Week 25: Family Matters

mom and dad

I guess I didn't really ask my parents if I could do this topic.  I certainly didn't check with them when I put it on the list and I am not entirely sure if I made it clear they would be front and center on the blog this week when I pointed my camera at them on Father's Day.

What is it they say?  It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission?

Regardless of the state of my permission (or lack thereof), I love this photograph of my mom and dad.  They have been married for 53 years (in August), they raised four awesome kids (if I do say so myself), they have been loving grandparents to four amazing grandchildren and countless grandcats and a couple of granddogs.  I have been lucky enough to be part of their love and laughter my entire life.

I have had the privilege of living, as an adult, in the same city as my parents for the past 25 years but that is coming to an end.  As I write this, mom and dad are probably at the apartment packing up some stuff (or maybe they are taking a break and relaxing at the trailer instead) because later this summer, they are moving to Windsor to live with my sister.  I truly believe it is a good move for them, not least because Anne's new house (which she bought to have room for them all) has a pool!  Levi has said that next summer he might just move in with Aunt Anne and find a job in Windsor for the summer.  Wait a minute...there seems to be a bit of a trend here.  Seriously though, although Levi and I will miss our easy access to Grandma and Grandpa, I wish them all the best.  And we look forward to the summers that will still be spent at Mark's Bay.

Here they are, Gene and Elayne.

And I have been negligent again...not much else done with the camera this week.  

Last Sunday when we arrived at the trailer, a friend of my dad's was there with his dog Lily.  She was so cute, I had to get out the camera.

Today we headed up the highway for a drive and some hikes.  It was supposed to be hot and sunny.  It was hot, yes, but not sunny so I didn't feel like taking any scenery photos.

This is Levi at the Pictographs.  I never go out there.

And here is a frog at Katherine cove.

Soon after we left Katherine Cove, thunder rumbled and the first few drops of what would turn out to be a torrential rain started to fall.  We drove home from Old Woman Bay with the windshield wipers flapping like crazy while listening to the latest Rick Riordan book.  All in all, a good (but not photographic) day.

Week 24: Just What Makes That Little Old Ant...

an ant's perspective

He's got high-igh-igh hopes!  Now is everyone singing along with me?

Well, I am not happy with my effort this week.  I was doing well for the past several weeks; thinking of ideas, getting out and trying them and I was generally happy with the results.  This week...not so much.  I didn't even load the photos on the computer until today and when I looked at them, I realized that all my photos are very similar in composition and subject matter.  Oh well, tomorrow begins another week (hopefully a week that is a little less hot and muggy).

This topic came from a book I read years ago (I am going to make a fairly confident guess that it was one of my Bryan Peterson books).  The idea is to change your perspective and shoot from down low...very low.  That's where I got the idea for the tulips a few weeks ago.  

Let's begin with the ant himself.  He is helping my peony bloom.

If he was able to crawl all the way to Hiawatha, this is what he might see.

Then I think he might find some folks having a picnic and invite himself along.  Thanks for the idea, Pam...it was too hot to spend much time on it today so it isn't very exciting.  I should have set the table with my picnic stuff and put out some food in the background.  Okay, everyone just picture that yourselves.

Of course any ant in my household would head to Whitefish Island.

And off topic, last night I finally saw some ducklings up close.  Pam and the kids and I enjoyed the cooler evening for a bit at Bellevue Park.

Oops there goes another rubber tree plant.

...and now you're singing it again.

Week 23: Annie Get Your Glasses

camera motion blur

I enjoy doing this motion blur type of thing...both when the object is moving and when the camera is moving.  This week was all about the camera moving.  I tried a few different things - panning, moving the camera in different directions and zooming during the exposure.  It is very difficult.  I am just not very steady with the camera at the best of times let alone when I am moving at the same time.  I just looked at the numbers on my photos and I see that I took 240 photos and kept about ten of them - that's how hard this is!  Sometimes the motion blur looks good and sometimes it just looks like a bad photo.  Sometimes there isn't really something nicely in focus but it doesn't matter and sometimes it does matter.  Anyway, here are some of the ones I decided to keep.

I popped over to Maxine's earlier this evening to drop off a lemon loaf that didn't come properly out of the pan so I couldn't put it in the bake sale tomorrow (she bought the less-than-perfect loaf) and her lupines were in perfect bloom.  I think this is my favourite of the photos this week.

Fergus came out to play.  I don't love this photo but it was the best of the bunch.  Like I said, this is very difficult.

On Thursday I actually had time to have lunch in Blind River so I headed with my pulled pork sub (yay, it's back!) to a little park and played a bit.

This was in the parking lot of the park but it reminded me of driving on the highways during the summer...AKA construction season.

One of my bleeding hearts...

And my Mother's Day pansies.

Okay, now go shake out your eyes so you can focus properly again.

Week 22: Cuteness Overload

spring babies

Let me begin by saying how absolutely awesome it was to sleep until 7:00 this morning!  I can only assume that all the birds are dead and the sun rose an hour and a half later than usual.  Woohoo!  Imagine the things I can accomplish today after a full night's sleep. I might tackle the gardens full of grass, bake for a fundraiser next week, clean the house...who knows what might happen.  But I will begin with this blog... and then maybe start reading Girl on a Train.

I wasn't sure about the timing of this topic since I can't predict when the ducks and geese are going to have their babies and when they feel like proudly displaying them to the public.  It turns out the timing was perfect.  Last Sunday since I was up (see above re: sleep issues), I headed to Bellevue Park to see the babies in the morning light.  I didn't think of the fact that the park is closed overnight and doesn't open again until 7:00 but the security guy was there early and I got in at 6:45.  The fog was beautiful (as you will see) but that also meant that the mosquitoes were out.  I hadn't thought to bring bug spray with me but I soldiered on.  The baby ducks (there were 21 the day before when I was there with Amanda) were hiding first thing but I found a few geese.  Later the ducks came out but they stayed so far out in the water that I couldn't get a decent photograph.  I headed to Whitefish Island to see if there were any babies but there were not.  The only baby photos I have for you this week are goslings.  Even though the blog topic is over, my search for cuteness is not...I may have a baby duck or two in next week's installment.

Although this first photo is not in perfect focus, it is my favourite.  The daddy goose was keeping a close eye on me while I pointed my camera at his babies but mama was just sitting there.  I'm not sure if the babies got tired of the click-click-clicking of my camera or if it was just time for a cuddle, but they waddled up to mama and pushed themselves up under her wing then popped out on top.  I laughed out loud and startled a passing dog walker.  I have never seen this before, despite my yearly pilgrimage to the spring babies so this is my photo of choice for the week.

These two made me laugh.  I imagine that the older brother is reassuring the younger one that it was going to be okay, he could do it, just jump.

This family swam past me just before I left.  I waited for them all to be looking in the same direction and they obliged.

And here we have some fog.  See the bridge?

More fog.

And a spiderweb in the fog.

At Whitefish Island, the bullfrogs were having a very loud conversation...almost loud enough to drown out the birds.

And it was lilac week (they are already turning brown all over town.

That's all for this week.  Have a great Sunday everyone.

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.