Macro May 2020 - Day 6

I think this might be a clematis? Someone who knows about these things will need to confirm for me :P

Macro May 2018 - Day 10

Just a dried up old bud that caught my eye...because I look and see differently when I have my macro lens. Fresh perspective!

Macro May 2018 - Day 9

I wasn't sure what this purple flower was so I asked the Insagram world and the consensus seems to be that it is an Allium, more specifically an ornamental allium, which is basically an onion. Learn something new every day!

Macro May 2018 - Day 7

They're everywhere, making sure you can't forget them!

Macro May 2018 - Day 5

Cow parsley may be a weed, but it doesn't stop it being pretty. So delicate and unassuming, it always catches my eye.

Macro May 2018 - Day 1

It's Macro May! I joined this Instagram photo challenge last year and will be playing along again this year. I confess, with my personal lifestyle 52 week project, following our real life, more documentary or lifestyle, I find myself missing the 'pretty' and the 'details', so this is just what I need.

Hopefully the rain will hold off some of the days as most of my best inspiration comes from nature. This little beauty was poking over from next door (as sadly there is not even one flower or bloom in our garden, which we have yet to start) and I added a very low opacity texture from Jessica Drossin.

Macro May 2017 - Day 1

I love macro photography. The ability to get extreme close ups and focus on details. When you focus on a close object, the depth of field is much smaller and I love this effect, which further draws your eyes to the subject being focused on. It forces me to look at things in a different way. For the month of May I will be taking at least one macro photo a day, to add to my collection. Some may be more artistic than others, some may be more technical but I hope to push myself, grow and have fun. Feel free to follow along and let me know if you are doing a similar project that I can follow or if you have any ideas for something you'd like me to try to shoot.

Day 1 - Can't go wrong with a pretty rose.

February Photo Project 2017 - Photo A Day - Day 9

The thing about anniversaries is that they come around every year. For the celebrations, this is wonderful, but there are hard anniversaries too. It was twelve years ago we lost our Mum. I still feel robbed, for myself, for my kids, for my brothers and sisters. I don't often talk about the details but she didn't get to die a peaceful death due to natural causes, she was let down by a hospital 'error' and then nobody could figure out what was wrong, nothing was done and then it was too late. Maybe it would be easier if her life had ended differently? I mean, I would still miss her, but the feeling cheated wouldn't be a factor.

I really don't anticipate this day and yet it always hits me. I never forget it, because it's the day before my son's birthday, and I obviously never want to forget her, but the rest of the year life just goes on as normal and then the day comes and it's still painful.

Once again it was rainy and dreary, which just added to my sadness. The one tradition I have is to buy freesias, because they were her favorite. I have them sitting beside me tonight and they smell amazing and I wonder why I don't buy them more often? They weren't easy to find, again...as I approached the third florist I was starting to get frustrated; why did it have to be so hard? Why was it grey and raining and miserable? Why did nobody have these flowers I wanted? Why hadn't I thought to plan ahead and actually order some? Finally at the fourth florist they had three little bunches, they cost the most I have ever spent on them, but I didn't care. This is what I did, and still do, to try to remember and celebrate this woman.

I grieve the years I took her for granted, saddened that it wasn't until I became a mother myself that I finally saw her as a friend and could appreciate her in a whole new way, then less than a year later she was gone.

She would have been so excited this year to finally welcome two new grandbabies, to two of her sons. Sons living in the same country as her, not across an ocean, babies that she would be able to get to see and dote on. She would already have been setting aside toys and clothes and would be checking on her daughter-in-laws, probably a little too often. But she's not here to share in any of it...they don't get to share that with her, to see her in her element. She would have been so very happy, I know from my own, too brief, experience, this was something she longed for and looked forward to.

Nothing can bring her back. It's a sad fact...and life still has to go on...and it does. But she will be forever missed.

*As in years past, I am once again doing a February photo project and will post a photo a day. It may only be one month of the year, but I love to look back on these photos and it never hurts to have a bit of discipline. No real rules, just our life documented a little. Maybe there'll be captions, maybe not, there could be the occasional phone photo thrown in on busier days and sometimes it may be hard to narrow things down and there could be bonus photos.

 I'd love for you to follow along, or even join in. Let me know!

Photo a Day February 2015 - Day 23

This is a personal kick start project, a photo a day for the month of February.

Some days you need to find your own sunshine.

Photo a Day February 2015 - Day 9

This is a personal kick start project, a photo a day for the month of February.

It's been ten years since we lost our Mum. Ten years today. That's a long time. A long time for memories to still feel fresh and pain to still feel raw. It's easier to just push it aside most of the time, but as the anniversary draws closer, it always gets harder...so I keep pushing, until the day, and then I have a little fall apart. 

This year is different than the years before. Before I was far away, I could pretend, because I wouldn't have the opportunity to see her anyway, but now I am back in my old home country, where she was, faced with the very stark reality that she is not here with us. It is just so very sad. I know that she would have been overjoyed at our return, to get to spend time with her grand-kids, to have us all together again. 

I feel like there aren't many ways to remember her. I don't know if she had a favourite food, or something that she loved to do, because she was always about serving everybody else. The only way I have to remember and celebrate her is to buy freesias, so that is what I do every year.

But this year, after dropping the kids at school, in this new place where we live, I could not find a single florist open. So I traipsed the streets alone, feeling sad, then came home and texted my brothers and sister. The date is easy for me to remember, because it is the day before my son's birthday, but I don't know if others have chosen to remember it or not...it's delicate ground.

I went out again, later in the day and found one florist open, but no freesias and no suggestion of where I might find some. Two other florists were closed for the day. It just added to the hopelessness of it all. So I had to settle for a little bouquet with roses instead. Simple (and it was on sale, which Mum would have appreciated) but roses are my favourite, not hers and it wasn't what I wanted for today.

52 Weeks of 2014 - Week 9

I had a meeting in the city (San Francisco) on Tuesday morning and as my husband did not have any work scheduled, he came in with me so that we could spend time together afterwards. There is so much of this city that I have not yet seen and it turned out it was a day with many attractions offering free entrance.

I had grabbed my camera, as we headed out of the door and for some reason I had decided to also bring my macro lens. It's not one I bring as a matter of course, it's for detail shots and is fun, but not always useful. When I saw that the Conservatory of Flowers was on the list of freebies, I knew immediately that was where I wanted to go. It was fun to wander through, just the two of us and admire plants we don't see in every day life (and without little ones tugging on our clothes to let us know they were bored and ask when we could leave)!

Next time he gets to choose where we head to.

52 Weeks of 2013 - Week 12

Some weeks are just harder and longer than others...but there is always hope!

Last week was so disappointing, it was Spring Break for my two oldest and it rained...almost all week. I am so happy to feel the sun on my skin again, to not be cold, for the days to feel bright and cheerful.

In celebration of this lovely weather I thought I would share a few recent florals, just because sometimes it's fun to have a change from photographing people and it gives me a good reason to get out my macro lens.

Happy Spring!

52 Week Project - Week 7

Our weather has been a little crazy. We have had glorious sun-filled, warm days (far too early I know) and more recently the gray...the rain. I groan a little inwardly when I awake to the pitter patter on my windowpane. The days just seem harder and duller. I know we need the rain, but I miss the sunshine! It lifts my spirits, it brings forth life. All around I see the beautiful signs that comfortingly remind me, season follows season, that spring soon WILL be here.

Freesia

The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day. Spring is here, officially here!

Freesias were my mom's favorite flowers and I had taken some photographs back in February but not really played or posted anything.

So in celebration of spring: