Bad Apple

The other day, Mike and I took a little detour at lunch to get some shots of a tree that still had a fair bit of crab apples hanging from it after the winter.  Obviously, after hanging on those limbs for all those months, the remaining fruit was dried up and rotten. 

I guess to most people, this wouldn't be interesting or appealing at all. To us, it was a great opportunity to take out the cameras and see if we could capture something interesting.

I got a variety of wide shots, then took some close ups of the apples to really get the details, but nothing was really looking good to me until I started doing the opposite. Instead of going for the details, I decided to take a bunch of shots that were completely out of focus, and I liked what I saw. The dream-like, blurred images seemed to look a bit more like paintings than photos, and I just like the way it all seems to flow. 

Looking at the crab apples reminded me of when I was younger. There was an apple tree that used to hang out of someone's yard and over into our schoolyard a bit. I remember climbing the fence at recess, reaching up to grab as many apples as I could.  A lot of the kids did it, and some even climbed right over into the yard and up the tree, grabbing as much as they could and running out before getting caught. I never had it in me to do that, I just stayed at the fence. 

The problem with everyone grabbing as many apples as they could was that you couldn't wait very long for the fruit to ripen, or there'd be nothing left. Because of that, the fruit had a very bitter, sour taste. It wasn't good at all, but that didn't stop anyone from choking the nasty little things down. 

I miss that taste.

Updating the dot com - North Bay Photography

Well, I finally took a little time to update my website to add sections for photography, and cool cakes. The site had been nearly unchanged for years, and what it really needs is a complete overhaul. Since I don't have time for that, this little update will have to do.

I'm still not sure if I have too much on there now, but I guess it's fine. What I need to do is decide if I should add yet another section for film work. I guess if anything, film work should be added, and cakes should be taken out. Bah, either way, I'm sure I won't have any more time to spend on this for a while, so it'll just have to stay the way it is for now.

Have a look! http://www.patrickgilbert.com

I've stocked up!

I finally got around to bringing a roll of film from my holga to get developped. It's been a while since I took that camera out to play around, and I can't really remember what pictures will be on that film. I'm anxious to see the prints, and that's part of the fun of using an old school camera every now and then.

There's only one place left in town where I can get this medium format film developped, and where I can buy new rolls. Having said that, their supply is running quite low, so before long I'll have to order online. The plus side of buying the film in town is that because everyone has been digital for years, the rolls are not in demand and have expired in 2005 or so, which means I get them for next to nothing, and the film works just fine.

So, with a handful of rolls in hand, I'm stocked up and ready to play around for a little while. I'll be posting some new Holga pics soon!



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Bits n' Bites! - North Bay Photography

Warning: What you're about to read is probably the lamest post ever. I haven't posted anything in a week or so (I just haven't had much time to do anything but work these days), and I figured I really needed to get the ball rolling again somehow. The problem is, I haven't even unloaded the camera in a while or played with any new pictures.  My solution was to flip through the pics I have on my phone, and see if there was anything interesting in there.  Scrolling through the odd variety of shots, I came across a bunch of pics of drill bits I had to take for an Atlas Copco job last fall, I didn't mind those.  Then I flipped to a shot of some bacon and sausages I took on a camping trip last summer, yum. So, that's when it came to me... "Hey, Bits n' Bites... There's something to post!"

Like I said, lamest post ever. if you read this far, and you're now regretting it, don't say I didn't warn you. I'm almost caught up with a bunch of stuff that's been on my plate, so I'll be sure to get some more interesting stuff on here soon. Thanks for visiting, and come back soon!

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Mario Land Was a Success!!

Tristan's birthday just passed, and his request was a Super Mario cake. His thoughts for what/who he wanted on there changed pretty much daily, so we just had to wing it and hope he wouldn't be disappointed. 

Our original plan was to have a 3 tiered cake, with the top tier being the castle.  Once the baking was done, it became clear that our plan wouldn't work. The cakes just had an odd shape to them, and to cut away enough of them to make it work wouldn't have left us with much to feed our guests. So it was on to plan B, I came up with another idea, which I sketched out, and we were good to go again! We actually ran into a whole bunch of other issues with this one, eventually it worked out.

By the time we started creating the Mario masterpiece, it was quite late (always is), and I was already running out of gas. A few hours in, I just couldn't keep my eyes open, so I had to tap out. I slept for a few hours while Nicole worked on the cake, then shortly after I got up, she headed off to sleep while I continued decorating.

I was hoping to have the cake done before Tristan woke up in the morning, but that didn't work out. He got up, opened presents, then I got back to the cake for a bit to wrap things up. I really didn't feel like it anymore, but what a boring cake it would have been without Mario and Bowser Junior on top.

In the end, it was a success, Tristan really liked it, and he especially enjoyed playing with the characters and the bridge while everyone else ate cake. Watching him have fun with that made the whole night worth it.