my boy

Dylan and Mommy.

4 1/2 years old.

Yup, I could keep doing this forever.

It makes my heart happy when he initiates stuff like this.

Nature is better than therapy.....

Peaceful, Green, and Vibrant. 

 What a lovely way to spend an afternoon. 

 I could literally spend all day doing this.

Rather than photographing the whole train, I decided to do just train bits...interesting parts.

Vegreville

Our travels on the open road took us to the small city of Vegreville where you will find lots of Ukrainian folks and the worlds largest Ukrainian egg.

That's my boy, in yellow standing  under the giant revolving egg.

 Now we can say we've been there.

Found a bit of info on it on the internet.

Material: 

Aluminum Permanently anodized in gold, bronze, and silver.

Number of Pieces:

Star Patterns: 524
Triangular Pieces: 2,206
Visible Facets: 3,512
Nuts and Bolts: 6,978
Internal Struts: 177

Weight:

Aluminum Skin: 2,000 lbs
Internal Structure: 3,000 lbs
Base: 27,000 lbs

Dimensions:

Length: 25.7 feet
Width: 18.3 feet
Highest Point from Ground: 31.6 feet
Over 12,000 man hours of design and fabrication were required to develop the structure

Wide angle images, and a little help needed....

I LOVE the wide angle lens for capturing landscape.  One of my favorite things about Alberta is the big sky. This lens does a fabulous job capturing the big blue sky, and fluffy clouds.

I have another image similar to this, I like the composition of the other image better, but I'm struggling with blown out over the top white clouds that I can't for the life of me fix in photo shop or light room !  

Here is the image.

Anyone have any suggestions to help out ?

(keep in mind, i'm going out on a limb showing you my errors and my less than perfect image, which is not easy to do, so pls be nice.  )

I'm more happy with it in b/w but still not happy enough

new lenses, new challenges

I've been a bit spoiled lately with new new lenses.  I've gotten two new, a wide angle, which I've  been desperately longing for, and a new all purpose telephoto zoom.  In fairness to me, they haven't been big splurges because I've gotten them for awesome prices, which makes me very happy.  

We were out on one of our adventures this weekend and I took the opportunity to try out my newest lens.  Pretty happy with it, it's sharp !  It's taking a bit of getting used to with how far away I have to be from my subject.  My previous favorite lens, and probably one i'll always love is my 50 mm which has me at a different proximity to my subject.  More practice needed with this lens, but so far, happy with this purchase.

These are two of my son on a disused train track.  I do know with one hundred degree certainty it is no longer used.  I personally wouldn't shoot on a track that had even minimal usage.

I love the first one here, my son looking so happy and carefree.  And the second image, his killer smile.  

Edmonton city view.

I will be back one day without a child in tow

On a day when there are storm clouds 

or a day with a fabulous sunset.

I love to drive back roads and find interesting old structures.  I always find it interesting what time, weather and lack of care has done to them.  I'm sure they all have stories, stories of how long they have been abandoned, stories about the people who lived there, and why they left.  

Having just moved back to Alberta, but to the Edmonton area which is an area that I'm not overly familiar with, my family and I went out sightseeing.

We were in search of old buildings, interesting scenery, and both the beautiful, and the deserted Ukrainian churches that seem to be a staple in this area.

It was also a great opportunity to break in my new wide angle lens.

I am still in awe of how much you can get in your image !  There certainly is a learning curve when trying a new lens, but I think this one is going to be a very fun lens.

Here are some of my captures from this trip.

I love this len's ability to capture Alberta's big sky.

The image below is actually using my 50mm lens, but the others are the wide angle.

This is an old church near Mundare that apparently there is talk of burning down.  It sits next to a cemetery on a range road all alone.  I wish I would have seen it before the windows were boarded up.

And near Vegreville, this abandoned home with an old fridge out front.

One of the things both my husband and I adore, and missed about Alberta is the big skies, and the beautiful clouds.

Ohh those eyes !!!! 

Tonight's snack, Ice Cream with smarties, with a side of

4 year old attitude.  :)

In the shadow of the Calgary Tower sits downtown Calgary.

And in the window, sits a fascinated little boy

I have a bit of an addiction to knit/crochet wear since becoming friends with Sarah Horracks at The Whole Knit and Caboodle.  I'm always asking if she could make stuff for my son.  And myself.  And my house.  And just recently for myself again, and for my husband and my in-laws.  Sooo needless to say, I have a LOT of her stuff.  

And why not?  It wears well, especially on my son, we ALWAYS get compliments, and quite frankly, she's some sort of guru who can do anything when it comes to yarn.  

I asked her to do a snowman hat for Dylan for our Christmas photos.  Life intervened, and I never got to take the photos with the hat.  Despite this, Dylan has worn it many many times, and like I said, always gets compliments.

Finally before the snow is gone, and he can't wear it anymore I got a few images.  Of course I'm partial because she's my friend, and he's my boy, but I think the hat looks amazing.  

 And then, right before we moved I HAD to request another that I fell in love with.....

Thanks Sarah, we always love our stuff from The Whole Knit & Caboodle

My Favorite Images from 2012

Some of my favorite images from 2012.  Let me start it off with my very favorite one of 2012, and then the rest are favs in no particular order.

The pure happiness of this one makes it my favorite image of 2012

You'll see that people dominate my favorite list, because they are my favorite subjects.  So if you let me take your picture in 2012, thank you .

And the best one that makes me laugh and smile is this fun one.

It was all in good fun.  

:)