Out & About « Holly Sisson Photography

October 18, 2009

Rebecca, the 13th Birthday Girl!

Filed under: Children,Life,Out & About — Holly @ 7:03 pm

My girl is 13-years-old today, and she received a very special gift from me for the big day. I’ve been dying to give it to her since I picked it up on Friday morning…and I had to wait even longer as she had a sleepover at a friends last night, so didn’t get home until lunch time, but she was so thrilled with her gift:

She was thrilled with the colour of the guitar as well, black being her fave (non) colour. She just re-dyed her hair blue-black…which you may remember from last year when we had a nice mother/daughter lunch out for her birthday.

After lunch her best friend, Jo Kim, came over and came along with us while we ran some errands.

Stopped at Over the Rainbow to check out hats, and for Noah to load up on jujubes:
R&JK-hats.jpg

Noah was my elusive subject for the day, I had to sneak in photos of him:

Almost home, the girls ham it up:

Once home we made “5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cakes“, which you may remember from this post (with the recipe), so Rebecca could blow out some candles (real birthday cake will came in two weeks with a family celebration):

Now it’s time for a special b-day dinner, banana waffles with chocolate chips, a fave! (Equipment Used: All images were shot with the Canon 85 f1.2L lens.)

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October 3, 2009

Images from Vermont

Filed under: Lensbaby,Life,Out & About,The Natural World — Holly @ 12:45 pm

Some images from my photography workshop in Vermont.

(See “My Camera Equipment” in footer section for links/more information on camera equipment used.)

The first four images were shot with the Lensbaby lens:

Next two photos of pumpkins were shot wide open with the Canon 85 f1.2L lens:

Shot intentionally dark and moody with the Canon 100 mm f2.8 macro lens at f2.8:

The next five images were shot with the Lensbaby lens:

This one was shot with no aperture disk installed, creating extremely shallow depth of field:

Embracing the blur and the pattern of the mushroom:

The instructor of the workshop loaned me his Canon 70–200 f2.8L IS lens, as I did not bring mine. Hoping to get some close-ups of cows and horses before trip is through:

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October 1, 2009

Plane to Vermont: iPhone Photos

Filed under: iPhone,Life,Out & About — Holly @ 10:54 am

Flying down to Vermont yesterday I had a chance to make fun use of my iPhone camera, completely inspired by Chase Jarvis and his gallery of iPhone photography.

Most of these images were processed on the iPhone with the wonderful “Camera Bag” application. Flying down on a small propeller plane (less then half full), ended up being a ton of fun because of the photographic opportunities, looking forward to the flight home for more shots!

(Stripes in some of the photos are the blades of the propeller that created interesting effects.)

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August 24, 2009

Summer 2009 Recent Shots/Out & About: Toronto Family Photographer

Filed under: Children,Food,Friends,Life,Out & About — Tags: Canon, Children, family photographer, family photography, lenses, on-location, photography, portrait, Toronto, Toronto Child Photography, Toronto Family Photographer, Toronto Family Photography, Toronto Portrait Photography — Holly @ 9:52 am

Time for a big catch-up on some recent shots from this summer…which I can’t believe is almost over!

Rebecca did some summer camp programs at the Sewing Studio on Avenue Road. For one of the camps all the girls had their hair and make-up done, so we took a few photos in the driveway next to our house (shot with the Canon 85 f1.2L lens):

Some recent, decent (except for the air bubbles!), latté art:

Got together with my photog friends at Rebecca Woods’ new studio/office. We were playing around with some off-camera flash, but these were taken in existing light. The sunset outside her studio window was too beautiful to not photograph…kind of wished we’d been out and about in the beautiful evening air shooting that night!

(Equipment Used: All of the following were taken with the Canon 50 f1.4 lens and Canon 5D. I thought I’d give it a try as it’s a much lighter option for carrying for extended periods over the Canon EOS-1D MarkIII and Canon 85 f1.2L lens combo, but the result isn’t nearly as good…but decent for the reduced weight of equipment. All of the following images were shot wide open at f1.4.)

Kids and I set off to do some back to school shopping, but first Noah had to buy a new frog:

Can’t beat the bokeh created shooting wide open!

Noah was happy as I treated him to a new Nintendo DS game, which kept him busy while his sister & I shopped:

Again, loving the bokeh:

Rebecca at a shoe shop, shopping for back-to-school shoes (wish I could have found something for Noah…no selection to speak of in the Yonge/Bloor area):

Afterward we had an ice cream break at Summer’s Ice Cream Shop in Yorkville. Especially nice as there was something Noah could have (he usually misses out on ice cream due to his peanut/nut allergy). We puzzled over the bizarrely worded sign in a dry cleaners window next to the ice cream shop:

Last week Rebecca and I went out for lunch and to run some errands. Her newly created sock monkey (made at one of her Sewing Studio camps), Fredrick, accompanied us. I think he’s just the cutest creation!:

On our journey through the Annex we came across some damage from that crazy storm we had last Thursday night:

After running some errands we stopped for lunch at Big Sushi on Bloor:

Loving their sweet potato sushi, just wish they offered a brown rice version:

Bokeh, baby, bokeh!

Loving the backlight of this shot, and the bokeh!

Rebecca is loving her new sunglasses:

Yeah! All caught up!

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July 27, 2009

Trip to Ward’s Island: Toronto, Ontario Photographer

Filed under: Blog,Children,Lensbaby,Life,Out & About — Holly @ 9:40 am

A few weeks ago a friend and I took my kids and went across to Ward’s Island. Despite the ongoing Toronto strike, it was not at all difficult to get across to the Island as there is a smaller ferry (water taxi) that makes regular trips to and from the Islands. Public washrooms are also open on the Island.

I decided to bring along my Lensbaby lens for a change.

Caught this one of Noah as we were in the ferry about to depart to the Island:

Noah braved the cold of the water right away:

Equipment Used: The following were taken with the Canon 70–200 f2.8L IS lens.

It was an absolutely PERFECT day! It was breezy coming across on the ferry, but once we got to the beach there was no wind to speak of, a beautiful summer day, which have been in very short supply here in Toronto this summer!

Rebecca decided the water was way too cold, she enjoyed the beach:

Noah brought toys from home to play with:

Then he and his sister enjoyed the beach together:

The long zoom of a 200 mm lens is perfect for shots like this! Well away from the splashing of the water!

Rebecca returns from a washroom break:

Noah really braved the water at this point! Right in there swimming:

He was freezing when he came out, I think he was glad I insisted that he bring a warm jacket!

For the trip back I changed back to the Lensbaby lens again, caught these two sunset skyline shots on the way across to the mainland:

The Lensbaby lens is especially fun for evening/nighttime shots as the lights in the background create such cool bokeh.

Ward’s Island is a wonderful way to spend a beautiful summer day! Let’s hope we have more beautiful sunny weekends like this one, rather then what we’ve had this current weekend which is lots of rain and thunder!

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