Colour in my Life

I chose Yellow because as a child, yellow was my favorite colour. That is why I set up a festive happy looking dish of ice-cream, trimmed with yellow candy, sitting on a yellow daisy background. Yellow is cheerful, happy, and festive.
When I chose Red I wanted to photograph a big red sporty Hummer. But when I drove down to the dealership where the Hummers used to sit, I realized their absence was because Hummer was recently sold overseas to China. So I located a big red powerful sports car to photograph. This car emits hot powerful Red exhaust! Okay, a bit of hot air, but Red is powerful! Next I chose Blue. I find water to be serene, calm and generally blue. I found this calmness outside my backdoor, down by the river behind my house. I just love the wilderness feeling I get when I walk down to the river, steps away from my computer, and the hustle and bustle of life. Then I chose Green, because it is so fresh and alive. The grass is green, trees are green ... trouble is we are into fall now, and evergreen scrubs are some of the few green things left until spring rolls around. I managed to locate a scrub green enough to photograph. For Harmonious Colour Relationship I chose a beautiful Yellow/Orange and Red sunset I captured off Waverly, behind the Humane Society Parking Lot, along a strip of hydro towers. It was rush hour and I had a hard time finding a parking spot in time to walk across the field in order to catch the sun just as it was setting. These warm colours blended so beautifully, so vibrantly, they made me feel so good that I was alive to witness their beauty! I chose Red and Green for my Complimentary Colour Relationship. The logo on the front of the nearby Canadian Tire Store reminded me of the red and green of the christmas season, sort of. The leaf comes from a tree and the logo looks like an inverted christmas tree. Besides, I like Christmas and I like Canadian Tire, so it works for me.

Walkabout

Earlier this week I agreed to volunteer photograph during a political fundraising dinner with hundreds of people packed into a ballroom to hear Micheal Ignatieff speak. They had arranged for a photographer to shoot during the dinner, which was good, because my husband and I were also paying guests. I'd be darned if I was going to let my pricey dinner get cold while I was shooting duplicates with a hired photographer. So I took shots at the Laurier Club reception prior to the dinner and during Micheal's walkabout, as he greeted supporters throughout the room. The walkabout was particularily challenging as I had to stay ahead, stay on the correct side of the supporters who collected into scrum-like groups, all waiting to shake hands and get their picture taken along side the Official Leader of the Opposition. The pace was very fast and I had numerious people try to stop me trying to find out where they could get a copy of their photograph. I told them, contact the provincial office or federal office for a copy. This was the first time I have shot my DSLR in automatic, with an external flash. I did so because I could not afford to be adjusting the setting as we meandered around the room at a fairly brisk pace. As a result I got a few dozen great shots, lots and lots of smiling faces and shaking hands in focus, and a couple of overly-exposed shots, where others were shooting flashes at the same time, resulting in images that were too bright to use. And then there were the shots I had to delete because of closed eyes or awkward expressions. All said and done, the experience was good, and I enjoyed the results.

Best to Forget

The morning after Remembrance Day I opened up the Winnipeg Free Press, and lo and behold, photographer Joe Bryksa had captured almost the identical image as I did of the roses at the Brookside Cemetery. I emailed him my images and in turn he replied with an invitation to accompany him on a shift. We selected today. I was to meet him at 9:30 am at the WFP offices. I got to the offices by the agreed upon time, informed the security desk that I had arrived, and was told Joe was not in. I then contacted Joe by cell phone, locating him at a homicide in Transcona. Apparently he had emailed me with a delay in plans to meet after I had checked for any emails earlier in the morning. Half an hour later I met him in a backlane near the suspected murder site. Joe invited me to take photographs, following the same guidelines that he and another photographer that had just arrived, had to adhere ... no crossing the yellow police line. I used my 75-300 zoom lenses @ 300mm, handheld at ISO200, f/5.6 @ 1/1000 sec. I was walking a few steps behind Joe, walking up to the other photographer, thinking to myself, "I had better get these settings right NOW, or else I would land up looking kind of studentish." It took about half a dozen instantanious attempts to get the right settings, as I was walking and clicking, then I got it, and was ready to shoot alongside the two news photographers.
Next we drove to another location to check out rumour that the TAC Squad (tactical squad) was still at a house in the north end of the city, but no squad in sight. Back to the office to check the command centre, where all notices come in and all assignments are assigned. Joe picked up some assignments for some images, we drove to St. Vital, took a shot of a house that had just been sold, for the Sunday housing section, then headed to South St. Vital to look for an extra image for the Sunday edition. As Joe was almost done his shift at this point, he was good enough to drop me off at my home before he headed back to the offices to retrieve his personal vehicle, and head home. And who was taking over the evening shift after Joe left for the day? None other, than a graduate of last year's PrairieView class. I also received an invitation to join him on another shift as well as sit in on an evening editing shift back at the offices. Both of which I plan to follow up on.

Lest We Forget

I attended the Remembrance Day Ceremony on Valour Road today. After the ceremony I drove to the Brookside Cemetery and walked along the rows upon rows of memorial headstones that mark the lives lived and lost by our Canadian soldiers. These people helped give us our future. The least we can do is to stop, remember and never forget.