New photos

After a long summer of loving labour in my garden, which I am trying to wrestle from overgrown weed-beds into some semblance of order (with only partial success), I am back with my camera, and determined to photograph something as often as I can.  As you will remember, I was not able to complete my 365 because of a family issue, and I hesitate to resume it as a 365.  I quite took over my life!  And although, as I scan back through all my photos, I see that the first few weeks gave me some of my favourite images, the later ones were of much less quality.  I needed to recover my love for photography, and I have done that.  Now I am eager and excited again, and ready to take up my camera bag and head out at every opportunity, or set up my little "studio" on the dining room table and shoot some smaller subjects.

So here we go, folks.  I'm going to start with posting some photos of my summer holidays.  Enjoy!

Check out my cross stitch designs from conversions of my photographs here! 
www.MagicHourdesigns.ca

Prairie of the Past

Although it has been some time since I have posted, I want to again take up the gauntlet of applying a little discipline to my photography.  I do not have the possibility right now of doing a photo a day, as I would wish, but I certainly take enough photos to post frequently, if not daily.  So enjoy!

I spent a little time in the Edmonton area during the summer, and took some time to head up North a ways.   I love driving the rural areas of the prairies.  They are dotted with crumbling wooden houses and sheds left over from pioneer days.  This day, the sun was shining warm, trying to dispel the mist rising from the moist summer wheat fields.  An added bonus was a small flock of Solitary Sandpipers.

That's life!

I can't believe that here it is, weeks later, and I haven't posted since April.  I feel I should make some explanation.  After all, it could be that someone, somewhere might read it!

I began my 365 project with the purpose of refining my skills as a photographer, and pushing the envelope in terms of subjects and scenarios, so as to learn some new skills.  These I have done, and really enjoyed as I did it. 

I was not prepared with how time consuming the daily photography would be, and I found that other areas of my life were being neglected, very important areas.  I needed to bring some balance back into my life.

I also noticed that as I felt more and more pressure, my photography, instead of being a pleasure, started to be a burden.  I found myself just grabbing my camera and snapping off a few shots of "whatever" in order to fulfill my photo-a-day.  That was directly opposite to the purpose of the 365.  The project was stealing the pleasure I get from photography.

So for these reasons, I made the decision to stop my 365 project.  At first I thought I could move to a photo-a-week instead, but I was so behind in other duties and responsibilities that I wasn't even able to manage that.  I have made peace with the fact that 1/3 of a year of photo-a-day was all I was able to handle - this time!  

I may try it again next year, perhaps starting earlier, like when the cold weather settles in and outdoor activities do not sing their siren song.  I am continuing my photography - of course - but no longer by a schedule, but by inspiration.  I will post those photos in my Ariana's Art blog.  See you there!

Cheers!

Ariana

Week 17, Day 113, Sunday

Today, I did another installment of my Food Alphabet project.  And they were delicious!

Day 112, Saturday

I was planning on leading a Family Nature Walk at Malcomson today, as a follow-up to the Earth Day presentation I did for a group of school children.  I had heard, after it was scheduled, that the "Friends of Malcomson Ecopark" group was also going to be on-site, pulling weeds and planting native species.  But I had no idea of the sheer scope of the project.  The parking lot was jammed, and there was no way to even tell if anyone of the kids' families showed up!  Anyway, I went a little way into the park and got a shot of a mallard male preening himself at the pond, then I beat a hasty retreat.  

Day 111, Friday

I had a lovely surprise today.  I have three tulips in the front garden, long beleaguered by squirrels digging up the bulbs and replanting them willy-nilly, and since it's weeks past other tulips, I didn't think that they would come to anything.  But today they opened, and they are such a lovely shade of delicate pink and cream.

Day 110, Thursday

I got this idea from one of the photography magazines I read recently.  I think it turned out fairly well, but I'm going to try again another day.  For one thing, I need a better source of smoke!

Day 109, Wednesday

I was eager for a nice brisk walk at the Quarry today, so I took only my camera and one lens.  It's a good 40-45 minutes on the loop trail, but I saw some pretty blossoms on the trees, and a killdeer circled, calling his signature "tee-tyu tee-tyu".  Turkey vultures were cavorting in the stiff breeze, and an unidentified duck stayed way out of reach of my wide angle zoom (18-55 mm).  How I wished I'd brought my long zoom!

Day 108, Tuesday

I've been waiting for a chance to go out to Niagara Botanical Gardens, and today was the day!  It was beautiful and sunny, but a little breezy.  There were still many trees in blossom, and I added a new species to my year list - the Chipping Sparrow.

Day 107, Monday

What a wind we have today!  It made it hard to get good closeups of the few remaining cherry blossoms, but I did have a visit from a beautiful pair of goldfinches in full summer plumage. 

Week 16, Day 106, Sunday

A new week!  I had fun "carving" eggs, but it did make a bit of a mess.  It was harder than I thought it would be, because the eggs kept falling apart.  I should have used an eggplant.  Oh well, they made pretty good devilled eggs! 

Day 105, Saturday

The weather was threatening, but not too cold, so I headed over to Malcomson EcoPark to start preparing for my presentation at a local school on Friday.  It`s going to be a great way to celebrate Earth Day!

Malcomson was beautiful as always, and some small leaves were starting to sprout.  There was green in the pond and flowering bushes.  I saw a flicker female and a brown-headed cowbird, and a noisy bunch of a dozen chickadees, plus a garter snake.  It was a great walk!