Ready to throw yourself in a heap across the finish line of yet another decade?
Say goodbye to the Nads and hello to the Tweens with our roundup-roundup: the best photos of 2009 as chosen by experts at Time, National Geographic, Billboard, and more.
Of course, it’s fun to reminisce about Twitpics of planes on the Hudson, or to imagine that there could have been life before Glee.
But it’s even more fun to imagine the photo-ops that await us in the new year.
Your mission: Say a proper goodbye to 2009, and go make two-thousand-and-awesome the best photo year yet!
Here’s my photo for the last of the year. It’s opff one of the buildings at the Waterworks at the east end of Toronto’s east beaches. I’ll probably post one last photo for the year later so I’ll save my new year’s wishes for then.
Here’s a photo of a pier jutting out into Lake Ontario. I like how the light reflects off the wet rocks. Boy it was cold that day. Tonight (new year’s eve) I’m thinking to head down to city hall to take some night shots of the festivities, although I suspect I’ll just stay in. You’ll find out tomorrow, of course.
I posted a black and white version of this door previously. It was a straight on perspective. I like colour in this one, although it works equally as well as a b & w. Hope you like it too.
2009 was a wild ride for most of us, with events and disasters leading up to the close of this decade adding more stress to our lives. Average people develop their own coping mechanisms, some better than others, but for those with extra challenges, the present may just be nudging the “breaking point”.
Parents trying to deal with children with autism or other developmental disorders, people struggling to raise a family while coping with an elderly parent with Alzheimer’s or dementia, caregivers trying to manage their special-needs outpatients . . . these are common scenarios in today’s society.
The cannot alter the nature of the world we live in, but it can provide a few moments of peace in the chaos some of us have to face daily.
· provides several hours of beautiful stress-free, plot -free video programming in a four-volume set of undersea videos set to soothing music.
· offers a calming strategy for parents or caregivers trying to quiet or transition a child with autism spectrum disorder.
· inspires a mood of tranquility and serenity for people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s or dementia.
· may provide that much-needed distraction and anxiety relief to people at early or middle levels of a panic attack.
Art and music have long been known to have a peaceful affect on the human psyche and, while presents calming visuals and music, The rhythm of water has always infused our nervous systems with relaxation, lulling our spirit into a placid state. That is why so many . The flow of fish swimming undersea, against a background of music and art, is a remedy for all but the most severe forms of tension and emotional distress.
for transforming agitation into inner harmony. It is relaxation therapy for the most challenging behavior, or for just the average person who needs a break from the high-tech fast-paced routine we all seem to suffer.
Our ambitious agenda for the Digital Aquarium in 2010 includes the launch of several products to help parents, educators and caregivers regain some control in their stress-filled days. We are hoping that our blog becomes a clearinghouse for ideas and information for the communities we serve. If you have thoughts, ideas or strategies for parents, teachers or caregivers please send them to Especially if they involve video, music or art.
Please follow us on TWITTER at Calmingvideos or on our Facebook Fan page Calming Strategies.
Kathy Wilson, who writes for Ontario Photography Colleges, contacted me asking if she could write a short photography related article for my blog. And here it is. Thanks Kathy.
We love the word “instant” these days – it makes life so much easier for most of us. And so we have instant coffee, instant noodles, instant photographs and so on. While true connoisseurs of these items would cringe at their bastardization – anyone who has used a sophisticated camera would definitely turn their nose down at a basic point and shoot digital model – for the rest of us who belong to the plebian community, we’re just happy that even we can be excellent photographers. Yes, it’s true – if you know a few tricks of the trade, you can take great pictures with your digital camera:
Get the exact picture that you want: When you’re photographing a moving person, you find that it’s hard to get the exact picture you want – the picture on your screen is usually one that captures the scene that occurred a few seconds later than when you pressed the button. The problem with point and shoot, automatic digital cameras is that they come with a fixed aperture and exposure. There is also considerable shutter lag – the time between you clicking the shot and the picture being captured on the internal chip, which is why your photo does not turn out the way you imagined. You can get around this by focusing on your target a few minutes before you really want the shot and keeping the shutter button half pressed. This locks in the exposure and aperture, and when the target is in the right pose, press the button fully. This reduces the shutter lag and you get the picture you want.
Use lighting and positions correctly: The quality of your pictures depends on the amount of light available and the angle of the shot. Ensure that you shoot in daylight with the source of light behind you. The best part about point and shoot cameras is that they allow you to take as many shots as you want as you experiment in getting the light right. And to get the angle right, change positions according to the subject. When photographing children and animals, get down to their level so that the photos are more focused on the subject. And when you want close ups of small objects, use the macro mode which is available in even the simplest of cameras today.
Hold steady: If your pictures are shaky and grainy, it’s because you didn’t have steady hands when you clicked the shot. To take good pictures, hold the camera with both hands and ensure that you don’t shake or move it until you hear the whirring of the shutter button stop. Very often, most amateurs move the camera once they’ve pressed the button. Also, use the optical zoom to get close up shots of people and other subjects – get a simple point and shoot camera that has a high optical zoom to get good pictures.
This article is written by Kathy Wilson, who writes on the subject of . She can be reached at her email id: .
Saw this bike on my way home from my Christmas day outing and had to take a photo. I hope the poor owner wasn’t waking up to this on Christmas morning.
Here’s another photo from yesterday’s short outing. I stopped by Birchmount Collegiate (local high school closed for the Christmas break) and photographed the trees at the south end of the school. I took the tree exposure and blended them into one high dynamic range photo. I then turned it into a black & white. Hope you like it.
I snapped this photo from a low hilltop at Ashbridge’s Bay in Toronto’s east beaches. I was surprised at the number of folks out for a Christmas day stroll like myself.
