TFC Home Opener - 2016

It is the 10th year for Toronto FC, and with a lengthy road trip to start the season all of the TFC supporters were chomping at the bit for our boys in red to come home.  8 away games to start the season along with off season renovations to Our House (BMO Field) - lets just say that the atmosphere always promised to be something special.

With new security measures in place, and undoubtedly a learning curve for the entry gate staff, I did not want to risk bringing my Nikon into the stadium.  I settled for my blackberry classic camera.  This little guy isn't too bad of a device, and allows you to shoot panorama on the phone itself.

These are a few of the shots I got pre game.  No in game shots - that's when you actually watch the soccer game...

I am now an official Award Winning Photographer

In October of 2015 I entered a number of photographs in the Capture Oakville photographic competition.  This competition is held annually.  I entered 5 images in digital format, of which 3 were chosen to be printed and judged.  Of those 3, I won 2nd place in the category Something Grand.  The photo was from the Glenfinnan Viaduct in Scotland, which those of you who saw the Harry Potter films might recognize as the bridge that the Hogwarts Express rides along.

Here is the shot that won 2nd place.

And these were the other two that were chosen to hang in exhibit.

15th Hole - Capture Oakville

Seagull - Nature and Wildlife

I am using my winnings to save up for a new camera... :-)

Project 365 - Day 365 - What better way to close off a project?

Done.  Finito. Fini. That's all folks. 

Today marks the end of my project 365 for 2013.  Now, I am not saying that I won't do this again, I am saying that I am taking at least 2014 off - probably more.  I might pick this up when I have less on my schedule - when I am retired, or at least have more free time.  This project took a lot of my free time away, and it became - at times - a chore of sorts. 

I learned an awful lot this year, I forced myself to hone new techniques and shoot different things.  I short three charity events, and participated in many photo outings, one of which will no doubt become an annual thing for me.  I saw new parts of my town and surrounding area.  I learned that if you have a camera in your hand, random people will ask if you can take their picture and have it emailed to them.  I learned how to coax squirrels with peanuts to get that perfect shot, and how to pan to catch birds flying by or coming in for a fish.  I learned to stop shooting when I had my shot of the day, and to come back later to get the rest of the shots for other days.

I learned that even I can't take a bad picture in Tahiti and Bora Bora.

I do have regrets though.

I regret that I never got that shot of the cardinal I wanted.  I didn't have time to shoot the northern lights - as the weekend we spent in Algonquin Park was not ideal for that subject.  I also regret that the Algonquin trip was a week too late for the good fall colours, and a lot of the colourful foliage had fallen by the time we go there.  I regret that I did not explore more techniques.  I regret that some of my shots are less than stellar - but they can't all be framers.

I found out that a lot of people were following my blog, although my blogger account only shows one actual follower.  Facebook, Twitter and Networked Blogs brought my more people, and my blogger account recorded visitors from Central and South America, Europe and Asia.  I also had some traffic from the Polynesian Islands as well.

Canada - 6513 pageviews
USA - 2789 pageviews
Russia - 578 pageviews
Germany - 377 pageviews
Ukraine - 149 pagevies
Indonesia - 84 pagevies
France - 59 pageviews
Netherlands - 48 pageviews
China - 45 pageviews
Serbia - 32 pagevies

Friends and Family who had never clicked "like" in Facebook on any of the shots shared their favourite ones with me.  It was really cool to find out that even though people weren't vocal about it, they were following my blog.

The most visited posts were random.  Day 227, the shot of our friend's daughter at the Rising Star competition garnered the most pageviews, along with Day 303 - the shot from Hallowe'en.  The third highest pageview was page 1, which is where everyone had to go to start looking at the blog unless they had a direct link.

Although this marks the final Project 365 blog entry, it does not mark the last Confessions of a Photoholic blog.  You will see more from me, but not as often.  Thanks for taking this incredible journey with me, and a huge thanks goes out to my wife, Sonia, for her patience, support, and ability to kick my ass into gear to get a shot of the day even when I didn't want to even look at my camera.

Oh yeah, today's shot.  This was shot on the 31st, although I just got home from a NYE party.  This is shot on Britannia Road looking off into the sunset.  The sky was dark and gloomy until just an hour before sunset.  Sonia sent me out to get this shot - we were supposed to be in Milton together for a party and she sent me on ahead and got a ride with friends so I could have a sunset for the final shot of the blog.  Thanks again Sonia.

Project 365 - Day 364 - Bronte Harbour

For the second last day of this project, I decided to go back down to one of my favourite haunts.  I went down to Bronte Harbour.

The ice in the picture is quite thin, to the left of this shot the water is open and moving.  The geese shown in the lower right hand corner are actually standing on the ice itself ... not swimming in it.

It just might be time to fly south birds ... :-)

Project 365 - Day 363 - No Rest for Santa

Well, today marked the last of the Christmas festivities that we had planned this year.  4 Christmas dinners, and one open house, and we got to see a lot of friends and family.  It is now time to start planning for next year.

This got me thinking about Santa.  It must take him forever to make all the toys for the little boys and girls, so he must have to start right away.  I am sure he takes Christmas day off, and maybe Boxing day as well, but he is probably back at it again on the 27th, making toys.

I have a figurine that I painted probably 12 years ago of Santa making a dollhouse.  I decided to do a portrait of him for tonight's shot.

Project 365 - Day 362 - Tree at night

Tonight I went back down to Coronation Park to shoot some stars.  I decided to use my tree as the foreground for some start shots.  It was really dark due to the lack of moonlight, so it was really hard to focus.  I ended up bracketting my focus on a number of shots and picking the best one later when I could see what the focus was doing.

Project 365 - Day 361 - Snow and running water

One of the things I like about early spring is the melting of the snow, and how the creeks and rivers start to carve their way through the ice and snow.  Today is a very nice day, it is sunny and hovering around 0 deg - the perfect ingredients for open water in the creeks and rivers.  This is a shot I got this morning around the corner from my house - I love the reflections in the pooling water, just before it goes down the little mini rapids.

Project 365 - Day 360 - Coronation tree from another angle

This shot is of my favourite tree in Coronation Park.  You can see that the remnants of the ice storm are pretty much gone from our neck of the woods.  We went to see my sister this evening for Christmas dinner and she still has a lot of ice on her trees.  Her neighbourhood is just north of us, about a 10 minute drive.  It is really strange how different the results of the storm are from area to area.  I guess there is something about living closer to the lake - but it usually feels colder around the water.

Project 365 - Day 359 - Luca and the Nerf Gun

So this is my cousin's son Luca.  I had him pose like this, and used a small aperture to blur his face while I focused on the barrel of the Nerf gun.  The gun was not loaded, and neither my camera nor I was in any danger during this time.

Project 365 - Day 358 - One more ice storm shot

This was shot on the way to a family dinner, the first of four Christmas dinners this year.  Yum.  Anyway, this is up in Brampton, along highway 407 where the ice on the trees and bushes is still pretty thick.  You can see a lot of ice build up on the transmission towers.  These lines all survived the storm, but some are still coated in ice even though it is sunny outside.

Many thanks to my patient wife for pulling over on the side of the highway so I could get this shot... :-)

Project 365 - Day 357 - Covered in ice

Today I was doing some last minute running around, and I stepped out of Staples at Dorval and the North Service Road.  The sun was out, and it had lit up the field of grasses beautifully.  So I raced home and grabbed my camera, only to find out I missed the show.  I waited this time, and sure enough, as the sun started to drop it lit up the field again.  I snapped a couple of pictures.

This is an HDR of 4 shots.

Project 365 - Day 356 - Ice

So, those in the GTA will recognize this photo.  It's something that they are looking at themselves, in their backyards, front yards, and even in the planters in their balconies that they have neglected to clean out this fall.  This is a shot from my backyard during today's ice storm.  Currently we are at the tail end of the storm, and it is warming up a bit so the ice should begin to melt off the trees.  There are a number of trees down in the area, some parts of the GTA are without power and will be for a while, but here in our immediate area there is not much damage - yet.  We're still hoping that this will be the extent of the storm.

This is one of my many spruce trees in the backyard, the branches are hanging a lot lower than usual, so I was able to get a pretty close shot.  No macro today, the wind is too strong making longer exposures impossible.

Project 365 - Day 355 - It's all over but the wrapping

Spent most of the day today shopping - but it's almost all done now.  All we have left is wrapping.  Usually, I wrap all the presents while Sonia does the last finishing touches on the shopping but since we're finishing a little earlier this year than usual, I might actually have some help in that department.

Project 365 - Day 354 - Leaf on Snow

Well, not a very imaginative title I know, but it actually describes the shot perfectly.  This is a leaf from my Japanese Maple that decided to fall AFTER the snow last weekend and subsequent melt today.  This guy is still wet as it is still raining outside.  I was hoping it would freeze, and make for some good icicle shots off the branches, but no such luck.  I guess it's really a good thing, as if the temp were to drop below freezing now there would be a lot of accidents.

Project 365 - Day 353 - Santa came to my house early this year

We got home later than usual today, and we found a present under the tree.  It wasn't from Santa Claus, but it was from my sister, Heather.  Heather had been posting on facebook about an ornament that our mother had made a long time ago - she made a bunch of these ornaments and sold them at a craft sale.  My sisters bought some of these ornaments, and Heather dug one out of a box for me to have, asI didn't have one of my own.  It was truly a nice surprise.

Our tree is full of ornaments that we have received from friends and family, ones that we bought while traveling on vacation or for work.  Each ornament on our tree means something to us, and when we put the tree up every year we get to relive those memories - "remember this trip?" "Were did we buy this one?" and so on.  We even have ornaments that remind us of Brodie and Leo, our dog and cat that have since passed on.

So today's shot is another ornament on the tree - but not just any ornament.  This is one my mom made.

Project 365 - Day 352 - Batteries Included

I remember one Christmas when I was a kid.  I was allowed to open one present on Christmas eve, and the rest would have to wait until Christmas day.  We were allowed to pick the present we opened, and I chose this heavy rectangular block that I had been checking out for weeks before.  My parents tried to talk me out of it, but I insisted that I open that one.  It turned out to be a lantern battery - part of another gift.  Now, my parents could have left it at that, but they allowed me to open the gift that went with the battery.  It was a wood burning set.

At this time of year we find ourselves shopping for kids gifts, and I know some people like to buy the cute outfit, or some clothes that the kid needs, but I'm more of the toy kind of shopper.  Usually, I check the side of the package and see if the toy requires batteries, and the more batteries it takes the better the toy inevitably is. 

Recently, Sonia and I were shopping for toys for a charity and we were specifically looking for things that did not take batteries, as these are consumable or luxury items.  Rechargeable batteries are an option, but if you have a toy that takes twelve AA batteries ( yes, I have bought a couple of these toys - as well as a case of batteries from Costco ) then this could get expensive.

As a photographer, batteries are a big part of my hobby.  When I go on a shoot I make sure I have my two camera batteries charged, and my AA batteries ready to go - at least two sets for the two flashes, two sets for the PocketWizards.  That adds up to a whopping twenty four batteries.  They are all rechargeable, so at least I'm not personally responsible for killing the environment ... :-)

This photo has the batteries included....

Project 365 - Day 351 - Snow on the Juniper

This is a macro shot of a spot of snow on a juniper bush in front of our house.  This was shot with my 60mm lens, side lit with a flash as it was getting late in the day  ( I had to keep adjusting my settings to account for the dying natural light).    This spot is no more than an inch square, as you can probably tell by the size of the juniper stems in the bottom right hand corner of the shot.

Project 365 - Day 350 - Shadows

When I got home tonight, I went around back to get the recycling containers.  I noticed the way the trees were casting shadows across the pristine, untouched snow in the backyard.  So I grabbed my camera and tripod and hiked around the back side of the backyard, careful not to disturb any snow.

Framing the shot posed a real problem, and after trying to crop and get it to work in post I came to a conclusion.  I should have gone to a park to shoot this where there was more room.  But I kinda like this anwyay...

Project 365 - Day 349 - Winter Night

This was shot tonight in my backyard.  The sky was so blue because of the reflections from the snow and the big bright moon.   No starts tongiht, it's just too bright outside.  But I wanted to capture the colour of the sky itself.  I shot the moon through one of the birches in the backyard for this picture.

Project 365 - Day 348 - Christmas Portrait

Today I spent the afternoon at Stonemill taking pictures for a Christmas event put on by Heather and Pat Belsito.  This was one of the subjects for today's shoot.  The pointsettia beside her is named Landon, who is her little brother - he was too camera shy to be in the picture.