Home, Sweet Home

Day 14: A photo focusing on eyes

Day 17: A photo with street lights

Day 15: A photo of whatever you please

Day 18: A photo depicting an emotion

(hint...happiness)

Day 19: A photo that involves landscape
That's Webster's Falls in the backgound

Day 20: A photo of whatever you please

Clarence's handiwork.

 It was very important that all three kitties be riding the bulldozer.

Day 21: A photo of the sunset

I'm slowly but surely making my way through the photo challenge. However to speed up the process, I've skipped over Day 16: A photo experimenting with light trails. I have yet to master the exposure settings on my camera. I should really sit down with my camera's instruction manual but at the moment there's no time. My family and I are leaving for British Columbia tomorrow and I still need to pack. Gulp. I have till tomorrow afternoon, but still, who am I kidding, packing always takes way longer than I think it will. So when I return to Ontario, I'll revisit the elusive Day 16 and figure out how to take a photo with light trails.

Highlights of the week gone by included strawberry picking; the fruit of which I photographed in my kitchen sink just before I set out to wash 14 litres of strawberries. You would think having large amounts of fruit in your house is very healthy, but all those strawberries induced me to eat a great deal of whip cream and scones. It's simply wrong not to eat almost as much strawberry shortcake as you can while strawberries are in season. The scones are a byproduct of William and Kate's wedding. At the time they were married, all the attention on Britain made me want to eat something quintessentially British and scones seemed like the best option. I found a really nice scone recipe and haven't looked back since.

As for this week, it's only just begun, but it already has one highlight. I very much enjoyed strolling over to Sam Lawrence Park to photograph the sunset this evening. The park has a nice garden and provides a wonderful panorama of the escarpment and downtown Hamilton. Shucks, I'm going to make myself homesick and I haven't even left for holidays yet.

A Parsley/Basil Skills Competion

Day 8: A photo of something close up

Day 9: A photo of something distant

Day 10: A photo of whatever you please

The other day I went with my family down to the Hamilton Waterfront. We parked our car at Bayfront Park and then biked over to the Harbour Marine Services. There's a really big ship that I see docked by the Marine Services building every time I go down there. The ship, which might technically be a laker (a freighter that runs through the Great Lakes) is painted a very bright blue. When you get close to the side of the ship, you start to see the flaking layers of paint and the rust that's corroding the metal. The overall effect is quite lovely and, when taken out of context, looks like it could be an abstract painting.  Every time I've gone by the big blue rusting ship I've thought that I would like to photograph the side of the boat close up, and the other day I did just that.

For the Day 9 photo, I broke a photo challenge rule and took it on the same day as Photo 8. True confessions, I know. The fellow looking out over the water in the background is what makes this a photograph of something distant. My intended subject matter is the dynamic biking duo in the foreground but I think the man leaning on the railing sort of sneaks in there to steal the show.

As for the Day 10 photo, there's no question who's the star: parsley, it's your moment to shine. Every day I take pleasure in looking at the potted herbs by my studio window so it was only natural that I take an herbal photograph. Although scientifically improvable, I maintain that herbs taste better when you grow them yourself. I would've photographed my basil plant because basil is the lion of the herb kingdom, but my basil is not looking well these days. So while basil is tastier than parsley, parsley is currently destroying basil in the category of most photogenic. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong with my basil plant, apart from perhaps pillaging its leaves more often than I should. Hmm, maybe I do know what I'm doing wrong with my basil plant.

I Challenge You to an Art Crawl!

Day 6: A photo from a low angle
I love you, asymmetrical balance

Day 7: A silhouette photo

Posted above are my most recent efforts for the 30 day photo challenge. I seem to have really taken the notion of challenge to heart this week. For instance, you would think I've challenged myself to see how little sleep I need. Not a particularly wise endeavour or one undertaken for any great purpose. But tonight I'm going to challenge myself to be asleep by 11 pm. If my tiredness weren't a great enough motivation in and of itself, than the thought that I'll be a vendor at tomorrow's James Street North Art Crawl would certainly give me sufficient cause to rest up. 

The basic premise of the Art Crawl is that every second Friday of the month all the galleries on James Street North are open late and there's a great selection of art to check out. A number of artists who have their studios on James Street also open up their places for people to come in and have a look. And as if that weren't enough, the area is also something of a 'little Portugal' so there's some great food to be had as well (mmm...custard tarts). 

I've been to a number of Art Crawls, but I've never done the Makers Market that happens there so I'm quite excited to be a participant tomorrow. I'll be selling prints of my watercolour paintings and, although it's not quite done, I think I'll bring along the horse painting I'm currently working on to show as an example of the type of custom work I do. The Art Crawls are usually pretty busy with a wide range of people turning out so it should be fun to be part of the vibe Friday night. Things get underway at 7pm and the Market itself ends at 10 pm, although there's usually still other things open beyond that time. 

If you've never been to an Art Crawl, it's a great way to spend a Friday night.