Autumn Leaves

Richly coloured Autumn leaves; visual proof of the season's change. 

The prettiest leaves seemed to stand out like little dew covered gems, on the green grass. There were so many impossibly beautiful shades of red, brown, green, olive, yellow, and ochre, that I wondered if I could ever make such a beautiful colour pallet myself (though I don't think anyone is as talented as Mother Nature). 

Aside from the rain, I love this time of year. It's not too hot, not too cold, and the tree branches are decorated with a myriad of colours. It's a time when I want to be curled up in my blanket, reading, and sipping tea, or hot chocolate, while the rain thistles down gently.

Click below for more photos! 

Sunset Gif

The sun was so big and orange on the way home from Kelowna. Once it started to set, it fell very quickly behind the mountains. I snapped multiple photos as fast as I could, and then assembled them together in this little animation. Now you guys can see the sunset for yourselves! :)

A Day at the Park

Greetings all! :)

Thanks for your kind and thoughtful words on my previous journal entry. You don't know what it means to me to see people actually reading what I write *feels loved*.

Today I went out to the park with Tracy. It was a lovely day, so I took the opportunity to get some nature shots. It's only rather recently (within the last two years or so), that I've really taken to photography, and appreciated it as a creative outlet for myself. Getting a digital SLR will do that to you, hehe! Although some people in my class didn't take too well to the camera. I think they were a bit intimidated by it's size and worried about damaging it (I felt that way initially too). Anyway, I highly recommend the Nikon d60, it's a truly amazing camera! :)

Birds on a Wire + bird mid-flight

Birds on a Wire (my favourite! it was as if they lined up perfectly for the shot).

Birds on a Wire 

The way the tree branches are spread out makes me think of beautiful trees in Africa

So bright, it almost looks enchanted...

A tree stump. I wonder how many rings there are? This is where Imps build their homes.

A lonely daisy. 

Those plastic-y flowers... I love how they are all line up.

This little bee posed for me for several minutes. What a cuteling. :)

I hope you enjoyed the photos! I have several interesting blog posts coming up, so stay tuned! :)

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

Hello friends!

Today was fun! My friend Steph came over, we played some Call of Duty (which scared her a bit I think, esp. the zombie maps haha), ate crazy bread, and then did an artist interview (in which she was the interviewee and I was the interviewer). She has a few samples of art to send to me, and once she does, I'll edit and post the interview for all. I know a lot of really amazing artists and talented folks, and hope to make this interview thing a regular feature.

During my daily walk, I pass by these gorgeous soft pink rose bushes, and can't help taking a few shots (okay, way more than a few). I always stop and take a second to 'smell the roses', before continuing on my way. I was out yesterday, and saw that they had all been clipped, or perhaps pruned, which made me sad. I'm hoping it was necessary for the plant's health, and not just random arses with too much time on their hands. Either way, these things are very resilient, and even stay in bloom until the early winter.

I hope you're all having a lovely summer and aren't sick of the sunshine yet!

Lovely day!

Just wandering around, taking photos, on a beautiful sunny day. Hope you enjoy!

beautiful blue flowers.

Pretty plant :>

My "skirt" purse. 

Love the rays of light.

Ahh the greenery! This is why I love BC.

Flowers of Summer

The weather has been so lovely lately, that I find myself going for walks as often as possible, camera in hand.

I have two main cameras, one is my baby, my Nikon d60, and the other is a Canon Powershot. Once you've been spoiled with an SLR camera, point and clicks will never do it for you ever again. But they are super light to carry... So when it's hot outside and I'm trying to actually walk, I'm more likely to bring the Powershot.

The photos always end up looking pretty messed up colour-wise. The Canon Power Shot turns greens purple, and really can't photograph things that have full sunlight on them without becoming over exposed. So I turn to photoshop to fix some of the problems, and make the colours more vibrant.

The colours are so bad with the Canon Power Shot, that I'm beginning to think of it more as a 'Special Effects' camera LOL. I don't think there will be anything as great as an SLR, ever.

Speaking of cameras, I recently purchased 6 rolls of film from Lomography, to try in my thrifted Diana f and Fisheye cameras. I can't wait till they get here. That's around 200+ exposures!! *happy dance*

See what I mean about bad colours?
This place is so colourful and beautiful in real life. 

I spy with my little eye... a LADY BUG!

A beautiful iron piece for the garden. 

Probably the best photo out of them all. Very little editing was done on this one. 

These flowers looked so 'dusty', like they were vintage fabric flowers or something. 

Ah! These gorgeous pink roses. They even seem to bloom in the fall/early winter. 

I love experimenting with colours in photoshop ...

This was more realistic, haha. See the little fly in the flower?

Hope you're all having a lovely day! I'm off to go thrifting for a bit, and then check out some potential art studios. Ta, ta!

Into the Woods, pt. 2

The grand finale!

I really loved this one part of  the pond. The sun was setting, and it cast a natural lens flare effect over the landscape, and I loved how magical it looked, that I took several photos of the same scene.

For those of you wondering about my photos, I use photoshop to "correct" and "enhance" the colours. Usually, I aim to make the colours more real to what I saw that day, because sometimes my photos are underexposed (too white) or overexposed (too dark). I use the manual setting on my camera (what can I say, I'm a control freak haha), and sometimes it doesn't turn out how I wanted it too. Luckily photoshop is there to save the day!

Here are three examples of me changing up the colours in photos, and the different tones you can achieve.

Lots of yellow, a little cyan

A bit more cyan than yellow

TONNES of cyan, very little yellow (and my favourite)

Interesting, eh? I love messing around with colour. It gives my photos so much more life!

Below is an example of a before, and after photo.

This is a larger version of the one on the right

Would anyone be interested in a little tutorial/guide of how I play with the photos in photoshop or gimp? It's very simple, but adds so much more to photos.

I'd love to use some of your own pictures to edit and post how I changed them. If you're interested in sending me some, let me know. :)

Hope you're having a great Thursday! Hurrah! Tomorrows Friday! (the beginning of more sleepless nights for me lol).

Into the Woods, pt. 1

Greetings lovelies!

Friday was really sunny and beautiful, so I decided it was a good day to go for a walk in my favourite forested park, and snap some nature shots (with my GOOD camera this time, unlike last time). I've been visiting this park since I was ten years old, and it always held a certain enchanting quality for me. I always knew that Faeries lived there (and one day this summer I will take you to my favourite, most enchanting spot with the video camera!).

When I was about ten or eleven, my two best friends, Katie and Cathleen and I, used to dress up as gypsy Faeries, and prance around the park dressed in long skirts, and poorly sewn together gypsy inspired tops. We wandered through the brush, as faeries, trying to hide from mortal eyes... Ah! I miss those days.

I hope these photos inspire your own imagination to conjure Faeries and Otherworlds.

Stay on the forest path, lest ye be taken by the Fair Folk

Excalibur's resting place?

A little log welcomes you to step off the path, and take a seat...

I love these little bushy growths on the sides of trees. Perfect Faerie houses.

A close up of the leafy growth (left)

I think these may be Salmon Berry leaves. A tasty treat for humans and Fae alike. 

A fuzzy little bud. Faeries collect this for their bedding, of course. 

The twisted, gnarled, moss covered branches appear quite foreboding.

Close up of the moss covered branches. The moss looks a lot like hair draping down
from the branches. Creepy, yet very cool. 

The remnants of a tree stump, likely caught on fire due to lighting strike.

Last but not least, my favourite picture in the bunch! I love the hints of blue,
and the mysterious atmosphere. Very enchanting! :)

Thanks for joining me on my walk in the woods. :)

Part two is up tomorrow! Stay tuned!