Photos of the Week



Untitled  - I need a name for this photo. I would love to hear your suggestions

 

Stairs



Remembering Days of Past

Break



A Helping Hand

These were my favorite four photos that I shot over the past week.  Which one is your favorite? I would love to hear and why :)

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Our Relationship With Technology

Today’s post is a bit of a treat, it doesn’t come from me J.  Today’s post comes from another blogger that I have recently connected with, JP Brandano Photography.  This blog has quickly become one of my favourites to read as it not your typical photography blog.  Jim and Phyllis’ blog is full of wonderful stories with humour, insights, and incredible photos weaved throughout. 

Today’s post is from their blog from a post last week.  When I read it, the message struck such a cord with me I just had to share it with all of you.  Thankfully Phyllis and Jim graciously let me share this with all of you.  To see the original post with some great photos please visit LOVING OUR CAMERAS - by PHYLLIS.

I hope you enjoy!

LOVING OUR CAMERAS

While taking images at the Red Sox game, I thought of Galen Rowell. He used to say, "When you're working in the field, turn around and look behind you. You might find a better story!" Not one to ignore an inspiration, I immediately looked around and was struck by the amount of people holding cameras. These were not necessarily professional photographers, although there were a few present. These were everyday men, women and children who were excited to be part of something and worked hard to find a way to record it.

What I liked best about seeing them was no matter what tool they used; cell phones, point and shoots or high end DSLRs, each had a relationship that was tangible. Some shooters were shouting, "Yeah, that's it, I got it!" while others cursed about a missed shot. Cameras were caressed, coddled and shaken while given words of encouragement or blame. Watching people respond to their cameras, made me reflect on relationships, in general. It was clear how much humans now invest in their machinery. The emotions we once saved for friends, family and loved ones have been transferred to our tools of convenience. Who can't sight a friend or family member who is in love with their computer or software! When was the last time you looked into the eyes of a spouse or loved one for hours on end, while playfully attending to their needs. I suppose it's our reliance on technology that makes us so committed emotionally. But I wonder if a wife, brother or friend wouldn't appreciate hearing words of encouragement and support that we delegate to inanimate objects.

Well, it's food for thought. Next time you feel like hugging your computer, go to your spouse or child instead. Cameras help us document the trip but people make the trip worth taking.

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Our Preconceived Expectations

I was practicing eliminating unwanted things from my frame. 
So I was using the vines to get rid of an ugly building from the frame

It is one of the most natural human obsessions; before we go into any situation we have always analyzed it to death and have some expectation of the outcome.  Most often this is just setting us up for failure and disappointment as the situation never turns out quite like the preconceived expectation was in our mind.  I bring this topic up because it reared its ugly little head in my photography journey recently and has caused me to step back and reflect a little. 

The other day I had to run a couple errands, and since I am doing my 365 project I decided to bring my camera along as well.  Lately I have found a style of photography that I really enjoy and seem to developing pretty rapidly with, street photography.  So I grabbed my camera and off I went.

I have used a telephoto lens for most of my street photography up until the weekend, so I could be undetected and shoot from a far.  Unfortunately, after some research I learnt that some of the greatest shots can be achieved with a wider angle lens. Of course to achieve this you have to be able to get much closer to your subjects.  This past weekend I wanted to try it out so instead of the long lens, I grabbed my light small lens and off I went.  I absolutely fell in love with it.  It was very intimidating and difficult at first but as the hour went by I found myself really enjoying it and I ended up with some decent shots.

I digress; let’s get back to my errands.  So I brought along the small lens with the intention of practicing some more street photography when I was done them.  The sky was very overcast and rain was looming, so the streets were bare; not a person in site.  As I continued to walk there were a few people out, but all walking head down with a purpose; not making the best photos.   I learnt very quickly I am not at the comfort level of the great street photographers.  It is much easier getting close unnoticed in crowds like on the weekend, but when it is just you and the subject you stand out quite a bit.  First lesson of the day, increase my confidence and comfort level.  If I am not comfortable, it will make my subject even more suspicious. 

I had all these preconceived plans of practicing my new craft and it felt like nature was conspiring against me.  I found myself longing for my longer lens, and contemplated just going home. 

It was then I realized my disappointment was my own doing.  I was the one who had set this preconceived expectation of what my photo walk would be about.  I realized I just needed to be more adaptable.  So instead of going home, I decided to embrace this situation, as nature was telling me I should practice something else.  So I decided to use the time to practice with my camera.  

I ended up focusing on patterns, lines, textures and using different perspectives.  I also began working on learning to do manual exposures because I knew my subjects weren’t going to be moving on me J  

The day made me realize something very important.  It is natural for us to set preconceived expectations for ourselves; I don’t think this is something we will ever get away from.  But we need to always remember that they will probably never work out the way we planned.  Knowing this going into the situation will allow us to be flexible and adaptable, making the best of the situation.  Often by doing this we will find more enjoyment and success than we originally planned in our preconceived expectation.

At the end of it all, I ended up scraping most of my photos from the day, but I did get a few keepers.  The image at the top of page came once I opened my mind and got rid my preconceived expectations for the day.  And then on my walk home wouldn’t you know it, I was rewarded with a great this street candid shot.  Isn’t it funny how things work out sometimes? J

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All Stories Teach

I had a story to tell, I was living an ordinary life by all standards and then one fateful day I was thrust into a big new scary world.  It was a world where you didn’t know if you would survive to see another year let alone the “golden years”.   I decided instead of keeping the story to myself, I would share it with whoever was interested in reading it, and thus the blog was born.

This past year’s journey has provided many moments and stories for me to share and reflect on.  Recently I have had a tough time coming up with new material to write about.  It seemed like a quite a dilemma, how do you write about reflections on a leukemia journey when you don’t technically have leukemia any longer.  That is when I came across this quote by Philip Pullman.

"All stories teach, whether the storyteller intends them to or not. They teach the world we create. They teach the morality we live by. They teach it much more effectively than moral precepts and instructions".

It got me thinking, my story was more than just the leukemia.  The leukemia was just a chapter in my story; the real story was my life in its entirety.  Although, the leukemia chapter has come to an end, I still have a few more stories and reflections to share from it but I knew I needed to shift the way I looked at my story. 

Originally I wasn’t sure about including photos on the blog because I thought it might confuse people on the direction of the blog.  I didn’t want to upset any of my readership, who might have certain expectations of the content for the blog.  But then I realized that you are not here to just hear about cancer and leukemia but rather to enjoy my thoughts and reflections about the journey through it.   

Again I came back to the quote; if all stories could teach then I was sure I could find the inspirations to write about in my present chapter.  I started to wonder, could my journey with photography give some of the same types of reflections as my journey with leukemia.  I had already started sharing some of my photographs and everyone seemed to really enjoy them.  But I wanted photography to play a larger role in my blog than just photo sharing because it was an integral character in my current chapter.  I knew if I looked hard enough I would find lessons it was trying to teach me just as my leukemia did.

And so we will continue through my recovery chapter of my story.  I didn’t take up photography with the intention of writing about it, but then again this blog started with a different direction than it has today.  That is the beautiful thing about a blog like this I guess, as my story changes so too can the blog.  This blog isn’t turning into a photography blog, so don’t worry.  It will keep it core essence; just the inspiration for reflections and insights will be coming from different places.

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Challenges and Updates

HEALTH UPDATE
As time is progressing providing updates on my progress has become a little more challenging. I haven’t really wanted to put the same post up on a weekly basis that basically says the same thing; my GVHD is tracking well, no noticeable flare-ups and my steroid was tapered yet again.  That is my weekly health update in a nutshell J

There was some great news that came out last week’s appointment.  I have been tracking so well that they have moved me to only having to go in every other week.  Of course the first two weeks that I start this diminished schedule I have to go in for other appointments but that seems to be the way things work out.  It happened when I was reduced to once a week if you remember as well J

The only real downside to this new schedule is it slows down my tapering process.  As you can tell, I am ready to be off all these immunosuppressants but it is looking like I won’t be until at least June.  They take their time near the end of the taper and do it slowly because the percentage drop in dosage is much larger than before and they want to avoid flare-ups.  As long as the slow taper works, I will be happy.

PERSONAL UPDATE
On a personal note, last Friday was quite a milestone day for me.  It marked my Day+100.  This means that someone else’s cells have been keeping me alive for 100 days now.  When you take a step back and reflect on this, the magnitude is mind boggling.

CONTEST UPDATE
The time to grow contest came to a close last week and it turned out to be quite the success.  The blog’s readership grew in leaps and bounds and actually achieved my personal goal of 200 readers.  The two winners of the contest were Lauren Bailey and Mollie Lalonde Lynch.  Congratulations!

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been promoting the blog and passing it along to others.  I can’t say how much it means to me that you enjoy my writing and what I have to say enough to pass it along and share it with others.  I hope that this is just the beginning and the blog will continue to grow, so please continue to pass it along to those you will gain from it.

PERSONAL CHALLENGES
With my health updates being pretty much a “standard template” (which isn’t a bad thing), I thought I could also use this space to update you on some new endeavours I have embarked on.

Now that I have surpassed day 100 I decided I am no longer a weak a recovering bone marrow patient.  It is time to start getting strong again.  So I am following the same program I started last year.  It began with walking everyday and slowly building up to the point where I was able to go to spinning classes.    My walking challenge for the time being is to get out for a minimum of one hour at least 4 times per week.  This is just the starting point but you know what they say about goals, they need to measurable and achievable.

The second challenge is the one I am really excited about.  First, the nature of it will help me achieve my walking goal.  The challenge is not of my own creation but something I found on the internet and decided to try.  It is called Project 365.  Many people have tried this challenge and failed, which got my competitive juices flowing and wondering if I would have the discipline and motivation to complete it. From the outside the challenge is simple, take a photograph everyday for 365 days.  What makes it difficult is having the self discipline to take a photo every day.  The caveat is the photos can’t be of the same thing everyday either.  The goal is to challenge yourself creatively.

I thought it would be a fun way to both document my year, but also improve as a photographer.  I will share photos along the way in this webpage but will also have a sister page that I will be uploading each day’s photo to.  I will let you know when it is up at running.

That’s all for now.


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Favorite Nature Pictures

Here is a collection of my favorite wildlife shots from the past week.  Hope you enjoy, and remember I love hearing which ones are your favorite and why?

If you do leave a comment check back because I often reply with questions :)


Right Side up or Upside Down?




Enjoying the newly melted pond

 

Duck Yoga

 

Playing Peak-a-boo



Posing



A good place for a snack

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