110: ptarmies

Running a bit behind.  I haven’t had a lot of time since I got up to Yellowknife, and I was stupid, and forgot my camera for the last two days.  So here’s an iPhone pic, and tomorrow’s will be a video.

ptarmies!

102: growth

Sunflowers, blessing the living room with their little bits of life.

1/400sec, f / 5.0, ISO 800.

098: natural predator

I’ve seen their tracks everywhere, but they often pass through, silently, in the midst of the night.  Unseen.

I saw [my] first deer of the season this evening.  And my cat saw his first deer, ever!  And he turned into a little predator!  When the moose were around in the winter, he’d hide under my bed, or under my covers for hours on end.  Deer, though?  I think he thought he could hunt them.

My tiny little killer.  He didn’t stand a chance.  Two steps outside the doorway is as far as he got before they took off.

1/30sec, f / 5.6, ISO 1600.

1/30sec, f / 5.0, ISO 1600.

1/15sec, f / 4.5, ISO 1600.

1/20sec, f / 5.6, ISO 1600.

1/25sec, f / 5.6, ISO 1600.

1/30sec, f / 3.5, ISO 1600.

096: a view from a different angle

 

I take a lot of pictures of Hudson Bay Mountain.  But I realized yesterday while I was walking in the evening, that I never take pictures of it from IN town.  So here’s one.  I think it’s a pretty good representation of how it looms over us.

 

(by the way, this is late, but my internet was down last night and most of this morning)

1/250, f / 13, ISO 400.

094: run little mousie!

We have a bit of a mouse problem at our house.  Today, I found the third one in the little over a year that we’ve lived here.  We can’t figure out how they get in.  The last one lived in our house for WEEKS before I caught him.  I won’t use mouse traps, because I don’t want them to die.  So I usually leave out food, and wait until I can catch them.

I didn’t know about this one, though.  I don’t know how long it’s been in the house, though with a cat, I suspect not long.  My roommate said that my cat was unduly interested in the bottom of our lazy-boy chair while I was out today, and then when I got home, I saw my cat checking it out again.  Curious, I went to see what he saw – and it was a little mousie!

I popped my cat into the bathroom (my roommate thought I should just “let him get it”), and I put him outside.  Poor thing has a bite mark in his head though, and his back paw was broken.  I gave him a big BIG piece of cheese outside, and I hope he makes it.

…I wanted to make him my pet.

1/50sec, f / 5.6, ISO 200.

093: in times of joy, chop wood.

I borrowed the car today and drove to Hazelton.  It was gorgeous there – Spring comes to them before it comes to us (they’re further west, closer to the coast).  Roche de Boule looms over the town, and by the afternoon, it was clear enough to take some photos of it.  As well as an art studio I popped into, that sold all manner of interesting trinkets, and they even want me to bring in some of my artwork.  If they like it, they might want me to sell some of my things, which I thought was a pretty neat idea.

1/800sec, f / 8.0, ISO 200.

1/80sec, f / 5.6, ISO 200.

091: please keep weed off the trail

So my backcountry excursion was a bit of a botch.  My roommate injured his ribs a few weeks ago snowboarding (…into a tree) and they flared up this morning while we were hiking.  We had some friends along, and one of them was really struggling to keep up, and didn’t think he could make it the whole 12km with overnight gear on his back.  So we hiked four kilometres in, had a snack and a bit of a rest, and assessed that it probably wasn’t terribly wise to go on.  Then we hiked out.

1/125sec, f / 10, ISO 200.

1/100sec, f / 8.0, ISO 200.
Dave!

085

A pretty seashell from Scotland.

1/20sec, f / 1.8, ISO 100.

082: I’m back

So I didn’t take photos for the last two days, but I’ve been fairly anxious for the last couple of days, and it was impossible to get out and take photos.  I had things to take care of.  I’m better now, and photos have resumed.

Went hiking at Call Mountain today – it’s snowed for three days straight.  Yep.  It’s Spring…somewhere.

1/320sec, f / 14, ISO 800.

078: dog walking

I promised to walk a friend’s dog today (I do this pretty often, actually) but it was a gorgeous day out.  By the way, taking a photo of a dog who wants a treat is really hard!

1/200sec, f / 4.0, ISO 100.
Roofles!

And the pretty, pretty Hudson Bay Mountains (which is actually my photo for the day, somehow, they got switched when I uploaded them…)

1/500sec, f / 6.3, ISO 100.
(I really do love taking photos of this mountain)

077:

We don’t have a washer and dryer at our house, so I often go to a friend’s house to do laundry.  Her neighbour’s have this cat that they leave outside all day, even in the depths of winter, and I’m pretty sure she’s neglected.  Every time she’s outside when I stop by, she runs to me and jumps on my lap or my shoulders and purrs and purrs, and I feel awful for her.  So when I saw her today, I brought her a can of wet cat food, and she was so happy!

If the poor thing didn’t legitimately belong to someone, I would have brought her home already.  She’s really fluffy, but she’s clearly been in a few fights (missing parts of her ear) and if you feel her, you can feel ribs underneath all the fur.  There’s not a lot of meat on her.

1/320sec, f / 5.0, ISO 400.

1/800sec, f / 8.0, ISO 400.

1/640sec, f / 7.1, ISO 400.

075

My picture of the day looked a lot better in my mind than it did in execution, sadly, but I still think it’s a neat effect.  And I included a picture of my cat, because, well…

I’m always taking pictures of my cat.

1/1000sec, f / 9.0, ISO 400.

1/100sec, f / 2.8, ISO 400.

071: stupid clouds

Today was really dreary and overcast.  With the fresh snowfall yesterday, it made it almost impossible to take scenic photos today.  Clouds kept rolling in and obscuring my view.

1/250sec, f / 11, ISO 100.

068: by the sea

COMPLETELY forgot to take a picture today.  Just about to go to bed, and I remembered.  Here’s a quickie of a seashell laying on my bed in the dark, with a flashlight hiding under the covers.

20 sec, f / 14, ISO 400.

063: life from the ground up

1/60sec, f / 8.0, ISO 400.

059

my winter wreath, finally retired from my door, and awaiting the next bonfire.

1/250sec, f / 10, ISO 400.

052: When the sun shines, it pours

I made a two hour voyage by transit today in Vancouver just to go visit the sea for 30 minutes.  Worth it.

Canon Rebel XS. 1/400sec, f / 16, ISO 400.
(English Bay)

Canon Rebel XS. 1/640sec, f / 16, ISO 400.
(graffiti on Davie St)

Canon Rebel XS. 1/400sec, f / 18, ISO 400.
(Canada Place, with the mountains peeking from behind)

Canon Rebel XS. 1/10sec, f / 3.5, ISO 400.
ME!

044: pew pew pew

Canon Rebel XS. 1/160sec, f / 10, ISO 400.

Went shooting today out in Mission with my best friend, his wife, and his folks.  The weather was awesome!  The above picture is only four of the seven guns we shot today.  There was a .303 enfield, .4570, 12 gauge mosberg, SKS, savage .22, 1022 takedown, and a .22 winchester.

and a bonus picture!  Me and my baby (savage .22)

Canon Rebel XS. 1/400sec, f / 13, ISO 400.

 

 

Day Zero Two Nine: I quit.

Day 18 of the First Thirty-One over at Fourtuitous.com.  Today’s challenge was “Close up”, and it will be the last photo I do for this challenge.  I have spent eighteen days struggling to keep up with the photo prompts, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t find most of them to be all that interesting.  Some of the prompts have led me to take what I consider to be rather interesting photographs, and perhaps ones I wouldn’t have otherwise thought of, such as Slumber, Change, and Growth, but for the most part, I’m just taking “photos”, when I would rather be taking art.

If you have an Instagram account, I recommend searching out other people’s photos, at #firstthirtyone, as some of them are quite good.  But this photo challenge, I’m discovering, just really isn’t for me.

On Wednesday of next week, I leave for a conference in the city, and I just simply won’t be able to fulfill some of the prompts for that week.  In fact, if I manage to post photos each of those days, I would be surprised, with how busy I’ll be.

Canon Rebel XS. 1/60sec, f / 5.0, ISO 1600.
Close-up of our fire this afternoon. I’m sorry, but no amount of editing can make this a decent photo.

 

So, I leave you with this.  It warmed up to +8C today, when we should be having -15C weather.  I built a snowman outside, in a t-shirt, and then we built a fire, and had hotdogs with some homemade baked beans I spent the day making.  I ended the day with a few glasses of wine at Linda’s house, and after my cup of tea just now, I’m about to head to bed.

Bon soiree. 

Canon Rebel XS. 1/400sec, f / 11, ISO 400.

Canon Rebel XS. 1/500sec, f / 14, ISO 800.
(Mr. Snowman)

Day Zero Two Six: January Photo Challenge: BUNDLED

 

Day 15 of the First Thirty-One over at Fourtuitous.com!  Today’s challenge was “Bundled”

I’ve gotten really good about taking my camera with me whenever I go out and about these days.  Because of the crazy weather yesterday, everything was covered in hoarfrost today (why couldn’t you have been covered in frost yesterday? WHY?) and I went for a walk to the post office and to grab a bite to eat at a little organic diner we’ve got in town.  So I took photos!

But first, my Photo of the Day:  About once or twice a year, I settle in for an entire morning, and make homemade beeswax candles.  My haul for today is this set of a dozen drip candles (plus six shotglass candles), all bundled up and ready to go.

Canon Rebel XS. 1/40sec, f / 4.0, ISO 400.

A few more shots from making candles this morning:

Canon Rebel XS. 1/13 sec, f/ 5.6, ISO 400.

Canon Rebel XS. 1/50sec, f / 4.5, ISO 400.

And now a few from my walk this morning.  It turned out to be a pretty nice day!

Canon Rebel XS. 1/400sec, f / 14, ISO 400.
(trees covered in hoarfrost)

Canon Rebel XS. 1/250sec, f / 11, ISO 400.
(taken through my sunglasses, not edited)

Canon Rebel XS. 1/100sec, f / 8.0, ISO 400.
(om shanti, om)

…and that brings me to this.  I went to Two Sisters for lunch today, and these pretty flowers were on the table I was eating at.  So I snapped a quick pic in the sun, and for the LIFE of me, I can’t decide which edit I like the best.  What are your preferences?

Day Zero Two Five: January Photo Challenge: FROST

Day 14 of the First Thirty-One over at Fourtuitous.com!  Today’s challenge was “Frost”.

It warmed up to just a couple degrees below zero today, bringing in a massive fog bank that hasn’t bothered to lift all day.  Haven’t been able to see much further than this tree all day, thanks to the frosty little molecules in the air.

Canon Rebel XS. 1/400sec, f / 16, ISO 400.

Day Zero One Six: January Photo Challenge: FIVE

Day 5 of the First Thirty-One over at Fourtuitous.com!  Today’s challenge was “Five”.

 

Canon Rebel XS. 10sec, f / 22, ISO 400.
(not that great. today wasn’t a good day for photos.)

And a present.  Two 1920×1080 wallpapers for your desktop.  Both of them were photos I shot in Ontario in October 2012, which I entered into Photoshop CS5 and used a plug-in I’ve just recently got called Topaz Simplify.  Enjoy.

Day Zero One Three: January Photo Challenge: BRANCHES

Day 2 of the First Thirty-One over at Fourtuitous.com!  Today’s challenge was “Branches”.  At first, I thought it was going to be really difficult.  How on Earth do you take a picture of barren, winter branches and make it look interesting?  Well, it turned out to be really easy.  I was stressing over the fact that the sun was just about to set upon the mountains (meaning any significant daylight I have left to me is going to dwindle in a hot-damn) and I stared out my bedroom window, realizing that there was just enough sun shining to illuminate the trees in my yard, turning them into a beautiful silhouette.  I took this out of my bedroom window!  It was almost perfect upon capture – very little editing was done to this (read: just a snippet of cropping, and a little noise-reduction).

Enjoy!

Canon Rebel XS. 1/800sec, f / 7.1, ISO 400.
(so magical)

Day Zero Zero Three

Canon Rebel XS. 1/100 sec, f / 8.0, ISO 400.
The moose was back this morning while we were trying to burn the last of the yule log, and she brought an offspring. I actually got this close to them! Poor hungry buggers.

Canon Rebel XS. 1/25 sec, f / 4.0, ISO 400.
Roommate and a friend of the family spent the day prepping the three separate stuffings for their Christmas turkducken. Lorraine seems exceptionally pleased!

Day Zero Zero One: Happy Solstice!

As Autumn moves into Winter, the snow falls gently from the skies, as though to remind me that today is the longest night of the year.  For centuries, people have celebrated this day, across civilizations, under names which are as differing as the tides.  Candlemas, Yule, Jul…the Winter Solstice.  Tonight is the Longest Night – when the Northern hemisphere is plunged into the darkest of depths, only to emerge at the dawn with something faint, yet tangible.  Hope.  Hope for a new solar cycle, and a hope for warmth in the coming days.  Represented by beginnings, I bring you this.

This blog.  I will still post in my regular travel blog during trips, over at paienne.blogspot.com, but here, here is something new.  I deleted Facebook at the beginning of 2012, and I’ve fallen out of touch.  I’ve become reclusive, and secretive, and I’ve stopped doing something I love – take photos.  So, I guess in a somewhat-related 365 project, I’m going to try and post a photo-a-day.  Some days, like today, I will post more than one photo.  Some days, I suspect I will struggle to post just one.  There may not always be commentary.  But then again, maybe there will be.  That’s the beauty about new projects – they’re so fresh and young, and they haven’t fully formed in the mind of their author!  As Winter turns into Spring, it is my hope, that so too will this little place to put my photo memoires …my photo memories.

Canon Rebel XS. 1/30 sec, f / 3.5, ISO 400.
Our Yule log completed! Wrapped with fabric ribbon, cranberries, cinnamon sticks, cedar, and pine. Our birch yule log is tied with the wishes of our coming year.

Canon Rebel XS. 1/30 sec, f / 4.5, ISO 1600.
The burning of the Yule log to represent the coming year of light!

Canon Rebel XS. 1/100 sec, f / 7.1, ISO 400.
The moose came back this morning. This little beauty has been eating my plants all year. I’m surprised she can find anything to sate her hunger, this late into the season.

Canon Rebel XS. 1/10 sec, f / 4.0, ISO 400.
And the stockings were hung, from the wall with tacks, in the hopes I could stop Santa, dead in his tracks. Cedric pounced from the tree, with nary a thought, as Old Saint Nick, dropped the presents he brought. He jumped and he thumped, that poor head of his, and he swore and he threatened to beat us with fish, which is precisely how Cedric got his Christmas wish.

Canon Rebel XS. 1/60 sec, f / 5.0, ISO 400.
The wreath on my ruby red door. I made it from cedar, hemlock, and pine boughs I collected myself, and constructed it from a metal hoop and some hot glue. And cranberries, of course!

Canon Rebel XS. 1/25 sec, f / 5.6, ISO 400.
Bokeh Christmas lights, just to see if I could do it. I still don’t entirely understand this as an art form.