Photography
More of Our Canada
9May 14, 2013
For the last year or so a family friend, Nancy Gillogly, has been after me to submit photos for contests on the “Our Canada” Magazine. It’s a magazine that is part of the Reader’s Digest family. Last fall, I finally did submit some photos to a contest…and then promptly forgot about which ones I submitted. I didn’t win the contest and figured that was the end of that idea. But I felt like I was able to tell Nancy I submitted a photo! I think I’m one of the hardest critic on my own photography work. Yes, I do realize that I do take beautiful photos…but then I find myself looking at other photogs…and realizing that I have so much more to learn, grown and be. Maybe that’s just part of life’s journey…but it’s something I’m working on…actually believing that I can take a decent photo.
Fast forward to today… I have been away for about 3 weeks, and haven’t picked up my mail yet. So a trip to the post office was in order…and surprisingly I had a few awesome packages that weren’t bills! I had a package from “More of Our Canada”.
A few months ago, an editor at “More of Our Canada” contacted me to tell me that even though I didn’t win the photo competition…the magazine was interested in including one of my photos in the story “A Love Affair with the Forest” in their May Edition of the magazine!
I was so excited to see one of MY photos in colour and in PRINT!!! Yes, I’ve had photos published via Nunatsiaq News and CBC North BUT never in a magazine. So pardon my ‘newbie’ excitement!!! 
It’s the photo on the far left of the page…almost a full page spread!
I first blogged about my trip to the Capilano Suspension Bridge with my friend Ryan last summer. It was such a fun filled day! Go check out the other awesome photos and story from that day.
Here’s the photo one more time…
Thank you Nancy for convincing me to submit a photo, without your encouragment I never would have done it and wouldn’t have gotten published in a magazine.
Rock-a-Bye Baby
1May 4, 2013
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to go visit my friend Lisa and her four beautiful sons! It was great to see her and get my fix of newborn baby cuddles! These are the best thing ever! Here’s a few photos as a ‘sneak-peak’ for my friend Lisa, hope you enjoy!
Here are Lisa’s amazing sons… from oldest to youngest. Her oldest just had a birthday this week. Her boys are 9, 7, 5 and 3 weeks old!
The wee little man was very alert for most of my visit. It was really funny when Lisa and I were doing a mini-photo-shoot he just kept staring at me! It was an awesome time filled with heaps of great talks, taking lots of fun photos of a cute little baby and just being in the same room as a great friend! I must admit though for most of my visit I just held the baby he slept, only to give him up to get fed… then take him again!
Lisa’s one request was not to take any photos of her. Being the friend that I am…I didn’t really listen and did manage to get a few of my friend. Lisa might be a wee bit sleep deprived with adjusting to a newborn..and a homeschool mamma for the other 3 boys… years from now I’m sure you’ll be happy I snapped these shots! It’s awesome to have the privilege to seeing my friends now in their roles as mothers…
These photos of all the brothers together were a last minute thing! I convinced the older brothers it would be a great ‘surprise’ for them to get a photo together for their mom for mother’s day. Apparently they agreed… so we ‘snuck’ downstairs to capture these shots! Each big brother took a turn holding their youngest brother…you can tell how much the big brothers adore their baby brother! I love these photos because each boy’s personalities are shinning through!
Just before Lisa drove me back to the Go-Train…I said, wait I didn’t get any shots of me and new baby! So Lisa grabbed my camera and snapped these awesome shots! Thank you
Thanks Lisa for an awesome afternoon, it was so great to visit and talk in person! It was great to see you and the boys…thanks for letting me get my fix of newborn cuddles.
March 2013: #FMSPhotoaDay
5April 1, 2013
Can you believe another month is gone in 2013? This year is flying by! March was a tough month for me to keep up to the challenge daily. If you were following along on Instagram, you would have seen me jump all over the list posting random photos out of order! I started off right, but then at the beginning of the month while I was in Iqaluit I got out of sync. To catch up I just worked on the getting through the prompts not really paying attention to the order! Although at one point I almost gave up completely, but am so glad I pressed on to finish the month out. It’s almost like I lost my creative mojo for photo taking and bloggin’! Here’s hoping April will be less chaotic for me and I’ll find that creative mojo for photos and bloggin’ once again.
Without any further ado here are my photos for March. I must admit looking at some of these photos makes me laugh, because they are so horrible, and well I can tell I struggled with it. I really hope April is better, or I might give up this photo-a-day thing for a year. Some of these were taken with my iPhone 3GS and others were taken with my Canon 50D (these photos will be labelled!)
Day 1: L is for… laminating! I created sets of matching cards at work for a conference workshop.
Day 2: i made this! Last spring I knit the this afghan, then hiked to the top of Mt. Duval to take photos! (taken with Canon 50D) I took this photo last June, I also uploaded another photo of the blanket on a chair, but decided only to share this photo on the blog.
Day 3: key… just my keys in the door at my house!
Day 4: lucky…I am so incredibly lucky to live here in beautiful Pangnirtung, and that this is my view daily! (taken with my Canon 50D).
Day 5: under…my desk at work are all these random cords. They belong to the fax machine and printer, but sometimes my feet get tangled up in them.
Day 6: chair…just a random shot of one of my kitchen chairs.
Day 7: fear… I don’t have a fear of the dark, but have a fear of ‘moving-in-the-darkness’. So have to turn on my bedside light before I go and turn off the other lights in the house. When I left Toronto friends in my church had a ‘surprise’ going away party for me. My friend Anna picked me up in her car, blindfolded me and drove me around the city before taking me to the church. I almost had a full on panic attack from the car to the basement. I remember being vocal about not wanting to move, or walk…and begged to take the blindfold off. But Anna thought I was just joking around, and was being funny, and said NO! (to this day I don’t think she realized how much that little walk terrified me!) Although having the church basement filled with friends for a going away party did help me get over it pretty quickly! I think I will always have a fear of moving-in-the-darkness!Day 8: favourite… These are my favourite pirate duckies! A great friend found them for me…and now they have a place of honour in my bathroom, next to the Blue Q “lavatory mists”.
Day 9: faceless self-portrait… This is my ‘almost’ faceless self-portrait. I was wearing my favourite felted necklace that I bought last fall when I was in Paris!
Day 10: i want...I posted a long time about wanting a Saila Doll. My gramma surprised me with my birthday and Christmas gift for getting me one! I had already gotten a Pang Hat and Amoutiq for her…but didn’t have the doll! It arrived, and I’m so happy…(I’ll share more photos soon about that!) (Taken with my Canon 50D).
Day 11: important… My modem and wireless router are pretty important. It’s my lifeline to family and friends, keeps me sane living so far away from everyone!
Day 12: in the distance… Here is a photo taken from my hotel room in Iqaluit. The sun was setting the day after a crazy blizzard! (Taken with my Canon 50D).
Day 13: sound… Can you see the airplane landing? When I look at this photo I can not only SEE it landing, but hear it too! (Taken with my Canon 50D).
Day 14: tasty… I made my Gramma’s special “death by chocolate skor bar” dessert…it was yummy, and I had lots of left-overs! (Taken with my Canon 50D).
Day 15: explore…After the wind settled down in the blizzard, i went outside to ‘explore’ and see the drifts of snow, and how it settled on the back of my house! (Taken with my Canon 50D).
Day 16: 9 o’clock…This is a clock that sits on my desk at work. It’s a cute little alarm clock that a friend gave me years ago as a joke…in order to turn off the alarm you have to open up this trap door thing at the back, so much work! (definitely no snooze in this clock!)
Day 17: green… This was my St. Paddy’s Day Dessert…it was a fun cookie base topped with creamed jello, and then lime jello at the top…it was so good!
Day 18: shoes…Just a random crate of shoes in my boot room!
Day 19: a sign… one of the many stop signs in Pang! (Taken with my Canon 50D).
Day 20: clean…it was laundry day, and my clothes were on their way to being clean
Day 21: working…I got to go fishing for IQ Day, and my ‘work’ was out on the land! (Taken with my Canon 50D).
Day 22: about you… I’m the type of girl that doesn’t mind getting her hands a bit dirty or even fishy! (Taken with my Canon 50D).
Day 23: what you do for fun…This day I invited neighbours over, and then we made sushi out of the fresh Char I had caught the day before!
Day 24: up… Looking up, wondering where these jets are coming from and where they are going! (Makes me want to travel internationally again!) (Taken with my Canon 50D).
Day 25: in your drawer…my desk drawer at work! Lots of random stuff.
Day 26: something you did… I took a dog for a walk on a leash…with my friend Kaitlin! (Taken with my Canon 50D).
Day 27: pair… my pair of mittens, my friend this month helped me sew new linings to these mittens and then sewed new fur on them too!
Day 28: in the mirror… just a random ‘selfie’ in the bathroom mirror (doesn’t everyone do that?)!
Day 29: goodnight… goodnight moon! (Taken with my Canon 50D).
Day 30: relax…The couch was the perfect spot to relax after going outside for a walk and enjoying the fresh air!
Day 31: stuff…Random ‘stuff’ or eggs hanging in my kitchen window!
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So there you have it now I have three months done, only nine more to go! Here is the list for April’s prompts. Feel free to join in the challenge, let me know where you post your photos so I can look at them! I’ll be posting via Instagram daily and then summarize them at the end of the month here on my blog!
(Source: Fat Mum Slim…check the link for all the ‘rules’ and how to ‘play!)
If you want to check out the first two months of my 2013 Photo-a-Day Challenges click on the links below!
Baby Steps
0March 26, 2013
While in Iqaluit a few weeks ago on my last night in town I went over to my friend’s house for dinner. Before we got into the buisness of making pizza for dinner, I snapped a few shots of their family! (A year ago in April I took Josefina’s maternity shots and then last fall I did a 6month shoot for her youngest….)
These two boys are the sweetest I know in Iqaluit! 
This little man started taking steps the day before I came over for dinner. One of my favourite moments of being an Infant Room Early Childhood Educator was to be there to see babies when they take their first steps! Nothing can beat that new walking baby- almost zombie- straight arm, straight leg walk! 
This little man was so excited to show me all his games he was playing on his iPad….Angry Birds and a Buzz Lightyear game!
Just a few ‘family’ shots…
These photos were just the beginning of a great night. Thanks so much for dinner and awesome conversation. I’m glad we are friends. I’ll drop this CD in the mail…as soon as possible…there’s a few more on the disk. Next time I’m in Iqaluit we should head back down to Apex to get some more family shots on the beach!
Wordless Wednesday XXXIII: Tuesday Night Lights…
12February 13, 2013
It’s been a few months since I shared a Wordless Wednesday. So decided it was time to start this series of posts up again. However, this wordless wednesday might not be so ‘wordless’! Last night the aurora borealis were out… it was so good to be home in Pang to see them!
I stayed really close to my house…as it was late, and really cold! But the view of the lights was still amazing.
This is one of the best things to see in the world! I’ll never get tired to of seeing them… (even managed to capture a few selfies…I even liked this photo once I turned it into a B&W.)
These are my first shots for 2013. I was a wee bit rusty, and these shots are a bit grainy…just means I need to go out more regularly to practice… and so need to get out of the town lights to reduce some of the ‘light-polution’ in the photos!
Can’t wait to go out again!
