Bad temperature = Still life photos :)

Hello everybody !

It’s a good thing I love to create still life photos because otherwise I wouldn’t have anything else to post today.  The weather has been so bad in April with cold temperatures, rain and strong winds.  So, instead of going out on photographic excursions, I settled in and looked around my home to see what I could come up with.  I have many decorative objects in my home so I don’t have to search very far to find some nice objects  that would make beautiful still life, and from time to time I like to buy objects for the sole purpose of photographing them.  Here are my latest still life photos.

In case you’re wondering, no, I haven’t purchased a piano just to photograph it !  It’s from a friend’s home

More still life are to come.  I have a violin sleeping in a wardrobe, a vintage milk bottle in my cupboard and some old ballerina shoes that are patiently waiting for the next cold and rainy days to be transformed into unique and beautiful photographs.  I’m also working on a wonderful project for a friend who makes gorgeous bridal bouquets made of silk flowers.  I took many photos to build her a portfolio and I am currently editing them.  Here’s one of her bouquet.

You can visit her Facebook page here (the photos on her page are not from me), and contact her if you are interested in buying a bouquet.

Have  a lovely and hopefully warm week-end !

Jocelyne

Butterflies Go Free At Montreal’s Botanical Garden

Hello dear friends !

Of all the insects I have seen so far, caterpillars are the ones I dislike the most.  Just to think of them sends shivers down my spine.  But despite my strong aversion to them I would never kill one, they are too precious.  In fact, I never kill insects, except for flies and mosquitoes.

I just can’t imagine summer without the many insects and other creatures surrounding us.  During Spring I love to hear the spring peepers endless song at night.  In July, the high pitch sound of cicadas on a hot sunny day.  In August, the green grasshoppers and their intermittent, strange sounds.  Also, the gentle and calming sound of the cricket, my favourite.  These are the sounds of summer.  We also have beautiful insects to admire during summer.  Think of fireflies with their amazing light show, or the very cute ladybug (which, mind you, makes wonderful photos), and the astonishing sphinx, which, if you don’t look closely enough, can be mistaken for a hummingbird.  There’s also the bees and spiders.  Have you ever take the time to watch a spider build its cobweb ?  It is simply amazing.   They are maybe just bugs, but they are wonders of nature.  And caterpillars are among the most precious ones.  They are a miracle waiting to happen, and a glorious and wonderful gift of mother nature :  Butterflies !

The magnificent blue Morpho.  I was disappointed of not being able to capture it on a flower, but the one it chose to stand still on was quite a beautiful flower of its own…  My beautiful niece Fanny.

Photographing butterflies in a green house is quite a challenge.  It was a bright, sunny afternoon with lots of glare on the foliage, making the right exposure sometimes difficult to achieve.  And some of the butterflies were constantly moving, so it was not always easy to get a good focus.  Also, it was so hot, 25°C with a bit of humidity.  At the end of our visit I was in sweat !  But I’m pretty happy with the photos I brought back home and it was a fun and great experience.   Aren’t they just amazing ?

Happy Spring and a happy week-end to all of you !

Jocelyne

Wonderful winter

Hello dear friends  :)

Last October, as I marvelled at the spectacular colours of fall, I remember thinking there wouldn’t be anything interesting to photograph in the coming months.  After all the vibrant colours of summer and fall, winter seemed, photographically speaking, a little boring with all its white.  I thought that all the excitement of going on excursions to find new places and landscapes to photograph would be much less fun, because I thought winter wasn’t visually as interesting as the other seasons.  I was almost ready to hibernate and rely on still life till spring.  But… I had forgotten one thing.  I had new eyes now, and I wasn’t seeing the world around me as I used to.   Everywhere I look now there are more details, more richness and nuances in colours, more textures.  But the biggest improvement is the light.  I see it everywhere now and the amazing transformation it can induce when it is illuminating something.  Photography has this capacity to heighten and broaden our sight and I would never go back to how I looked at the world before.

Duncan meeting new friends

After having completed my first round of the four seasons with my camera, I realize how wrong I was and how winter photography is as fun and exciting as the other seasons.  Winter is definitely the most challenging season to photograph, both technically and physically, but despite its challenges it is a really  wonderful season and one that I greatly enjoy photographing.

The sugar shack Chez Jaco, St-Joseph De Beauce.

Chez Jaco, St-Joseph De Beauce

The heart of the village.  St-Joseph De Beauce

A cabin at St-Simon Les Mines

An abandoned old house, St-Simon Les Mines

Winter hasn’t yet said its last word, as we received 20 cm of snow yesterday.  I’m ready for spring but I didn’t mind this snow, it’s so beautiful !

Next week I’m going to Montreal’s botanical garden where they are exhibiting “Butterflies go free”and I hope to come back with photos of gorgeous flowers and wonderful butterflies.  The butterfly I’m most interested in, and of which I really hope to capture its exquisite beauty, is the morpho, the blue butterfly.  I’ve seen it once and it’s an amazing butterfly !  Hopefully I’ll come back home with a few beautiful shots to share with you.

Until then, have a nice end of week and week-end !

Jocelyne

In the heart of winter

Hi everybody !

I have new photos to share with you from an afternoon spent a few weeks ago looking for some wintry images to capture.

It was a gloomy, snowy afternoon, the light was faint and almost everything seemed to have a greyish tint, from the clouds to the ground.  I was walking down a route where there are few houses, and at some point there aren’t any.  From time to time, cars were passing by.  I wanted to photograph a barn I am especially fond of, since I didn’t have  a photo of it in winter.  While walking further down the route I realized how quiet this route was, there was no one to be seen, no houses nearby, and I felt a sudden loneliness.

It also felt as if I were immersed in a muffled environment where the few sounds I was hearing seemed to be echoing  from far away.  Loneliness and solitude were the predominent feelings I had on this gloomy afternoon, but with them also came a sense of peace and serenity.

The sun had set when I headed back home.  On my way I saw two deers who looked surprised to see me walking down this route where, usually, few people walk.

Solitude, in the heart of winter.

Serenity

My favourite barn

Recently I’ve made a new friend who shares the same passion for photography.  It is so much better and so much more fun to go on a photographic excursion with a friend than to go alone.  We’re planning many more excursions in the coming months where I hope to capture the beautiful sceneries of Beauce and, of course, barns, which are one of my favourite subjects to photograph.

I’m wishing you all a nice week, and by the time I’m ready for another post, maybe I will have heard the first cheering notes of the song sparrow.  Spring is almost here !

Jocelyne

My little Winny

Hi everybody !

This was a long post to prepare as there were many photos to edit, but I’m finally posting it and I’m happy to present you my little Winny.

His name is Winston but I rarely call him that, I prefer Winny.  He’s a Shetland Sheep Dog and has just turned four years old last December.  When he arrived home four years ago it was Valentine’s day, just like today.  I can’t think of a better day to welcome a puppy and of a better gift !  He was my sweet Valentine’s puppy !

Meeting Winny for the first time.  He was five weeks old.

Often when you go to choose a dog, one of them will come along and make a gesture towards you more than the others.  I believe it is a sign that the dog has chosen you.  The day I met Winny I had seen other puppies and none of them made any significant move as I was petting them.  My little Winny was the one who made the move.  As my boyfriend was holding him Winny gave him a kiss and he did the same when I held him.  Isn’t it cute ?  What a sweet puppy !

Winny (to the right) with his brother Porto and their breeder.  Say Awwwwwww…. !

Chantal, the breeder, wouldn’t let us go with Winny until she was sure we were going to treat him well.  She raises puppies underhand and asks many questions before completing a sale.  Winny is a high-spirited, full of energy and playful dog.  We call him the little firefly.  He adores playing outside with a ball, taking long walks in the woods and one sport he really enjoys is wrestling…

He has a girlfriend, Maya, a two years old Cocker Spaniel I care for on week days.

Winny has a thick coat and every two months I back-comb him (I hope you understand what I mean, I couldn’t find a better word for “rebrousse-poil”) to make sure his hair hasn’t matted and to also verify if he has minor injuries or skin problems.  It takes me four to five hours to comb him.

Like most Shetland he is very vocal and when he wants something he will ask and “speak” in his own language.  It is so funny to hear his plaintive sighs and vocalise, he can be so exuberant !

The funniest thing about Winny is his love of toes.  He just loves them !  Whenever he can, he will pull your socks off, even to visitors !  Each night at dinner he comes under the dining table and pulls at our socks.  He also really enjoys chewing our toes !  I just adore him !

If you love puppy stories, David Patterson’s blog has a lot of fun posts about his new puppy Oliver, a Golden Retriever.  Since his arrival in their family last November, David has regularly posted photos of the cute Oliver.  And while you’re there take a look at his earlier posts, he is a great photographer and has many wonderful photos of Acadia National Park and other beautiful places in Maine.  Click here to go to his blog.

I hope you will have a beautiful week-end.  I can’t believe it’s already mid-February, it’s going too fast, I have a lot of photos I still want to take this winter.  I’m afraid I won’t have enough time !

Jocelyne

I’m joining Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday

 

 

All things pretty

Hello dear friends !

” You don’t take a photograph, you make it “  Ansel Adams

In photography, still life is my favourite thing.  Creating something is so fulfilling, whether it be a photo, a drawing, a painting, a sculpture or any other art form.  I have always been involved in artistic endeavours in one form or another.  Creativity is an internal force, and I would even say a calling.  Still life photography provides a way for me to be creative and I enjoy each minute of each moment spent preparing and shooting my images. It is also during these sessions that I feel the most accomplished.

I like everything about still life because I like to be creative.  I group different objects together to make nice and visually pleasant images, and if they convey a mood or tell a story, then I have really succeeded in creating a unique image.  Sometimes my goal is to just make a beautiful image simply because I am a great lover of everything elegant and pretty.

Tea cup and roses

My Teddy Bear !

A calm afternoon

Vintage memories

Waiting for snow

Madeleine’s violin

Two of my favourite things

If you love still life photos, here are the links to the blogs of two professional photographers I greatly admire. Their still life creations are exquisite and wonderfully beautiful, a real delight for the eyes.  Georgianna Lane and Sarah Gardner are my favourite professional photographers.  Click on their names to get to their blogs.  Another photographer I admire is Kelly from Nothing finer blog.  Kelly creates wonderful still life images, I really love her style.  Click here to go to her blog or here to get to her Flickr where you will see more easily  her photos grouped in albums.

I hope the weather will resume to warmer days soon so I can get outside and take landscape photos.  The thermometer indicates -26°C (-14.8°F) and with the wind chill factor it’s -32°C (-26.6°F).  Brrrrrr !

Have a lovely week everybody !

Jocelyne

Wintry landscapes

Happy New Year to all of you !

My wish for you for this new year is that it may bring you peace, harmony, joy, inspiration, love, friendship, good health and great success in all you undertake !   Thank you for your presence on my blog and for all your comments, they are greatly appreciated !

The holidays are over and now is the beginning of a new year. And in the course of this new year there is one thing I would like to improve, one area in photography that is not my strong point, and that is landscape photography.  I seem to be struggling in knowing what makes a beautiful landscape photo.  Sometimes I’m sure a specific scenery will make a beautiful photo but it finally proves to be pretty ordinary, while, at other times, it is all the contrary.  How puzzling !

So, over the past few weeks I have started my journey into trying to improve landscape compositions and also training my eyes to see details, sometimes small details, that can enhance and completely change a landscape. Here are a few photos.

Cross-country ski trails

The church steeple of St-Joseph De Beauce

The old barn at dusk

The valley, St-Joseph De Beauce

St-Joseph de Beauce

Winter’s magic

There are some great photography books and the one’s I’m reading right now are Christopher O’Donnell’s e-books, The Golden Hours : A guide to photographing the light of sunrises and sunsets.  If you want to know the secrets behind gorgeous sunrises/sunsets photos, this e-book is for you.  And The Art Of Bokeh : A guide to using shallow depths in landscape photography.  Christopher O’Donnell photography is simply superb and breathtaking, you can visit his website by clicking here.

It is now time for me to hit these cross-country ski trails !

Happy week-end everybody !

Jocelyne