Nom Nom

Bah, my hubby has been out of town so I think I've been lacking in human contact lately. Just to prove it, here I am about to ramble about cookies. My fave cookies. Ever. Because I'm always about spreading the joy, I'm insisting, pleading, no - demanding for you to try them. Lofthouse Mini Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. They're small oatmeal cookies with cinnamon flavoured icing that I swear tastes like cream cheese too. They're sweet but salty and drooool. They're like cozing up to your lovey next to the fire. Or carving pumpkins on Halloween. They're THAT good.

And while I'm talking about things I love, take a look at my darlings..

Slurpee aka Slur-peep, The Slurp, Slurp da Durp, Monsieur, My Boy

Soda aka Soda Poop, Sodes, Monkey Baby, Little Miss

Priscilla No.2

I'm a fast typer. Wonder how I got these mad-skilled-Speedy-Gonzales-fingers? Practicing in the tub. Yup, the bath tub. When I was a kid, sitting in a pool of my own filthy water waiting for the ol' Head & Shoulders to soak in, I'd type sentences on an invisible computer. I practiced on my air keyboard pretty much everyday. Why? I don't know (especially considering I had a real, physical computer with a real, physical keyboard just downstairs). And why did I only type on my air computer while I was bathing? Again, don't know. But I'm telling you, I got good on that imaginary thing. And now, I'm not so bad at typing on a real keyboard either. Go figure.


Onto something relevent. I have a dear friend, who like me, is a lover of all things art. Priscilla is a lovely lady that I don't get to see often anymore because she moved to Alberta.. *long dramatic SIIIIIIGH.* When we do get to visit though, it's pretty likely the cameras are coming out to play. This last time, we did a spur of the moment mini-shoot in Priscilla's family's backyard surrounded by mooching bokboks (chickens) and the invigorating (ie. damn cold) country air. Take a look at a few goodies of Priscilla's peacock-inspired look..

Princess Jamie

So many hopes and dreams in this one heart of mine. It's lovely being so full of passion and inspiration and yet, terrible. As one human being, I have to face the cold dreary music.. I just can't do it all. I have a humongous bucket list. Like HU-mongous, that's how mongous. Honestly, I know if I don't do it all, I'll still be happy. But the ones I'm about to tell you about, man oh man, they mean so much to me.

Ashley's Top 10:
-travel the world with the World Wildlife Fund
-live in Africa for a year
-become an intern for a wildlife sustainability program.. in my big dreamy dreams that would be working for Jane Goodall
-get disaster relief training
-take part in international dog rescues with the World Society for the Protection of Animals
-own a cozy little house on acreage
-open my own dog and cat rescue and rehabilitation centre
-create an international dog and cat rescue, going on annual missions across the globe
-become extraordinarily successful as an artist, encompassing my photography
-have a family

As I said, I know I can't do it all. If I could just check off a couple, I would be so thrilled. The older and older I'm getting (oi, I can just hear my family saying, "You're NOT old!" - I just turned 22 a couple months ago but I feel ancient I tell you!), I'm realizing how important the family one is to me. I've been back and forth about this idea of family throughout my life; as a child I knew I wanted children, once I hit the whole teenage self-centered, drama queen stage though, I completely swore off kids. But once I started dating my now husband at the end of senior year, I absolutely knew I wanted to have children with him. Because of all the other extremely important things on my Top 10 list though, we've been putting babies on the back burner. Hmm. Perhaps that figure of speech wasn't the most aptly chosen. No, there are no crispy babies on the barbie that I'm aware of.

Anyways, latley I've found myself surrounded by friends and siblings and cousins and even strangers at the mall, all with - you guessed it.. babies. This is making our whole late 20s/early 30's family plan difficult because dang, baby fever is contagious. I mean, LOOK at this little girl and tell me you don't want one for yourself.

Pee Ess. Her name is Jamie, she is 10 months old and completely and totally caaa-ute. Her momma is my husband's cousin, Karrie (who is also completely and totally caaa-ute).

Julie No.2

Yawwn. I just woke up. And I'm kind of sad about that because I had the most awesome dream last night. First of all I was tall in my dream (I wish) and I was an international spy working in Africa, spying on.. chimpanzees. Yup, there was some sort of chimpanzee conspiracy that I was issued to break. The dream is quickly getting fuzzy but I remember it was cool. But even cooler, my husby is making omelettes for breakfast with HAVARTI CHEEEESE. I am a specialty, pricey cheese lover. And I love me some Havarti. Anyways, there is much more important things that I was planning on writing about in my blog this morning but now that I'm actually typing, I just want to go eat my omelette. :) ...I'll be back!
Mmm. So. Effing. Good. I am back with a satisfied belly. And I think I shall post some photos. My idea for this one was a strong, beautiful girl, all dressed up with no beautiful places to go. Ironic; a song just came on that really reflects my mood for this collection of photographs. Mein Herz Brennt by Rammstein. It's got an edgy, industrial sound but the violins give it an equally sophisticated and happy beat. Download it. It's awesome. Anyways, I've done several shoots now using nature as my background, but in this one I really wanted to go for a more grungy, city-fied look in contrast to a pretty model. And I tried to really focus on the lines of buildings, alleys, staircases. You may have noticed that I really love head level perspectives in my shoots and yes, I do that a lot. But I'm also really loving ground level right now too. It really works to draw your eye across an interesting landscape to ultimately land at your subject. In this collection of photos, I also did a lot of colour variations of b&w. I think black and white just causes less distraction and can bring a cohesiveness to something otherwise not.

I love the art of editing just as much as the art of capturing the image. To me, it's like playing with a box of crayons. I am absolutely, by no means an expert at editing - in fact, sometimes I get really frustrated not being at the ability level that I want to be at. Nevertheless, editing is so fun. With just a little playing, I can alter the mood and even the whole story behind a photograph. And with editing, I really am forced to study my image and often by the whole process, I can determine whether I truly love or hate a photograph - deeming possible fate of the recycle bin. Sometimes though (like when uploading these images), I look and wonder if I edit too much, if I over-edit. I often ask myself, 'Am I truly a creative photographer? Do I really have an artistic perspective when shooting?' ..But then I remind myself, for me, editing is a part of being a photographer and editing is likewise, a form of my artistic expression. But I definitely do look back at a photograph I did a month or-whatever-ago and think, 'Ooh, I wish I hadn't edited that way, I wish I had done blahblahblah.' As I do the same with, 'Ooh, I wish I hadn't done this when I took the picture, I wish I had done blahblahblah.'

Well, I could ramble forever. I should really give you a chance to a little more looking and a little less reading (plus, Travis is sitting on the front porch, sipping tea without me!). My model, Julie did an excellent job of pulling off the look, really bringing my vision to reality. Here are some of my faves.