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.

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.

Becoming a Teacher

As you are walking through the Scarfe building you take a minute to look around and you begin to realize that everyone you see is an individual. No two are alike, we all come from different backgrounds and we all have different social personalities and have had different experiences that have led to that “ah-hah” moment when we decided to become teachers. As we have all had different experiences that have lead us to become teacher candidates, it is only natural that those different experiences affect our teaching perspectives.

Even though I am Canadian born and raised in the Lower Mainland, I have a variety of different social personalities from other Canadians born and raised in the Lower Mainland. Growing up in Maple Ridge as a middle class family with both of my parents and my younger brother I felt that I was privileged in all the things I had and all the activities in which I participated; and continuously receiving support in all we did.  Through this support we were taught to believe that individual has the right to their own beliefs on the intricacies of the world surrounding us.  Within our family structure everyone’s opinions and beliefs were always accepted and supported.

Growing up in my family I would say was just as typical as any other. My passion for reading developed at a young age. Both of my parents read to me continuously when I was not yet able to. Part of my difficulty in reading, did not stem from a lack of intelligence, but a lack of opportunities in the classroom. I was a French Immersion student and was not provided the opportunity to learn to read English until I reached grade 3. Either way whether I was reading myself or not, I owe my parents for my passion. I do not recall a single night when they did not read to me, and read themselves before slipping into bed. The first novel I recall my father reading to me was written by Mark Twain, it was Huckleberry Finn. To this day it remains one of my favorite reads, amongst many other classic novels. If it were not for my parents exposing me to reading at such a young age, I do not believe I would love to read as much. However, as I grew older and proceeded through high school, I put up a rebellion front. I did not enjoy having to read what I was told to read. If it were my choice, I would have had a choice between novels. It is my belief with providing an array of selection, relating in themes, that students will chose a piece of literature that is intriguing to them. And they will not feel as rebellious, and refuse to read everything.

It was not until my first year in high school, Grade 8, that there was a drastic change in our family structure. No longer was it a household with two working parents; Dad was officially diagnosed with 100% Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of serving with the US Army during the Vietnam War, going onto permanent disability from his career as an Financial Assistant Worker. This had both positive and negative consequences; however, the positive far outweighed the negative. I was able to spend more time with him; and I had the opportunity to have him supporting me at every single game of volleyball, at every game and tournament of rugby, and at every dance competition I had. Always having that extra moral support on the sidelines was extraordinary. Not everyone was as lucky as me to be shown that kind of support from their parents 100% of the time.

It was not until after my dad passed away five years later that I began to realize the importance of that support. That year I began coaching girls rugby at the high school I graduated from and had that “ah-hah” moment. I came to the realization that I was to work with adolescents, to provide that extra support to adolescents who are not as fortunate as I was to have someone always cheering for me on my side. I could provide that positive environment for them to learn in, to grow in, and to develop in. Sharing in their accomplishments was as equally as rewarding if not more so than experiencing my own accomplishments. To have such a positive influence on someone’s life and to take pride in their abilities is a great experience. It was the difference within my family structure from all those children I heard my parents talk about and the positive support I received, that made me want to provide those opportunities to others.