35: Gobble Gobble

So now I have to predate this, but I had this up on time. Blogspot was done. Oh well.

No holiday's in sight (Valentine's Day is not a real holiday) but my boyfriend made a turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

Yum yum. And a yummy bottle of wine went withit. more yum yums!

34: Volleyball

Shooting sports is very hard.  Hat's off to all sports photographers!!

My school's team is in red.  I left when both school's had one a set, but McGill was playing well, so I think they won.  wOOt!!

33: Peacock Beanie

It's 20 to midnight.  Eep!  Almost forgot my PAD tonight!  Busy studying for my chemsitry midterm on Monday.  Anyways, meet a random peacock beanie baby I picked up somewhere along the way.  RAW, little tweaking, blah blah, neat image, and voila

Now, can some explain kinetics and chemical rate of reactions?

32: Museums and Photoshop

Did my midterm (it was biology, Laurie2, accounting is in March) and was to tired to pick up the camera since I also have a quiz, lab, and a paper due tomorrow.  So, Did a quick and dirty PS action, and this is what we get.  Some more museum stuff.  Proboably a desk that Catherine the Great used or something along those lines.  So, yes, to much PP, but things look better when you're this tired.  Sort of like drinking a lot.  Things look better.

31: Art exhibit

Well, I shot my exhibit at our Fine Arts Museum.  It's a collection of items from the Hermitage in St. Peteresburg.  I think.  I am so anxious about my midterm tomorrow that I took a bunch of pictures and then left without really enjoying it.

I like this particular shot because of the reflection in the glass.

So, I ended up not using my zoom 2.8 at all, but a tripod on every shot. I have to admit, being part of the press corps was great!  I don't think tripods are allowed normally, but nobody batted an eyelash.  Plus, there were no crowds, which was nice.  Got unobstructed pictures, and no reflections in the pictures with the glass.

I hope, next opportunity, to enjoy it a bit more, maybe even go to the press conference.  Stupid mid terms!!

30: Blood Type and Food

I asked for permission to post a shot I did for a photo assignment for one of my school newspapers.  They wanted some concept photo for an article regarding blood type and what you eat.  One of the suggestions was stick a hypodermic needle into a tomato, so I said, ok.  Here is one of the results.  I couldn't decide if I should make the 'blood' the colour when it is drawn, or the colour when it hits the air.  The darker was easier to make with the food colouring.  Amazing how technicalities can make decisions for you.

Shot in RAW with my zoom at 2.8, ISO 1600.  Tweaking in RAW, levels, curves, and saturation bumb in PS, and then a run through neat image.

Happy eating.  These are leftovers from a homemade salsa I made.  Try putting mangos into your salsa.  It adds the coolest dimension and it is really good.  The sweet contrasts well with the spicy and acidity of the salsa.  I promise!

29: Fondue

Yum!

If you're allergic to shellfish, I apologize.  If you're not, then feast with your eyes!  We had fondue with an assortment of things, but I must confess, the shrimp was my favorite.  One of those indulgences of gluttony that could not be helped.

Lots of tweaking in RAW and in photoshop to get it the colours to look mostly correct.  Shot without a flash, in dim lighting, so lots of adjusting.  I suppose I should have ran it through neat image, but I've got school, and I'm trying to get my entry into DPC tonight, so it'll have to do.

28: Vintage

 
My friend is celebrating his 40th birthday, and we thought, hey, what a great excuse to have some great wine!

So, what you see is a decanted 1988 Chateau Beaucastle Chateauneuf du Pape, a Rothschild South African, and a California Syrah.

All excellent wines that fit well with a celebration

Shot in JPEG, and I wasn't happy with all the clutter surrounding, so I desatruated with channel mixer and added a slight reddish tint with curves.  Makes the picture seem much better. Of course, this much wine will make almost anything look good!!

Bottoms up!

27: Cold Noodles with Peanut Sauce

Just for Alresco, here is a cold noodle recipe with peanut sauce (with some comments)

1 pound fresh wheat flour noodles or dried thin spaghetti (I use Asian noodles, dried udon or even soba - buckwheat)
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup warm water
2 T cider vinegar
1/4 to 1/2 t cayenne (I usually use asian chili sauce: see note underneath)
2 t sugar
1/2 t black pepper
2 garlic cloves, crushed

Cook the noodles

While cooking them, whisk together the peanut butter (I use chunky) and water until blended. Mix together rest of ingredients. Drain noodles and rinse under cold water until chilled. Mix sauce with noodles.

Few side notes - I never measure. I just eyeball everything and adjust by personal taste. The sauce (before you add it) should not be to thick. If it is, just thin it with a bit of water. I like it spicy, so I dump a fairly large amount of chili sauce in. The garlic is raw, so if you're not a garlic fan, skip it.

Hope you like it!

I wanted to take a picture of them, but they don't really look that appetizing, so you get the peanut butter jar instead

26: The Adams Family

Ok, not really the Adams family, buy we sometimes act like them: completely crazy!  Wonderful friends we spent the weekend with.  This is from the same day as all my PAD's this week.  Very little done with it.  Shot in RAW, converted, some light levels and curves, resize, USM and save for web. 

Now, if only all the weekends could be that fun and have such great weather!

25: Snow and Ice

Ok, let's try this again.  Blogger went down for a bit, so here's try number three.

I like the ice on the ends of the needles in this one.  Gave myself a nice little exercise in post processing with layer masks.  Two different layers of levels, and then masked out what was needed on each one.  Some sautration and hue, bump in contrast, crop, resize, USM and save for web

I realize I really like to take pictures of frozen things.  I love the things nature can do with it.

24: Tundra

This is Tundra.  She is the most wonderful Newfoundland owned by friend of mine.  I've known her for several years, and spent many afternoons and evenings with her and her owner (mother) in the park and in the country.  She's the type who will bark at you, and then lick you to death.

I like this particular picture from this weekend because you can see her breath, and her expression is very 'Tundra.'  She has beautiful markings on her body, and I will probably post a picture of her whole body at some point.

23: Winter on the river

So, here is a picture from this weekend.  It's five pictures hastily stitched together.  Not a great job, but I don't have a true wide angle to do it justice, and I didn't bring my fisheye *doh*

Show in Raw, converted and stiched.  Curves, selective colour, and saturation, resize, USM, and save for web

Thank you everyone for the comments you've been leaving.  I've fallen behind due to school work, but I am checking them out and will try and comment as soon as some of this moelcular biology and intro to accounting stuff gets in my brain :-)

22: Windswept

Ok, it's not really windy, but the way the little pine is growing always make me think it growing in a windy area.

After the huge dump of snow yesterday, we had an absolutely gorgeous day.  So good in fact, my next few PADs will be from this weekend.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the temperature was perfect at right around zero degrees (Celsius) and not to windy.

Shot exclusively RAW, and while I don't think I'll always do that always due to lack of space, in this situation, it worked out well.  I was having a hard time with exposures due to it being so sunny and the snow being so bright and pretty.  I was blowing out highlights here and there, and with RAW, I was able to bring things a bit more under control.  I'm officially a RAW convert now.  Love it!

21: Snow

 
Taken today up in the country.  Had over a foot of snow last night, so everything is very nice, and snow covered.  The sun is just starting to come out, so I think it would be a good time to go for a walk

I'm on a different computer with a different monitor, so I have no idea how the post processing looks.  Just some levels and curves.

20: Leacock 132

Had my camera with me at school today. This is where three of my classes are. Seating capacity is about 630 or so. On the left, there's a whole other mezzanine type section. It's quite big, and you can see part of the screens they put their presentation on.

What bugs me most about the size, is that kids think they can then do whatever they want in the back, include listen to music, talk to each other, and talk on their cell phones (I'm not kidding!).

So, there you have Leacock (the building) 132 (the room number). Not an amazing photo I realize, but school work is starting to pile up, and most of what I shot today were photo assignments for one of the school papers I shoot for. I got to take pictures of Robert Milton, former CEO of Air Canada today. I couldn't stay for the talk though. There was another photog there. Needless to say, I kept staring at his camera. Had a nice lens, too.

19: Multi Tasking

I am so lucky to have a wonderful and willing model!!

One has to love decent $6.95 Portugese wine bought in Ontario!

18: Icy City

First, trying a bigger picture for Chuck who noticed my pictures were getting really small. Hopefully this will be a bit better. Thanks for pointing this out!

Today's weather report said about 5 degree Celsius with rain. I thought, cool! Melt and get rid of some of the snow and ice on the ground. Good stuff. NOT!!

Freezing rain was the recipe for today, turning the city into solid ice. Pouring freezing rain, and a woman and I at the bus stop couldn't even get into the bus shelter because a little hill of ice was so slippery, we couldn't get over it and into the shelter.

An intersection on a hill at my university was so bad, pedestrians were literally stranded until the fire department came and set up a makeshift rail so they could cross the street. It made the evening news!

To top it all off, during my biology lab, there was a fire alarm. Tons of students, in lab coats, with no umbrellas and regular coats, slipping and sliding around trying to figure out what the heck is going on and where we're suppose to go. I managed to find solace in another building, but it took a while to get there because of the ice.

All in all, ridiculous day, and to people who say global warming and irregular weather patterns are not influenced by global warming, I say you should phooey on you.

I missed the infamous ice storm in the early part of 1998, but with only one day of freezing rain, I can't even imagine what it was like with almost a week of this stuff.

All this to say, I wanted a picture of today, and this was the best I could do. Long exposure from my porch, and I know there is that lovely branch in the picture, but I'm to lazy to clone it out. You can't really tell, but the sidewalk is solid ice, and most of the street is not pleasent either, except for where the tires travel. A car also passed through during the exposure, giving me those light streams on the street. So, that what the day was like in a nutshell.

17: Redpath and Arts Buildings

Don't laugh. After doing Neil's advanced editing contest, and following various threads on gradients, I decided to try my hand at putting a gradient in the sky. As you can see, I was only semi successful. There is some funny stuff around the clouds.

I used magic wand to select out most of the sky. Made a new layer via copy. Keeping the selection, I switched to feathering at 30 pixels, then used grandient tool on the selection with a colour I picked. I think I set opacity at 30 or so.

Well, there you go. Not great, not ridiculously terrible either.

Feel free to tell me an easier/better way to do it.

Oh yes, and this is McGill University, again. DrNick's, my boyfriend's, and William Shatner's alma mater. One day it will be mine as well. Unless I flunk all my courses, which is why I will go back to studying now. The Redpath building is on the left with the red banner, and the building with the smoke is the Arts building. And the white stuff is snow, for those warm weather folks who may have forgotten ;-)

16: Graffiti

Graffiti on a service door in a Montreal metro system.

I'm for tagging as an art form. I've seen some amazing murals done by graffiti artists in various cities in various places. Some of it is legal, some isn't. This, however, I find annoying. It serves no purpose (in my mind), and just makes more work for the maintenance crew.

I feel todays youth does need to speak out and make their mark, but in a meaningful way, and not through some random, meaningless tagging.