Katie-Did

This weekend my sister, Katie, graduated from Sheridan College, so me and the family headed down to Oakville for the day, to see the gallery and the final "grad" show. IT wasn't the official graduation, it was a "Tulip Ceremony". The most exciting part, my sister won not only an award of materials, but the big award for her entire textiles program! I for one, am very proud of her. These photos are one that I made that day. The first is one of her business cards nestled in with her scarves (her gallery product) and the second is a photo made of images that are left on a silk screen.
Archipelago Photography: islands of thought and image, connected with a name.

Inspiration

Some inspiration is just plain better than others. Stronger, more specific, more unique; some inspiration is worth waiting forever for. It's the kind of inspiration that doesn't hit you like a flash; it's more like you just realize that you always knew it. it takes hold and points and composes and whispers in your ear what it's supposed to look like and then before you even realize it's there, the photograph has been created. Such was the case with the second photograph, Hug a Tree. I love this photo, it just works so well, and describes two different ideas (the Free Hugs movement, and the old saying "When you're lost, hug a tree"). the first is not the same per se, but still turned out different, but better, than I had originally conceived. I call it Jigsaw (because it describes both the wood wall and the puzzle).
Archipelago Photography: islands of thought and image, connected with a name.

City Streets

One of the big things I've noticed recently, is how much of a city person I am. I mean, my family does a lot of camping, and I'm pretty outdoorsy, but I've lived my entire life inside a large metropolitan area. And talking with some friends who live in more rural areas, I realize that living where I do has given me a pretty specific view of the province I live in. I only really see the completely habituated, busy-city kinda stuff, and the wild, totally untamed areas; never anything in between. So my photos today are of the city. The first, in Ottawa, and the second downtown London.
Archipelago Photography: insulae de cogitum lumenque, maritus cum nomen.

Photoshop...again.

Some of you may remember me saying some time ago, that I had just finally gotten photoshop. Well, I may have lied a little. I was using (from then until a few days ago) a free software, that was really very basic and rudimentary. A few days ago I found, on sale, Adobe Photoshop Elements 9. Frickin sweet, right? So, I picked it up, and I've been fooling around, trying to get the hang of it for a while, and I've found some cool tricks. Still, a heck of a lot of work left to do, but a good start nonetheless. The first image, Workshop, Is one I made nearly a perfect year ago, at my sisters college in Oakville. I used some filters and played with the levels a bit. The second image, Kicks, I made some time ago (possibly last summer?) and I mostly just played around with levels and shadows/highlights, etc. This very well could be a great leap in the finality of my images.
Archipelago Photography: islands of thought and image, connected by a name.

Eye Wonder....

This weekend was one of the biggest weekends in my conscious memory. Big in terms of number of people, in terms of affect on my life, in terms of personal growth. It was big. It was Youth Forum 2011 (The London Conference of The United Church of Canada's biggest annual youth gathering).
And it was a blast! It was a fantastic weekend (probably due to such a cool planning team) and we had 168 people camping, worshipping, singing, clapping, thinking, dreaming, laughing, crying, playing, hiking, and having a great time. This event never fails to astound me. Every year it just seems like more. This place has given some of the best friends of my entire life and some of the coolest experiences of my life. If you are comfortable with having a little bit of faith discussion, making immense amounts of new friends, and changing your life, talk to me, next year is only 359 days away!
Archipelago Photography: insulae de cogitum lumenque, maritus cum nomen.

Where Did Half of My Friends Go?

My niece Kendra was cross-eyed. Was cross-eyed. she recently had surgery to have it repaired, and the surgery was a fantastic success. The pictures here are a before and after of sorts. The before being made in November (Back-lit by the sun through stained glass, I might add) and the after was made about a week ago. Aside from a little bit of blood in the edges of her eyes (that will go away eventually) when seeing her now, you wouldn't even think of her being cross-eyed. The strangest thing is how utterly different she looks. She follows your movement, looks you right in the eye, and she looks like a brand new girl. It's a drastic, fantastic, change.
Archipelago Photography: islands of thought and image, connected with a name

The Inside Ride

The other day my school, SCI, was home to a wonderful event. A Cancer fund-raiser called The Inside Ride. The event involves teams of 6 to each get pledges, and then each person rides a stationary bike at the actual event for 10 minutes. There are prizes for most distance biked, best costumes and best spirit.
The event was insane! It was like a massive dance party/super-charged bike contest. The energy level was immense and (surprisingly, I know) I was tasked with photographing the event. The photos turned out well, I think, but it was quite a trick balancing levels for photos with and without a flash. Some photos worked better with a little action blur, so that meant no flash, but some dance moves only turned out well with a flash, so I was forced to go back and forth, changing settings as I went. A trick, to be sure, but well worth it.
Archipelago Photography: insulae de cogitum lumenque, maritus cum nomen