366 of 2012 - Day 19

366 of 2012 - Day 19. Spot the squirrels. I don't know what they were up to in this tree. There had been 3 of them, chasing each other around. I don't know if they were fighting, playing or... well, that other thing. It was the coldest day in ages, so it could be they were just running around trying to keep warm. I like them much better in the trees than crawling into the walls of my house then getting trapped, dying and stinking up the place.

The shots below were taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 on Auto. They turned out not too badly, given I was shooting through a layer of plastic, through a dirty sliding glass door and at the trees a house or two away.

This shot was altered in Photoshop. It was cropped quite a bit and I made a silhouette effect by over adjusting Levels and Curves in Photoshop. Before alterations, the photo details are: f/4.5, 1/250 sec., ISO-80, 30mm, max aperture 4.34375, pattern metering, no flash.

This photo, below, is the same as the one above, with the adjustments to Levels and Curves hugely reduced.

I like this shot too, maybe because of the snowy evergreen tree beside the tree the squirrels are playing in. Details are: f/4.5, 1/250 sec., ISO-80, 30mm focal length, max aperture 4.34375, pattern metering, no flash.

366 of 2012 - Day 18

366 of 2012 - Day 18. No more cell phone food pictures. I did two. I'm done. It's snowing today. And it's wickedly cold! I'm talking relatively here, since it doesn't generally get very COLD in the lower mainland of BC. We're expected to break records today (for our area) in terms of temperature. It's expected to get anywhere from -15C to -20C with the wind chill (that's nearing 0F for your Fahrenheit inclined).

This shot was taken just outside my front door as the snow was starting today. It's a SOOC shot (straight out of the camera), with adjustments only to size and adding text, which I do in Photoshop.

Shot with my Canon PowerShot G12, on Auto - f/2.8, 1/30 sec., ISO-200, 6mm, max aperture 2.96875, pattern metering, no flash.

366 of 2012 - Day 17

366 of 2012 - Day 17. I really, REALLY don't like cell phone pictures. Well, not MY cell phone pictures, anyways. But Picaboo's challenge, this week, is to take a cell phone photo with the theme of 'hungry'.

My family makes THE best dill pickles. Seriously. My Grandma F had the original recipe, I think, though it may have come down several generations from either her family or my grandfather's.

I took this with my actual cell phone - a... uh... an old Samsung something or other. It's a few years old. It's a PRL, I think. Like yesterday, I'm not especially fond of this photo either.

366 of 2012 - Day 16

366 of 2012 - Day 16. I'm not a fan of cell phone pictures or pictures of food, generally, but Picaboo's challenge for this week is 'to take a photo with your cell phone', and the theme is 'hungry'. Weeb had hot chocolate after school today because it's snowy out and it's her reward for eating her whole sandwich at lunch (parenting at its best). I took the shot with my iTouch. It's SOOC, except for cropping to 72ppi and adding my signature.

366 of 2012 - Day 15

366 of 2012 - Day 15. I'm a bit late to the Bokeh party. It was the Picaboo theme for Week 1 of this year. I don't have a DSLR camera, so I didn't have any luck getting any shots of our Christmas tree lights using a Bokeh effect with the tutorial provided. It didn't help that we'd taken down our Christmas tree the day before I joined the Picaboo 365 Project, so I didn't really have much in the way of 'pretty, light-y subject'.

Luckily, as I was driving home from my folks' place Saturday night, someone on their block still had lights up, so I stopped the car, turned around and parked across the street from the still wonderfully, light-y decorated home.

Yup, (wait for it...) I thought I'd give it a shot. *snicker*

So I tried every automatic setting, hoping I'd get a decent blur. Took me a while, but I think I finally got it. I set my Canon PowerShot G12 to the Automatic P setting, which I have learned is the Program setting. I didn't actually program anything. So basically I just fluked out. Winning!

Above: Shot with Canon PowerShot G12, set to "P" - Program (using default settings), f/4.5, 1/6 sec., ISO-1600, 30mm focal length, max aperture 4.34375, subject distance 560 mm, no flash. I cropped the shot quite a bit, using Photoshop. No other alterations to the shot.

Above: Shot with Canon PowerShot G12, set to "P" - Program (using default settings), f/4.5, 1/6 sec., ISO-1600, 30mm focal length, max aperture 4.34375, subject distance 560 mm, no flash. No alterations to the shot, other than cropping to 72 ppi and adding text.

Above: Shot with Canon PowerShot G12, set to - actually I'm not sure. It was one of the automatic settings. I know it blurred a bit and I moved the camera to see what would happen. Shot is f/4.5, 1 sec. exposure time, ISO-800, 30mm focal length, max aperture 4.34375, subject distance 4.3 m (not sure why this is different than previous - I was still in the car), no flash. No alterations to the shot, other than cropping to 72 ppi and adding text.

Above: Shot with Canon PowerShot G12, set to - actually I'm not sure. It was one of the automatic settings. I know it blurred a bit and I moved the camera to see what would happen. Shot is f/4.5, 0.8 sec. exposure time, ISO-800, 30mm focal length, max aperture 4.34375, subject distance 5.9m (not sure why this is different than previous - I was still in the car), no flash. No alterations to the shot, other than cropping to 72 ppi and adding text.

Above: Shot with Canon PowerShot G12, set to Auto, I think. Shot is f/4.5, 1/15 sec. exposure time, ISO-6400, 30mm focal length, max aperture 4.34375, subject distance 4.6 m (not sure why this is different than all previous - I was in the car the whole time - maybe I adjusted the zoom?), no flash. No alterations to the shot, other than cropping to 72 ppi and adding text.

366 of 2012 - Day 14

366 of 2012 - Day 14. I actually took this photo yesterday and quite liked it, but had another I wanted to use for Day 13.

This was the view from my car in the morning as I was heading to work. That glowing ball in the sky is the moon, not the sun. The sun was starting to rise, behind me.

Shot on Auto with Canon Powershot G12, f/4, 1/25 sec., ISO-800, 18mm, no flash.

366 of 2012 - Day 13

366 of 2012 - Day 13. This poor rhododendron bud was loving the warm weather then the frost came. Looks pretty though. Taken today outside of my office with a Canon PowerShot G12, f/2.8, 1/30 sec., ISO-200, 6mm, no flash. Applied Unsharp Mask in Photoshop.

366 of 2012 - Day 12

366 of 2012 - Day 12. Frost on the Periwinkle vines outside my house around noon today. Shot with Canon PowerShot G12, f/4, 1/30 sec., ISO-160, at 6 mm, no flash.

I moved the camera just slightly and got this alternative shot. I quite like them both. As usual, 72ppi doesn't quite do justice to the photos, though with the one below, it helps out since it appears a bit blurry at a higher resolution. Shot with Canon PowerShot G12, f/3.5, 1/30 sec., ISO-160, at 6 mm, no flash.

366 of 2012 - Day 11

366 of 2012 - Day 11. Wonko's Ukulele. I thought I had some good pictures of frost on my car windscreen this morning, but sadly, everything I tried to take photos of did not impress me.

I took this with the Canon PowerShot G12 on Auto settings. Looking at the details, it's f/2.8, 1/13 sec., ISO-1600, taken at 6mm with pattern metering (that's a default, isn't it?). The flash is off because I never use my flash, except accidentally. I need to get into the habit of checking these details. Maybe it'll get me into the habit of manually applying the settings.

366 of 2012 - Day 10

366 of 2012 - Day 10. I took these first couple shots of mesh crown that belongs to my daughter (I wear it more than her, but I really know how to work a mesh and ribbon crown!). As usual, these are taken with my Canon G12 on Auto. I found the camera really struggled to figure out where it wanted to focus and though I really like this shot, and the one below, I have realised that I need figure out how to focus on a specific area of the photo before snapping the picture.

I have a couple dozen shots of this beautiful polished slice of Geode. It's quite pretty, but it's so polished and reflective, I couldn't get a good shot without a ton of reflections, which I didn't like. The crystals stand out nicely in this shot, though it does not do the gorgeous layers of rock any justice!

I took this shot of the moon this morning. It's not great. There is zero focus, but I still like how it looks against the clouds.

366 of 2012 - Day 9

366 of 2012 - Day 9. Weeb doing her homework and Seagull in muddy / snow goose destroyed field. Both shot with Canon G12 on Auto, because I'm not really feeling inspired today.

366 of 2012 - Day 8

366 of 2012 - Day 8. I don't know what these bushes are. The berries are both red, but with one, the berries are scattered and on the other, they hang in little clusters. Taken with Canon G12 with Auto or Foliage settings; I can't remember.

The first shot, Levels, Curves and Unsharp Mask were tweaked with Photoshop. The second shot is SOOC, except for the text.

366 of 2012 - Day 7

366 of 2012 - Day 7. I'm pretty sure these are mushrooms. They're growing in the bark-mulch outside our complex. If they aren't mushrooms, then they're something considerably more gross. Taken with a Canon G12 on the Foliage setting. This is a SOOC (straight out of the camera) shot. Well, except for the text and size reduction.

366 of 2012 - Day 6

366 of 2012 - Day 6. I have no idea what this plant is. I'd go so far as to say it is NOT a blue berry bush, despite the rather blue berries on it.

Plus I ripped my fingernail today. It hurt.

Both taken with Canon G12 on Auto, though I think the berries shot was set to Foliage. I played with Levels and Curves and Unsharp Mask in Photoshop for both. I cropped the finger nail shot quite a bit.

366 of 2012 - Day 5

366 of 2012 - Day 5. I prefer close up shots (I do love the Macro feature on my camera), but I couldn't pass up a chance to snap this display of Snow Geese as they... flocked? Swarmed? I took the photo from my car using a kids/pets setting on my Canon G12. I did some tweaking of Curves, Levels and Unsharp Mask in Photoshop. And as always, reduced to 72ppi, it isn't nearly as impressive as it is at a higher resolution. Though truth be told, it's not FANTASTIC even at a higher resolution, but it is slightly interesting, so I'm going with it.

SNOW GEESE 2012

If it looks like a duck and sounds like a goose and is destroying your kids' school field, it's probably a Snow Goose in Metro Vancouver in January.

Snow Geese, as it turns out, are not all white. I don't know why this surprises me, yet it does. I haven't had an opportunity to get as up close to these birds as I did today, walking to pick up my daughter from school. We'd gone out looking for them last weekend, but saw only Seagulls, and though the gulls were there today, they were hugely outnumbered by the Snow Geese.

It is much easier to navigate Seagull poop on school walkways than it is to avoid Snow Goose poop. I did not include a picture. You're welcome.

These geese completely destroy school fields. You can hear sounds of... cannons? They must be some kind of cannon or air rifle, because hey, this is Canada and we don't really do the gun thing around here unless we're in some kind of gang. Goose gang? Anyhow, you hear these booming noises coming from some fields and then moments later, the sky is littered with Snow Geese by the thousands as they just move to another school field. I've heard them honking over the house for the past two afternoons. I'm glad I brought my camera with me on my otherwise dreary January Metro Vancouver stroll.

This shot does not do justice to the field of white in this school field. There were a LOT of Snow Geese.

366 of 2012 - Day 4

366 of 2012 - Day 4. Raindrops on the cedar tree outside the house. Still raining in Metro Vancouver. Shot on Auto with Canon G12. Cropped slightly, adjusted Levels, Curves and applied Unsharp Mask in Photoshop. I also attempted to adjust the Exposure. Mostly I like the result, but it seems a bit too shiny somehow. Should have used the tripod.

366 of 2012 - Day 3

366 of 2012 - Day 3. It's January in Metro Vancouver. It's raining. I'll have to read up on how to best take pictures of rain drops in puddles, but for now, this isn't too bad. As always, a higher resolution would be better, but I don't like posting high resolution photos online.

EDIT TO ADD:

Hm. This may have been better if I'd altered it to black and white. Oversharpened, I think. I wanted the rain rings to stand out, but the rocks in the pavement stand out too much as a result. Here's the Black and White version.

366 of 2012 - Day 2

366 of 2012 - Day 2. I'm not the kind of woman who believes that my husband needs to buy jewelry for me to prove his love. I do not NEED diamonds. I don't even WANT diamonds. But if my guy is going to buy me diamond earrings for Christmas, I'm going to gush and burble, because, darnit, I do LOVE sparklies!

366 of 2012 - Day 1

It's been a while since I blogged about anything. I thought I'd start the new year with a plan to take and post a photo a day for 2012. We'll see how long before I feel like it's a chore and then drop it like another chore I don't need.

Day 1 of 366 - The Pink Ukulele. This is a SOOC (straight out of the camera) shot (aside from the text). Shot on Auto, because I still don't know how to use my camera (Canon G12). It doesn't look as good at 72ppi, but what does? I still can't bring myself to post higher resolution shots online.

Weeb and I bought a ukulele for Wonko for Christmas. We actually bought two, with the idea that we would learn to play with him. We had him unwrap the pink, sparkly one first. It made us chuckle. He didn't think it was terribly odd since he has a hot pink, electric guitar already. I'd forgotten about that. Oh well, it made me and Weeb laugh, plus now I have a pink, sparkly ukulele. I can play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Look out world!

FIRST SNOW AUTUMN 2011

We had a snow fall last night. Not a huge amount, but enough to still be on the ground in the morning.

Weeb and I rushed out to enjoy it before the rain washed it away.

WIND STORM

There was a big wind storm today. I don't think I've ever been in wind this strong. Weeb and I had fun blowing bubbles, but it was so cold and the wind was nearly knocking us down, so we came in. Much of the city has been without power most of the day.

Some trees in Weeb's school field did not fair the wind storm well.

This sweet gum tree snapped off right at the ground. With it down, we had a chance to take some up close shots of the spiky fruit/nut thingies.

At least two other trees were snapped nearly in half. It was quite a sight to see!

FROSTY PERIWINKLE

When Little Sicky and I headed out this morning to buy some cough medicine, it was 2 degrees (35.6 F) and there was frost on the complex rooftops and the cars. My car was enshrouded in thick frost that required I 'get my elbow into it' to remove from the windows, much to my daughter's delight. Why scraping the windows is so funny to her, I'll never know.

Below, my car antenna; it was a frosty fun-land of crystals.

There was frost in the Periwinkle Patch.

There was a frosty Periwinkle in the Periwinkle Patch!

JUNCOS AND SPARROWS AND TIBBS, OH MY!

We have loads of these little birds near our house. I thought they were chickadees until I was showing Weeb pictures of chickadees, online, and realised they were totally not.

I'd never heard of a Junco until now. But that is what they seem to be.

These photos were taken through our (dirty) sliding glass door (while I was sitting on the couch), so I apologize for the dirty blur, but they are cool little birds. They were teasing me most of the morning, too, flitting away as soon as my camera focused (as well as it could through the grime).

The bird below is a sparrow of some kind. They share the big tree behind us with the juncos.

Tibbs was not impressed with the feathery teasing. This is my excuse for leaving the windows dirty - so the birds know they are safe from the evil fur beast that is Tibboh the Terrible.

DAY OF THE DEAD 2011

Dear Crazy Neighbor,

You have often proven your instability by doing things like making quacking noises while alone in our complex pool, and playing the same Justin Bieber song over and over and over again at absurd volumes (so glad we share a townhouse wall) in the middle of the day or just after normal kids our childrens' ages would be going to bed. You're a grown man, listening to Justin Bieber. There is something very wrong with that.

The loud and equally strange fights you and your wife have are also keeping you high on my crazy list - but my family and I thank you for no longer having them at 2AM. Your decision to throw an assortment of frozen vegetables on the ground outside the drivers side of your car may have been a kind offering to the birds or perhaps one of your children dumped some lunch left overs (much to the horror of the guy who parks next to you on that side - he also thinks you're insane, by the way, and he's not exactly the picture of normal either!). You are the poster boy for Unstable.

Today, Fever Girl (day 4) and I were heading to the parking lot on the way to get lunch. When Fever Girl finally has an appetite, she can have whatever she wants and she wanted Chicken McNuggets. As we got to the car, we realized that you had added to the Halloween decorations that are still up in front of your house.

I get that it's Day of the Dead in Mexico. I get that several other cultures have similar celebrations around November 1st and 2nd. But you are as white as I am. And what you added, though cool Halloween decorations, are not especially Day of the Dead-ish. They are more 'added two days after Halloween because I am a total and complete nutter'-ish.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that perhaps you just got these on sale and are displaying them for your children to observe as they get home from school. Perhaps it's another demonstration to your wife that you are completely insane and should be back on your medication. Nah, I'm just going to continue to believe you are a full on nut job.

And you need a boot to the head.

NaNoWriMo - OFF TO NO START AT ALL

It's National Novel Writing Month. I signed up to NaNoWriMo, the goal being to write the first draft of a 50,000 word novel.

I signed up a couple of weeks ago, confident the universe would push me in a writing direction. I have NEVER had problems with becoming inspired. I've got several ideas in my head and I knew the universe would guide me to one of them.

But it didn't.

I've never had writer's block before. Granted, I haven't made much time for writing in many years and being a working mom of a primary school kid, I haven't beaten myself up much for not making it a priority as I had other things that needed tending to more with the little time I have.

I have made peace with the fact that I am a mediocre writer, at best. I have made peace that the grand stories in my head will mostly never be told and certainly won't be told in a manner that is as awesome as they are in my head. Maybe these stories are just meant to be my own personal daydreams. I'm okay with that.

But I am a bit disappointed that I'm off to a bad start. Beyond the fact that my child is on day 3 of a fever over 101 degrees, the husband is sick and I'm fighting off something in addition to digestive and anxiety issues this past few months, I just feel disenchanted somehow.

Perhaps the challenge was a matter of 'bit off more than I can chew'. I wonder if would have been different if I were a stay at home mom or my daughter was older. I used to write so much when I was younger. My dreams weren't as shackled by having a family AND a job. I was unhappy and pouring my dreams onto paper was very therapeutic. Am I too happy now? Am I making excuses?

All I know is that it is the first of November and I've still got no direction, no hint of where I should be going. I'm worried that my dreams are fading. Maybe the stories don't need to be told after all.