Fall to Winter

Daylight Savings Time ends next week. I have mixed feelings about it every year. I revel in the extra hour of sleep that I get, but not at the thought that it will be dark by 6pm... and then 5:30pm... and then 5pm... and while I love the cozy, snowy darkness in December when Christmas is close, and I can curl up on the couch with a good book, a cat, and amidst Christmas lights and candles, I have to go through November to get there.

November is my "blah" month. Nothing really exciting happens in November. The city is at its ugliest, too. All the fall leaves are gone, the grass is brown, and it's all exposed because any snow we've had hasn't really stuck yet. I bet if I went through all my photos, November has the least amount of photos taken each year. I'll have to check that out some time (I bet June or July has the most). I'm remedying that a bit this year, because the Edmonton Photography Club (which I recently joined) is doing a scavenger hunt mid-November. I just hope it's not -20 out!

One thing I am definitely looking forward to--albeit it is at the end of November--is Great Big Sea in concert! I have seen them five times, and will never tire of it! It will be the first time I see them in Edmonton without Chris and Lorie--that might be strange. But it will also be the first time I see them in Edmonton with a decent camera!

Lately I have been working on using my bounce flash. My dad had two flashes with his camera gear, and I recently discovered that one is way cooler than I thought it was, and it has now become my favourite flash. I have one that rotates just horizontally 90 degrees, and one that I thought rotates just vertically 180 degrees. WELL. I was going through the old manuals and such that my mom found while unpacking her new place, and I discovered that not only does the vertically rotating flash rotate L-R 180 degrees, but the body of the flash rotates side to side 180 degrees. This all translates into a flash that I can basically position at whatever angle I want (except backwards). Which is SWEET especially for photos taken on an angle, cuz I can bounce the flash off a complementary angle. It's been pretty fun playing around with this feature. So far I've only blinded my cats and a pumpkin, but I intend to experiment on people in the near future. :)