WAW - "By Request: Something Humerous"

With a new year comes a new photo project, and this year is all about film! I am starting the Film26 project and I am super excited. More on that to come... but before I leave my Wonderful Weekly Assignment group, I had just a few more assignments that I wanted to try to complete.
One of those is my "By Request list" from way back in the summer months.
Here is the list of requests I received -
- something broken
- something humerous
- zoom-out photos
- favourite things I use everyday
- insect battle royale
- shoes or cocktails or jewelry
- my dad giving my husband a noogie
The linked items are completed, and this post is to fulfill the "something humerous" request. Because my nieces are freakin' hilarious! I love these photos of them making silly faces in the bath.

WAW - "Smiles" and "Friends & Family"

The holidays were the perfect time to catch up and complete two more Weekly Assignments - "Smiles" and "Friends & Family" because our vacation to Alberta was filled with both of these things. I think one of the best parts of our trip was seeing our 3 nieces, and 2 of our pseudo-nieces (daughters of close friends) who we never get to see often enough. They are all starting to get so big, and we had so much fun being able to interact and play with them all a bit more than in the past. They really know who we are now, and their love for us (despite the distance) just breaks my heart.

Pseudo-niece Aine - Not in frame: Jeffrey giving the best pony rides, causing smiles and giggles galore

Jeffrey and Amalie in "The best fort ever!"

Makenna & Amalie peeking through the "window" in the fort - Our two sides of the family collide :)

Cayleigh with her biggest smile for Auntie Melly

This is also Jeffrey & I's first Christmas as a married couple. And though it wasn't really any different than previous Christmases, being surrounded by both of our families really highlighted the fact that this is now officially "our family"... for better or for worse. And so far... it is all for the better.

Jeffrey loves my Momma & Papa! - sometimes I think they would pick him over me given the choice ;p

Jeffrey has the best smiles!

WAW - Zoom & By Request

Last summer the Weekly Assignment was to ask other people for "requests" of what they would like to see us photograph. My friend Aleta asked for a "zoomed out" photo in which each shot gets progressively more and more zoomed out until it finally reveals a larger frame shot. The request was inspired by a book we used in our post-graduate studies during the summer called "Zoom" by Istvan Banyai (here is a summary or a video of the book). Of course Banyai's zoomed out pictures are far more impressive; but I think I managed alright with the assignment (even if it is only a few months late). This was one of the toughest assignments yet, because the settings for a close-up are quite different than the settings for larger framed shot. The toughest part was adjusting for the lighting and white balance to maintain similar colours as I got further and further away; but I definitley learned a lot about the settings and abilities of my camera.
Conveniently, a few weeks after the "Request" assignment, Michelle chose the "Zoom" subject for a weekly assignment. So yet again, I get to hit two assignments with one post. Boo-ya!

This is the Christmas tree at my in-law's house. I love the little village built around the bottom. I actually took some photos of this with my Olympus Pen F two years ago when we were back for Christmas. This gave me a neat way to look at and photograph it again.

Photos taken with DigitalSLR Canon Rebel XS, Mosaic created with PhotoFiltre
p.s. I am adding on this mini zoom-mosaic that I did at the Crazy Christmas lady's house (as in "crazy about Christmas" not "mentally unstable") just because it is fun. Those little blurry figures in the middle are little figure skaters that spin around on the mirror when you turn it on. More on the Crazy Christmas Lady to follow.

This mosaic was created with Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker

WAW - Message

I can't believe that it has been over a month since I have posted here! The madness of December (and the lead up to it) really seemed to be multiplied in our house this year between me finishing up my post graduate program (yay!), the end of the school term, a big move for Jeffrey at work, both of our birthdays, a visit from my parents... oh yeah, and that whole Christmas thing too. But now we are officially on holidays and relaxing in the snowy homeland of Jeffrey at his parent's place in Alberta. I intend to do some serious photo-catch-up.

So to begin, a weekly assignment from ages ago - "Message".

I feel that I am extremely fortunate to work at a school that values and encourages altruism in all sorts of ways. We are school a of mixed means and the emphasis is often placed on helping others in whatever way you can. In fact, part of our school motto is - "Take care of others, Take care of yourself, and Take care of this place." I mean, doesn't that just sum it all up in the simplest of terms?
And so I went to work armed with my camera and tried to capture in whatever way I could, the ways that this important message is shared.

Three of my students who participated in the "Vow of Silence" put on by the Free the Children Campaign. Students go silent (no talking, no texting, no emailing, etc) for 24 hours to raise awareness for children in the world who can not speak up to protect their rights.

A rainbow of student & teacher hands in our main foyer, each one indicating something they have done to "make the world a better place". Isn't it beautiful?

My dear friend Michelle (organizer extrodinaire of Weekly Assignment Wednesday) used another example from our school for her "Message" assignment as well. She featured photos of students participating in the Love Is Louder Campaign earlier this year.

WAW - "Significant" (Lest We Forget)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
- John McCrae

On this day of remembrance, we pay tribute to the men and women who have served to keep us safe and to protect our rights and freedoms. Every year I tell my students about how both my grandfathers served in WWII, and how they went into Europe on D-day (one in France, the other in Holland) and put their lives in danger to stand up against hatred and tyranny. This year, after hearing my stories, the students got together and made a card for me to send to my grandpa from them; the front of the card reads "You're our Hero" and inside each of them wrote a message of Thanks for my grandpa - thanking him for fighting for their freedom, for making Canada and the world a better place, for standing up for their rights. I was moved to tears, and I can hardly wait to send it in the mail to my Pa so that he can know that their sacrifices are still appreciated and remembered today.
So for my weekly assignment "Significant" in which we were to photograph something that may be seemingly insignificant but actually held much significance, I chose to take a photo of my students all wearing their poppies in rememberance of our veterans.
Because a new generation of people choosing to remember, that's pretty significant.

Photo taken with my digital SLR Canon Rebel XS

WAW - Autumn

Please sit down before you read this... because it may shock you, and I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting hurt. Ready? Ok...
This weekly assignment was actually completed... on time! I know, astonishing right?
Well, since the assignment "Autumn" is time sensitive, and because it is also perfectly timed right now as the leaves are changing and the sun has been shining... I think it would have taken more effort NOT to complete it on time. In our "photo group" where we post our assignments, we are only supposed to post 3 examples, but I had more that I wanted to share... so you guys get them all! Lucky ducks.

 

That last picture also actually fulfills another weekly assignment - "By Request" where my friend and colleague Danielle requested a photo of something humerous. When a pumpkin makes me laugh out loud and still chuckle everytime I see the photo... that counts as humerous!

All photos taken with my digital SLR Canon Rebel XS

WAW - Cameras

Sometime back, I tried to post a photo of all of our cameras. But the quality and the set up wasn't great. When the Weekly Assignment of "Cameras" came up, I was super excited to take some shots of our "babies". Unfortunately, the assignment came out exactly 1 day after I had packed up all of our cameras (except the ones we use most frequently) for the move. So I had to wait until we were moved in, and unpacked before I could really complete this assignment. But it was worth the wait.
Here are our camera "babies" (we actually have a few more, but I didn't include and duplicate cameras, and of course I was using the digital, so that isn't in there either).

About four of these get regular usage. The others either don't have enough manual settings or we can't get film for them anymore. But we love them all the same.
My next project is going to be learning how to use the old Super 8 video camera my grandpa gave me. Some day.

WAW - A Day in the Life

This autumn, though beautiful, has been jam packed with stuff... you know, just life stuff that gets in the way of posting here, or taking photos, or visiting with friends, or reading, or painting, or cooking, or doing some of those things that I just love to do to keep my sanity. Most of the stuff is good stuff - like moving into a new apartment, and the rest of it is just fact-of-life stuff - like taking on more responsibility at work.
But I feel like this weekend is the first weekend where life is starting to feel back to normal.
So what better time to catch up on my blog posts, and my weekly assignments?
I am really behind on weekly assignments, but I am still powering through and doing as much as I can. Since I have been so focused on getting my life back to normal, I thought it would only be natural to post my photos from the weekly assignment "A Day in the Life".
Here is a day in my life...

All photos taken with my DSLR Canon Rebel XS. Mosaic created with Big Labs Mosaic Maker.

WAW - Broken

I really wish that I was one of those people that was always on top of things. One of those people who can do like a million different things and do them all well. I wish that I could keep a cleaner house, cook all my own dinners, bake delicious treats for friends, and make incredible crafts, cards or clothes with my hands.
I wish that I was one of those people that could actually keep up on my weekly assignments.

But I am not one of those people. And one of these days, I will learn to accept this and stop beating myself up for it (not literally of course).
Until that day, here is my shamefully late Weekly Assignment - Broken.

We had someone come in to trim one of the trees out at our family cabin in the Okanogan. At one point he cut off a particularly large branch, which fell directly onto our brick campfire pit. No one was really too upset though since my mom has been wanting a new fire pit, and I had the perfect subject for my weekly assignment!

This also fills one of the requirements for a very old weekly assignment - Requests. One of the requests was for "something broken" (thanks Michelle for giving me an easy out on that one).
I am still working on the rest of the request list which included:
something humerous,
zoom-out photos (progressively more & more zoomed out),
favourite things I use everyday,
insect battle royale (I almost had shots for this one, but didn't get my camera out quick enough!),
shoes or cocktails or jewelry,
my dad giving my husband a noogie (that one might be even tougher than an insect battle!)

Weekly Assignments shot with my DSLR Canon Rebel XS

WAW - Slow Shutter Speeds

Ok, so I know that the purpose of the Weekly Assignments is to try new things and learn about my camera and photography. But I am falling very far behind and with the beginning of the new school year already in full swing, I fear that my chances of catching up are slim.
So I cheated a bit... but just a little. This week's assignment is "slow shutter speeds" which I have to admit is one of my least favourite things in taking pictures. I rarely have a tripod with me, and I am terribly impatient. So, I was dreading this assignment a little.
Then I saw this post about abstract photos on Photography Blogger - a photo blog that I follow, and it got me thinking... about some pictures that I took in the past. And yes, also some pictures that I could try out in the future.
Last Christmas when my digital camera was new, I was trying to learn about all the different settings and how it all worked. So I was playing with the shutter speeds and experimenting with "fun tricks" I could do with it - a luxury the film cameras don't allow me. These are the shots I got:

"Light Painting" with Christmas Tree Lights

None of these penguins was actually lit at the same time! Sans tripod - not too bad.

Yes, I would still like to play more with low shutter speed and maybe try out some of those abstract photos, but in due time my friends, in due time.

All photos taken with my Digital SLR Canon Rebel XS

WAW #?? - Doorways

So I am all mixed up and behind on my weekly assignments, I have no idea which number I am on or exactly what I have missed... but I am going to try to catch up and keep up with this thing.
Fortunately for me, last week's assignment was doorways, and by chance I had a complete love affair with doors and entrances during our honeymoon in France. I once remember Nichole of Little Brown Pen talking about her obsession with doorways in France... and now, I totally get it! By the way, her photos of Paris are fantastic and you can even buy copies for yourself here!
I really do think that we neglect entrances in North America. They don't get the attention or credit they deserve.
Medieval Doorways in the South of France (Haut-de-Cagnes & Vence) on film - Olympus Pen F, Fuji 200 Color Superia Film

Parisian Doorways on Film - Olympus Pen F, Fuji 200 Color Superia Film

Parisian Doorway on Film - Olympus Pen F, Kodak BW400CN for black & white prints (but developed as colour film)

Parisian Doorways on digital - Canon EOS Rebel XS DSLR

Entrance to the Louvre

Close-up Entrance to the Louvre

Entrance to Notre Dame Cathedral

Doorways in the South of France on digital - Canon EOS Rebel XS DSLR

"Guarded" doorway - Vence 

I loved how even the tiny little entrances in the old medieval villages seemed to have character and detail.

WAW #19 - Negative space

So this week has been insane, but absolutely wonderful! I got married on Saturday and all the events leading up to and after the big day were jam packed and fantastic. I am still kind of in a state of shock... but I am so happy that it all worked out, and most importantly that I am now married to my best friend and love.
But before the craziness began, I had the chance to hang out with my friend and "Weekly Assignment Wednesday" organizer Michelle and our respective beaus. We spent the evening walking, hanging out with puppies, talking, eating and of course, taking some photos. Knowing that the week would be crazy, and that I would be leaving soon after for 2 weeks (Yay honeymoon in France! More on that to come later)... I decided to use the walk to focus on my assignment this week - Negative space.
I still don't know how I feel about the photos I get with my digital. I don't know if it is because I am too lazy to really figure out all the settings, or whether I just don't have a fancy enough lens, or if I just generally prefer the aesthetic of film... but I just can't seem to get photos that I am really proud of.
I do however, really like the composition of these ones, though I think they are lacking a little "je ne sais quoi".
P.S. Note the horizontal and diagonal lines? Guess I wasn't quite done with WAW #17 & 18 just yet.

Next week's assignment is - Reflections. Since I will be away and I know that I already have a tonne of photos with reflections, I will just refer you to this previous post.
All photos taken with my Canon EOS Rebel XS - Digital SLR
~ M