Family Time

During my trip to Newfoundland, my plan was to hang out with family, show off Isabella and get outside, at least a few times, to make some photos. But I was just enjoying myself way too much to pull myself away from everyone.

While driving from one place to another, or running to the store, or making a jaunt out for coffee, my head would be swivelling this way and that. I found myself taking pictures in my head, which I am sure most people who've spent time behind a camera do. There were so many things I wanted to photograph.

The towns of Embree and Lewisporte were full of opportunities, with a lot of wonderful scenery along the coast where the town meets the sea. Small docks and boats seemed everywhere. And where there were no boats, fingers of sea would creep in between two points of land, and rounded rocks rimmed with green seaweed would poke out of the water for about 200 feet from the shore line during low tide. I don't even want to talk about the sight of the low sun hitting the seaweed and turning it into bright, green-yellow gold.

Our last evening in Lawn, where my mom grew up, was stormy and foggy, and unbelievably moody. It has been a while since I explored that little town (I spent summers there as a small kid), and I wished I had asked my mom to show me around a bit when I first got there, instead of on the last evening. The sea was angry and grey, and the green hills that overlooked it seemed ... foreign to me somehow... Nordic comes to mind. Small, rugged hills with tufts of long browning grass and small cattle barns shrouded in fog looked out over the harbour leading into town. Many years ago, a tidal wave washed over that town via that harbour. Anyway, it was incredibly beautiful, and it hurt me to see it as I should have visited more often than I had.

I had plans to take photos of St. John's at night, but that didn't happen either. No matter, the weather was as miserable as it ever was. I did have some fun making a few pictures with my sister and her husband though. That was the most time I spent with my camera.

Anyway, enough words. Here are a few personal photos from our stay with my sister in St. John's. It was nice to be able to break out a camera and have a laugh.

 

Free!

I love free, like.... I really LOVE free! Now that could be the photographer in me, who is always in search of ways to make photographs on the cheap and who sometimes agonizes over having to dish out a load of cash for new (used) gear to make photographs (sometimes this is necessary, often it's not). Regardless, I've come across a great deal.... FOR YOU (and me).

The fine folks at Craft & Vision, who have put together a sizable library of photographic/visual educational ebooks, have released a free ebook for all you photo enthusiasts. I've come across this info at David Duchemin's blog, Pixelatedimage, as David is one of the minds behind Craft & Vision. Anyway, visit his blog or Craft & Vision, for the free ebook "11 Ways You Can Improve Your Photography". As well, check out all the other goodies they have, each ebook is usually about $5 or so. That's very reasonable for such a high quality product, great information, and put together by people who really know what they're talking about.

There. That's my Christmas present to you.... from them...... I feel really good right now. This is definitely a win-win-win situation here. :)

Anyway, I just got back from a trip to Newfoundland to visit family and show off our new baby girl, Isabella. The trip was really great, and I'm only slightly disappointed with the time I had to make a few photos.... which was really no time at all. I hoped to take in some of the scenery (which I totally took for granted before I moved away), but mostly I spent the time eating and drinking with friends and family. I did make a few portraits, but not nearly as much as I wanted. Oh well, that's life and I don't see my family as much as I'd like so I'm ok with being in the moment with them, instead of behind the lens.

Anyway, here's a couple photos: a couple of Amy's dad, Ross, and a couple of my Grandmother with Isabella.

 

 

 

Happiness Is..........

I found the following video interesting and I found Dan Gilbert to be a pretty funny guy, so I thought I should share it with some of you. This really has nothing to do with photography, per se, but happiness is important to me, and I wanted to share this.  

GOYA.... and Shoot.

GOYA stands for "Get Off Your Ass". I first came across this acronym when I started following Zack Arias' work. Every now and again, some of the staff at his studio would get together, set themselves some rules and criteria to follow, and have themselves a good ol' fashion shoot out - with their cameras. They would each create a photo and post the results on his blog and set them to a vote for the best one. It was just a nice way to blow off some steam and an excuse to get out there and create.

Anyway, for some reason GOYA always stuck with me, and it always comes to mind when I am feeling a bit anxious after a few days of not creating something, or too tired (lazy?) to create something. Of course, I haven't had a lot of time to get behind the camera lately, but a little while ago Isabella fell asleep and I figured I'd sneak outside to the backyard for five minutes to take a few pictures of whatever caught my eye. There isn't much back there, so I thought I'd take a few photos of what was there - a few leaves and a couple "dog berries". Oh, and Dexter... sometimes you have to bring your own props.

I guess the whole point of this blog post (aside from scratching that itch to blog something) is to get off your ass and shoot something, even if you don't want to, even if you don't "have time". It only takes five minutes and might even result in something really good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Birth Of Reality......and Breastfeeding.

Becoming a dad has been an eye opening experience to say the least. The moment our daughter, Isabella, came into this world, I had a feeling that I can only describe this way:

For the last 35 years, I had been living in another dimension.  Recently, in this dimension,  I felt I had everything figured out. I knew what my role was in my marriage, I was good at my job, I was taking care of business. I knew what love was and felt lucky to have lots of it. I could essentially do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted (within reason). Between a full-time job, and a small business, my biggest concerns were finding time for personal photo hunting, keeping up a blog, coming up with ideas for a new blog (wink!wink!).... reading books/my Kobo, deciding what amazing tv series I would follow, keeping up with new movie releases and.... from time to time, thinking of an idea for a book. Oh, and getting back to excercising again (I think about this one a lot - that hasn't changed). I look back at that old dimension as the Selfish Dimension. I like to think I'm a pretty good, attentive husband, but by and large, that dimension was all about me, me, me.

Then Isabella was born.

In what seemed like an instant, I was snapped into a dimension we'll call REALITY. Now, before I go further, you should understand that this is not a bad thing - this Reality - it's actually quite nice, once you accept it. Seeing my wife, Amy, go through labour and delivering a child, and then seeing said child, Isabella, screaming and shivering her way into the world, I suddenly realized things have definitely changed. 

I felt like my head and body were flooded with..... with..... something. I can't find a word for it, but it was fluid in it's nature, and warm, and heavy and I was filled to the brim with it. I felt like life's volume (with all it's distractions) had been turned waaay down and I was focused on my new family.  In a way, I felt enlightened because it was at this point that I realized I previously knew ...well ....almost nothing. I realized that the things that were previously important in the Selfish Dimension, were not so important over here in Reality.

Love is a lot different over here in Reality, as well. It's deeper, and more substantial. There are elements present, that never existed before. I have never experienced anything that I would feel comfortable describing as limitless - until now.

I was talking to my sister on the phone last week. We were talking about the experience of having children, and she said something to the effect of, "It's everything you've ever wanted, but didn't know you did." In a way, that says it all. In fact, maybe I should have just started this blog entry with that quote and called it a day, instead of making you wade through the inadequate, wordy mess I put together to try and say the same thing. 'It's everything you've ever wanted, but didn't know you did.' Yep.  

Anyway, amongst all the wonderful things I'm experiencing as a new dad, one of my favorites is watching my wife breastfeed our little girl. It's simply precious. Here's a photo of when Isabella was just a few days old.

 

I love to watch the connection building between Amy and Isabella. There is something so beautiful and pure about seeing your wife nurturing and nourishing your baby. And I appreciate what Amy is doing, because on days that are particularly trying and long, she sometimes feels like a refrigerator. And on at least one occasion, a cow. So it's not always a warm and cozy event.

But Amy is much more comfortable at this point, and I am truly happy I have photos like the one above that, I feel, captures the bonding experience between the two women in my life. Because this experience is precious. It is special.