Ode to Valentines love, life and random.

Hello bloggy world! 

I was walking around today and noticed some pre-Valentine cute things. Plus some random stuff along the way... I know that I'm not the most fabulous photographer (yet) and have a pretty hefty "things to break the bank with" list. I think the first step in progressing as a visual journalist should be just to shoot without concerns, deadlines, stresses, etc. every day. 

Saying that, I probably won't manage it and certainly doubt I'll be posting every day, but at least I have a place to sort of archive my progress over some amount of time. 

Goals, seeing as I mentioned them earlier :

-Lighting equipment (umbrellas & stands)

-Pocket wizards or some other remote device for trickier lighting scenarios

-Something that can allow my camera to do wicked time-lapse shots

-Another flash? Hmm? I have the SB-900, and my SB-800 broke :( so I need another one now

-Bigger telephoto lens than my 80-200mm...300, 600?? I'm pretty serious about my birding photos...heh

-Macro lens

-Mirror lens for night photography

-Shoot LOTS, go to more events, find more stories  (I have two multimedias on the go outside of school)

-Work super hard at my internship @ The Mercury, get name out there more

-Spend money on a decent website, maybe when portfolio is a little polished (editing in progress)

-Find an owl to shoot - biggest goal for the past 5 years or so, I think they know I want to see them so badly, so they hide....

-Care less about peoples' opinions? I don't know if this is a good goal or not, but I think it'll help me be less stressed/anxious in the long-run. 

Anyways, I guess that's all for now.

Here are some pictures from today :)

Playing in Walmart with a telephoto lens. These sculptures remind me
of spring/summer time on my back deck. We have quite a few
of these lovely ladies sitting around.

Depth of field.

Sigh, dreamer.

Love is in the air and on your pjs.

Cute Valentine feature perhaps.

Love monkey. Reminds me of my dad who has more monkey plushies than I do.

LOVE love Love Lo0o0ove.

On the way back from the store, I thought the sky looked nice, and I'm a fan of old trees.

Oh hey, red-tailed hawk, nice of you to show yourself on this lovely day.
Wish you were sharper, but I still love you.

Pretty crystal ball ornament that makes me think of warmer times.

Humming bird ornament I found next to the crystal ball thing. Spring is coming!

In the meantime...Let's light the fire and keep warm 'til the sun is closer to Canada.

A picture I took when it was warmer out, looking at the pond out back.

Kind of an "after shot" of the previous one, but shot tighter. Same Cats tails, but
with a snow-covered ice rink behind them. 

Some pictures from a diabetes photo story

Greg Benham, my uncle, showing his new insulin pump.

Greg Benham with his insulin pump.

Jessica Dodge, testing her blood.

" "

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Waiting for her blood glucose test results.

Jessica Dodge preparing for her insulin injection with a syringe.

Jenny Kelly is Type 2 diabetic and controls her "sugars" with her diet.
I had a everyone have a picture taken with their health cards,
as Canadian health care plans save a lot of money.

Mary Bedard sits with the pills that she takes to control her diabetes. She is
also a Type 2 diabetic.

Mary Bedard's pills.

" "

Susan Henderson-Benham's medic alert bracelet.

Susan Henderson-Benham tests her blood.

Susan Henderson-Benham can have lunch only after she tests her blood
and takes some insulin with her insulin pen (which is a
type of syringe needle)

A couple things that amuse(d) me

This is Melissa Ferrier and Casey, her hunting hound. She recently
had to give him away to make room for the newest member of their
family (that's on the way!!). We hope you're happy with
your new home Casey and that you're given tons of treats!!

More owl business. For those of you who don't know me well,
I love owls.

Mirrors amuse me. I also really like orchids.

A nice view off of the back porch at the marshmellow table and frozen pond.

I got some fresh farm eggs and this hen just laid her first eggs.
For those who didn't know this - the first batch of eggs are abnormally
large and usually have two yolks! This egg is HUGE, being compared
to my cell phone in this pic.

One of the highlights of working at MJ's - I saw this man propose to his now fiance. Sweet moment.

April Crowell (top) and Nadine French.  Mmm toy car! A little soft
but the little girl's eyes are wicked blue.

I admit I don't know these people's names. I didn't want to run after them. Still a nice weather feature
right before the snow ATTACKED. 

I love these people. Kurt and Karen Kaiser make a fun picture about hearing differences.

This is Gord, who conquered this hill in Quinte Mall's parking lot.

This is my doggy, Taco. He's taking over my suitcase, probably hoping for me to stay... :(

This would be Faith Rae. I put her into B&W 'cause the original was super over exposed.

Meet Garry...Okay, I joke. Potential hobo spider friend?...Yikes!

Ever wonder where your recycled pop cans end up? Modern art at a waste disposal site.

CN article was used on Qnetnews!

http://www.qnetnews.ca/?p=5691

Check it out :)

Just some pictures...

 Hey blog world.

Pitched CN pictures and an accompanying article to go with it to a local paper and school paper. Nothing is happening yet, so I guess this is a waiting game. Even if they go nowhere, I still like the pictures I got out of it. Other than that, no real updates...Working on the school paper and doing little projects here and there.

I'm working on a multimedia piece I am pretty in to, like 48 hours of no sleep "in to"...So "you" shall be able to see that sometime when it's done...I hope someone buys it from me.


Anyhow, here are some pictures of people and places that I feel like sharing with you, blog world. Hope this satisfies your visual hungers.

Leah Myers in a cafe downtown Belleville. Pretty lady.

Some adorable baby I saw in the mall.

Amanda Nicoll, Rockwood ON ..A nice picture of her on my farm (sorry for misspelling your name 1st time, love)

Britania serving drinks at Matt & Joe's nightclub

Abandoned car that is in its second life as a flower pot.

Jessica Mees on my couch.

MOO! One of the cows on my family's farm.

A nice sports profile portrait I did on on Sarah Metherel.

This is Jayna, the baby girl my aunt adopted from Iqaluit, NU.

Deer prints