Sharon's Week 23: Six Geese A-laying

Well, I'm not sure how many geese were a-laying to get all the goslings around here but there had to be at least six.  More on that later...

Happy Saturday evening.  I am feeling lazy - I was invited to a friend's games night (at which they actually play games, unlike our games night at which we eat, drink and chat but avoid any games since they require too much brain power on a Friday night) but I can't seem to make myself get moving.  Maybe in a little while...hmmm, not likely.

The photo topics this week were not at all inspiring and it was difficult to come up with ideas.  Luckily I was off yesterday so I had some time to wander around hoping that ideas would pop into my head.  As it turns out, none of the things I came up with were wonderful ideas but they were in fact ideas and this week's assignments got done.  I will say that this set of photos is probably my most disappointing yet - at least that's how I feel about them.  That being said, I have written before that I will not let this project bring on my negative side anymore so I will introduce each photo without any further disparagement.  In fact, I will try to act excited and see if that changes my attitude towards the photos.

blurred background

It's pretty easy to get a blurred background when using my telephoto lens.  Here's a little cutie who greeted me by coming up and licking (at least that's what I think she did) my foot.

family member

I have uncooperative family.  Not that I blame them...I too, hate having my photo taken.  Earlier this week Pam mention that the assignment wasn't specific and that the photo could be of any family member, in any family.  I took it a step further and decided that these geese are in families.  In this photo, there are either 16 or 17 family members (I counted 14 babies and Pam counted 15 - there may or may not be a bit of a head at the back in about the middle of the pack).

That family was at Bellevue Park.  This family was at Whitefish Island.  The babies here are a bit younger (and cuter).

rust

Rust??!!  What the heck was I thinking.  Be forewarned, peeling paint is on the list for next week.  Anyway, I found lots of rust but mostly only boring rust.  Then I found this nut and bolt on an old garden gate at the Superintendent's Residence at the Locks.

Here's a funny coincidence...I get regular emails from an online photography school and they often contain short videos with creative ideas or instructions about how to do something.  Yesterday, the email was about photographing rust - I am not kidding!

starts with G

Now, I never said that this project was strictly an English venture.  Here we have une grenouille.  The croaking sound has been added to the birdsong on Whitefish Island.

new

I did get new gardens this week however nothing is in bloom and there is still a lot of bare dirt so I wasn't interested in photographing them yet.  Instead, I found this new flower.  I am sure that the flower itself is not new since the shrub that produced it was rather large, but I have never seen it before so it is new to me.

Here is a close up.

bike detail

Since I said I won't say anything negative, I won't say anything.

wild card

Two weeks ago I realized that I had two vouchers for photobooks that were going to expire.  Luckily Pam could use one and I decided to make a book of spring with the other one.  I had a few pages left and I wanted to fill them with spring blooms - all the different colours of apple blossoms and all the lilacs.  I wandered through town on Sunday and trespassed at Maxine's when she wasn't home.  Look at this awesome kind of lilac.  I have never seen a two coloured flower before.

On Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap tonight, the topic is songs with Saturday night in them.  So far, the best has been Stompin' Tom's Sudbury Saturday Night.  Well the girls are out to bingo and the boys are getting stinko...  

And now you are all singing it too :)

Pam's Week 23: We Are Family, Get Up Everybody and Sing

I am certain that everyone reading this blog today knows what song that lyric is from.  If not, I am not sure that we can still be friends as that's a pretty old school pop song by Sister Sledge.  Plus, the song title is in the lyric so you should at least be able to fake it to make me happy.

The weather this week has given me hope that maybe summer will actually be on it's way here soon.  The sun has been shining and we've been able to give up our jackets by afternoon, which is an accomplishment given what we've been dealing with so far this spring.  You would think that would be enough to motivate me to get outside and take photos but I was obsessed with making my photobook for California and spent most of my spare time doing that.  I frequently referred to the list hoping to find some inspiration, but no ideas at all were jumping out at me.  Finally I sent Sharon a text today to say that I had yet to take a photo so she drove over, like a knight in shining armour minus the armour, the horse, and the boy parts, and took me to Bellevue Park where I proceeded to capture 5 of the 7 photos in an hour and a bit.

Without further ado, here they are.....

Blurred Background

I know there are all sorts of photography techniques you can use to achieve this but what seems to work best for me is using the macro setting on my camera, zooming in on an object and hoping for the best.  You are likely to find that "hoping for the best" is the technique I rely on most frequently in my photography!

I know people hate dandelions, but I kind of like them.  They are bright and colourful (though admittedly messy when they go to seed like the one above) and grow without much help at all!  My gardening skill is on par with my photography skill - hope for the best!

Family Member

With 6 people besides myself living in my house, all of whom are related to me, you would think that this topic would have been fairly easy.  It's hard to get good lighting, interesting pose or action, and have a flattering photo all at once though without planning it out.  I have two kids who are stinking cute (okay, I may be biased as the mother) but you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to get them looking that way in a photo, especially if I try to take a photo of the two of them together!

Tonight after dinner, we took the puppy for a walk.  My kids had fun playing on the outdoor gym equipment they have installed behind the Art Gallery.  Here are my attempts at getting them to look cute.

After our walk, I had decided that we should head to Dairy Queen for a little treat.  Upon our arrival, we discovered that they had no power and therefore no ice cream.  Not to be defeated, we decided to drop the dog at home and head downtown to a new ice cream parlour that opened just this evening (Sharon and I attempted to go there earlier today to find out it wasn't opening it's doors until 6 p.m.).

Rust

A couple of years ago when I did this photo blog challenge with Sharon, this was a topic when I happened to be on Manitoulin Island with my parents and Grandma.  We stumbled across this little shop with an antique 'Orange Crush' handle on the door that was interestingly rusty.  Finding interesting rust today wasn't quite as easy but I had told Sharon I thought the motor things on Topsail Island might work out for us and they did not disappoint.

Starts with G

Usually I can find a plethora of words within my brain that start with any given letter.  This week, those words escaped me and the only ones I could think of were "Gitchee Gumee" (aka Lake Superior), "Goulais" and "Gros Cap"; all could have made amazing photos but they involved a time commitment and driving that I just didn't seem to have the time or energy for.  Then I noticed, perhaps with Sharon's help, that "goose" began with G and saw these two geese in a river at Bellevue Park.  Unfortunately, they weren't particularly cooperative and didn't stay together or where I wanted them for the photo.

New

I may or may not have stolen Sharon's original idea for this photo.  As I'd mentioned earlier, this new ice cream parlour was set to open up today. Neither one of us read the post very well, though, and didn't realize it wasn't opening until this evening.  Sharon had thought of using me as a sacrifice and taking a photo of me with an ice cream in the new shop but since that wasn't going to work, she graciously let me take a photo of the exterior of the closed shop.

Bike Detail

We have bikes in our house but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to find an interesting detail on one of them.  And then Sharon arrived (see, she was very Knight-like today) with Levi's bike on her bike rack and I looked at it and was inspired.

Wildcard

I have a few of these this week as they all, or 2 of the 3, come with stories attached.

So, Riya doesn't like wearing her harness but I don't like being pulled and dragged through the neighbourhood.  We often end up at an impasse.  This particular one was short-lived near the waterfront but the one in the neighbourhood the other day wasn't.  Sharon was with me and Riya laid down on someone's front lawn, playing dead and refusing to move (she even refused the treat I offered when I put the harness on her as if accepting the treat would be saying the harness was okay).  The neighbour of said lawn arrived home and we felt we had to explain ourselves as the poor woman thought Riya was exhausted from too long a walk (we'd made it about a block away from my house at this point).  She laughed and laughed, thinking it was the funniest thing she'd seen.  I ended up giving in and removing the harness as unlike when my children had temper tantrums, I couldn't fling her over my shoulder and carry her home or just leave her there figuring she'd catch up when I walked away.

This was Danica's face after her Caramel Turtle Brownie Signature Cone this evening.

This isn't a spectacular photo but I am including it because last Friday night when Sharon and I visited not one but two liquor stores, I was intrigued by all the new things they had on offer.  I resisted at the first stop but vowed to try them all this summer.  At the 2nd store, I caved and bought a few.  So far, I've tried the Crazy Uncle Hard Cream Soda (surprisingly awesome if you're a cream soda lover), the Somersby Blackberry Cider (tasty) and this is a can of wine.  I thought the can was pretty but I've decided that perhaps wine doesn't belong in a can.  I keep taking a drink expecting one flavour and ending up with another, much like the clear Pepsi back in the day.  I suppose it would be good if you were a big wine drinker and you were going somewhere that didn't allow glass bottles but I think if I'm to drink out of a can in the future, I prefer something more beer or soda like.

And that is that for another week.  Looking ahead at next week's topics, I think I will need Sharon to translate at least one of them into non-photographer for me.  That may not be promising for the outcome....

Have a great week!

Donna's Week 22

Run

Nothing beats a rousing game of "I'm gonna get you!"  This is Zoe being chased by dad Phil at Happy Rolph's last weekend.

Through a Fence

Ok, so this one is a guessing game!  What is this a picture of?  Hmmm, my very sensing and factual husband would say "it is a a picture of two thick black lines surrounding 9 thinner black lines, there is some water and land behind the lines.  On the land is a water tower, two beige buildings and a large white building"  To me, the intuitive one, who never sees the literal, sees a water tower on what must be an island surrounded by salt water, surrounded by an isolating haze (not removed in LightRoom) and a large white building with no windows that could only be meant to keep people in, all viewed through a fence, gate or set of bars.   Any guesses?? 

PS we were just in San Francisco.  

 Starts with C

I had to look back through previous posts to see if I posted any cable car pictures yet, and lucky for me and you, I had not.  So, here are several different pictures of Cable Cars!

Bridge

So not your typical bridge, but a bridge none the less. Wikipedia says "A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles without closing the way underneath such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle"   So this bridge is definitely a structure.  There is a significant amount of air underneath it, ensuring that it is in no way closed underneath and it definitely spans a physical obstacle (climbing done one silo to get to the top of the other silo is definitely an obstacle).  An obstacle I will concur one day, just not today!

 

Hanging

So a high shutter speed caught this osprey hanging in mid air, with a fish hanging in its talons. 

3

Well this one took a while to find.  The first one is a picture of icicles on a rock face, that I had to turn sideways.  A very dramatic 3, if I say so myself.  

But then I remembered, that the diagnostic feature of an osprey in the air is the classic M or in this case a 3, that is found between the wrists of each wing, defined in the middle by the head.

Have a great week!

and in case you are wondering, it was Alcatraz Island, through the fence.

Pam's Week 22: Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water...

Maybe the water isn't so troubled but it was the first song that came to mind to fit with this week's topics.  Although maybe it is troubled since it seems that two more people within a 4 hour period decided to go swimming in it this past week and for those of you unfamiliar with the area, there are plenty of lovely places to swim but the St. Mary's River near the canal isn't one of them.  A couple of months ago another lady decided to venture into the river.

The weather this week has not been particularly inspiring or motivating.  I've had a few ideas but the cold rain and lack of sunshine was not helping them come to fruition.  Luckily the sun peeked out on Friday evening so before we headed over to have Indian food with some friends, Sharon and I headed out to Farmer Bob's for some photographic opportunities.  Wouldn't you know that the sunshine decided to hide behind the clouds while the blackflies headed out in full force upon our arrival?

Anyways, I should get on with the photos as I have to start getting ready to head out with my hubby and some friends.  We are going across the river to see Air Supply in concert.  We are "Lost in Love" yet planning on "Making Love Out of Nothing at All".  Sorry.  Bad jokes but it was all I had for now.

I should mention that all my photos this week ended up being taken on my phone.  The first one was simply because I didn't have my camera with me and felt inspired.  The ones at Farmer Bob's were because my camera wouldn't turn on (I realized that I had taken the battery out to charge it but forgot to put it back in).  The others were simply because I figured maybe I should just be consistent for the week.

Bridge

Many of my photos have this bridge in it as it is the easiest bridge to access, is very photographable from a place I like to spend time, and is the bridge that reminds me of home.  I tried to capture it from a different angle though this time.

Through a Fence

When I asked Sharon to accompany me to Farmer Bob's, I had envisioned taking a photo of the horses through the fence.  Alas, the horses were in the barn so that didn't quite work out as planned but this adorable goat was more than cooperative.  I couldn't decide which one I liked better so I included a couple of them.

 Sharon may or may not have given it grass to encourage it to look through the fence again for me...

3

I began by taking pictures of items in groups of three as I was not overly successful in finding 3's.  Then I saw this antique farm equipment of some sort and thought "Voila!"

Starts with C

Now I had originally just planned on taking a picture of a cow or the church that is on the farm, but then began to overthink it, worried that I had taken loads of photos of the church a couple of years ago when I participated in this blog challenge with Sharon and without a nice blue sky, the church just wouldn't be as stunning.  And the cows were lying down in the barn having a nap which wasn't particularly inspiring.  Then Sharon pointed out this little sod-covered shack I had never noticed before.  On the door was a sign indicating that this was for chemical storage.  Chemical begins with "C"...

Hanging

I had no great ideas whatsover for this picture.  I haven't even purchased hanging baskets yet this year.  At the school festival yesterday, they had slacklines that the kids seemed to enjoy hanging on.  This is Danica's friend, Ila, hanging very briefly (the only one I was at all successful getting a shot of because there was always someone blocking my way or else they would fall down.

Run

I should have had my camera or phone with me the other day when Riya ran out of the house and through the neighbourhood but I was focused on getting her back in and didn't think about it.  I was waffling between being angry at her for running out and being happy that it meant she was feeling better (she'd hurt her paw earlier in the week, likely stung by one of the bees she insists on playing with,  and was very sad and not eating or drinking).  On our way to the park yesterday afternoon, though, Danica and Ila were running around the field which gave me another opportunity.

Wildcard

This was one I didn't really focus on at all this week.  I contemplated just skipping it altogether and seeing if anyone would notice but decided, instead, to include the photo I took of one of the horses in the barn at Farmer Bob's.  I liked how the light was reflecting on the side of his, or maybe her, face.

And that's it for another week.  I haven't checked out this week's topics but first I must beautify myself for my date!  Then I should make sure the camera has a battery and a memory card....  Fingers crossed the sun makes more than a brief appearance this week!

Sharon's Week 22: Old MacDonald Had a Farm...

I find myself at a loss for a topic of conversation this evening.  I could just get right on to the photos but then there'd be a problem with my project photobook...there would be a big blank spot where words are supposed to be.  If you know me, you know that I can't have that.

I guess I could tell you that I survived my five day work week.  It seemed to take forever to pass but pass it finally did and I was able to get some things accomplished that had been waiting for quite a long time.

I wasn't very motivated with my photography early in the week, likely because of the rainy and dull weather.  Then on Thursday when it was finally nice, I had to stay home to wait for two different landscapers who were supposed to come by for quotes.  When neither one showed by 8:00, I tried to make myself head out with Hermione but I was unsuccessful.  She did not come out until Friday afternoon.  Thankfully the weather was still nice.

run

I wanted to practice panning while someone was running but I couldn't think of anyone who would be willing to run back and forth in front of me so I asked Fergus if he would do it.  Maxine translated and he agreed.  Lesson learned: 1/320th of a second is not a fast enough shutter speed to get a clear shot of a running dog.  I took 75 photos.  I kept five and they're not as clear as I would like.  Anyway, here is Fergus running after a tennis ball.

And here he is showing off his beautiful feathers (I think that's what that beautiful long fur is called).

through a fence

Pam and I went to Farmer Bob's to take some photos after work yesterday.  When we arrived, we were the only vehicle and I wondered why.  Then we got out of the car and I knew...blackflies by the millions.  We lasted maybe a half hour then escaped.  Driving away, we kept killing the buggers who escaped with us.  I killed even more today and I don't feel at all bad about it.  This young pig was bothered by the bugs too.  He was scratching his whole body against the rough fence.

starts with C

As Pam and I were driving out to Farmer Bob's, I told her I had just finished photographing the apple blossoms for my spring photobook.  I mentioned that I had tried hard to come up with a way to make apple blossoms start with C.  Easy as you please, she said, "Aren't they crab apples?"  Why yes, yes they are.  Here are some crab apple blossoms.

a bridge

This gave me trouble.  You have seen our International Bridge about a kazillion times (I really do like it) so I wanted to do something different.  I thought of a really scenic stone bridge that I drive past when driving East and looked for it on my way to Elliot Lake on Thursday.  I missed it completely so I texted Maxine to see if she remembered where exactly it is so I could photograph it on my way back.  Apparently my beautiful bridge is beyond the Elliot Lake turnoff.  I couldn't think of any other scenic bridges so I headed to Whitefish Island.  The International Bridge is here but I focused instead on the train bridge.

hanging

I have a gorgeous bleeding heart plant hidden where nobody sees it so I decided to sacrifice several stalks for a vase.  I have badly behaved cats so I can't have pretty flowers at my place (they will eat the flowers then throw up the flowers and they're not as pretty then).  I brought them out to my mom.  Here they are.

3

As I was frantically waving blackflies out of my face at Farmer Bob's, I noticed moose antlers hanging on the side of his house and I found a 3!

wild card

These tulips caught my eye because of the uncommon combination of colours - I have never seen a yellow and pink tulip before - and because the yellow made them look like they were glowing.  These tulips are at the Administration Building at Whitefish Island.

That's that until next week.

Donna's Week 21

Car Detail

This picture was taken in, you guessed it Yellowstone park.  I love the reflection of the trees and sunset in the fender and the mini self portrait in the chrome.

Hair

My Blake has the best hair.  We dyed it red, not that long ago and it looks awesome.




"E"

This is my "E".  It is actually a horse tie stand (turned on its side) on the trail in shorthills park.




Silly

Hank is only six months old (five months in these pictures) but he has the most expressive face and such a silly personality.  He makes everybody smile.

Flower

I couldn't choose, so here are two different flower pictures.  Both were taken at Sunshine Express last weekend.

Curves

The curves in the rock formed by this waterfall are kind of interesting.  This waterfall was in shorthills park.




Wild Card

This heron flew over, last week when Sharon and I were at Charles Daley Park.

Have a Great Week.