Week 21: Take Time to Reflect

reflections

I had high hopes for this one again this year.  Last year, all of my reflections were from the water and I put the topic on this year's list with plans to use other surfaces as well.  The weather and timing didn't cooperate though, so I was left with only water reflections, which I took on Victoria Day.  I love long weekends!

Yesterday I tried a photo that I have wanted to try for a long time.  I couldn't find the two original photos (one in a book and one in a magazine) that gave me the idea so I didn't have step by step instructions to get the set up correct.  After a bit of fiddling, I think I got everything organized but it was way harder than I thought it would be.  It might have been my subject matter or the distance between foreground and background or the aperture I used or any number of other things.  It was hot yesterday and after several attempts, I called it quits and decided to try again on a cooler day.

This is the one I liked best (although I wouldn't say I actually like it).

I had first tried with one of Levi's Archie comics.

Here are a couple of photos of the bridge...

I know it's just a pile of grass in the pond but the shape is kind of cool and I like the leaves floating on the water.

The shore isn't very pretty but. it looks nicer in reflection

The forget-me-nots were out in full force.

And there were some tiny little strawberry plants in the morning dew.

The pretty yellow flowers lined the path.

A sparrow singing right to me and only me.

It is trillium season.

This apple tree was just beginning to bud on Monday.  What a difference a few days can make...now most of the trees are just past their prime and the petals are carpeting the ground in many places. Hot and rainy weather does a lot for Mother Nature.

That's it for this week.  Next week calls for baby ducks and geese and I saw a whole slew of them this morning so I can't wait to get out and play with them.

Week 20: Take Time to Stop and Smell the Flowers

a flower

It's too bad that this topic follows so closely on the heels of last week's flowers for monochromatic but I love flowers and flowers are one of my favourite subjects to photograph so it's really not a problem for me (maybe just for my sister).  

Our tulips came up at Bellevue Park but I was so busy again this week that I only managed to squeeze in a half hour there on Tuesday evening.  I wasn't able to get to Whitefish Island to see if the forget-me-nots are out and I didn't get a change to check out Maxine's yard to see what is blooming there.  Fortunately we came to Windsor for a couple of days and Jackson Park is a beautiful space not too far from Anne's place.  This morning after my necessary trip to Chapters, I stopped at the park and despite the light drizzle, I managed to track down a flower or two.  I was hoping the apple blossoms would be out but they are only just starting.

Tomorrow we head up to Rich's place for my niece's grade 12 graduation.  She is one smart cookie:  she has a full scholarship for her four year undergrad and she has already been accepted at Wayne State for the pharmacy program.  I imagine that has to be dependent on doing well in her undergrad, but still, way to go, Morgan!

 We begin with tulips.  This was taken at Bellevue Park.  Dad, notice all the pretty yellow flowers in the grass.

The tulip beds were much thinner than in previous years and one of the beds looks like it was abandoned altogether.  The half hour I had available ended up being enough time.

Need a rest anyone?

There were also a couple of trillium in bloom at Bellevue.  I plan to head to St. Joe's Island Monday to do some serious photography with them (along with some serious bug spraying).

There was one group of tulips still in perfect bloom at Jackson Park and they had such an interesting shape and lovely colours.

I don't know what these will be but they look interesting.

These flowers were scattered throughout the gardens.  I don't know what they are.

I also don't know what these are.

Here are a couple of views of a lilac on my sister's front yard.

This next photo is kind of what I had in mind for the green monochromatic photo for last week.  It's not quite right, partly because there are coloured flowers in the foreground and partly because the greens are so close in colour now that everything is almost mature, but you get the idea.

Week 19: Life is About Using the Whole Box of Crayons

monochromatic

I remember putting this topic in for this week with the goal of capturing all of the different colours of green in nature during the spring.  I love driving around and seeing the so very many different greens as the trees bud, the grass matures, farmland recovers from winter and flowers begin to poke up out of the ground.  The timing didn't work out for getting that shot this week but if I catch it in the next week or so, I'll include it later.  I may have to switch things around for the next few weeks as Mother Nature makes herself difficult for me.

I considered switching topics mid-week when I realized there was not yet enough green in the hills but I already did some photos for the topic, beginning last Sunday (yay, me!).  I started out with a trip to the Bulk Barn, for which Levi gave many thanks, followed by a visit with my parents for Mother's Day.  I wasn't expecting to get any monochromatic shots while I stalked the birds around their campsite but as you will see, I was happily surprised.

Today the grocery store had flowers on sale.  I picked up some that looked all green figuring I could use them for a photo.  When I got them on the light table, the green disappeared except at the tips of the petals.  I am using this anyway because I really like the photo and in real life, those petals are green.

The flowers were buy one bunch, get one free so I picked up some daisies as well.  I know the photo as a whole is not monochromatic but the petals against the light are as is the center with all its greeny-yellows.

It looks like I had a thing for red this week.  First we have a strawberry marshmallow.

Next, some really yummy jelly beans.

Orange is one of my favourite colours.  

I have monochromatic cats.  Rest assured that Eclipse was licking Bella, not attacking her.

At one of my schools this week I was working in the preschool program room (which my back was not happy about) and I noticed this...

I'm sure it is not the small kiddoes who put the crayons away in this manner.  I am going to make a guess that one of the staff is type A.

This evening grosbeak is in fact yellow but the shading from the orange feeder made him also look orange.

This purple finch is pretty monochromatic on his own but if you look carefully, the branches also have a purple hue.

This next shot is in no way monochromatic...I just like it.  These are pine siskins (identification thanks to Levi's birder friend Christopher).   They are fighting over the feeder like there is only one seed left.

It's mid-May already.  I can't believe how quickly the time is flying by this year.  Make sure to take time to enjoy life.

Week 18: It's All About the Environment

environmental portrait

I knew when I put this on the list that it would be a difficult one that would challenge me but I was enthusiastic when I made the list, I guess.  I had grand ideas about reproducing some great environmental portraits that I have seen in photography books...the oil rig worker in all his gear and full of grease with the machinery behind him, the very old Asian woman selling her produce at the market, that awesome photograph of the firefighter in Alberta surrounded by smoke...the list goes on.  The reality is that I am not a person who will approach strangers and ask to photograph them - no matter how sternly I talk to myself about it.  I considered people I know who would make interesting environmental portraits and came up with...nothing!  Perhaps my creativity and imagination are lacking.  As a last resort, I made Levi pose for me.  Well, pose is a bit of an overstatement...I asked him to do what he usually does at home when there isn't anything else going on...hang out in his beanbag chair with his technology.  Voila - an environmental portrait of a teenager.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I did tidy up the books beside him.

Note both the phone and ipad in use at the same time.  Usually the ipod is involved as well and often the computer is the main item of interest.  To give him credit, Levi does a lot of writing on the computer, his ipod only has audiobooks on it and he watches documentaries on his ipad.  The phone is the least useful screen he has and he rarely uses it (I know, not quite a typical 15 year old).

Another sort of environmental portrait of a cat being where she is not supposed to be - on the desk.

And I made a quick trip to see if the tulips were in bloom at Bellevue Park.  Only one was and it was just past its prime.

The daffodils were lovely.

As were the weeds in the grass...

When I got home and was chatting with Levi and Murray outside, we were buzzed by a butterfly so I stalked him with my long lens.

That's it for this week.  Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.