Polaroid

I was enjoying an afternoon away from the kids when I found a $5 Polaroid 600 camera. I've always wanted one so I had to buy it. There was no option. I wasn't even sure if it worked but I figured for that amount of money I couldn't afford not to.

I admit I did my fair share of Googling to figure out how to load the film, use the settings and hello?!?! where was the elusive battery? But after my film order arrived from The Impossible Project I was ready to go.

My first subject was Magnum and the film did not disappoint.

I've got a meeting coming up in May to take pics in High Park before heading over to some of the Contact exhibits. Maybe I will bring the Polaroid along. That is if I don't use up the 8 shots on the kids.

Tumblr

I've been having a lot of fun over at Tumblr. I'm using it as an inspiration board/brainstorming tool to help me sort out various photography, art, writing ideas. I love it!

Check me out at jmurrayszarvas.tumblr.com.

P.S. My posts are much more regular over there.

Happy Birthday Boo

Ooohhh! The new year has been a busy one. One of my resolutions was to post more this year than last, but we all know how tired this sounds. I keep making blog promises that I can't keep. Years ago when I was doing this on a more serious basis, I posted multiple times a day. Now I'm lucky to post once a week.

So last night we celebrated my best friend's 40th Birthday party. Here's me and my girls.

Happy New Year

This is has been filled with everything. A real ying-yang of emotion and I can say that I am glad to see it go. I am looking forward to starting fresh with 2011. Happy New Year to you and yours, may it be filled with everything you hope for.

You never know what's around the corner.

Unsilent Night

On December 20th Cambridge participated in Unsilent Night. I am so proud that our little city takes part in such a cool little art project. There were many art displays around the city, this was one of my favourites.

Blue Mountain

We drove up to Blue Mountain as part of my Christmas present. The plan was to take the kids to the tube park while mommy got to pick out a beautiful wool sweater made in Nepal. Insert hot chocolate, outdoor fire pits and dinner in there somewhere. Of course, you know what they say about the best laid plans.

We got lost on the way up thanks to a navigation system that showed a bunch of accessible roads, which were not in fact open in the winter. Coupled with 2 children who had clearly had enough of the long car ride and the ferocious winds howling through the Village, we lasted 2 hours and were on our way home.

I have to say, for families that are not able to ski/snowboard because of little ones, there is very little to do in the Village of Blue Mountain. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. They closed the tube park permanently. The horse drawn carriage rides were not operating and there is NOTHING else to do with children. Maybe next time we'll spend some time downtown Collingwood, any suggestions?

Happy Birthday Baby

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year xox

The Orchard

I recently learned that apple trees have a shelf life for producing fruit. After several years "working" they must be cut down and new ones planted. If not, the quality of apples will be affected.

Small Bridge

I have been trying for over a year to take a picture of this small stone bridge, with no luck. There's always something off about it. I think I managed to capture it sufficiently in this image and had the fortune of including a lone jogger out for her morning run.

Shoe Tree

Was out and about on one of my famous "get the kids in the car and drive around until they fall asleep" runs when I discovered this lovely shoe tree.

You can read more about this strange phenomenon here.

Rail Trail

Since taking up running, I use a few different apps to keep me on track. One is the Nike+GPS and the other is a Counch to 5K program. The bonus is that I've always got my camera with me.

Change is good

Lately photography has changed for me. I use to have time to go out and dedicate myself to the task. Digital photography is a lot of post production work, as I don't usually shoot straight from the camera. I prefer to create images and generate artwork. With small children running around needing most of my time, I have very little left for me (or should I say photography?).

So i've been experimenting with my iPhone and it's various applications. I find I can still take great images and do all the post production work right there in a few minutes. It sometimes takes a bit in between shots to load/save the data but overall it's been saving me a lot of time and i'm quite happy with the results. It's also a lot simpler for me to maintain images with similar themes or colour casts. This just might help me get organized into having a solo show in 2011. Maybe...

Waiting

I don't know if i'm getting ahead of myself but when are the rest of the leaves going to fall? This is a shot of the trees in our back yard. We've already cleaned the yard twice and the city has begun the annual curbside leaf pickup. I have a feeling i'm going to be stuck with these until spring.

Quiet Moments

It's quiet moments like this that make me appreciate what I do for a living. Sometimes being self employed is the scariest thing in the world, with really high high's and extremely low low's. But I would never get to go out when I felt like it, if I worked for someone else. So for this I say thank you.

Fall Snapshots

These shots were taken last weekend at Yee Haw Adventure Farm. The weather wasn't the best but we had a good time. Carmel corn, chip truck fries, stilts, pig races, corn mazes and wagon rides.

Dr Seuss

This reminds me of the trees that appear in a lot of the Dr. Seuss books. Was he from Florida?

Lazy Summer Days

It's getting pretty cold here and I wanted one last reminder of what I consider to be a hot and hazy summer. Or lazy, whichever suits you best.

I started jogging, which is something I never thought I would do. This snap shot was taken on a run while visiting my parents. I am quickly discovering what I like and what I don't about the sport and have very specific tastes in order to consider a run successful. Having beautiful things to look at is one of them, and as you can see from this tranquil shot, I think success was achieved.

What do you do to relieve stress?

Old Country

Take a look at this and tell me what it brings to mind.

Pay Attention

"I cannot stress enough" was the most often used expression in my grade 5 Homeroom/English class. My teacher, who smelled like coffee and cigarettes (Mrs. Bowes) would lean down and hiss this in my ear using it to preface whatever it was I did that she disapproved of. I remember not liking her class very much because it was too rigid and restrictive, in my opinion English class should be creative and free (give me some Judy Bloom and Sweet Valley High books thank you very much). Anyways, I digress... It turns out years later that she indeed had a point.

Not that this related to my rant but I recently took a series of images and had the camera set TO THE WRONG SETTING. I shot, in my humble opinion, some of my greatest shots to date only to realize when it was too late that these were taken at the smallest resolution.

Let my mistake school you. Always check your equipment before you start a shoot. Always.