Happy New Year?

Wow, it's been awhile since I've been in this neighbourhood.  I've barely had time to pick up my camera what with school keeping me extra busy.  Learning lots and loving every stressful minute of it.  I'm on a bit of a hiatus at the moment and will be returning to classes at the end of the month.  For now, I'm keeping busy with more hours at work, catching up on Game of Thrones and leisure readings.

The long weekend is coming up and Robert and I are heading to Nova Scotia with his family to visit his grandparents.  Not looking forward to long car rides, but I'm hoping I'll be able to take some beautiful pics.  We'll be spending the majority of our time on Cape Breton Island and from what I remember the scenery is breathtaking.  There is rain in the forecast, but hopefully not too much.

For now, here are a few photos I've taken or processed in the past several months since my last post in November 2011.

 

 

  

 

little poser

Mushi was hanging out in the bathtub tonight so I decided it was a great opportunity to grab the camera.  He's almost a big man now at 9 months, the same size as Nami who is 3 years old.  He's going to be a beast!

 

hunting season

It's that time of year when the pigeon's flock to our balcony.  Sex, violence and tender moments, we've seen them all.  Nami has been enjoying this spectator sport for a few years while this is Mushi's first.  It's going to be a good hunting season.

reminiscing through the jewelry box

The gold studs

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with earrings.  I had a pretty extensive collection for a 10 year old and looking back at my earrings now, I realize I had some pretty grown up taste.

I haven't worn earrings in the last five years and every once in a while I jam some in for a couple of minutes to freshen up the sealed holes.  I try to leave them in, but find I get irritated and so put them away to try again another day.  I'll probably never wear earrings again...

The first photo is my first pair of earrings, the ones that were blasted into my ears when I was nine.  I love the emerald green jewels embedded in the rich gold.  They're still pretty after all these years.

The lanterns and the folding fans

The next photo were two of my favourite pairs, and I suppose they still are.  The glass lanterns and the folding fans.  The fans still open and close but they've lost the little tassels that used to hang from below.

It's nice to look back at my collection. Most of my childhood earrings have lost their counterpart while others are damaged. But I like to go through it every once in awhile and look at them. It takes me back.

Bokeh and Kitties

Robert bought me the SLR Bokeh Kit from Photojojo for my birthday and it is Awesome.  We took it out for a test drive this evening and I love the results.  Looking forward to testing some more while we're in Japan.

Mushi was particularly crazy this morning, writhing around the chair in a playful manner.  I decided to snap some photos of his silliness and also caught a picture of Nami watching him from afar.  Below is a diptych to tell their story.  To me, the photo represents their individual personalities.  Nami is quiet, contemplative and an overall sweetheart while Mushi, still in his kitten stage, is a little ball of adorable destruction. 

Diversity of Colour

Reflections of Nami

A Newedist Christmas

Merry Christmas!!  We received a lovely package on Friday with gifts from Chris and Laura.  Laura has made us some fantastic hats and I continue to be blown away with her knit work. 

I'm not sure if it was intentional, but the colour of my hat matches my eyes perfectly.  I've never seen my eyes "pop" so much with an article of clothing.  Robert said it was my best looking hat and that it suited me well.  :)

Robert received a lovely black hat with black ribbed detail at the edge.  Being a little camera shy, Robert didn't want to have his picture taken so I took a detail shot and one of the back of his head.  Laura's work is impeccable.  You can find more of her incredible knit work at Newedist.



Photo courtesy of Robert




Photo courtesy of Robert



The Fortnight Challenge

In 2010, I attempted Project 365.  The object was to take one photo everyday for an entire year and I failed miserably.  This year, I am still determined to pick up the camera to practice my amateur skills, but felt another go at 365 was not doable.  I have too much on my plate as it is.

  I asked my colleague at work, who is also an avid photographer, if he would be up for a 365 challenge this year.  It's an intimidating challenge to take and one he has decided to possibly take on for another time in the future.  We did, however, decide to start a bi-weekly challenge.  The theme for this challenge was "The Colour Blue" and here are a few examples of my work this weekend.

Canon 7D, Tamron 90mm f/2.8

Flash camera left , Canon Speedlite 580 EX II 1/4th power






Canon 7D, Tamron 90mm f/2.8
Flash camera right, Canon Speedlite 580 EX II 1/4th power



Canon 7D, Tamron 90mm f/2.8
Flash camera left , Canon Speedlite 580 EX II 1/4th power

Tilt Shift = Awesome

It's after 2 am and I'm still up.  I have a momentary obsession with creating artificial miniature worlds using a technique called Tilt Shift.  I've been going through some of my older photos trying to apply this technique.  I've mostly been inspired recently by Katrin Ray who was recently featured on blogTO.

Here are a few of my initial tests.  I'm hoping to do more, but part of the trick is taking photos from a more birds eye view. I'll have to look out more windows.

I totally cloned myself!

I had so much fun tonight!!  My colleague Akeil and I decided to challenge eachother to a multi layered photo starring ourselves, otherwise known as cloning.  

This is me judging myself




















My theme for this was a personal assessment. While I should be studying my Chemistry text in preparation for my decision to go back to school next year, instead I end up playing video games or browse the internet.

I can't wait to see what Akeil comes up with!  I really enjoyed this challenge and hope to do more cloning in the future. 

Awesome!

Macro Mushi

Project 365 FAIL and the Return of the Shutter. . .

The last time I picked up a camera was the end of May when my husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. The time before that was in April when I took one of my last shots for Project 365.
I failed 365 miserably and have been a little embarrassed to post anything since I've quit the project. I don't know why I stopped. I have many excuses in my head and I've been very ashamed.  What's done is done and maybe I'll try again someday.  Time will only tell.
But, enough is enough. It's time to pick that camera up again and start snapping! It's about 37 degrees celsius with the humidity right now and the bed is an oven. Nami and I are hanging out on the balcony with a glass of water trying to keep cool because the apartment feels like the Apocalypse.
I'm looking forward to the coolness of Fall . . .

Awesome start to April

Loverly April is here.  The earth has thawed from our non-existent winter and the trees are starting to bud.  The weather has been freaking gorgeous with record highs of 25C.  Awesome Easter long weekend!  Let's hope we get more of this weather in the next coming weeks.

Here are the project 365 photos for the week.

Photo 89/365:

Photo 90/365:

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Photo 95/365:

It's been a fortnight!

Hello old friend.  It's been a long time.  I'm sorry I've neglected you these past two weeks.  Things are picking up at work and I'll be starting week 7 of P90X tomorrow morning.  April will be better ... I promise.

Project 365 is alive and well and I will only be posting the few photos that I put some effort into (I have 20 some odd photos since my last post and I don't really want to post them all now).  But, if you want to see the rest, click on the Flickr link to your right :)

Here are a few photos from the past 2 weeks.

Photo 67/365:

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Another week down

I feel bad I don't have as much time for this as I'd like to.  I'm always making mental notes of things I'd like to discuss or express here, but I just don't have the time.  My days are pretty stacked and it's difficult to cram one more thing in.  If only I could justify blogging at work; but my stupid ethics get in the way.

This week is Recovery week in P90x.  Monday started off with Yoga which was pretty good followed by Core Synergistics From Hell.  Core Synergistics From Hell is basically what the latter describes.  I always grumbled about Plyometrics, but Core has trumped to become the fully dreaded one.  Imagine an hour of planks, and running planks, push up planks, planks on stilts . . .

This morning was Stretch X or X Stretch which I had to miss this morning because my alarm never went off.  That's not an excuse, by the way.  I woke up very confused as everything was set up correctly.  It just never went off.  So the hour long Stretch has been skipped.  I'll make sure I stretch a lot at work today.  Like a cat.  I'm sure my colleagues will be delighted.

With Recovery week ending this weekend it means I've managed the first 30 days of Tony Horton's P90X.  I started a few weeks ago with only being able to do 4 or 5 push ups on my knees and now I can do at least 2 full push ups ON MY TOES!  That's an amazing accomplishment for me as I've always had the upper body strength of a slinky.

Here are the Project 365 photos for the first week of March.  I'm back to colour again.  Exciting!

Photo 60/365:

Photo 61/365:

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Photo 65/365:

Photo 66/365: