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August, 2010

  1. Balancing Act

    August 24, 2010 by Gail

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    Just like the rock sculptures here, my daily life can resemble a precarious balancing act to keep the volunteer/work/freelance ratio intact. Some days it’s harder to maintain than others. Managing today was relatively simple: one patient drop-off, The Firm, pick up film, subway to meeting in Scarborough, home to emails, editing, writing and whatnot. This is a personal website, not a commercial venture, but for my own reasons I like to write something daily and post some photos. It’s like my daily vitamin and how I unwind from the day. (I don’t take vitamins, but you know what I mean…)

    I was pleased to finally see the images from the last two rolls of film shot while I was in Ottawa earlier this month. Picking up film is exciting! It’s all a surprise, especially when the shooting/developing intervals are longer. For any film users out there who don’t know about Shoppers Drug Mart film developing, $2.99 is all they charge to develop a roll of film and put it on CD. It’s simply the best deal around. It was the only way I could afford shooting 18 rolls of film in Havana, Cuba, at the end of 2006. It makes shooting film less of a luxury.

    Back to the photos, the artist behind the rock sculptures is a fellow named John Ceprano, who happened to be there while we were so I got him on film just before the sky opened and poured on everyone at Remic Rapids:

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    More information about the sculptures can be found on Ceprano’s website here.

    More from Remic Rapids (I like the reflection):

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    An abandoned barn in Wakefield, Quebec:

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    My favourite shots taken in Gatineau Park, Quebec:

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    To see all the photos in the “Analogue in Ottawa” set, click through the Pictobrowser below or view them as a full-screen slideshow in Flickr.

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  2. Flamenco!

    August 24, 2010 by Gail

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    Flamenco dancer at last Saturday’s wedding. Wish I’d had video for this, but I just shot stills… to view pics larger, click once to land in Flickr, then click again to enlarge.

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  3. Neighbourhood Watch

    August 23, 2010 by Gail

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    Willfully ignoring the construction chaos just a few feet away, I bought some chicken stew from a local bakery/deli and ate dinner by the statue of Pope John Paul II. Afterwards I took out my camera and shot the scene around me with the 50mm f/1.8. For the past few years since I moved here, I’ve been continually impressed with how well-kept the area is around the statue. There are always flowers in front and candles are often burning into the night.

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  4. Nonno

    August 22, 2010 by Gail

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    The House of Fielding is in usual post-wedding recovery mode today. Yesterday’s nuptials was a 16-hour shooting day from the time I arrived at the bride’s house in the morning to the time I left the reception venue. Come to think of it, the last wedding I shot was also 16 hours from beginning to end. Most photographers leave after the bouquet toss, but I stay until the music stops and in the case of last night, that turned out to be 3am. I was thinking today of writing an FAQ section to my portrait photography site (overdue for a makeover) because I get more than enough to warrant putting one together, and why I shoot for that long is one of the questions I get asked most frequently.

    One thing I loved about yesterday’s wedding is how close-knit the families are, on both sides. The reception was mostly relatives: cousins, second cousins, aunties, uncles, grandparents, nieces, nephews, and in-laws in addition to parents and siblings. Seeing babies and old folk makes me smile. When I saw the Nonno of the bride, I couldn’t wait to take his picture!

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  5. Mila’s Daydreams

    August 22, 2010 by Gail

    This is amazingly creative: a woman on maternity leave takes photos of her baby sleeping, imagining her daydreams. She uses a simple point-and-shoot camera, creating the scene in a few minutes and working quickly before her baby wakes up.

    http://milasdaydreams.blogspot.com/

    Mila’s mama worked in advertising and her father is a composer (his music is the soundtrack). I’ll bet Mila has some pretty imaginative daydreams!

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  6. They were having so much fun…

    August 21, 2010 by Gail

    … they forgot to cut the cake. Well, *that’s* a first!

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dance floor so busy all through dinner and dessert.

    I’ve already burned through nearly 16GBs of memory today!

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  7. Think Of Magic While I Sleep

    August 20, 2010 by Gail

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    Feeling beat from the week’s activities, which means it’s time to hit the sack and recharge before I pull out all the stops tomorrow for a wedding.

    I always feel a bit nervous the night before the wedding, like I’ve forgotten some important detail. But one thing I’ve learned about myself over the years is that I am more organised than I think I am. Sometimes I wonder if I will run out of creativity, but somehow in the chaos of weddings I manage to form ideas and the next step is convincing people to go along with them :)

    Photo: the bride discovering a dragonfly (long gone) at the rehearsal

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  8. Patient Pooches

    August 20, 2010 by Gail

    A couple of irresistible faces on Queen Street East.

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  9. The Friday Files

    August 20, 2010 by Gail

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    Yesterday was a pretty long day — non-stop from 8am driving near the airport to coming home 11:30pm from Woodbridge — but when it starts with volunteering and ends with photography I feel a warm, happy buzz. I’ve mentioned before that patients are always very grateful, and it’s true. Plus, the majority of the people I’m driving are my parents’ and grandparents’ generation so it gives me a family feeling, as if I’m driving my elderly folk around. The day ended with a wedding rehearsal and dinner at the bride’s house afterwards, where I tried to commit everyone’s names/faces to memory and let people get familiar with me and my camera. I love shooting weddings because of the family atmosphere (babies and old people are my favourite photo subjects!), and I’m always treated with incredible hospitality, like one of the family. For someone whose family lives at the other end of the country, the volunteer work and the wedding photography go a long way towards bringing the family feeling to me.

    Here’s another photo from last night I really like. In fact, I think it’s my favourite from the whole evening. I shot it just before I went to my car:

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  10. “Oh… Canada” By Classified

    August 19, 2010 by Gail

    I like the heritage bit at the end (which has no meaning if you’ve not watched Canadian TV). Lyrics behind the jump:

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