Sunsets in Belleville

I'm not a city person. I prefer being out in the country, and enjoying God's creation there. We were in Belleville, Ontario, last week on a business trip, which meant time in a hotel room and then in a seminar all day. There are many beautiful areas in Belleville, but due to time I didn't get to see a lot of them. We went for a walk in the evening, looked at cars, looked at more cars (or at least my husband did), watched the traffic, enjoyed the warm air, watched the lights come on in the stores and restaurants ... and enjoyed a sunset. This was a beautiful time in the evening and trip.

The colours were beautiful and it was a perfect time for taking silhouette pictures. We were in the middle of a row of restaurants and I wanted to take a picture of the sunset without the restaurants.  I did try one with a restaurant in it, but didn't succeed in keeping it sharp enough. A tripod would have come in handy.

These were the only two spots I could find in the area, but I thought they were interesting. I especially liked the hydro towers. 

I tried to show the perspective of the towers going off into the distance. It would have been good to be on a level just a bit higher so that the ones in the distance would show up more.


When I was taking the picture, I shot over top of a parking lot, and was later told that a woman stopped in the parking lot so that she wouldn't be in the way and I could take the picture. Amazing how people notice, and want to help out ... or don't want to have their pictures taken.

When I look at a beautiful sky like this, it's a reminder to me that God made a very beautiful world. It was perfect when Adam and Eve were created, and when they were in the Garden of Eden. It's hard to imagine how beautiful it must have been back then before sin entered the world. 

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; 

God himself that formed the earth and made it; 

He hath established it, He created it not in vain, 

He formed it to be inhabited: 

"I am the LORD; and there is none else." 

Isaiah 45:18 

Skates in a Bubble

I was asked by a friend to do a picture for her for a Skating Programme. She wanted to have a pair of skates in a bubble, and gave me a model pair of skates about 3 inches high. I was able to take a picture of the skates in the homemade light box that I have, and while I was doing this, I played around a bit with the lighting. It was hard to decide which picture of the skates to use, and because the background was white, I had to be careful "cutting" out the skates. The water bubble wasn't too hard as I had a new container for the water to be in, and wanted to try it out. Putting the two together as a composite photo was a bit challenging.

 This next one was done with darker blue and gold as these are the colours she asked for. I prefer the clean look of the lighter blue caused by the tungsten setting on my camera, but I also like the look of the darker blue.

I wasn't sure if she wanted the full reflection of the water bubble, or just part, so in the post processing, I did both for her.

Finally, I thought I would try it with 2 bubbles, even though I didn't think this was what she wanted. This is the one that I like. I think it would also be interesting to put a skater inside the bubble:)

And ... her choice? She chose the dark blue pictures. I'm not sure which one she will put on the programme. She seems happy with the pictures.

Skating is a good physical exercise for people, and we are encouraged to have physical exercise to have a healthy life. More importantly, we need to have a healthy spiritual life, one that honours God in every aspect of our lives. He loves us and wants us to be committed to Him.

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things,

 holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

1 Timothy 4:8

Ice Huts ... Surprise

Spring is coming! The ice on the lake is turning to water because of the warmer weather. It has caught some of the people who are ice fishing by surprise. We have had about 10 ice huts on our lake during the winter. Now they almost look like they are floating on a mirror or a shallow lake. I enjoyed taking pictures of them and their reflections.

Usually they go out to their ice huts by snowmobile. Right now the snowmobiles are not travelling on the lake as the water sitting on top of the ice is too deep. Some of the fishermen are using four-wheelers but even these are slow moving in the water.  

I'm sure some of them are trying to figure out how to get their ice huts off the lake before they end up sinking. In the meantime, it's interesting to see the water all over the ice on the lake.

Just as some of the people with ice huts have been surprised by the change in the weather, we are often surprised by things that come along in our lives. If we aren't prepared for them then the changes can be very difficult for us. The good thing is that we don't need to face these things alone. If we belong to the Lord Jesus, then we have Him with us for all times, whether good or bad. He has promised to always be with us. 

Cast all your anxiety on Him for He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7 

Maple Syrup Time

Spring is coming! We were able to go for an enjoyable walk in the bush this past weekend. There's still a fair amount of snow in the bush, but we were able to walk on a snowmobile trail without too much difficulty. If you stepped off of the track, you could sink to your knees in the snow.


One of our neighbours is tapping maple trees (collecting sap). It was good to hear the sap dripping into the pails ... a sure sign of spring. We have a lot of maple syrup producers in our area and many of them use more modern methods with lines (hoses between the trees instead of pails). Usually you see a cover over the pail when they use pails. This keeps rain and contaminants out of the sap.


There's a lot of work involved in collecting the sap and boiling it to make syrup, but it is well worth the effort. Both my husband and I have pleasant memories of collecting sap in the sugar bush when we were younger.

We sometimes take things like this for granted. We have so many trees around us in our area to enjoy and learn about. They are all so different. Even though maple syrup is not a necessity, it is a pleasure to eat, and many of us enjoy eating it. I was a bit surprised when I looked it up on the internet, that maple syrup contains calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc, and B complex vitamins. Wow, God has provided all of this within the sap from the maple tree. So ... the next time you and I eat something with maple syrup, we can be thankful to God for creating the maple tree and causing the sap to run in the spring.

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: 

seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it,

 according to their various kinds.” And it was so.  

Genesis 1:11

Learning to Work with Light

My husband gave me a bouquet of flowers, which is where these flowers came from ... a nice bright spot in the middle of winter. I'm glad he likes to surprise me.

 I thought I would try taking some pictures of them using a DIY lightbox I made a short time ago.  I found the directions for making one on the internet, and made a small one. Mine looks a bit different than the one on the internet but I believe it can work, so I tried it with some of the flowers. I found that it was difficult to get the background pure white - I believe my lights are not strong enough. I'll have to look for some different lights. Always something to learn.

But in the meantime,  I decided that since I didn't have a completely white background, I would have some fun and use a couple of the LED flashlights that I have (plus my external flash) to play with the light on the flowers. You can see some of the results of my experimenting below.

Finally, I took one of the pictures that I liked the best, and added a reflection during the post-production part. I used Photoshop Elements, which walks you through the process of adding a reflection. The other photos were not touched or changed except to work a bit with the levels.

When I've worked hard all week, I enjoy coming home and having a change while I learn more about photography. It's also good to take time to enjoy God and His creation. His creation or Handiwork is there for us to enjoy ... enjoy ... but not to worship.  His creation is wonderful to look at, but we need to remember that the most important thing about it is that it can point us to Him. We have a great, big, wonderful God who has created us.

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.Psalm 107:1 

Winter Scenes

We are in the middle of winter here, so ... lots of snow. I haven't been outside too much to take pictures, but last Saturday we had the chance to go for a walk on the lake, and to visit one of the rivers in our area.


Snow isn't easy to photograph. The snow can end up looking grey or blue sometimes. I'm still working on improving this.


It was a very bright sunny day when I took this first photo. I had my polarizing filter on, my aperture at f22, and was shooting in raw format. The raw format helped for making sure the snow looked white when I processed it.  I was glad to be able to catch the snowmobiles as they went by.

We also went to one of the local rivers and I was able to practise taking some photos of the rapids surrounded by snow on the edges of the river. This was challenging - to get the shutter speed correct to have the river look silky, and to also have the snow look white without being blown out (totally white). It was a sunny day, but this was taken later in the day when the sun wasn't shining on the river. This helped make it easier to photograph.

 We had to climb through quite a bit of snow to take this photo but I thought it was worth it. I was glad to have my tripod with me. It would be very difficult to take this photo without the tripod. I also used the self timer to take the photo so that I could avoid any camera shake. 


These techniques/supports can help us to take better photos. God provides supports for those of us who are Christians - His Word in the Bible, prayer, church, fellowship with others, and the Holy Spirit within to guide us. We need to make sure we are leaning on Him so that we can learn and grow in Him.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him.

Colossians 2:6