Another musical selection.

I follow a great blog...Wreckless Girl... and she had this lovely woman posted on her blog... Here she is: Amy Seeley.

http://vimeo.com/4648513

Robots Need Love Too.

Right now I have a thing for Dan Mangan.

It is such a thing that I could listen to Nice Nice, Very Nice all day long and not get bored, (okay well maybe not, but I still really like the album).

If you ever come up beside me in my car just singing away at the top of my lungs it is Robots that I will most likely be singing too. The kids know the chorus and we sing it out together. I just saw his video posted on the 'Vancouver is Awesome' website and here it is:

http://vancouverisawesome.com/?s=robots

Bridge to a Cool Planet - favourite pics!

Bridge to a Cool Planet was a great event to be a part of. It made me feel powerful in terms of making change.

In my university days I considered myself quite the activist, but family and life in general kind of slowed me down on that front. Last weekend brought me back to a good place.

I am posting some of my favourite images of the day from a creative stand point. My facebook page has more and the organizers have even more than that.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Vancouver-BC/sweet-earth-photographics/39253595734 - wow that is a long link!

This young woman was probably the most photographed individual of the walk. I was among 6 other vollunteer photographers for the Bridge to a Cool Planet organization and in the late morning before most of the fellow walkers arrived we kept circling her and taking her picture. It was quite amusing actually.... the amount of cameras on hand.

How can I not take her picture? I would love to be in that outfit. It is right up my alley. Can you see that she is sleeveless.... very brave woman here.

So many vollunteers helped out this day. Karma points all around, I say!

Family Fall pics.

I headed out to Langley last weekend to meet the winner of the contest I held with yoyobelly.ca in the spring. It was the first time I had been out to Glen Valley Park and it is such a beautiful space.

We had Christmas cards and gifts in mind. The day could not have been more perfect which was lucky as it was the only day we could do the shoot.

The two little ones absolutely adored one another. Big brother was so gentle with his little sister and she could hardly take her eyes off of him. I think those two already have a very good start.

My whole family came with me this day as we do not head out to the Valley very often. While I took photos my husband and the girls walked the ravine path. I have some great pics of the girls that I will post shortly. I am still trying to get caught up on all the work as of late as well as my own personal photos.

A rainy Sunday afternoon.

This is my superstar sister-in-law. The little one and I met up with her at the pumpkin patch and we took her home with us. Eldest daughter stayed home with dad as she was quite ill.
So Aunty C hung out with us all day....to be young and have a whole day free and choose to chill with the fam...you gotta love the freedom.
She was unsure of how to help me while I was preparing our meal. As you can see, and as I told her, she was doing the most important job. While eldest daughter cuddled up and eventually fell asleep on her lap she entertained youngest for a good solid hour looking at pictures, asking questions, playing make believe, all on the couch in the quiet of the afternoon on a rainy Sunday. This is a gift.
Aunty C is Australian and has been here now for a year. Who knows when she will depart us to continue her exploration of the world. When she is gone it is a moment like this that I will remember and cherish. I hope we have many more.

Bringing my child's life alive in a book.

I attended my first parent teacher conference last night. My husband was able to come too which was great as he could finally meet DD's teacher and see her classroom.

I will admit that I was a little hesitant putting DD into full day kindie as she is only 4, being a December baby and all. I absolutely love her teacher. My daughter amuses her. I like this.

The first few weeks of school Mrs. W. took photos of DD's class all over the school and with various teachers and staff. She then created little story books with the photos that the kids take home to read. It is a great way for us to see her little world and for her to be encouraged to read stories that have more of a connection.

When my 2nd daughter was born she made a lot of funny snuffly noises. I made up a story of how my older daughter was a faerie who finds a baby snuffler in the woods. I decided to take this story a litte further. My cousin helped me shoot the scenes and we made the story into a book. This story we have forever now. Baba soon stopped making the noises and they both grew, but we have that one moment held in time. We took a story that unfolded in those first few months of siblings adjusting to one another and turned it into a visual memory.

I would like to offer this service to my clients. I need to work on the details though as it can be quite time consuming and I would like to make it affordable.

My favourite season.

We were at my favourite seasonal destination. I look forward to the patch at Westham Island Farm all year. We went out last weekend on the last sunny day for awhile. My kids absolutely love going there and now my little one will remember that this is our family tradition.
A friend intentionally set out to create traditions with her kids as she lacked any from her own childhood. It made me start thinking about what my own family could do. We now have enough years in that the patch is an official tradition. We will head out again with my niece and bring home even more orange lovelies.

playtime...more pics from Guemes overnight.

Have you ever driven the Chuckanut Drive from Bellingham to Mt. Vernon? It is such a lovely drive; a great improvement over Hwy.5. The above pictures were captured back on the flats.

I started a natural series years ago and I shall add this to the collection. I need to get a personal gallery started on my website so that I can put up my own personal work. I love finding 'nature's art' in the randomness of found colours, textures and discarded objects that I find when out wandering.

I loved this island bulletin board located by the ferry terminal. I so enjoy catching a glimpse into the every day lives of the communities I visit.

Guemes Island appears to really like cut out people. I saw a few more on the other side.

Girls Night Out

My very dear friend who moved to Ottawa came home to stay with us for two wonderful weeks. We could only organize one night away as children, jobs and husbands limited our options. We made the most of what we had.
If you ever have the chance to visit Guemes Island Resort I highly recommend it, but go in the off season.
Whatever you do, don't end up at the ferry terminal to the San Juan's and ask for Gomez Island. You may look a little silly. I don't even know how to spell it phonetically. Just remember to turn off of the main road onto to I Avenue to get you to the Guemes Island ferry.


As we were only staying for one night we opted for the tiny, yet luxury cabins as they had their own private hot tubs and I was all over that. We also sat in the amazing hot sauna and had massages in the little massage cabin the next morning. Oh yah, and the sangria my Washington friend brought up was delectable.
Check out the resort at: http://www.guemesislandresort.com/

Hey, there is me... on the right!

I think she looks like Van Gogh's sister....if he had had one.

The locals having an early seat at the Country Store Inn. I had a great coffee with a maple oatmeal cookie....yum!

Our beach view and we had the whole place to ourselves. Definitely go off-season.

I miss you babe!

A visit to the outback....Imagine them BIG.

My garden is in a state of decay. The grass in back section hasn't been mowed in.... I don't know how long. The daughter's garden is an eclectic graveyard of found objects, overgrown weeds and the last of the fall flowers. Gardening this summer was a bit of a luxury and the space was let to go wild. I abandoned my flowers. It is quite established so I just let it go.
This afternoon I reconnected a little bit. I am trying out a new lens on loan from Beau Photo for a job that I have next week photographing bioplastics. My brain has been in overdrive the last few days trying to figure out how to make the products look more dramatic that what I have seen out there.
And then I got distracted. I screwed the new ( to me) lens on to my camera and then went exploring... out to the 'back 40' as I like to call it.
Wow, it is pretty cool back there now. As nothing has been cut back the dead and dying flowers are offering up their seeds for next year's crop. And this lens ..... I think I need one for my own. It is not as if that is going to happen anytime soon so I must enjoy it to its fullest before I need to return it.
I want to blow up all these unadultered images into massive portraits that I will hang all over my home and absorb their images of decay and celebrate the amazing colours and textures that nature offers. Wooohoooo!!!

Ah, this one still has life. I imagine the anther and stamen parts as little faeries dancing around the faerie ring.

These next three can be a series perhaps.

I have not retouched them although I think a little brightening in photoshop would help, but when to stop?? I started playing and was overwhelmed by the subtleties of each change.

To have completely creative time to myself is like gold. I so enjoyed indulging myself in some play time. I did that recently on a one night-overnight with two girlfriends. I felt as I had been freed. I need more time like this.