Photo-a-Day 2009

Needle Felting

I learned how to do needle felting..these were my first creations LOL..

how to make a pea...

Step one..take some wool roving, and a felting needle (has teeny barbs on the sides and very very sharp)

on a sponge or felting brush..stick the needle through the wool and start creating the shape

keep going until you get the shape you wish..

EASY!

You can follow my photo adventures on my Virtual Photo Walk Challenge for 2010 HERE

Photographic Adventures for 2010

So I have decided to join the 2010 Virtual Photo Walk. This is a monthly photographic challenge  group. I have to post 15 pictures each month from the list posted. You can get the information HERE about it and you can still sign up I believe.

My new Virtual Photographic Walk Blog can be found HERE

I am going to continue with THIS blog as my day to day ramblings blog showing multiple photos etc. The other blog will have just one photo posted for each title at a time.

I would love for you to pop over and visit it and let me know what you think.

The list of subjects for the other blog for January is:

1. Arc
2. Bold
3. Chaos
4. Cold
5. Doors & Windows - DONE
6. Edible - DONE
7. Layers
8. Looking Down - DONE
9. Masculine
10. Meditative
11. Pattern
12. Pink
13. Texture - DONE
14. Trio - DONE
15. Warning

It's something new for me to try. This year I am also setting goals for taking photography classes etc. I really need to get more comfortable with the settings etc on my camera. I want to be shooting in full manual settings by the Summer. Can I do it? I don't know but I sure hope so.

So come back and visit here..and hopefully if you like photos you will visit my other little play space too

31 December, 2009 - Can you believe this?

It's been a whole year. I didn't quite do a Photo-a-Day every day but I did have photos for every day and posted them when I could. I had so much fun with this. I made new internet friends..some of my friends came along with me and hosted their own Photo-a-Day blogs. How fun is it to read back and see everything that we did over the last year?

Thank you especially to Tammy who has been such an amazing blog follower and photographer. She has commented on every single blog post since first coming to this blog. Thank you for your comments, teasing, and friendship!  I know we will meet in life some day and share a bottle of wine..or two!

Thank you to Abygail...for also visiting so often and leaving all those comments..and for your inspiring blog about life in New York city. I am going there at the end of the month so have to re-read your older posts and plan my attack of places I want to see.

Thank you Kathy, Izzy, Jo, Sue C, Di,  Ellen and everyone else whose comments encouraged me to continue when I was so far behind I contemplated dropping out.

I am going to continue with my little corner of the cyber universe. I may not quite keep to the daily post but I will continue to share my photographs and to look at yours. I hope to grow and learn more about photography and improve my skills and hopefully learn to use my Photoshop Elements...it kinda scares me! LOL

and so we come to the last post for 2009...New Year's Eve

I spent it with friends, food and wine. (did you expect anything else??)

Crab with drawn garlic butter...

Seared Tuna

then we walked over to another friends house which took us past the hospital which is always lit up like a Christmas tree for the Holidays.

When we got to our friends party this was there...OMG..I am in love..

Lulu is only about 10 weeks old. What a sweet little girl. She finally fell asleep in my lap and stayed there most of the night. Perfect ending to a great, challenging, eventful, wonderful year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

May 2010 see all your dreams come true.

 

30 December, 2009 - Home again Home again...

When we got on the aircraft I wanted to take some pictures of the crew and the captain on his last trip. The new lens made this so easy :-).

Here is the whole gang.

 

The Captain

and, like a lot of pilots who are forced into retirement he held on until the very last possible day..his 60th birthday

He actually had a 48 hours birthday thanks to the international date line.

Then it was time to get to work..so I gave my camera to Andrew (aka Bird) and this is what I found on it when I got home..SWEET!!!

See that white light...here's a closer look

Lightening storm .. can you say BUMPY?

Tradition is that at the end of a pilots last flight that the firetrucks come out and spray the aircraft as he pulls in for the last time. It was pouring rain but they still came and followed tradition.

Setting the brake for the last time..so hard for them emotionally. We had the passengers clapping and cheering for him at this point.

and saying goodbye for the last time.

Happy Retirement Sir! You were one of the good ones :-)

29 December, 2009 - Sydney and a celebration

On my last trip of the year it was fun to be able to fly with my good friend Andrew. It was one of his last trips on this aircraft as he is switching to the A320 and the days of long overseas flying will be behind him as he puddle hops across this wonderful country. As it happened it was also the captain's last flight of his career. Always a very hard thing as they must retire at 60 and many of them are not really happy to be going. But they have no choice.

When we landed Andrew and I went to the most amazing book store every. WOW! It is Japanese and they have books on every subject under the sun. Their Art Book section was mind blowing..as was the photography section...and crafts...and cooking and on and on and  on...heaven! Then we went for a beer

and back to the hotel and freshened up and met the crew for dinner.

We went to Darling Harbour for pre-dinner drinks...this is the walking bridge across the harbour

See the Monorail on the lower right? That was part of Expo 86 here in Vancouver and was sold to Sydney, I guess, after it was over. I LOVED Expo 86...the best thing to ever happen to this city :-) It was a three month long party!!!

back to the layover. Here is the crew ..

Taken with the new lens...you can see some distortion on the sides...but I am sitting right there with them and could get everyone in the shot!! LOVE it and the distortion, for some reason, looks kinds cool to me!

The captain and his wife (who came along for the ride...she is a flight attendant with us)

heading back to the hotel..and playing with the lens...

 

LOVE how I could get so much of these building into the image...

more tomorrow...I am giving Andrew my camera to take to the cockpit and play. better views from there.

 

28 December, 2009 - Little Family Pic

While on the beach yesterday I grabbed this shot of Mike and Teeny with their pup Meeka and their Olympic Mittens. I think almost everyone in Vancouver got these mittens for Christmas...except Rich and I! LOL I've boycotted Olympic paraphernalia as it is all made in China. Surely they can make something here in Canada or at lease North America, for the Olympics? The biggest insult was when they made the traditional Cowichan Sweaters IN CHINA!!!! Give me a break! Also taking the name without so much as a By-Your-Leave to the native peoples whose heritage it is.

Anyway..back to the kids..

Need to learn how to set the exposure better :-(

27 December, 2009 - Walk on the Beach

So today we went to the beach with M&T and their dog Meeka..aka Speedy Gonzales!!! LOL I took my new wide angle lens with me to try a few things...

This does not really show well but that's a LOT of beach in the shot.

I tried a tree..

Oh yeah baby!!! and back to my 50MM

next stop..SYDNEY!!!

26 December, 2010 - My New Toy

For Christmas I got some gift certificates for my favourite Camera Store. **Happy Dance**

So today Richard and I went to see how much my next lens would be...and he paid the difference and I came home with this! I was so excited because I didn't expect to be able to buy it yet..just wanted to drool.

What shocked me was the cost of the protective UV cover..holy cow!!! It's on the camera in the shot above. I took it off to take the picture below so you can see the big lens...but I have to protect the lens so it's a no brainer.

I'll be posting lovely wind angle shots very soon :-) Have to experiment. Anyone out there have one that can give me some tips on cool ways to take pictures with this. I am thinking buildings etc in the city and landscapes?

I feel TOTALLY spoiled and happy. I love every single one of the gifts I got this year!! EVERY one! I do have a wee soft spot for this one tho!

25 December, 2009 - It's Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to everyone (yes I am posting this after the fact...but play along with me OK?)!! So today we have the boys over to our house for Christmas brunch and opening our presents with them. This year I wrapped almost everything in the same colour and made gift tags to match. While I liked it I also missed the mixed colours of regular Christmas wrapping paper and bags LOL.

The boys then go to celebrate Christmas with their mum and their aunt and cousins. They travel a lot on Christmas day but we all work together to make sure every family gets a bit of them and that now includes the girls families of course. We are very fortunate that everyone works well together to make it happy for everyone :-)

That evening Richard and I went to our friend's daughter's house with their family..it's another BIG group!   Here are some random shots from the fun...little kids always make Christmas special.

Ems wearing the robe I gave her..she wouldn't take the thing off again LOL ... SCORE!!!

Lil Sis

and their Cousin Abby...

thy make beautiful little girls in that family!!! LOL

So not to bore you with too many family pictures...here are some photos of Beth's latest creative adventures. She has discovered Felting. She has also apparently Mastered felting...look at these sculptures she did of her three pets.

The brown lab is their dog Duff, the black Shepard is her husband's K9 Unit dog Shack, and the kitty is Little.

Want a closer look at Duff?

Beth & her mum, my friend Sheila

Sheila is an amazing artist (remember the post from Point Roberts...the mosaics?

Well she is also an amazing knitter...and she made me a scarf.

She made me a scarf that is a piece of art

She made me a scarf that when I opened the box..I cried.

She explained ...first..she knit a scarf that is about three times bigger than a normal scarf. Then she took glass marbles and put them on the scarf..and sealing them on it with elastics. Then she felted the scarf around the marbles..so these bubbles remained.

But that's not all. In the center it was knitted and felted  to go around the neck...the same at the ends..

It is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

My friend Lindsey (Sheila's DIL, and Andrew her son, gave me a comfy comfy robe..OMG I adore it too.

I'm wearing it in this picture as I try to get Abbsters to slow down for even a second!!

and I will leave you with a picture from yesterday..of my boys..all four of them..

what a handsome bunch..and these boys are the best present I have ever received :-) 

Merry Christmas!