The Henri Cartier-Bresson Award
My work on the Power of SHe project has been nominated for a HCB Award!
For all the details please stop by
http://tdphotography.me/2013/the-henri-cartier-bresson-award/
– it also includes a big THANK YOU to the Avenue Community Center for believing in me and my work as a photographer.
As of yesterday afternoon, my Power of SHe project has made it’s way onto facebook. This? This is your official invitation. 
For those of you who’ve been following this blog for some time know all about the Power of SHe, for those who don’t, here’s the press bio for my little art instillation: The Power of SHe is about how we, as self-identified Women, define ourselves in light of how society and the media seek to define and confine us.
I’ve been working on the Power of SHe for some time now. It’s been exhibited twice, and continues to grow. I believe it is a very important body of work, and something we desperately need. So I hope you’ll join us as the journey continues. The more the merrier. Let’s force a shift from art project to movement. We can make change happen!
Tonight I have to direct you towards another url. As I’ve already chronicled this particular misadventure on my photography website. I do promise though, the many photographs of our frosty day are well worth the visit. I know you’ll laugh as much as we did as we battled the environment to get these important shots.
http://tdphotography.me/2013/an-unexpected-snow-filled-adventure/
Hip deep, completely stuck, immobilized by the snow and ice.
And a big thank you to Jamie for not only volunteering as my assistant today, but for capturing the entire thing with her iPhone. LMAO
I’ve posted before about the glorious art form that is DRAG, so consider this post The Art of Drag – The Next Generation.
A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of being the official photographer at a rather phenomenal event here in Saskatoon. It was the True Colours Drag Show hosted by the Avenue Community Center. All sorts of performers, from current Drag Superstars to those who are the future of the art, all performing together in a grand spectacle. It really was a brilliant night, and I am so thrilled to have played a part – even just a small one. So here are a few names to remember:
I have to admit… after listening to folk rave about Downtown Disney, I found the shopping district to be a HUGE letdown. Most of what you find there are your typical stores that you can find at any mall in any city. I’m shopping at Downtown Disney because I want to find DISNEY stuff. So while yeah, you’ll find things at Downtown Disney that you won’t find at any of the Disney parks it’s because it’s not Disney related.
Lily-Ann loved the princess store. She bought herself a purse and gloves set (courtesy of Karla Amaya, our travel agent, who gave the girl some Disney Dollars to spend), and I bought her a tiara. We also found a thank you gift for my sister and her girlfriend who watched over our furry and feathered family members while we were gone – a very cool mad hatter tea pot and tea set. Seriously, if we could have afforded two of them, I’d have got one for myself. LOL
The other cool shop was the Lego store. It really was neat to see that many sets all in one place – and I loved the create your own figures center as well as the bulk lego pieces. That was pretty awesome. And I adored the amazing lego dragon they had built out front. It was seriously incredible!
Other than that, there were little bits and pieces here and there… but overall? It was a pretty underwhelming experience. We were glad when we decided to head back to our resort. It was a MUCH cooler place to spend the remainder of our last day.
The last of the four Walt Disney World parks is Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and I realize it’s cliched to say it, but while it’s the last it’s not the least. Hollywood Studios is AMAZING! I’ve already shared the photos from the girl’s Jedi Training School experience, which was totally incredible and jealousy inducing, but that was just one small part of our day.
There are just a TON of character meets at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and the lines were minimal compared to many of the other parks. There’s a bunch to do, yet this park doesn’t feel quite as overwhelming as the others (of course, by this point we had our system pretty much perfected – which really helps). And it’s not totally kid-centric either, which was great. This park definitely had the broadest appeal, with everything from Star Wars to the Muppets to Phineas and Ferb to Pixar’s greatest hits to classic Disney as well. We loved everything about this one. It was fabulous!
This truly is THE park. When people who have never been to Walt Disney World talk about Disney World, THIS is the park they are usually talking about. It really is quintessential Disney.
When you are planning your WDW vacation plant to spend at least two days at the Magic Kingdom. There is so much here that really shouldn’t be missed, and even with two days devoted to this park there are things you’ll have to skip. I promise to go into the rides and shows in more detail on another post – listing the must dos and the must avoids. But for now? After such a long day? I’m going to jump right into the photos. After all, that’s really what you want to see, isn’t it? 
On Thursday, February 28th I felt a sudden need to light a candle and to send love out into the universe. I didn’t know why I needed to, I just knew that I had to. So at 4:30 I let my daughter choose a candle and we lit it together. Shortly after that things became all to clear.
Bran Everseeking, who was known to some as Thomas Dunbar, was a treasured friend. At 4:15 his wife, Naomi, had posted to FB that he was having a heart attack. It wasn’t until later that evening I would learn of it… after seeing another post she made at 6:04. Bran had left this world for the next. Gratefully I didn’t learn the news until after Lily-Ann had gone to sleep as with it came a slurry of tears. It honestly felt like some cruel joke.
The last couple of days have been absolutely draining, and I really have no words – which is why this post is more dry facts than anything else. I’m simply trying to relay information without breaking down again. For now all I can share are images, something I believe Bran (as a fellow photographer) would appreciate.
The candle I lit at about 4:30 on Thursday, burned until 4:54 Saturday morning. I know this, because the change in light woke me from a troubled sleep and I saw the last ember go out.
Goodnight my dear, dear friend. Know that love follows you from this life into the next. Seek no more.
When we sat down to plan our trip, we decided to spend six days visiting Disney parks. Two days for Magic Kingdom, one for Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios, and one spare day to go back wherever we felt needed an extra day of exploring and fun. Well… that extra day ended up with us back at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We absolutely LOVED this park.
For those who have never been, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is like a zoo and an amusement park all rolled into one. And as far as it’s zoo aspect goes, it’s one like no other. While there are lots of areas where the animals have their own private enclosures, there are also a plethora of spaces where the animals are free to wander around with a multitude of species all sharing beautifully sculpted landscapes. It really is quite impressive. And while I promise to share lots of animal photos at a later date, here are a few of us just taking advantage of some cool photo-ops at the park:
You really do need at least five or six days to properly do all the parks (not including water parks) at Walt Disney World, and a big part of the reason why are all the character meets. Because, lets face it, even an adult only vacation to WDW has to include character meet ‘n greets!
Most of the time, you just hop in line and wait it out. And some of those lines can be LONG. We were there during the off season and even then there were a couple of characters whom we waited for over an hour in line to see. Now, if you were to skip all the character meets you could chop a couple of days off your trip, but why would you want to do that? The characters are what makes Disney the fun that it is – otherwise it’s just a bunch of theme parks. People love Disney World and Disneyland BECAUSE of the magic that is Disney, and that is ALL about the characters.
And let’s face it! Most of the rides are no camera rides (though some people are asshats about it and snap pictures anyway – ruining the experience for those around them), so the character meets? They’re your very best photo ops. And some of the cast members really are fabulous and are SOOO worth seeing. Peter Pan pops into mind. Seriously, he spent about ten minutes with Lily-Ann… who happened to be in her fairy costume. He even tried shaking pixie dust out of her. He really was fabulous and made the girl feel that way too. 
So, here are a whole whack of character meet-ups from our trip! None of the photos have been edited or enhanced. I am not even going to THINK about that yet. It’s going to be a STUPID amount of work considering the two or three thousand images I have. LOL So it was just a RAW to JPG conversion. LOL
