A walk in the park-eh…

On Labour Day, the sun was shining and it was so warm out that Andrew and I decided to go downtown for a stroll.  We started at Strathcona park–there wasn’t really much to see but it was a nice walk and I brought along my camera…of course  

While walking through Strathcona, I was looking at all the leaves on the trees because many of them were already starting to change.  I love autumn so much.  I am definitely a fall girl.  Not that I want to rush the seasons becuase I’m so not ready or even close to ready for winter again (and fall is also so fleeting) but  I definitely do enjoy the crisp air and the gorgeous autumn colours. I saw this through the viewfinder and thought it was really pretty.   It’s still so summery but with just a touch of fall.  I also love bokeh, so this was a great chance for me to capture it.  (Bokeh- the out of focus/blurred effect in the background–the depth of field)  I so heart bokeh!  (see the little beads of colourful bokeh..they’re so pretty! I think this is a photographer’s thing! lol)

 Here is another bokeh-licious shot of a leaf I saw against a shrub along the sidewalk. 

As we were walking, we also came across a bunch of squirrels! They move really quickly, haha, not the easiest little critters to capture! Maybe that’s where the expression squirrely comes from!

I did manage to get one though.  It looks like a deer caught in the headlights…either that or it’s thinking of lunging at my face!  Love how it camouflages into the shot!  It still looks pretty cute to me, but they kind of scare me!

 There were also tonnes of big beautiful trees to shoot.  I love trees.  Makes you wonder how many years some of them have been growing for! I am also fascinated by the texture and lines (such a fine arts brain, I know) that the bark has.

Oh and how could I not photograph the stunning array of colours on the leaves around the Ottawa U campus!  I should add as well that this image has not been edited in any way–no sharpening and no colour adjustments! Gotta love when exposure is spot on! As they say on Flickr, this is SOOC–straight out of camera

As we continued walking around, I continued to seek out photographic inspiration.  Of course I love spotting things that make for great photos, but I also take any chance I get to practice improving my shooting skills.  I am always striving to make attractive compositions with my subjects, so I often shoot various things from different angles and perspectives to see what looks best.  We came across this iron fence, also by Ottawa U and I couldn’t resist another Dof shot–it’s all about perspective afterall! This one eneded up being one of my faves from the walk because of the focus and of course, the bokeh goodness.  I edited this in PS to achieve a vintage feel.  I love these soft purply tones

Here is another version the same shot…took it SOOC and softened the colours just a bit.  I like this one as well, but find the toned one to be much more appealing and artistic, but that’s just me.

Here are a few more of the same fence but from different perspectives.  The Dof is so intense here–they remind me of watercolour paintings becuase of the way the background objects blend. The rainbow of colours comes as a result of the out of focus leaves on the trees

I also couldn’t resist photographing this awesome pink bike! I have always wanted to find a pink bike to shoot…odd as that sounds, but it’s true! lol  I couldn’t decide which edit I liked best, so I’ll share them both!  Since I love colours that just pop, I really liked this version

but I also love a vintage look, so I love this one too!! So hard to decide! I think it depends on my mood because today I’m leaning towards the first one!

Ok and just one last shot for fun…let’s call this one berry-keh  

Thanks for visiting! 

Amy xo