I have been trying an experiment called freelensing.

I’ve known about this technique for a while now but didn’t really consider taking a look at it until hearing Sam Hurd speak at the Canadian Photography Convention back in April. It’s a very simple technique where the lens is removed and held against the camera with slight shifts up, down, left or right. The effect creates a tilt shift sort of look, which is all kinds of dreamy. There are lots of really great explanations and tutorials out there so if you are interested in this sort of fun project, I highly recommend it. It’s tricky to get the focusing just so and I have lots of practice to go but I like the look and want to start using it on people. Plus, it’s fun to try some new things!

Sam Hurd’s Explanation of Freelensing

Ryan Brenizer’s Take on Freelensing

Happy experimenting!

I am trying something new.

Ever since I went to the Canada Photo Convention, I have been debating daily about this. Personal blog vs. personal work on the business blog.

There are benefits and negatives to both, but I think when I get right down to it, I have so much personal work that I don’t always share because I don’t feel like the Simply Rose blog is the right place to. Pictures of my kid. My family. Other random musings or things that I find that I am sure you don’t want stuffing up your Facebook feed every time I announce I have posted something new.

So I am making a split. I will no longer be posting things of a personal nature on this blog (except for the occasional thing) but will be putting everything on over at Simply Wandering Rose. I will be adding a link in the menu bar above so if you want to see pictures of my kid, what I did last weekend or what I had for supper last week, you can!

And just to refresh, here are all the places that you can follow me:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simplyrosephotography

Twitter: https://twitter.com/simplyrosephoto

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/simplyrose/

Instagram: http://instagram.com/simplyrosephoto#

Simply Rose Blog: http://www.simplyroseblog.com/

Simply Wandering Rose: http://www.simplywanderingrose.com

I hope that you will follow me over to the new personal blog. I did a more in-depth explanation about my decision here. As you can see, it has taken me a month to fully decide to launch this. I won’t be making announcements anywhere when I post to the Simply Wandering Rose, just feel free to stop on by when you like. And please do let me know what you think of this. Hate it? Love it? Inquiring minds want to know (me!).

Thanks for reading here and now there will just be more to love.

Happy Friday!

We met at their favourite local park, Rocky Point in Port Moody one evening, for some pictures and to hang out some. It was a little windy and chilly, but once we hid in the trees, things got much better and I adore the series of the two of them in the grass. Give me some trees, some nice tall grass, a couple in love and I am as happy as a clam.

The chemistry between Heather and Mark is fabulous – they love to laugh and it’s contagious. Needless to say, we had an awesome time exploring the park, the low tide and everything else in between.

Can’t wait to see these two in September for their Redwoods wedding.

This quick little session for second edition of The Refinery Magazine was the first time that I had met Bean and Mike. I knew about them as the founders of Wed Over Heels, a unique wedding networking site based out of Vancouver and I knew that they were going to be a lot of fun to meet. So we packed up all our kids (they have a little guy, Knox and a little gal, Journey), my husband to supervise the kids during the shoot (thanks honey!) along with Ainsley and Madison of the Refinery and headed out to Olympic Village to hang out. This was Bean and Mike’s neighborhood so they really felt at home here – we started off with a little snack at Terra Breads and then visited their rooftop for a few cityscape views. We also got a lovely tour of their newly planted garden, which the kids were pretty proud of. After a few hours of photos and letting the kids run around, it was time to head home.

And since it’s their 11th anniversary this weekend, I thought it fitting to post these additional images that I had from the shoot. It was an immense pleasure to meet them, they are so lovely and sweet, and to see them again at the Vancouver Wedding Industry Meetup last week.

Happy Anniversary you two!

You may remember this cake fiasco from a few years ago.

Well, I’ve been at it again with a special request for a birthday cake from my husband today. I made a gluten-free zucchini cake with walnuts with some cream cheese icing. Except, I didn’t have enough icing and had to fill the middle with homemade blackberry jam. I was oh so careful not to get any too close to the edge of the cake but once I put the top on, everything just spilled out the sides and there went my pretty icing job. Well, I gave up at that point. I just put on the rest of the icing and spread it over as evenly as I could.

Clearly, I am not very good at this cake making thing.

But at least it tasted great!

Happy Victoria Day!

]]> http://www.simplyroseblog.com/birthday-cake-take-two/feed/ 0 http://www.simplyroseblog.com/vancouver-mom-top-30-blogger/ http://www.simplyroseblog.com/vancouver-mom-top-30-blogger/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 17:07:49 +0000 Simply Rose http://www.simplyroseblog.com/?p=6826

Every once in a while, I get an exciting, interesting out-of-the-blue email. And yesterday was no exception.

I came home to an email from VancouverMom.ca notifying me that I had been nominated in their Vancouver Mom Ultimate Blogger contest. And that I somehow made it into the top 30. My immediate reaction was, What? MY blog? My little space on the interwebs? And then my second thought was, So maybe people really DO read my blog after all!

I emailed one of the bloggers at Vancouver Mom just to make sure that they didn’t make a mistake but sure enough, it was legit. And now I am starting to sweat because I need to write a profile for myself that will be featured on their site. There is nothing that makes me more nervous than being asked to write a blurb about my business or myself – where do I start? What do I say? I am cheesy by nature and for some reason, whenever I am asked to do this, all the cheese just starts showing up out of nowhere. Anyone out there want to help me? *Asking in a small child-like voice*

At any rate, I can say that I am greatly flattered and humbled and very excited to be attending a Vancouver Mom Ultimate Blogger shindig at an undisclosed location in Gastown in June. In the meantime, the profile will be posted to VancouverMom.ca from May 20-24 and then there will be an open vote from May 27- June 7 for the TOP blogger. I am giving you fair warning because I will be soliciting votes from you at the end of May =) The grand prize is pretty swank – it’s a two night stay at the Painted Boat Resort Spa & Marina, an iPad Mini and a year’s worth of Purdy’s chocolates.

And to whomever nominated me, THANK YOU. You are so very sweet to have taken the time to do this and I am so appreciative of it. I would really love to know who it is so I can thank them properly (but this is also partly because I can be kind of a nosy-pants), but you don’t have to come forward if you don’t want to. No pressure. Unless I win the grand prize and then I would have no one to share my chocolates with. And that would be very sad.

Happy Friday everyone! Enjoy your long weekend!

I had never walked up to a complete stranger before and ask them if I could take their picture.

But that’s how I met Erin.

I was at Granville Island one morning and she was singing and playing the ukelele for passersby and I thought to myself, “I’d like to photograph that girl. She’s got mad style.” I paused a moment nearby and began to talk myself out of it.

“I can’t do that, she’ll think I’m weird and creepy.”

I continued on, only to do a loop around some shops and came back, mustering up the courage to talk to her. I felt ridiculous. Almost like asking someone out for the first time. Would she say yes? Would she say no? Would she look at me and tell me I’m weird and creepy? And before I knew it, my feet were walking me over to her.

I’m really glad I did it.

We hung out for a few hours one sunny morning. Chatted. Laughed. I got to hear a bit about her story of where she came from and how she ended up in Vancouver. I think I did more talking than shooting. And that’s OK.

Introducing to you…..Erin.

When I had asked Samantha and Justin where they would like to go for their engagement session, they told me they often hang out at the arcade in the Kid’s Only Market at Granville Island. After I heard this, I thought to myself, “Arcade? At the Kid’s Only Market?” And sure enough on my scouting mission, I did indeed find an arcade on the upper level. Even though we didn’t get up to the arcade, we still did visit Granville Island on a glorious weekday evening. We cruised about, chased the light, laughed a lot and I had a generally fantastic time getting to know them a bit better. Samantha even brought along an heirloom pocket watch that belonged to her grandfather, then her grandmother and now her, which made for a beautiful necklace. I always really appreciate the little details like this and I think it’s meaningful to take a bit of time to get some beautiful images of pieces that have some historical and/or sentimental importance. So thank you for bringing this along, Sam!

These two have hearts of gold and I am really looking forward to seeing them again for their September wedding.

Enjoy!

I woke up this morning as I would any other regular Saturday morning. I lie in bed and recount my son’s morning ritual of letting the cat out the front door, then the slam, lock and pitter patter of feet to our bedroom door. He stands there a moment silently, somewhat creepily, before he says, “Mommy, wake up.”

So I get up, let my husband to sleep in a bit, and get ourselves ready for the day. Socks. Underwear. Pants. Shirt. Vitamins. In that order.

It didn’t hit me until I remembered it was breakfast time that it was my birthday today. Birthdays seem like such non-events after 25. That was 10 years ago now so I’ve had 10 years of “Oh, it’s my birthday, I almost forgot.” Thank goodness for Facebook reminding me the past 5 years, otherwise I’m not sure I’d remember at all.

I was rather bummed that my husband wasn’t going to be around today. He’s been working on a really big van project and today was the day to complete a good portion of it. It’s just how the timing worked out of everything. And add the beautiful weather didn’t help matters – the possibilities of outdoors activities were endless, so Fin and I went to the beach. Taking a toddler to the beach, I was expecting to be building sand castles and push sand around all afternoon with his bulldozer, but surprisingly, Fin played by himself for over an hour. Happy as a clam with a pink bucket full of cool saltwater, a Tupperware container for a scoop and a few trucks from home. Sometimes it doesn’t take much. I watched him for a while until my mind would wander into this place of just seeing what was around me. Not in terms of framing objects for a photograph, which is how I often think these days, but just seeing the endless blue around me and getting lost in it. Things were starting to blend together into a peaceful harmony – sounds, the warm wind, the sky, the sea, the mountains, people enjoying themselves around me. I very, very rarely take a moment like this. It’s not in my nature to do so, especially now with so much on my plate. But it was nice to pause and not think about anything, really. Which is another thing I very rarely get to do. We did make some sand castles together and I buried his legs in sand, which he found incredibly funny. We watched the kitesurfers zip across the water and blew bubbles that zoomed off with the wind. And before we knew it, it was time to go.

The rest of the day was the usual run-around – grocery shopping, waiting in too-long lineups, frantically making supper in a much too small kitchen, bath time for Fin. I was thinking about cleaning up the kitchen from the wreckage of making dinner when Fin was sitting in my lap, squeaky clean after his bath. He was obviously tired and laid his head against me. I was speaking to my mother at the moment when he started to say something but I didn’t quite hear it.

“What was that, bear?” I asked him.

Not moving from me, he repeated in a quiet, tired voice, “Happy birthday, Mummy.”

I hugged him close and felt few tears form behind my eyes. And then I realized I got the best birthday present ever today – spending a beautiful sunny afternoon with my son at the beach which made me forget about all the other stuff for a while. That was the best gift of all.