Pam's Week 4: The Story of My Life....

Okay, perhaps the title is a little misleading.  This isn't really the story of my life, per se, but the topic this week was to Tell a Story from a poem or a song.  It sounded like a fun challenge, until I googled the topic for inspiration and realized that my interpretation of the topic was likely far off from the intended one.  I had initially considered taking multiple photos for one song, in an effort to essentially illustrate the song.  When I realized that I was likely supposed to be looking for deeper meaning within the songs and taking a photo of the emotions evoked by the song, I became overwhelmed. 

You see, I am not really one to ascribe meaning to others' words.  I am not good at reading between the lines and looking for metaphors for life.  In highschool English, I actually called my teacher a pervert for asking my group to consider that Emily Dickinson's "Long Fellow in the Grass" might be about a penis rather than a snake.  I pictured Emily Dickinson in a high collared, floor length dress with only the most proper of behaviour and etiquette and such a dignified lady would never, ever write a poem about a penis!  I had no issue whatsoever with finding the sexual connotations in "Snake" by D.H. Lawrence, though, as I knew he wrote "Lady Chatterly's Lover" which certainly didn't sound even remotely prudish!  And to this day I am convinced that one of our former bookclub members dropped out because we weren't literary enough for her and just enjoyed the story of the book, "Life of Pi" and didn't read it looking for allegory and metaphor.  She swears it was just coincidental that her life became very busy with her kids around the same time.

Needless to say, there won't be a lot of deep interpretation of my photos this week.  In fact, there won't even be many photos as the ideas I had did not come to fruition thanks to the bitter cold that has been plaguing us this week once the copious amounts of snow stopped.  There were only so many creative photos with snow that I could take quickly before frostbite set in. 

To make this interesting, I will name the artist and see how many of you can guess the title of the song based on the photo....

Green Day....

Lowest of the Low....

This one is tough as the writer is pretty obscure but it's been covered a number of times by artists such as Michael Buble and Idina Menzel or Darius Rucker and Sheryl Crow recently.  Perhaps Dean Martin would be one of the most famous renditions.  A hint - it's been banned from Canadian radio stations this past winter...

The Beatles....

and last, but not least, Stompin' Tom Connors

I was really hoping for an Anne Murray song but my walk in the sun on Whitefish Island was cut short by a dog who was afraid of the cold and dragged me back to the car before we had a chance to see the birds.  Yes, I was hoping for a photo for "Snowbird".

Did you get all the rest of them? 
- Boulevard of Broken Dreams
- Rosy and Grey
- Baby, It's Cold Outside
- Here Comes the Sun
- The Hockey Song

It looks like the topic for next week is Winter, which we certainly have enough of now!  The challenge will be avoiding frostbite though as we are in for a cold one unless the meteorologists are mistaken (unfortunately they always seem to be right about that). 

Have a good one and keep warm!

Pam's Week Three: What is it? It's It...

I will admit; it took me a while to come up with a song lyric for last week's topic.  My brain is full of song lyrics, so much so that there is little room for anything else.  Could I summon forth a song for the topic, "Abstract/What is it?" thought?  Not at first.  Thanks to my good friend, Google, I recalled "Epic" by Faith No More and the perfect title was found!

I suppose now you might be expecting some genius insights or something though and you might just be let down.  My apologies.  I did learn that today is called, "Blue Monday" and is apparently the most depressing day of the year.  I figure that might explain my misery and grumpiness today, even though I previously attributed that to fatigue and extreme cold.  You see, the temperature today was -39 degrees Celsius with the windchill, which is the equivalent of -38.2 degrees Fahrenheit for my American friends.  That's just not even a funny joke.  I was freezing cold all day.  The fact that I actually had to stop and put gas in my car on my way to work as the gas light was on and it was telling me that I had only 11 km until empty and I certainly did not want to run out of gas today likely did not help in the least.  To then arrive at work and have my office mate turn on a fan was just the last straw!  I think I might bring a space heater in tomorrow to have at my desk. 

Anyways, on with the show.... 

This may not be particularly abstract and I'm sure you can guess what it is, but I thought it was so pretty and I was so excited to see blue sky....frost on my windshield....

This one didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped but the muffins were certainly as delicious as ever (even if they are healthy and chock full of goodies my kids refuse to eat otherwise, like spinach, avocado, zucchini, applesauce...)

My kids were in a swim meet in Harbor Springs, Michigan this past weekend so I saw lots and lots of this....

I don't expect anyone to recognize this.  It's the dress on a puppet I bought in Myanmar.  I have always thought it was gorgeous.

Can anyone guess what this one is?  If you guessed an icicle hanging off my roof with a bare tree and a setting sun in the background, you would be right!

I kind of like how the light reflects off the crystals in this one.  This is the chandelier in our dining room.

Now to find some inspiration for this week's topic.  I believe it was one of the ones I found but I have no idea how to go about creating it....Ooopsie.....Here's hoping it warms up!

Pam's Week Two: Imagine all the People, Living Life in Peace

Yes, I know that I am late posting this.  I could make all sorts of excuses, but the bottom line is that I haven't taken the time to sit down and write this until tonight.  And tonight, I am skipping my Zumba class with my kids to get caught up on things that have not been done.  First up was groceries (weekends away are killers to my schedule) and now the blog.

So, the topic for this week, which was actually two weeks ago now, was Peace.  I had all sorts of visions but time and Mother Nature were not my friend.  We had umpteen million feet of snow and lots of grey skies.  I did my best to find peace anyways...

First, I found out in the comfort of my home while I watched this, the wrath of Mother Nature and Jack Frost, out of our window...

Next, I tried to find peace as I took a break from shoveling the driveway when I couldn't get the snowblower started.  It was actually a very beautiful night if it wasn't for the oodles of snow that got dumped on us.  After 45 minutes, I managed to shovel a single pathway through from my house to the road.

Finally, I found peace in our shadows on the snowy streets as we took our nightly stroll through the neighbourhood.

I hope that week you managed to find peace as well.

Sharon's Week 3: You Can't Hide Your Lyin' Eyes

abstract/what is it?

I felt more back in the game this week.  The topic was right up my alley because I love to use my macro lens.  Since we're in the middle of a bit of a deep freeze, the timing was perfect for some indoor photography.  First I headed to the Bellevue Park Greenhouse and then I wandered through the house looking for things to shoot (these are clues).  I was a bit lazy in that I didn't get out the tripod (which I should always do for close-up work) so some of what I was attempting didn't work, but it was fun all the same and I did get some images that I like.

Try to guess what they are (some are more obvious than others) and I'll tell you at the end.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

1.  an orange slice

2.  the underside of a leaf

3.  sprinkles

4.  cactus spines

5.  cheese grater

6.  Frosted Flakes

7.  underside of a cactus pad

8.  top of a tight flower bud

9.  cheese grater again

10.  white bread

So, how did you do?

Sharon's Week 2: In Restless Dreams I Walked Alone

peaceful

I'm late because I have had a busy few days.  My sister just asked me if I'd given up already so I thought I'd better get this done tonight.  I'm not yet 100% back into photography mode but I am moving in the right direction.  I actually took Minerva snowshoeing this past weekend!  Some of the photos are from that day and others are from my phone during a different snowshoe adventure.

The thing that kept coming to my mind for this topic last week was snow.   Now, wait a minute, let me explain.  I find the cold, quiet mornings peaceful.  I find the snowshoeing and hiking trails where I rarely see anyone else and only hear my footsteps and the occasional bird peaceful.  I find a crazy winter storm that dumps 34 cm of snow with drifts twice that high in my driveway peaceful (as long as I am inside looking out).  The grey shadows on the white snow and a sunny blue sky with not a cloud to be seen give me a sense of peace.  

Don't get me wrong, I can complain about the weather with the best of them (I will confess to some bad language going though my head while shovelling after that "peaceful" storm) but when I have the time, the choice about what to do and the proper clothing, I love winter. 

So apart from one photo of a peacefully sleeping cat, the rest of the photos are just what I described above...peaceful snow scenes.

This cat is Eclipse.  She was happy to see the bright sun too.

Pam's Week One: It's the Start of Another New Year

So, here we are, back at it again.  Sharon asked me to join her in another year of photography.  I figured, why not?  Challenging my creative juices can't be a bad thing.  I was excited to sit with her over a cup of tea to select topics.  Now that the year has started, however, I am feeling rather intimidated again.....but I am determined to finish the year!  If this is week one, there are only 52 more posts to go!

This week's topic was "New/beginnings".  It sounds easy enough.  It's a new year, a new month, new resolutions, but how to capture any of them?

The obvious is where I will begin... I am quite happy to spend New Year's Eve at home in my pj's but my husband loves to go out.  He decided we should book a staycation at a local hotel that included tickets to the party at the Pub.  We took the kids with us, spent time in the pool and had dinner together before my husband and I headed to the party.   This is our first selfie of the new year.

An old friend of my brother's was in town over the holidays with his son and girlfriend.  Our kids have really hit it off in the past so when we were invited over to his mom's house for a sushi-making lesson, Duncan and I were excited to attend and learn a 'new' skill.  And I was so proud of Duncan (and myself really) for gathering the courage to try the raw tuna and salmon and actually enjoy it!

Finally, today while my husband was prepping food for his birthday party, my parents and I took the kids and dog snowshoeing.  This wasn't a new thing per se, but we actually let the dog go off-leash which is a 'new' experience for her.  I would say she enjoyed it.

Sharon's Week 1: It'll Be Just Like Starting Over

new/beginnings

Here I am again!  2018 was a year of almost no photography.  My grand plan to do food photography in an effort to create a cookbook for myself lasted exactly two months.  For a while in March and April, I kept thinking I'd get back to it.  For another couple of months I had vague thoughts about it and in November I finally packed away the lighting gear and styling stuff that I had acquired (and that had been gathering dust and taking up space in my bedroom).

Throughout the entire year, I had my camera out exactly eight times (pathetic!) and I still haven't processed the photos from five of those events (even more pathetic!).  So back in November, while feeling very guilty and neglectful of Minerva (you've probably forgotten my camera's name), I asked Pam if she was interested in doing another photography project.  We talked about it and decided on a weekly project.  We came up with a bunch of topics and chose 53 of them, one for each week (or part thereof) for the year 2019: one topic per week with the plan to take one photo or as many as we want, if the spirit moves us.

For those of you who enjoyed Maxine's hilarious posts in the past, sorry, she's not joining us this year.  She has become very interested in painting and she's still not very mobile with her never-ending broken ankle saga.  Donna may or may not join us again this time.  Here is her text response to my question: "Nice that you have so much faith in me.  I can definitely start and everyone can make bets on how long I will last.  At least I am predictably unpredictable."  I laughed out loud when I read that but I REALLY hope she joins us...she spent a lot of time last year focusing on photography and the processing side of it and I really want to see what she has learned.

Hey, if anyone out there wants to participate, let me know and I'll send you the list.

About this week, I'm not off to a stellar start although it was a very punctual one.  I got up early on New Year's day and headed to Whitefish Island for the sunrise.  I wandered around in -18 degree temperatures and put Minerva to use for the first time since Thanksgiving.  I have not thought about any other photos since then though (that's the not so stellar part).  It was a short week however and the first full week of 2019 starts tomorrow...a new day with a new topic and new ideas.

So here we go with the "new/beginnings" photos for this week...

There was spectacular colour in the sky while I was driving but there was still some colour left when I arrived.  Here is a new day, a new year.

A new kind of ice (new to me anyway).

A blanket of new snow.

A new me with Minerva.

Huh, no chickadees!