Finding Vivian Maier

This looks like an amazing documentary.

When you "feel the soft social pressure" to be great

Trey Ratcliffe, one of the greatest photographers I know, talks about his work and his inspiration.

If you watch until the end, you will hear him talk very frankly about taking risks.

And how to "stumble into success."

Love this guy. Love his work.

Time-Lapse Photography

Mindrelic produces these awesome time-lapse videos. He uses a rail dolly system, which adds depth and another dimension to these shots. I love them and the music he chose. I don't have this kind of equipment, but I'm going to try a time-lapse "day at the cottage" this summer. The lake is surrounded by rolling hills, and when you are swimming and looking up at the clouds, it's like floating in a bowl of whipped cream. In the meantime, enjoy these.

Make sure you go to the little button that expands the screen so you can watch in full screen mode.

NYC - Mindrelic Timelapse from Mindrelic on Vimeo.

Sacred Lands - Eastern California - Mindrelic Timelapse from Mindrelic on Vimeo.

Rob Forbes - Ways of Seeing

I am cursed with a wicked head cold and nasty cough which has turned my usual sweet, melodious voice (no really, I usually sound like a cross between Julie Andrews and Imogen Heap) into something resembling this:



So while I drag myself around the kitchen to make chicken soup and delicately dab at my nose, I'll invite you to watch this. TED lectures never disappoint.

For my photography friends, particularly those with an interest in street photography.

Rob Forbes is a designer and the founder of Design Within Reach. He prefers the title Streetwalker. He spends a lot of time in urban areas looking for and studying design in the public sector, taking about 5,000 photos a year. Check out his TED lecture. (If you go to the site, you can choose to watch it in high res.)

How to find cheer on a snowy February day?

Hie thee to a greenhouse, my friends. Lucky for me I have access to a lovely old glass and steel greenhouse built in 1926. It's attached to my favourite library, a large red brick beauty founded in 1897 and just full of charm and character.

I beetled over there with a friend to take some photos because we were both craving some colour and just couldn't face another day photographing snow and ice. Just being around the lush green and the tropical flowers, the trickling water in the fountains and pond, with the sunlight pouring through the glass roof onto our heads.....well, it was like a tonic (the kind mixed with a shot of Tanqueray, a slice of lime and plenty of ice.) If you don't live in a northern climate with dry air and slushy streets and overcast skies and bone-chilling cold, you can't possibly know how much we Canucks need this sort of outing right about now. Cheaper than flying to the tropics, it's an instant fix for the winter blues.




This greenhouse, built to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, has a definite Victorian vibe to it. There are these cool cranks and wheels to control the upper panels, and I found them and the structure itself, to be as interesting as the flowers inside the greenhouse.

I used a fade technique here, to give it a kind of seventies vibe. Not sure if it works, nor why I bothered since I'd just as soon forget the seventies. Some of these photos aren't as sharp as I'd like to see. I actually remembered to bring my tripod with me this time, but then realized once I went to mount the camera that I forgot the little footing thingie that attaches the camera to the tripod. So many pieces of equipment, so many scrambled hormones that have abandoned the brain cells....



There are even little fish who aren't shy about swimming over to say helloooo.

My photo buddy Brenda tells me that water photos turn out so much better with a polarized lens. I don't have one of those. Coincidentally, Valentine's Day and my birthday are coming up this month.

You know what they say? Roses die in a week, but a Nikon Polarizing Filter lasts a lifetime. I read that on a Hallmark card somewhere and it's always stayed with me....

Never Give Up

I am a subscriber to Darren Rowse's wonderful, online Digital Photography School. If you have an interest in learning how to use a digital camera, or simply want to learn how to take better shots, this is a great resource. There are lessons on every subject - lighting, portraiture, composition, exposure - and a forum to post photos for critique or ask your questions. Everything is explained in a simple, straightforward manner and beginners are encouraged to just jump right in.

Although the post linked below was written for budding photographers, it can also be applied to those writers out there who are struggling to stay positive and focused. Remember you're not alone, be free to make mistakes, accept criticism and reflect on it so that you can improve, find others who share your passion, embrace your successes big and small, and never, ever give up.

Go Here to read it.

Have a glorious weekend everyone. Remember, miracles can happen.

My pond is frozen and so am I

Go, sit upon the lofty hill, and turn your eyes around,
Where waving woods and waters wild, do hymn an autumn sound.The summer sun is faint on them — the summer flowers depart —
Sit still — as all transform’d to stone, except your musing heart.How there you sat in summer-time, may yet be in your mind;
And how you heard the green woods sing, beneath the freshening wind.
Though the same wind now blows around, you would its blast recall;
For every breath that stirs the trees, doth cause a leaf to fall.
Oh! like that wind, is all the mirth, that flesh and dust impart:
We cannot bear its visitings, when change is on the heart.
Hear not the wind — view not the woods; look out o’er vale and hill —
In spring, the sky encircled them — the sky is round them still.
Come autumn’s scathe — come winter’s cold — come change — and human fate!
Whatever prospect Heaven doth bound, can ne’er be desolate.

With thanks and apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, but I have to respectfully disagree. I will count down the days until spring. Until then, I might be a tad crabby.

i carry your heart with me

ee cummings

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Whenever I can (afford it) I go to London (England, not Ontario) at the end of February (still deep winter in Canada) and walk the (snowfree) streets of London, immerse myself in culture (art, plays and warm Guinness on tap) and pretend I live there for ten days or so. God, I love that city. I feel dark, irrational lust for that city. A reminder of what I'm leaving behind at that time of year and what I'm running to embrace:

Well, I can't actually embrace it as you can see, it's quite tall and trust me on this one, security takes a dim view of a crazy Canuck hugging a building, but I give it a mental hug. (Take that as you will.)

I will take London over Any Other Vacation Spot on earth (except maybe for Paris, which also rocks as it was where we spent our honeymoon and our 10th anniversary, BOO-yah) (oh, and New York City, which kind of has the London vibe only the people are much ruder unless you throw Parisians in the mix and then they win that one hands down, especially if you're an American sitting in a bistro and you try to order, say, freedom fries and instead of saying "pommes frites" you say "pommes" and the waiter tries to bring you apples, even though he knows EXACTLY what you want. I watched this transpire at the next table and felt compelled, as a Canadian with limited French and a deep-seated love of fries, to step in and save the fries, I mean, day.) So back to London. This is London in February, a shot taken on a walk in St. James Park:

Notice how the birds are flying, not hatching an egg on their happy feet?

So one year, I wandered in to the Natural History Museum, for it was beckoning me across the street from the flat I was renting, next door to the flat where the last woman to be hanged in London lived. Well, before they hanged her. (Yes, they have plaques for everything in London. "Charles Dickens stopped to blow his nose here. Once.") After breakfast at Patisserie Valerie (NOT TO BE MISSED) I checked out the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit at the NHM and it's been a must see every year. Unfortunately the actual trip to London isn't a 'must do' every year (well, it's a 'must do' in my books, but in my husband's books, the ones with all the little red numbers in them, where it's a 'can not' for the present time.)

The nice thing is, I can still check out the exhibit online. The winners were just announced and you can see them HERE

It's not quite the same as wandering about a large yet intimate exhibition hall. There you have soft music (I have a sample if someone could tell me how to insert it on the blog) and low lights and hushed murmurs from the crowd as we all gather around each slide, large and backlit which really highlights the rich colours, but it's the next best thing. Go have a look.

And if you would like to help me in my campaign to buy a flat in London, please send cash. Lots of it. Like, oodles.

If a picture tells a thousand words...

...then Rarindra Prakarsa is a master story-teller. Each photograph is like a fairy tale come to life. Some may find the photos a bit twee, but I think they're magical.

http://photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=2231437&include=all

Tell me what you think.