I took a moment after the dress rehearsal to nail down a few portrait locations for tomorrow’s wedding (which is going to be a ton of fun – these are great people!) and I found this pathway, leading right to the menacing skies.  I like all the opposites in this scene… the new green grass coming in under the dead grass of last year, the lilting pathway leading to the darkness, the blue sky in the background, next to the ominous clouds.

That was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw this gorgeous necklace in Erica’s display case.  And the thought refused to leave me.  So, well, now it’s mine, and I loved it enough to take some photos of it.  It is seriously beautiful jewelry!  Erica is a local Kamloops girl, and if you’ve ever heard of Maraschino Jewelry, that’s her.  Erica launched a new business this week called Get Polished, where she will be doing nails (she’s fantastic, I’m getting mine done for the first time EVER) as well as selling her jewelry creations.  The website is in the works and I’ll update the links when they’re ready.

These shots were tricky… it was just me, holding a heavy camera in one hand, and trying to keep the necklace steady in the little branches of a very windy tree long enough to get the shot with the other.  Would have probably made some nice entertainment for any passerby.  lol.

Hey, remember me??   I’ve been prepping for a busy 2011, and between that and this blog being inaccessible for a bit, I’ve TOTALLY gotten out of the habit of posting here.

Today is a new day, however, and as I’ve recently acquired a wonderful new macro lens, so I’ve dubbed the next month “Macro Month”.  I’ll share as I play.  I have to say that this lens makes me see things in a completely different way.  No “big picture” thinking here

Photography is such as socially connected business. Did you know that? I get to meet new people all the time, and there are so many nice people out there. I also get to meet other photographers too, whether it be in person or online. Today I received an email asking if I would mind if a photo of mine was featured on another photog’s blog. Well, sure, I say! Since I haven’t blogged on the 365 in too long, I figured it would be a great excuse to post. Here is a link to the post:

Jane Foster Photography. The photo is one I took last July when we were visiting up in Smithers. I love this photo- you can almost feel the late evening sun, and the idyllic, carefree mood I was in. We were kicking a ball around in the field with my bro, and I took a minute (or two, haha) to catch the setting sun.

Well, it’s basketball season at school, and I have to say that it’s a FUN game to watch! My son seems to be a natural at it, and I caught this sweet basket with my camera yesterday! These little animations are a bit hard on the eyes, and hard to look away from (for me anyways, lol)

…in the dead of winter. I was taking some before photos of our main floor the other day, since the red/blue/yellow theme going on is going OUT! (yay!!), and this little scene caught my eye. LOVE hydrangeas, and I love the pencil drawing my twin bro drew for me once upon a time. What better way to say “hello!” to anyone who may yet follow this quiet blog of mine

A Flickr group I participate in way too often had a challenge this evening. It was “stop what you’re doing, grab your camera, take a photo of something and make it awesome.” Like I wrote on Flickr, I don’t know if this makes “awesome”, but I’m pretty happy with it

I suppose that means that instead of being a “daily blog”, 365 will mean “the everyday” in my blogging. A way to separate what I do for myself, for fun, from the business side of things.

If you are here as a friend and blog follower, HELLO!! feel free to comment, and if you’re someone I see in the real world, I have time to hang out these days, so we should really get together! If you’re new, WELCOME to the personal side of what catches my eye

It has been snowing {finally} all week, and on Friday the sun came out and the day was too gorgeous to spend sitting inside, so I went up into Lac Du Bois for a little peace and quiet. SO pretty up there! I said when I came home that I took pictures of lots of dead stuff, but the pictures turned out much better than they sound like they did. There was lots of dead stuff (it’s January, after all, but one of these may end up blown up and on my wall within the week

You will see more of that grass, I have a bit of a fetish when it comes to sunlit grasses, I can’t help it, they look so pretty!

Did you see that… signs of spring already! I hope those are tough, I don’t think winter has really hit yet…

There was a whole flock of these birds flitting about {the name escapes me at the moment}, and the light was catching them just right to set off their colors!

My goal for the winter is to learn to love off camera flash. Not just survive through it, but LOVE it. The first two steps I took towards that goal were

1) buying “Radio Poppers”, which are flash triggers that operate by radio frequencies, so I can set up my flash and trigger it from pretty much anywhere.

2) getting Zach Arias’ One Light Workshop DVDs, on which Zach outlines lighting basics, gear basics, and goes through 5 different photo sessions, talking the whole time about what his settings are and why he’s choosing them.

I’ve been playing the DVD’s in the background while I do other things, gleaning some of the basics, and today I figured out how to set up my Radio Poppers. I found two willing subjects (okay, I bribed them with video game time, but whatever!) and we went into the frigid back yard to play. This is very basic, and in 5 minutes they were cold and done, but I’m super excited about flash for the first time ever

The sun had set and the light behind them is the moon. Zach’s DVD’s just made the complications of off camera flash SO clear…

I’ve said it before, but I have this “thing” for all things old and historic. I guess that’s why when I was had an opportunity this week to purchase an old Kodak camera (circa 1915ish), I didn’t think about it, I just went for it. It’s the favorite piece of decor in my office

I had the opportunity to be a tester for some Lightroom presets created by a fellow photographer who lives in the States. For anyone who wonders, Lightroom is a fantastic editing tool for photographs, having many developing options, so you can play around with your photos to your heart’s content, whether you are making basic color corrections, or you are going for a vintage or black and white look. You can save all the steps you’ve taken to make a photograph look “just so” as a Preset, so that at the touch of a button you can re-create the look over and over. Anyways, Mark Elkin has some awesome presets on his website! I am testing the Retro Collection, as well as his Correction and Enhancement collections. I’m having SO much fun! The preset I used on this photo is called Pool Party .