Moncton

I'm in Moncton, New Brunswick tonight and had an interesting moment visiting an indoor amusement park after I grabbed a bit to eat. The park was practically empty save for a few kids and adults enjoying the rainless indoor fun.

Vintage carousels, and swings were mostly empty and the garish fun of such a place was the perfect setting for me to wander with my camera....myyyyy camera.....???? ohhhhh Crap... left it in the hotel room when I decided I was going to leave my shoulder bag there for the evening since we were "Just going out for dinner"... sigh. PERFECT and I MEAN perfect photo opportunity GONE. I was annoyed with myself. Still am.

One thing I SHOULD know by now having spent many a day/evening hanging with my friend Mike and having him TELL me the same thing is: "NEVER GO OUT WITHOUT YOUR CAMERA!!!" yeahhhh...fine. You win.. Lesson learned... stupid me.

Now I DID however get some really great pictures of the world's longest covered bridge in Hartland, New Brunswick. Plus some really fantastic portraits of my sister, and my parents...and the obligatory "WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE WE NOW!" Christmas portrait. This year we've decided to shoot several of these on the trip and then we'll all pick the best one (can you tell my family is obsessed by design, details and good imagery?... we must all work in a magazine or something.)

Hoping to get some great scenary shots tomorrow as we cross from New Brunswick into Prince Edward Island on Confederation Bridge. We're definitely stopping to snap some pics there!

More soon...

I'm a Litte Tired

It's been a busy week.

My 2009 is filling up really quickly it seems. Between shooting photos, editing photos, reading about shooting and editing photos, my job, volunteer activities, hanging out with friends, and just doing all those every day normal things like eating, coffee drinking, laundry, house cleaning and what not, I think I'm going to be a busy gal!

This is good.

A dating relationship that I was in for a number of years, ended over two years ago now. I've dated a bunch of guys in the mean time, but nothing that's lasted. It's tough to be single and watch those around you quickly meet wonderful guys and form lasting relationships.

Now what I'm NOT saying is that photography is filling a void in my life or that I'm desperately wanting to date someone.

No, in fact I'm realizing that even if I wanted to date someone right now, there just isn't the time to put any effort into it. That's great! All those late night phone conversations, dates, worrying, anxiety...effort... is being funnelled into something productive. And even better... a life goal; one that doesn't depend on someone else to make me happy.

I can shoot pictures for myself, when I want to, or when I've set aside time to shoot for someone else. It can be at midnight, middle of the day or early in the morning (uh that one's probably not going to happen often). I don't have to please photography. I can't let it down. It won't get upset if I'm late. It doesn't get annoyed if I'm in a crappy or whiney mood. I don't have to cook it dinner or worry if it really cares about me.

All that is really cool!

Even though I'm tired or maybe even borderline on exhausted I'm happier than a clam.

More soon...

Lessons I've Learned

Okay, I thought I would continue the lessons learned part of my last post on another day, but I'm feeling like I need to wrap a few things up in the next few weeks before the next stage begins and so I'll post them now. (Yes, I'm being deliberately cryptic :D).

Further things that I learned in the last year:
-To stop saying "One day I will ______" and just start doing ______;
-That practice may make perfect but sometimes perfection is elusive;
-Digital allows you to make mistakes over and over and over again until you figure out the right way to do it;
-Film is so underrated;
-Patience may be a virtue but I love getting results now;
-When you love a hobby you don't care how much time you spend obsessing over it;
-That it helps to have charged batteries when taking pictures;
-That it also helps to have empty memory cards when trying to take pictures;
-Flickr can become a great way to get praise: "Love my photo! Please tell me it's as great as I think it is! Hello? Anyone?"
-You can have more photography related magazines than you have time to read and still keep getting more;
-Suddenly you critique every picture ever made right down to the ISO, how the model did or didn't flex her foot, or the post work on her left eyebrow;
-Although I've never met them, I have weekly meetings with Kelby, Hobby, McNally, Prihoda, Talkington, Jarvis, Laforet and Ziser;
-Being nervous as hell is okay, just remind yourself that you know what you're doing;
-Making mistakes is all part of learning. Keep screwing up, you'll keep growing;
-Lens envy is a very easy disease to catch;
-So is camera envy;

But most importantly I've learned to shoot what I love.

More soon...

My Story

So the story goes like this.

I've always taken pictures, not usually of people or friends, but whenever I would go somewhere I was out taking pictures of the places, the architecture, the things I saw, what was happening around me. My parents would often comment "Weren't there other people there with you?"

I can recall going to an art festival at the cottage one year, and seeing these awesome black and white photos of trees in the mist. "Very cool," I thought, "but I could take that same picture, if I had a good camera;" and that's where I'd always left it.

One day at work a really nice camera arrived. I was super jealous of this really nice camera, but really excited because now I had access to a really nice camera on evenings and weekends. I would beg and borrow this camera drag it along to places when I could and even had the chance to do some really wicked shoots for work with it. But it just wasn't the same as having my own.



Then in March of this year, a few areas of my life all met roadblocks. I was looking for a creative outlet and had been joining a friend on several photowalks around the city while he worked on his photo-a-day project and then it hit me: "Put up or shut up!" I told myself.

I called my friend to meet me for lunch and to help me pick out my new camera. Linda, as she would later be called, came in a bright gold box that said D80 on the side. It was the happiest day of my life! Uhm err...okay probably not THE happiest day of my life, but it was pretty darn exciting.

This has led to many really awesome photography experiences over the last year.




I've shot:
-Zombies looking for brains downtown Toronto
-Hundreds of people bashing others with pillows
-An air race in Windsor
-A wedding
-The youth group I volunteer with on a retreat
-An independent fashion show
-A Soling regatta in Kingston, ON
-An auto show
-Friends and family for fun, Christmas cards and websites
-LOTS of architecture

I've learned:
-How to use my camera's light meter (haha)
-How to make a stick-in-a-can
-How to use studio lights
-How to get my flash off camera
-What bokeh is...and that out of focus does not equal bokeh
-How to obsess over every magazine, book and new product on the subject
-How to spend more money on photography gear in my mind then in reality
-That Starbucks sleeves make for fabulously cheap snoots
-That it doesn't matter how expensive your camera is or how many megapixels it has, you can still make beautiful photography.
-That any light source really counts as "natural" light...cuz it's still light right?
-While shooting movement, triple tapping your shutter usually brings something cool and unexpected on the second or third frame.

I've learned a lot more than that...and maybe that's another post for another time.

More soon...