Sharon's Week 6: Just Plug Your Nose and Jump

Here I am putting off doing work - both work for my job and stuff that I need to do around the house.  But it's Saturday afternoon and I am not going to worry about it.  I spent the week working more overtime, driving on crappy roads and shoveling snow onto snow banks that just cannot get any taller, so it is time to relax.  Last time we were out there slogging away, I had to stop and laugh.  Levi wondered what was going on so I showed him the results of the avalanche that had just occurred.  He wondered why that made me laugh and I replied that it was a stunned reaction - all of the snow I had just thrown up to the top had fallen back into the driveway.  Besides stomping my foot in a hissy fit, what else was there to do?

We are having a reprieve from the persistent snow and we even saw the sun (albeit very briefly) twice this week.  Maxine and I were snowshoeing this morning when the spots of blue sky showed themselves and we took every advantage of the brightness and held our faces up towards the sun.  I am sure that anyone watching would have thought we were crazy.  It wasn't crazy, it was our sun salutation...something I hope we can start doing on a more regular basis.

 On to the photos...

a heart

Another trip to the Bulk Barn was needed for this one.

kids

Last Sunday was the Polar Bear Swim for our winter carnival.  Pam's husband decided to make the plunge so I went along to watch and take photos.  While waiting for them to show up, I saw these kids playing.  I didn't want to be too obvious, pointing my camera at strange children, so it was just luck that I captured something interesting.  I love the look on the little girl's face.  The other child must be saying something quite interesting (although obviously not interesting to the little one).

V

See, there was partial blue sky last Sunday.  This tree is at Bellevue Park.

pink

This little girl was digging down to the ice we were standing on while watching the polar bear swimmers (well, Pam and I were watching the action, the little girl was playing in the snow).

fun

This photo reinforces the fact that fun can be defined very differently by different people.  These boys were ready for the swim and they look like they were planning on having fun with it.

And here they go...

love

I chose this because the couple looked so cute in their matching long underwear.  I figured they had to be very much in love to do this together.  I wonder which one had to talk the other one into the underwear plan.

wild card

I have a variety of photos for you this week...

First we have the scene that greeted me as I arrived at Bellevue Park for the polar bear swim.  I wondered how on earth I would be able to see anything, or how I would keep the camera dry since I had left the cover my mom made for it at home.

Then, as I got down to the water, the wind was screaming past and it did not look good.  Luckily, shortly after this photo, the wind died down and the sky opened up occasionally.

This guy's jump made me laugh with his long hair and beard flying upwards.  Does anybody remember Trolls?

And here we have something from our snowshoe adventure this morning on the Odena trail.

Happy Valentine's week everyone.

Donna's Week 5 - Timing is Everything.

I had a great week and we finally had some snow.  It only lasted about 6 hours, so I got up early to go to the dairy barn.  The best and worst part about photography is the morning light and the fact that you actually have to get up to see if the clouds are nice and if there is going to be a decent sunrise.  So, of course I did not get up early enough and watched all of the great light happen while I was driving in the car.  I got a few pictures, but the best part was the bacon and egg breakfast, made my Ma.  The second best part was the fact that it was Feb 1 and the first day of roll up the rim!!!  How can you possibly be discouraged when you are constantly encouraged to "please play again"

Close Up

During my walk a few weeks ago, I was fascinated by all the drops on the branches.  The top picture is kind of bla, but as I started to zoom in closer, I noticed that houses were reflected in the drops.  A little 180 degree rotation, some noise reduction and you get the bottom picture.  Way more interesting, I only wish I had actually planned it.

Primary Colours

I think Pam and I had the same idea for primary colours.  This is Zoe, my nephew and his wife's daughter.  We got to spend a few hours with her and her sister at the playground by our house last year.  I, of course, took my camera, the girls are sooo cute!  So, while Rob ran around making sure they didn't die, I took pictures.  I love the contrast between the pink on her dress and the primary red, yellow and blue.

Side Light 

On our trip this summer, Sharon arrived first to our Yellowstone campsite and rather than wait for us, her and Levi went to explore some of the thermal features. We agreed to meet at Old Faithful for the 9:30 pm eruption hoping to get some great sunset light.  Since Blake and I were late, we went straight to Old Faithful and ended up just making the 8 pm eruption.  As it turns out, this was the eruption to catch, by 9:30 most of the sun had set behind the trees. This is Old Faithful with great side light.

Kitchen Abstract

This one was hard.  I really don't take many pictures inside my house.  I did find this cool picture of one of our campfires.  Rob has great memories of camping as a child and I have always loved the outdoors. We have tried to instil this love in Blake and try to go camping every year.  When we go, we try to keep it pretty casual and these fires essentially represent our kitchen.  Apparently, you can't have enough hot dogs on a stick.  

Winter

These are the ice caves at Whitefish Point on Lake Superior in Michigan, oh and Levi too!

5

Sharon has this cool light table, that she uses for several different photo opportunities.  We used Blokus tiles and the light table for this shot.  I cropped in to get the number.

Wild Card

This is my favourite picture from Whitefish Point.

Have a great week!

Pam's Week 5: And the Sky is a Hazy Shade of Winter

Yet again, most of the week, the sky has been grey and dreary.  It started with a reasonably nice Sunday with Sharon and I taking Danica and her friend to Whitefish Island, celebrating each little ray of sunshine that dared peek through the clouds.  Unfortunately, the clouds won out for most of the rest of the week.  There was a bit of sunshine again today but it was so freaking cold out!  This truly was a good week for the "winter" topic.  In fact, rather than identify one particular photo as representing winter, I would like to offer that most of my photos reflect winter in addition to the secondary topic.

CLOSE UP

To be perfectly honest, until I read Sharon's blog post, I had totally forgotten that this was one of the assignments for this week!  Luckily, while we were at the Bon Soo bum slides this afternoon, I happened to snap a photo of my mother-in-law as I thought she looked beautiful with her face perfectly framed by the fur collar on her hood and her smile that reaches into her eyes.

PRIMARY COLOURS

Looking at the grey skies we'd had this week, I didn't think my original idea for this topic was going to pan out so I began to wrack my brain for alternatives (the Philippine flag, lego bricks).  Luckily, I had time to take Riya for a walk this afternoon while the sun was briefly shining and voila - photo as planned!

Of course, I also stumbled across this on our walk and it made me chuckle to think that I live in a place where we have to mark the fire hydrants in the winter as they are otherwise covered by snow.

Of course, my mother-in-law was also wearing yellow pants so if I hadn't taken such a close up photo, she would have also worked for primary colours!

SIDE LIGHT

This topic was slightly tricky given the lack of sunlight this week but I did manage to get a couple that I thought I could use for this last week.

Riya was sitting at the patio door where the sun shone onto the side of her face.

This is Danica and her friend at Whitefish Island last weekend.

KITCHEN ABSTRACT

This was actually the first photo I took last week and I have to thank Google images for the idea, though I did change the composition and angles.

5

So I immediately thought of my kids' 5th place medals when I saw this topic but then when Sharon was looking for a number 5 I began to worry that I was wrong.  I decided, though, that the topic sheet didn't specifically state that I had to find something that resembled the number 5 so figured I could interpret it however I liked.  I then considered taking a picture of a drink as it must be 5 o'clock somewhere, right?

And look at that - this medal of Duncan's had a "5" on the necklace of the medal.  Danica's didn't so I didn't photograph that.

WILDCARD

Or maybe these should be called "winter".  This is what Filipinos look like in the "winter" - Robert is actually wearing 2 winter coats!  See - Robert's mom could represent primary colours too!

This is a photo of the bum slides at Bon Soo - our local winter carnival.  There were 5 slides so I considered using this photo for "5" too.

I would be remiss if I didn't include a photo of Mr. BonSoo himself (or rather a wooden cutout of him with Danica as I'm guessing he was too cold to venture out there today).

There goes another week!  Looks like this next week is prepping us for Valentine's Day...Lots of love and luck to everyone!

Sharon's Week 5: The Early Bird Lucks Out

It has been a long week of working overtime yet still feeling that I will not be able to keep up.  After my development review at work in January, my goal was to get my assessment and discharge reports completed on time (90% of them between January and June) which means within seven days of the assessment or the last visit.  By Wednesday this week, I had decided to give up on that goal to keep my sanity...it's never going to happen.  I'm amazed at how freeing the decision to remove an unreachable goal can be.  I have been totally enjoying the weekend so far.  

It's Saturday evening and I am getting this blog post done a bit early since I am heading out for a cribbage tournament at my friend Heather's house.  I spent the afternoon making some munchies for tonight when perhaps I should have been refreshing my cribbage skills.  I haven't really played the game for a while and if I remember correctly, Heather plays cutthroat.  Note to self: count points twice before announcing score.

After last week's dearth of photos, I figured I had better get on top of things and I started with this week's suggestions first thing Sunday morning.  Later on, Pam and I went for a walk and I took the rest of the week's photos.  Then it all came to a screeching halt...not another single photo until a halfhearted attempt last night to photograph the Bon Soo fireworks.  I will give myself credit for even attempting the fireworks last night in the crazy cold, snowy, windy weather, but as it turns out, it wasn't worth it.  The wind made the tripod move during the long exposures, the fireworks were set off behind an ugly building and I was too cold to take the time to set up the camera properly.  I only kept two photos from the bunch and I will put one here at the end but don't get excited, it's nothing to write home about.

Here we go with the photos...

close up

The cats were lazing about Sunday morning so I got out my big lens and pointed it at them.  This is Cissy.

primary colours

I'm not sure why but the only ideas that came to mind were candy so out I headed to the Bulk Barn.  Sorry about the snake, Pam.

side light

We actually had a bit of sun last Sunday afternoon.  The sun means shadows and depending on the time of day, that means side light.

kitchen abstract

Levi decided on this one.  He wanted me to try some things with the cheese grater - shining light from the inside.  We couldn't quite manage that but since the sun was shining, we found reflections instead.

winter

After our almost three weeks of spring-like weather, we got some fresh snow last weekend.  Pam's daughter and her friend came with us to Whitefish Island and at one point Danica was thirsty.  What do you do when you are thirsty in the winter and don't have water?  Eat snow, of course!

5

As we crossed the bridge onto the island, I was admiring the cool melted ice formations on the stream and this "5" screamed at me.

wild card

This little fellow was happy to have the bird feeders filled up.  Can you see his little pink tongue?

Here is one of the fireworks shots from last night.  This is after I had shortened the shutter speed significantly to avoid camera shake but it resulted in sparky versus streaky lights.

And I'm off to play cards.  Wish me luck.

Donna's Week 4 - At the end of the week, all you need is a little "YIP"

Hello again, another full week at work.  I am actually enjoying the conversations and complex thinking.  Some things have moved along nicely, while some things are like I never left.  I have made it out to scrapbooking two weeks in a row and we started puppy training sessions yesterday.  Nothing like jumping back into life, with both feet.  I have likely spoken and interacted with more people in the last 2 weeks, than I did in all of 2016!  My coach and I are doing our best to keep me focused on what matters, balanced and in control.   Honour your strengths and what you need to do to get the job done.  Now, onto this weeks photo challenges.

Church Window

This is the lovely window of the Irving Memorial Chapel located in the Irving Arboretum in Bouctouche,  New Bruinswick.   Rob and I spent some time here in 2015.  Not the best picture, but the only one of a church window that I had.  As you know my goal for this project is to learn what I can do in Lightroom.  The first picture in this series is the original JPG.   The second picture has been cropped, turned to make it square in the frame, corrected for keystone distortion, dehazed, increased exposure, decreased highlights, increased shadows, and yellow luminance highlighted.  The third photo has been cropped further, shadows lightened more and clarity increased. Now that I look at it,  I could have rotated it a bit more to straighten.   What did I learn.  There are endless possibilities and you can get lost in your computer for hours.  I like the 2 final pictures... do you?

Happy Feet

Blake has always liked and been drawn to animals.  I always wondered if it was because we gave him more animal toys and books than car and truck toys and books!  I believe we gave him both as a baby, but since he liked the animal ones more, he got more of them over time. When animals are your thing, then the African Lion Safari is your place.  I cannot even begin to count how many times we have been there and every time the elephants are a big hit.  This little guy was in his glory surrounded by his sisters and mothers feet.   

Night

These moon pictures were taken during the Sept 27, 2015 lunar eclipse.  In the original photos the moon was just a little dot, even with my 250mm lens.  This is why we take pictures in large raw format.  Each picture is 12-14000Kb, but when you crop into them, you can still maintain the details.  You just need lots and lots of computer storage and RAM!

Oil and Water

I do not know if it was my lack of creativity, or the fact that it was time to take some pictures, but I could not find a single picture on my computer that would fit this category.  So, out came the tripod, my white foam core backdrop and a glass jar with water and oil.  Now, I don't have a nice macro lens, like Sharon, so I had to again, take a high resolution shot and crop in.  The oil and water pics on their own were quite boring, so I added little drops of food colouring to the top of the oil.  It wouldn't happen right away, but eventually the food colouring would break the surface tension of the oil and travel across the oil layer to the water and oil boundary.  With my new super cool remote shutter and my camera on fast continuous photo, I captured this awesome image of a drop just as it is about to reach the water and oil barrier.  The red in the water you see is from a previous food colouring drop and in the background you can see a blue drop that is just about to break the water tension.  

Starts with W

For this topic I went with a warm Waterfall picture.  Sharon lent me her neutral density filter, for a few shots at this waterfall, somewhere in the U.P. in Michigan.   Every time I look at it I have to pee!!

Barn

I chose this shot for a number of reasons.  One, I am tired of the pastoral farm pictures..really these are multi-million dollar family run businesses.  Two, the two bunker silo's in the front are what most farmers actually use to create and store feed in.  Their presence in front of the old tower silo's shows the gap between perception and reality.  And three,  I love the contract between the orderly black tires and white plastic versus, the fall leaves and hazy sky.

Wild Card

This one is for Sharon.  I'll bet that between the two of us, we took over 500 pictures of prairie dogs.  Some in Custer State Park, some in Badlands Park and some at the Devil's Tower National Monument.  The goal with animal pictures is always to get behaviours and these little guys have an amazing "Yip" warning behaviour.  I don't know how they decide who is on guard and who gets to eat, I guess if Sharon or I knew this it may have been easier to get the "YIP PIC".  As it was, getting the "YIP PIC" was just sheer luck!  Sharon, here is my best shot.

Whoa, sorry that was a long one.  Have a great week.

Pam's Week 4: Out in the Street, Out in the Street, Out in the Daytime, Out in the Night

We're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue, then we'll take it higher!

That's always been such a fun song to me and it's what pops into my head when I look at my 'night' photo this week.  An aside, I remember one day back in my youth (likely in the mid-90s sometime), my friend, Sarah, and I were at a bar (the River Rock) one evening and this song came on.  Needless to say, we were on the dance floor doing a little boogie.  These 2 guys came up to us and we think they were trying to pick us up but when they said "Do you guys like this song?  We've never heard it before but it's pretty cool", we had to break their young hearts as we'd been singing this song for 10-15 years at this point.

Anyways, let's get back to the point.  The pictures....I struggled this week.  Things that I'd hoped had settled down finally seem to be ramping up again but I am determined not to let it break me this time.  The lack of sunshine and endless grey days likely didn't help the situation.  Every day I searched for some blue that would help make some photos pop but alas, nary a blue sky was to be found this week.  The evening I chose for "night" photos was dreary and foggy but not a nice, cool, photo-worthy fog but merely a dreary, dismal, just cover up anything that could look nice fog.

On the upside - Robert has been able to trade his shifts again, no thanks to the workforce planning system/department, so will be able to attend the swim meet with us on the Family Day weekend.  We're all very happy, including some of the other swim parents who are rather looking forward to having a bartender with us on the trip as well as our friends and fellow swim parents who are trying to convince Robert to hold mojito-making lessons while we are away.

Enough babbling - let's get to the photos....


CHURCH WINDOW

When I mentioned to my parents that this was one of this week's topics, they reminded me that there is a window at their church that they dedicated in memory of my grandparents.  Today, realizing I hadn't yet taken a picture, I called my dad and had him let me into the church to take the photo.

HAPPY FEET

If you recall, I was given a gift certificate for a pedicure from my brother and sister-in-law (or future sister-in-law) for Christmas.  That would make for rather happy feet, however, Sharon and I haven't yet set a date for this event so my feet are not so happy.  In fact, I stubbed my big toe on something in the hot tub (rather lukewarm tub to be more accurate) at the hotel last weekend and broke my nail which makes them really unhappy looking.  Riya, however, has very happy feet when they are holding a rawhide treat.

NIGHT

The other night after dropping Danica off at Brownies, I set out to attempt to replicate a beautiful 'night' shot that I'd seen on facebook.  I went to the location but the dreary fog did not lend itself to the scene I was envisioning.  Almost giving up, I was driving down Queen Street, heading to the grocery store and decided to make an extra trip around the block so that I could take this photo instead.

For those reading who aren't from the Sault, Muio's has been a local favourite, famous for their broasted chicken since 1961.


OIL AND WATER

This would be this week's photo fail for sure.  I googled "oil and water" photos and attempted the set up and well, it just didn't work as planned.  I should get at least a C+ for effort though...

STARTS WITH W

Since my week began with a swim meet, the "w" word just seemed so obvious to me.  Somehow, it took Sharon a long time to figure out what I thought was so apparent.  She must have gone through the dictionary before I finally told her the word I used.  I did like her guess of "wine" though; perhaps she sees me drink that more...

My "w" word was Water.  Of course, "win" would also work as this is Danica swimming her 25 yard backstroke and she won her heat!  Actually, she got 5th place overall and beat the qualifying time for the state championships!  Duncan finally figured out how to dive so if we can get him to dive out instead of down, it should knock a couple of seconds off his times!


BARN

Tonight after the church window photo, I dragged Duncan and Riya out for a drive to find a barn.  Unfortunately, a snow storm was setting in and it was getting darker so there weren't very many options.  The ones I liked that we passed were either set too far back from the road or were located in places where stopping was not advisable.  Finally, as the snow started to get heavier, we happened upon this barn and snapped a photo.

WILDCARD

It was such a struggle to even get the assigned topics done this week that there were no extra "wildcard" photos to be found.  I decided to peruse some old photos, however, and came across this one that I've always liked.  It was taken at the Old Melbourne Gaol in Australia.

Looking ahead at next week's topics has me rather worried.  There are no brilliant ideas popping out at me.  Hopefully it doesn't end up as last-minute and unoriginal as this week....Happy week everyone!