=)

Friends

&

Fruit shakes

Child Find Manitoba

My friend from PV, Jill, invited me out to a gala that we attended last night. I went because I love getting dressed up, and that the food would be great because it was at The Fort Garry Hotel. I also went because it supported children - that was all I knew, vaguely, but who wouldn't want to support that? So we went, and upon arriving I realized it was for Child Find's 25th Anniversary. We ate delicious appetizers, an amazing dinner, and great dessert. It was just a beautiful night. It was when the speakers came up to talk about their horrific stories of what happened to their own children that it really occurred to me why 300 people were here. Child exploitation is a huge problem that, like many others in our country, we are not exposed to enough. I am not even a mother and when I heard the first speech done by the mother of Candace Dunshire (this was a fairly huge story of a child going missing and never returning home in the 80s), I had tears in my eyes. There was somewhat of a 'victory' story, however, after this one - a father came up and spoke of how he got his son back, and it was amazing. I joked with everyone at the table that my sister had been very stern about not getting any strains (wine, food) on her silk dress that I borrowed. Looking down at the dress, there was one tiny, tiny stain - and it was from a tear that dropped while listening to these brave people tell us their stories. Although the night was heavy at some parts, the lights dimmed down and this huge group of people celebrated the night away. What were we celebrating? The 25 years that Child Find has been in existence to aid families in pain, help them find their child, and most importantly - try and put a stop to this terrible occurrence that goes on on a daily basis across Canada. I have always said that once I am working and have a 'real job' I would put lots of money into The Humane Society, but after last night, I am quite certain that Child Find may be added to that list. It was a great night in so many ways, and Jill, if you are reading this - thanks so much for inviting me!

P.S. - Obviously we got to bust out some dance moves to some classics, including Dancing Queen.

6 kinds of glue, won't hold you

AT 21.1 Hybrid Photography

During spring break Jill & I went out to stay in Kenora from the Monday-Wednesday. Although we were staying in town, we spent a far bit of the time (usually all day) outdoors. I wound up shooting 2 rolls of film, one of which was the Kodak Ektar that you are viewing below!

So on the first day we had gotten to Kenora around 1 p.m., so we wound up just visiting Rushing River and a few miscellaneous places along the highway. The second day, however, we decided to hike around Coney Island. To get to Coney Island you have to walk across this floating bridge from the mainland to the island, which was pretty cool. The image above was taken just a few minutes into our trek. Although the theme of this role as an entirety is of the Kenora trip in general, lots of my images were aiming to depict industrialism and it's affect on nature. This one above is showing the plants with big corporations in the background, the most obvious being Shopper's Drug Mart. There are a few others on the roll with this sort of idea behind them, but most of them are on my B&W roll/digital camera.
Of course, you can't be serious all the time, so some of the shots were just some fun ones of the crew enjoying nature. This is Jill. Our destination of the hike was to reach her families row of cabins, to visit a bear that is currently living under her grandparents! I didn't get a photo of the bear cause I was way too freaked out to even walk, never mind setting up a shot. This was taken of Jill on her dock, when the sun poked out for a little while. Her expression is due to the relief of surviving the black bear (or she is just laughing at how scared I was...)
This was taken along the way, for some reason the image of this dock just caught me. I was chilling out on a big boardwalk, taking a break and sitting down when I looked across the way and saw this. This was one of the first times I have utilized my 70-210 mm lens for my MINOLTA.
Just a nice shot of Chris and Jill on the ice. We met up with Chris during the trip and he came out with us for all the adventures, including visiting the infamous bar and grill, "HAPS" in town. Jill had a blue lagoon, I had a Kokanee, and Chris had a ....Sprite? We were giving him a hard time. Sadly I didn't photograph any of that - it wouldn't have really suited the whole hiking and nature theme.
Decided to leave my mark on a beach on the way home. The beach looked really neat because it was part snow, part sand, part ice, and now, part Laura!

All in all, awesome trip, and lots of fun shooting colour film. This was my very first time shooting colour and I will definitely be doing it more often (along with scanning my negatives, of course).

What New York Used To Be.

Hmph.

self portrait

For some reason I've decided today is the day to begin blogging. I have only been using the blog for school related assignments, but maybe there is some value to blogging seeing as so many people are avid about doing it? So this will be a bit of a throwback to my 'LiveJournal' days in grade 8.

The 10 month program at PV (Prairieview) is wrapping up soon, yowzas. Really has been the fastest past 10 months of my life. I really like PV, and the fact it is ending makes me sad. I don't know whether this is because I am confused as to what to do with myself afterwards, or that I just genuinely love the place. A mix of both probably. I mean, I know I definitely do just like the environment. I was thinking today about how many cool people I have met there, and have decided that even if I wind up never using this diploma, the friendships I have cultivated would make up for that. I do have plans, just need to get the wheels in motion.

Movie Week Extravaganza

During the Movie Week Extravaganza I viewed One Hour Photo, Manufactured Landscapes and O Brother Where Art Thou? I thoroughly enjoyed all three, along with all the junk food consumed (2 bags of popcorn, a Mars Bar, and one juice box in total, not bad)...

One Hour Photo

One Hour Photo is a fabulous film. My viewing during movie week was not the first viewing I have had; in fact I have now seen the movie 3 times, and every single time that I see it it does not fail to fascinate me. I am a big movie goer and have seen many Robin Williams films (as I am sure many of us have), and still cannot get over what a diverse role he pulls off in this film. The opening monologue on the role of photos in people's lives is quite interesting, my favorite part being:

"Family photos depict smiling faces. Births. Weddings. Holidays. Children's birthday parties. People take pictures of the happy moments in their lives. Someone looking through our photo album would conclude that we had led a joyous, leisurely existence, free of tragedy. Nobody ever takes a photograph of something they want to forget..."

The way that they adjusted the lighting in various situations for Sigh is really neat. When he is working in the photo lab, it is very bright and clean and clear. Shots of Sigh at home sort of have an off tone to them that accentuates the loneliness that he feels. Overall, the movie definitely gives off a creepy feeling! It never really occurs to you that when you take prints to a photo lab, a complete stranger is viewing them. I often wonder what kind of stuff those photo technicians must see in just one day. The movie really incorporated these wonders when there was the fun scene of the crazy cat lady, the new father, and the up and coming porn photographer. One hour photo labs are definitely not something that many of us give much thought to, but after seeing this film it definitely got the wheels spinning in my head.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

This movie was also great! To be honest the only reason I chose to watch it was because I love George Clooney. I had never been interested in seeing this film, and I am happy that Clooney enticed me into seeing it. The three men traveling together are funny beyond words, and it gives you an interesting glance at what things were like at this time in the United States, during the 1930's. The story line kept me drawn in, and the director of photography definitely knew what he/she was doing. The opening scene of the men working on the rail road is really neat with how it goes from black and white to color, and then you see the three men escaping through the field. The angles that they shot the rail workers at were neat, using silhouettes and implied lines quite a bit. The film was humorous and light while being moving and deep at the same time - something that does not happen too often! I was laughing throughout most of it, and when we were shown the extra about how they created all the edits in the film it gave me a whole new respect for what film makers have to do to create the final product, just like photographer's and our post processing.

Manufactured Landscapes

Manufactured Landscapes really scared the heck out of me. When I chose to watch it, I went in not knowing a thing of what it was about. Although the movie frightened me (and I do mean that it literally did frighten me - almost as much as One Hour Photo but in a different way), I really enjoyed it because global warming / globalization is a huge issue facing our world today, and it also happens to be an issue that fascinates me. In Creative Imaging we had seen a bit of Edward Burtynsky's work before, and I instantly recognized his industrial landscape images in the film. What I found interesting is that the film conveyed two message to me: all of the waste in the world, and the factory workers who create all of the objects sporting the "MADE IN CHINA" tag on them in our Western World. I mean really - the majority of what I own is "MADE IN CHINA". It is something we do not pay a lot of attention to, and that is why when they interview the president of one of these manufacturing companies in China, I feel bad for them. I feel bad because the president had so much pride in the work they do and so many goals, yet we barely give them any recognition. The only recognition that we see in our Western World is the "MADE IN CHINA" tag. Some of the conditions that these workers work in absolutely stunned me - like the young males working in the oil. I found this film extremely effective, and the way in which Burtynsky photographs all of this is beautiful in a very strange way. Since viewing the film, I have been viewing more of his work online and learning more about what he does, because shooting industrial landscapes is something that intrigues me.