Kids of Vancouver - Charity book program by Veridamo Photography

After 7 years, hubby and I met up with our wedding photographers to discuss our next little project together.

Kids of Vancouver - Charity book program by Veridamo Photography

Tanya and Jeff of Veridamo Photography is raising funds for the Vancouver Food Bank. Their premise: photograph 200 children and print a collection of their photographs in a coffee table book entitled Kids of Vancouver. A tax-deductible $100 donation is made to the Food Bank, and in lieu, they photograph the family in idyllic Vancouver parkland, beaches, etc (but only the kids make the book!) and the coffee table book, out by Christmas, will be available for sale, proceeds going back to the Food Bank.

It's a win-win situation. We get family photos taken, and the local Food Bank gets much needed funds to function.

We're scheduled for the Saturday morning of August 22nd.

Now, I have to go shopping for outfits, seeing that I don't think we have anything coordinated between the four of us!

An Update...and a New Blog

I really should have kept up with my blog....but haven't. Things have been crazy in the past, what 5 months?

First is first, I'm updating this blog to include my posts from blog.com, just so you know a little bit more about myself, and that, in fact, I have been a regular blogger, just not recently. So, if you check back often, you'll find more of my older posts flooding in, as I import my other blog in, starting from the oldest post.

Where to start? Hmmm...let's itemize some categories:

Pregnancy: I'm no longer pregnant! No, not a miscarriage...I actually gave birth in December to a 6 lb, 15 oz baby boy we named Braden Daniel. Yes, another boy...I guess I should hide the pink sleeper I brought to the hospital (I was so sure it was going to be a girl this time!). His big brother loves him dearly, though he's acting up a lot more than he used to. (And with him almost 4 years old, I fear I'll be the only mom on the planet who hasn't been able to potty train by 4!) Other than lack of sleep, and feeling fat (more on that later), I'm relatively happy and content to have another beautful baby to take care of. In regards to his "big feet"....they're a little big, but nothing that would take you aback. Maybe I'll post a pic sometime, of Braden, and not of his feet. If you want to read up on my pregnancy blog, password is vancouverbaby. I still have to post my birth story, so if you're looking for it, check again later.



re.edit. here's the pic I promised...ain't he cute?





Weight Gain: I gained 40 lbs during the pregnancy, again. It's almost 2 months later and I still have 30 lbs to lose. Not that I've been doing anything to help it along. I've used my dad's treadmill once, watched a Turbo Jams exercise video (I'm reviewing it....so I can try it out later, when I have time!), walked around the neighbourhood a couple of times. Nothing strenuous, so obviously there will be no drastic weight loss...yet. I am, however, supporting my husband as he's on his 2nd week of P90X. Ok, it's not the same as actually doing the program, but my heart's in it, and I'll follow it sometime soon too.

House Painting: Got the house painted a muted heritage green with "beigey" trim and dark red doors. Looks like a heritage house now, quite nice I think. I'll post a pic if anyone wants to see it.

Photography: I haven't done much with my Canon 20D. I received a 50mm prime lens for Christmas from my sis and bro, and practiced a bit with it. No serious photos taken yet. I hope the weather warms up so that I can take some nice outdoor shots.

I thought I would have a lot more to write about the last 5 months, but I guess I don't. I swear it was more interesting than this, but I guess that's what I get for not blogging more frequently. Now that I"ve transferred my old blog over, I can "start fresh", and build this blog up to what I envisioned it to be. It will remain called "The Mystery Of Me", because, frankly, I haven't figured myself out yet. I still hope to discover that along the way. Join me?

Introducing My New Baby....

...my previously-loved Canon 20D digital SLR camera!

I just love Craigslist!

I finally brought home my first digital SLR this week. After scouring the Craigslist pages, I managed to get in contact with a guy selling his fairly new 20D. It's a 3-1/2 year old model (you can't even buy it retail anymore, being replaced with the 30D, and currently the 40D), but he bought it only a year-and-a-half ago, and he wants to upgrade his camera body.

He was selling it for $450, a bit less than a few other posts, and a lot less than one particular post. $400-ish is good market-price, so I snapped it up. He kept his lenses, since he was upgrading just the body, so my search continued with the perfect lens.

I could have bought the 17-85mm lens new at about $549, but I'd still have to buy the "mandatory" accessories, like UV filter, polarizer, lens hood. Just the extra cost of all these made the $450 "take all" ad I found even more attractive.

So I met up with this other guy and went to examine the lens and accessories he was selling. Out-of-the-box new. Clean, good-looking, perfect. The lens looked great too! ;-)

I just bought an overpriced camera bag, but it's pretty so I can't complain much. I'm in the market for a flash too. I just might buy that item new, since there's a sale at a local store, and a rebate offer too. I guess I'll have to search around for more photography courses to enrol in; I've forgotten everything I learned when I took some courses on Basic Film Photography years ago. Cha-ching, add this cost also to my expensive hobby!

All this, to capture photos of the Real Baby due in December! And, of course, the rest of the family too.

Photography

I want to become a photographer.

Let me backup just a bit.

Years ago, I took a photography course with my cousin, Jennie, at Langara College. It was fun, having never taken a course like that before, and with someone I know. (I usually go and do things crazy like that on my own accord, like when I took a sketching class....that was fun too, even when alone). She was using her new Olympus camera (this isn't the cousin who works for Olympus) while I was using my dad's old Canon from the early 80's. Film photography, not digital. We had studio time, evening time outdoors and darkroom time, and I really got my feet whet. I was really proud of all the photos and slides I developed, and had been meaning to enrol in another course or two.

Then life happened.

I don't know....I seemed to have forgotten about my f-stops and depth of field and white balance and exposures and such. It's totally escaped me. It's escaped me for a long time. I was meaning to brush up on my photography before I had Gabe....you know, so that I, too, could take those oh-so-cute baby portraits. Did I manage to do that, all whilst being a mom? Nope...who had the time?

Now I wanna make time. All this dSLR thinking has gotten me to believe I could pursue this again, this time with a digital camera as my arsenal. Nevermind that I would need a dSLR, but could I do this? I don't want to change careers but I would really like to pursue a life-long hobby. Knitting doesn't count (ok, so I can knit...I'll pick it up again when I'm 90). This I could do, couldn't I?

An old friend of mine from university has a website displaying many of his photo-art, and it's just great. He seems to really enjoy it; if his photos tell me anything, they tell me that. What really encourages me are not the fabulous nature shots but the personality of his little boy shining through the portraits he takes. The joy he captures of his son and wife have really touched a chord with me. And this is a guy who's really, really busy, already a doctor yet still going to school, and he's able to love not only his job to do well in what he does but he marries his family with his hobby, photography. [If you happen to be reading this, Don, by chance, you will remain forever admired in my books]

Langara has a Basic Digital Photography class starting Mondays, January 14, for 12 weeks. It's essentially the digital class of the Basic Photography I took with my film-based SLR. Doesn't hurt to take it over again, since I've already forgotten most of everything. Maybe I can convince my cousin to take the course again with me, or perhaps someone else who may secretly desire becoming a photographer too. Who knows...maybe I'll finally complete that much desired Photography Certificate I wanted years ago.

Now, I only need a camera.

Digital SLR

So, I have a cousin who, basically, works for Olympus (ok, really, a cousin's cousin, but relatives are relative, aren't they?). She's gotten me to check out the Olympus digital SLRs and I'm getting quite intrigued about cameras again.
I think I really enjoy the research and the comparisons, but the toys are nice too.

I bought (or rather, my dad bought) a camera for my birthday earlier this year: a Canon SD730. It's a nice little camera. I wanted something a little smaller than my previous Canon A80, which I bought back in 2003 in a sweet ebay deal. The battery compartment on that camera crapped out on me (what do you expect when a two year old drops it?) and I hadn't bothered to get it fixed yet. It had great little manual controls that produced great photos, even if it was only a 4.0 mp camera. The fact that it could accomodate additional add-on lenses was attractive, yet I should have also reconsidered the reality of actually purchasing these lenses; I never got around to requiring additional lenses.

So although my little point-and-shoot camera is still very nice, that dSLR itch I had a year ago is coming back to haunt me something fierce.

Digital SLRs have really come down in price, and we're talking including lenses (none of this "body only" crap...most consumers are buying their first SLR, and I would think most would not have spare lenses hanging around). There are "prosumer" models, of course, that still run in the couple thousands (or more...though I refuse to find out!) but I'm only considering the novice/advanced photographer models.

I did take a couple of photography courses, which I absolutely enjoyed. The creativity was freeing and boundless...and I'd like to capture that again (no pun intended). We worked with film and not digital, though, so I would like to explore not darkroom photography (though fun) but working on my photo editing skills on Photoshop instead. Enter stage right the digital camera...but who will be the shining star?

I'm a Canon girl. Maybe always will be. But I tend to, on occasion, be dizzily persuaded in other directions before my senses come around (in all aspects of life, not just my shopping skills). Here's what I'm up against: Canon EOS Rebel XTi, Nikon D40x, and the Olympus E-510.

Now, I have only started my research, and it's a toss up still. Canon and Nikon being what they are, dependable, reliable and better upgrade path, the E-510 is gaining much attention to it's improvements, like dust reduction, IS, and noise. So many things to compare!

Great, just what I need....another reason to spend countless hours at the computer. Like I don't do that already.