Tim Tebow Super Bowl Commercial

There was a lot of controversy over the fact that a Pro Life commercial was to be posted during the 2010 Super Bowl. Fortunately, people are standing up for their right to speak out, and latest poles by CBS show an overwhelming majority of people saying “Yes, everyone is entitled to express their beliefs”. In no way is this commercial defaming, in anyway, rather it celebrates the life of a very popular and accomplished football player.  Thank You Focus On The Family for this!

Tim Tebow

A New Year

365 Projects are well known in the photography field.  Whether it is a landscape, abstract, or lifestyle topic, every area allow you as a photographer to grow in your skills.  Here’s a challenge set out – all can take part – it’s  free and and a great opportunity!  Here is a video link to check out more with the MA 365 Club Contest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4TWAlLQcW10

A fellow Canadian who has now been at this for Years!

Jeff Harris: 4,748 Self-Portraits and Counting from We Know Music on Vimeo.

If you are interested in joining my 365 Club Contest, here are the Rules:
1. Take a picture of yourself everyday. It can be with ANY kind of camera. (Be creative how you are "in" the picture. It can be a shadow, reflection, body part, footprint, anything that could technically constitute "you").
2. You must be in the picture.
3. You must push the shutter button, or a remote or timer.
4. Each image should be clearly and obviously different.
5. Post each image in my Michael's 365 Project Club Forum - CLICK HERE - You will need to sign up and we approve on an individual basis (it takes about 1-2 days). We do this to limit Spam and Bots.
6. If you miss a day or 2 it is ok, as long as you can catch up by the end of the weekend (Which I will consider to be Sunday Night). I don't want anyone quitting because they miss one or two days).
7. Remember, as busy as I am, I am playing with you guys. If I can find the time to do it, you can to!
8. This contest is to help and encourage you to grow and get better with your photography. I can promise you that if you stick it out, you will get really, REALLY good. Nothing will push you further and faster to learn your camera. We also want participants in the 365 club to help each other out.
9. Contest is open to ALL photographers of all ages. If you are under 18, you must have your parents permission. All they need to do is post with you the first time saying that you have their permission and they are aware of the forum, what/where it is, etc.
10. This is a family friendly effort. If you are mean, or post anything inappropriate, we will ban you from the forum.
11. You can quit anytime you like if you decide it isn't for you and no one will think negatively of you for it if you do.
12. Contest will end Jan 30 2013. You can start or enter any time before Jan 30 2012. If you haven't entered by then, the opportunity will close.
ALL Photographers who stick it out the whole year will get the following-
1. 16 GB Michael Andrew Leather or Bamboo Thumb drive
2. A $300 Gift certificate to my online store (Can be used towards , Michael Andrew Paintballer Pro Presets , Michael Andrew Lollipops ® Action Set! or any video, Apps excluded).
3. Arden Ward Photography will be donating her new Bridal and Portrait Posing Instructional Video- $100 Value, to ALL photographers who finish.

Happy Halloween

The Day After

The Legacy Centre Tour

Saturday, July 23rd, The Legacy Centre was opened at 4 o’clock for tours prior to the Grand Opening Celebrations.  The place was filled, and the smiles were everywhere.  The Legacy Centre was worth the wait.  Take a quick peak at the new Legacy Centre – with Arena, Community Hall, Library and Child Care Centre as you play the show below.  See all of the latest upgrades, from hydration centres to Dyson blade hand dryers.  A First Class Facility for Thedford and the surrounding communities.

PS.  For those getting married and looking for a hall, this is the place!  An amazing hall,

and a kitchen your caterer will love!

Sarnia Relay For Life

 

The Sarnia Relay For Life 2011 Event!  Once again there was a spectacular turn out with smiles in abundance!  The Legacy Lappers were out in full force (I proudly have to announce this since my brother Paul is part of this team )  along with some extremely creative teams – like “Kick Cancer In The Butt”!  Thank you to all who took part in this all night walk to raise money to fight this horrible disease.

 

 

Forest Relay For Life 2011

 

 

It never ceases to amaze me how such a small town comes together so perfectly for this event!  Such an amazing group of individuals, spending the night walking a track, no matter the weather - thankfully the rain only threatened briefly.  But it’s not all work and no play – there is entertainment and food for all!  It is a long dedicated night  though, as I write this, the walkers are still have another 5+ hours out there in the dark, walking, laughing, remembering…thank you for your selflessness as you participate in this year’s annual Relay For Life!

For more information please contact : The Canadian Cancer Society

Together we can turn Hope into a Cure!

 

 

 

The Kaeden Brown Foundation 2nd Annual Golf Event

The Kaeden Brown Foundation  2nd Annual Golf Event which will be held on June 24, 2011. They are also very pleased that our good friends Angelo Viola, Mike Miller and Pete Bowman from the Fish'n Canada Show will be joining us again this year.  Once again, we are committed to provide the utmost value to each and every one of you as we share a great day of golf and camaraderie in the memory of an amazing little boy.
Please be aware that we are offering all of last years participants first right of refusal, so we won't know if we have any openings until early April.
For More Information on how you can be involved, or take part in this or other events put on by The Kaeden Brown Foundation, please contact them at info@thekaedenbrownfoundation.com , and check them out online at www.thekaedenbrownfoundation.com

To Log In Or Not To Log In, That Is The Question

 

How many times have you gone online to order prints and you just want to get it done quickly so you don’t bother to login?  I know I’ve done this many a time, and many a time I have regretted my impatient decision to do so.  There are I’m sure pro’s and con’s to both – I’d be interested to hear your input – please feel free to leave your comments.  As for my thoughts, here are my “pro’s” for logging in:

 

1. If you realize later you actually wished you had ordered more of a certain picture, there is no need to find and upload the image again – simply login and order

2. If for any means you lose your original source, your computer or external drive crashes or worse – then your images are online and you can still print them off.

Evening Glow

 

I always enjoy seeing the sunsets from our home, and tonight was especially colourful.  A great night to get out and enjoy the weather…and the colours!

One Talented Hubby !

My husband continues to impress me with his talents!  This valentines day we will be celebrating 10 years since our first  official date with the purpose of marriage…which occurred only a few short months later.  And after 10 years, though I know him very well, he continues to break the mold !  Ralph AKA Ruphus, surprised me at Christmas with a coat rack that he designed and then then built.  Last night, the kids and I returned from swimming lessons to be surprised with the Amy and Bradley personalized coat racks!  So, I just thought I would show off my man’s handy work today on the blog (minus the coats)!  Thanks Honey!

                         

The Good, The Bad, And The Prettier Than Me!

We have a little tradition our family has developed anytime we head to Toronto – we meet up with Grandma Smiley and head on board a TTC subway for a “train ride”, and I take pictures and scrapbook them afterwards of course! Yesterday was one of these days, our ride was actually a very long one going from Kipling Station right down to the last stop on the new Rapid Transit line…and back again. Along the way we met 3 very nice drivers – and one... :(  The first two drivers were funny, I was taking a picture of my son by a train, and the one drivers laughs at the other driver and says, “here, take his picture, he’s prettier than me.” Later we stopped at the very end of the RT Line, no one was left on the train, and we were stopped for a few minutes before heading back, I quickly popped out to take a few pictures as the snow was really coming down at the point, and it made an interesting shot – this is were the driver gets on the loud speaker and tells me I’m not allowed to take pictures on the public subway…and then repeats himself. Now really, everyone has good days and bad days, so maybe this guy was having a bad day and was simply needing an outlet to vent, I don’t know, and chances are I’ll never know, but what I do know, is that his claim was absolutely wrong. Anyone taking a look at the TTC Bylaws will see that there is actually a by-law prohibiting photography and videography for commercial purposes, so what I was doing was in no way in the wrong. Just a heads up for anyone planning a similar outing with your kids…go ahead, take your camera, Bylaw 1.3.17 says you are free to do so, as a matter of fact, Bylaw 1.3.18 states that “nothing in this by-law prohibits the use of any camera…”

Now, I don’t want to end with me sticking out my tongue, and like I said the guy may have been having a really bad day – we all have bad days sometimes, but…there was one last driver I want to tell you about who we met before the ride was done. I don’t know his name, but I can tell you, he was wonderful to the children who got on the train, and at one point he was reamed out by a woman claiming he closed the door on her – ( in actual fact he had no control of the doors, that was someone else entirely), instead of arguing his point though, he apologized, explained the doors briefly, and then apologized again in a Very Calm and Kind manner. As a result, the woman apologized as well and was on her way. Again, maybe the lady was having an off day, who knows.  My point in this whole post however is this … actually two fold:  1^st - when you are working for someone, or a big company – your face is the face of the company – and on the job, or life in general - your attitude can be your own worst enemy. My second point is…there’s nothing that will turn away strife faster than a kind word.

We enjoyed our outing riding the subway yesterday, and are thankful for the drivers, ticket sellers and all those out there behind the label of the TTC.

*Images Edited with Michael Andrew’s Paintballer Pro Presets

White Out!

It’s been off an on white out conditions in our area, and not only did the children get a snow day from school, but my hubby couldn’t make it in to work either due to road closures – Yeah for me!

So, it’s a day for hot chocolate – and playing with the snow blower!  Earlier today I was blowing out the sidewalk and our son came up to me with his little blue shovel and says “Hello Mommy, you look like you could use a little help” – he got rewarded later for his hard word with a little fort by Daddy!

Photographer Gift Ideas

Just another gift idea for the photographer in your life.  Actually this is a bit of a double hitter but similar concepts.  The concept for the Strap Buddy is to use the camera strap that comes with your camera, I would say at least 90% of DSLR owners use the included camera strap, the strap that attaches on the top two clips of your camera,and rarely feels comfortable.  Black Rapid came out with a way around this with their RS-4 Black Rapid and special attachment.  Then they bettered themselves by coming out with the, Women's version, the RS-W1 that crosses more comfortably in the front.  Both of the products are fantastic, well built, and consumer friendly.  It’s a good concept, and the makers of the Strap Buddy seemed to have a similar idea, (though I can’t say I know much about their safety features like Black Rapid) creating their attachment, and supplying it, as a stand alone product.  The downfall of course comes if you are wanting to put your camera onto a tripod at  some point, you would need to remove the attachment button whether using the Strap Buddy or Black Rapid product.  On the up side however, the Black Rapid product does offers the user an easy detachable clip, several safety features, and a number of add-ons,  putting  the Black Rapid product way ahead in my mind as the product to get whether you are a hobbyist or pro. ….Stay tuned to see the product I would suggest ( after much research! ) for those who use the hand strap rather than included camera strap.

Compare Cameras For Christmas

If you are looking at picking out a camera for Christmas and are trying to narrow down the options to choose the camera that best suits your needs – Snap Sort will be a huge help for you.  Snapsort allows you to Explore, Sort, and Learn more about the cameras on the market.  Once you have narrowed your options down with the snapsort information, simply type in the camera models you are looking at and click “compare”.  You will then be able to view the detailed differences between the models and giving you the overall score to which camera is superior.  Snapsort.com

A Warm Sunny Reminder

This past year I had the pleasure of having the team John and Kerri of Heenzy Photography come on board during 3 of this years wedding.  Kerri does the post processing behind the scenes in this husband and wife team, and in October we finally met as we all went out for a few hours taking each others family pictures.  I thought today would be a good day to post pictures from a warmer, sunnier day !

  

Bubbles & Blueberries

A Big Glass Of Chocolate Milk!  Ok, forget the glass, just make it a bowl!!  Our bud loves his chocolate milk, so why not make it just a little more fun by adding in a straw for extreme bubbles?!                     f/4   1/1250sec   ISO 320 

Love His Blueberry Blue Eyes!!!

Remembering

All This Week on the blog I would like to post on our personal war heroes.
Please Send Me your stories and an image of someone you know or knew who has or is serving their country. Heather@capturedinnocence.ca

Grateful…

Back In Haiti

 

 

There was an announcement at our church this past Sunday regarding an upcoming mission trip to Haiti, it will likely to take place in March of 2010 – there is much to be done, and the devastation is everywhere.  The timing of this announcement was interesting to me on several levels, one of which was that recently photographer Michael Andrew has returned to Haiti for another stay to help out – this time it seems more in an area of food distribution.  To find out more about how Michael is being used in Haiti, check out his Michael The Maven Blog, or see the CNN iReports. 

My Classy Snap Pac

It has been quite some time in the making and searching, but the day finally came – I now have my own version of the shoot sac and after a few weeks of using it, I’m proud to say – it works Fantastic!!!. Yes, it’s true – I do like the Shoot Sac, but for reasons I’m sure you could figure out for yourselves, I chose to go a different route – and came up with my own version of what I have been looking for but never found.  Basically I wanted to be able to have on me at least one other lens, specifically while shooting weddings, something that didn’t get in my way, and it needed to look classy without standing out.  I thought through several different options, finally I decided to make my own Shoot sac using a neoprene laptop case.  During my search for the beginnings of my project though, I came across a bag that had a starting point for exactly what I wanted.  Once again it was a laptop case to begin with, but with a few alterations, it became my dream lens case – Yeah!  With some help from my professional seamstress neighbour Anne Marie, the case now holds up to three lenses easily while having very little bulk (it’s actually not as fat as the Shoot Sac which I like),  it curves around your hip stores my bounce card for when I’m not using my sto-fen, and has a great spot too for a carabiner style watch (I don’t like wearing a watch at a wedding-strange but true)  Currently I tend to keep 2 Canon L lenses and a 580 EX 11  flash with Sto-fen filter on inside of the pac , and then switch out the lenses for the reception allowing me to carry very little during each section of the wedding, and yet always have what I need.  That’s it, top it off with personal embroidery of your business logo, and you have one very classy looking lens pack!

Happy Anniversary My Ruphus!

Nine years ago today a wonderful change happened in my life – I married Ralph Edward Jennings – AKA – Ruphus, a name I’ve called him, after reading Romans 16:13 one Sunday morning - “My chosen in the Lord” This is also engraved in his wedding band.  The past 9 years have flown by with many wonderful changes and sometimes very sad times.  Nine years ago, we wrote our vows and said them to each other in front of family and friends - today I want to say my vows to you publically once again My Ruphus – I Love You, and I am so honoured to be your wife, thank you for changing my life in such a wonderful way!

Ralph, I believe with all my heart, soul and mind, that God has chosen you for me, and today in the presence of our family and friends, I give you myself.  I promise to love you unconditionally, to respect you as the man God has chosen for me, and joyfully obey you as you lead our home, desiring always to give honour and praise to our God because I respect you and your integrity. I come to you with my need for your strength, your understanding, and your tender care - needs you have so lovingly developed in me by completely filling them for me. I will strive always to be the friend and wife that you need, to be your helper, and complete you, realizing that our relationship is exclusive of all others and is permanent in the sight of God. I will be greatly honoured to be your wife. I promise this to you for as long as we both shall live, or until Christ returns to take us home together. 

Ralph, I ask you to receive this ring as a symbol of my love and as a constant reminder that I have chosen you above all others to be the one to share my life.