Christmas Cheer

Merry Christmas!!! This is going to be a short post because I actually wrote it on the 23rd and scheduled it for the 25th. I hope everyone has a great Christmas or "holiday season" I should say. Below are some photos of our Christmas Decorations. I love our tree this year! It's a lot bigger than we thought it would be when we were at the tree lot. Wrapping photos on the walls is such an easy and cheap way to make your home feel more Christmasy :) Enjoy!

The following photos are of decorations that our families have in their homes.

Nathan | Portraits

Last month I got the chance to work with a local male model named Nathan. We just went out for a fun time around the rail road tracks in Halifax in hopes of getting some casual but fun photographs of him in his suit. Nathan was the second male I have ever photographed by themselves and I have decided it's an area I definitely need to improve upon. Because I am a woman (obviously) I find it really easy to help pose women in photos. It's pretty simple. I find it extremely difficult to pose men on the other hand. I think it is time for me to buckle down and study some male fashion magazines and set up some more shoots with guys. Maybe there will be more to come in the next few months? :)

Enjoy!

Inspiration - Week 3

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas! Well I guess I should be saying Merry early Christmas. I don't know about you but I am sooo excited about this Christmas. I'm kind of waiting for it to finish though so I can get back on track with photography and work and life.

This weeks inspiration I think is videography/vlogs. I have been watching a lot of channels on youtube lately and after watching them + a few other videos on peoples blogs I really want to try experimenting with video in the future. I really want to upgrade to a Canon 5d MK2 (which has HD video) but until then I only have my Canon point and shoot for videos. I am hoping to take lots of photos over Christmas and to also take some videos. I don't have any video editing software on my Mac though so if someone can hook me up with a free software please comment below!

The second half to this weeks inspiration is candle making. I decided to get crafty this year and make candles for family and friends. It really isn't that hard to do but the start up costs are not cheap and it can be time consuming. Here are some photos of my candle making. I didn't think to take the photos until I was almost done my last bit of touching up. I'll still explain the process though.

To start you will need some wax. I chose solid wax for molds but there are lots of different kinds (gel wax, wax crystals, soy wax, etc). I bought an 11 pound bar which was HUGE and I only had maybe a 1.5lbs left. You'll either need to shave down the wax into small pieces or sort of chisel at it and make smaller chunks to melt.

You will also need candle scent and dye. You can get them both in either liquid or bar form. These are vanilla scent and red dye. Make sure you read the instructions on how much to use depending on how much wax you are using.

If using jars as the containers you will have to glue the wicks and wick base to the bottom. I used a hot glue gun but you could probably use crazy glue or buy glue specifically for that purpose.

Then you double boil it until everything is melted and it hits a certain temperature (depends on the type of wax and how you are making it, be sure to read the instructions).

This is what it looks like in the pouring pot. I didn't actually start this batch from scratch. The reason being is that if you are making the candles in jars or containers like I did, when it cools you get like a sink hole in the middle (you can see small ones below). Once they cool you need to pour in more wax to fill in the hole. This is what I was doing today tonight to finish them up.

Again, they are only sunk in a little bit but how much sinks in is different for each.

Topped off (different candles).

To keep the wicks straight I do this. It looks strange but it works for me.

Til next time Merry Christmas!! I hope to post some vlog style posts next week about Christmas. :)

Inspiration - Week 2

Last week I posted about something that inspires me – painting. I decided this week I would post about someone that has inspired me. This special someone is Me Ra Koh. She is a professional photographer in the US and has put together the Soar! Scholarship. She has partnered with companies like Sony, Adobe, SmugMug, ShowIt, Pixel2Canvas and ShootQ to reward three lucky women that need the resources to start their photography business and set it on the track to success. I originally thought about enrolling but now I’m not so sure. On the website you can actually watch some of the video entries (2min video is required to enter) and I can’t help but think that so many of those women deserve it more than I do. I am lucky enough to have a full time job that keeps food in our stomachs and a roof over our heads. I also have an amazing support system (Matt, family and friends) to help me reach my goal.

Needless to say, Me Ra Koh has been my inspiration this week. She has inspired me to help others with their photography and to inspire them. It is people like her that really light up this world and make it a better place to live. I can’t wait to see who she chooses to get the scholarships and to watch their progress next year. They will go to conferences and have one on one sessions with business people and photography people. They will get decked out in Sony gear and Adobe software. SmugMug is hooking them up with websites and blogs. It will be so much fun to learn more about the photography industry through their opportunities.

Here’s to Soar!

Inspiration - Week 1

With the winter months comes a slow photography season. As you can tell by looking at my archives I have not been keeping to my 101 in 1001 goal of blogging 4 times a week. So I have been thinking of topics I can discuss on here to beef it up a bit over the Christmas. One thing I have been really wanting to do is an inspiration post. My Google Reader is full of photography blogs, finance blogs, health/fitness blogs, and some fashion blogs. Every day I am reading other peoples updates and looking at their photos and products. Some of what I read really sticks out in my mind. Once a week I will be posting an inspiration post. It will consist of anything "artsy" I can find that I love.

Not to long ago the fabulous Jamie Delaine posted about creativity being a muscle. Since then there have been a few things I want to get learn and do more of. This list includes knitting, writing, cross stitching and painting. Last Christmas my parents bought me two big black canvases that I haven't ever taken out of the plastic. In the next few months I really want to start panting more. I think my problem right now is that I don't trust myself to start painting on something so big when I have no idea what I'm doing. To solve this problem I will start off small and work my way big. I have a few little canvases (maybe 5x7?) that I will put my ideas on and if I like what comes out I'll do something similar on the large canvases.

As you can probably tell this weeks inspiration goes to painting! Here are some pieces of art I have found on the internet that I absolutely love.

The last 5 paintings were done by Dan Lafferty. The rest I found on kijiji a long time ago.

Cans for comments will be continuing until Dec.15th as I was sick last week and didn't get a chance to post anything worth commenting on. Keep the comments coming people :) Remember it's for a good cause!

Cans For Comments

FEED NOVA SCOTIA is the provincial food collection and distribution centre for approximately 150 food banks and meal programs across Nova Scotia. We provide year-round food deliveries to member food banks and meal programs who serve at least 38,000 Nova Scotians each month.

But FEED NOVA SCOTIA is much more than a food collection and distribution centre. While we know that food banks play a vital role in the lives of Nova Scotians experiencing food insecurity, we are also dedicated to finding long-term solutions to poverty and chronic hunger that will reduce the need for food banks in Nova Scotia.

In light of the coming holidays I have decided to participate in cans for comments. It's pretty self explanatory. I have noted how many comments I have received so far on this blog (123) and for every comment received from now until December 8th, 2010 at 8pm I will donate 1 can to Feed Nova Scotia. I will be doing this on both of my blogs RunnerChristine and ChristineNewhook. The comments can be on posts I post from now until the 8th or on past posts.

So help the hungry and go comment!! :)