… I have slowly been telling friends and family my Turning 40 Plan, as I pass through major stages. It’s quite a relief to open things up, actually. This may happen, after all! (The plan, not turning 40.)

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airport run

Sometimes it’s good to remind myself that for all the times when things don’t go my way, there are so many, many more days when things go my way. Like today. I was all over town and highway, trying to make it to places to Do Things that had deadlines and closing times and the clock never seems to stop ticking… but I managed to do everything I needed to do with a minute or two to spare. Nothing went wrong, although much could’ve, so I’m here to celebrate a Day that Went Right. Cheers to that!

I have a wedding to shoot in Whitby tomorrow, here’s to another one of those happy days for the soon-to-be-wedded couple…

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Yonge/Bloor Station

Three days of phonecam pictures is not really the way I like to do things around here. I prefer to have a balance between pro-level pictures (versus mobile pics) and at least some commentary at gailatlarge.com, but sleep and client work are winning the time-and-energy contest. The Turning 40 Plan is also taking up great big chunks of my days and I cannot wait until I can finally ‘out’ the plan and discuss it openly. Patience, grasshopper!

Yonge/Bloor Station

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And to round out the evening (or start off the morning?) is an auto-reply tweet from a bot. Welcome to 2012, where the previous sentence actually makes sense.

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The Heavy-Duty Editing continues unabated, interrupted only by eating, sleeping, afternoons at The Firm, and laundry. Oh, and the Turning 40 Plan in progress. Not much downtime here at the House of Fielding, but it’s a good kind of busy.

Hope you’re enjoying spring, too. It’s good to see colour back in the city and in my walking-home pics. This week marks 10 months of walking home!

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Bathurst Street reflection

I’ve kept the same route all winter because it’s the safest one to take in the dark; it follows well-lit streets more than my summer and autumn routes, which took me through parks and under bridges. Great when there is plenty of light, but not so great when it’s nearly pitch-black. Now that it’s light and bright again on the way home, I’m thinking of switching the route back to parks and bridges.

neighbourhood forsythia

Here’s some complete randomage before I try for an “early” night (I’m driving patients at 7am *ouch*). I walk by a dog park on the way home every day. This is what I imagine…

Human thought bubble: my duty is to walk the dog
Dog thought bubble: my duty is to make sure the humans get walked

King Street West shop

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It’s unusual for me to go one day without posting, let alone three, but the operative words this time both start with P: Party and The Plague. The coughing started last Wednesday or Thursday and by Friday night I was coughing and sneezing and noseblowing all the way through my friend’s party and it continued through yesterday’s meetup downtown in the afternoon. If any one of the 60 or so people in my radius got infected, I take full blame.

I debated whether to go to the meetup as I’m certain 40 people in a room would find one person’s persistent coughing very bothersome, but I brought my furry red scarf to muffle it and sat as far back as I could.

Spent the entire day in bed, sleeping, hoping to rid myself of The Plague.

I did manage to take lots of photos this weekend, however. The one above is a decent sunset photo by my work Blackberry yesterday as the Android battery was dying to the point where it couldn’t power the camera. Lots of “real” photos to come.

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Fire Island, NY

Something I’ve had to get used to (rather reluctantly, I might add) in the past few years since wedding photography became a part of my life has been long(er)-range planning. I’m spontaneous by nature, I don’t like to plan that far ahead, but it’s been a necessity as weddings are booked quite far in advance and my calendar is set six months to a year ahead.

I took the photo above during my first trip to Fire Island, New York, in September 2009 with my friend Eric and his family and I was delighted to be invited back the following year. I was booked to shoot a wedding last September at the same time that they were vacationing on Fire Island in 2011, and although I was also on a beach (albeit a freshwater one) it was definitely not the same. Mind you, I was working which had everything to do with it, but there’s no comparison to being oceanside.

All that to say, I couldn’t help but think of New York as I was uploading more pics of that first trip to Fire Island. Or maybe I was uploading more pics of Fire Island because I was thinking of New York, since I will be shooting a wedding there (in Queens) this summer.

I’m probably going to melt shooting a summer wedding in New York, but it’s going to fun nonetheless!

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Haliburton cottage trip

… or maybe I shouldn’t speak so soon, since we may very well get it. Did I just jinx us?

This photo is from the Christmas cottage trip to the Haliburton region at the end of 2008. This looks more like the weather we get the end of January around here than what we have now, but I’m not complaining! This is just fine. I’ve been wearing rubber boots to walk home more often than not because of the mud. It’s not even winter slushy, it’s just muck. But I’ll take it — I don’t have to shovel it or scrape it off my car.

Today was even warm enough that I could do some car maintenance without freezing my fingers off. I was supposed to volunteer for The Brides’ Project at the National Bridal Show this afternoon but they had enough volunteers, so I took the opportunity of daylight to replace my headlight that had blown out last night when the roads suddenly became icy. (Last night was a MESS — cars sliding everywhere, buses couldn’t make it up hills, and there were some people at the Chinese New Year party who were stuck in traffic because vehicles had skidded and blocked entire lanes.)

I noticed it just north of Bloor: I was a few hundred metres past the intersection when I tried to brake at a crosswalk and my car kept sliding. I was going slow enough that I didn’t rear-end the taxi in front of me, and luckily there was an empty lane beside me, so I just turned the wheel to slide over to the next lane and came to a slow stop. Others weren’t so lucky; there were cars all over the place.

Anyway, I replaced the headlight bulb, the windshield wipers, and put in winter windshield fluid (Rain-X, because we seem to be getting more rain than snow these days). If this were a regular winter, I would’ve had to tackle those things one item at a time and duck into my car in between to get the feeling back in my fingers.

I wonder what February will be like?

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King Street West

I draw some curiosity on the street when I use my camera phone to take pictures. I do this often walking home and people stop and try to figure out what I’m taking photos of, if it’s something picture-worthy. What might not be readily apparent to a stranger is that it takes very little to draw me in for a photo. However, I am always delighted when someone asks me why I’m taking a photo because it gives me the opportunity to share my enthusiasm for the tiny (and free) things in life that give me pleasure, eg. nightlights, the inherent freedom in walking and the freedom to discover while walking.

King Street West

I am a detail-oriented person by nature, but noticing things can be practiced as well. Walking 28kms a week will make you notice things every day, especially if the route and weather changes often, and there’s a picture-taking device in your hand. It really does not matter what that device is — it can be your phone, a point-and-shoot, or a DSLR.

King Street West

Trails of light can provide infinite photographic possibilities if you can hold very still — a real challenge in stiff wind. A light reflected in a puddle suddenly becomes interesting.

King Street West

You experience so much more as a pedestrian than a driver. When you’re driving, distraction can be dangerous. Aside from intersections, pedestrians can be happily distracted and not endanger themselves.

King Street West

I drive recreationally and to photo shoots, but there is no routine. If I had to commute by car every day, I think I would go bonkers. I’ll pay more to live in the city just so I can get to places on foot and not turn into a Point A-to-B-to-A automaton in a car.

King Street West

Public transit is never perfect, but I’m all for improving the transit system as much we spend on improving roads.

King Street West

King Street West

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