Playing catch up, again.

I haven’t posted here in what feels like forever.

It’s now January 2010, and so much has changed. I work four days a week at a home/garden/feed/livestock supply/hardware store. I’ve worked there for nearly three months. Greg completed a math course at Kwantlen to allow him to get into their welding program, which he’ll be starting soon. He received 100% on his final exam.

I completed my Wedding Photography course at Focal Point in early December, though I still haven’t heard what my grades are, so I just emailed the school – again – requesting information.

Sugar is now on self board again, meaning I go to the barn daily to clean her stall and paddock, and feed her dinner. The barn owners continue to feed her hay throughout the day and supply shavings, hay, and the basics of her feed. She requires a lot of supplements, so I pay for those, but working at a feed store is convenient for that. My discount will be kicking in at the end of this month, when my 3-month “probation” period is over. We all laugh at that, including the manager – it seems so formal. But it will be very nice to start saving money on Sugar’s feed.

It’s been wonderful having Sugar on self board again. Seeing her daily is something I missed terribly when she was on full board. It’s much more convenient for me to go there every day now that I have a job with a regular schedule – I never work later than 5:30pm – and a reliable vehicle. I’ve mastered driving standard over the past couple of months, which is a great feeling, because for a while there I felt that it was something I’d never be comfortable with. It was challenging at first, but second nature now.

I wrote a “2009 in photos” note on Facebook that you should be able to view if you’re registered on the site. You can see it HERE!

I’m still working on my 365 project of course – today is 119. One hundred and nineteen days of self portraits. It starts to wear on you after a while but I’m so pleased with how it has turned out so far. It’s part of my daily routine now. You can view the project HERE!

Some highlights of my 365 since last time I posted …

365 Self Portraits.
Day forty one.
October 31, 2009.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Daily Recommendation:
Avoiding casinos. They’re gross.

365 Self Portraits.
Day forty five.
November 04, 2009.

I’m employed!
My interview was yesterday and they called 24 hours later to ask if I’d accept the position. So stoked!
My wage is more than I was expecting, too.

Just the right amount of hours, great people, a store I’ve been a customer of for many years because it’s awesome and has everything I need … I’m super pleased.

My portrait today has really nothing to do with anything. I just felt like dressing up.

Daily Recommendation:
Talihina Sky by Kings of Leon.

365 Self Portraits.
Day forty seven.
November 06, 2009.

School school school, photos photos photos.
Spent last night taking photos in the rain for my class today. Spent 9am – 2pm either in class, or in transit to/from class, discussing photos and photography as a business (including fun things like insurance and overhead …costs). Picked up my negatives, got back to Merissa’s, immediately headed to a house nearby to help her with her real estate photo appointment there. Stopped for lunch after, came home to her house, scanned all of my negatives, played with the flash, took portraits. More discussion. Got home, uploaded and labeled all of my film photos, and here I am, 12:30am – 15 hours of photos photos photos.

Basically, I love my life.

Daily Recommendation:
Banana peppers. On ANYTHING. More specifically, on a sub at the Pepperoni Cafe.

365 Self Portraits.
Day forty nine.
November 08, 2009.

Today I cut my eyelid while I was trimming my bangs. True story. It even bled a bit. But my bangs are adorable!

I went shopping for work pants and groceries with my mom this afternoon. We had salmon with lemon dill marinade for dinner, as well as spinach, corn, and yams. So delicious.

My mom is making us eggnog lattes. I’m hoping it won’t keep me up all night – first day of work tomorrow!

Daily Recommendation:
Reitmans. Seriously the best place to get adorable, well-fitting trousers – especially if you fit petites, like me! Nothing needs hemming, it’s a miracle!

365 Self Portraits.
Day sixty nine.
November 28, 2009.

I worked today and it was super.
I love working there. It makes me giddy when I think about it. I seriously lucked out.

Tomorrow Greg and I are going 4x4ing with a couple of friends. So exciting! I haven’t been 4x4ing since the summertime! There’s snow up where we’re going too. I foresee pretty photographs and fun times in my near future!

Today is the last day of this week of asking YOU questions.
So, what is your favourite warm wintery beverage – either homemade or from a certain coffee shop?

365 Self Portraits.
Day seventy one.
November 30, 2009.

This colour of blue is my very favourite colour.
I’m getting kind of sick of these tights shots of my face. I think the next few days will need to be full-body portraits, or something.
But I love the light in this photo. Weak winter sunlight is awesome for portraits. Soft, soft shadows.

365 Self Portraits.
Day seventy four.
December 03, 2009.

Check that out! Doesn’t that look spiffy? It’s my final assignment for my last Wedding Photography class, tomorrow morning – it’s my portfolio! It has fifteen 8x12s in it that I’ve taken over the last 10 weeks during our course. It’s so neat to see my photos so big and so … physical, I suppose. I’m really bad for never printing out my work, except for clients.

I snuck in an 8×10 headshot of Sugar into the photo order and put it in a frame I bought from work a couple of weeks ago. I love seeing my girl’s pretty face every time I’m in my room. It’s one of my favourite photos of her.

School tomorrow, a late afternoon and evening of free time after that (WHAT?! I know, right!), work Saturday, and then Greg will be hooooooome! I haven’t talked about it much, but I miss him like hell.

365 Self Portraits.
Day seventy five.
December 04, 2009.

Today is Greg’s birthday and I didn’t see him. It makes me sad. I hope that however he celebrated it, he had a good time!

He’s coming home tomorrow and I’m relieved. It’s one thing to be separated for a few days – before he moved in with me, we usually only saw each other on weekends – but it’s another thing to have absolutely no contact for five days. I couldn’t even get in touch with him if something was horribly wrong, or vice versa. It’s unsettling.

I went to my final class this morning. I’m sad that it’s over, but also relieved, because I feel so burnt out lately. I guess I can just be happy with the fact that I learned a ton about my equipment and about lighting, and my work has improved as a result. I also made some great contacts.
I’m considering signing up for another course through the same school – but we’ll see. It probably won’t be until spring at the very earliest.

I was rocking out to Puscifer in this photo.
Now I’m going to watch Fried Green Tomatoes and hit the sack. Work tomorrow!

Daily Recommendation:
Live It Out by Metric.

365 Self Portraits.
Day eighty one.
December 10, 2009.

I had a day off work today, and was able to sleep in until 10:30 – bliss, utter bliss.

Had a shoot today in Maple Ridge Park (where I am in my portrait) with a friend I used to work with, and her lovely dog Maggie. I just put the photos on my computer now and they’re adorable! I can’t wait for Sam to see them.

I’m editing photos, Greg is working on websites, there is snow on the horizon … it’s a cozy night

365 Self Portraits.
Day eighty four.
December 13, 2009.

It snowed SO MUCH!
Got up bright and early this morning to drive to Mount Seymour for snow tubing with Greg, Alex, Andy, Ben, and Karl, followed by lunch at the lodge. There was barely any snow on the ground when we left home in the morning – but upon returning, there was tons!

So Greg and I headed up to the barn to visit Sugar and marvel over how much nicer it is to travel in a Chevy half-ton in 4×4 when it’s snowing. Last year was a gongshow trying to get around – this year, it’s a breeze!
This is why I’m planning to convert my Ranger to 4×4 too … driving a super light little 2 wheel drive truck in the snow? Not fun.

See Miss Sugs in the background? She was having a grand time digging in the snow for grass. Such a goof.

365 Self Portraits.
Day eighty five.
December 14, 2009.

I stayed in my PJs most of the day, working on photo jobs. It was glorious.

365 Self Portraits.
Day ninety one.
December 20, 2009.

I took a Tylenol 3 for my back last night and went to bed at midnight. I woke up at noon today with a horrible migraine, took some Advil, and went back to bed. I woke up at 5pm and it was dark.
Craziness.

It took a few more hours after that to rid myself of the migraine. The only productive thing I’ve been able to do today is wrap two more presents.

This is our Christmas tree … and all of the presents under it have been wrapped by me. I love seeing all of the packages in different sizes and colours under the tree. Last year we didn’t exchange gifts, and the tree looked so lonely and bare. I would have been happy with wrapping empty boxes, just so it looked whole.

365 Self Portraits.
Day ninety five.
December 25, 2009.

Post-Christmas exhaustion. In our new PJs! Mine were too racy to frolic around in front of everyone without a hoodie on overtop. Apparently my mom didn’t notice that the flannel PJ top only had two buttons instead of the standard four …
Super comfy though!

I had a really, really great Christmas. One of the best I can remember, in fact. I worked Christmas Eve and therefore missed out on going to Greg’s parents for their dinner, which was disappointing – but I got to hang out with my parents and my sister that evening, just the four of us, which was something we haven’t done in a long time. No one was working, no boyfriends – it was strange!

We were thoroughly spoiled by each other on Christmas morning. We had a pancake breakfast, visited with Sugar, Darlene and Bob at the barn, and dinner went smoothly and was totally delicious. Great company too! The four of us were joined by Greg, Robert (my sister’s boyfriend, so stoked that he came!), my mom’s close friend Shirley, and Shirley’s new man, Michel.

I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful holiday!

365 Self Portraits.
Day ninety eight.
December 27, 2009.

Another totally chill day. I love the holidays.
Slept in and hung around at home this afternoon, then Greg and I went to Richmond to have coffee with his parents at Waves and watch the hockey game at the Buck with Andy over a pitcher of winter ale.
Tonight I played with my 42″ 5-in-1 reflector for my portrait. I love the gold side! It was a most excellent Christmas gift.

365 Self Portraits.
Day ninety nine.
December 28, 2009.

Best adventure day ever!
Had a 9:30am chiropractor appointment, then Greg and I packed some snacks and warm clothes and headed up to Whistler for the day.
We had a photo date <3 I shot a whole roll with my film SLR and Greg took a bunch of photos with my digital SLR. It made me all mushy inside. Yeah, yeah, I’ll shut up now.

We had dinner at Taco Bell on the way home (you can’t go to Whistler and NOT stop at Taco Bell in Squamish) and met up with Andy and his mom Carol at Bright Nights in Stanley Park. It’s my 21st year visiting the Christmas train. Haven’t missed one yet!

365 Self Portraits.
Day one hundred one.
December 30, 2009.

We attended “New Years Eve Eve” at the Blarney Stone on December 30th. The Town Pants played, an Irish rock band that we all adore. They’re awesome!
This is me and Alex <3
She’s adorable.

Why do I still have a tan? I usually lose it by October at the latest. Apparently my skin was extra-baked this summer.

365 Self Portraits.
Day one hundred two.
December 31, 2009.

Happy New Year, friends.

365 Self Portraits.
Day one hundred four.
January 02, 2010.

Let’s talking about something positive and uncomplicated, like my new laptop/netbook.
I bought it lightly used off of a friend for an awesome deal, especially considering the hardware upgrades he did to it.
It’s adorable – and it’s running Windows 7, which I’m in love with.

I’m feeling a little resentful towards humanity in general the last couple of days, so I’m taking solace in my new little buddy.

365 Self Portraits.
Day one hundred eleven.
January 09, 2010.

It seems lucky, day 111.
I’m sleepy. Looking forward to my day off tomorrow. I haven’t been getting nearly enough sleep lately.

I drove my truck to the barn and spent a few blissful hours there this evening, grooming and visiting with the horses and Darlene. It was a nice way to wind down after work.

365 Self Portraits.
Day one hundred sixteen.
January 14, 2010.

I took a few portraits in this setup with my reflector, and then realized that the setup itself was more interesting than the photos of my face. I could stay in this little golden corner forever.

wearing: My pajamas in my 365 portrait, as usual. It’s like I never get dressed anymore. I do, really.

makeup wearing: Nada. Just got out of the shower.

jewelry wearing: None at the moment.

hair: Freshly washed, partially wet.

eating: Drinking a Dole Sparkler in cranberry raspberry.

mood: Sleepy. Content.

in your purse: My wallet, Moleskine dayplanner, Twilight Woods lotion, comb, keys, various shades of lipstick and gloss, concealer, pen, hand sanitizer, phone, old receipts.

last watched on tv: Lie to Me.

last website visited: Flickr.

i need: Sleep.

i want: A few extra hours in my evening.

ate today: Copious amounts of coffee, a disgusting &quot;smore pie&quot; that Greg ordered at McDonalds when we got coffee, smoked salmon sandwich, veggie lasagna and french bread.

did today: Slept in, attended Sugar’s farrier appointment, cleaned her stall/paddock and fed her, went to my coworker’s barn and fed/cleaned up after her three horses, had dinner, had a shower, took my portrait, and now I’m about to watch more Lie to Me with Greg.

last things bought: Coffee from McDonalds.

365 Self Portraits.
Day one hundred seventeen.
January 15, 2010.

Today was long, long, long.
The sun came out, I saw it briefly; but I was at work, and it was dark by the time I got off.
It would appear that I spend a lot of time laying on my bed, wouldn’t it. Maybe I should take my camera to work sometime, or take my portrait during some other daily activity that is never documented.

A wave of 365s

Holy crap, it’s been a while!

I’ll start this post by updating you on my 365s since last time I posted …

365 Self Portraits.
Day sixteen.
October 06, 2009.

See that in the background? Yep, that’s snow.
Merissa and I went on a photo excursion to Manning Park to take photographs with autumn colours, but instead ended up finding snow. Autumn colours will have to be another day.
We climbed mountains, took too many photos (with five different cameras), put our backs out of alignment by carrying around so much freakin’ weight (WHY did we need five cameras?!), had a snowball fight, and made it back to Hope with only 3.5 litres of gas to spare. Oops.

I took this photo with my Speedlite at partial power. I love learning with this flash!

365 Self Portraits.
Day seventeen.
October 07, 2009.

At this time of year, I feel like I have to take advantage of every last little patch of sunlight that hits my body.

I saw this stream of morning light coming through my one small window in my bedroom (it’s a basement suite) and I dove for my camera and laid on the floor where the light hit. It was actually quite pleasant – morning light is so lovely. Generally speaking I don’t go out of my way to enjoy mornings. When I get up early, it’s because I have to – work, school, appointment, etc. I never wake up early just for the sake of enjoying what the morning has to offer. I also give myself approximately ten minutes in the early morning to get ready, and then hurry out the door.

It’s a shame, because whenever I do wake up early for a specific reason, I end up enjoying it greatly once I’m out of my sleeping stupor. Especially autumn and winter mornings where I live; the fog, the frost, the crisp mountains. This year I’m going to make a point of waking up early just for the sake of seeing it and photographing it.

365 Self Portraits.
Day eighteen.
October 08, 2009.

Today’s portrait pretty much sums up how I feel about life lately.
This has been the best summer and autumn of my life. It hasn’t been perfect, but I have felt so calm and content in my own skin, more so than ever before. I have photographed everything, met new people, experienced so many adventures, fell even deeper in love … my eyes and my heart are wider than ever before.
To quote my favourite Silversun Pickups song -
“Pull out the fear of silence
Put out the need for guidance
Put out your own devices
And don’t be afraid of the cold
Afraid of the cold
Afraid of the time
You’ve got no where to go but here.”

365 Self Portraits.
Day nineteen.
October 09, 2009.

One of my cooler self portraits from my 365 project so far, I think. I achieved this by setting up my camera and wide angle lens (Canon 50D and Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6) on a tripod on the beach with the sunset behind me. I had my camera on Manual mode, f/8.0, 800 ISO, 1/160 sec (and the self timer, of course). I set my Speedlite to fire at partial power, two stops below the default setting. I pointed it to the left of where the lens was facing, towards me, and at a 45 degree angle, reflected off the catchlight panel (the little white card that pulls out from above the head of the flash).
This is something I’ve just started learning how to do!

I couldn’t decide between the two images, so I layered them in Photoshop, brought down the opacity of the image on the right, and used selective motion blur to smooth out the lines.

This was taken at Mud Bay in Delta, BC. I wasn’t really inspired to take my portrait today. I took photos all day with Merissa on Thursday, and then (after four hours of sleep due to a stomach ache) went to class Friday morning to shoot for four more hours. After class was lunch (thank goodness) and then to a home in Richmond for, yet again, more shooting (for a landscaping company). By the time these activities were over I just wanted to go home, get into sweats and watch Veronica Mars. Thankfully Merissa convinced me to come with her to Mud Bay for our portraits and I got this result!

365 Self Portraits.
Day twenty.
October 10, 2009.

Off to see Gogol Bordello – a Ukrainian gypsy punk band!

365 Self Portraits.
Day twenty one.
October 11, 2009.

We couldn’t seem to get a nice photo of both of us, but we know we can always fall back on “grotesque”.

365 Self Portraits.
Day twenty two.
October 12, 2009.

This is what day one of swine flu looks like, folks.

365 Self Portraits.
Day twenty three.
October 13, 2009.

So this is what I’ve been doing the past three days. It is the most frustrating thing for me, not having the energy to get out of bed (or even stand up) for more than a few moments at a time, …when I have SO much on my to-do list. Taking my daily portrait has been the most challenging part of my day. It requires far more energy than I am willing or able to put out.

365 Self Portraits.
Day twenty four.
October 14, 2009.

You know your boyfriend loves you when:
He poses for your 365 with you, wearing his glasses because his contacts are out, at 11:58pm, when you realize you haven’t yet taken your daily portrait, you’re in your pajamas, you’re not wearing any makeup, and you’re supposed to be watching a movie together.

365 Self Portraits.
Day twenty five.
October 15, 2009.

My portrait is somewhat creative today! It must mean I’m feeling better. Also, I’m sitting up at my desktop computer, rather than in bed with the laptop because I couldn’t be upright without getting dizzy. It’s an improvement!
Due to this crazy swine flu business, I’m missing my photography class tomorrow. I’m pretty bummed about it.
My kitty has been on cloud nine while I’ve been sick. She’s a big fan of the hours I’ve spent in bed cuddling her and warming her with the hot air vent on the laptop.

My brain is in a codeine and Nyquil fog. I could barely write this in a coherent manner. Is it even coherent?

365 Self Portraits.
Day twenty six.
October 16, 2009.

Today I thought I felt well enough to join the boys for our original Friday night plan, before I got sick – watching the Canucks game at a sports bar in Richmond and spending the night at Andy’s house. Then I had a crazy dizzy spell while getting ready, followed closely by a rush of fever. Needless to say, I decided I’m not totally well enough for social events yet. One more day to recover, at the very least. Okay, maybe a few more.

Today I missed my photography class. It was depressing. Thankfully I was able to speak to the teacher and she knows I have the flu, and gave me an alternate way to hand in my assignments, as well as directions for where to meet next week (another field trip!).
So, this is me, plugging away on the assignments that I wasn’t able to complete this week thanks to being ill, and watching Veronica Mars, the tv show that has kept me sane during my week of La Flu De Swine. That’s probably nowhere near grammatically correct, so don’t quote me.

I even brushed my hair for this photo!

365 Self Portraits.
Day twenty seven.
October 17, 2009.

This is me, a photo of me taken just under a year ago, and an awkward reflection of my camera.
I recently developed a disposable camera that I’d been using for a full year. I didn’t plan it that way or anything, that’s just how it happened. It was full of the most random photos. On that roll was a few shots from this day, when I visited the beach by Greg’s old house (when he lived with his parents) during a snowstorm. I crossed off one of my life’s to-dos that day – being on the beach in the snow, of course!

I’m slowly recovering from that evil flu. It’s taking a while. I’ve developed a really raunchy cough. I have so much to do next week, it’s almost terrifying! So I’m crossing my fingers that I’m feeling better by Monday.

Also, can I just say, even if you aren’t a fan of the whole Twilight thing, you have to give the New Moon soundtrack a listen. It is stunning. Seriously!

365 Self Portraits.
Day twenty eight.
October 18, 2009.

I’ve been fooling around with new ways to border and crop my photos. I love my sister Lindsay’s squared off corners, so I borrowed the idea.
<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/leightsy”>www.flickr.com/photos/leightsy</a>

Still not 100% healthy. Getting there though. Definitely improving, other than the raunchy cough I developed yesterday, but it’s slowly improving as well.
Today I slept until 3:30pm. I was conked right out. This flu has taken literally all of my energy away. While I was sleeping, my mom sold Sugar’s rainsheet that no longer fits her, for $30. I offered to give it to her because she’d done repairs on the rainsheet for me, but she declined. My mom is too nice to me.

Greg and I decided to go to Starbucks for lattes after dinner, my treat, and while we were driving down a back street in his truck on our way there, we saw a car pulled over with a flat tire. Greg has a hydraulic jack and all the necessary tools for tire changing, so we pulled over and he put on the lady’s spare tire for her. While making small talk, he told her that I was sick and we were on our way to Starbucks for something warm to drink, and she gave Greg a twenty dollar bill and told us to enjoy our lattes. So, we got two Venti-sized Caramel Macchiatos, a box of Dad’s Goody Ring cookies and came home to watch “Into the Wild”. We both cried (shh, don’t tell Greg I told you).

365 Self Portraits.
Day twenty nine.
October 19, 2009.

Today I figured out how I’m dressing up for Halloween.
Usually I have this figured out at least a month or two in advance. This year, with everything else going on in my life, I hadn’t given it much thought until last week. My mom dug out some Halloween decorations and I pulled out the native costume my mom had made for my sister when she was 14 or 15, over ten years ago now. I wore it a few years around the age of 12/13, and won a costume contest in it in 2004 when I wore it on horseback with my pony Sugar painted up like a war horse.

The best part of this costume is EASILY the headdress. My mom has so much talent with costumes! I’m going to modify the rest of it a little for this year. Instead of wearing the fringe pants, I’m going to pair the tunic with tights, boots, and a loin cloth. I’m going to go for the scary war paint look on my face, too. Excitement!

I achieved today’s portrait with my camera on a tripod (Canon 50D), my wide angle lens (Sigma 10-20mm), my flash stopped down to -3 (Speedlite 580EX II), and a strong white lamp behind me to backlight the feathers.

365 Self Portraits.
Day thirty.
October 20, 2009.

Oh hi, paradise!
Also – oh hi, day thirty! Tomorrow, the 21st, will be exactly one month of this 365 project.
This is me this afternoon with my beautiful Sugarbear and Greg, hanging out in the field behind the barn. Look Merissa, there were birch trees here the whole time and I didn’t even clue in until today!

I got the most done today that I have in over a week because of the flu. It felt nice to be so active and accomplish a lot. I’m SO GLAD to be feeling healthy again, I can’t even begin to tell you!
I have a very exciting job interview tomorrow. Cross your fingers for me!

365 Self Portraits.
Day thirty one.
October 21, 2009.

Today I had a job interview that went super well.
I also went shopping at Army and Navy. I’ve wanted one of these hats forever.
Dinner and watching the hockey game with friends followed. Excellent day!

365 Self Portraits.
Day thirty two.
October 22, 2009.

Self portrait late in the evening, after a very wet but enjoyable visit to the Ghost Train in Stanley Park with Greg, Andy, and Kim, followed by dinner at White Spot.
I saw Lindsay’s beau Robert’s name on the artist credits wall.

These are the earrings that I wore. They’re epic and I drag them out every Halloween. In fact, I have a disturbing amount of Halloween-themed accessories.

365 Self Portraits.
Day thirty three.
October 23, 2009.

Oh boy. What a crazy couple of days.
Wednesday I was out from noon to midnight, Thursday was spent running errands all day (including TWO HOURS at the bank) followed by the Ghost Train, I got to bed at 2:30am, and woke at 7:30am this morning to get ready for class. Left the house at 8am, got downtown to the Library at 10:00am, and we spent the next four hours taking turns shooting a bride and groom (models) as lead photographer, assistant photographer, and third stringer. I was really stressed out and unsure about it, being that it was an awful weather day, I’d never been to the place where we were shooting (besides pass by on the street), I missed last week’s class due to the flu, and of course there’s always pressure when you have to &quot;perform&quot; as a photographer – plus it’s the only time in our course that we hire models to work with.

On the bright side, the models were incredible, the weather worked to our advantage, I didn’t have to shoot first like last time (I was outspoken about that haha), I spent a lot of time chatting with another girl in the class (she assisted me, I assisted her) and I feel like I’m making friends there, AND I’m very, very happy with my photos. Critical, as always, but happy.

So today I got home from school at 2pm, did a 200 question online quiz for that job interview I had on Wednesday, went to the auto broker with Greg to put the Ranger in my name and insure it, came home, got changed, put on makeup, and left to see Collective Soul downtown with Ben, Alex, Jessica, and Karl. Now it’s 2:40am and guess what – not sleeping yet!
I am so, so looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.
Life is busy, but … busy is good.

I guess (if you know me) you’re wondering why Greg’s Ranger is now in my name. Well, I’m selling my Accent to Greg’s mom – and buying the Ranger from Greg with the money from that sale. The Ranger is in my name now, and I’ve insured it, so it won’t be sitting in Ben’s driveway anymore not being used. Greg has his Chevy, so he doesn’t need the Ranger anymore, and now Greg’s mom will have the perfect car for her needs, I’ll have a rad little truck that’s great in the snow, handy to have, and super reliable – everyone wins!

365 Self Portraits.
Day thirty four.
October 24, 2009.

This morning I finally got to sleep in. Thank the lord.
In the early afternoon I went to Surrey to look at a car with my parents and Greg, for my mom. It didn’t pan out, but it was a good time anyway, and once we got home we spent a couple of hours outside putting up Halloween decorations. Decorating for Halloween is a HUGE tradition in my family, and since my dad has the first Halloween off in years, I’m trying to get him back into the swing of things.

Greg and I finished off the day over caesars and the UFC fight at our favourite local pub. &lt;3

I’m going to start borrowing Merissa’s “Daily Recommendations” idea to accompany my 365 portraits.
Today’s recommendation:
“Run” by Air. Listen to it here -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZT9t6oMBhI

365 Self Portraits.
Day thirty five.
October 25, 2009.

So sleepy today. Got up early, cleaned out and vacuumed the Accent (my car) because Greg’s parents came out today to buy it off of me (this is how I paid Greg for the Ranger I bought off of him). Went with Greg to Surrey, helped KC move a pink couch from Merissa’s house to an apartment at SFU. After Greg’s parents left later in the afternoon, I worked on my Idea Book for school, watched a couple of episodes of Veronica Mars (what else is new), and promptly fell asleep at 6:30, until 9:45pm.

I woke up about two minutes before I took this portrait. The leaf is one I found in my backyard today, it blew in from the neighbour’s yard. It’s approximately the size of my upper body.

Daily Recommendation:
Veronica Mars. One of the best TV shows I’ve ever watched. Funny, suspenseful, great acting, and Kristen Bell is adorable.

365 Self Portraits.
Day thirty six.
October 26, 2009.

This is me and Greg at Ghost Ridge, a haunted house they do every year in my community in a big ol’ barn on the fairgrounds, with proceeds to charity. It is SO GOOD, seriously – last year I thought it was even better than Fright Nights at Playland in Vancouver, which is the biggest Halloween-themed event in the city (and charges five times the price for admission).
I haven’t been to Fright Nights yet this year – that’s tomorrow night – but I hear they’ve hired a new guy and his team to make it the scariest in the country. I’m stoked to see how it compares to last year’s Fright Nights, and to Ghost Ridge! I love me some good gory Halloween scares.

Daily Recommendation:
Ghost Ridge, of course!
www.ghostridge.org

——————————————————————————

Whew, that took longer than expected. My 365 has basically become my blog … I don’t really feel much need to update this anymore, except for the occasional rant or to post my 365s.

You can follow my 365s on Facebook or at my Flickr account – http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaitikins

Happy October!

It’s been a few days! I have a bit of a photo backlog to post.

First, my latest 365s.

365 Self Portraits.
Day eleven.
October 01, 2009.

My portrait was not working out for me today.
I had a bad day because:
- My neck/upper back has been screwed up for a while but I’ve never done anything to fix it.
- On Tuesday I somehow injured my neck and was in severe pain by Tuesday evening.
- It felt better on Wednesday so I did some lifting which was a terrible idea because I could feel a migraine coming on by the evening.
- Today my neck is so hot and swollen that it feels like I’m wearing an electric blanket over my shoulders. I can feel fluid squishing around on my neck when I press gently on it and the surrounding area.
- I made a chiropractor appointment, but they can’t see me until Monday, three days from now.
- Today I’ve been living on Robaxacet and Tylenol with codeine, which has kept the pain kind of sort of (not really) at bay, but over the next three days I have a ton of driving to do and therefore cannot take those medications.

365 Self Portraits.
Day twelve.
October 02, 2009.

Today was my first day of classes at Focal Point (a photography school in Vancouver) for Wedding Photography. Even in the first four hours of this course (it’s 30 hours – ten weeks – in total), I felt like I learned so much and came away with so many things to think about. There are quite a few assignments but they’re all creative and fun, and I’m so excited for the workshops in which we get to shoot models dressed in wedding attire – in outdoor locations, no less!

After class, Merissa and I went on a photo adventure to an old cemetery in Fort Langley for our daily portrait. I shot my portrait with my digital SLR (and the shots of Merissa that I also have up here), but I also took a few shots with my dad’s Canon FTb from the 70s that he just handed down to me, and with the Canon Elan 7 that I just purchased from a friend for a mere $75. I’m going to have so much film to develop soon! The light was incredible in the cemetery, I had to experiment with all three cameras.

My neck is doing better today, but I can certainly feel the strain of the day in it now that I’m at home and relaxing. My chiropractic appointment on Monday can’t come soon enough.

365 Self Portraits.
Day thirteen.
October 03, 2009.

Kaiti says:
am I not the sexiest lumberjack you’ve ever seen?
merissa. says:
well…. you don’t have a beard…
Kaiti says:
… okay, sexiest FEMALE lumberjack
merissa. says:
hahahaha why yes, yes you are.

365 Self Portraits.
Day fourteen.
October 04, 2009.

October 2nd is my sister Lindsay’s birthday. On the 4th, Greg and I picked her and Robert up from her condo in Vancouver and brought them back to Maple Ridge for a birthday dinner with us and our parents. We visited the grandparents, visited the pony, drank wine and ate cheese, crackers and antipasto, then stuffed our faces with the amazing dinner my mom made, followed by the amazing cake. Oh my goodness.

This is myself, Lindsay, and Robert. Lindsay’s portrait from the same day can be seen below.

365 Self Portraits.
Day fifteen.
October 05, 2009.

Today I bought a Canon Speedlite 580EX II. I need it to expand my photography horizons – can’t do weddings without a flash gun! And I figured it would make a lot more sense to have it now and learn to use it effectively while I’m taking my photography course over the next 10 weeks, rather than purchase it right before I need it for a wedding. I should have it mastered by the time I NEED to use it.
Spending money from my savings bond is stressful, but I’ve had so much interest about my future wedding photography already, that I feel confident about upgrading my equipment. I’ve already booked a wedding, and have another in the works! Fingers crossed!

This is Greg and I sitting in front of the garden my dad put in this spring. I can see it from my bedroom window. I bounced the flash off of the side of the house. It’s a little underexposed. I have so much to learn about effective flash use.

—————————————————————————–

I guess that sums up my past few days pretty well, actually!

Like I said, I’m loving the wedding photography course, and I’m already getting started on assignments that don’t need to be handed in until 2-3 weeks from now. I’m just so eager! And it’s so much fun!

I’m overwhelmed by my new flash, but tomorrow Merissa and I have a date with each other, our Speedlites, and our manuals. We’ll be champs by the time we have our portrait workshop on Friday (I hope).

A photo I took of Greg tonight with the Speedlite, bouncing the flash off of the garage door behind me:

Such a fox!

And he took this one of me -

Not quite as foxy, but oh well.

Some photos I took of Merissa on Friday after class, at the cemetery in Fort Langley -

This one above is an outtake from my 365 portrait of the day. I’m channeling my inner lion.

And these were taken the same day as my lumberjack self portrait on Saturday …

This same day, we wandered down to the Haney Wharf to watch the sunset with our beverages from a locally owned coffee shop that I’ve newly discovered and absolutely adore – and all three cameras (I took photos with the Canon FTb, the Elan, and my digital SLR).

The digital versions (Greg took the photos of me) -

And lastly, the birthday dinner we had at our place on Sunday for Lindsay.

Lindsay and Robert … aww.

My mom made this amazing cake from the same recipe that Merissa and I used a few weeks ago on our bake date – except my mom used cherry ice cream and put cherry jam and liqueur between the layers. Mmmm!

Lindsay seemed to have a really lovely birthday. I know the rest of us had a great time <3 It was a super day with the fam.

My life has been revolving pretty much solely around photos lately between school photography stuff, work photography stuff, my new adventure in film photography, and just my general interest in photography itself. I feel like all I do is take pictures, edit pictures, and read about and talk about techniques. I love how many photo adventures are in my life right now and I’m loving how much I’m learning and growing – but I wish I was better at balancing everything in my life. The weather is gorgeous right now and I have no time to ride my pony, it’s really bringing me down. Tomorrow I’ve already dedicated to a day of photo adventuring with Merissa and our Speedlites with the goal of mastering flash techniques. I’m going to try my best to ride Wednesday AND Thursday, if I can manage it. I visited Sugs briefly on Sunday with Lindsay, Greg and Robert, and realized how much I’ve missed her over the past week.

On the bright side, Sugar is being ridden and loved by Kelly’s boyfriend Derek. Kelly used to part lease Sugar, but now owns her own mare, who is also boarded at the same barn as Sugar. Derek is getting into riding himself, and gets along famously with Sugar – so he’s riding her a couple times a week, and giving her lots of TLC. She’s lovin’ the extra attention and she always looks so clean when I visit her!

Autumn is Busy.

My two latest 365s:

365 Self Portraits.
Day nine.
September 29, 2009.

In my hand – chocolate covered espresso beans. Which I’ve consumed far too many of. That’s probably why I’m standing on my bed instead of sitting …
Spread out upon my bed are the handouts from Merissa’s past photography classes, which I’m studying before our first Wedding Photography class on Friday.

Also, I just put up that shelf behind me and I love it in that spot.

365 Self Portraits.
Day ten.
September 30, 2009.

Today I went out with my mom for the afternoon for a day of shopping.
We hit up Payless, various clothing stores in the mall, Ikea, etc. I got these boots (pictured) that I’ve been lusting over, on a BOGO sale <3 If you don’t know what BOGO means, you’re obviously not female! It’s buy-one-get-one (in this case, half-off).

I also got a battery for the built-in light meter on the Canon FTb that my dad gave me (pictured in my hand). We’ve spent some time the past couple of nights going over the features. It’s very different from my digital SLR, as you can imagine – but a lot of the elements are similar, so that makes it easier for me to understand and pick up. Now I have to wait for daylight and take some test shots! It’ll be a hugely exciting day when I get my first roll developed.

Behind me is a painting by someone in my family, a great-aunt or something like that – I can never keep track. It was in my grandmother’s house when she passed away and when everyone was deciding what art of hers they wanted to keep, I fell in love with that painting. For now, until I have a house of my own for it to live in, it resides over the loveseat in my parents’ living room.

I had a migraine yesterday morning, and I feel another one coming on now. It sucks.

————————————————————

Tomorrow is Thursday and I have a lot planned so I’m hoping my migraine, sore neck (probably the cause of the migraines, I messed it up somehow), and general womanly misery that just threw another wrench in there, won’t prevent me from following through with them all. At Ikea today I got a $20 clothes rack (like the kind you see at fashion shows behind the scenes), a hanging shoe organizer and some transparent garment bags. I packed up all of my summer skirts and summer dresses into the garment bags and hung them on the rack, which freed up a lot of room in my wardrobe (for the clothes strewn all over my couch with nowhere to live). I’m also hanging my jackets on the rack – so they won’t live strewn about the front hallway anymore.

Anyway, I have to reorganize my closet for winter wear, and hang up all the clothes living on my couch. Then, I have to settle in and do some reading/studying on the material I need to familiarize myself with before the first class at Focal Point on Friday morning. If I have enough time after doing that, I have some photo work that needs to get done (but will probably need to be pushed until Friday after class) so it can go up on the client’s website this weekend. I also need to do my daily portrait of course, but I don’t think I’ll have the time to be nearly as creative as I was hoping. Thankfully, there’s always tomorrow. Then by 6:30pm I need to be downtown to meet Merissa for a gallery opening (it’s a photographer Merissa really likes, I’m looking forward to seeing his work!) and a letter writing club (complete with typewriters supplied). And then get a nice early sleep so I’m awake and refreshed for class (and the trek there, which will be a hefty commute) by 10am!

Of course, this is all hoping that my body behaves and I don’t wake up tomorrow with a migraine and an even more kinked up neck, which is quite likely. Le sigh. Must make chiropractic appointment …

Friday – class, photo editing work.

Saturday – Photographing a backyard in North Van (perhaps not until next week, depending on the home owner’s schedule), and whatever else comes up.

Sunday – Lindsay, my sister, is coming over for her birthday dinner.

Next week – Planning to take advantage of the sunny weather we’re supposed to get, and get in some good riding time on Sugs. I’ve missed her this past week. Also, if I don’t get a call soon for an interview after the 30-some resumes I’ve sent and handed out, I’m going to start knocking doors down next week.

I know all of this is terribly boring to read, but writing it here helps me gather my thoughts and keep track of what I need to do. I hate living in chaos and my blog is just another way of organizing and recording my life. Helps me sleep at night. Speaking of which, MUST GET MORE SLEEP! Goodnight!

Okay okay, one more thing. See this guy? Best sleep aid EVER. The soft ticking he makes over on my mantle puts me to sleep in no time <3

Oh hi, autumn.

Life got super rad and amazing recently. I’m not sure what did it or why but I’m not going to question it, because it’s … well, rad and amazing.

I’m now enrolled in Wedding Photography at Focal Point, a renowned photography school in Vancouver. I’m doing the course with Merissa and we’re aiming to market ourselves as a wedding photography team starting in spring 2010. Two modern, outgoing, knowledgeable and creative ladies – twice the talent, twice the perspective, twice the variety. One could shoot film, one could shoot digital – or both film, or both digital, or whatever combination the client is looking for.

Class starts this Friday and I couldn’t be more excited! Ahh! I didn’t have the prerequisites required to take the course, but I challenged beginner & intermediate photography and passed, so I can move on directly to Wedding Photography and other advanced courses, if I choose to take more next semester.

I haven’t pinned down a job yet but I’ve been applying like a madwoman. Today I applied to 15 jobs within London Drugs (photo development, photo equipment sales and cashier) in Mission, Maple Ridge, Coquitlam, New West, Langley, and Burnaby. I also applied to Zellers, Danier Leather and Wireless Wave.
And I saw this just now:
Shoe Warehouse, Maple Ridge (FT/PT), please apply in person.
So I’m going there tomorrow! That would be rad to work in a shoe store … though I guess for my career’s sake I should be hoping for the photo development and photo equipment sales over the shoe store. But oh, the shoes! The bags! Can you imagine? I LOVE Shoe Warehouse.

Speaking of shoes, I saw THESE BOOTS on the Payless site today and died inside. They are absolutely everything I’ve been searching for in a boot for this fall and winter and such an awesome price, too. Trouble is, I don’t have $40 to spare on boots until I get a new job. So I offered up my slave labour services to my mother and I will be grocery shopping and doing housework all afternoon tomorrow so I can get these puppies. I am so in love with them …

But yeah, it would be pretty amazing to have a job with consistent hours and actually be able to pay for my own crap.

Merissa and I had a date today. We spent some time at her place and then drove over to the park around Burns Bog to take our 365 portraits for the day (day eight already!). Here’s the day from my perspective:

365 Self Portraits.
Day eight.
September 28, 2009.

Merissa and I had yet another date today. They’re becoming a regular occurrence and I’m quite glad of it <3

We trekked into Burns Bog in the rain for photo-taking and took cover under an overpass with this amazing graffiti. Photoshoots ensued. She did her portrait here and I did mine, and then we took rad photos of each other.

To top it off, upon returning home I challenged the Focal Point (photography school) Intermediate Photography course to get into the Wedding Photography course, and passed! Merissa and I will be attending the course together starting Friday and I am SO stoked!

And from Merissa’s:

Kaiti came over for a date today that involved me giving her my photo notes, matcha frappes and of course, photo taking. We’re pretty much dating now, which I have no problem with. <3

I really wanted to get outside to do my portrait because it’s been such amazing weather and all the ones I’ve done lately have been inside – but of course it literally rained on my parade. As soon as we walked down the trail to where we were going it started to rain – but it wasn’t so bad because this area with graffiti happens to be sheltered from the rain and I had told Kaiti about it so that we could shoot here down the road but today ended up being the day.

And speaking of Kaiti – girl is phenomenal! She borrowed my photo notes to challenge some courses at Focal Point so we can take Wedding Photography together this term and called without even going over the handouts and basically rocked it, enrolled and we will be back in school starting this Friday! Get stoked, and start planning your weddings!

My outtake from today’s portrait that I couldn’t help but post because of my adorable trench that I rarely get to wear -

Some randoms I took -

And lastly, my previous two 365 portraits I haven’t posted here yet -

(This is what I wore to Mike’s show, The Saints Collapse – and I bought one of their posters that the vocalist, Jesse, illustrated).

This one was fun to do and I’ve had a lot of nice feedback.

That’s all for tonight! Time to hit the hay!

Brasstronaut

I’ve been having a rough couple of days. Stress, unavoidable hard choices, foreseeing even harder choices on the horizon … messy space, no motivation to clean it, creativity, nothing to do with it.

It’s odd, too, because life has been really resonating with me lately, bringing me exciting opportunities and I finally feel like I have a really solid, really awesome plan for my immediate and distant future. Maybe all this negative emotion is just my PMS talking.

I’m irritated and sad to be home alone on a Friday night when I thought I’d be doing something else entirely, but it’s forced me to get some important things off my to-do list, and I got to spend some time with my mom … so that’s always good.

And now I’m blogging, at 11:30pm on a Friday. AWESOME. But I’m blogging about a good day I had on Wednesday, so that’s alright.

I met up with Merissa downtown and we took the bus down to the beach, grabbed iced chai lattes with soy and talked about business plans, cameras, lenses, photography in general, and of course the latest gossip/drama.

It was sweltering hot, and the beach was crowded with people in summer clothing, men with their shirts off, women in bikinis, sweating on the grass amongst the fallen autumn leaves and long fall shadows. So surreal.

We played tourist …

We then took the train back up to my sister Lindsay‘s neighbourhood for dinner at a restaurant called the Whip with her and Malloreigh. Dinner was followed by a glass of cheap white wine at Lindsay’s condo, and then we made our way a block over to the Biltmore Cabaret for the Brasstronaut show.

Brasstronaut is a local band and I’ve been sitting here for a few moments trying to describe their music to you, but I cannot. I went to their site to see if they had any write-ups about their sound and their genre that I could share here, and the most appropriate thing I found was this review:

HEROHILL:
http://www.herohill.com/2008/09/reviews-brasstronaut-old-world-lies.htm
“Brasstronaut is almost impossible to describe as a band. Not because their sound is so different that it defies classification, although to be fair, there aren’t any bands that combine sounds the same way they do. No, it’s more that they use so many familiar elements and styles on their four song EP, that words sort of lose meaning….”

If you have a few moments to listen to their stuff, you won’t be sorry. And if you ever have the chance to see them live – you MUST! Their CD release party is going down in February ’10, and I think I may make that my 21st birthday event.

365

Merissa and I each started a 365 project.

The goal: 365 self portraits. One a day for one full year.

You can follow it HERE.

My first 5 days:

Some in-progress 365s definitely worth a look:

Merissa

Lindsay

Malloreigh

Amanda

Miranda

Anna

Zory

And a couple of finished ones for inspiration:

Lex

Carly

Coreena

Bake Date

Merissa and I had a baking date on Monday. I arrived at her place at around noon, armed with my digital camera (for documentation) and film camera/lenses/ancient instruction manuals (to try to decipher).  We had a lunch of poutine (which I recreated the following night for dinner with my parents) and bengal spice tea, then started on our baking project of the afternoon - Ice cream cake (but not like you think). Click here for the recipe!

Because of the stupidity of the template I use on this blog, when I post photos hosted on Facebook, part of the photo is cut off (it’s too large for the template). When I post things from Flickr this doesn’t happen. So annoying! Unfortunately these photos are only posted on Facebook, so it’s going to happen again. I recommend viewing this post in your RSS reader. If you don’t have one, I apologize for the too-large photos in this post!

Now, let the baking adventure commence …

Step one: Empty cake mix into bowl.

Add a caption

Merissa and I baked a cake! Or rather, she baked and I took photos. And stirred a bit. September 21 2009.

Step two: add three eggs.

Step three: add one cup of water.

Step four: retrieve ice cream from freezer.

Step five: spoon a pint of ice cream into a bowl and let it sit for a few minutes to soften.

Step six: check the recipe site to make sure you’re still on track.

Step seven: spoon ice cream into cake mix with eggs and water.

Step eight: mix thoroughly!

Step nine: coat your pans in butter and cocoa powder.

Step ten: pour mix into the pans and bake!

Step eleven: remove cakes from the oven and let cool.

Step twelve: ice your cakes.

Step thirteen: admire and eat.

Some other randoms from our bake date …

(These next photos are from Merissa’s camera!)

This camera was my dad’s. I inherited it to hone my film photography skills.

While discussing my great need for a haircut and what my options were, Merissa let it slip that she’s quite comfortable with a pair of scissors – so I told her I wasn’t leaving until I got a haircut.

And finally …

I LOVE my new bangs! And my new layers! Huzzah!

And now:

Merissa’s top three quotes of the day.

“I hate it when old people aren’t mature.”

“I hate it when smart people can’t spell.”

(While cutting my bangs) “Okay I’m putting the scissors near your eye, so be careful!”

I love the beach in autumn.

Today was such a beautiful autumn day, I couldn’t stand the idea of spending it inside, despite my piles of laundry and clothes that require organizing. So after a lunch of waffles, blueberries, maple syrup & whip cream, Greg and I jumped in the car and drove to Jericho Beach.

Greg took some photos of me …

And I took some photos of everything else.

I also took a few photos with my disposable camera that I’ve had going for almost a year now. It should be an interesting series of photos when I get it developed!

I miss film … I’m going to clean my dad’s old manual film camera that he gave me, load some film in it and take it to the beach with Merissa on Wednesday.

September Hiking

As I’ve mentioned a few entries ago, I’ve taken up running with Greg on the dikes by our place. We’ve both been trying to be more active even on the days when we don’t go for a run. The other night we did sets of push-ups and sit-ups before bed; today we went on a hike in the UBC Research Forest. According to the map, the route we chose should have taken 1.5 hours, but we did it in 50 minutes.

Greg admiring a little lake/large pond – whatever you want to call it!

We’re matching! And no, not on purpose.

We saw this crazy shiny beetle …

Greg wants to do the Grouse Grind on Saturday, but I’m not sure if I’m up to that yet. I’m undecided!