Time to Smile

Take52 Challenge – Week 5

After a week of chaos, I was looking forward to claiming this weekend for myself.  I left all of my marking and prepping for school at school!  This is a rare occurrence for me.  But it was time to find some balance.  It was time to do something that brings a “smile” to my face. 

After an early night to bed on Friday, it was up early on Saturday.  I was to spend the morning with a friend snowshoeing.  I was uncertain as I left the house and drove through the dense fog to pick her up.  The fog was so thick that I could barely see more than a car’s length ahead of me.  As I drove up the hill the fog began to break.  And it became clear that it was going to be a gorgeous day with beautiful scenery on the mountain.

Less than 30 minutes later we were parked and making the long trek up the hill (road) to the trailhead.  You have to understand the mountain was so busy that the actual parking lots were full, and we had to park approximately 1 km down the hill from the trailhead.  I was going to be about done, before we even started.

Once my feet hit the snow and the snowshoes were put on, I was in a whole other world.  I was in a place of pure happiness and relaxation.  It’s this that brought the “smile” to my face.  It was time to take back my time and claim it to myself.

After some trekking, and a little break to find a geocache, something else I haven’t had the opportunity to do in a while, we reached the summit.  Amazing views of the mountains and views of endless fog blanketing the city surrounded us. 

Aperture Priority; ISO 250; Shutter 1/4000; Aperture f13; Focal Length 35mm; ev -3.0; WB - Daylight

Aperture Priority; ISO 250; Shutter 1/1600; Aperture f13; Focal Length 55mm; ev -2.0; WB - Daylight

Aperture Priority; ISO 250; Shutter 1/320; Aperture f13; Focal Length 35mm; ev -2.0; WB - Daylight

I couldn’t have smiled more that day.  A day claimed to doing something I love, a day spent with a friend catching up, and a day outdoors in the gorgeous sunshine.  Nothing but smiles!

As always I welcome any thoughtful critiques.

And The 8 O’clock Alarm Rings

Take52 Challenge – Week 3

“8 O’clock.”  It doesn’t leave much room for interpretation; but does give you an opportunity to think about 14 different options, or less, if your 8 O’clocks repeat in any way.

I briefly considered taking my photograph at 20:00.  On Monday it would’ve been a photograph of my runners, a sweat towel, and a water bottle.  It would’ve been an accurate description of my Monday nights spinning.  Throughout the rest of the week, by 8pm I can be found on the couch with the television on.  Depending on the night, I might also be preparing my lessons for the next day’s classes.  Truthfully with this being the first week of second term I was pretty well burnt out by the time I made it home at the end of the day.  I had no motivation to photograph in the evening.

You can typically find me doing one of two things at 08:00.  If it’s one of my four teaching days, I’ll be standing in Starbucks waiting for my Grande – Triple-Shot – Half-Sweet – Non-Fat – No-Whip – No-Foam – Mocha.  Otherwise I’m tucked into bed, hopefully sleeping soundly.  It was clear that I wouldn’t be capable of taking a photograph while I was sleeping, so a photograph at Starbucks it will be.

This idea was still “fresh” in my mind from last week’s assignment.  It was one of my many ideas to shoot photographs of the coffee plant at Starbucks.  I simply never got around to asking the Baristas for permission, and never brought my camera along with me.  This week was different.  On Friday morning I brought my camera with me inside to grab my coffee.  After Bill, a barista, took my personal cup I asked if it would be alright to photograph the coffee plant that was sitting at the end of the counter.  Bill had no problem with it.  After being served my coffee by Judy, I also asked her, since there was a chance she may walk into the background.  Judy didn’t have a problem with it either.

I made my way through the crowd of caffeine addicts to get to the end of the bar.  I moved the coffee plant from its original position, over to the left about 1 foot.  Placed my freshly brewed mocha slightly in front of the plant.  Then I started shooting.  I remembered to change my ISO, something I usually forget.  Then the aperture, I knew I wanted the focus to be on the plant itself.

I wanted to attempt to capture the calm before the storm.  With coffee in hand the warmth comes over me and I'm able to take my last deep breathes before the day truly begins.  I know once I arrive at school I'll be going until I'm in my car driving back home.  I love my morning ritual of my Starbucks.  It sets the tone for my day.  I know without the caffeine I'll feel lost.

Aperture Priority; ISO 3200; Shutter 1/40; Aperture f4.5 ; Focal Length 35mm; ev 0; WB Temperature - 10000 K

This was my original composition for the photograph.  My blinders were on and I didn't notice the negative space.  I think I was also lacking the creativity in the morning.  Looking at it now, I think the composition would improve if the plant's and the tumbler's positions were switched.

Aperture Priority; ISO 3200; Shutter 1/50; Aperture f4.5; Focal Length 35mm; ev 0; WB Auto

Here I wanted to try something a little different with the cropping.  Trying to minimize the negative space I didn't even realize was there.  And I'm prone to Black & White.  I love the deeper contrast. 

Aperture Priority; ISO 3200; Shutter 1/40; Aperture f4.5; Focal Length 35mm; ev 0; WB Fluorescent - Sodium Vapour Lamps

I’m not as happy with my composition this week.  Looking at the photographs on the computer I’ve now noticed a large negative space on the left.  I don’t know how I missed it while I was shooting.  I was probably subconsciously thinking about getting to school, and to try to avoid annoying any other customers that were in need of their caffeine fix.  All in all, maybe a little rushed.  

As always I welcome any thoughtful critiques.

Something a Little Fresh

Take52 Challenge – Week 2

This week was a challenge for me.  Almost immediately I my idea; I was going to photograph of Fresh Water.  Thinking rivers and lakes since I teach all about their properties in Earth Science, this idea was fresh in my mind.  Unfortunately someone beat me to the punch and shot photos of water. 

Then to the fish stalls on Granville Island.  Had all the intensions in the world to head there on my day off during the week.  Well, apparently I wanted to be lazy and never made it out of the house that day.

Onto the next idea; a freshly brewed cup of coffee, my morning ritual.  Only I was going to add a twist of including an actual coffee plant and freshly ground espresso beans.  I’ve been keeping my eyes open for coffee plants in the local garden stores for months now, only I still haven’t been able to find one.  I look at a coffee plant every morning before work, as I await my Grande – Triple Shot – ½ Sweet – Non-Fat – No-Whip – No-Foam – Mocha at Starbucks.  I thought about asking if I could borrow their plant but never got around to it.

Fourth idea; freshly cut oranges slightly squeezed so it would look extra juicy.  Only by the time I got around to photographing the oranges were all gone.  And by this point there were photos of lemons, limes, and oranges that had been posted.

Lost count yet?  Fresh baking, I was going to bake my favorite oatmeal muffins and have a nice perfectly square piece of butter melting on it.  Then I thought to myself, "then I'd have to eat them."  And this wouldn't fit into my attempts at getting back into healthier eating after a couple of weeks of over indulgence.  Ah well...maybe in a months time for a special treat.  (My muffins are extra fattening with the amount of butter I use).

I was stuck; I knew I’d find something eventually that I wanted to attempt to photograph.  Ah… “fresh” threads?  The new t-shirt and hat I had designed and made for my brother’s upcoming cycling trip.  Although, the term “fresh threads” didn’t quite have the right ring.  Maybe “new threads”; but not fresh threads.

In the back of my mind I had the idea of a “fresh perspective” and was going to take a photograph from a new perspective.  A perspective you normally wouldn’t encounter.

But that’s okay…Sunday night I saw it…it was calling to me.  A pomegranate.  It’s a fruit and fruit are fresh.  And there it was!  I knew I wanted it to have a strong contrast to bring out the red, so after being cut and half of it seeded it went on display on a white plate.  And a white backdrop was added too; okay it was a piece of paper that I had taped onto the backsplash of the kitchen counter. *I couldn’t get any of the preset White Balances to bring out the correct colors, so I used a gray card to create a Custom White Balance.  Due to the slower shutter speed I had to use a tripod too.

Aperture Priority; ISO 400; Shutter 1/2; Aperture f5.6; Focal Length 80mm; ev 0; WB Custom*

I’m quite happy with the results.  As always I welcome any thoughtful critiques.

Photography – My New Year’s Resolution

Growing up I was enthralled with photography!  It's my New Year's Resolution in 2013 to continue to develop my photography skills and to keep my DLSR with me whenever possible, if not a point-and-shoot, and at the least my iPhone.  I want to develop my artistic eye and to capture the objects, the subjects that tug at me.

My dad, although he had a regular full-time job, was a professional photographer.  On weekends, and weeknights during the long summer days, he’d be off taking family portraits or wedding portraits.  I of course wasn’t allowed to accompany him to the wedding sessions, but would often go as his assistant to shoot family portraits.  I’d be the “sit-in” before the clients arrived.  He was great!  I’d sit there in awe, especially when it came time to developing in the dark-room and retouching by hand. 

For himself personally though, he’d prefer the abstract concepts of photographing everyday items found in unusual places, or landscapes.  I’ll have to dig out a copy of my favorite piece, it’s a close up of a doll he’d found laying on the ground with runny make-up.  He traditionally shot everything in black and white. 

For my 16^th birthday he bought me my first film camera, a Nikon D50.  I was so super excited by it!  I had been taking photography classes at school and was spending all my spare time using one of my mom’s old cameras.  Throughout the next couple of years I’d play with the camera, never spending lots of time to perfect the skill.  You know how busy highschool can get in your senior years (I was taking advanced classes and lots of extra time went into homework, and I began playing more sports).  Photography went by the wayside for a while.  Then something happened, I’d lost my mentor when my dad passed away.  I’d played with the camera and in the darkroom for a while.  Until the chemicals that were on-hand expired.  There was no sense spending the money on the chemicals when I was living 50 minutes from the family home, in which the darkroom was located. 

I continued to take photographs when travelling with my film camera, some photos I loved, some were okay, others (most) I was frustrated with that they were “noisy.”  Getting good film, with decent ISO,  in South East Asia was apparently hard.  So that was it…the D50 was put away and the small digital point-and-shoot was bought.  I’d lived with the point-and-shoot for nearly a decade before I decided it was time to buy a DSLR.  Last spring I began to realize that I was missing something, and now that I had time to spend on my own hobbies I wanted to get back into photography. 

Last spring before heading off on another trip to Europe in the summer, I was adamant that I was going to get a DSLR for a birthday gift to self.  I didn’t get the camera I ultimately wanted, the Nikon D7000.  I just didn’t have the money to buy it nor could I justify spending the money on a camera I knew I wouldn’t need while I was learning to photography all over again.  Instead I bought myself the older version, the Nikon D90.  My choice was between these two cameras so I could continue to use my old lenses, without having to start my collection from scratch again.

Shot of Mont St Michel from the Emerald Coast, France.  ISO 3200; Shutter 1/3200; Aperture f14.0; Focal Length 78mm

This fall I enrolled myself in a ten-week Beginner’s Introduction to Digital SLR course with Vancouver Photo Workshops, a great place to learn.  Throughout those ten weeks I reviewed some concepts I was familiar with, and learned many that I was not familiar with.  I’ll share some of these photographs at a future date.

Shot of Downtown Vancouver from Granville Island.  Aperture Priority; ISO 200; Shutter 1/3; Ap f4.0; Focal Length 35mm; WB Auto

And here we are today, the start of a new year.  I was going to continue taking photography classes, although I realized that this term was going to be a busy term with my teaching.  So I decided that I would need something to entice me to keep my camera in hand and out of the closet gathering dust.  I am going to challenge myself to take the CameraShyTake52Challenge.  My goal will be to complete the weekly challenges and post the photographs here on my blog.  (Please note that the photographs posted will have little to no editing done, since my computer lacks any memory space to actually work on the photographs and install any editing software).

Wish me luck!  And good luck to those of you participating in the challenge.

Neglect

So when I started this blog in the Summer I had all the intensions in the world to post once a week.  Well, okay, I knew that wouldn’t be realistic for me.  I was really thinking once ever couple of week; but definitely thought it would on a regular basis.

It looks like life got in the way of that plan.  In a good way though.  Soon after the school year had started I was called in as a TOC for a weeks time.  No sooner did that week end, that I was asked to stay for another week.  Day-by-day I kept teaching in that same position.  After the maximum amount of time spent as a TOC in one position, 28 days, I went to HR and asked for a Temporary Contract.  And a temporary contract is what I got.  Granted it was “until return of incumbent.”  That didn’t bother me though, any contract, even a temporary contract, meant I was starting to build my seniority and would now be ahead of other TOCs in the district.  This was a good thing, even if I didn’t know how long I’d be teaching for.

I made it to Christmas Break!  This was a great thing.  It kept me busy, my free time after schools was now taken up with planning course material and marking the students work.  (Yes, even with the strike action, I was still marking, it would have to be done sooner or later.)  I had a great Christmas Break, enjoying myself.  It was the first time I’d actually been paid for time off; a novel idea. 

Into the new year, I knew I was to be back TOCing.  The teacher I had been covering for was returning to work.  Well that didn’t last long, shortly after school had been back in, I was asked to come back and share the position with a 0.5FTE (I’d be working half the week).  Again, no complaints from me, it meant another temporary contract, more seniority, and a guaranteed income!  And as if it were luck, I was finally asked to take over again as a 1.0FTE.  I was back working full time in one position.  And I’m still there today! 

As I mentioned all this teaching has taken up my free time.  My free time that I intended on spending blogging, among other things.  It’s become a balancing act, juggling school, home, and health.  So with this some of my pass time activities have been neglected.  The blog, geocaching, reading, among others.  Geocaching was neglected simply because of my extended hours.  I’d leave and come home in the dark hours.  And lets face it, after extended days I was drained and didn’t really feel much like doing anything.  Now being in a groove, and having an easier course load for teaching this term, I hope that I’m able to get out more. 

Of course with many things constantly changing in my life, it’s my goal to write at least one blog every two weeks.  To accomplish this goal I’m going to set aside some time (1 hour) to sit and relax and write.  I may just start writing drafts in pen, then transferring them to the web.  That’s what I’ll do!  I’ve been so careful not to neglect my home life, or school life, and my fitness that I’m sure I can add in one or two more activities.  Even if only for a couple of hours a month.

Balance is the key.