Tiptoe

This is a song that Marian [Matt's mum] used to sing to him as a child :) 

By Helen Shapiro  

Female Bikers

Thats what I will be shooting tomorrow morning. Lots of them, its female biker day.

Anyway, I wrote a smashing post but it got deleted by my PC rebooting. Why?

me: microsoft knows!!
the pc just rebooted by itself and there was a message from bill gates
Matt: um, what?
me: 'oh, can we like check your computer for any pirated copies? would love to, thannx'
Matt: hehe

Here is another cat picture! Wheeeeee! 

Cats

Incredibly funny videos.... happy stuff to celebrate the sun coming out over frigid canada.

Keep it loose

Today I was finally getting up to speed with all the shoots I have been doing for the last week. This was my shoot for Outside Looking In, fron SNAP Downtown. 

And tomorrow, I'm shooting the Barenaked Ladies! 

Now, here is a cover of one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands [until their latest album] 

The Killers - Romeo and Juliet 

Weekend warriors

This weekend was exciting. On Saturday I shot a wedding, and while I was away Matt decided to sneak a giant grill into the apartment with his mum. Its my birthday present [happening next week, whoda thought]. 

The wedding was small, private and it was a hot, very hot day. I'm still stunned I managed it, and hopefully it will lead to more. 

On sunday we also went to get an ironing board, a deep fryer and assorted other things from canadian tire. It doesn't sound like much, but ite exciting for both of us because we're both foodies. 

Our list of appliances: 

Toaster oven 

Blender 

Electric wok

Family-sized hotplate 

Rice cooker 

Sandwich maker 

Microwave 

Electric grill 

Deep fryer 

What a home :) 

Outside Looking In

From Pixel Oracle

Absolute Trust

How many women let their husbands do this?

Retouching

Post production is the bane of every photographer. In some cases its fun to give a client a third arm or make something disappear, but you soon realise editing is the exception, not the norm. 

When you take 500 photos of people dancing, you end up with 500 choices multiplied onto themselves. You could straighten it, black or white, does the client look fat, how much should you crop it etc. 

I just did the shoot on Monday for SNAP Downtown, and here is an unconcious self portrait while reloading in front of a mirror. 

Nesting

Last weekend was busy for us. Matt took Friday off to surprise me [breakfast and attention galore], I was a bit of a grump for 30 minutes in the morning but I blame hormones. It got better after we went cycling and dropped off the bikes for a spring spruce-up. Then we went to check out camera stuff downtown, and then to the Distillery district. It was my first time there, and we spent the rest of the afternoon looking at galleries and taking random pictures. 

I have an awesome husband. 

On Saturday Matt made me his signature scrambled eggs with chives, and we went to pick up our bikes from repair and went to High Park, in the raw tender physical state that we both were in. Winter takes a toll on the muscles, and it felt very much like the enjoyable, but slightly painful ride through Central Park in NYC. 

Sunday was one of the best days we've ever had for decorating. We decided to tackle our patio, and its no mean feat trying to improve a rental patio and keep within budget at the same time. Here is a pic of Matt mucking around, and the state of the patio before we got to work, and folling is the transformation. 

We spent 3 hours at Home Depot, and another 3 planting, setting up and painting. Matt is so cute when he handles mud.  Look at the pretty flowers! The next thing on the list is the cabana lounge, which I am going to make from the couch I scavenged. I'm going to go pretty far with it, get outdoor fabric etc and make it pop. 

Cat People

Music Snobbery

Everytime I head to the gallery, I spend about an hour in the morning looking for stuff to play on the sound system because the acoustics are fantastic in a gallery. Big empty space, hard walls that reverb sound and silence. 

I am also very pleased to find yet another bunch of spinners that I have heard of but haven't really heard. Under the genre baroque pop, defined as "....a style of pop music originated in the mid 1960s that brought elements of classical music into the writing and recording of rock 'n' roll songs." 

This is how I figure out the gallery playlist for the day. 

Rialto - My favorite sort of indie, depressing indie 

Cinerama and The Waking Eyes - My band du jour 

Of Montreal - Crazy hipster-lycra-wearing-tights-vest-pretentious-obscure electronic very gay artsy i-go-to-galleries stuff. Actually maybe not on the playlist now that I think of it. 

Jem - Nice chanteuse folksy girly music 

The Divine Comedy - Same as Of Montreal, a bit too upbeat, scrap that 

Fleet Foxes - Like bohemian rhapsody, but for EVERY song. Scrap. 

Lambchop - Whispery, fly into the sky on a giant cloud of angst. Yeah, why not. 

Now a happy little song from The Cardigans - Carnival 

 

Carnival - The Cardigans

Cinerama

Finally, something new and decent to listen to.

Oh wait, they formed in 1998? Hey, I remember 1998. I also remember that I have found remarkably few new artists to add to my playlist that have been circa this millennium. Is it just me or does music these days suck? Crazy sampling mumble grumble* hippity hoppity grumble*

By the way, did you know Green day is 22 years old? 

Do you know the band third eye blind? New radicals? No? 

An age has past. Here is a remnant. By the way, who actually clicks the links I embed? 

Cinerama [aka The Wedding Present] - Don't touch that dial. 

The Wallflowers - Three Marlenas 

Three Marlenas - The Wallflowers

Third Eye Blind - Jumper 

Fastball - Out of my head 

Geeking out.

01010100 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 01110000 01101000 <3 

(translation: Triumph) 

Mars Phoenix Lander 

Birthday Girl

Gwen's Birthday 09

Surprises

These last seven days have been pretty eventful. 

In all, my D1x broke, I confirmed my first well paid shoot, I delivered a fantastic protrait to a client, I made $ taking pictures of bulbs, I got assigned as a reporter for a small, but downtown publication [which means a media pass!], I'm squabbling with people to get my old camera repaired and sold, bargained for a new camera, I'm finalising a wedding shoot, taking down the old website and putting in a spanking new flash/css/whaddyacallit for pixeloracle.com, took back my exhibit piece from the gallery, experimented with caribbean goat curry, unstuck the toilet bowl, edited more pictures.... 

And its Friday. 

The highlight? Last night Matt brought me to the Phoenix, and the bill was fantastic. Besides him even being able to get tickets, the lineup were Waking Eyes, The Constantines and The Weakerthans. 

Here is a photo I am working on from last night. 

Original 

Black and white with a few corrections

Colour enhanced

Dimmed focus with an extra disco ball! 

And you can't do a concert blog post without a video :)