My Contribution to Gary & Carrie's Big Day

 

   

 

 

I think I may have been to my second favorite wedding, my own being my favorite. Cousin Gary, and his now-wife Carrie, had a very informal, casual, friendly and humorous wedding. The officiant that married them new them and was able to throw in a lot of good humor to the ceremony. Following the ceremony it was a casual bite on desserts, followed by cutting into the amazing, gluten-free, cake made by Arleen of Gnarly Cakes, wife to the groom's best friend, Arlen. That's not a typo, Arlen is married to Arleen and is best friends with Gary, who married Carrie.

Arleen did an amazing job on this heavy, four tier cake, that was originally going to be six. They said that carrying it in was quite a task and were hopeful that the table it was set on would bear the weight. It did, thankfully. They were a little bit behind schedule getting to the church and, so, I did not quite as much time to photograph it as I would've liked but the results are just fine with me.

Originally there was the potential that I would photograph the wedding. Seeing the church, I think I could've managed to cover the ceremony and I'm pretty sure that wherever they had their pictures done before the ceremony, I could've made do. However, it has been such a wonderfully warm and dry fall that now since we have received some snow, and it's the soft sticky kind that I get stuck in much more than very cold, frozen snow, I'm glad I wasn't the one to do the photography.

So, wonderful job on all of the aspects, Arleen. I've tasted some perfectly fine gluten-free foods, but this was superb. Everyone appreciates the effort you went to to make it happen, just days after getting home from Mexico. I hope I soon have the opportunity to photograph another one of her masterful creations.

 

   

 

 

10th Anniversary Roses for My Sweetie

 

  10th Anniversary Roses 2 by Jay Scott on 500px

Last week was our 10th anniversary. We both have no idea exactly how it came up so quickly. Counting milestones such as building a house, getting a dog, Angie beginning working from home, Fiona joining us, along with numerous other smaller things, seem to all blur together into a significant portion of our lives lived together.

 

  10th Anniversary Roses 1 by Jay Scott on 500px

Because of this it was about time I bought my wife some nice flowers. I don't do it often enough. I guess we are just both so practical that flowers don't often rank high on the list of priorities. More often we are likely to buy each other a treat from the store or something consumable like that, if it's going to be something that has a temporary life.

At any rate, I did enjoy photographing them and had considered purchasing flowers to photograph for long winter weeks. I guess this time I got the best of the best as a bonus for buying them for my dear Angie. I hope you enjoy looking at the photos as much as she has enjoyed looking at and smelling her roses.

 

  10th Anniversary Roses 3 by Jay Scott on 500px

Abstract Shooting

 

  Abstract Long Exposure 2 by Jay Scott on 500px

Love it or hate it, here is my first attempt at something a little more abstract. Taking a page from David duChemin, I tried my hand at some intentionally out of focus, long exposure, shots to see what I could make out of them. Hard to believe that the photo above was made in the exact same spot, at the same time of year, as the one below. The top one was nothing more than a camera, lens and experimentation while the one below this was a combination of multiple light stands, flashes, radio triggers, much experience and meticulous tweaking to get it looking exactly as I wanted.

 

  Forestry Farm Thunderchild Crab Apple - 1 by Jay Scott on 500px

The photo below this was made no more than 10 meters away from the first photo, just chosen because of the delicate spring shade of green nearby and the hint of pink that entered the frame near the end from a similar, deeper coloured, tree.

 

  Abstract Long Exposure 1 by Jay Scott on 500px

I know that the comment section is pretty quiet in this space, but I know you are out there reading. I'd love to know what you think of this abstract style. It's just my first attempt, but it wasn't unenjoyable. We will see where my experimentation goes.

Saskatoon Forestry Farm and Zoo 2012 - 5

You probably saw my synchronized swimming photo from a few weeks ago. It's hard to believe the Olympics are already over. Of course, the Paralympics have just begun. I only saw one race near the start of the games. I tried watching a bit more online but the feeds I watched on the net were either full of commercials, hiccup-y, blocked in Canada by the broadcaster, showing events from hours ago, conducting interviews full of ridiculous questions posed to athletes still catching their breath or not interested in it at the moment, or events overloaded with commentary at unnecessary times. I have nothing against the Olympics, but the broadcasters made it difficult to see what I wanted to see so my interest was pretty low this time around.

To resume the series from this year's visits to the zoo I have a few flowers. These are nothing special beyond getting the framing just right. I have a few more unique that I will share in the next little while. For now, please enjoy these huge peony blooms. I missed the pink ones from slightly earlier in the season. I noticed them as I was leaving one visit that happened to be just before our vacation. They were finished before my next visit.

The roses aren't as nice as most years, likely from the excess rain we have had, but this one was beautiful and only too about fifteen minutes of waiting until the sun moved to just the right spot to cast a ray through the leaves on the best bloom.