Oh Susanna -- trooper!

I've had the pleasure of shooting the remarkably talented Oh Susanna a couple of times. (Please understand that as a photographer, "shooting" people is a good thing.) I'm a fan of her art, and I'm a fan of her person.

One shoot we did took place on a very cold Canadian afternoon in February. We wanted the shots to look more "summer-y", which involved a great amount of intestinal fortitude by Suzie. (Did I mention is was a very cold Canadian afternoon in February? Did I also mention that we were shooting in an old, breezy, unheated barn?)

She looks pretty warm and summer-y in these photos, no? That's because Suzie is a champ.

The truth of the freezing shoot can be seen in this quick snap of Suzie and our marvelous hair/make-up guru Jess (please note the earmuffs):

Habitat For Humanity

For anyone who knows me, the sight of me wielding a hammer or, sakes alive, a power tool, is enough to send them away screaming.

I'm not handy. I've tried. I've read numerous books. I've studied my share of Ikea instructions. I even took a woodworking course once. And by once I mean I went to one class - after my first lesson on the band saw I was entirely certain I was going to lop off a limb. I've grown attached to my limbs. (I still plan on building a bat house one day, but it may have to constructed out of popsicle sticks.) I admire it in others, but handiness just isn't a talent I possess.

Because of this "handy-lessness", I never thought I'd get to volunteer for a Habitat For Humanity build. Habitat For Humanity (habitat.org / torontohabitat.on.ca) is a wonderful organization and I've always wanted to lend a hand. Never thought it would happen. And then my friend Stef, who has volunteered with Humanity a number of times, forwarded some information about Humanity looking for volunteer photographers. Perfect!

Short story shorter, I was able to volunteer for Toronto's inaugural ReTooling Build in September.

And my heart grew three sizes.

I'm A Bad Blogger

That's right. I'm a bad blogger. I don't call... I don't write... My Christmas cards are always late...

Time to pull up the bootstraps.

A Thank You To The Size Nines

They get me where I'm going and keep me where I stand.

Thanks, feet.

It's Freezing Outside, But It's So Warm In My Heart

Being Canadian doesn’t mean I have to love hockey, but I do. It sure is fun to watch, and playing it is the bee’s knees. Playing it with good friends outside on the frozen pond, however, is the queen bee’s knees.

For the past few years, some (also crazy) friends and I have headed to Huntsville, Ontario to play in the National Pond Hockey Championships. For those of you who are in to such things, it’s amazing. For those of you who aren’t in to such things, it still has the potential to be amazing. I suppose it all depends on how attached one can get to twenty five rinks glistening out on the bay, lovingly tended to by warm-hearted volunteers using all manner of vehicles to keep the ice in decent skating shape.

I’m not sure how the organizers manage to arrange it, but every weekend we’ve been there it has been c-c-c-cold. The first year it was minus 27 (before factoring in the wind chill). This year it got colder – minus 32. That’s pretty damn cold to have your feet in skates. But you know what’s worse than having to put skates on in minus 32 degree weather? Having to pee in minus 32 degree weather.

We’ve named our team “Pass The Advil” (no, we’re not sponsored by Advil, we just find we need it after a few games of pond hockey). This year we had some jerseys made. We loved them when we got them, and we love them even more now -- after looking at some photos we realized that when we play, they look like they say “Ass The Advil”. Gives it a whole new meaning. Personally, I prefer to take my anti-inflammatories orally.

I don’t know how we do it, but every year we manage to make it to the playoff round. This year we went 5-0 in the round robin. Unreal. Our undefeated run ended in the quarterfinals when we lost 12-11 in a really fun game against another Toronto team.

No matter what the score is, though, everyone wins.

Greetings From My Planet To Yours

Well here it is (www.heatherpollock.com). A real website. With pictures and everything. Santa must have left it for me, although I'm not certain how good I've been this past year. Perhaps just "good enough" is good enough. If I was really good, though, surely it would have turned out to be the "scratch 'n sniff" website I asked for in my annual letter.

It's a cold January day, and I suppose like many of my fellow Canadians it makes my mind wander like a moth to a flame -- flitting here and there, here and there, but always toward the light. Thoughts of sunshine and warmth keep popping into my head and gathering together there, held in snuggly by my woolen toque. Hence the rather dramatic photo of the cottage lake. Just a reminder to myself that summer will return, and it won't always be dark at 5pm.