Today

A stroll, saunter, or brisk walk

to the two EE's farmer's market for some fresh veggies.

Always surprises me

how much you can get for ten dollars.

Oh, the many ways to cook them.

A post card today, a letter tomorrow, a bill to pay.

What surprises hide behind that little mailbox door

with one little lock lined up row upon row.

Empty lots, overgrown with blackberry brambles.

Juicy bursts of sweet goodness.

Late august or early september.

Take me off the beaten path so I can fill my tummy with delicious

berries and spoil my dinner.

Picking freshness for baking.

A bucket full of blackberries to add to the freezer along with the other fruit.

Or why not enjoy some right now.

Fallen apples beneath the tree.

Almost harvesting time.

I will save you from the bugs and take you home with me.

You will make a tasty apple cake or applesauce.

Many small clay pots filled with an assortment of herbs

adorn my patio.

They need care and of course water.

In return they produce edible leaves

that add flavor to my cooking.

Tea anytime of the day for me please.

Black, green, white, herbal, caffeine, caffeine-free, whatever it may be.

Right now I have found a favorite in Might Leaf teas.

Five, the number of tea pots sitting on my shelves.

Document your day!

Capture & Create

The learning process never ends but continually opens up new doors. Just when you participate in a workshop to develop a particular skill, to understand the ins and out, to master something in order to feel confident to carry out the process on your own; you soon realize that you have only reached 1o% of what is actually possible and the learning curve steepens again. This is a good thing otherwise the learning would be boring, there would be little change and life unexciting.

I was inspired by a comment made by a fellow teacher today in response to the advanced Photoshop workshop today I attended through my SFU Graduate Program. It eluded to the fact that Photoshop artwork involves an immense amount of work. The time and creative process that is required to produce a piece that is pleasing to the eye undergoes several detailed steps. My perspective has change and I have suddenly become aware of the visual artwork around me and have been taking that second look wondering if Photoshop was involved. For example the wallpaper in Starbucks, the graphic design on labels, and advertisement all caught my attention today after school. My eyes have been opened to the details around me. As of today I am guilty of taking random pictures of sewer grates, graffiti walls, peeling paint, veins of leaves, the texture of cork, and sculpted cast iron imagining the possibilities of using them as layers in Photoshop.

Photoshop and the Process: import self portrait and images of textures, resize canvas, add new layers, manipulate layers, use tools for blending, masking, and brushing different features.

I am feeling enthusiastic

I love it when people are passionate about something and how their joy and excitement is evident when they are sharing. Not only does it engage the entire audience but it gets the creative gears in my brain turning just a little bit faster. I move closer to the edge of my seat, not wanting to miss a beat. I am torn between letting my creative mind wonder with all the possibilities that have surfaced and paying close attention being sure not to miss a second. Today’s workshop on Narrative Inquiry can be summed up my the above mention of feelings. Julia Leong lead a great workshop on telling stories using digital images. I was inspired by key concepts such as Point of View, art/o/graphy, creative expression, what’s it ‘good’ for, place, time, self and other.

The process: Take your camera off the automatic setting and play with the different modes. Put it into AV mode and increase or decrease the depth of field. Make things close up in focus and the background blurry or vice versa. Put it into S mode and increase the shutter speed. Have the camera snap a picture in tenths of a second or leave it longer for 15 seconds.

The process:

Trial #1 HI!

Trial #2 Handwriting

Trial #3 Natasha

The final product:

Rocks

Kudos to our instructor

The details: Dark room, pen light, backwards writing, S or P mode, slow shutter speed to 15 sec, two people one for each word.

iphoto editing: boost color, sepia tones

There are so many places to go from hear. Air Graffiti, story starters, picture boards, still motion sequences, images for school newspaper, picture books, Brown Bear Brown bear what do you see…, Where’s waldo, geometry/shapes all around us, leaving your digital footprint…

POV-Point of View…from my students…what do they see, hear, feel? I would love to explore this concept with my class in September. Perhaps give them a camera for a day and capture what is happening around them that has meaning. Possible Title: School wouldn’t be the same without…