Purple Trees

Obviously these trees weren't actually purple but isn't it amazing what a little Photoshop can do??
I love playing around with different colours to make a ho-hum photo of some trees look so eye catching!!

Lately, I've been really loving adding text to my photos so you'll probably be seeing a lot more of that with my photos. I've always been a big fan of inspirational quotes & sometimes I look at these photos while editing and think... this quote would look perfect here.

On this Purple Tree pic though, I think the photo speaks for itself.
I could've said something along the lines of "Life is an adventure" or something like that because of the opening in the middle of the trees... but I like the simplicity of this picture. I think it's sort of beautiful.

Until next time!

Love Your Earth

I love the planet! :)

Selective Colour Exercise :)

I know this probably isn't the best "Photoshopp-ed" photo.. but it's my first time since College working with the program and I seriously couldn't remember anything.

Lately when I've been editing photos, I keep thinking "This would look SO good if the whole photo was dark except for one part of it".

That's when I looked into Selective Colouring... And I'm actually really proud with the results!

Hopefully you like it too! :)

Winter Wonderland Part I

Some photos of my nature walk that I took yesterday... It was absolutely freezing and I kept stepping 3 feet into the snow.. my hands were cold.. but it was worth it. I got some pretty shots out of the deal!
Stay tuned for more :)

Snow Day

I went for an extremely cold walk today and snapped some photos of all the beautiful snow hugging the trees.
Let's just say I forgot my gloves and I'm pretty sure I was minutes away from frost-bite. I did manage to capture some gorgeous photos though and some not so gorgeous ones but... it's a learning process.

This is just a small preview of what's to come later on. I'll post more later!
Right now I'm headed off to work and talk about how damn cold it was today!
Until next time :)

Spicy Black Bean Pork Stirfry

This recipe was amazing! John & I actually loved this. It had a ton of flavour and was seriously so good.
I adapted the black bean recipe from this website and I will 100% be making this again and again.

What You'll Need:

(Sauce)

• 2 tbsp of canola oil
• 2 tbs of fermented black beans, rinsed & drained
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup of chicken broth
• 12 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbs rice vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 3 tbs szechuan sauce 
• 1 tbs ancho chili powder
• 1 tbs Louisiana Spice Mix (Epicure brand)... If you live in the States, this is Canadian so you may want to use another spicy mix to substitute like Chili Flakes.

What To Do: 

1. Heat up oil & add in black beans & minced garlic
2. Stirfry for about 1 minute
3. Add in all other ingredients and stir until thick. 
4. Set aside

(Stirfry)

• Handful of Green Beans, ends chopped
• 3 Carrots, sliced
• 2 Sweet Peppers, sliced
• 1/2 White Onion, sliced
• 1 Cup of Brown Rice, Cooked. 
• 1 Pork Tenderloin, Skin Removed & Cut into thin slices
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil

What to Do: 

• Heat up olive oil in large pan.
• Add in Pork Tenderloin pieces & stirfry until pork is almost cooked through.
• Add in vegetables. Stirfry for about 5 minutes.
• Add in your black bean sauce & stirfry for another 3-5 minutes until pork is cooked through and all food items are covered in the sauce. 
• Serve over bed of cooked rice. 

So delicious!

More Spooky...

Here are the last of my photos from my walk around our Boat Launch.

I do see that the last photo is a little bit crooked.. Definitely a situation when a tripod would come in handy.

Next up... Thunder Bay gets covered in snow!

Thankful

I was super happy when Nicole from Local Sugar Hawaii left a comment on one of my posts and asked if I would be a part of her Aloha Affair!

Definitely check out her blog and see what it's all about.
It's actually kind of nice because lately I've been all about finding the small things in life to be thankful for!

I think what I'm most thankful for at this moment in my life is getting back on track financially as well as finding my true interests. I got my camera so long ago and only am I now starting to practice the craft and to me... I guess that's really special. :)

What are you thankful for?

Just a Few More

I only have a couple more to share after this batch from my walk through the Waterfront.

I didn't realize how many photos I actually took! It's funny because when going through the pictures, I weeded out the ones I liked and put them into one folder and I'd be like "wow I really don't like this one but let's see what I can do with it.." That's when I'd get to editing and then I would fall in love with the end result...

So I guess moral of the story is .... edit your photos? :)

Proud Amateur

It's amazing what kind of magic can happen with a few tweaks to brightness, contrast, colour, tint & saturation!

I know they're not the best or anything and I'm way BELOW amateur level, but I'm super proud of these photos.

Haunted

I don't know about you, but these photos are a little bit spooky, in my opinion!
The way I edited them has this dark ominous look about them... and I kinda love it!

Also...if you're from the States, try not to get into any fights in the huge Black Friday line ups.

As for me, I'll be staying in today as Thunder Bay seems to be overtaken by the snow monster.

Have a good one!

Playing Around With Colour

Probably some of my favorite photos yet!
While editing, I wasn't shy with contrast, colour, etc... I really played around and I'm loving how these turned out.
I'm also loving these new settings that I've discovered... it's amazing how much "manual focus" can change the potential of a photo!

Boom-De-Ad-A-I love the WHOLE WORLD

Some photos taken at one of our local parks here in town.
Finn Pride!

Nature is Beautiful

I'm starting a new blog to keep all my photos in one place.
I'll still be keeping my old blog just because I like to reminisce.. and on this new blog I'll still be posting recipes from time to time.

I probably won't post in the other one much (or ever) but I have nice memories in there like my Florida trip or Camping memories and I've been using that blog a long time.. so I think it's only right to keep it around!

With this new blog, you can expect actual direction and purpose for posts (wh-what?!). Here, I will be focusing on my 2 main interests... cooking & photography. Basically, these 2 things are hobbies that I feel I'm actually kind of good at and I'd like a place to document it.. sort of like a portfolio.

Follow along, don't follow along.. comment, don't comment.. it's not a big deal to me. It would be nice to have some constructive criticism however in order to keep improving everyday!

Hmm.. k bye!