My favourite TV Show

To keep with the 30 day challenge.... my fave TV show definetely Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Secondly...
Vampire Diaries (I have a vampire theme going don't I...) namely Damon. He is my soul mate. It's unhealthy how much I love him.

Person I have been closest with the longest

Ms. Frances

Taken at my 17th birthday party. We've been through....well, a lot. She's always my solid rock for comfort and laughter and I believe (hope) I'm the same to her. Honestly, don't know what or where I'd be without her.

Fifteen Facts

Will be doing a "30 day photo challenge." Every day (maybe some random photos in between) post a photo with a different meaning and I will explain! First, a photo of me with 15 facts.(photocred: Caitlynn Fairbarns, Summer 2010)

1. I adore photography - hence the start of this blog
2. I love to write - poetry, short stories. Many of them are random, maybe just a sentence or two but it really helps me get out what I need to. I write them to myself and don't plan for anyone to read them.
3. My favourite colour is and always has been purple though I am leaning more towards red recently.
4. I am majoring in Human Rights, minoring in Women & Gender Studies and I adore it.
5. My motto is everything happens for a reason.
6. I saw a psychic a couple years ago and she told me I was going to die when I am 84.
7. I often have a guard up, I find it hard to be honest with other people.
8. My sister is my soul mate and my best friend.
9. Current obsession: Vampire Diaries.
10. I feel the greatest need and desire to travel around the world helping people and taking photographs. It's not even really a question, it's going to happen and needs to happen.
11. I am very determined.
12. I am very reserved. To some I come off shy but I'm not really.
13. I drink on average 1.5 pots of tea (orange pekoe) a day.
14. I don't believe myself to be a great or even good photographer. I just love it so much that I can't stop. I won't lie, I do love hearing "oh, i like that" but thats not why I do it, I do it for the sole reason that I can't stop.
15. I believe in ghosts.

Ode to my grandfather

On Dalhousie, Ottawa, near the bridge to Hull.

OK, is it just me but I love this building.
I love architecture. I get it from my grandfather. My grandfather, Paul Sears, was an architect. He died four years ago. I don't know about you and your relationships with your grandparents, but I adored my grandfather. He was smart, reserved (but still added in his smark remark to the conversation), and so so talented with art and sculpture and architecture. Every time I'd be there he'd be working on a new project, sometimes several at once since he'd get distracted.
Once he had to make a cover for an outside outlet and made a tiny house for it. A house to cover an outlet. Amazing, yes.
What got me thinking of him was first this photo, and that I went into his workshop (attached to the house he built for my grandmother). I took this photo mostly because I love colour, I love the blue colour of the door and the yellow hydrant with the blue top at the right side of the frame.
Secondly when I was visiting my grandmother last week I went into his workshop. And really everything is exactly the same. I was overcome with love, appreciation, gratitude. For everything he had taught me, given me. The workshop is still, of course, a complete mess. Random scraps of wood on the ground, tools still in place as if they had been used yesterday. It really reminded me of a still photograph. I opened the door and its as if nothing had changed; still the old dusty air, cold pavement, tools well used. Honestly I started getting emotional. I don't want to say you don't know what you've got until its gone. Because I did know what I had, I just wasn't aware of his impact on my life.
I know that if he were here he'd love to see my photos, comment on the architecture in them (since I find I do take a lot of photos of buildings) and explain to me how they are made, structured. Then maybe he'd go into a quiet pensive mode, look out onto the field, and retreat to his workshop and create something cute and miniature. He loved miniatures.

Some Holiday love...

The Bay in the Rideau Center finally has up their christmas/holiday stuff. Lovin it!
So here are some pics to satisfy your holiday craving too...

Potential jointer

Update.... jointer on my wall now!

Allo! Long time no post...
This was taken outside an OttawaU building. I have more that go around this to make a mini jointer. Those of you who know me know I loove jointers. Jointers are a series of photos taken which when you put them all together make one big picture.
Jointers can be of still life or get a little more complicated like this. I discovered them in grade eleven from my photography teacher. I just really love them because they can add complication to what would be a simple photo (like the second one) and a chopped up version of life. It can add more life and movement to your photos without doing a longer exposure.
This type of photography originated from David Hockney.
Here are some examples of my favourite Hockney photos: this one, and this one, and this one.


And now for something completely different... (Monty Python reference...)

Buttons!

What I like about candids

They're random, fun, spontaneous.
Especially with film, you really never know what will come up until it does. The moments are real, you just captured and pin pointed a moment in your life that was random. Maybe boring, maybe not. But it's real.

Happy Belated Birthday!

We decoed our house for our halloween party. I was a flapper, Eilidh was Snooki, others included sexy ladybug, safari man, doctor, convict, peter pan, tourist and waldo.
On another note, it's NOVEMBER FIRST the countdown begins to my birthday (13 days) and christmas (55 days).
My lights are already up:
and my holiday music is playing!