Near miss with Easter Dinner-The magazine made me do it!!!

I'm blaming it all on Style at Home Magazine. Okay, maybe it's not fair to lay ALL the blame at it's front door. In hindsight, I believe it was a combination of a number of elements that led to the near disaster of Easter Dinner being super late. All right- my "photoholic" tendencies took over at some point that afternoon in combination with my propensity to wander from one action to the next. My creative juices had been stirred by the magazine cover-plain and simple- it was a cosmic chain of events leading to the near disaster.

I guess I should begin at the beginning...(always a great place to start!) It was this past Thursday, a busy day in the grocery stores, everyone buying "stock piles" of food before their holiday weekend feasts. Therein lay the first "catalyst". Me in a grocery checkout line is never a good thing. My eyes wandered from heaping cart to heaping cart and then rested on the cover of Style at Home. The beautiful soft hues of blue, pinks and creams seemed to call to me.."Pick me up! Pick me up!" (Enough with the theatrics. ) Like every second person in line, waiting for their turn at the cash resister hoping for some sort of reprieve from the noisy chaos, I leaned over to the magazine rack, grabbed the magazine that promised me some sort of feeling of "calmness, relaxation with a breath of Spring" and began to flip through the pages. I then found myself placing it beside my pile of groceries, chalking the purchase up as some imaginary "health and well-being" expense.

The magazine spent the night resting comfortably on my kitchen counter. Every now and then I'd glance at the cover and sigh. Why was I sighing??? I thought about it quite often the next day as I prepared to have my extended family of 10 over for dinner that evening. As I wrapped the potatoes and made the salad I began to think about what to do as a table setting. That's when it happened-I'm sure of the moment now- Dinner had just taken a bit of a detour!

The cover of the magazine seemed to inspire me-Hummmm- pink, blue, and creams..... I don't have a lot of the "fancy" items showcased in a lot of the magazines, but I did have a few nicknacks that could pass. I took out my cream linen tablecloth, and a faded plaid blue and green relic of a tablecloth from a few years back. I had been given a beautiful bouquet of bright pink colored Gerbra's just a few days before and I had a collection of "flea market" inexpensive milk glass vases hiding in a pantry. They would do just nicely for what I had in mind. As I arranged the table and stood back to observe the room I was instantly "struck" by how beautiful the side light from the patio doors were illuminating the milk glass and the flowers. That's when the "photoholic" tendencies kicked in!

Yes, sad to say, that's dinner on the counter, (Above), sitting ontop of the stove, sadly forgotten over the next couple of hours that afternoon.

The next couple of hours were not only an experimentation with lenses, light, angle, and still photography but a self-realization that as much as I love this type of photography -it's excruciatingly painstakingly, detailed and difficult to do. Since January, I've been on my own as a photographer and not in the constant shadow of a mentor to whom I can constantly barge with photography related questions and glean valuable "how to" information from tagging along with on shoots. I've had to search out other avenues of learning. The best I've found - Just try it and learn.

The following day as I edited through the images I learned a lot. I was a little disappointed with the results. I learned I need to look for details as I photograph. I got sloppy- focusing on light, not the details filling my camera's frame. Details like, ripples in the tablecloth, crooked lines on mirrors and picture frames, etc. all went unnoticed till I edited. Ultimately the goal is to give the client the perfect Full Frame resolution file.

Most important of all, I realized what the "sigh" was all about. I remembered that not two years ago in a photography class -when I was asked what my dream photography job would be- I said I'd like to work for Style at Home/House and Home and do that type of photography. LOL. I have a lot of practicing to do till I get it right!

Don't worry- Most stories end well-and I'm happy to say I came to my senses and did remember at the very last second to get the potatoes into the oven, off of the stove. Supper was a bit delayed - I didn't say why. No one knew or would have guessed. Well, alright- maybe those who love and know me the best would have clued into the "tell tale" tripod sitting in the corner of the room. If they did, they didn't say.

Thank you to "Style at Home" for putting together a beautiful publication that can inspire individuals both personally and professionally! Special "Hats off" to the photographers that do commercial work for magazines such as this! Oh, by the way, I did look into one photographer's work, Virginia MacDonald (she was mentioned in the magazine.) I enjoy her work-click on her name and check it out!

Looking for the Light and Colour at 4 p.m..

"I'm on the way to the grocery store" I yelled down from the kitchen at my son and his friend playing Rock Band in the basement. As I grabbed the grocery list off the counter I noticed through the windows of the back door, a flash of brown walking by the deck. Curious, I moved to the window and found  two Does and a Buck in my back yard. Hummm... I put the grocery list back down on the counter grabbed my camera changing to my telephoto lens. Part my my mind kept saying, they will be long gone-but hey, I had to give it a try. I went out the front door and around the back of the house and let myself out the back gate into the "back bush".  I stood  quietly in the tall grass (at times taller then my head) and stood  waiting, hoping to hear a tell tale rustling that would give me a clue as to their whereabouts. As I stood there in silence I began to think. That Buck had  a good sized rack, he was with Does, maybe this wasn't such a great idea, not to mention all the other scenarios, skunks, foxes, and all the other rodents living in the tall grass where I was standing. Nobody knew I was out there, I was suppose to be GROCERY SHOPPING!!!

 I didn't panic (I surprised myself) -it was way to peaceful standing there in the tall grass listing to the rustling in the small breeze. And as I moved to change my spot I noticed something else. A gleaming, a glitter, tiny spots of light dancing off the tips of the grass as the sun began it's decent in the sky. The tiny shiny specs changed as I moved up or down or to the side. Only in one spot could I see the beautiful glitter. I wondered could I capture this on film? I played with the exposure, stopping down in half stops. It was one of those  photography moments where you actually need to remind yourself to breath. (I know I'm not the only photographer that holds her/his breath when taking the shot hoping for absolute stillness)  Considering I was in tall grass in the back bush with no one knowing where I was- hyperventilating and possibly passing out was not an option. As I photographed, I also noticed how the colours appeared to be on the screen. Whites where coming out as soft blues and the oranges seemed so pronounced. I slowly (about a half and hour later) made my way back to the house and back inside to drop off the camera and reclaim my grocery list. My son came running up the stairs "So what did you Buy??" he said with enthusiasm. 

 "Some quiet time" I replied over my shoulder as I walked out the door to complete the task I had originally set out to do an hour before. Those deer will have to wait for another day..

Working it out! Fitness and the Photographer.

So a new year has begun, and all the New years resolutions are made and just about forgotten only 2 weeks into the month! As some of you know my  19th wedding anniversary was on Jan. 1st. What did I get as  a gift -a ready for this - a TREADMILL! Okay, if you know anything about me you would know that working out is about my least favorite thing to do- I think having my teeth repaired ranks above it(Yeah- that bad). It's not like I'm really bad at sports- I think it's safe to say I have natural ability to learn or play a sport-my issue is more with conditioning. I wasn't sure how to take this type of gift- insult or love? I know it's something my husband wanted and I am now sure (after about 2 weeks of consideration) that it was a well intended gift. I know I need it. I think I probably left clues about needing it over the last few months of school. What gave it away? Perhaps the red face and me trying to catch my breath every time I walked up the 3 flights of stairs to the photography school????!!! In all fairness I was toting about 18 lbs of gear and books up the stairs too! ( I did weigh it on my scale, I really thought it was closer to 50 lbs!) Another clue Henry may of received was the longing gazes as I looked through Daryl Benson photography book, Canada, that I got for Christmas. He has all these amazing landscape shots where Daryls camped out beside waterfalls and in wooded areas. This type of photography would require much exertion and I can imagine my 18 lb load and 3 flights of stairs would pale in comparison to hiking up a mountain carrying probably 50 lbs of gear. Dawning in Ebonie's brain- good photography- need for working out! I also had that realization this week as I shot Mandy's still life assignment and ended up in a convoluted position on the floor, my feet up in the air against the wall, in order to shoot some shots of my lucky bamboo from underneath- Some Yoga might also be in order! (Seriously I won't tell you how long it took me to get out of that one!)

With good intensions, I approached the treadmill with a little hesitation-wouldn't you - the front looked like I was on the flight deck of the U.S.S Enterprise!

All those knobs and dials- After about 30 min. I discovered the  O incline, 0 time, and 1 km/hr buttons....

With it's resemblance to sand paper, I think this would hurt if I landed on it- I'd better hold on...

I have one of my instructors to thank for my approach- Some how photographing it 100 different ways, eased me into a comfort zone of actually wanting to step on it and try it out. I think my inspiration will be to maybe be able to, one day, go on a shoot where my new found photography skills and my ever increasing physical abilities will collide in some cosmic whirlwind to create the shoot of my life!-I wonder if Daryl Benson does field trips???