World Wide Photowalk

I know Scott Kelby's 3rd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk took place more than a month ago (24th July) but i thought i would sit down and write about how i felt about the challenge i gave myself for the day.

This year i signed up to participate with the group that was led by Bruce Clark and the general area we would be doing our walkabout was the campus grounds of University of Alberta. I've never really walked around the university before so this was a good opportunity to explore the campus grounds. Not too long after i had put my name and signed on for this photo walk, i looked through my photos on my Flickr account and thought to myself - "Hey, I don't really do well with shots of buildings do i? All my shots seem to be inspired by people and nature." So i issued a challenge to myself, that on the day of the photo walk i will NOT take photos of people and nature. I will take photos of the buildings and architecture. Ohhhh .... i was immediately beginning to regret this decision as i really do not get inspired by erm... buildings.... I can admire the design but they don't really translate when i point my camera at them and shoot.

So the day came and honestly i was REALLY excited to be part of this photo walk. It was nice to see familiar faces as well as meet new ones. Bruce gave a short introduction and after a group photo with everyone, we set off in different directions. I found myself walking alone for most of the time, bumping into some of the photographers every now and then. As the walk progressed, i found myself getting more and more frustrated that i couldn't seem to get inspired by my surroundings and that i was really tempted to go back to my comfort zone of shooting nature and people. I kept saying to myself over and over again - "Just shoot, you never know what you will end up with." So i kept on shooting. The good thing that came out of this 'just keep shooting' attitude saw me playing and fiddling around with different angles and manually zooming in and out while the shot was being taken. Figured if i didn't get any decent shots it was still good practice for me.

I bumped into Sarah (Bruce's wife) a couple of times too and on the 3rd time she asked if i had found the old Arts buildings and of course no i haven't because i had gotten lost. So once i got pointed in the right direction, i high tailed over to the old Arts building as i was told it had some really nice architecture. At this point, i was close to giving up and feeling really dejected that i was probably going to end up with nothing i feel i could show for. But i was going to give the buildings one last try before i call it a day.

When i finally found the old Arts building, i could see why it would serve for some inspiring shots. I set about taking some window shots of some of the offices that had flower pots on their window sills, the intricate design on the top of the building, the creeping vines, etc. Then i sat down on a bench in the shade to get a breather as well as look through the hundreds of shots that i had taken so far and did a quick review of which ones get tossed and which ones get to stay. When i had gone through my photos i looked up to survey the area around me one more time to make sure that i am not missing anything of interest before i was going to walk back to the meeting spot. Suddenly, this red balloon at the end of the steps into the building caught my eye. Instantly i thought 'I'll take one of those self portraits of myself in the balloon taking a photo of me taking a photo of the reflection of myself!' Heh. Of course the wind had picked up the moment i had walked over to the balloon and pointed the camera at it. Great just my luck. Not going to get a good shot but oh well, lets try. I snapped. I reviewed the photos. I snapped again. I reviewed the photos again. As i looked at one of the photos... WHAM!... Inspiration! Why not try and capture the reflection of the old Arts building on the red balloon! So for the next 5 minutes i stood patiently under the hot sun clicking every chance i got trying to capture the reflection of the old Arts building as the balloon was blown around. Finally after about 100 shots of the red balloon, i walked away grinning from ear to ear. I said to myself 'That's it! My favourite shot of the day! Am done!'. I was feeling rather pleased with myself for taking a shot that i like.

And you know what ... that shot of the old Arts building's reflection on the red balloon....

was chosen as the winning shot of the group's photo walk. *grin* A little personal best and achievement.

Guess the moral of this story to myself - Never give up. Keep trudging on. Or 'Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.'

Childhood Toy

We finally got the AC serviced today. Even though it didn't make much of a difference to the amount of cool air blowing through the vents (think 1970s central cooling system design... a 3 bedroom condo air-conditioning unit powered by just two fans). The technicians needed to get to the fans without risking any damage to any of our property, so they had us remove anything that was on the top shelf of our walk-in wardrobe. So while i was wiping the dust of the many Royal Dalton figurines before Hubbie placed them back on the shelf, he pulled out this lil wooden container of children play blocks.

The story behind these blocks - they were a gift to Hubbie by my FIL. He had painstakingly cut these blocks one by one from 2x4s, sanded, painted and lettered each block by hand. Wow! Hubbie hopes to pass this toy onto our children and if they don't take care of this precious toy that their grandfather had lovingly made for their father i'm going to whip their lil tooshies.

Dawn's Beauty Shot

While Hubbie was cooking breakfast, Dawn decided to perch up on the ledge of the window in our bedroom.
Had my camera within reach, so decided to take a few close up shots of Dawn.
Surprisingly, she was very cooperative. Here are some of the shots.