Forty Years In The Making Of My Life

I started to do lot of experimental photography with stills. I don't have lot of good objects around the house to experiment except plants, fruits or vegetables, or baked stuff. The above are orchids I took photo of few weeks ago. The orchids were against the window with lot of back light, but by playing with exposures I was able to get this beautiful effect. The best photo yet I took of the flower, and I was able to use it on the Easter cards I created for my family this year.

So what is forty years in the making of my life. Well today I turned 40 years old. All I can say I am happy. There were good things and bad things in my life. So what is the secret: I choose to remember good things, and the bad things I choose to learn from. Hopefully I can have another 40 good years ahead.

'Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.' ~ a quote by Mark Twain.

Everything Has An End

Winter ends, spring ends, summer ends, fall ends, snow melts, rain evaporates. I can go on and on. They do end yet they come back. Cycle of life, we call it.

Now, my camera Canon 20D finally took its last breath on February 21st after probably just over 100 thousand shots. It happened to get the continuous shutter clicking syndrome which happened when I took it outside for photographing (-15C at least). Reading about it I found that my shutter is definitely gone. Should I replace the shutter on the 20D, or this must be a coincidence because I been having a big temptation to get the 7D? May be its time for an upgrade. However, I had a plan for two cameras, because I just hate changing lenses (and getting dust), and I wouldn't mind having at least two lenses always ready to shoot. I might see, may be if I get good price on 7D, I will repair the 20D also.

Here I am leaving you with one of the last photographs I took with my original 20D. We still have winter in effect, but hasn't been that cold, and as I will be missing out on the photo shooting for few weeks, I know that winter will be back next year.

Self Portrait Dissected

I am back. My mistake, I just noticed date and cannot believe its been already a month since my last post. I am enjoying my summer with Matthew as much as I can (2 years and 3 months). Still hot and humid, but its better than nothing.




Today I am going to showcase something I found recently on my point-and-shoot camera. Let me give you a little clue - hundreds of other pictures on my point-and-shoot are like that, many of them are pictures of me (dissected of course); and many of toys.



Yes, these are pictures of Matthew taken by Matthew. The moment he did learn what camera was capable of, and the one time he saw me taking photos of objects around - Matthew been also taking pictures (since one year old). Not to mention he really listens to our instructions - to put strap around his wrist and not to cover the flash.



But there is more, Matthew also figure out how to get into settings and menus - something he refuses to listen. Few weeks ago we went to the zoo. It was first time for Matthew, and it was first time for me to find out that he changed the setting on my camera to the lowest pixel size. Well, all I can say to have something is better than nothing. I am sure other things been changed too. I almost killed myself for the pose not knowing that he set the timer to 2 seconds - yes we have too many toys around.

Hope everyone is enjoying summer, and winter in some cases. Soon kids will be back to school. Sometimes I wish I was going too - just thinking about all the cool school supplies children can get these days.

Beating Summer Heat In The Pool

We were beating summer heat in the water, until we all got sick. Unusual spring and summer this has been. We seen it all. I remember early spring was strange, one day we get temperature over 25°C and the next day hardly 10°C. Now temperatures have been soaring over 33°C and with humidity we were in the 40s. So I complained about winter being cold and not being able to get out for adventures - well now its summer and I am sheltered inside as well. Going outside its like walking into a furnace.

For a while we have been beating the summer heat with a splash of water and sprinkler on our backyard. Until, Matthew picked up something from someone, and when he played in the water in the next round, in a matter of time he started to loose his voice. Since we are living together, it spreads, next was daddy and then mommy me got sick.

As you can see we got Matthew a small pool for a few bucks to try it out. I couldn't believe what kind of moves he was pulling in it - diving, swimming on the belly, splashing. First time and all that. I guess he must have seen it on TV. This is a best time to take photo of children when they are having lots of fun. They are so natural, and because they want to have fun, they don't care about the camera. I even was able to ask him to smile, and he did it.

When was time to come out the water, and we all know that kids don't know when to stop. 'Matthew time to go' - I said. His reply was, 'Mommy mommy get camera, take pictures Matthew'.

Digital Postcard Series: Beautiful Savannah Sparrow

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Facts About Savannah Sparrow [Passerculus sandwichensis]
Savannah Sparrow was named for the city in Georgia where it was first spotted. Some live in the grassy marshes and wet meadows, and this is where I spotted this little beautiful bird. I was lucky to get few pictures before my son Matthew scared him away by calling 'Birdie, birdie'.

Camera Settings
Canon EOS 20D, 400mm, f/6.3 at 1/320s, ISO 400

Geographical Location
Aurora Arboretum, Auror, Ontario, Canada.

NOTE: Digital postcard copyright My Only Photo. Digital postcard artwork by My Only Photo. Download for personal use only, and ask for commercial use. To download full printable size - click on the image, then Save as. File size 4x6 inches [800x1200px], @ 200 dpi. Picture hosted at Atpic.com.

Who Is The Artist?

'If one really loves nature, one can find beauty everywhere.' ~ by Vincent van Gogh

Another beautiful day and discovery. Nature will always find a way to show off her beauty. Today myself and Matthew went out for our usual one hour plus exploration walk around the subdivision. As he was looking for his friends and calling anyone his size a friend - 'Hi friends'; I was looking for things nature will let me to take snapshot of. Sometimes, it is just the same thing over and over again, but then these grooves on the side of the curb caught my eye. It rained last night, so all the earthworms were out. They found a way to slide close to the curb on the soft wet sand. Not knowing, they created a nice abstract art work, a work I am showing off today.

'Art will never be able to exist without nature.' ~ by Pierre Bonnard

Good Luck Horseshoe

Last fall we took Matthew to the Puck's Farm to see farm animals. Funny what kids choose to like. The only things he thought were funny to him were cats. As we quickly zoomed through the farm, was saw all kinds of animals like ducks, geese, roosters, chickens, sheep, horses, ponies, emus (I didn't even know they had those on the farms in Canada). They also had one cow for milking display purposes, and she wasn't looking good either. I said we zoomed because it was cold, even inside the barns.

As I was taking pictures I noticed this painted over horseshoe on the wall as shown on the photo. I remember that, I said. We used to have one in our old house. As a matter of fact we used to have one even on the side of the house, not just a barn. I know that horseshoe was always for good luck, but what I didn't know was that pointing upwards is for a good luck, and pointing downwards is for a bad luck. Pointing downwards means that the good luck will fall out (sounds like barn Feng Shui to me). Now, that is funny, because who would ever want to place the horseshoe facing downwards if it means bad luck - definitely not me.

Well, well, now that I recall - our horseshoe hanging on the house was facing down. Did we have bad luck? And why was it upside down? I don't think we did. I know its normal that people get sick, die, or leave the house as time comes - these things happen, and its all part of life. It was simply down because we just didn't know, but we had to have the horseshoe anyway.

It always amazed me what we choose to believe in. Few years ago, my co-worker came to the office. She is excited, and says to us - I got to play lottery, I am so lucky. We all amazed how excited she was. We asked - why? She replied - on my way to work, just as a pulled out the drive way, a tree fell behind me. It missed me by few seconds. It was a big tree also, and potentially could cause lot of damage to her car, never mind probably very dangerous to her too. Did she ever won the lottery? No, her luck was that she wasn't hit by the tree.

Now let me leave you with this quote by R. E. Shay, a something to think about: 'Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit.'

Spring Transformations Experiments - A Red Bean Seed To A Green Plant

Have you ever wonder - I always do. Let me tell you about my recent spring experiment (yes I am waiting patiently by creating my own small gardens in the house). In the jar I placed some cotton and water, placed two red bean seeds (my dry food supplies) and exposed all to sun light. Then I observed - germination (same thing I observed when I soaked my peas or beans for too long). Then I observed bean sprouting, unfortunately only one of them. The roots formed and grew into the cotton for the stem to grow freely with support. On the other side of the shell, the stem with leafs unfolded. All this from a red bean, the water and the sun. A beautiful transformation.

During the seed germination, the growing plant absorb nutrients from the seed, then once the roots are long enough they draw additional nutrients from the ground (but not in my case). Once the roots are fully formed, they are also able to draw water. But where do the extra cells come from? Not just from the water?

Plants with a help of sun energy absorb the carbon dioxide gas and release by-product well know oxygen. The carbon molecules form plants cells. Sun in addition helps to form other nutrients for the plant. All this with a help of sun energy, a process also called photosynthesis. So this is my simple explanation of the simple transformation from a red bean to a green plant you see on the photo. There is more to it, but if I go into all the details this post will be a botany lesson. On the side note I attempted to do the same with onion and quinoa - not very successful experiments. Barley, chickpeas, green peas are next (smile) - or what ever I will find in my pantry.

Let see how far will my plant grow. If I am successful and it starts flowering I may have some beans. I am glad that I do not need any honey bees or insects to pollinate the bean plant. Beans have self-pollinating flowers. Lucky me, because I do not want to be attacked again by an army of flies - something that happen to me few years ago.

However, as I see this red bean growing in front of my eyes. I yet wonder about many things.

I wonder. How does the red bean knows to produce a another red bean, and how it knows to have roots, then stem, then leaves, and then flowers? How does it know to die after few months of working hard, and grow back again from the produced seed? And how about the seed that been packaged and stored in the sealed plastic bag for months, yet after being exposed to water it is able to produce a plant. It is all part of the genetic code, just like a computer code. I guess programming was very well known before we even existed - I guess? Just in a different form. Who in the world orchestrated all this? How? Why?

Tough questions but then by the end of the day, we just have to say what Frank Lloyd Wright said: 'Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you'. And I will add: 'Photograph nature'.

Digital Postcard Series: Baltimore Oriole @ Toronto Zoo

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Facts About Baltimore Oriole [Icterus galbula]
Apparently, the Major League Baltimore Orioles adopted their name and team colors from Baltimore Oriole species. And about the bird, the Baltimore Orioles build their nests on branches that are far away from trunk of the tree. Even though it is more visible to air predators, it is harder for the predators like squirrels to get into their nests.

Camera Settings
Canon EOS 20D, 400mm, f/6.3 at 1/320s, ISO 400

Geographical Location
Toronto Zoo, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.

NOTE: Digital postcard copyright My Only Photo. Digital postcard artwork by My Only Photo. Download for personal use only, and ask for commercial use. To download full printable size - click on the image, then Save as. File size 4x6 inches [800x1200px], @ 200 dpi. Picture hosted at Atpic.com.

Digital Postcard Series: Melting Athabasca Glacier, Rocky Mountains, Canada

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Facts About Athabasca Glacier
There is already a lot said about Athabasca Glaciers. However, you may want to know that Athabasca Glacier will not be with us for a long time. It is sliding with gravity and its melting as much as few centimeters per day. May be another 100 years. But it will be forever with us on the photographs thousands of thousands people took. You also may want to know, that the current melting water is the purest water known, but again, the most recent snow falls are carrying lot of pollution, and it may not be anymore. Athabasca Glacier is the only glacier that you can actually walk on, and guess what you could be standing on something that is hundreds and hundreds years old; and can melt in a matter of minutes once you pick a piece of it.

Photo taken at Athabasca Glacier, Columbian Icefields, Canada.

NOTE: Digital postcard copyright My Only Photo. Digital postcard artwork by My Only Photo. Download for personal use only, and ask for commercial use. To download full printable size - click on the image, then Save as. File size 4x6 inches [800x1200px], @ 200 dpi. Picture hosted at Atpic.com.

Digital Postcard Series: Canada Goose In Canada

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Facts About Canada Goose [Branta canadensis]
It is believed that there are as many as 11 different races of the Canada Goose. The Canada Goose often is called the Canadian Goose, however, in the ornithological standard this name is not used. Canada Geese are named for Canada even thought they can be found all over the North America. For the local people Canada Goose is a very common bird and we tend to ignore them most of the time. For foreigners this bird can be very exotic. Just imagine a Japanese visitor chasing our geese with a camera. I didn't have to, I saw it.

Facts About McKenzie Marsh, Aurora, Ontario
Photo taken at McKenzie Marsh. Located in Aurora, Ontario, Canada [44°1'8"N 79°28'1"W] on St. John's Sideroad between Bayview Avenue and Yonge Street, McKenzie Marsh is a man-made pond that evolved into a beautiful marshland full of many different bird, animal and insect species, one of them - Canada Goose.

NOTE: Digital postcard copyright My Only Photo. Digital postcard artwork by My Only Photo. Download for personal use only, and ask for commercial use. To download full printable size - click on the image, then Save as. File size 4x6 inches [800x1200px], @ 200 dpi. Picture hosted at Atpic.com.