Day 14: Eyes

Lookit those cute little duckie eyes! For whatever reason, Kiel’s roommate has this guy sitting in the bathroom by the sink. He doesn’t do anything, and he only moves around when the bathroom’s been cleaned, but he sure is cute. Something tells me his roommate doesn’t take baths, so I bet this duck is actually longing for some bath time. Much likes those in that super cute Pixar/Toy Story animated short at the beginning of Finding Nemo 3D.  Anyhoo, who wanted a picture of some human eyes? These ones are much more fun and cute!

I actually used my fisheye setting for this one, but you can’t really tell. I also wanted to blur the edges a bit more so the duck was more of the focus, but I guess there’s not much to blur.

The rest of the shots are coming…. you’ll get three pics in one post… in like, 2 days, I swear!

 

Day 13: Myself with 13 Things

You were curious weren’t you? You had to come back to see why my picture for Day 13 is being posted late. I kept you wondering all weekend long, didn’t I? This would be the reason why;

Realization: That intro combined with this picture makes it sound like I’m an alcoholic. I’m not, I swear. I didn’t drink all of that. And I don’t think drinking a bottle of maple syrup would get you drunk… or maybe the effects would be like some kind of weird, Canadian drunk; all you want to do afterwards is sit on a chesterfield eating poutine and watching hockey until you puke your guts out shortly after the 2nd period. You wouldn’t need a thousand words for that picture.

Anyway, the reason for the alcohol; an old friend from university was in town and I hadn’t seen him in 5 years! You celebrate times like these. So we threw a little party and good times were had! I finally finished that bottle of melon liqueur I’d had for the last 5 years, along with a bottle of Grey Goose (which only now am I thinking should have made it into this photo) that was around 3 years old. See? Can’t call me an alcoholic when I keep liquor for that long! As you can see, we were listening to The Sheepdogs, and yes, they are awesome and you should check them out. You can count 12 bottles in front of me, the 13th thing being the drink in my hand.

At first I was considering cropping out the TV and records and DVDs behind me, but for whatever reason, I like the bottles being in the corner of the shot. Let me know if you agree or disagree in the comments!

 

Day 12: Sunset

This shot was taken behind my apartment building. There’s a small bridge on the OC Transit bus lanes that leads over the Ottawa River to the next bus station. It’s a nice place to go for a walk or a bike ride. I ran downstairs when I got home from work and realized I needed to get a sunset shot. I have a nice view of the river and the St. Paul’s campus, but the windows in my apartment are so dirty, it’s impossible to get a clean shot from the apartment.

 

Day 11: Something Blue

I know, I’m late again!! I meant to post this last night after work but had to get caught up with my picture that actually needs to be posted today. Then I got hungry so the boyfriend and I went out for the best burgers ever! Side note to the photo challenge here: If you’re craving a really good burger and are anywhere near any of their locations, you really should check out Five Guys. The burgers are so tasty and the fries are pretty great too! But I digress…

The something blue in the picture is Kiel’s Anderson Links cap. Funny; out of all the baseball caps he has, not one of them is for a baseball team. The San Francisco 49ers is his football team, the Philadelphia Flyers is his hockey team (and yes, that is four different Philly hats. Should be five he tells me, but he lost one somewhere,) the Calgary Stampeders is his CFL team (because of Doug Flutie, I’m told) and the last one, not for any sports team, was given to him by his boss at work. I have never seen him wear anything but the Flyers and 49ers hats. 

To get this shot, I focused my macro setting on the Anderson Links logo. I had to focus on the logo in order to get the other caps out of focus. If I didn’t do this, most of the caps came into focus as well, which I couldn’t understand. But there, I figured it out and got the results I wanted.

The picture that is meant to be posted today may get posted, but if it doesn’t, you’ll see the reason why in Day 13’s photo. Curious? You’ll have to come back to check it out!

 

Day 9 &10- 2 posts for the price of 1!

So sorry to keep you waiting, folks! This new temp job keeps me busy all morning/day so the only time I have to take pictures and post them are in the evenings. Making excuses already, and we’re only on the 10th day!! But here you are, the long, one-day wait is finally over!!

DAY 9: SOMEONE I LOVE

So the reason I chose the kitty was because she was right there, and I do love the cute kitteh! Her name is Kiera and Heidi brought her home in October of ’09. She’s very playful; here you see her in little tube. She likes to lie in it and run in and out of it when playing with her toys. She’s relatively quiet and has only chewed through 3 of my wires. I think she was still adjusting to having me in the apartment. That, or she hates me. I guess she doesn’t share the same love I have for her.

The reason the photo is slightly blurry is because while in her tube, there isn’t a whole lot of light. So I had my ISO set fairly high in order for my camera to be able to focus on her. I adjusted the red and magenta colour balances so that it wasn’t quite so red, but there was no tool I could find to sharpen the image. If you know of one in Gimp, please let me know.

DAY 10: A CHILDHOOD MEMORY

What you see here is a collection of some of my favourite childhood movies. I’m a big movie collector and my collection would not be complete without these movies. The only ones I’m still missing in my “Childhood Movies” section are Quick Change, Terminator 2, and White Men Can’t Jump. I know; what did my parents let me watch as a child??

Not too much to say here- used my macro setting on the camera and adjusted the brightness of all the colours, just to make them pop a little more, but not as much as the pop art effect gives. Nice to know that tool is there if I ever feel like pop art is just a bit “too poppy.”

 

Day 8: Bad Habit

It was a toss-up between this and my chewed up fingernails and I figure you would rather look at a huge tub of ice cream. And that’s the bad habit- eating ice cream right out of the tub, and I do it more often than I’m proud to admit. It’s like eating chips straight from the bag (something else I’m guilty of doing). I don’t do crazy diets but I do believe strongly in portion control, and I hardly ever put that belief into practice. But if there’s one place it should be practiced, whether you’re trying to get healthy or not, it’s in the snacking department. 

 

Day 7: Fruit (and Thanksgiving!)

DAY 7: FRUIT

 

Here in Canada, it’s time for turkey! My boyfriend and I were invited to his cousin’s place for Thanksgiving dinner, so while that was being prepared, I photographed her fruit bowl. I’m only thinking of it now, but I suppose I could have taken photos of the cranberry sauce, which for me, is one of the most important sides in the Thanksgiving meal. I could have also taken a picture of the apple crisp that was for dessert. Had she not had such a colourful fruit basket, maybe I would have, but look at all the colours! Limes and plums and peaches and bananas! I never  have that kind of assortment of fruit in my house so I took advantage. No flash, a little cropping, and some white balance adjustment and there you are. Although we did not eat any of the fruit in the basket with the dinner, we did drink the alcohol that you see on the side. Bulleit Bourbon mixed with ginger ale= one tasty beverage!

I hope you all had (or are in the midst of having) a wonderful thanksgiving dinner! Enjoy and be thankful! 🙂

 

Day 6: From a low angle

I love fall, it’s my favourite season. I like the crispness in the air and the fact that you can actually go to bed and get under the covers. But the changing colours of the leaves is what reminds me that fall’s here. That’s one of my happier memories of home. Driving down the Quinan roads during the fall season is very picturesque. The roads are very twisty and they’re lined with beautifully coloured leaves. Maybe that’s why I love taking pictures of trees. Even while I was in Australia, I always took note of how beautiful the trees were. Of course, the trees there were much more exotic than what you’d find in Quinan, but some, like the jacaranda tree, with its vibrant purple flower, was too pretty not to notice. And while travelling along the west coast, the boab trees stood out among the other, seemingly normal looking trees (which I’m sure were filled with poison or something. I mean, c’mon, I was in Australia.)

Anyway, this tree was particularly interesting, since it had both green and yellow leaves. I suppose the green ones just haven’t changed colour yet. But with the combination of blue, yellow, and green in one upward shot of a tree, I decided to use the pop art setting on my camera. I love that setting, almost as much as I love fall. Oh, and if you’d like to learn more about why leaves change colour with the changing season, I found this webpage to be very informative: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/34223

 

Day 5: From a high angle

Today, I went to the grocery store. The grocery stores around here are kind of weird. I can’t really explain it, but I’ve expressed this opinion on more than one occasion to my friends (and even more frequently to my boyfriend.) The ones that come from the east coast seem to understand what I mean, but the ones who are from Ontario think I’m wacko. I usually go to Loblaws, which is the same company that operates Atlantic SuperStore in the Atlantic provinces. Even while in Halifax, I was a bigger fan of Sobeys. That’s where my mom always went to do groceries and so there’s where I always like to do groceries. I guess I’m stuck in my ways. It’s the Visa vs. Mastercard and RBC vs. any other bank situation all over again. Anyway, there is one Sobeys in the Ottawa area, but it’s nowhere near where I live. It’s about a 20km drive away, so it doesn’t make sense to drive that far just to get food. But for whatever reason, it feels more like grocery stores do back home. It’s nice.

I don’t know why I’m telling you about Sobeys because this is a picture of Loblaws. The produce section of Loblaws. Sorry to have wasted your time. Unless you found this little story to be amusing, in which case, you’re welcome. 🙂

 

Day 4: Something Green

This is one of the many bike/walking routes in Ottawa. This one in particular runs along the Ottawa River and is right behind my apartment building. You’d think I’d take advantage of it and do my Couch-to-5K running out here, but no. I’m wussing out and doing it inside, with air conditioning and controlled running speeds. Once I know I can run inside, then I’ll attempt to run outside. The healthier I am, the easier it will be to start exercising in the fresh air.

Some of you will be quite proud of me (ie. my dad) because I actually did some work on this shot. The pinhole effect came from the camera. I had used this effect on another shot that I had taken shooting into the sunset and really liked the way it looked. I find it decreases the harshness from the sun while still making it the main focus. But the original shot had two red posts in the field (with their shadows.) I had taken other shots that didn’t include the posts but I liked this particular angle, so I took out my cloning tool and voila! Posts have disappeared! Because I’m still in learning mode when it comes to editing, I’m going to post the original pic as well. Feel free to constructively criticize or tell me I did a good job!