Rambling on...

So, spring arrived, well sort of, I'm a bit hesitant to say it's really here because one day it's hot, the next it's cold and damp and even one night this week we came close to frost. So, as much as I agree with the calendar that spring is here I'm really waiting to feel it. I want to see some sun. I've come to the conclusion that I'm one of those people who NEED the sun to bring me out of the doldrums. It's amazing how the sun can bring out smiles and good moods.

I've not been very good at blogging over the past few months. I've not felt like I had much to say. Life has been happening but I feel like I'm just going along for the ride and not really participating.

I've hit the wall, splat! I'm in a rut...a very deep cavernous rut that I can't seem to make my way out of. I feel like I'm going in all directions and getting no where. Up is where I'm hoping to go but up is difficult because without a rope or a helping hand I just keep slidding back down into the rut.

I'm a photographer, or so I've been told. This is how it is: I have a photography business. I have a photography partner and we do very good work, we do, I'm not just bragging. What's even better is that we work very well together. We're kind of like a comedy team when we really get going and that certainly helps to take the edge off the photo shoot and make people relax and be themselves. I love working with this woman. We met a few years ago and became fast friends.

I've always dabbled in photography since buying my first camera to capture the life of my first born son. Over the years I've gone on to captured 3 children, sometimes to their dislike...you've always got a camera in our face MOM, grumble grumble grumble. So when I needed to take photos of something that wouldn't give me such a hard time I took to the road with my camera in the passenger seat and in doing so I found a 'get away' from life's stresses. Trees, flowers, old houses that used to be someones home but for whatever reasons no longer have a family, fences...you name it, 'still life', quiet life I like to call it. I travel the backroads alone with my thoughts and my camera scouting out something that catches my eye.

So over the years I've accumlated quite a portfolio of images. Images mostly just viewed by me until recently when I've started to share them as in evident by the images on this blog. So here I get back to using the term 'photographer' to describe this part of who I am and my discomfort with that description. I'm completely self-taught, except for having taken a few day courses at a local camera store, and as in all things in life I'm not done learning. My photography partner is an 'educated' photographer, she went to school to learn her craft, she was/is a photojournalist.
I'm not entirely sure why I'm reluctant to call myself a photographer. Is it because I'm self-taught and therefore think I've not learned properly and maybe without the 'formal education' I feel I'm not qualified to be called a photographer?! I'm so comfortable on the road with my camera snapping pics of long dead trees and landscapes, etc., but put me in a room full of people, clients wanting that perfect family photo and I become unsure of my ability. My partner on the other hand is so sure of herself so good at 'looking' the part. I also work for a local newspaper in the layout department but because it's a small, bi-weekly and we don't have a large staff I'm occasionally called upon to cover an event which means - taking photos - which means at work I'm also called a 'photographer'. I've snapped thousands and thousands of images...the count is well over 70,000, I've lost track really.

So, long story short, I don't feel qualified to call myself a photographer but why am I so reluctant?

We welcome spring in 52 days

According to the Ottawa Citizen "Spring's on the way, really" and I can't wait. I like winter Ionly wish it could be warmer and sunnier, I am craving sunshine.

As of yesterday, Jan. 26, 2011, the sun sets later than 5 p.m. for the first time since November and we get more than nine and a half hours of daylight. Currently we're adding two minutes and 22 seconds of daylight each day, and that daily change is accelerating...by Jan 31 we will have gained a full hour of daylight.

Source: the Ottawa Citizen

All this helps to make the long cold days of winter more bearable.

16x20 canvas print - Jacob's Ladder

I want to be able to get out and take more of the above kind of photo, enough snow already - although I love my snow images. I want to feel the warmth of the sun and the singing of the birds.

"Spring's on the way, really!" Bring it on!

It's been a while

Haven't been here for a long time. I suppose I should play 'catch up' but that's gonna have to wait.

One thing I have been busy with, very busy with in fact, has been my photography.

Enjoy -

As you will see I really love winter photography.

“Because we’re friends”

How do you say something that needs to be said without hurting the person that needs to hear it. Or does she need to hear it? Maybe some words are best never voiced.
Does “because we’re friends” make it safe and alright to say whatever we think the other needs to hear even though we know it might hurt them?
“Because we’re friends” isn’t a license to say and do what YOU think the other person can handle, it’s a slippery slope that needs to be carefully walked. Because you need to clear the air doesn’t mean the other person is ready to hear what you have to say in the particular why you say it. And then after you’ve said what it is you just had to say “because we’re friends” you think things are okay but I’m having a difficult time working my way around the words. The words that sounded angry. I’m having a difficult time making my words and thoughts maneuver around the words that want to come out but that I’m trying hard to keep in “because we’re friends”.