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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Winter Photography

I am attempting to get out there despite the weather and practice taking shots in winter. In the past I have avoided such situations since I felt I could not deal with all the white surroundings and intense light (aka snow and ice). I have gone out several times now, mostly to the canal and one trip to Winterlude, and have done pretty well. I am definitely getting better and learning how to adjust my camera settings to deal with the non-ideal settings. I have also learned that the bright white overcast days that often occur during the winter days can give some neat effects (eg. solid white backgrounds without any post-production work) that I really like in certain photos (like the one of the stop light [red light, green light] below). I am going to keep practicing as I still need it but I am definitely happy with the progress I have made so far.

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