Disney Geography

Every month National Geographic sends me an email with highlights of their articles and images. I usually check them out but rarely post about them. Well this time they had images of Disney's more famous attractions next to the real-life locations they are based on. For example, the real-life Matterhorn and the Disney roller coaster ride.

"Which is the real Matterhorn? Robbed of scale, it's difficult to tell. Disneyland's roller coaster ride is built at 1/100th scale of the Matterhorn peak in the Pennine Alps between Switzerland and Italy. The 4,478 metre (14,692 foot) Matterhorn is on the left. the 45 metre (147 foot) Matterhorn is on the right." To check out the whole article (and the remaining images) go here.

Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago is absolutely enormous and has some stunning works of art. Some of its more notable pieces include Van Gogh's Self Portrait, Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day and Grant Wood's American Gothic. I did my best to see as many of the notable pieces during the 3 hours of free admission on Thursday evenings, but the place is huge and it seems impossible to get everything in on even a month worth of free nights than on the one that I had to spend there.The exterior of the building is just as breathtaking though. I passed by it several times as I walked around Michigan Avenue and each time I had to stop to take it in.
The Grand Staircase was the first place that I got lost. I guess I misunderstood the layout of the building and I ended up walking around them at least twice before I realized where I was and where the areas I wanted to visit were. I wish I could have spent more time there and been able to take things in better.
Those of you who know me, know how much I love Impressionist art - Monet in particular, so that of course was the first place I tried to get to. I walked slowly through the Renoir room, the Van Gogh room and the various artist room (including Edgar Degas) and then got to a room that made me want to cry - The Monet room. Not only did this collection have the Water Lilies, but it had not one, not two but six haystack paintings. These paintings were created by Monet in the Autumn and Spring of 1890. There are 25 of these paintings and this is the largest number of them I have ever seen at once. As simple as these paintings are, they are my favourite impressionist paintings. One on its own is good but multiple paintings arranged together is so beyond words beautiful.

Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal

When planning the trip to Montreal the first place to see on my list was Notre Dame Basilica. It is noted to be 'one of the crown jewels of Montreal' and was absolutely a place I had to see.
When we went to the fireworks and I took all the nights shots, I thought of going to Notre Dame Basilica to see what it was like at night. I did not, however, know where I was and didn't really want to make Dave and Yan walk around downtown so late when I had already made them wait for me while I was taking shots down at the harbour. Turns out, they have a light show most nights and it would have been pretty neat, but the night was still great and I am rather pleased with the shots I was able to get during the day on Sunday when we travelled there.
Of course going on a Sunday wasn't the greatest idea as there was obviously church in session when we went. We stepped inside and as expected, no photographs were allowed. It was beautiful though - breathtaking really.Dave and I then spent about 30 minutes taking photos of the exterior of the church as well as the fountain nearby the church. In fact, I took more photos of the fountain than of the church itself. It was a really nice fountain, and with the help of my tripod, I was able to practice my moving water shots.

Parc du Mont Royal

After checking in at our hotel, Dave and I headed to Parc du Mont Royal. The drive there was very pleasant and a nice change from the hectic traffic ridden drive into the city. It was all uphill and had spectacular views of the city. There were some pro-level bikers using the hill as training ground and I found them to be very impressive. Once we parked and figured out where in the massive park we were, we started wandering aimlessly around. There were rock statues situated throughout the park which would have made for some great shots if the sky had been a little nicer. I did however, manage to take a few shots of some of the more ornate and natural looking ones, like the above picture. I am not entirely sure what this one was supposed to be, and doubt anyone can help me since this is a very close-up shot, as most of my shots tend to be, but I found it to be very interesting looking.We then walked around the park and into the Mont Royal Cemetery which is nearby. I know this seems weird, visiting a cemetery on your vacation, but I find them to be very beautiful and this one was no exception.The place was packed of tombstones and mausoleums but didn't have very many living people when we were there, though it is very large and it would be easy to walk through it and never see anyone, despite them also being there with you.
It was a very nice walk, but by the end I was utterly exhausted and we ended up spending the rest of the night in our hotel room watching cable TV and eating lasagna I made us in our microwave, which was delicious.

Cirque du Soleil - Ovo

Though Dave and I had been planning on going to Montreal 'sometime' it was the purchase of our Cirque du Soleil tickets for Ovo that decided the actual date and made the trip a reality. The show was amazing, like I knew it would be, and I strongly recommend going if you are even the least bit able to. As previously mentioned, it is a show about insects and the world they live in. It was adorable and breathtaking to say the least. The acts were spectacular and at times, kept you on the edge of your seat. It was however, the show during which Dave and I learned that there are 'not good' seats. We sat in what turned out to be the wrong seats and were unable to see a small portion of the stage. When we moved we learned that the focus of the seating selection should not be getting as close to the stage as possible but rather to get in middle rows whenever possible. Unfortunately, there was a lighting post that blocked part of the back wall and took away from the trampoline act slightly.All the acts revolved around a different insect. One I was most looking forward to was the one dealing with ants (above image from here). They did amazing things with kiwi fruit and mini corncobs. The tossed each other around and were flawless throughout their entire performance. Their costumes were also the cutest as the rest of the female costumes were sexier than they were cute. I think this was likely my favourite act. Dave's favourite act, as I knew it would be, was the trampoline act. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, this was the act that was partially blocked, but it was still really great.I took the above photograph after watching the fireworks at le Vieux Port. The last few minutes of the fireworks all I could think of was which buildings I was going to photograph since the lighting on the really old buildings down there was fantastic and I couldn't resist them. I am really happy with not only the shot, but the fact that I finally was able to photograph the big top. Every time Dave and I have gone to Cirque shows in the past I have left my camera at home, since you are not able to use them within the big top and I never wanted to risk losing it or getting it stolen. I am also glad I took this shot as the next day when we were walking around Vieux Port, the clouds were not friendly and would have provided a massively overexposed skyline.

Biodome de Montreal

As part of our trip to Montreal, Dave and I went to the Biodome de Montreal. We went on a Saturday afternoon and apparently that is an incredibly bad idea. The lineup to get in wrapped halfway around the Biodome. It took somewhere from 30-45 minutes to get in, but we didn't have to wait around any longer than that as we already had tickets since we had bought a package deal at the Botanical Gardens which we visited earlier in the day.
There was just a ridiculous amount of people and Dave and I didn't spend as long in the Biodome as I had thought we would. We skipped a few of the less popular displays in an attempt to bypass the crowds, but to no avail. We elbowed our way up to the popular displays so I could try to get some shots, but weren't that successful. I got lots of shots, but none are really that great as the lighting was low and we weren't able to get the tripod out due to the afforementioned crowds.
The lemurs were probably my favourite display. The keeper was talking to the crowds but in french so I only caught parts of it as I had to concentrate of my photography. Despite the crowds and lack of really great photos, I enjoyed the Biodome. Next time though, we will make a point of going in the morning.

Vacation #2 - Montreal

Dave and I went to Montreal as our second vacation of the summer. It was a really great trip and one I would make again. It did, however, start off a little badly in that the traffic was so wretched on the way in that it really discouraged Dave and I. Once we got to our first actual destination (after checking in at the hotel and getting some lunch), we both realized how great the weekend was going to be.
We went to Parc du Mont Royal and the Cemetery therein on Friday and then to the Botanical Gardens, Biodome and Olympique Parc on Saturday. That evening we met up with our friend Yan, and went to dinner at Milso, a Brazilian restaurant that was really entertaining and then to Vieux Port where we watched Fireworks as part of an international competition. Sunday we walked around Vieux Port until our Cirque du Soleil show started in the afternoon. We then went to the St. Joseph Oratory before heading back to Ottawa.
I plan on blogging about each individual part of our trip in separate posts as the trip was so enjoyable, that one post would not do it justice. I can almost guarantee they will not, however, be in chronological order as I took all of the photos during this trip in Raw format which means I will need more time to complete the post-production. I will also be posting additional photos from the trip on my photography blog.

Festival Complete

The 2009 Ottawa Tulip Festival is unfortunately over. Dave and I went to Commissioners Park two or three times, Majors Hill Park once and Parliament Hill once (the latter two on the last day of the festival). I ventured out to some of the more obscure sites on my own while Dave was away - I went to the flower beds along Colonel By Drive and then a few along Queen Elizabeth Drive. I also walked up to Olympic Park near Lansdowne park. So basically the only site I didn't really get to this year was Lansdowne which was home to the Pavilion this year (in the past it has been located at Majors Hill Park) but as it wouldn't have had any large flower beds to speak of, I am fine with missing it this year. I do love the Tulip Festival and feel my shots this year are some of my best. I really tried to get photos that were different from any others I had taken before but I did feel I needed to perfect some of the ones I took last year with my inferior camera. I even got to use my new Slik tripod! Can't wait until next year - hopefully then I will have my macro lens!

Tulip Festival 2009

The Ottawa Tulip Festival starts this weekend and runs until the 18th of May. It is quite possibly my favourite festival that Ottawa runs throughout the year. It is mostly free, has beautiful flowers and art displays and allows me to really focus on my photography.
This year I want to try and take in other aspects of the festival (other than just photographing the flowers that is). There is a presentation about Karsh on May 7 that I am hoping to go to but my attendance depends on a few things.
I can't wait to get out there and really start moving forward with my Tulip photo collection - and this year I can even take photos in my own backyard when I am too lazy or tired to go to one of the festival sites. I am obviously very excited.

A Good Purge

I spent a large portion of today backing up and purging my photos. Our near terabyte of external storage is home to my entire digital photo collection and as such I am able to delete photos from my actual computer. All in all I cleared over 10 GB of space from my computer primarily in the form of digital images. Feels good to be back at 50% free space on this thing.

After My Own Heart

Now this is a photo after my own heart. A rare (and lovable) animal (echidna to be precise, one of the only two egg laying mammals in the world [monotreme]) investigating a great SLR camera (despite the fact that it is a Canon). So adorable.

Note: image taken from Cute Overload.

Fall

Fall is my absolute favourite season for many reasons. The first of which is of course the beautiful fall colours. They give pictures a wonderful backdrop and pop that the regular greens do not.

A perfect example is the above photo that I took this past weekend at Beechwood Cemetery here in Ottawa.

I also love the season because it gets to the perfect temperature - not too hot or too cold. You can wear a sweater and not sweat to death and you can go outside for long leisurely walks without fear of getting burned. The only thing I dislike about fall is that it means that winter is coming soon and my photography seems to dwindle a little in winter - although this year I plan on making more effort to keep it alive, I still believe it will decrease significantly with the cold weather and mass amounts of snow. Snow is really only pretty in pictures if it is perfect, crisp, white snow, but here in Ottawa we get a lot of mucky, rock-filled, grey snow slush piling up beside the streets and it leads to ugly photos.

For now, however, I plan on taking full advantage of my favourite season while it lasts and going out to different places every weekend with my camera in hand.

DeviantArt

I feel a massive thank you is in order to those who visit my DeviantArt site - particularly those who comment or fav my photographs. So for those of you who go there from here or got here from there, thank you. I really do appreciate any and all comments and suggestions about my work - I feel it will make me a better photographer in the end.

Tulip Festival 2008

Today I ventured out to see the beautiful tulips of the Tulip Festival. It started this past weekend but because of the weather I didn't get a chance to get out there. I started out just heading to Chris' old place with a small pit stop at the university along the way. There is a bed of large red tulips there and a smaller bed of yellow ones near Chris' place, but along the way I saw some of the other side of the canal and felt impelled to get there - somehow. I ended up biking down the canal to Pretoria bridge, crossing and riding up to the Olympic Bed near Lansdowne Park, of course making stops along the way. I kept going along the canal and roadway all the way up to Dow's Lake where there are tons of tulips (Chris, you would hate it there, haha!). Anyway, I took tons of photos while biking around the area. There was a girl doing yoga there and I wish I had more courage because I would have loved to take some proper shots of her - perhaps I will get that bravery when I get my proper camera, you know, have the feel of a real photographer. Anyway, I really enjoyed myself, mind you getting home was long and tiring as I was biking against the wind and I had been going for about 2 hours. To make a long story a tiny bit less-long, it was a great day. Perhaps tomorrow I will go looking for those magnolias around Chris' new place (which happens to be just a few blocks from her old one haha).

Yet Another Blog

I badly want my own personal website - but since I do not have the funds to pay the fees for one, I have created yet another blog. This time the blog is specifically for my photography. I am going to try to post one of my photos on a regular basis once I get everything set up - which might take some time. But don't fret, I will keep everyone posted and let you all know when it is running - as it is currently up. http://stephaniebeachphotography.blogspot.com/

Two Eyes

I love photography. Recently I have come to a conclusion that I seem to have to very different eyes. One sees the world normally, as everyone else does, but the other sees the world as if through a camera lens. I do not mean this in the sense that I watch the world go bye or do not partake in the events of my life - I believe I enjoy life full-heartedly. My second eye simply sees the world as if through a lens in a creative way. I am always on the lookout for a great photo and believe that I see things a little differently than most, not all as there are many great photographers out there and to be quite frank, most of them are light years beyond me in not only talent but experience and know-how. I love my second eye and I love feeding it by placing the camera in front of it and allowing it to go to work.

Parliament Lighting

Creative Rights

I am starting to think of my photography more and more seriously lately and in doing so I have actually become more and more frustrated. I sometimes feel as if my creative rights are forgotten and my talents in general are taken advantage of. Many people 'borrow' my photos from Facebook or other sites and it has always bothered me on some level, but recently it has really struck a nerve. There is only one person who ever credits my work (for which I am very grateful, just so you know) while others do nothing of the sort. In fact, some don't even ask, just right click and save image. I realize that in posting my images online I have lost protection of them, until the day I learn to limit right-clicking that is. I realize that when people are in photos, and they like the photo of themselves, they will want a copy of it. I completely understand that - and I am glad people like my photos of them. But, shouldn't some credit be given to me for taking a nice photo? I know the legal rights, I have taken courses on them and understand them for the most part, so the logistics of it are not in question on my part. Just because I understand the legal aspect of it, and just because I have a strong respect for others art, does not mean I will get such fair and just treatment in return.

In short, if you use an image of mine, wherever you got it from, please credit the work. If you are in the image, yes you have a right to have a copy of said image, but if you like it, if you think it is good, do you not think that perhaps a mention or a thank-you to the photographer would be polite? Perhaps I am being too sensitive, perhaps I need to just shut up, sit back and let others do what they want to do. Perhaps I am being too bitchy, perhaps I am asking too much. I know I am not thinking too highly of my skills, for I know I have a far way to go before I could ever do anything with them professionally - I have plans to better my skills but at the same time, I know I am no longer a beginner. I like to consider myself a serious amateur photographer and her way to becoming a serious professional photographer. Perhaps I need to wait until I have some sort of degree, diploma or certificate to request recognition for my work. Perhaps I should not post this, but as there are few people who read this - I will.

Parliament

Pictures

I finally sent pictures to the printers. I have been holding on to tons of pictures from different events in the last year and have been waiting until there was a enough of them to send in. Well, after the London trip there is finally enough - to say the least. I had 214 from different events over the last year (museums, family reunions, parties/gatherings, and thet ulip fesitval) and then another 194 from the London, England trip. Wow - so many pictures. I am really excited to pick them up. The first set is already done and waiting for me but the second one hasn't been compelted yet. I will probably pick them up tomorrow and then spend the rest of that night playing with them - getting them in frames and albums and deciding how I am going to arrange my London ones. I have been thinking about a hefty scrapbook seeing as how I have so many odds and ends from the trip but not sure if I have the stamina to make through the whole trip with the high quality it deserves. I will think it out. :)