Day 31: City Lights

Today on the way out of Winnipeg I took some long exposure pictures of the city lights. Not only did the lights streak across, they went up and down too, because of the unsmooth roads, which I thought was pretty interesting.

Day 30: Peace

Yesterday I also took a symbol picture for peace. It was of me colouring in a peace sign. Today I decided to take a picture of just the peace sign after it was all coloured in. Not very creative, I know. But I'm busy today, so it was kinda last minute. At least I didn't skip today!

Day 29: Envy

I took this picture for one of my school assignments. We had to symbolize peace, love and envy. This is my picture for envy. The green book is supposed to be "green with envy" because he's smaller and because the bigger book is one of my favorite books.

Day 28: Triple

Today I took pictures of my favorite cat, Triple. She loved getting her picture taken!

Day 27: Music

Music is a super important part of my life. I'm always listening to my iPod when I'm not busy doing something else. Today I wanted to take a picture of my iPod, with the emphasis on the earphones, since I see them as the most important part, because I can put them in and close myself off from the world for awhile and listen to my music. Anyways this is what I came up with.

Day 26: Collage of Me

When I was in grade 11 or 12 one of my assignments was to make a collage that represented me. I chose to make mine with words that described me.

Day 25: Star Trails

I love when a picture turns out exactly how it looked in my head. This is one of those ocassions! I've been wanting to take a picture of star trails for awhile now, but the sky hasn't been clear enough, or it was just too cold. Today was the perfect day though, so I went out and got the picture I wanted on my first try.

This is something I learned how to do at the beginning of the school year, but I never got a picture that I liked until tonight.

Day 24: Interesting Lines

I took this picture when I was walking to Dons Photo to get some film developed. I looked up and thought the lines of the building looked cool, so I snapped a few pictures as I was walking by. I would have liked to take some more pictures and play around with the different angles, etc, but I didn't want to stand in the middle of the sidewalk, staring up at the sky, taking pictures, so I quickly moved on.

Day 23: Candy!

This morning I took a trip to Bulk Barn to stock up on candy. I decided to take a picture of some of the candy for my picture today.

According to Bulk Barn, it's almost Valentines Day, because they have a bunch of the heart shaped candy with the messages on it.

Day 22: Happy Birthday to me!!

I'm 18 today! Since it's my birthday, I figured I should take a picture of something related to my birthday. This is the corner of my birthday cake, with all the delicious looking chocolates on it. I hope they taste as good as they look!

Day 21: Birthday Gift

Tomorrow is my birthday. However, I got my birthday present from my boyfriend today! When I got home, the first thing I did was take pictures of it.

Day 20: Thunder

Today I took a picture of one of my favourite stuffed animals. I got him when we took a trip to Valleyfair in 2007. I named him Thunder, after one of the rides at the amusement park.

When I first got my camera, Thunder was one of the very first things I took pictures of. And here I am over a year later, still photographing him. In fact, a few months ago when I had an assignment to take 100 photos of the same subject, I chose Thunder. So obviously I enjoy taking pictures of him. Don't ask me why, but I really like the way he looks in a black and white photo. Almost all of them are in black and white.

Day 19: Phoebe

Phoebe is my best friend in the entire world. She has been my dog for about a year and a half now. She always cheers me up when I'm in a bad mood and listens to me whenever I have something to say. I don't know what I would do without her, probably go insane. Today I took a bunch of pictures of her to cheer me up, and this is the one that captured her personality the most!

Day 18: Keyboard

Yesterday I took a picture of a typewriter, so today I chose to photograph the modern day version of that, the keyboard on my laptop. It's probably not as sharp as it could be, but that's because I got lazy and chose not to set up my tripod for one shot.

Day 17: Typewriter

A lot of the time the picture I have in my head is a lot better than the picture that my camera shows me. Then there is the rare occasion when the picture I make is way better than my head could even imagine. This is a time when my head picture is a lot better. I'm really disappointed that I can't show you the picture in my head, because it is really good! But I don't have the patience right now to make my head picture the same as my camera picture, so this is going to have to work for tonight. (This probably doesn't make sense to anyone else, but it makes sense in my brain, so that's all that matters.) Maybe I'll revisit this picture in a couple of weeks.

Anyways, this is a picture of an old typewriter we have in our house. I'm not exactly sure where it came from, but it's pretty cool!

Day 16: Frosty Window

I have an hour and a half ride home from school everyday, and most of that time is spent staring out the window, looking at the scenery. Today, when we were a little bit out of Winnipeg, I noticed the sun shining in through my window and how it looked really pretty with the frost. So, I took out my camera and snapped a few pictures as we were driving. I'm really happy with the way they turned out!

Day 15: Susan

When I was growing up I recieved dolls as Christmas and birthday gifts and by the time I was 5 I had a pretty big collection of them. Now, they sit on shelves that are above my bed, looking down at me as I sleep. I like taking pictures of them because they cooperate with me 100% and don't move their heads in weird ways when I don't want them to. It usually works out quite well for me. Todays picture is of Susan. I got her for Christmas in 1999 from my aunt and uncle.

It was really difficult to get some light on the doll. Because it was on a shelf, there were a bunch of shadows on her face, so I had to stand on my bed with the cord from my desklamp stretched all the way out so I could hold the lamp in one hand as close to her face as possible. My camera was in the other hand snapping pictures, trying to get a sharp one. After all my troubles, I think this one turned out okay.

Day 14: Brothers Barn

My oldest brother bought a farm type place a few months ago that has its very own barn. He has been bugging me ever since he bought it to take pictures of it, so today I went out to his farm to photograph his barn. I got about 20 final pictures that I really like, so I got my youngest brother to choose his favourite, since I could not make a decision. This is what he decided on.

Day 13: An Eye

Originally I had wanted to take a portrait of my brother today. He didn't go for that. He did however, allow me to photograph his eye. So I shone a light in his face, focused on his eye, and snapped away! He kept moving. And blinking. Which required a lot of re-focusing with my ridiculously slow focusing lens and taking about ten thousand pictures to get a good one. (I exaggerated a little, but there were a lot of blurry pictures before I got a sharp one.) Anyways, here it is.

One of the things I really like about this picture is that his eye isn't looking directly at the camera. It kinda makes you wonder what he's looking at because his gaze is so intense and concentrated on one area.

Day 12: Flags

Today after I was finished grocery shopping, I noticed the flags that were on the roof of the store and how amazing the light was. I had to take a picture, mainly because I loved the light. There's two pictures again today, because I couldn't decide which I liked better.

Good thing it was a windy day today!

Day 11: It's a light...

The title pretty much sums it up. I wasn't feeling very creative today, and I don't have time to make myself be creative today because I have a lot of reading to do for tomorrow mornings class. So, I took a picture of a light! But, I think the shadows look cool, and look how nicely exposed it is!

Day 10: In the Darkroom

This morning I shot a roll of XP2 black and white film for an assignment and got it processed. During my lunch break I went into the darkroom to develop a print. Being in the darkroom is both relaxing and frustrating at the same time. I really like having control over the way my prints turn out, but at the same time, it can be frustrating having to make numerous different prints from the same negative, just to get it to look the right way. Not to mention the paper is ridiculously expensive, so it adds to the frustration when things don't work the way you want them to. The positives by far outweigh the negatives (no pun intended), though, and being in the darkroom for me is a time to relax with some of my pictures and listen to my music.

I don't really have much to say about the image itself, except for the fact that the actual print looks way better than the digital version of it. But, this gets my point across!

Day 9: Light trails

Today I originally decided to take a picture of a landscape at night. However, once I got outside, the moon started to disappear behind a cloud. I took a few shots, but they were uninteresting without the bright moon in the picture. I was about to pack up when I noticed a semi coming, so I took a long exposure with it going through the frame, and this is what it turned out like.

I love the way this turned out! One of my favourite things about this shot is the way the headlights from the semi light up the highway. This is definitely one of my favourite pictures I have ever taken.

Day 8: Fire

Today I learned that fire is really hard to take pictures of. It was hard to get the exposure good for both the fire and the rest of the image. I didn't want the fire to be an overexposed blur, but I also didn't want the room to be really underexposed. So I ended up getting the exposure for the room proper, then darkening the fire later.

I'm not super happy with the result, but I think it turned  out okay.

Day 7: Hot Chocolate

I made this cup of hot chocolate specifically for taking this picture. I had no intentions at all of drinking it after I was finished. I gave it to my brother, and apparently it not only looks good, but it tasted good as well. I just hope it wasn't too cold after I was done taking pictures of it.

Day 6: Zoom Bursts

Zoom bursts are a ton of fun! They can take an ordinary subject and turn it into something extraordainary. The results will all be different and will usually be abstract. Zoom bursts are something I enjoy playing around with, becuase you never know what you will end up with.

I'm putting two pictures up today because I couldn't decide which one I liked better. I love both of them, so today you get two pictures!!

Day 5: Bookworm

Chances are, if I'm not doing something related to photography, then I probably have a book in my hands. I love reading. Lately, I have been super busy with school so I haven't found enough time to read as much as I did before Septmeber. However, I do find time every once in awhile to pick up a book and read for a few hours.

I love this book! It's something that has the power to put you in a good mood, no matter what kind of a day you've been having. I love opening it up to a random page and reading about little things that are awesome, but that you don't really think about that much.

Day 4: Missing Summer

I love summer. A lot. Summer is my favourite season of the year, and when it's not here, I miss it a lot. Even though we have had a really nice winter so far, I still wish it was summer. I love summer so much mainly because, for me, it has been a symbol of freedom throughout my life. A time where I don't have responsibilities and can relax for a bit. Also, I love wearing shorts, tanks, and flip flops.

This is a decoration in my room that I have had for as long as I can remember. I like having a flip flop hanging on my wall because it is a constant reminder of the time of year I enjoy so much. So even when it is 40 below and blizzarding outside, I always have a little piece of summer with me!

Day 3: Lots of Film

When I first started school, I didn't like shooting with film. After 4 months, I love it. I don't think I'll ever get used to not looking at the back of my camera though. After every frame, I look down at my Canon T70, expecting to see a replica of the scene before me. I used to hate not having instant feedback, but not anymore. I believe that it has made me a better photographer and I now spend more time on each picture before I click the shutter button. Not just with film either, on my digital camera as well.

This was a lot of fun. I had so many options! After I had the final composition with the rolls of film placed how they are, I played around with the direction of light and where I wanted the shadows to fall. It was really hard to choose this one final image. There were so many that I liked and each frame was different, even though the composition stayed the same. I also did some editing to the final photo which really changed the way it looks. I wanted it to feel kinda old time-ish, so I put it in black and white and added some split toning, etc. It's way better than it was in colour, and I loved this image in colour as well!

Day 2: The Moon! Finally!

I have always wanted to take a good picture of the moon. I just don't have the proper lens for it. An 18-55mm doesn't work well when trying to catch all the tiny details of something that is ridiculously far away. Today I borrowed a 75-300mm from my school for one of my assignments. I got lucky and the sky decided to not be overcast tonight so I ran outside with the lens and my camera. The first batch were horrible. Half of them were overexposed so they were deleted right away. Then when I got the exposure good and I imported the images onto my laptop, I found they were out of focus. So, I went out again. Spent more time trying to get the focus proper. I took a LOT of pictures. This one turned out all right.

It's not totally sharp, and it could be a lot better. But it's cold outside. And I have homework. So it'll work for now.

Day 1: Toast to a New Year

First, Happy 2012 everyone! I hope the new year will bring you joy, happiness, etc. I hope you will spend your time doing what makes you happy. I hope you will stick to your new years resolutions. And I hope you have a fun year.

This is just something I took before we sat down for supper tonight. I'm pretty sure my family thinks I'm crazy, always taking pictures of random things. But I enjoy having my camera in my hands, so it doesn't bother me at all.