t come to Tristan’s party. But you can still win your own gift card for Indigo Kids! Here’s the details:

  1. This is a giveaway for a $35 Indigo gift card.
  2. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on any post in this series of three telling me why you love Indigo Kids or how you think Indigo Kids could be helpful to you.
  3. This giveaway is open only to Canadian residents, excluding residents of Quebec. (sorry!)
  4. This giveaway will run from today through April 30.
  5. One winner will be chosen from all comments posted on any of the three contest posts on this blog.
  6. You can comment as many times as you like, but you will only be entered into the giveaway once.
  7. You can also enter to win on other blogs, but you can only win once.
  8. If you win, you must be willing to provide your full name and address to me, to share with Mom Central Canada, in order to claim your gift card.
  9. Gift cards will be sent 4 to 6 weeks after the close of the giveaway.

And if you haven’t get checked out the great new Indigo Kids section of your favourite Chapters/Indigo store, this store locator link will help you find a location near you.


Disclosure: I am participating in the Indigo Kids program by Mom Central Canada. I received compensation for my participation in this campaign, but the opinions on this blog are ALWAYS my own. I only participate in promotional campaigns for products and services I feel I can personally endorse.

I really really REALLY wish I were putting these on my car

When I knew I would have to buy new tires, I thought it would be fun to keep the bald ones and paint them bright colours and then use them in my porch portraits. Fun idea, eh? Not entirely sure if it’s a GOOD idea, but definitely a FUN idea.

I really really really wish I were putting these on my car

So I learned a LOT about spray paint today. Like, it does not really listen when you tell it where you want it to go. (How those taggers get it to behave is beyond me. Clearly not my calling.)(Although I did show enough plumber crack when bending over painting these that I could have been a gangsta.)(Sorry neighbours.) And it is much messier than I expected. And OMFG, my hand is still cramped up into a claw from trying to hold the nozzle down.

***

I had to explain to the Canadian Tire guys twice that I wanted to keep the bald tires when I bought the new ones last month. And they looked at me really funny when I said I was going to spray paint them. But that was nothing compared to the look I got from Beloved when I explained to him why there were now two sets of tires in the garage. He was a lot more understanding when he figured out that I didn’t plan to put them back on the car after I painted them. Actually, I think he was mostly relieved.

***

But wouldn’t that be awesome? I really want to, now.

***

And if you’re wondering? One can of spray paint entirely covers one tire. Except for the yellow. It’s a little wimpy.

***

If my hand weren’t completely incapacitated by the nozzle cramp, I’d seriously be heading back to the hardware store so I could paint the car tires like this…

This week in pictures: porch portraits, family Easter and other spring beauties

It’s weekends like this that make me glad I’m not shooting on film anymore – I’d have filled up dozens of rolls of film with all the shots I took this week!

The week started off with my sweet parents-in-law paying a brief but sunny visit. Normally, the highlight of my Easter weekend photos is the colouring of eggs, but there were so many other things to photograph these pictures didn’t even make it to the blog! Anyway, here’s our Easter fun on Flickr if you’d like to see them. And here’s my favourite shot of that day:

Sacred

I know, it’s a repeat from last week. And so is this one! But they’re cute enough to repeat, right? This cute duo came out for porch portraits with their adorable little brother last weekend. What a fun family!

Easter porch portrait sneak peek

I blogged these ones already, too!

The red balloon session

Balloon outtake 3

Every week on my way to my French class, I walk past these flags near the National Arts Centre. I’ve tried to take a picture of them a few times, but I could never make the composition work for me. This week, I walked by on the Canal side for a change of pace, and the low perspective was just the trick!

Flags of Canada

(Can you match all 13 flags with their province/territory? And bonus question – why are they in this order? πŸ™‚ )

We found this beauty on a recent campfire outing with Simon’s Beaverscout troupe. Isn’t it gorgeous, in a vintage-abandoned sort of way?

Antique truck

And last but not least, Willie in high key.

Willie

Don’t tell him, but I’ve grown quite fond of the silly orange beast.

Easter Porch Portraits with the S Family

On the weekend, I had the great pleasure of playing with the delightful kids of the S family as we did a special Easter porch portrait mini-session. You might remember the S family from last summer, when I captured this great portrait of M swinging from the rope in our back yard tree house. (How come I never got around to blogging so many of my sessions last summer? I need to catch up and post a whole bunch of them!)

212:365 Dreaming

The kids were such fun to work with, and I was truly delighted when their mom contacted me when it was still cold and snowy to arrange a spring session, perhaps in time for Easter if the weather would cooperate. And did it ever!

It was bright and sunny, if not a little breezy, and the kids looked adorable in their Easter finery.

S family ears!

I caught a couple of good shots of M playing her violin last summer, and now her brother C has joined in the weekly lessons – although I think he might have been trying to poke me with his bow on this one. πŸ™‚

S Family violins

You can’t make this kind of cuteness, you just have to be ready to capture it when it happens.

S Family 1

And I love this one because it features my new favourite prop, the fabulous free frame!

Easter porch portrait sneak peek

Really, it’s hard to go wrong with a family as playful and fun and full of energy as these kids are. I think this one is my favourite of the day because it still makes me smile back at them when I look at it. Those bottoms are packed pretty tightly onto that tiny wicker settee!

S Family 2

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be back in porch portrait season again! I’ll have another post up later this week with details about how you can book your session for this year! πŸ™‚

Thank you S family for coming back to play in the spring sunshine. It was an honour to share a part of your Easter weekend with all of you!

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” ~ Samuel Beckett

This is a story about trying, and failing, and ultimately succeeding. More importantly, it’s a story about how my menfolk love me enough to tolerate my cockamamie ideas, indulge my silly whims, and play along with humour and good grace.

“I have an idea!” I announced to Beloved. He eyeballed the bunch of red balloons I was clutching with a look somewhere between curiousity and dismay. “I need your help, though,” I continued, and the look shifted to something closer to resignation. “And a ladder.” And the look coalesced into dread.

A couple of the groups I follow on Flickr offered a theme recently based on balloons, and in considering balloons, I came up with a concept. I’d wanted to try a “flying” shot for some time, where you balance on something like a chair or ladder and then clone out whatever you’re perched on in Photoshop. What if, I wondered… what if I perched the boys up on a ladder, clutching a handful of red balloons. I could get down low, with a wide-angle lens, and shoot up against the sky. Then I’d clone out the ladder, and it would look like they’re floating away with the balloons. How fun would that be?

I sketched it out for Beloved, and to his everlasting credit, he neither laughed nor balked. He even helped me load the load the ladder into the car. The boys also went along willingly enough when I explained the idea to them, although I’m pretty sure Lucas thought he might actually be floating away.

And then we got to the big open field I’d scouted out a few days before, and the faint breeze condensed into a gale force wind that made the balloons blow out horizontally instead of floating gracefully skyward. And the kids started shoving each other when I tried to stack them up on the ladder. And someone decided he was afraid of heights. And they started bickering about who would hold the balloons. And it looked nowhere near what I had imagined.

This? Is not what I had in mind.

Balloon outtake 1

And so instead of shooting what I had imagined, I started shooting what was in front of me.

The red balloon session

The red balloon session

The red balloon session

Oops, almost missed this last addition to the red balloon session. OK, now I'm done!

This just makes me laugh. “Okay, now RUN! RUN! Okay, wait, run the other way!!!”

Balloon outtake 3

In the end, I turned this:

Balloon outtake 2

Into this:

The red balloon session

Totally not what I had in mind. And yet, totally wonderful.

As I said to Tristan, every time you try something and it doesn’t go according to your plans, at least you learn something for the next time. What I learned? That my menfolk love me very much, and are willing to put up with a whole lot of silliness on my behalf. πŸ™‚

Celebrate and save with FisherPrice!

You know I love FisherPrice, and I think everyone loves a good deal. What’s not to love about a whole whack of good deals on great FisherPrice gear?

FisherPrice is offering up to $90 in savings on items from baby gear to preschool toys! Coupons will be available in-store at Toys R Us and Zellers and online via websaver.ca . Coupons are also available inside copies of the April 2012 issue of TodayÒ€ℒs Parent Magazine. Some of the savings include:

  • Snugabunny Swing – $20 off any Fisher-Price swing priced at $130 or more
  • Ocean Wonders Aquarium – $10 off (we had this for all three boys – sigh, happy memories…)
  • Little People – $5 off any Little People items with combined value of $25 or more (maybe time to stock up on your DC Superfriends Little People? πŸ˜‰ )
  • Imaginext – $5 off any Imaginext items with combined value of $25 or more
  • Thomas – $5 off any Thomas items with combined value of $25 or more

New coupons are released every day on the websaver.ca site, but you have to be quick as they do sell out!

I noticed that one of the “coming soon” coupons is for $5 off Imaginext toys. I adore the Imaginext line! Lucas got the Imaginext Mega T-Rex for his birthday, and it’s a fun toy! At first, I think he was a little intimidated by its big ROAR (Lucas has never been fond of animated toys!) but now he loves to fire the little projectile launchers and push the button to hear him roar.

(There was supposed to be a really fun photoshopped picture for this post of Lucas being chased by the giant Mega T-Rex, but I totally ran out of time. But trust me, it would have been hilarious!)

Don’t miss out on these great deals from FisherPrice!

This week in pictures: Spring things

I started picking up my camera again instead of just snapping pictures with my iPhone this week. The iPhone is great for stuff, colours and shapes and contrasts and whatnot, but only the Nikon does justice to people, and taking pictures of people is truly what I love about photography. (Photographing stuff comes in really handy, though, when the people in my life see the camera pointed at them for the 100th time in a week and tell me to stuff it!)

I love this little farm. It’s not too far from the house and I drive past it every day. I love how it’s up on the bluff like that, standing up against the sky and offering that iconic silhouette that I simply can’t resist. I liked how the big sky seemed to be looming on it when I was driving past as the gloaming crept out to swallow the last of the daylight one evening last week.

Big sky, little farm

I love this picture. LOVE it! Tristan and I went for a walk one night after dinner, and one of the neighbours had left a small pile of junk at curb, so we happily rooted through it looking for treasure. I think I might have whooped with glee when I found this frame. Tristan was equally excited and volunteered to carry a few other less savoury, more garbagey pieces home, too, but we satisfied ourselves with the frame. He was giddy the rest of the walk home, keen to tell Beloved that “crazy garbage picking wife” was at it again — with his help. πŸ™‚ And then when we got home, he was not only happy to pose a few times to take the new frame for a test run, but even suggested this pose of him “bursting out of the frame.” I can’t believe my good fortune with this one, and can’t wait to use it during porch portraits this year! (If you’re reading on Sunday, you can even look up at the “picture of the day” box at the top of the right sidebar and see that I’m already making good use of it!)

Framed! (2 of 2)

I’ve lost count of the number of pictures I have of Lucas engaged in various crafty endeavours. His intense concentration — and the fact that he’s sitting more or less perfectly still for a change! — make this pose one of the “low hanging fruit” pictures in my repertoire.

Lucas painting Easter crafts

Speaking of photographing Lucas while he’s engaged in favourite activities, puzzles is another easy one. There’s an Instagram/mobile meme called “From Where I Stand” that I like a lot. I’ve played along a few times, and this is my latest contribution. I’m not quite sure why this is so grainy – must be the filter I used when I boosted the saturation to make the reds and blues pop. Oh well.

#fromwhereistand - puzzled

This is actually almost a year old. I was looking for something in Lightroom and found this photo that I’d never posted before. Lucas is “building” his Thomas & Friends Tough Trike from FisherPrice. He still loved peddling around on that thing!

Tuning up his bike

Hey, remember last year when I went through my “texturizing” phase? Yeah, me too! (Also? The daffies are blooming in my garden! Yay!)

Daffy

Speaking of blooming, I was delighted to find and capture an image of this rare specimen of the rural Easter shrub as it bursts into its brief, annual period of eggy bloom.

The rare rural Easter shrub bursts into eggy flower on bright spring days.

I’m getting ahead of myself with this one, as it’s officially part of next week’s pictures, but I loved it so much I had to share it. My inlaws called on Wednesday and asked if we had plans for Easter, wondering if they could pay a quick visit. It was a beautiful day and we had a great (and photogenic) time colouring eggs and going for a giant walk and then out to dinner to my new favourite restaurant, Burgers on Main in Manotick. (Really, I need several posts to do this all justice!) But this photo just about perfectly sums up our brief, blissful visit: Beloved’s dad and Lucas.

Sacred

Some things are too sweet not to be shared.