Hello darkness my old friend.

Hello, and yes it has been awhile since I have posted anything to my blog and my photo challenge remains incomplete. I however, have still been taking pictures and have even participated in a class or two to expand my knowledge with photography. Who knew that a 45$ Groupon would be more informative and helpful than a 300$ class at Emily Carr?


If there is one thing I have learnt is that practice makes perfect, and with that I have decided to pick up where I left off and finish the challenge and continue to share my learnings and pictures with you.

Finally, something...

Yes, so I know I have not posted anything in awhile. I would like to say it is because I have been so busy, but rather just laziness. I know the last thing I promised you was some diptychs. Here are some that I have been playing with in the last week. The first two I think you will be able to figure out quite quickly. The last two in my own way are a silent protest.

This week my class has been discussing memes, and photo fads. If you are not familiar with the term meme let me explain. A meme is a fast transmitting cultural idea or reference passed on from one person to another. Or in simpler terms an internet fad! Some great ones to check out are on http://www.knowyourmeme.com

So my assignment this week is to recreate a meme, or create my own. Some examples that my teacher asked us to recreate are planking, owling, stocking, or horse manning to name a few. I've spent some time on the website and this one titled 'Hipster Ariel' is my favourite. 

I also the photo fad sleeve face.

 So this week I will have a lot of fun trying to come up with one on my own.

Diptych, what?

Today was week two day two of my intro to digital photography class at Emily Carr. So far the class has proven to be helpful in some technical aspects of using my camera. I am currently able to shut of auto, switch to manual and now play with the ISO, aperture and shutter speed settings. It definitely is going to take some practice, but I do believe that I am starting to get the hang of it.


So in class today we were discussing what a diptych is. By definition a diptych is "a work consisting of two painted or carved panels that are hinged together". In class however we discussed images that were side by side, and watched two videos in a sequence that complemented and finished a story.


Example, video 1: sinful person going in water being baptized, video 2: repented person coming out of water after baptism. 


Do you get the drift? No I didn't really either at first. After looking at some pictures the idea finally began to sink in. I did take some pictures today of what a diptych might look like such as an elevator door closed, an elevator door opened. A water fountain, a water fountain dispersing water. On and off, cause and effect, conflicting ideas, etc.


However, I unfortunately left my SD card in the lab so my pictures I took are probably now with someone else. Thank goodness I have a spare SD at home. So since I cannot show you the pictures I took today I found a sample on the internet.

http://sachablackburne.blogspot.com/2010/04/diptych.html


So do you see what I mean? Interesting right? So this week I am going to be focusing on different types of diptychs and finding ideas for the ones I need to do for class.

Photography Challenge Days 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15

So I am finding it hard to maintain my blog (and photography challenge) between work and my somewhat social life. So I have decided to add time management to my list of goals. This essentially means I need to stop watching useless crap on television, aka my laptop and spend more time writing or reading books. 


Lately I have found it much harder dealing with my father's death. I find that it is slowly sinking in that I am never going to speak with him again, and I really miss him. I find that people are awkward around me when I mention anything to do with him, like I am so fragile I cannot handle talking about it. Yes, sometimes it is very hard to talk about and I will find myself tearing up or getting very emotional, but it doesn't mean I am going to break every time. Sometimes talking about him really, actually helps.


Anyways, I wanted to post my most recent pictures for my photography challenge because YES I am incredibly behind. None of these pictures I actually love, and yes I know that I am my own worst critic, but I know when I try and when I take good pictures. I promise the next ones will be much better after this.

Day 10: A Childhood Memory

So this is my childhood memory; balloons. Not any balloons though, no, no, no. Do you remember when as a kid you were invited to a birthday party, or at your own birthday party, a common occurrence were balloons tied to something at the end of the driveway. You would be in your mother's car and out of nowhere you would see them, these bright colourful balloons and you knew that the next 2-3 hours were going to be the best of your life.

Day 11: Something Blue

So what I need to explain about this picture is that it is something blue in a very natural moment. I had spent all day looking at blue graffiti, blue shop windows, blue everything and anything. When I was at home going through my pictures I noticed this one. Nothing special, I don't know why I took it, I think I liked the building, but then I saw it; blue! The sky is blue, the reflection on the windows is blue, the awning for the cafe is blue, the car is blue, and even the girl standing in front of me, is wearing blue. I unintentionally took my blue picture.

Day 12: Sunset

Day 12: Sunset

Day 12: Sunset

I couldn't pick one. Each of these shots, taken while the sun is setting, are each unique. A sunset can be very boring to shoot, but at different angles and different places you can take the same thing and make it completely different.

Day 13: Something Old

A tree? Yes a tree. No judgement because these are some of the oldest living things on this planet.

Day 14: Eyes

Very creepy clown eyes, staring at you as you either enter or leave Granville Island, but staring at you nonetheless. 

Day 15: Your Shoes

My shoes. I love these boots, worn with my huge grey gap socks. I could walk for hours in these guys and my feet will never get sore. As far as shoes go, these ones are true winners.

Ok, so I know I am still behind. Fortunately I am off early tomorrow and then have the next two days off. Yay! A well needed break for sure. I plan on catching up to the rest of the challenge between cleaning my room, doing laundry, going to class, and reading! I have decided to commit myself to a TV free weekend. Monday my friend is coming over so we can create vision boards, I will make him dinner, and then and only then, we will probably veg in front of the television for awhile.

Photography Challenge days seven, eight and nine.

So here are the pictures seven, eight and nine. The challenges were a vegetable, a bad habit, and someone you love. This is what I got. :)

Photography Day 7: A Vegetable

So this is my lunch I cooked for work today, roasted carrots my favourite! You half them, sprinkle them with pepper and olive oil. Put some garlic cloves around the edges and bake them in the oven at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. Half way through you want to turn them over. When they are done sprinkle them with lemon juice and voila!

Photography Day 8: A Bad Habit

My bad habit as you can see is letting my laundry accumulate and before you know it I have five hours of laundry ahead of me. I need to work on this.

Photography Day 9: Someone You Love

Photography Day 9: Someone You Love

These pictures of pictures are of my parents. Cliche, yes, but it is true. I do love them.

No oil-tankers.

Currently in Canada there is an ongoing debate wether Enbridge should build twin pipelines from Alberta to Kitimat, British Columbia. Each pipeline is approximately 1,100 km long, passes through over 800 rivers and streams transporting toxic bitumen, and would allow over 200 oil-tankers to pass through the Great Bear Sea every year potentially harming those who inhabit the area. If there were to be an oil spill, and believe me there will be (the oil-tankers will be passing through very narrow areas and fjords) it would devastate the natural ecosystem that resides there. Currently, the area is home to several species of Pacific salmon, whales, orcas, dolphins, among land mammals such as wolves and the Kermode Spirit Bear. 


Wether you believe in the threat of global warming or not it is unreasonable to allow the Northern Gateway Project to proceed knowing that it is going to destroy the beautiful British Columbian coast. For more information please check out the following links...


http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/Energy/tarsands/Learn-about/
http://www.dogwoodinitiative.org


Please say no to oil-tankers off the coast of BC.

Day three, four, five and six of photography challenge

So I fell a little behind with my blog posts photographs. Here are all the pictures that I have taken in the last few days correlating with the challenge.

Day 3: Clouds

Day 3: Clouds

There are two pictures of clouds here because I could not decide which one I liked best. Clouds are one of my favourite things to capture. Every cloud tells a story. The first picture you will notice the big grey cloud looming over the edmonds/22nd street area. What you do not know is that I had spent the day downtown enjoying the lovely weather, however, when I arrived in Burnaby via sky train it had begun to snow. As I cam upon 22nd street station the sun was out and it was beautiful. So in the picture you see two separate areas not far from each other experiencing two different types of weather. 

My second picture was also taken near 22nd street sky train, but facing a different direction. I love the texture and layers associated with this cloud.

Day 4: Something Green

My challenge for day three was to take a picture of something green. It would have been easy to take a picture of a plant, tree, or grass but I thought this ceramic frog was more fun. This was something I took from my father's place after he passed. It has been in my life for as long as I can remember.

Day 5: From a high angle

Day 5: From a high angle

Again, two pictures. The first one is the top floor through a window at the Vancouver public library. Down below you can see carts filled with books, and I love that you can see people in the windows reading or studying.

The second picture is in Granville station looking down the enormous escalator there. If you've been to Vancouver guaranteed you know which escalator I am talking about. You know the one that feels like it takes five minutes to get up.

Day 6: From a low angle

This picture is also taken at Vancouver public library but outside. Staring at the building I noticed it's structure and it reminded me of the coliseum in Rome. My friend pointed out that it is actually called the coliseum and it was modelled after the one in Rome. Well I guess they got the right point across then. I just think this is such a beautiful building.