Happy Anniversary!

Happy 24th Anniversary to my wonderful parents! You are two of the most amazing people I know. Thank you for sticking together through the good and bad times and for everything you've done for Emma and I! Love you!

Weekend Visit

Wow! I can't believe the term is half done! As midterms, essays and project due dates near closer and closer, I'm becoming busier and busier. I am finally getting used to being on my own and cooking for myself again! This weekend, my amazing parents (and the pups) visited me and I was able to have a nice break from homework. We went to the mall for a bit, and then we went to a Photographic, Video and Digital Imaging show. It was very interesting. We listened in on some interesting seminars and I tested out some insane zoom lenses! I also managed to find this old film camera for $30!

There were no old Nikon lenses that I could grab to go along with it, but I can use my dad's old lenses on it. Unfortunately, I won't be able to use this camera in my photography class this year, seeing as I still need to test it and I don't have any batteries for it either. I'm hoping to be able to use it in the spring and summer. I have always loved photography, but thanks to photography class, I discovered a love for film cameras! I find it very exciting to not be able to see the pictures until the film is developed, and it really makes me think about the pictures I'm taking.

Thanksgiving

After a great weekend with amazing family, friends and lots of delicious food, it's almost time to go home! I am so thankful to have such a great family! We had lots of love and laughs, and I was able to see Paul again briefly - he, Emma and I did the corn maze at the local apple farm! I'm sad to be leaving so soon, but I do need to get back to all that work I need to do! Here are a couple of shots I stole of my beautiful family:

Nuit Blanche

This past weekend, my roommate and I went to Nuit Blanche spur of the moment. I took my analog camera to document it for our photojournalism/documentary photo project. Since it was our first year going, we weren't sure what to do or what to go see, so we just took the subway down to Zone B and checked it out. I can't say I saw anything particularly amazing (I guess we can account this to the fact that we had no idea what we were doing), but I was in absolute awe at the amount of people just walking around. Streets were closed and completely crowded with people just aimlessly walking around — maybe they knew where they were going and maybe they were just as lost or confused as us. I would definitely go next year, and make sure I did a lot of research and would know what to see and how to get there! If you want to know more, here is a link to the official Nuit Blanche 2010 website: http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca/home.shtml

This picture was taken from the homepage of the Nuit Blanche site. I didn't see it (or anything else too spectacular), but I wish I did! Next year!

Busy Busy Busy

Wow! I can't believe it's been so long since I last wrote! But I kind of can believe it because I'm still not used to the whole university life. This year is so much different than last, with living off campus, cooking for myself and courses that are more difficult. As much as I hate it, I also love it. I just wrapped up my first photography project of the year with our assignment which was to make light the subject. What I did for this project was explore the city at night and the spectacle of lights. To help figure out the correct exposure, I took along my DSLR to help. Here is a shot I snagged with my digital that I quite like. (even though the film version wasn't included in my project, I still like it!)

Back to the Books (Sort of)

Well, today marks the end of my first week of year 2. I am really excited to be back and learning about all the things I love! The reason for the "Sort of" in the title of this blog is because only 2 of my classes require actual textbooks - the rest have online readings or art materials and supplies. I like all of my classes so far and can't wait to learn and create! So far, I am most excited to get back into photography and drawing. I love working with my film camera, processing black and white film and making prints in the darkroom, even though it is a long and tiresome process. Throughout high school, I always loved drawing, but wasn't able to fit the course into my schedule for first year. I finally have it and am very excited to start again! We are starting off the year with landscape studies.

Summer's End

It's hard to believe how fast summer flew by! I remember thinking how much time I had left to do all the summery things I wanted to do back in June. Now my time is almost up. I have two days left - tomorrow I'll be working and packing, and the next day I'll be moving all my stuff to my housing for this year. This end-of-summer is bittersweet because I am going to miss lazing around on my days off, but I'm also more and more excited about my second year of university! I can't wait to get back to learning about the things I love and being able to live with and see all my friends again! Yesterday, my parents noticed that the local farm has harvested their pumpkins a little early this year, so I went out to grab a couple of (hopefully) iStock worthy shots.