Package Deal

A self declared package deal (and best of friends), Taylor and Kristen.

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Pretty Jerrica

Another shot from the Cottage shoot this time of the very pretty Jerrica. It is unfortunate that I wasn’t able to get a formal portrait shoot in with Jerrica before she moved back home – we will have to set that up for when she visits next (hint hint).

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Topsy Turvy

This is one of my favourite shots from the Cottage Girls Shoot.

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Makeup Artist

While at the cottage this past May, I had the opportunity to take some quick portrait shots of the ladies before they went out dancing. The above photo isn’t from that shoot, but rather the prep work before the shoot.

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Justain

A photo of Justin (aka Justain) from the annual trip to Chris’ cottage.

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I ♥ Faces: My Story in Photos: "Places I Love"

This week's I Heart Faces challenge is a little different than the others I have done. Usually we are only allowed to have one photo in the blog post and it cannot be used again in future challenges, but this week we can have as many photos as we would like/feel are necessary and are able to enter them in the future. We do however, have to tell a story about the places we love. There are several places I love, but when it comes right down to it, for me, it is all about the people I share those places with.
One of my favourite places to visit is Chris' cottage on Lake Erie. It is not only breathtakingly gorgeous, but also brings me a great deal of peace and relaxation. There are no worries to be had there and no real time constraints to speak of. Typically I spend the August long weekend there (for the past three years this has been the case) and it is spent with Chris, Dave, Chris' parents and a few other select friends (it seems to be growing each year with the addition of Jerrica and Justin in the last two years). We sit around all day, swimming when we feel like it, but basically just enjoying each others company and of course the beautiful sun. I normally take many shots while at the cottage, and have included one of the many taken of Dave (see above).A wonderful location I enjoy going to on a regular basis is much closer to my home in Ottawa. The Ottawa Greenbelt walkways are simply beautiful no matter what time of year you venture out in. There is lots of adorable animals to see and tons of great locations for environmental portraits. The photo I have included for this area (which is actually a series of paths and trails across Ottawa) is another photo of Dave taken in the Prince of Wales walkway just as you are leaving the city.A third 'location' is the City of Ottawa and its wonderful festivals. The Winterlude Festival, to me, is associated with the skating on the Rideau Canal and all the joy that brings for me and my friends and family. Last year Dave and I took his sister skating on the canal and I was able to capture some really great family moments there. The Tulip Festival has to be one of my favourite times in this city, though I take very few photos of people at this time of the year. Ottawa has so many wonderful festivals and events going on throughout the year that offer its residents and tourists huge amounts of entertainment and overall enjoyment. I really love living in this city and can really see myself making a real, long-term home here.
When I was younger, and still living at home with my parents, the walkway beside my neighbour (and 'grandma's' house) was my favourite place in the world. Right up until they took down many trees in there, I could spend hours walking along the farm path, taking photos and contemplating whatever was bothering me at the time. It was a great way for me to reflect on the day, or just get some time to myself. Unfortunately, I have few photos of people in this area as I really liked to spend that time to myself taking nature photos at most.In general, the places I love are calm, quiet ones where I can reflect and think without distraction. Usually they are places I can take photos as photography is something that brings me a great deal of joy. There are a few places in the world though that I absolutely love that are very far from the nature walks that I like in and around Ottawa. My trip to London with Chris a few years ago was just wonderful and included many areas I have been wanting to see since I was very young - the most significant (to me) was Stonehenge.
There are several other places that I really love, but the length of this post is already longer than the ones on my regular blog, let alone this one. It has, however, been rather enjoyable to write and hopefully is what the people at I Heart Faces is looking for, though I do not believe there is any judging going on this week. Thanks for reading the whole thing, I hope you enjoyed it too.

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Photo Recovery

While taking my first photography course at Algonquin, my instructor told us of a time when some of his photos got stuck on a memory card. He had a really hard time, but eventually got them off using some photo recovery program he purchased from the internet. He informed us that if we didn't want this to happen to us that we should format our card rather than use the 'delete all' feature on some cameras. This is because memory cards to do permanently delete photos when you use this feature so your card retains some of the data even though you cannot see the images. My dSLR only has the format ability and I therefore wasn't too worried about this happening to me.
I just finished posting a lot of photos from the Cottage 2009 trip and it was during this trip that I encountered my first problem with memory cards withholding images from me. I used two memory cards while at the cottage, and it was the first one I used that caused all the problems. I am not sure why it happened as I format this card a fair bit, but when I went to download the images from my 2GB Kingston SD card, both the computer and the camera informed me that the card needed to be formatted prior to use. In other words, I needed to delete all my photos to be able to get them off the camera. I wasn't too worried about this at first as they were just pleasure photos. It wasn't until I started to post the images for the Cottage Assignment 2009, that I realized that half of my assignment photos were on that card. I asked some people at work, fellow photographers and the IT guy, and everyone said to download a program from the net. When I got home, I searched, found and installed. I ran the scan and saved my images. I used the Stellar Photo Recovery program and was very happy with it. I have a feeling though, that any of the programs would have worked just as well. So now I have my photos back and if it happens to any else, this is a very good program - or just give me a call and I can try to help you out.

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19. Mechanical

I didn't see this bike get ridden onto the beach or off it either, but I saw it abandoned in the middle of all that sand for quite some time.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

So this is the last of my Cottage 2009 Assignment photos, I hope you enjoyed them. As always, all constructive criticism and feedback is greatly appreciated.

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18. Motion

I watched the fan in our room every morning as I woke up. It would swirl around and around and make me fall back asleep for a little longer. This is not the fan from our room, but is pretty much just like it.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

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16. Pride

Nothing classifies as pride better than that which one has for their nation.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

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15. Flight

I have two images that I feel can be used for this one. The first is of a kite flying high in the air. The little boy later had to reel in his line and he was definitely not impressed. The second image is that of a kite surfer's kite, also flying high in the air. I didn't hear nearly as many moans and groans when he had to pack up his stuff though.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

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14. Dirty

I think every foot at the cottage needs a healthy coating of sand.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

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13. Clean

Best way to keep a place clean is with garbage and recycling bins.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

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12. Found

To be honest, this is a rather bad picture of Chris - but it does have the hat that I found abandoned on the snow fence that morning. I gave it to Chris as she loves the Disney Princess stuff and she put it on right away - so hat found.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

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11. Lost

Some little girl lost her hat at the beach - how sad.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

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10. Food

A delicious apple pie leftover from the Too Late for Canada Day party - so yummy.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

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9. A Good Sport

This kite surfer noticed me photographing him and kept going past me and doing tricks. It was nice of him to continue doing it, though I guess it could be seen as vane, but I am going to go with nice. Unfortunately, I was not able to capture the action shot I had in my head, but it still turned out alright.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

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8. Girls

Neither Jerrica nor Chris wanted to be photographed while sitting in the Adirondack chairs - so, at their request I took a shot of their feet instead.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

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7. Boys

Dave and his little buddy. This little guy just adored Dave and wanted to play with him all day long. Unfortunately for him, we ended up hiding out for an hour or so playing Guitar Hero because he was just too much.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

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6. Knots & 20. Delight

I know 6 and 20 are not close to each other, but they ended up in the same photo. While at the cottage, Dave came across a knot tying kit. He sat there and tied knots for a few hours and was so incredibly happy with both the knots and himself. The knot here is a figure eight follow through.

This photograph is part of my Cottage 2009 Assignment.

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