365 / Day 12 ~ Summer at the Cottage

Saturday, July 31, 2010

We enjoyed a couple of days at my families cottage this weekend. I must say that it is a lot more work with a toddler these days and not quite so relaxing as it was before children however well worth every little bit of the experience to see how much they enjoy being surrounded by nature.

Below is a portrait of myself taken by my husband Matt. I metered before hand and changed the settings and post processed the image after. I am not a fan of getting my photo taken very often but really like this one, messy summer hair and all.


Here is a little green world under foot near my favorite quiet spot up at the cottage. I love moss and the moss bokeh in this photo was the perfect green background for this little piece of nature.



Even Aspen went for a swim. Despite being a water dog this will be the second time in her life that she has actually gone in far enough to do the doggy paddle and like it. She got spooked by waves when she was a puppy with her first lake / water experience.

365 / Day 11

Friday, July 30, 2010

A fairly easy day so far. The girls are in a good mood, I am well rested and we are all looking forward to spending time at the cottage with family this weekend. I took some snaps this morning of the children. I always have photos of my children up for our day to day activities. I finally captured a sweet photo of my friends' daughter this morning enjoying a freezie. I love her eyes in this photo, they are such a beautiful colour.




My little lamb was being cheekie and cuddling our garden frog.

365 / Day 10 ~ Sidewalk Chalk

Thursday, July 29, 2009

What a challenge it is to chase after a couple of one year old girls to take a portrait. One in particular, not mine, is so busy that I can't even focus before she is onto the next thing. I am only going to share some detail shots of this mornings photos. I am going to have to do a computer clean up soon and start purging photos to make room for more. Shooting in RAW has its benefits but also acts like a sponge to my computers memory.

365 / Day 9 Evening Light

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

This project has proven challenging already. When we got home last night from celebrating a family birthday I almost forgot about it. It was 9pm so the lighting outside was nearly non-existent and I was too tired to get my flash so there is a lot of noise. Note to self, look for a good noise ware program one day soon to try out. A photo of our furry family member enjoying a drink from the fountain and a rose from our gardens. I thought I would add a texture to it since there was so much noise. An excellent way to recover a photo and make a work of art.

365 / Day 8 "An ordinary day"

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Today was a daycare day. I couldn't resist taking this snap of the three girls all sitting on a timeout together. There was a little pushing and hitting going on from all three of them that merited it. It would seem like one would start and the other would run over and get in on it by just randomly acting out. They were giddy from dancing to music and that can sometimes get a little out of control. They sure did get a kick out of being on the step at the same time.

I also had the chance to do some treasure hunting today. I ordered my very first 16x24 some time ago of the girls from one of their summer sessions and have yet to find a frame for it. I spied this in a thrift shop and couldn't resist. This frame is much more ornate then what I am used to however I felt I would try it out anyway and if I didn't use it I could try something with it for a photo session. I think it is growing on me already but my husband is a little unsure. It is just so nice to see them up on the wall like this. The photo really feels like a work of art. I decided to trim it down to a 16x20 since the size is hard to find a frame for in the end.

365 / Day 7 ~ "White Delight"

Monday, July 26, 2010

I almost forgot to take a photo yesterday but had 5 minutes alone and took some snaps of our garden in the evening. I love these flowers that have filled the flower bed with such a soft glow the past few weeks.

365 / Day 6 ~ Morning Light

Sunday, July 25th

I woke up to a calm and silent morning with both of my girls on the last day of our trip in North Bay for our family reunion. It is so hard to chose which photo to be a part of a 365 project, I am sure I will add some more here from Sunday since there were so many great memories!

365 / Day 5 ~ "A time to say goodbye"

Saturday, July 24, 2010

North Bay, the place my dreams sometimes take me of distant memories in my childhood. Fun times, idyllic and happy. Family. Love. A place where a child can run barefoot, catch butterflies and frogs, pick wild berries, explore, learn to fish and swim. A place where we would often stay for summers and enjoy the endless days with our grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It hasn't changed much over the years. The grass and trees are a little taller, the cottage more worn and tired, but overall, the feeling hasn't changed...I have.

This weekend we congregated with our family for a reunion of sorts and to say a final goodbye to my mom. To put her ashes at rest with my grandparents and uncle. It overshadowed my Ottawa trip unfortunately but worked out to be the best weekend for most everyone that was able to join us. My girls really enjoyed being with family and feeling like part of something bigger.

I feel kind of like a photo geek for bringing along my fancy camera but grateful all the same to be able to come home with some beautiful shots of a place I have many childhood memories of. We managed to get there at around 5:30pm on Friday night to be greeted with the best happy smiles and squeals of delight from Madison when she saw us. Both girls were so well behaved while we were away, unless our family are keeping secrets from us ;). I am so glad they had some bonding time with both their Grandma and Grandpa Black and my aunt and uncle for the car ride up there. I took so many photos of the old barn we used to explore and of the lake, the girls and our family. I managed to get a mini TTD session of my niece in her formal dress. She is a beauty! I was having a tough time deciding which of all the photos to share for my 365. I will be doing a separate post this week of my niece on my photo blog though. I am trying to get samples of teens and she fits the category. A little diversity for my website ;).

365 / Day 4 ~ "Blue Eyes"

Friday, July 23, 2010

We had a lovely visit with friends during our stay with them in Ottawa. Matt more then myself since I was at the photography workshop but it was so nice to see them again. I unfortunately came down with a migraine after the workshop on Thursday that I couldn't do much visiting that night :(. A little wine and me don't go very far these days. All it took was a couple of glasses at dinner the night before and I wasn't myself all the next day. I did manage to squeeze in a mini session with mom and her beautiful blue eyed boy before heading out again for the second part of the workshop and then continuing the last leg of our trip to North Bay to meet our girls! I missed them so much that I teared up when I heard Abby's voice over the phone that morning so I was eager to get there.

Here are a couple of snaps from our mini-session for my 365.

365, Day 3 ~ Workshop Fun!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

For my 3rd day of my 365 I had the opportunity to attend Amber Shereen's newborn posing workshop in Ottawa. I took a ton of awesome photos during the workshop of the little models she provided and the poses she demonstrated for us. She is a true baby whisperer and an excellent teacher! Thanks Amber if you read this!

Here is a little smile I managed to capture of such a gorgeous little princess and her mommy that I think I will include for my 365. The angle isn't the greatest from where I was standing but who can resist a newborn smile. I am sure I will get the chance this week to post many more on my photo blog with a write up of my experience, but for now...

365/ Day 2

Wednesday evening, July 21, 2010

I was exhausted after our drive to Ottawa. It rained on the way up so my ambitions of stopping along hwy 7 to take photos of the country side were put on the way side. I nearly forgot to take a photo at all before heading out to dinner with our friends and took the opportunity to grab a snap of their beautiful little boy while he was about to get his dessert. He is such a sweetheart! This is by no means an artistic photo but an attempt to make sure I see this 365 out before it begins ;).

{Bare with me while I catch up on uploading. It is on a card that I haven't had the chance to upload.}

Alas, 2 months later I finally came across the card with the one photo I took when we got to our friends in Ottawa. This photo was of their son about to get dinner before we headed out for a night out on the town. Isn't he adorable?!

365 / Day 1 ~ "New Beginnings"

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010.

A beginning to something creative and challenging. No particular reason but to see simple things in life that inspire a vision. Bare with me as I find a special spot to post these posts ;)....

I have decided to start my 365 today since this week I am going to be very busy with my camera. I am really excited to meet and learn from a very talented photographer named Amber Shereen in Ottawa this week and attend her newborn photography workshop. I absolutely love her work and her newborn photography is amazing! I will be armed with my camera to take some photos of her little models she provides in the poses she demonstrates and learn a thing or two about the business side of photography. While I am in town I hope to do a family session for my husbands very close friends of whom are so graciously letting us stay with them for a visit while we are there. I am really looking forward to meeting their little boy again. The year has just flown by to fast! You can find their maternity session from last summer here. I wish we lived closer to do their newborn session.

Now for my very first post for my 365! I couldn't resist taking these when I saw this little nest our neighbor's girls had found at the park. A beginning of something special and simple and beautiful and so soft.



Something new blooming in our garden this week.