This past weekend Jess, Hil and I took a trip to Halifax.  We had two reasons, first was to visit Jared, Vicki, and Sylas and the other was it was Hilary’s Birthday and we wanted to do something fun.

The drive down was fun as always with much loud music and other craziness.  We didn’t do a whole lot while we were there, went downtown to the farmers market at this new time I’ve never heard of… Vicki calls it “7 in the morning”, guess it’s a nurse thing.  After that we wandered around waiting for everything else to open.  Visited the usual haunts like Freak Lunchbox, Little Mysteries, and the Black Market.  We got Tara something Uber cool at Freak Lunchbox, Hil spent an obscene amount of money between the three places, and sadly Jess did not manage to find a new puzzle ring.  In between all this we had pizza at 10:30 on the steps of a church.  Good times. 

Jared made an awesome dinner and breakfast the next day and it was just a good time all around.  Makes me miss them more after we have to leave.  Really can’t wait for them to move home… or to find out if they won the million dollar eco house so we can move in with them.  ;o)

As usual I took some pics.  Feel free to check them out and comment.  I always like when people comment.  My main walk around lens is farked and I’ve been too lazy to take it to get serviced so I was forced to shoot at either 50mm fixed or my big honkin zoom lens.  I feel it was my punishment for being lazy.  Hopefully today I’ll be smart enough to take the lens with me before work and drop it off to get it fixed.  *shudders at the possible cost of repair*  Click here for the pics.

Went for a walk before heading to work yesterday.  First I stopped in to see Bojan, who gave me a new flash to use!  I’m rather excited to get to use it (a Canon 420EX Speedlite) in addition to my Vivitar 285 HV.  I’ll need to get a second wireless trigger for it but can still use it (on or off camera) til I do.  Hoping to use it soon for that Fairy Tale shoot I mentioned a week or so ago.

My walk also took me through the Loyalist Burial Ground.  The weather was so nice I stopped to take a few pictures in an attempt to get my daily shoots going again.

First I could not help but notice how nice the Cathedral looked towering over the trees in the distance.  I just love the way church’s stretch into the sky.  And the contrast between the green leaves and church steeple to the blue sky was nice.

As I proceeded through I noticed a HUGE grey squirrel looking for some lunch.  I managed to snap one good pic of him before people walked by and he ran for cover.  I did try to follow him through the squre for another decent picture of him but he was on to me.  Every time I moved he moved further away.  Even after he went up a tree he made sure to move to the other side of it to prevent me from getting a picture of him in the tree.  Oh well, maybe I’ll get more next time!

So in an attempt to forget my school money woes while I look into a few other hopefully viable options.

Until I figure out for sure what is going on please enjoy (and comment if you so wish) on some pics I’ve taken over the last while.

First here are some from the Puppy Shower we had for Bigby, the newest member of the Grondin-Wilson household.

Next are some pictures I took last month at the Irving Nature Park during a walk.

And last is what I hope to be a return to Dailey Photos.

During the coarse of this update I found my Photo Gallery Plug-in and new theme did not play nice together.  I’ll try to figure out why and get them working together soon.  Until now… back to the old black version.

January 8th was a Tuesday and on Tuesdays a group of local comic artists / writers meet at Read’s / United (my place of work) to talk shop.  A few are working on their own original comics, others use the creative energy to write stories or draw whatever comes to mind, while others come just for the good company and conversation.  This is one of the comic artists working on a labour of love.

January 9th I went to see the Saint John Sea Dogs take on the Acadie - Bathurst Titan, thanks to my friend Barry.  This time it was a view from Section J,  Row 8, Seat 3.  Although much closer to the ice than last game these seats proved to be more of a challenge.  Many of the shots were half through the glass, half over the glass.  Also we were much closer to one end of the rink than the other.  This meant that for 2 of the 3 periods the Sea Dogs goalie was close to us, and the killer offense of the Dogs was nearly 200 feet away!  I’m finding shooting hockey a challenge due to the fast pace and low lighting, which only seems to make me want to shoot it more!  I intend to take in a few more games this season both to get some more practice and to support the Dogs, who are 1st in their Conference!  Perhaps next time I’ll try a seat close to the red line at the other end of the rink.  It should give a good view of the Dogs attacking for 2 periods.  For more pictures from this game go here.

It has been a few days since I posted my last picture for my “Picture a day for a Month” project but that does not mean I wasn’t out there shooting!  Just did not have time to upload the shots until now!

January 3rd, I made a point of getting out early enough being going to work that I’d have time to take some pictures.  Also ended up going to the Library to check out their selection of books on photography.  Sadly, much of it is out of date (aside from the collected works of photographers, that stuff never goes out of date).  However, I did pick up “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Photography Like a Pro”.  I’m hoping to get some good info out of the Flash section as I’m getting set to start doing some off camera flash photography.  After the library I took some shots along the board walk, but could not stay long due to the -31 (with wind chill) temperature.  But here is what I did get.

January 4th, sadly I didn’t get any shots.

January 5th, a long time friend was in town from Calgary.  It has been about 10 years since I’ve seen her.  I was super happy to have lunch with her and spend the afternoon getting  caught up and playing Rockband on the 360.

January 6th, was Big Friend Bowling with my friend Jenn’s daughter Marilyn who is one of the cutest kids in the world.  She just turned 6 and wanted to go bowling with all her big friends.  Aside from bowling with a sprained thumb it was good fun.

January 7th, didn’t have much time to shoot today.  Should have gone out earlier as I was in a rush to get to hockey after work.  But I did manage to stop  and take a shot of King Square.  I’ve been meaning to get a night time shot before they took down the Christmas lights.  I’m hoping to get a second chance (perhaps with more time and my tripod) before the neon lights are gone because I think the park looks kind of cool with them.

For a few more pictures from these days check out the 2008 Dailey album.

So I missed the first day of my one picture a day for a month project… not a good way to start.  However, day two went much better.  While walking home from work I saw a young man snowboarding in Queen Square.  This is something I have seen before or so I thought.  When he went down the path, hit his little jump, flew into the air, slid down the railing, to the bottom I knew this was something I had to rush home to get my camera for.  And that’s what I did.

Luckily he was still there when I got back.  I introduced myself and asked if he would mind if I took a few pictures.  He didn’t mind at all.  His name was Shane (or Shawn… horrible memory) and has been snowboarding for 9 years.  I really wanted to get a few shots of him coming down the railing from the other side but wasn’t willing to wade through the 3 feet on show I’d have to stand in.  The pictures I did get I think turned out pretty well.

So these are a few pictures  for January 2nd, 2008.