Sara

Feb

21

Valentine’s Day Moments In Film & Digital

holidays Posted by Sara / 3 comments

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. (Yesterday was Family Day here!) Tom and I have been so busy lately that we promised this Family Day would be us in our pajamas doing things together all day. It was wonderful! But I wanted to share some photos from Valentine’s day (I finally got them back on Saturday) that are both film and digital. I feel like every time there is a special occasion I take photos of the same things, but that’s because we’re totally obsessed with this restaurant right now. It’s one of our two “go-to” places when there’s cause for celebration, but I really like that. I like that they recognize us at these places and know who we are. And while I like going somewhere new too, I really enjoy feeling like I’m at an extended version of home. Plus both places have really amazing tea (Pu’er aged 15 years) and most restaurants around here used bagged tea in a cup. (No disrespect, but when it’s cause for celebration, nice tea is always nice.)

Feb

18

A Rescued Caturday

Toronto Cat Rescue Posted by Sara / 11 comments

A little while ago on Twitter I mentioned some exciting news, but I wanted to wait until I had some photos to go with it to announce it on the blog. And what better day than Caturday to mention that I’m now working with Toronto Cat Rescue to provide quality photos of the cats who are looking for their forever homes! Last weekend was a huge adoption weekend, and out of twelve cats in our area, nine were adopted. The only three remaining are Yuki (who was renamed to Zelda at her new foster home due to the triangle on her nose), Anastasia, and Millie. The second cat pictured (all black with her cute tongue sticking out, with the name Pepsi) was adopted! I met a lot of wonderful cats (and some great people too) and I really cannot wait for my next shoot with TCR. HAPPY CATURDAY, FRIENDS!

Feb

17

Perfect Hearty (Yet Light) Winter Soup

recipes Posted by Sara / 1 comments

It’s been forever and a day since I posted a recipe on here, and it’s high time I shared one. Tom’s mum made a version of this for my birthday, and it was so good that we’ve since added it into our home as well, with some slight changes. It’s been really great for the cold weather because it’s flavorful but it doesn’t leave my stomach feeling heavy. Enjoy!

What You Need

☑ 1 can (14.5 ounces) beans (navy, red, black- your choice!)
☑ 1 small onion, chopped
☑ 1 lb (1 can) button mushrooms
☑ 10 ounces baby spinach
☑ 4 small red potatoes cut into 1/2 inch
☑ 2 servings of udon (two small packages) optional
☑ 1/4 tsp thyme
☑ 1 Tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce (made from mushrooms)
☑ 1 Tbsp olive oil
☑ 1 1/2 cups water
☑ red cooking wine
☑ sea salt

What You Do

1. Cook your udon according to package directions! You can add whatever noodles you like here, but I love the big fat udon noodles so that’s what we went with. Udon comes in small packages at the average grocery store, but at an Asian grocer it can come in large bundles. If you’re using the small packages, grab two, and if you’re using the bundle, just separate out two servings (if they aren’t already separated for you!) Udon doesn’t take that long to cook, so strain it and set it aside when it’s done.

2. While your udon is cooking, heat your olive oil in a large pot over medium heat and add your onion and potatoes and cook until the onion is slightly brown (5 min or so) before adding a pinch (or three, if you’re like me) of salt, mushrooms and thyme for another few minutes until the mushrooms are tender (if you’re using fresh).

3. Add 1 1/2 cups water, a splash of red cooking wine, your cooked and drained noodles, 1 tbsp of vegetarian oyster sauce, and the spinach to the pot, stir, cover with a lid, and let it cook for 8-10 minutes (or until your potatoes are tender).

Serve hot and enjoy!

Feb

13

The Hardest Part Is Taking The Photo

Canon 35mm 1.4 / Canon EOS 7D / Spurred Posted by Sara / 4 comments

Happy Monday, everyone! Tom is finally feeling better and up and walking around, so thanks to everyone who sent him well wishes. =) And since I usually share a digest from the Spurred project with you on Mondays, I thought today I’d start answering questions I’ve received regarding the project. If you have any questions you’d like answered- feel free to email me or tweet at me and I’ll add them to my list for next time!

Melanie asked, “What was the hardest part about doing a 365 days project?”
The hardest part of this project was, if you can believe it, actually taking a photo every single day. It seems really easy (at least it did to me) but it isn’t. There will be days when you don’t want to take the photo, there will be days where you want to quit (there will be several, actually), and when you’re done the project will leave you feeling photo-ed out for quite a while. For me the difficulty came while trying to relate to the prompt and putting too much expectations on myself. It takes some time to think about shots and how you want to compose them, but when you’re pushing yourself to take an “amazing” shot every single day, you’re just setting yourself up for failure. Which is what I was doing, which obviously isn’t going to happen, and so towards the end I just had to let go and shoot whatever came my way.

My favorite photo of this batch is “Dead” because of the light and my least favorite is “Gold” because I wish the quality had been better. I didn’t take my time with that shot at all!

Random tidbit: The “Dance” photo was taken while we were in the car driving. Music was playing and I thought it was just a neat shot.

“Dead” September 10th (Day 253)

“Tranquil” September 11th (Day 254)

“Change” September 12th (Day 255)

“Reality” September 13th (Day 256)

“Dance” September 14th (Day 257)

“Dull” September 15th (Day 258)

“Pleasure” September 16th (Day 259)

“An unexamined life is not worth living.” September 18th (Day 260)

I like to think that I try really hard to better myself all the time. I’m constantly evaluating my habits, my responses, even my thought process sometimes, for ways to improve or ways in which I would like to change. And I admire that immensely when I see it in other people. Tom is one of those people, and so is his mother. She just had her birthday and she is still examining her life, her situations and thinking of ways to improve or make her quality of life better.

“Gold” September 19th (Day 261)

Making homemade waffles for the cookbook.

Feb

11

Atlas Watches The Snow

the cats Posted by Sara / 14 comments

Well, winter may have finally come for us! We had some snow yesterday, it’s -13° outside today, and the snow has stayed on the ground without any grass peeking through! Atlas had fun watching it and I had fun watching him.

Feb

10

January 2011 in Film

film / Olympus OM-1n / Zuiko 50mm 1.8 Posted by Sara / 18 comments

When my mother handed down her Olympus OM-1n, there was a fresh roll inside, and last January I finally got around to using it, and only last week I finally dropped it off. Last year I made a resolution to shoot 12 rolls of film (one a month) and then develop them once a month the following year. It didn’t really work out like I had planned, I was so busy with other projects that I think I only shot one and a half. But I took this one in to be developed anyway, and I was really pleased to see how the photos turned out. (Click on them to see larger versions.) There is also a roll in the Canon AE-1 one I picked up last August and it has six shots already used, so I’m kind of curious to see what’s on there.

Oh, and one more thing! The photos are paired together because they were right next to each other on the roll, and so they were scanned in together. But when I looked at them after, I really liked that they were paired with each other, so I left it!

These photos were taken with my mum’s Olympus OM1-n “Clementine”, and a Zuiko 50mm 1.8.

Feb

08

Life Lately

Canon 35mm 1.4 / Canon EOS 7D / everyday life / Wordless Wednesday Posted by Sara / 20 comments

Feb

06

The Beginning of September

Canon 35mm 1.4 / Canon EOS 7D / Spurred Posted by Sara / 9 comments

Did everyone have a good weekend? Ours was fairly good, but Tom came down with a fever of 102 last Tuesday night and was 101 today. (It broke on Friday but came back Saturday night. We’ll be visiting the clinic today! Just so you don’t think I’m a horrible wife or anything! GEE.) It was a very laid back week of eating light and taking it easy for both of us. Today is also my sister Kait’s (who visited in December) birthday, and we talked for a while this morning. I just can’t believe how fast the years are going. You know how they say the years go by faster and faster the older you get? I really think that’s the truth. I’d like to make an effort to slow down, in life in general and in work.

(Are you ready for a Spurred update? =P )

“Library” September 2nd (Day 245)

Last year when I did my vegan challenge in September I checked out three vegan cookbooks from the library, and haven’t borrowed any since. To celebrate the healthiest year of my life, I went and checked out some more.

“Curl” September 3rd (Day 246)

“Note” September 4th (Day 247)

I left a note for myself to do a photo like this of Atlas with my feet in the frame because I have one of Morn and Pumpkin just like it, and I thought it would be nice to have one of Atlas too.

“Square” September 5th (Day 248)

“Silhouette” September 6th (Day 249)

Morn, Pumpkin, and Atlas gazing out the window.

“Journal” September 7th (Day 250)

Work out log!

“Falling” September 8th (Day 251)

“Favorite” September 9th (Day 252)

Gluten free fries.

Feb

04

Their Favorite Places

the cats Posted by Sara / 4 comments

I thought today we’d visit a few of the cats’ favorite spaces, aside from the cat tree. Pumpkin will sit like this, hanging over your arm, while you work on the computer. He purrs lightly and will often drop his chin down to rest on your wrist. (I like that last photo of Pumpkin because he looks like he’s up to something sinister.)

Atlas claimed the back of our BCC (big comfy chair) when he was just a wee kitten. He is the only cat that lounges there and if he’s not hanging out with a person or another cat, he can be found there, tucked between the back of the chair and the top of the cushion.

Morn is usually on someone. If however, he is not on someone, he’s on the cat tree, or he’s stolen your seat. He’s a ninja like that. You can’t get up to do anything or he’ll suddenly have been just where you were sitting. And he’ll look so comfortable you’d think he’d been there for hours. And then of course you don’t want to move him, so I suspect that’s his plan all along.

Feb

03

Double Exposure Tutorial & Free Action

actions / photography tools & tips Posted by Sara / 9 comments

Happy Friday, everyone! I thought I’d give you all a treat today and write up a quick tutorial on how to recreate a double exposure in Photoshop. First of all, I’m sure there are lots of ways to do this, and even more ways to make it look more authentic, but since it really requires mass tinkering for each image, I thought I’d share the basics of what I do with you.

The simplest way to do it would be to copy one photo onto the other as a new layer, and then to change the layer’s blending mode to “Screen” and further adjust the opacity, but we’re going to add an additional tip. If you want to learn how to do it yourself, read on. But I’ve also made a few handy little actions in case you want to speed up the process. Download them for free here. =)

I find that just doing the old copy/paste/screen routine doesn’t quite get the balance I like. One image is always darker than the other and doesn’t really look like a genuine double exposure. So what I like to do is add a Multiply layer from the first image. It probably sounds confusing, so don’t worry, we’ll break it down.

The How To, Gumshoe

First you’ll want to open both your images in Photoshop. Copy the first image (Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C) and paste it onto the second image (Ctrl+V). If you want to go the extra mile you can also copy the second image onto the first and go through all the steps twice to see which image you like better. (They will be different!)
Next put the top layer blending mode to “Screen”. If you have your layers window open, this should be located in the right hand sidebar. If not, go to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options and when the window pops up you should see a drop down box that reads “Blending Mode Normal”. Click that box and select “Screen” from the list.
Now copy your original layer (re-select your “background” layer, right click, select “Duplicate Layer”) and change the blending mode to “Multiply”. You should notice right away the balance between your two images is adjusted. Sometimes this is enough, sometimes I add another Multiply layer.

See, easy peasy! Enjoy!

Jan

31

Layers, Vanity Stations, & Dinosaurs

Canon EOS 7D / Spurred Posted by Sara / 10 comments

For the last few posts I’ve been thinking “OH, yay, I can finally share how it snowed!” but then I get up and look out the window the morning of and everything has melted. (I talk about the weather a lot, I’m sorry. But before I share this week’s Spurred recap, let’s get personal… about the weather!)

Because I grew up on a tropical island, the first time I remember seeing snow was when I was ten years old. It was the best thing in the world. I’d never been so cold before. My nose stung so badly it felt like it was going to fall off. My eyes watered and ears burned. Snow pants were the coolest invention ever. Hats and scarves were my new favorite accessory. I remember walking to school completely decked out in my snow pants, coat, mittens, you name it- I wore it. Most kids walked to school in a coat and jeans. (I like to use the excuse of not being used to the weather. Really I was just super excited about the snow.) Perhaps it’s strange, but I think the snow makes the cold bearable for me. Without the fluffy white hills and their diamond sparkle everything just seems dead and dreary. I’m confident it will come, even if I have to drive an hour outside the city just to see it, I’m just feeling a little impatient.

“Layers” August 26th (Day 238)

One of the best things about autumn is layering up.

“Neglected” August 27th (Day 239)

Tom saw this book tucked away in a shop, the last of its kind.

“Distorted” August 28th (Day 240)

Distorted view because of the fog. (Fog is one of my favorites.)

“Mirror” August 29th (Day 241)

After much debating, I finally picked up a mirror to go in the bedroom so I could do my make up in natural light instead of the bathroom. I’ve always wanted one of those vanity stations so I could put my make up and hair things, etc etc there and use the natural light of the bedroom instead of standing in the bathroom and cluttering it up with my stuff, but unfortunately we’re a little tight for space in the apartment so that will have to wait. This is close enough for me.

“Close” August 30th (Day 242)

Mmm, macro!

“Art” August 31st (Day 243)

I have this problem with dishware, specifically cups and mugs. We have plenty, and our cupboards are full, but I love collecting them anyway. When I saw these I really fell in love with them and just had to make room for them.

“Mail” September 1st (Day 244)

From overseas! (How serendipitous some arrived on the day it was my prompt.)

Jan

28

Breakfast With The Boys

the cats Posted by Sara / 12 comments

Dogs get all the credit for being smart and learning tricks and cats are left holding the short end of the stick. A lot of cats learn tricks, and I’ve personally grown fond of teaching them. I think since our cats are indoors, it’s important to stretch their brains a little and give them a challenge.

Before breakfast the boys must sit quietly (we say, “おすわり”) and wait until Tom or I asks them to “touch” or, as they’ve just recently learned, “high five”. Pumpkin is the touching master. He will touch the exact same spot you put your fingers on, no matter where it is. Atlas is the high five master, which is actually more like a really fast patty-cake for him. And Morn is the only know that knows “love me”, where he rubs his face against your hand.

Happy Caturday!