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Kitchener-Waterloo received a dumping of nearly 20cms of snow over the weekend!!

It is a winter wonderland out there - unfortunately the sun goes down way too fast and I wasn’t able to capture more images today. Hopefully tomorrow!

I think this snow is here to stay now, unlike the snowfall back on October 29th - that had melted by lunchtime

On October 14th, I was just heading home from a GRIPS meeting when I saw this glorious photo opportunity! The clouds were just glowing in the front of the full moon. I wish I could’ve captured it the same way I saw it… perhaps someday I will try this again.

A part of my photography program was learning how to maneuver though Adobe Photoshop. Well! That course was just amazing fun. Although this is not really a photography post, I still wanted to share that I’ve added a sample gallery of graphic work to my website. It started when I created my own wedding invitations, and then I received other requests to create things with Photoshop. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s another way I can utilize the photos I’ve taken. Using real pictures of flowers instead of clipart, in my opinion, is always a more effective brand.
Feel free to take a look! I am by no means a graphic designer, but sometimes I wish I had taken that route. There are just endless ideas out there!

The air was chilled, the clouds opened up and rained down on us, gently.

I captured a few images, all available on my Flickr site. (Click the image below).

*Thank you for visiting my blog! It was unavailable late last night due to a server crash (beyond my control). Thankfully everything was restored overnight!

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada. It’s the day we set aside to reflect on the sacrifice our men & women made for freedom for our country. There are ceremonies in most major cities at the hour of 11 o’clock around the cenotaph.

It is also the day a group of my friends remember our late friend Chantel. It was the unfortunate event five years ago today, November 11th in 2003, that she took her own life. She was only 20 years old.
Instead of reflecting on what she did on her last day, we all stand around her resting place to celebrate her life, and remember all the good things that made her Chantel.
In 2003, I created a simple webpage for any and everyone to visit and remember at any time. I recently updated it. You can view it here if you wish.

My thoughts are with everyone who has ever had a suicide affect their life. Feel free to share your thoughts or stories in a comment.

It’s good to remember. Lest we forget.

I recently joined the Skywatch Friday blog list. I LOVE weather and how quickly it can change… and clouds are my favourite! This is my very out-of-date-order first entry.

On August 18, 2008 I was out at one my husband’s baseball games when a storm started rolling in near the end of the game. I camped out in my car to capture a few images (since it was pouring rain). When the rain lightened up a bit, I jumped back out of the car to get better sky photos.

I lightened this photo in Photoshop to show just how massive the clouds were! They were absolutely amazing, and they were moving so very fast across the sky.

On March 1, 2007 Ontario was hit with a pretty bad ice storm. The next day when I arrived at work, I pulled into a parking spot and this car had been there all night!
I often wonder how long it took the owner to chip their way into the vehicle…

This photo has been viewed 585 on Flickr since I uploaded it, so I thought I would share it with my blog readers
It’s photos like these that make me actually want winter to return! (What the heck is wrong with me!)

There are a few more images from that storm you can view by clicking on the image above

A beautiful Friday afternoon in a local pumpkin patch.

You can view the whole set on my Flickr page.

It was a very rainy day when I headed down to the City of Waterfalls, also known as (legally…) the City of Hamilton, Ontario.

The photography club* that I am a member of planned this outing. The president of the club told me she had actually found this spot by accident. Wonderful! Sometimes they make the best places to shoot.

My mum came along for the day with me, and we arrived at the waterfall (Sherman Falls) at 9am. A bit later than I had expected, but it was nice to see that a few other club members were still lingering.

Despite the rain, I managed to capture quite a few great images. The rain actually brought out the colours much more vibrantly than any adjusting in photoshop could accomplish. I think I might actually get out more when it’s raining to shoot nature, just for that vibrant effect!

So, I thought with this post I would also include a simple trick to capturing waterfalls and acquiring the blurred, misty, heavenly waterflow. It’s simple: Slow down your shutter speed!

I am always in Manual mode. I had on my #3 Neutral Density filter (which lessens the amount of light entering my camera. In the case of slowing shutter speeds during the day, too much light can ruin the shot you’re aiming for). The settings I used were:
f/14, 0.6 sec, ISO 200, at 18mm.

This leaf was near another waterfall we visited that day. It was the only leaf on the ground with raindrops that large! It was just waiting for me to take it’s picture.

Click on the images or click this link to view the whole set from that day on my Flickr page.

*If you are in the Waterloo Region, or farther, you are welcome to join our photography club! All experience levels, all camera users (film & digital)… check out our website: www.gripskw.ca

Over this past weekend, Henry’s (Digital Camera Centre) held their annual Photographic, Digital & Video Show in Toronto. I’ve only been once before but didn’t have much time to spend, so as soon as I found out about this year’s event, I made sure my schedule was cleared!
Henry’s has a part of their business dedicated to teaching anyone and everyone about photography, videography, and digital imaging skills. At the annual show, they hold 45-minute versions of these classes - free with your admission. (I looked online when I got home to see how much each three-hour class is, and they average $70. Not bad, but free is good too!)

My friend & I each attended about 4 classes over the course of the day. We arrived at 10:45am, just when the first class was starting. However, we decided to tour around and see what was happening at each kiosk. Since we are both Canon users, naturally we went straight to that booth first

So many awesome things to see and learn about… I must say, my favourite thing was listening to the two photojournalists from The Toronto Star! I could have stayed and listened to them for hours. Unfortunately, I wanted to attend a few of the classes. As soon as they were over though, I headed straight back to them. I sat in to learn more about posing, filters, flash fundamentals, and we stayed briefly for the Canon class as it was how to use the basic functions of the camera, like turning it on. I loved them all! I am definitely interested in taking a three-hour course at Henry’s someday… excellent information and energetic teachers always make interesting learning sessions!

—–this lens is for sale for $25,000. Whoa!