7/52 — Week 8

I had big plans for really cool photos this week, but cold germs had other plans, preventing me from going out this morning to shoot what I wanted to shoot. :(

Soooo... I set up in the living room and tried to get some nice shots of the birds that visit our feeder. I got a few, and a few more of my stand-by model — my cat.

But first, a close up of a painting my daughter made that hangs in our foyer. :)

Most of the birds that visit our feeder are like the one on the right. But occasionally, we get a chickadee or two.

This little guy (or girl) pigged out at the feeder, but remained on the other side the entire time. :)

And last, but not least, our cat Samantha catching a few Zs in her bed beside the window.

I ordered a new lens last week and it should arrive tomorrow. I'll no doubt be playing around with it all week so I should have more interesting shots next week! :)

7/52 — Week 7

I dedicate this week's seven photos to my sister's bridal shop: Kimberley Wilson Fashion and Bridal Outlet.

My wife and I spent a couple of hours there this afternoon. I shoot the photos of the dresses she sells and post them on her web site and Facebook page. These seven are probably my favourite ones. If you're on a budget and looking for a nice wedding gown or formal dress, you should check out her shop! :)

 

Plateau? What plateau? — Week 14 progress

I not only broke through the plateau, I killed it, shedding 3½ lbs this past week.

From what I can tell, it was a combination of using my hand weights with all of the Cardio Boxing routines, instead of just the slow ones, reducing my increased water consumption a little to something more easily managed (without making my bladder want to explode), and maybe the 2-day break from working out that I took earlier in the week? I'm not entirely sure, but I won't argue.

We'll see how this week goes.

Some things can't be ignored

There's a good chance that the moment you realize I'm going to ask you for a donation, you'll click away to somewhere else.

But I'm going to ask you to wait and read this first before making that choice. Maybe the little that I have to say will sink in at some point over the next couple of months and you'll decide to come back and help me out.

On the evening of June 17th, this will be my 4th year participating in the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life.

The Relay For Life is an overnight non-competitive relay (walk or run) that celebrates cancer survivors and pays tribute to loved ones. Funds raised through support the Canadian Cancer Society’s mission to eradicate cancer and enhance the quality of life of Canadians living with cancer.

• The number of new cancer cases will increase by approximately 60% over the next 20 years due to our aging and growing population.
• Cancer is the leading cause of premature death in Canada.
• During their lifetimes 39% of Canadian women and 45% of men will develop cancer.
• Nearly 1 of every 2 men is expected to develop cancer during his lifetime and slightly more than 1 of every 3 women will develop cancer during her lifetime. Approximately 1 out of every 4 Canadians will die from cancer.

I lost my father to cancer in 1998 and a friend in 2008. My wife lost an uncle to cancer in 2009. Sadly, if you ask anyone, there's a good chance that they too have been affected by this disease.

I don't normally start seeking donations this early, but last year the organizers decided to "award" early leading teams their choice of locations to camp out around the track that night, rather than on a "first come" basis. Our team is hoping to be one of those teams this year, if they decide to do the same thing. All of our kids are coming with us this year and it's so much easier to keep tabs on them.

If you have a few dollars to spare, please consider donating. You can do it online using your credit card: http://convio.cancer.ca/goto/paterson It only takes a few more minutes of your time.

A blog posting is easy to ignore — cancer isn't. We have to fight it. A fight needs support.

Thank you.

(Statistics source: www.cancer.ca)

7/52 — Week 6

Most of my photos for this week were taken while I tested out my tripod, inverting the center column and then attaching my camera upside down to shoot pics of whatever I placed underneath it. I was hoping to find some interesting things to shoot with my macro, but ended up not taking as many with it.

But first...

Tuesday, February 8th was Do It For Daron day. I wore purple to help raise awarenes for the cause.

This one is my favourite for the week and is one of my DailyShoot photos. It's looking side my drink bottle, which was pressed up against the end of my 100mm lens.

The first of my test shots. It's a Canadian Dollar (aka Loonie), with the Ottawa Senators logo on it.

Looking into my 18-200mm lens using my 100mm lens.

I have a canvas print hanging on the wall behind our bar in the basement. I didn't make it, but I got it from work years ago when they were getting rid of a whole bunch of them. It's a 3D rendered scene of a game of chess — a checkmate — but there's a sword laying on the board beside the fallen king. It's kinda cool. The print isn't the best quality though, as you'll see in this next shot where you can see the half-tone dots. :)

And this is the same picture, panned back a little.

The last shot — the underside of a glass. All that black is the reflection of the camera I guess. It's pretty cool though.

 

20K - Week 13 progress

I broke 20,000 calories mark in Your Shape Fitness Evolved.

This put me at 30th place on the Worldwide Leadboard and 3rd place on the Canada Leaderboard. Unfortunately, their leaderboard is buggy and it's displaying the wrong name beside the score. You can see in both pics that my score is 20315, which happens to be the 3rd place on the Canada leaderboard.

Wordwide Leaderboard:

Canada Leaderboard:

Sucks. I reported it in their forums, but like many of the bugs being reported, nothing seems to be done about it. Not even an official acknowledgement of them. Anyway, that's another story.

7/52 - Week 5

Had to play some catch-up today to get seven. Why do I do this to myself.... anyway, on with it.

My desk phone at work. This turned out better than I thought it would.

One of my cat's rear feet. I had initially planned on taking a shot of her face, but she wouldn't stop moving. Then I noticed her fuzzy feet and fired off a few shots. I like it.

This was supposed to be an artistic shot of a plug for the DailyShoot. The only artistic-ness I could think of was to apply a colour filter to image. Yeh, not so artistic.

A mirror tile with mirrored glasses sitting on it, each containing a candle. My wife put this out at Christmas, on a table in the basement, and for some reason decided to keep it out after Christmas. I kinda liked the way the reflections all bounce off each other. I should light them one day and try the same shot.

A couple of light hand weights that my wife got me for Christmas to use with my workouts. They work well.

About ½ a cup of corn chips that I munched on for a snack, after using the items in the previous picture this evening. :)

One of two large baskets that sit on our hall closet shelf, each containing mittens, or toques.

That's it for this week.

Back on track? — Week 12 progress

I'm not entirely sure whether eating a little more more or changing my workout fixed it, but I did manage to get back to losing this week. Not much mind you, but it's not a gain.

And then on Saturday, out of curiosity, I stepped on the scale and noticed I had lost a bit more. As of this morning, I was down to 248lbs. Keeping my fingers crossed for this week.