January !

January !, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

One down, eleven more to go.........

31/365 Aquagirl

31/365 January 31, 365, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

I was trying to get an outside shot of something, but it never turned out and so i gave up and went to hang out in the hot tub to warm up.

I really need to get some kind of editing software. iphoto is starting to do odd things and freeze up and generally cause me grief.
Too bad because I would have liked to fiddle with this pic a bit more.......you will just have to take me as I am ok?

29/365 Cutie!

29/365 January 30, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

I was driving home this morning and saw this hat and HAD to stop.
The father said that this little boy just loves to pose for photos.............cute huh?
He was actually very patient while I fiddled with settings.

29/365 Girl in the Snow

29/365 January 29, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Got this shot in the nick of time. I had tried some other stuff prior to this. Long red dress, ....come in take a peek, no that's no good. How about the long black dress? Get changed. No......I look like Elvira, that's definitely no good. Get changed again........now shivering terribly.
Crap! Why won't the remote trigger?? Come on, I'm freezing my ass off here!
Oh.........camera battery almost dead.......
One more try.
Voila!

Do I get an "A" for effort?

28/365 Skittles

27/365 January 27 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Best I could do today........

27/365 The Red Mitten

27/365 January 27, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Does this mean its spring??
PLEASE??

26/365 Oral hygiene

26/365 January 26, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Portraits are hard.
Self portraits are even harder.
Self portraits with a mouth full of Swedish Fish?? Harder still.......

25/365 Yummy

25/365 January 25, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Mmmmmmmm....................
Was in a funky little candy shop and asked the girl behind the counter if it was OK to shoot some pictures.
She was kind enough to say yes.

23/365 Green

23/365 January 23, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

It's a macro kinda day...........

Want to know how this shot evolved? OK, so I started out trying to take a picture of the dog, but she did not cooperate. But she is very fluffy, being an Inuit Sled dog and all. And since it's so cold out, I am wearing fluffy socks as well. The fluffy dog reminded me of the fluffy socks. So I tried to take a macro of the fluffy socks, but it was too boring. So I put the sock against a ballon for colour. THEN I noticed the knot on the ballon......and voila!
Yes, this really is how my mind works. Scary I know.

22/365 Cold

22/365 January 22, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

So very cold......
Spent the day at my son's first ski race. It was -27C, and the racers wore only skin suits.
This little girl got wrapped up in a sleeping bag as soon as she completed her race.
Isn't she pretty?

21/365 Every girl needs a warm winter hat........

21/365 January 21, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

This was LOTS of fun!
Was tempted to set up the tripod and use the DSLR.........but in the end I thought it was safer to use my trusty, indestructible point and shoot since so much water was splashed about.

20/365 White

20/365 January20, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Met a Flickr friend IRL today. We went downtown and wandered around shooting whatever struck our fancy. Thanks for the company Tammy!

The owner of a beautiful bridal salon was kind enough to let us wander around her shop snapping pics of the gorgeous gowns.

I almost did not post this because it's just white. I really do love colour. And white is NOT a colour.
But still, the gowns were quite lovely...........

19/365 Me and The Pink Chair

19/365 January 19, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

First day with the remote.
Kind of fun!

18/365 Broken

18/365 January 18, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Taken on my aunt's old cottage property. Once the scene of many happy childhood memories, it now evokes a wistfulness for the past.
There was a strange beauty in the broken down, abandoned buildings...........

17/365 Freezer Burn

17/365 January 17, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

I am finding that snow is becoming my favourite prop.
Also...I seem to have become a COLOUR WHORE !
;)

16/365 The Sweet Yellow House.

16/365 January 16, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Saw this gorgeous, tiny, yellow house on the way home this morning.
I have a thing for teeny, weeny little houses, and this one was perfect.
Felt a bit silly skulking around in front of their house taking pictures! I am not sure what I would have done had the owners come out and asked me wtf I was doing.
I would have asked their permission, but it was early on a Sunday morning and the house looked quiet.

15/365 Rainbow bike!

15/365 January 15, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

A subject near and dear to my heart. Bikes generally make me swoon, but this one stopped me in my tracks.
Was driving around the downtown core looking for a photo op and there it was, waiting for me.

Some thoughts:
Here I am two weeks into the 365. How is it going? Generally it's going very well. Some days are, obviously, better than others but on the whole I have been pretty happy with my pics so far.
I think the self portraits are fun, and I have many ideas for future ones. To that end I bought a remote today. The pre focus on a cardboard tube and then jump into the picture technique is getting kind of old.
So stay tuned for some selfies!!

14/365 Tea Time!

14/365 January 14, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Milk and sugar with your tea?
Or just snow??

Today is a better day. Looked out my kitchen window and saw the sunlit snow, glimmering and shimmering like so many diamonds. Imagined this shot in my head. Sometimes things DO turn out just the way you want them!

13/365 Silly flowers

13/365 January 13, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Wow.
I have discovered something interesting .
When you feel kinda crappy, it sucks all the creative energy out of you. I have not felt very well for the past few days , and my creative mojo seems to have vanished.
Ugh.

Grandma's hands.......

Grandma's hands......., originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

My mother making my son's birthday cake.

12/365 January Swinging

12/365 January 12, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

She loved to swing from chandeliers..........

Airborne

Airborne, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

My son in the air at trampoline class.
Really, really, really hard to capture a kid as he flies through the air with the greatest of ease.........
Great practice with the manual settings to try and get a decent shot though. I will keep at it. Stubborn girl that I am.

11/365 Homework

homework, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Do you have any idea how much a fifteen year old boy loathes having his picture taken?

"Just pretend I am not here...."

"Mom!! Stop it!!"

Sprinkles.......

Sprinkles......., originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

More colour..........I love colour.
Yeah, no kidding.

10/365 Red and White

10/365 January 10, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Having a shitty day......but the bright colours of this shot cheered me up somewhat.

9/365 Swishy Skirt

9/365 Swishy Skirt, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Killing two birds with one stone: the theme for this weeks 365 group is self portrait. Check. And this is also for a weekly project with the theme "Sur la table." Check!

This is a tiny table........I am not a tiny girl. I am amazed it did not come crashing down!

What did I learn today? Well I learned that a bit of fiddling after a photo is taken is well worth it. And I mean just a wee bit of fiddling, since I do not yet own any fancy software with which to REALLY fiddle. Just using whats in iPhoto for now.

I am quite surprised to find myself sometimes messing with a photo after it is taken. I fully expected to hate it.But I am changing my tune. I used to paint. Watercolours were my thing. Endless fiddling. So I really loved that a photo was just instant. But now I see that a bit of post processing can take something that is just OK and make it into something better. I guess post processing is just another brush to use, another layer of paint to add. And just as with a painting, the trick is to know when to STOP messing with it.

8/365 Little hand

8/365 January 8, 20111, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Snapped this little girl while waiting for my kids at the ski hill. Yes I asked her fathers permission first.
Shooting people is HARD. Why is it so hard? I wanted a shot of the back of her head, because her braids were so cute. But those shots do not seem totally in focus. Not sure what I did wrong.
And my long trek UP the learning curve continues.........

7/365 Grumpy

7/365 January 7, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Not impressed was he................not with the hat nor the swirling snow........

Yes this is my hat. Cute huh?

Batch

Batch , originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

This is Batch. Found him wandering around my neighbourhood..........no tags, but obviously well cared for.
After a circuitous journey, he was reunited with his owners.
Gorgeous dog.............

6/365 Bubbles

6/365 January 6 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

I get inspired in the strangest of places.........like the shower.

This was actually kinda tricky, because I had to blow the bubbles and then whilst trying to get a good shot the bubbles would just dissipate one by one. Pop, pop pop. Oh well, this was what I came up with. Not totally happy with it but what the heck.

The point of this whole exercise is to engage my creative side, and learn how to work my camera. As the year passes I will slowly accomplish both tasks. But I have to try and not get bogged down in each photo..........yeah , I can get a wee bit obsessive. Tomorrow is another day and another opportunity. Right?

5/365 Mom

5/365 January 5 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

It is literally impossible to get a good picture of my dear Mom. As soon as she senses the presence of a camera she makes the most god awful face imaginable. So I was very happy to get some good shots of her when she was reading the paper.

Now since my mother has a fear of computers in general and the internet in particular, she did not allow me to use my fav picture of her. She did allow me to use this one though, since she is not really herself but mere bokeh.

Once again I learned a lot . Since this was totally backlit, the exposure was tricky. And now that I am learning to understand what it is that my camera is trying to say to me, I was able to play around with the settings. But here is the thing....I actually kind of sort of KNEW what I was doing this time.

I love the way this turned out...........thanks Mom!

I think I am going to start to list what camera and what lens I used for each picture.
So today? Nikon D90 50mm f1.8 lens.

Have I mentioned how much I love this lens? It will probably just stay on my camera. Wonder if I can shoot the whole damn year with a 50 mm?

4/365 Frustration............

4/365 January 4, 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Well then.
Let me just say that sitting on a snow covered chair whilst wearing shorts was difficult, but not nearly as difficult as trying to figure out how Lightroom or Aperture works.
I have never really thought of myself as a complete moron before, but now I am starting to wonder.This stuff is just not intuitive for me.
Help?
Can someone come over here and teach me how to use one of these programs? I will bake some really incredible cookies for you.............

3/365 Shiny and Pink

3/365 January 3 ,2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

I drive by this shiny , pink office building all the time. i always meant to snap a pic of it. But the thing is.....the closer you actually GET to a shiny pink building, the less shiny and pink it appears.

What did I learn today? I learned that one can, waste a WHOLE lot of time trying to transfer the idea in one's head into an actual photograph. I suppose thats the idea.........getting the camera to "paint" your vision for you.

I had many visions today but most of them did not pan out. But for me, the beauty of photography is the instantaneous nature of it. So lots of what I tried today did not work? No worries. Click, click, click and then move on. I used to do watercolours. Now THAT is labour intensive. A many step process before you end up with your artwork. And after spending all that time ? Most of my stuff ended up crumpled up.

What else did I learn today? I learned a little more about my D90. Had an issue with over exposure.....and now I know how to interpret a little bit more of the flashing , blinking myriad of info on the screen.

Camera watch out.....soon I WILL DOMINATE YOU!!!! Well, not soon. Who am I kidding. But eventually............

2/365 Thaw

2/365 Thaw, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

Where the heck did winter go??
I love winter.....absolutely adore it. But it seems to be slipping away before it has even begun.

This was just a quick snap using the macro setting on my point and shoot. I love close up anything really.......the world looks really fascinating when you go macro. I guess I will eventually pony up the big bucks for a macro lens for my Nikon, but in the meantime the Lumix does a pretty good job.

1/365 Sexy Bokeh

1/365 January 1 2011, originally uploaded by aquagirl 5.

And we're off !

Another new shiny new set of numbers. Another 365 days of beautiful, new possibilities.
This year I will commit to creativity by doing a 365 project. Take a photo a day and in the process teach myself how to drive my D90.

For this festive first day I give you classic Christmas light BOKEH!

These sexy, blurry, blobs of colour were the reason I just bought a new lens. I picked up a 50mm f 1.8. I had heard many rave reviews about this lens and the gorgeous bokeh it produces..........and it does not disappoint. I also figure that learning to shoot properly with a prime lens is probably a pretty good plan. And bonus? This lens is so compact and light, that now my D90 will be more portable. Portability will be the key to completing this project . I also have a stellar point and shoot, a Panasonic Lumix. One or the other will be my constant companions for the next 365 days.

My main reason for wanting to do a 365, is simply to learn to take really good pictures. I am a hands on learner. You can drone on and on about exposure, and aperture and shutter speed all you like, but unless I am playing with all this stuff, I will not actually lean a darn thing.
So what did I learn taking this picture? Quite a bit actually. I learned to move when taking a picture. Something that you don't do as much of with a zoom lens. It will take some getting used to. I keep twisting the lens to no avail! I started out by taking close ups and blurring the backgrounds. Easy peasy. I like the effect. Then I wanted just the blobs of colour. Aha! I focused on my finger first, then moved it out of the way and voila! Pretty bokeh.
Join me on my photographic odyssey won't you?

Oh.......and I shall also be blabbing on and on about all the other stuffs in my life. When I feel like it. Which I don't right now. So you will just have to wait patiently. OK?