Monday, December 31, 2007

Xmas Tree Balls


This was the reason I traipsed down the road in the first place. The brightness from the other shot over does it, and although I like that one too, this one was the reason I wanted to try out my new tripod and see what I could get. Frozen fingers and all....

Happy New Year's Everyone! Happy Blogging.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Dark was The Night


Thought I blew this shot, looked waaaay tooo bright. But on full screen at home, definition of tree came out and I just kinda like it. Better than the darker ones, which are still cool...just not the same. Posting this one for now, might drag one of the others up later on.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Snow...blanketing the world


This one was taken in FEb of 2007, so not this winter. It was snowing like a demon, wet sticky stuff and I went traipsing outside with camera in hand, and flash on mostly. Love the shots I got, this one is kinda cool, you can see all the raspberry canes, each and every one.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Classic.....


In mum's arm's safe and sound, content.

I call this the 'Hairy Eyeball" look


Just caught it in time, before it was gone...the Look!

Big Sister Rachel, with Christian


Love kids...music for life, and equipment for entertainment, all balled up in one glorious little package. Rachel came in for a gentle kiss as he was sleeping, and of course I got it...Can't replace that with a memory.

Such small hands, such an open future....


Hands fascinate me, the shape of them, the fingers, the lines of life on them. Even babies come 'pre-pressed' in thier hands lines. Faces may be wrinkle free, but we don't call them wrinkles on hands do we? Little fingers, little toes, little life just starting out.

Christian Alexander William Ambroziak


No words needed.

Amber and Christian...1 month old


Good lord!!! Went over for a visit, to see Amber, and the 3 kids, including the newest member, Christian. He's just over a month old here. Man, babies are hard to resist, and I took tons of pics of him, with everyone, including my 2 daughters, who just loved him!

And of course, the best pose (by accident, turns out to be out of focus, damn!)...and of 249 pic's I took in less than 2 hrs, I tossed 109, and of the 140 I kept as decent pic's, only 32 made my best cut. This is one of my favorites. I have a couple other's I think I'll post too. Amber said it was ok to post them.
He's holding up his head, sort of, so the wobble factor is there...hard to focus on him when he's always on the move too. Sigh...

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Only Shallow spot, ..hey...what's that!


The 3 pups weren't too sure what to do with themselves. The snow was super deep, we'd just had 2 ft of snow drop. The found a shallow place right near the house, also a touch of elevation, so they can see what's going on. Looks like something has caught thier ears? Hey Jude, Jade and Jersey Girl....what'sat?

Standing in Line





Several of the candles, sort of in a row, on our tree.
Plus reflection in the print on the wall too.

A Candle in the Wind....


Our Christmas tree each year, cut only a few days before the big day so that it is the ultimate in fresh, is dressed with candles on Christmas eve, as we do our presents.

Of course for safety, we test the tree to make sure it hasn't dried out too much, and most years we've been able to light the candles. They last abt 1.5 hrs then self snuff out. This one caught my eye, as a runner, not normally happening on these, started to peel off and fall slowly down the candle. I grabbed my cam and snapped as carefully as possible...and without flash.

I hope you like it, as I do. There was a touch of air movement, as the fire in the fireplace demanded its oxygen, the candle flames bend that way a touch.

Frozen in Time...


Fitzgeralds, in Almonte, is a rather interesting structure on it's own. It has 5 sides, rather than the traditional 4. It's on the main street in Almonte, right near the falls at the hydro generating station. The falls are a place of fascination for me, they provide so many amazing views, any time of year. This building gets loaded down with spray frost in winter on the water side and looks unbelieveable, every balcony edge, every surface, loaded w heavy 'frost'.
This, however, is on the 'away from the water' side. It is a close up of part of the grape vines that grow on the building. From the downspout rigging above and around it, the vines are heavily laden with ice, almost as if freezing rain had had it's way with them.
These are at eye level and were really easy to get the shot, although it was hard to decide from which way to shoot and what was the 'best' pic for this inspiration.
Oh well, enjoy!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Shed a little Light ......

Amazing the difference between some ambient light and a flash. Flash blew it completely white, no flash of course waaaaay too dark...
Fiddled with a desk lamp and made my own custom situation. Shadow's entered the picture, and for some reason, I just like this one! And yes, you might be able to see it, there is a touch of glitter here and there on the petals. They are Christmas flowers afterall!

The Table was Set...a Glorious Meal for Everyone


Presented for our enjoyment, a 'sea' of deviled eggs....taken at close range, you can almost taste them!!


My daughter loves these little big guys, so I made them to bring to our family potluck for Christmas!

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Focus Please...Focus Everyone!!!


And did one on purpose out of focus of the whole tree. I love the effect of the lights as almost pompoms of light, the rest of the tree disappears.

I focused on the tree from about 3 inches, then backed up abt 6-8 ft and snapped the shot. I know it's out of focus, that's the point!! LOL

Little touch of the Past...sort of


Tried a few close pic's earlier in the night of the small tree too. Got one of one of mom's gold disco balls on the tree.

Merry Christmas to One and All...Peace and Joy of the Season


Wishing everyone the very Merriest of Christmas's, and Happy Holidays with family, friends, loved ones of all sorts. Time to count our blessings and revel in the joy of giving of ourselves to another.



Family was fantastic this year, as always. Plenty of joy shared and spread around among us all. Mum found a gem of a gift for my brother and I, and we each got a tripod for using with our identical camera's! (Panasonic DMC-FX07) I set up immediately and snapped off about 40 of the tree and family while it was on the pod, totally oblivious to everything else in the room...sigh.


So looking forward to traipsing around now with my pod and capturing those images I couldn't get in the past, or improving one's I've tried to take and have not been happy with yet.


Also (handy having a brother who does computer animation and fiddles with images all the time), got a short lesson on the tips and tricks of some of Adobe in order to fix/play with pictures and make them into some really neat stuff! Now I have to sit down and play myself and see what I can accomplish. Very cool!




Sunday, December 23, 2007

Winter Leaves the Most Interesting Bits for Us


Winter always seems to leave the most unusual and interesting things for us to see in the oddest places. Ice being something solid yet fluid, is always fascinating to me.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Dressed for the Occassion




Was in Carleton Place last night for our monthly girls gather. Enjoyed some time in the packed to the gills Thirsty Moose. Wing Night as well as the game on the big screen...boy it was loud! Saw several friends too who are often there, so able to wish best of the season to lots of folks too. It was a bit later that I left last night, closer to 10 PM, and the street was fairly empty, so I pulled over and caught a few snaps of the lights down the center street. Something I've been promising myself to catch one night, and now I have.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Just a Touch of Frost


The falls in Almonte are a great spot to catch build up of frost thru the winter. This is from last year, after several fairly cold days and nights. A touch of spray and a lot of cold air, built this layer by layer on the branches. I have some neat shots from this day, but believe me, my fingers were freezing trying to get the shots it was so cold!
Sometimes we go to odd extremes to get the pictures we want!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Christmas Train 2006




This shot is from last year's Christmas Train as it set on the tracks in Almonte. The concert had already been played and we were walking back to the car. As we walked under the rail bridge, we saw the whole of the front of the train just as you see it now. Several other folks stopped to get pic's too. My camera batteries were dying, and it was deadly cold too, so with a hope and a prayer, I took 2 pic's. This one is nicer, without the flash. Sometimes you never know what something will look like til you take it, then it just jumps out at you.


Monday, December 17, 2007

Survival of the Strongest...shovel!!


Shovel for perspective, it's deep....really deep!
This is taken in front of my minivan this AM.
Not much else to say...we are plowed/shovelled/blown out now, so can get out to the world.
Hope everyone else had the same luck, freedom now, and don't need to watch out for the 'evil' snow plow driver who is itching to fill your drive back up with snow!!
LOL

Sunday, December 16, 2007

3 ft high and rising....


As of 345 PM this afternoon, the snow was up to my 12 yr old daughter's hips...and that was in the driveway where it had been totally clear before this all started!

Here's a pic of the snow drifted between the van, woodpile (under tarp) and the truck (a full size F150)... Beautiful form, but so high!

Keep telling myself, I love Canada!!!

That and did you know it's still technically FALL til Dec 21??

And 60cm is 2 ft...either way you slice it, its a LOT of SNOW (notice that's a 4 letter word? hmmm)

LOL Have a good one, hope you can dig yourself out of where ever you got buried today!

Saturday, December 15, 2007




Simple morning, waiting for the bus, this was a light dusting of snow on the tree's across the road.

Friday, December 14, 2007

TGI friggin F!!!...Long week...

Back to work this week after being layed up for 2 weeks being sick...one thing after another! So glad to be feeling better finally. Fav song just showed up on the radio, and I turned it waaaaaay up and boogied off to the other room to share in my joy with my family...who kinda looked at me as if I had 2 heads, grinned, one said "guess you're feeling better??" and I boogied out of there again....
Can't appreciate good tunage! LOL Oh well!! I AM feeling better finally.

A Small Start Today




A small space online. Not going to be in it all the time, but decided to grab a spot and add to it as the mood fits. Hoping to post some pic's here too, ones that I take around the area.

This one is sunrise, right outside my bedroom window. No filter's, just mother nature showing off.