Photography Adventure: Brampton Fall Fair and Downey's Farm

My friend Hillary and I went on another Photo Adventure on Saturday, joined by my Uncle. The location we choose was actually one Chris suggested which was the Brampton Fall Fair that opened on Saturday.

I think I would have been more comfortable if we had a child with us, so that I could use them as a focal point. I found it a little awkward taking photos with random people in them. They had a number of shows on at the fair such as a Birds of Prey, and a Dog Show, and Cow Contests. But I felt a little out of my element as people are not where my photography strengths lie, so I ended up doing what I like to shoot best and got a lot of detail shots. I tried doing different techniques with Photoshop this time around, as I liked the idea of how the Fair looked abandoned when we first arrived. This was due to the fact that we got there right when it opened so there weren't a lot of people there yet. I really tried to play to that look in the editing process, which you will see in a few of the photos below.

I hope you all enjoy them as I am quite proud of them, despite not being in my element. If you want to see my photos from our last adventure you can see them here. I do ask that if you are linking up from Facebook to please leave comments here as I don't really want any of my work or your comments on Facebook due to their weird/strict/unbelievable crap rules with photography.

Thanks and enjoy.

Honest to Blog- Life at the Vaughan House!

Well this weekend started out OK and then kinda went tits up. On Friday after work I was a little hyper from lack of sleep due to staying up way past my bedtime to take the first pictures of this little girl a few days earlier.

On Friday evening I made Richard and I some Butter Chicken and as I was making it I thought to myself "This chicken smells a little off." But being sleep deprived I shrugged my shoulders and continued to make the food. Richard ate his curry, but having already thought there was a weird smell I now felt that there was a weird taste to the curry too. Again sleep deprived Paula thought nothing of this until Saturday when I started feeling a little sick to my stomach. When I got home from my photography adventure, I craved a glass of milk only to take a gulp and realized the milk was warm. Opened up my freezer...yup all the food had defrosted and gone bad, Our Fridge was broken.

$%#^#&$^%%&% 

(that's me swearing as my eyes water). 

Also both Richard and I had minor food poisoning due to bad chicken. So I ran to the Brick only to discover the cheapest fridge they have couldn't be delivered until Sunday. Next up was Bad Boy, which was fantastic. They matched the Bricks price and could deliver on Wednesday. Still cost us a pretty penny but we knew buying our Condo eventually we were going to have to replace the utilities. It just sucks when we actually have to do it.

Sunday was a little bit better. Richard and I didn't do much. Just stayed at home and relaxed, which was nice but also boring. Monday was spent in the same way. Although my Dad and his wife Cheryl came up from Halifax for a visit and saw our Condo for the first time. They were also generous enough to give us some Gift Cards to the grocery store to replace some of the food we lost due to the fakakta fridge. Thanks Dad and Cheryl!

Sunday evening we went out to meet with friends and family for a mini writing group Richard has organized. Richard's the writer in our family of two, but for the last little while an idea for a story has popped into my head and I kinda wanna get it out. So with the help of our friends I think I may have a solid plot going and it will be nice to share this hobby with Richard. We can keep each other motivated and hopefully we can fulfill Richard's dream of being a published author.

Lately I've also been thinking I need to get stress out of my life. The beginning of the year was spent with a lot of health issues for myself and therefore all of my sick days and personal days were used up before we even hit May. So as a vacation for myself I'm taking a stay at home holiday for the month of September. What this means is that if I have previous plans with you I will honor those commitments but anything extra I am going to say no to. I have a number of things I want to do around the Condo that I've been pushing to one side because of laziness but also because on days I have off I'm either spending it with friends or trying to relax as it is my one day to myself. I need a vacation from life and after spending money on a new fridge I want to cut costs and not spend a lot of money going out to dinners and movies or on gas.

Also I have a number of posts I want to do for this blog and now with this writing group I have a number of things I want to do for myself. It may sound selfish but I'm a believer that every now and then we need to be selfish and do things for ourselves. Hopefully everyone will understand and I will be back out in the real world at the beginning of October.

Photography Adventures: Fergus, Ontario

A couple weeks ago my friend Hillary and I decided we wanted to start doing photography adventures. We started years ago, we would pick a location and photograph for a couple hours and just practice and enjoy our passion for photography. Yesterday was are first day getting back into this little hobby of ours and Hillary picked a great location to start.

Fergus, Ontario is a town about an hour drive away from Brampton. It had a beautiful quarry with a really nice lookout that we were able to get some great detail shots from, as well as a little waterfall. When I take photos I really like getting up close to details so you will see that a lot in the photos below.