Posts Under Photography Category
Sparklers = love
Because holidays also = love.
And spending time with friends and family = love.
Fireworks = love.
Long weekends = love.
You get the idea ;)
This long weekend was no exception.
It started and ended with sparklers.
On Canada Day (which was a Friday this year) one of my best friend’s had a pool party/BBQ/fireworks in her backyard, so The Boy & I travelled to Cambridge for the festivities.
She went all-out with Canada themed decorations (thanks to Dollarama – LOVE that store, seriously).
And of course, I baked (and brought!) stereotypically themed ‘Canadian’ cupcakes.
Moose, beavers, and red-and-white “eh?”‘s – very fitting for Canada Day, don’t you think? (more on those later)
They were a huge hit – her 8 year old son really liked the fondant top on the “eh?” ones. I have to admit, that surprised me a little, since fondant is an, uh, ‘acquired’ taste. I only like it in small amounts – I roll it VERY thin when covering cupcakes! It really shouldn’t have surprised me though, as I recall The Boy’s 4-year-old niece ALSO really liked fondant last summer when I used it on his birthday cake.
I guess kids like fondant!
Even my friend’s dogs loved the Canada Day Cupcakes – well, the look and smell of them at least; since they had chocolate – no tasting for you, puppies!
It was really hard to resist feeding that cute face. A nacho or two may have been “dropped”.
Of course, there were the obligatory fireworks (that’s a short video I shot on my iPhone) and playing with sparklers. I didn’t have my T2i with me, so the photos of fireworks and sparklers really don’t look like anything other than blobs of light. Unfortunately, there’s not much to be done with an iPhone4 when it comes to fireworks – but any other camera and you’re pretty much good to go.
Anyway, after experimenting with sparklers and long exposures on the fly (and on the beach!) last weekend during The Boy’s birthday party, it really made me want to try again – with a remote and tripod, this time.
So we did, a few days AFTER Canada Day – that’s where the top photo came from. The boy tried his hand at a few – he got his name pretty fast, and then progressed to trying words not appropriate for this blog.
Silly boys.
I also wrote my name. It took a few tries, and truth be told, watching The Boy successfully write his name. I needed to slow down – there was no need to rush, since we were using the bulb setting this time around (and not a timed setting)… yet I kept trying to write fast, as if I needed to beat a CLICK.
There were a few failed attempts at writing the word “Celebrate” (you try crossing a “T” with a sparkler!) and MANY failed attempts of me writing my name wrong before I finally nailed it, so we ran out of sparklers before trying anything else.
Sad, but what can you do?
Everything was closed by that point.
I’ll be trying some more light painting in the not-too-distant future, I’m sure.
“Dreaming of Summer”
52 Weeks: Week Fourteen
“Bring me then the plant that points to those bright Lucidites swirling up from the earth, And life itself exhaling that central breath! Bring me the sunflower crazed with the love of light” –Eugenio Montale
Anyone who knows me well, knows I have a thing about sunflowers. I also have a thing about bright, natural light – my dream house would have tall, long, wall-to-wall windows for maximum sunlight potential. Much like my dogs (ha!) I love laying in the sun, and my favourite time to take a nap is in the afternoon when the sun is high in the sky and slipping through the blinds across my room.
So, when I read the prompt for this week’s Focus52, I instantly knew that my photo would involve sunflowers, and natural light. I absolutly LOVE sunflowers, and have a number of fauxflowers decorating my room (which I pulled out of their arrangement to use for this shoot :).
Useless but interesting tidbit of info: sunflowers turn their heads to face the sun, hence the name “sun” flowers. And I mean, they’ve got it right – there’s nothing better than laying out, face turned to the sun on a gorgeous, warm, bright day. Except maybe doing so in a field of sunflowers (one day).
I choose this photo out of my favourites because it had a day dreamy, summery look to it with the flowers and the yellow – and heck yes am I day dreaming about summer; and even Spring (although it seems the latter is FINALLY arriving in my neck of the woods! Hope I didn’t jinx it ;)
Outtakes:
- #1: It was a tough choice between this one, and my main photo. I think I liked the other a tad better because I wasn’t paying attention to the camera, whereas this one… was all about the camera.
- #2: This was the original angle that #4 was taken at before I rotated it. Notable about this shot, I only cropped the sides and top – I accidently was lying too close to the camera and cut off my face. I meant to be fully in the shot, but ended up really liking it cut off.
- #3: This picture, believe it or ot, was SO dark I could barely make out the fact it was me – there was terrible backlighting in the room I tried. There were only 3 shots from this room before I gave up and move on. All I gotta say is I LOVE Lightroom and Noise Ninja ;)
- #4: My original idea was to take a photo at an upside down angle, and flip it. Although I really like this photo, it’s not quite what I envisioned – and I just LOVED the one I picked for my actual photo so much. This isn’t the end of this shot yet, though – I plan to try this angle again another time.
About 52 Weeks: I’ve decided I’m doing the 52 Week Photography Challenge this year. 52 weeks, one picture a week – each a self portrait.
—> PSST! Like my blog? I recently got Google Friend Connect installed, and would LOVE LOVE LOVE it if you would become a follower by clicking “join this site” if you like it :)
“She was told, if she folded 1,000 paper cranes the gods would grant her wish, she wished to get well, … She ended up folding 644 cranes before she died.” –Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata
I read this book when I was a little girl – I think maybe in grade two or three. I remember learning how to fold paper cranes, and we tied them to string and they dangled from the ceiling in the classroom and opened the windows – they blew in the breeze like they were flying away somewhere.
They say cranes live to be 1,000 years – and if you fold one crane for each year of their life your wish would be granted. The “she” in the story is a young girl who has leukemia after Hiroshima. She begins to fold paper cranes; and at first, she folds them to wish for life. But soon, she begins to wish for world peace and happiness after realizing everyone has hardships.
While she died before completing the cranes, her classmates and friends finished them for her.
It’s a story that sticks with you. And when I stumbled across the “1,000 Cranes for Japan” photography project, I knew I had to take part.
“I think it would be a beautiful show of support and love for Japan if flickr was flooded with paper cranes.”
There’s almost 900 photos in the group so far – so they’ll be reaching 1,000 any day now.
Other Crane Projects
Students Rebuild is collecting 100,000 paper cranes, and once they get them, they plan to weave them into an art installation. Even better, the Bezos Family Foundation has agreed to donate $2 for each crane they receive (up to a maximum of $200,000) to Architecture for Humanity’s reconstruction efforts in Japan.
The Miya Company is collecting photographs of 1,000 cranes to make a wish for continued strength, peace, and eternal hope for those in Japan. For each crane of the 1,000 they’re collecting, Miya Company will donate $5 to Save the Children for Japan’s relief and recovery.
If you want to make your own crane for one of these projects, I found a really great explanation with photos.
“One of These Things is Not Like the Other”
52 Weeks: Week Ten
…one of these things just doesn’t belong!
I’ve been meaning to paint my nails for a few days now, and had been planning on a glittery blue from the Opi “Alice” line… but then I got inspired for this week’s photo; and I love painting my toenails with really funky designs (one of my favourites is to make them look like watermelons!) – so I figured, why not put a fun twist on my nails for this week’s photo?
Volia!
This week’s photo was inspired by the prompt word “variety” in the Focus 52 group.
About 52 Weeks: I’ve decided I’m doing the 52 Week Photography Challenge this year. 52 weeks, one picture a week – each a self portrait.
“Aged”
52 Weeks: Week Nine
The prompt for this week’s Focus52 was “aged”, and I was inspired to recreate a childhood photo.
Out of the few I had on my computer, I decided to do a school “mug” shot from 1993. I’m not going to lie, part of the reason was because this was the ONLY outfit from my childhood photos I could possibly recreate on short notice without a shopping trip… seriously, my pictures are filled with plaid frocks, jumpers, puffy sleeves and giant collars. Thanks, Mom.
You can see the original photo below.
Bangs are courtesy of photoshop, and a stark reminder why I will never, ever try anything other than side swept bangs. I’ve been thinking about jumping on the bang wagon recently – nuh uh, no way! Thanks for the reminder 1993 :)
Original Photo (straight from 1993!):
***I’m playing catch up this week – I kept up with taking photos, however am behind on posting them as I was in Europe from Feb 17-March 3… and was sick the week after! And also busy sorting through and processing 1,250 Europe pictures – which I am still working on!
About 52 Weeks: I’ve decided I’m doing the 52 Week Photography Challenge this year. 52 weeks, one picture a week – each a self portrait.
