Day 39

The lights of Sackvegas are shining tonight! lol

Day 38

I fell again today. Not nearly as bad as last time, though. My foot slid forward on a patch of ice (that I didn't see because I was looking up at my intended subject, the gazebo), so I ended up in a Tebow-like kneel. And I scraped the whole toe of one boot all to heck. Very upset about that.

Anyway, ou can have a bonus shot today, as well. Aren't you lucky? :)

Day 37

I got to meet Taralynn's new niece, Emma, today! But I can call her my niece, too... right? Marriage, schmarriage - we're together, and I consider her relatives to be mine as well.

I love you, baby Emma!

And look at the booties we got for her!!!!

Day 36

"Curse your sudden, but inevitable, betrayal!"

For those of you who have no idea what this is about, please watch this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znxFrgql5dc

Then you should go watch the amazing-but-short-lived TV series called Firefly (only 14 episodes) ... and then watch the movie Serenity to finish it off. Okay? It's fantastic - trust me.

Day 35

The Headless Mouse-keteer!

This cat LOVES blankets. He wants to crawl under them wherever he can find them. Sometimes he's even tried to dig his way under/into our baggy sweaters or pants if he thinks they're blankets... so silly.

Day 34

I saw these bubbles in an iced-over puddle down by the lake today. I thought they were pretty cool!

Also, I think there is actually a tiny snowflake on one of the bubbles, if you zoom in!

Day 33

My Bailey makes his debut on the 365 blog! For those who don't know, he is from the same litter as Bear Mountain and Mouse, and their mother is Cuddles (click their names to see their photos). He looks like a bit of an outcast compared to those three pure white kitties, lol. But they're all so pretty :)

Day 32

Today's photo was inspired by the following lyrics from the band Aberfeldy:
"I like the way that you dance when you're in your kitchen. Your body's rockin' and your moves are bitchin'!"
~"Vegetarian Restaurant"

You can listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX-IBhj8D-w

Day 31

And here's today's post. Yes, still from last night's show, but it's totally legit because Day 30 was taken before midnight, and this was taken around 2:30am! Success!!

I feel bad that I don't remember who this was. I haven't been out to a show in a very long time, so there were a few kings and queens who I'd not seen before. If anyone can enlighten me, please do! I will credit her properly :)

Update: Her name is Fashionista! And she did an amazing Liza Minnelli number earlier in the evening!!

Day 30

This is my first post that I've done a day late. I went out last night to a great drag show (called "Halfway to Pride" ... any excuse to celebrate, right? lol) and I didn't get home until 3am. My apologies for the late update. I was a very tired bunny this morning!

In this photo you can see the legs and high heels of drag queen Farrah Moan, who was also the night's host, and the sneakers of drag king Smith Ryan. I don't remember what song they were doing, but it was good!

Today's post will be up in a minute :)

Day 29

The wildly popular handheld-phone-in-mirror-duckface-photo ... did I do it right??

Hahahahaha, I crack myself up. Hope y'all had a silly Saturday night like I did!

Day 28

If I haven't mentioned my craziness before, I'll mention it again. Today it snowed. Like crazy. But I decided to get all bundled up on my last break and go out in the flying snow with my precious camera and a rose that I happened to have with me (lol), and take some pictures. And here is the result! I like the contrast of the red against the snow :)

Day 27

This is Bear Mountain in the tub. The composition of this shot is not so good, but it's the best I could do in the circumstances. Bear Mountain jumped into the tub, so I grabbed my camera. I didn't have anything to stand on to make me taller, so I pointed my camera over the top of the shower curtain... but then I couldn't see the screen to know if he was in the shot. So I got out a hand mirror and held it in my other hand so that I could see the reflection of the screen in the mirror. Way silly, but I do what I gotta do :)

This is another picture of Bear Mountain from tonight. We were hanging out on the bed, and he spotted something on the floor. He got real low and started wiggling his butt, so I set my camera to 'continuous shooting' and got ready for his leap. When he took off, I held the shutter, and heard it click 3 times. This was the first shot, and the next two didn't even have him in the frame at all - he's like Flash kitty!

Day 26

I saw the warm sunset colours outside the window on my last break, so I put on my coat and went out! I like how this car is smiling at me, hehe.

Day 25

Sometimes... I like to pretend I can Irish Dance :)

Here's another take:

Day 24

This was taken out my bedroom window this morning. The condensation formed some cute little circles... and somehow... half of a heart! Or, at least that's how it looks to me :)

Day 23

This photo is lit by candlelight! I use this little notebook to write down ideas for photos, including quotes, song lyrics, and anything else that sparks my imagination.

Today's photo is inspired by a piece from Newspaper Blackout. This site is pretty cool. You take an article from a newspaper, magazine, book, etc, and blackout the unnecessary words with a marker so that the ones you leave visible create a short poem. Awesome.
Y'all should check it out :)

Day 22

"Lend me your eyes; I can change what you see"
~ "Awake My Soul" by Mumford & Sons

These are all the cameras I could find in the apartment! All are mine except the grey Canon on the right, which I bought for Taralynn for Christmas. From left to right, we have a 35mm Olympus that someone from work gave to me second-hand (haven't used it yet - it's film), my Canon SX230, my Canon Rebel T2i, my TTV Brownie with contraption, my iPhone, and Taralynn's Powershot. Yay, cameras!!

And here's an outtake :)

Day 21

I think this is my latest post yet - midnight on the dot!

My hand looks odd in this photo - kind of lifeless and a bit creepy, lol. That wasn't my intention, but oh well. I didn't do much editing at all on this one; I sharpened it up a bit, but that's it! The colour was just right :)

I also got a few more that I wanted to post as well. Just cause I was having fun, and why waste a good shot?

This is what I have to put up with during my shoots - tromping through my "set"!


And this is a TTV shot I tried.

Day 20

It snowed today!! It started around 3pm, but didn't get too bad until after 5. When I left work at 6:30 the snow was swirling around everywhere and I took a few pictures in the parking lot before getting a drive home (thank you, Jody!!). This is the snow falling in the beam of light coming from her truck's headlight. I thought it looked pretty cool.

Day 19

This is Cuddles! The mother of our other three cats. She's the tiniest, and the only girl, but she'll whoop them in the blink of an eye if they even look at her wrong. She's feisty and often cranky... but we love her.

P.S. Her name relates more to how she interacts with people. She loves people, just not her babies.

Day 18

"A deedle-eedle ett-dee-dee ... I've got to get out of heeeeeere!"
Ever see those Travelocity commercials with the gnome? Taralynn loves them, and she painted this guy at the Clay Cafe last summer :) Looks like he's finally on his way!

Day 17

Full moooooooon!

This is the best moon photo I have ever taken :) My other ideas for today's photo didn't work out as well as I'd planned, so I might try again another day. But after my little shoot I looked out the window and saw this - not too shabby! I wonder what it's like up there......

Day 16

"Have fun. And if you can't have fun... have someone else's fun."
lyrics from The Beautiful South's "Have Fun"

And that's what I did. I went over to an empty park near my apartment and played on the swings. But some guy at a house beside the park came out on his balcony to smoke and decided to lean on the railing directly facing me.
For the entire duration of his smoke session.
I don't know why he wanted to have a staring contest with me, but it was super uncomfortable. I stared right back, though, lol.

Day 15

I love fog! It's very foggy tonight, so after our dinner at May Garden I wandered around our apartment parking lot and found a little path leading to the church next door. There was a street light in the church parking lot and it looked pretty cool through the bare branches along the path.

Day 14

I know this photo looks similar to yesterday's, but I have a bit of an excuse.

So this morning I got off the bus a stop early and went down to the lake again to re-try some of the shots I took yesterday and wasn't quite happy with. The sun was shining and the snow and lake looked so pretty! I wandered around and took a few photos and then I wanted to go down to the small beach area to get a few more. The beach is lower than the rest of the park, so there are a few cement steps leading down there. I stepped on the first step (which turned out to have a sheet of ice under the snow) and bounced on my left hip down each step and slid to a halt in the snow at the bottom.

Somehow my brain was wired to protect the camera at all costs (it's my baby), so my right arm stayed high in the air as I fell and the camera was unharmed. Whew! Unfortunately, I can't say the same about my body. I have a very large, dark bruise on my thigh, which is about 6 inches long and a few wide.

I suffer for my art, guys. I hope you appreciate it, haha.

Day 13

Quite a difference in weather between yesterday and today. We got a big dump of snow! I got all bundled up on my last break and went down to the lake again to get a few photos because it was just too pretty to resist.

Day 12

So.... I think today's post is rubbish. Literally.
I was trying to find something interesting to shoot while on break at work. I wandered around the parking lot (in the freezing cold and falling snow!) and I got to the back corner of the lot, where there is a path leading to the residential street behind. There was no-one around and I saw this banana peel on the ground and decided it was the best thing I could find. I bent down and started taking pictures at various angles... and within 2 minutes FOUR people had come down the path (separately) and seen me looking like a fool, taking pictures of a banana peel in the snow.

Am I a fool... or just very dedicated? Sometimes I don't know, lol.

Day 11

I took a walk across the street during my lunch break and look what happened! It certainly pays to take a break and look around :) (well, not literally - I don't get paid for lunch breaks)

But I also loved the photo below and couldn't decide which one should be today's official 365 winner... so I'm posting the runner-up, too. I think this may turn out to be a pattern with me some days...



Sometimes I wonder if I should be post-processing or editing my photos, and what the reason for it is. I never used to do anything to my photos - firstly the thought didn't occur to me because I was young and very new to photography, but once I knew about it, I wondered if it was somehow "false" or making something that "wasn't there".

Now my opinion is that
a) Even if it is somehow creating something that wasn't there, why is that a problem? Creation is wonderful and is the basis of all art. Why do something or show something the same way it has been done or shown before? You need to show it in a new light or with a new perspective, or do something to it to create a new form.
b) I don't feel that I am making something that wasn't there (that's just in my photography so far - I have seen other photographers do this with great success). Many people would have looked at that puddle and gone "Aaaahhh!" and stepped around it, forgetting it as soon as they passed. I looked at that puddle and saw the image you see above. However, my camera did not see exactly what I saw. It came close, and got the essential image for me to work with, but it needed some tweaking to get it right. I edit my photos to show you how I see the world, because everyone sees it differently. I see lots of beauty, and I can't be selfish :)

Day 10

Just doing a bit of reading... :)

I got a lovely eReader for Christmas, which I'm very excited about. I used to read tons of books every summer vacation, but now I barely read novels at all. And I miss it. So I've decided to get back into the habit! I can take out library books with my eReader, which is awesome because I don't want to pay for books (I rarely read a novel more than once).

And I've made it to the double digits! Woot!

Day 9

This Taralynn's little nephew, hiding under the bench from Uncle Kenny. I took a few photos while we were at Kenny and Jasmin's for dinner, and I was trying to decide which one to post... so I've put 2 more below, just cause I can :)
I had my camera on monochrome the whole time. It's fun to look at things in black and white; it gives everything a much different feeling...