As per usual I've not blogged in an eternity. Oops. Anyway, I don't have much time to write out a whole novel like I did for the first part of this blog post, but I will put a tonne of photos in here for you to hopefully enjoy! I've had enough time to edit up to the second day of the cruise, so you will see some photos of Florence, Civitavecchia, and Genoa. Enjoy!

xoxo Danielle 

Florence

Melissa in front of a replica of the statue of David. We unfortunately didn't have the time to visit the real one.

Melissa being a professional moped rider. 

This was THE CAR... you may not all know the story but this card conveniently had no brakes. Florence is very hilly. There may have been an accident involving a guard rail. No big deal. I cried. It's whatever.

He's a really popular guy, this David.

Civitavecchia

Legend of the Seas - Embarkation & 1st Stop

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Camera Info: I used a mix between my D3s and my Nikon V1. You guess which photos come from which camera :)

I know, I know, it's been an eternity and a half since I've blogged... but it's been a overwhelmingly busy past three months and it's just about to get crazier. 

I figured that I would take this "calm before the storm" to let you all know about something that is very near and dear to me. What's that you might ask? Well, it's the Kitchener-Waterloo Skating Club. 

KWSC has been instrumental in helping me build my business. I started skating at KWSC the year we moved from Nova Scotia, when I was 11. I skated singles until grade 10 and then added pre-novice synchro to my resume and then eventually, photography. Everyone in the club (skaters, parents, board members etc.) was so supportive and understanding of my photography habit and they trusted me to photograph so many club events, including the likes of Summer/Sectionals/Starskate Simulations and Ice Show (formerly Showcase) when I was as young as 14. 

This year is KWSC's 75th Anniversary as a skating club and I wanted to give back a little in thanks for all the support I have received over the past several years. This skating season has brought many reasons to celebrate to KWSC. Not only have our skaters done well internationally at the highest levels of skating, but our young talent is thriving as well. We have several sectional, provincial and national level medalists as well.

To celebrate both the 75th Anniversary of KWSC operating as a skating club, as well as a year of success in all levels, the Kitchener-Waterloo Skating Club is holding an Ice Show on April 12th, 2014 at 3pm at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex and I invite you all to come. Not only will the KWSC's local young talent be in attendance and skating, but there are so many skating stars and KWSC alumni that will be skating as well. 

To start off the star-studded cast, KWSC's own Olympic Silver Medalists and 2011 Canadian Pairs Champions, Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovtich will be skating in the show. Kirsten and Dylan competed in both the Team Event and Individual pairs event at the Sochi Olympics this past February and helped lead the Canadian team to a silver medal in the team event. Only a couple of days later they skated again and placed 5th in a very deep pairs field in Sochi. Not only are Kirsten and Dylan are fabulous ambassadors for KWSC, but they are also just really nice and down to earth people. Kirsten and Dylan will be just back from the World Championships in Saitama, Japan when they skate in Ice Show. They will be joined in Saitama by KWSC Alumni Andrew Poje and his ice dance partner Kaitlyn Weaver, who have also joined the cast of Ice Show. 

I know I am super excited that Kaitlyn & Andrew have joined the cast of Ice Show, as I have been a fan of them since they first teamed up in 2007. I remember being in the audience with my mom and Andrew's mom at Nationals in Halifax in 2007 when they won the bronze medal and what a fabulous celebration it was. I've been following their career every since and am so happy they are coming "home" to KWSC for Ice Show. They are SEVEN time National Medalists and have placed as high as 4th at the World Figure Skating Championships in 2012 and their love and enthusiasm for the sport is obvious and appreciated.

In addition to Kaitlyn & Andrew and Kirsten & Dylan, 1988 Olympic Gold Medalist Elizabeth Manley will be joining the cast to celebrate it's 75th year and it does't stop there! Our guest emcee will be TV personality and blogger, PJ Kwong.

The show will also highlight Mary Orr and Phelan Simpson who were the highest placing Canadian pair team at the Junior World Figure Skating Championships in Bulgaria last week, as well as senior pairs teams Shalena Rau & Rob Schultz and Brittany Jones & Josh Reagan.

Not to be outshone by the star-studded headliners, KWSC's young talent will also be entertaining the audience with fun upbeat performances to music from throughout the 7.5 decades the club has been operating. KWSC's synchro teams (Revolution) will be skating and you wont want to miss the highlight of the whole show (in my opinion) - the Preschool numbeer! 

As I said before, the show will be on April 12th 2014 at 3pm at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex. If you wanted to buy tickets, they are available at www.kwskating.com/iceshow and are $20 for adults and $5 for Youth under 19 years of age. From what I hear, tickets are already more than half sold out, so if you are interested in coming to see this awesome show, act quickly before tickets are all gone! You wont want to miss this amazing opportunity to see some of Canada's best talent skating with KWSC's up and coming talent. It's going to be a GREAT show. I'm going to be there, how about you?! :) 

xoxo

Danielle 

P.S. This is not a sponsored post, I genuinely want to see you all there to support some amazingly talented skaters of all ages. 

Since 2013 is drawing to a close and it was such a great year for me, I figured it might be appropriate to do a little recap of the year just to document in one place how big of a year it was for me. I'll warn you right now that this is probably going to be quite long (since a year is also pretty long), so I mean if you just wanna skim through the photos, I wont be 100% offended (maybe just like 99% :P). 

January. 

I love January. Why is that? Well, because Nationals is in January and it is one of my favourite competitions of the year! I am extremely luck and in 2013 I got to spend a week at the rink photographing some of Canada's best skaters, which is always a treat. Also in January, I made one of the biggest and scariest decisions of my life by deciding to drop out of Humber because I was beyond miserable. So far I have zero regrets from leaving and I am much happier and confident for it. 

February

February was a big month for me. I was asked to photograph both Eastern Ontario STARskate and Central Ontario STARskate Championships, which I gladly said yes to. These were the first competitions I officially did under the banner of "Danielle Earl Photography". I couldn't have been more excited with how the competitions went. There were a few bumps in the road but I am very proud of how we worked through them as a team. Kudos to Irene, Kris, and Laura for being so awesome and patient during those two competitions. They all made things so much easier!

I guess I also turned 20 in February. I just remembered that!  

March

March was more a relaxed month than all the others in 2013. In fact after the Ontario STARskate Championships in Niagara (which we worked for D'Asti Photography), Laura and I took a weekend long vacation of sorts to Niagara Falls, which I hadn't been to in years. It was a lovely way to end the 2012-2013 skating season and gear up for the 2013-2014 season and also April, which was a crazy month for me! 

April

Oh April, the month of Ice Shows! In April, I ran around Ontario for what seemed like the whole month. I photographed the Ursula Lehming Skate in Scarborough for D'Asti Photography on top of also photographing Guelph Skating Club's Ice Show, two of the three shows that the Competitive Skating Centre of Strathroy put on, as well as Hamilton's 75th Anniversary Ice Show and, for my own personal enjoyment and practice, Stars on Ice. Let it be known that I love shooting ice shows. The lighting always gives me a good challenge, which is part of what keeps it so interesting. Also, the skaters are usually a lot more relaxed than in a competition setting and you get to see their true personalities shining through. I love Ice Shows! 

On top of all these ice shows, I also got the opportunity to travel to Boston, MA with my friend Maddie and her mom, who ran the Marathon. That in and of itself was (obviously) quite an interesting experience and I am very grateful to Maddie and Lesley for having such wonderful senses of humour and the people of the city of Boston for their wonderful hospitality and generosity. It was really amazing to experience to watch the city come together to support everyone in light of the tragedy that was the Boston Marathon Bombing. 

May

May was also somewhat of a quieter month for me. I shot one of my absolute favourite ice shows in Central Ontario (Margaret Garrison Memorial Ice Show) as well as the KWSC Gala and some cast photos for the Classical Dance Conservatory year end show in Waterloo. Other than than, I began planning for fall 2013 and winter 2014, which is always fun. I love coming up with new ideas on how to make the customer experience better (I also love a good suggestion!) 

June

June was another great month. Even though there were no skating competitions, I kept myself busy with my second favourite sport; dance! I got the opportunity to photograph both Premier Dance Academy and Classical Dance Conservatory's year end recitals, both of which were fabulous. I definitely hope that I get to photograph both shows again in 2014. Also in June, my (not so) baby sister went to her senior prom. She and her friends looked so beautiful in their dresses. 

In June I also discovered an amazing foundation called "Skate for Hope", which is (now) based in Florida and run by the AMAZING Carolyn Bongirno (who is a cancer survivor herself!). The show is put on to raise money for the Stephanie Speilman Fund for Breast Cancer Research and to date has raised over $500,000! The show happened in Columbus, Ohio and it featured some of the USA's biggest skating stars (Ashley Wagner, Max Aaron, Adam Rippon, Jeremy Abbott), Olympians (Sarah Hughes and sister Emily Hughes, Emily Samuelson, Rachael Flatt etc.) as well as younger skaters who all raised money to skate in the show. All of the skating was fantastic and I am so grateful to Carolyn for allowing me to photograph the show and donate my photos to such an outstanding organization. If you would like to find out more about Skate for Hope, please visit their website at www.skateforhope.org. In 2014 they will be holding two shows, one in Ohio on May 3d and one in Florida on June 14th! 

July

Most of you already know how I spent much of my July, since I have spammed all of my social media outlets since then with photos. I went to Italy with my family in July to celebrate my Mama's 50th birthday! If you want to read more about my adventures in Italy, CLICK HERE to see my blog post about it! :) I am hoping to have the time to sit down and write out part 2 & 3 really soon. I just have to get all the photos edited, which is the biggest job. I may have gone slightly overboard! 

August

We were back into the swing of things once August hit, as we travelled to Ottawa for Minto Summer Skate 2 days after we got home from Rome. That quickly followed with Summer Sizzle (for D'Asti Photography) and Thornhill Summer Skate. In between those three competitions, I travelled to and from Port Carling, Muskoka to photograph Brian Orser's Beat the Heat summer ice show (which my friend Isabel of Sport-folio.net kindly let me know about) as well as heading up to Thornhill to photograph Ice Dance Elite's "So You Think You Can Judge" event, which was a blast! I met some really lovely people there and got to support all the amazing skaters who make the up the Ice Dance Elite group in Scarborough. 

September

In September I was offered (and signed) a contract with Skate Canada Eastern Ontario to be their official section sponsor photographer, which I am so grateful for. I have a wonderful man (whom I've actually never met!) named Kevin Vagg to thank for the contract, as he contacted me to tell me about it being available when he was offered it and didn't want to accept. This has opened up a door of opportunity for me that may never have been opened had he not contacted me, so thank you Kevin. 

I photographed AutumnSkate in September, which was a fun competition. I got to photograph Kevin Reynold's really cool short program, which I can't want to see in January at Nationals. I also joined KWSC in celebrating one of my old coaches, Paul MacIntosh as he earn his Level 5 coaching certification (the highest level). I also did some photo editing for One for the Wall Photograph and Simply Said Photography, both of whom are immensely talented women! :) Definitely check them out if you want family photos! 

October

I thought October was going to be a quiet month. I had planned to do a competition, but never got a response from the organizers, so I thought I had a fairly "free" month. Boy was I wrong. October ended up being one of the busiest months of my year! To start the month off, I signed up for school again, even though I hadn't planned on going back until September 2014. Then I was asked to shoot family portraits for an old family friend (I used to skate with her daughter and she's friends with my mom and also our hairdresser). Of course, I'm not in the family photography business, but I of course said yes, because I knew them and my social anxiety level would be much lower. Then Lesley (my mom's best friend and the one I went to the Marathon with) and her husband asked me to photograph their vow renewal ceremony, which I obviously said yes to.

Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE (USA)

Then, Irene and I decided (quite last minute) that we were going to drive to Detroit and cheer on Kirsten and Dylan at Skate America. What an amazing weekend (and what an amazing camera policy). I got to photograph to my heart's content and cheer on some of the best skater's in the world. It was my first (and probably last) time seeing Meryl and Charlie skate live as well as Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov. In between all this I was trying to get get back into the school thing, which, I might add, is going pretty darn well so far. Though, I'm only taking one course so it's pretty easy to time manage. We'll see how 3 courses go next semester. 

November

November is Sectionals month! I travelled up to Greater Napanee with Laura and Paul and together we shot the EOS Sectional Championships. I also did my very first "Future STARS" competition, called Frolics on Ice. Every single person there welcomed me with open arms and I met some fabulous people. I have never felt so welcomed at a competition before! 

In addition to Those to competitions, I got to photograph the NEXXICE Gala in Burlington, since my sister is on the Intermediate Team. I think it's going to be a really great year for NEXXICE. They have some really great programs!

December

AKA the easiest month for me to remember because we're still in it. This I got to photograph my sister's synchro team at their first competition. All this practice will do me well as I head into photographing Regionals at the end of January and (hopefully) Synchro Nationals in February. I also photographed one of my favourite events of the year, KWSC Freeskate Festival. I love seeing all my friends skate in this event because it is literally one of the only times I get the opportunity to see them skate all year now that I don't skate anymore. I also love to see the littles at their first :competition" ever (everyone gets gold, silver or bronze medals). So cute! Some of the kiddos are barely as tall as my knees it seems! 

Since then I have celebrated Christmas, seen an amazing production of Les Mis in Toronto (thank you Nanny  for the amazing Christmas present!) and continued looking for job opportunities in the spring and summer. I am very excited to start expanding into additional sports in 2014. Look out dance and gymnastics, I'm going to be trying to make a name for myself in your area as well. <3 

All in all, my 2013 was a really great year. I know people tend to start making resolutions for the new year at this time, but I tried that last year and I literally got none of the 10 done. So this year I'm not going to bother and just let life run its course and see where the wind takes me. I'm definitely going to continue working hard at this photography thing I've got going on and see what happens! As of right now, I'm getting super excited to head to Ottawa in TEN days for the 2014 Canadian Tire National Figure Skating Championships. 

I want to take a moment (assuming you have made it this far) to thank each and every single skater, event organizer, parent, coach, member of the EOS, WOS, and COS sections, fan and well wisher for your ongoing and amazing support for me. You all make me feel so grateful and humble. This sounds so mushy gushy but this year would not have been nearly as amazing without all of YOU. I mean, in the past two months alone, over FOUR HUNDRED of you have liked my Facebook page! I am honestly so very thankful for your support and I will continue to strive to produce the photos and experiences that you have come accustomed to. Thank you. So much. 

All the best in 2014. Can't wait to see you all at your next event!

xoxo 

Danielle <3

soooo last week was not a great week for me if we're being honest. i got a bunch of rejection e-mails from competitions and a few things happened that were just not entirely positive. i ended the weekend feeling exhausted due to the fact that i met a whole bunch of new people from my sister's synchro team on the weekend (i get really stressed out and anxious meeting new people) as well as really low in confidence. all in all, not a great week/weekend. it happens to everyone. i know i'm not the only one. 

well, as it happens, today was the beginning of a new week. it started out pretty well. my sister and i headed out at 9am and went on a marathon Christmas shopping spree (which, if you know me, is no small feat - i only ever shop out of necessity, never for fun). we got home around one and that's when things started to unravel a little bit. my cat decided to use my face as a scratching post (I made the mistake of picking her up to cuddle) and I got another rejection e-mail (before y'all think I suck at life, rejection is part of building a business. for ever competition i photograph, i've probably received 5 or 6 "no, we already have some one" or "no, we're not looking for a photographer" e-mails for every competition I do photograph, it's just that I'm just not used to receiving so many at once haha) oh, and i read the saddest blog post ever (if you click the link, have a box of tissues ready, I'm serious). and that was the blog post that completely turned around my mindset for the week. 

why was i feeling sad and sorry for myself? i just spent a great day with my sister. i laughed harder than i have in a long time while we were picking out our Christmas tree. I have three solid months of job booked for the new year and i just started to branch out in a new direction for my business so that it is more secure all year round and not just in the skating season....i should be happy, or at least satisfied. Eventually it got me thinking, is happiness a choice? 

as i get older, i'm starting to believe more and more that yes, you can choose to be happy or you can choose to be miserable. you can choose to be a glass half full kinda person or a glass half empty. the neat thing is you don't have to stick to one. last week i was definitely feeling a bit "glass three quarters empty", not this week though. I'm telling you right now, this week is going to be a "glass three quarters full" kind of week. i'm going to be productive and get everything i need to get done, done. on saturday i'm going to have a great day at the rink photographing a freeskate festival and then catch up with my old skating friends, many of whom i haven't seen in a long while. this week is definitely going to be a glass full week. 

how about you? is your week going to be glass half empty or glass full? (or if we're talking in holiday spirit measurements, are you going to be a Ebenezer Scrooge or a Tiny Tim?) I'd love to know your thoughts! 

In the mean time have an amazing Holiday Season! I will be on vacation (not answering e-mails) from December 23d - January 3d.  (I'll be posting a 2013 in Review post in that time though so stay tuned!)   

xoxo Danielle 

I spent this Saturday in Burlington at the NEXXICE Gala cheering on my sister's team at their first performance of the year. Naturally I also photographed it, as I usually do. It was really nice to see some girls that were on Mulsa's old team (Mississauga Motion Junior) as well as people who I used to skate with back in the day.

The photos from both shows are now uploaded onto my website that you can view if you click on the galleries tab at the top of this page. The photos are available to download for free as well, so please feel free to do so! It will look like you will have to "check out" through my website, however there will be no charge for doing so! Hope you enjoy the photos and I hope all of the NEXXICE teams have an amazing season. Can't wait to see you at Regionals and Nationals! :) 

xoxo Danielle 

hi all! 

as promised (months ago now), today's post is going to be part one of my vacation series. it's going to be a bit of an image & word dump, but i hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless. so, without further ado, i give you "earls in italy part one: venice"...

Venice Part 1: Travel and Arrival

our flight was due to depart july 12th at 10:30pm, so naturally we left the house at 4:30pm and were through security and waiting at the gate by 6pm (hence the empty waiting area in the first photo over there <--). we got dinner from the sandwich bar that was just around the corner from our gate and settled in to wait the 4 hours until boarding began. as the sun started setting, i wandered a few gates over from ours and noticed that the angle was perfect to catch the actual sun setting. i ran (walked at an increased pace) back to our gate and got my sister to come over with me so that i could snap a photo of her looking out pensively (haha). as far as sunsets go, it was preeetty nice! 

not long after the sun went down, we began to board the plane. we flew with air transat and had gotten their "options plus" package so that we could pick out our seats. perks of the package also included free alcohol (if you know me at all, you know that i obviously did not consume any) and comfort pack as well as priority boarding etc. we had originally picked seats that had a lot of leg room because i have longish legs and bad knees, but what we didn't realize is that the seats were extremely narrow and the armrests went all the way down to the floor (solid plastic). now for a short flight to say, new brunswick or nova scotia I wouldn't have minded being a bit squished but, as most of you know my mother and I are larger people and a 9 hour flight squished into a tiny seat was not going to work for us. luckily, the flight was not overly full, so we moved one section in front of where our assigned seats were, right beside the plane's entrance (big isle), so i could sit sideways and have plenty of leg room. the flight was long and uneventful. i listened to an audiobook and a toddler screamed the entire nine hours but pretty much nothing else interesting happened. i was just happy that we arrived alive, as i am a very nervous flyer.

once we got off the plane we were bussed to the terminal and went through customs - which was ridiculously easy - and wandered around trying to figure out which vaporetto we should take to get to the rialto bridge. eventually, we hopped on line 2 and hoped for the best.

Venice Part 2: Finding the Hotel & the First Evening 

luckily i had done my research and came well prepared with an exact route we needed to get to our hotel, or else we never would have found it. in case you didn't know, venice is extremely easy to get lost in, which can be both a blessing and a curse. thankfully, i knew that we had to get of at the rialto bridge stop and walk straight down the first street until we found our hotel. for some reason i wasn't expecting it to be quite so far down the actual street. It probably would have been smarter for us to get off at the Piazza San Marco stop instead. Oh well - lesson learned!

Our hotel was called Hotel Noemi. I personally thought it was great. There was air conditioning (thank goodness, it get HOT in Italy in July) and a complimentary breakfast and wifi. my mother thought our room was small but i personally thought it was a nice size and the window/view was out of this world amazing. this hotel didn't have an elevator though, which we all thought was a bit of a downside, though i wasn't really expecting there to be one.

the fun thing you notice straight away about venice is that there are literally no straight lines. everything is just a little teeny bit crooked. i thought it added to the charm of the place.

even though we were extremely tired from the plane ride, it was only early evening in Venice and we had earlier decided that we would try and outsmart our jet lag by going to bed at a normal bed time in venice rather than crash as soon as we got to the hotel. this ended up working really well for me. not quite as well for my sister and mom. so, we dropped off our luggage at the hotel and set out to find a place to eat dinner. we didn't have to walk far at all, as there was a restaurant right around the corner from the hotel. Keep in mind that it was about 6pm at this point, which is normal dinner time here in Canada, but definitely early in Italy. Nonetheless, we sat down (got a few strange looks) and ordered our food. I (obviously) got pasta, and it was delicious. My sister got salad and I think my mom also got pasta.

After we ate, we wandered around for a little bit, just to get a feel of where out hotel was in relation to the big landmarks that we wanted to take in. We didn't have to wander far from the hotel at all (less than 5 minutes) before we literally stumbled into Piazza San Marco. We had no idea we were that close to it! A note that my mother had about the Piazza in the evening (and we later found out all the time) is the number of pigeons. There are so many of them and they are NOT afraid to lad on you. Crazy!

We also happened upon a church that was kind of hidden in a small piazza. The doors were open and people seemed to be coming and going as they pleased, so we went in as well and had a bit of a sit down moment. It was absolutely stunning inside the church. Everything in Italy is very opulent compared to here. there is a lot of gold. It's actually pretty amazing

At this point the sun was beginning to set and we were all getting a little bit cranky from tiredness so we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel.

Venice Part 3: The First Day

Not surprisingly, we all slept 12 hours the first night in Italy but woke up refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. (Not literally running. if any of you know me personally you will have heard me ask on numerous occasions if "this body looks like it was made for running" HINT: It's not.) I digress. Once we got ready for the day, ate a traditional (or what italians think american continental breakfast is) breakfast of pastries (yum) and tea, we headed out to our appointment with Saint Mark's Basilica. I had booked skip the line tickets (only like €3/person) which I have to say were one of the smartest thing I bought for the trip because we were in and out of the basilica before 99% of the people in the line. I know that you can get into the basilica for free if you wait in the line, but we were only in Venice for two days and we didn't want to spend most of that waiting in lines. So we bought a lot of skip the line tickets. 

The basilica was amazing. there are literally no other words to describe it. There technically isn't supposed to be any photographs taken inside the building, but I literally could not help myself. Also, I figured that the rule was likely there so that people didn't use their flash (because flash will fade a painting/art faster than regular light). My D3s doesn't even have a flash, so I figured It would be okay if I snapped a few pics. (Also, no one appeared to be following the rules so I joined in but I didn't want to make myself sound like a follower, hahaha).

I really wanted to go up to the roof area of the building, but you had to pay to have access and the stairs were extremely steep and my mom and sister didn't really want to climb them in the sweltering heat. So it didn't happen. Which mean I have to go back. 

One thing I would note about Italy is that I would not go back in July. I would probably go at the end of May or beginning of June so that the temperatures were more moderate and bearable or longer periods of time because it just hot hotter as the trip went one (our trip to Rome was not as enjoyable as it should have been, due to 43+ temperatures and lets not talk about how my camera briefly broke in the Vatican Museum..). Again, I'm off topic. 

After we finished in the basilica, we took a nice long meander around Venice. We allowed ourselves to get "lost" in order to see the most of the city. I think we explored the majority of the west of the city (if you're looking at it from above). It was nice to just stroll around at a nice slow pace and really take in the atmosphere. Once we got past the major landmarks (Doge's Palace, Bridge of Sighs, Piazza San Marco etc.) the number of people thinned out considerable and we were able to enjoy a relatively private walk around the city.

Though there were a lot of people there at the time, there were not nearly as many as I was anticipating form reading things online. Definitely not too many so that it was unenjoyable to be at the major tourist spots, but just enough for it to look very busy. 

In the pictures above, you can see that it was an extremely nice day and that my sister decided she was in a good enough mood to let me take photos of her (yay!). The water was a beautiful bluey-turquoise and the sky was this amazing blue that the photos just do not do justice. (Read: Thank you Photoshop)

Of course by then the sun had sucked all of our energy and we were THIRSTY. I do not use capitals there lightly. I think we all drank 2L of water a day (in hindsight, I should probably be doing that every day?).  So we stopped for lunch at a little pizzaria/trattoria for pizza! So yummy!

After our lunch we decided to go back to the hotel for a bit of a rest before we went on our next adventure.

(This is where the number of words I am writing becomes less than the number of photos I want to share so sorry if the text/photos done exactly line up properly!)

After our siesta (or is it fiesta?) We headed back out, determined to take a ride on a gondola. Now, a lot of people had been saying "it's so expensive for the amount of time you get" but I personally thought it was a really great experience and I mean you should do it at least once if you're going to go to Venice. you probably are not going to regret the money spent for the really cool experience you get (unless you fall in, which I did not do, thank you very much).

Our gondoleer (I don think that is the right term, but "gondola driver guy" is a little long-winded and informal) was very kind and very knowledgable. He spent the entire time giving us tidbits of information about the families that live/lived in the estates we were passing and where the style of architecture came from (which I now cannot remember to save my life). We even spent part of our trip in a literal boat traffic jam. It was fun to see how they dealt with traffic in a with no traffic lights. There seemed to be some sort of system they had, that I definitely could not figure out. The gondoleer also had extremely good english, but I imagine that is probably a pre-requisite if you're going to be driving one of those boats for primarily english tourists. I definitely spent a little more time being nervous about tipping over (the Grand Canal was quite choppy when we were in the boat) than I really wanted to, but it was definitely a unique once in a lifetime kind of experience. It was also nice to be able to sit and see the sights because at that point we had walked around all day and I had foolishly worn my Toms and my feet were a little achy. 

After the gondola ride, my mom decided she would like to do a little shopping and head back to the hotel for the evening. I really wanted to take photos of the sunset, so my sister and I headed back to Piazza San Marco again to walk around, take in the atmosphere and (obviously) take some photos. We loved the live music in the Piazza.

While were wandering about, a lovely british couple came up to us asked us to take their picture. The woman was crying and clearly very excited as she told us this huge story about how her boyfriend had just proposed to her. Mulsa and I thought it was literally the cutest thing ever and of course took the photo of them. Too cute! 

Another thing that we noticed about Venice as we were wandering around is that the people walking a round & selling things are very aggressive. We had a young man come up to us and give us each a single rose, which we thought was weird but sweet. When we thanked him he demanded we give him euros. Unfortunately we actually didn't have euros and when we told him, he refused to believe us. When we said we were serious and tried to give him back the roses, he pushed them back to us and kept demanding euros. This went on for a few minutes before we finally forced the roses back into his hands and decided to head back to the hotel. What were we going to do with roses anyway? 

Venice Part 4: Burano, Rialto & The Story About the Waiter Named Eddie

Though we didn't want to admit it, we were still jet-lagged and ended up sleeping in late again. Mulsa woke up in a bad mood & decided that she wanted to stay at the hotel and try and sleep a bit more. So, my mom and I got ready and headed out to the Rialto Bridge for some sightseeing and to take a few photos (What a surprise?!).

So we set off (around 10:30am) and found the Rialto Bridge with no difficulty, having briefly seen it when we arrived. It was quite crowded with people at this point in the morning - I think a cruise ship had just arrived, so people were everywhere. I waited patiently to get to the front of the bridge to take photos, snapped them and we continued on our way.

We had not had breakfast yet at this point since we had slept in and missed the one the hotel was offering, so we decided to stop at one of the little cafe's long the Grand Canal. Now, there are a lot of little cafe's along the Grand Canal and they're all fighting to get business. We were a little overwhelmed with the number of waiters who were trying to convince us to sit at their restaurant, so we decided to walk down the street a bit more to see if there was a place that was a little less aggressive. Luckily, we found the perfect place just a little bit further down. It was almost empty and there were no waiters trying to force us to sit there (and also there was an impressive display of pastries so... let's be honest here; pastries win). 

We sat down under the canopy for shade (it was getting mucho hot) and ordered a light breakfast. I had strawberries with whipped cream (I know, I didn't even  get a pastry. A regret I will never get over) and I think my mom got the strawberries as well. Yummy! We were mesmerized by the people and the atmosphere surrounding the Grand Canal. Because we were so far down the street, we could see everything but were not engulfed with the noise from the tourists. It was great. We actually spent the majority of the day sitting at this restaurant, just watching the world go by. We stayed actually stayed long enough to order lunch, which we did (I know, such a tough life). I had fettuccine and my mom had past of some sort that was not fettuccine... 

This is probably the best time to insert the story about Eddie, our waiter at this restaurant. About an hour after we sat down at the table, I began to notice that our waiter kept staring at us and was always coming over to make sure everything was good and if we needed more water/food. At first I thought it was just really excellent service. But then at one point he asked my mother if I was her daughter. Obviously she said yes, I was her daughter and he (I literally am not kidding here) thanked her for bringing me to the restaurant because I was so gorgeous (still laughing as I type this). Let's have a little conversation about how NOT gorgeous I was looking that day. I had on like the ugliest shirt known to man, no makeup whatsoever and I had showered that morning and my hair was a giant afro of frizz from the humidity. Oh, and I was sweaty. Like, I feel the need to apologize to the rest of the human race for how disgusting I looked. But apparently some people are into that (or he was just playing with me, which I think is probably more likely).

So anyway he kept coming over and trying to strike up conversation with me and as we paid the bill for our food he gave me a business card with his number on it and then made me give him mine. My mom was like "sure why not" .. so that happened (yes I still ask my mom permission to do things. yes i am 20 years old. let me live my life the way I want :P). He said he would text me that night so that he could show me around Venice. My literal response was "LOL no. I'm leaving tomorrow morning" and in my head I was like "sorry man, I do not know you well enough to go anywhere with you at night ever." And also, my phone didn't work the entire time we were there (Thanks a lot Telus. I even paid for the international plan). Side note: I got home and turned on my phone & had like 4 texts from him so thats weird. He still occasionally texts me too. But like, I don't have the money to pay for international texting. What do you think I am, rich?

Um ya.. So I feel like now would be a nice time to segue into some pictures...

After that experience, we headed back to the hotel to see if Mulsa was ready to go to Burano, which we had planned to do in the evening so that it was a) not as hot and b) not as busy. It actually worked out really well for us because we got there around 6 (it take about an hour to get there from Venice, which I did not anticipate, but whatever) and the sun was getting really golden and beautiful. 

We spent about an hour and a half on the Island, walking around, taking in the sights and sounds. There were a lot more local people out and about in Burano then there was in Venice. I imagine because there are significantly less people and it's not as hard for them to go about their daily business and get caught up in the crowds. 

My mom of course did a little bit of shopping . She found a stunning lace tablecloth that she bought for only like 70 euro. Which apparently is really cheap? Who knew.

Burano is a stunning little island and so bright and colourful. It is so photogenic and I literally took hundreds of photos. I would very much like to go back there and spend some more time exploring since we only stayed a short while because we wanted to catch the sunset at the Rialto bridge. 

We didn't quite catch the sunset at the bridge, but watching the sunset in the boat on the way back to the city was almost as amazing, if more more amazing.

We then headed to another little restaurant along the Grand Canal for dinner. I had pesto, my sister and mom had seafood, if I recall. It was my first time trying fresh pesto (not the stuff out of the jar) and it was delicious! 

After dinner, my mom and sister wanted to do some souvenir shopping, which I was not into, so I went by myself to take some night time photos of the canal and the bridge. Long exposure photography is not my strong point, I have since learned, as most of the photos I took ended up being way to blurry to keep (boo). 

We then walked back to the hotel - Venice is SO quiet at night - and packed up our stuff up to get ready for our train ride to Florence the next day. It take a surprisingly short amount of time for hotel rooms to get messy, I've noticed. 

We thoroughly loved Venice and I would come back here a million times over if I had the chance. There is so much of it that we never got to see. 

Well..... I think that's about the end of the post (finally). Stay tuned in 700 years for part two, Florence. (THAT WAS SARCASM). 

Congratulations and good luck to all of you skaters who have qualified for challenge! I will be cheering you all on from my nice comfy chair in Waterloo as I watch on Skatebuzz. ;)

Also, don't be shy, I love commenting. Though, now that I think about it, does the website make you register? If so, that's sort of lame.... 

But for now, Pictures!!!! (PS - If you would like to view your photos from this event, please click here: Click me! and e-mail me with your name/skater's name at [email protected] for the password) 

sectionals season is upon us and this year i am going to be photographing the eastern ontario sectional event. this is the first time in 5 years that i will not be at the western ontario sectionals and that makes me very sad, as it is my home section. best of luck to all my western ontario friends as they start the first step to the rest of the season. skate great! 

that being said, i am very excited to be photographing the eastern ontario sectionals. its quite a nice schedule this year, with events beginning at noon and ending fairly early. 

of course no skating season would be complete without me photographing kwsc's annual sectionals send off. this year i almost couldn't make it because i was also photographing a wedding on the same day! somehow i made it all work though and the day went of without more than one hitch (we did get stuck behind some train tracks and waited for ages but no train came!). i also spent the day training a potential new member of our team, and if all goes well we might be introducing a new face to the Danielle Earl Photography team in february!

i'm excited for this weekend, as it will be a test for me in how well i know my computer system and not just photo taking. usually my mother helps man the desk during competitions, but this weekend she will be in new brunswick taking care of my nanny who is very sick right now. hopefully i can remember where everything gets plugged in! wish me luck. 

anyway, i thought i'd write this quick post to wish all the skaters who are competing in their sectional championships over the next two weeks good luck. hope everyone skates their very best and scores new pbs! 

xoxo danielle 

as most of you probably know, i spent the majority of july on vacation - a week travelling in italy and then a week on a mediterranean cruise with my family.  what a treat. once i get all my photos edited, i'll be doing a couple of separate blog posts on those (i hope). the one on venice should be making an appearance within the next few days.  

august was extraordinarily busy. i photographed three skating competitions, two under my own business name. thank you to everyone who made minto summer skate and thornhill summer skate such huge successes for me. i enjoyed meeting each and every one of you and i wish you all the best in the coming season. i hope i'll get to see you all compete again

in between skating competitions i also had the opportunity to do a little photoshoot for one of the new pairs teams (made up of two familiar faces) at kwsc for a brochure they are appearing in for an ice show. i'm excited to see how this pair develops. here are a few of the photos i took of shalena rau and rob schultz:

 in addition to photographing shae and rob, i also got to photograph kwsc's starskate campers in their week-end show, which was great fun! the there was zombies, and boy, those kiddos did not go half way with the makeup and hair! 

apart from that i have been uploading thornhill & minto photos into their respective galleries, editing vacation pictures and making collages to wish good luck to the skaters who are competing on the junior grand prix circuit (skaters going to kosice, slovakia stay tuned - yours is coming tonight or tomorrow). 

oh, and last weekend my mum and i drove up to port carling (near muskoka) for their "beat the heat" ice show, put on my the port carling figure skating club and the brian orser foundation. here are a few photos and the review i posted for sport-folio.net. 

•  "I loved the show, it was a blast. I got to talk to some of the skaters parents and chat with them outside of a competition environment, which was nice. Gabby & Zach Daleman's mom is such a nice lady! 
• The show itself was very entertaining. Very casual and relaxed - lots of cheering for all of the skaters not just the big names. Everyone skated their short programs, so it was kind of like a "simulation" of sorts - with a standing room only audience. 

• Javi skated his new short, which reminded me a bit of his 2011/2012 short (the one with the yellow sweater vest). He skated well - possibly doubling a jump so as not to land on the VIP seats! I can't be too sure of any of the jumps though as it is hard to tell through the clicking of my camera! 
• Jeff skated a beautiful exhibition piece that I had never seen before. It was too a fairly well known song that I can't remember the nam of at the moment. It was lovely. 
• Kurt skated to a mambo-type number with a hat as a prop. It was very entertaining. His double axels are still AMAZING. He's still got the hight to do a triple if he wanted to IMO. 
• Kento Nakamura skated a bit of a rough short. I think he had a few jump errors, but I do like his footwork. 
• Junior ladies, Anna Pevtsova (RUS), Samantha Cabiles (PHI) and Michaela du Toit (RSA) as well as Stephie Walmsley all had good and entertaining skates. So did Jarret Melanson who did a Kurt-inspired number. Nam had a couple of bobbles throughout his program but it was good nonetheless (he skated better in Mexico City). 
• All in all I'm very glad that I got asked to go, otherwise I would have never known about it! It was definitely worth the 3 hour drive to get to Port Carling (which is a beautiful little town BTW). 
• I'll definitely be heading back next year if I can"

as you may have seen on facebook, my little sister's prom was last week and i got to take the photos for her and her friends. everyone looked simply amazing. it was great to see some of the girls that mulsa has been in school with since grade nine and some of the girls that we skated with for years, looking all grown up in their prom dresses with their dates. 

mulsa has an amazing sense of style and designed her dress & got it made by sheri pratt, a family friend and owner of skate magic (www.skatemagic.ca), where she makes awesome skating dresses (and prom dresses!). we picked out her jewellery together in st. jacobs. she looked amazing, if i do say so myself!

here are a few photos from before they went to the dance

before heading off to dinner

the group 

I know, I know, it's been ages since I've blogged. There's a lot that I'd like to share, but I'm not sure how to even start! The last time I blogged, I was just back from Nationals, now, Worlds is done and World Team Trophy is happening next week - the season is almost over! Holy cow what a fast year! 

February was a busy month for me - I moved back home from Humber and I also did two skating competitions under my own brand, which were a major success. I can't wait to continue my relationship with EOS, they are such a nice group of volunteers, parents and skaters. I honestly do not have enough kind words! I also have to compliment COS and the Brampton-Chinguacousey Skating Club on a successful and enjoyable STARskate Championships as well! Two excellent weekends of skating back to back! 

March was a quiet month - which was a nice change compared to the hectic winter! I only did one competition in Fort Erie. Oh, and I got to take in the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in London, ON. It was AMAZING. We had originally only bought tickets to the pairs event because of  the high prices, however my mum surprised me with Men's Long Program tickets as well!! I can't stress enough how amazing the experience was. My kind friend Aaron offered to drive my mom and I to the venue from the mall close to his residence so that we didn't have to worry about parking and it was great. The atmosphere both in the arena and the city was great and the skating was even better. What an amazing experience! 

I'm now writing on the other side of Easter weekend and it's STILL snowing. I can't wait until spring really is here! I'm really looking forward to nicer weather. I am however gearing up for a BUSY month, so hopefully once everything calms down for the skating season, spring will be here without question!

This weekend I'm going to be at 3 different ice shows! Friday I'm in Strathroy for the CSCS Ice Show, Saturday I'm at a dress rehearsal for the Guelph Ice Show and then in the evening I'm in Hamilton for their 75th Anniversary Ice Show. Then, on Sunday, I am back in Guelph for their show once again this year. I'm very excited!

Then, on the 13th, when I was assuming I would be in Thornhill, I am actually going to be flying to Boston, Massachusetts with Maddie and Lesley to cheer on Lesley as she runs the Boston Marathon for the SECOND year in a row! How amazing is that?! I'll get home on Wednesday, the 17th and then the next weekend (April 26th) I'm heading up to Scarborough for Scarboro Skate and a visit with my lovely friend Kristy WIlls!! 

All in all it's going to be a action-packed month and I can't wait to share some of the images that I will capture in a future post. 

Another exciting announcement that I have is that I will be heading to Columbus, Ohio June 14-15 to photograph and support the Skate for Hope Ice Show. If you are interested in finding out more information about the Skate for Hope organization and/or buy tickets to the show, please visit www.skateforhope.org. 

- Danielle xoxoxo

Anyway, I got back from the 2013 Canadian Tire National Figure Skating Championships a week ago tonight - man what a fabulous week of skating! More on that in a bit.

I got back to Humber knowing I needed to make what was possibly the biggest decision of my life so far. If any of you have been reading my personal twitter account, I'm sure you know that I was not necessarily in a good place last week. I'm better now and, after a lot of thought and tears, I have decided that my time at Humber will be drawing to a close this week. I won't go into major detail on why I am leaving because it's quite personal, however I will say that it is not where I need to be right now. I will start the withdrawal process tomorrow and move the rest of my stuff out of residence on Tuesday night (hopefully). Thank you to all the people who have given me advice over the last couple of weeks, even if it was not necessarily what I wanted to hear. I value your honesty. 

Anyway! Nationals! What an awesome week! 

The Saturday and Sunday before nationals started, I was in Grimsby shooting Charles Dover competition with D'Asti Photography. Once I got home from that, I packed my clothes for two weeks and my mom and I drove up to Mississauga, where we drove immediately to the rink to pick up my media pass so there were no complications the next morning when the Novice pattern dances began.

My Media Pass! 

Then we checked into the hotel. We were surprised to find that it had no elevator and we had multiple huge suitcases full of camera gear and clothes/computers etc. But, it was all good and we made it up to our room, which was awesome. We ended up with the corner room so we had two windows and it was massive! The beds were really good for my back too, which is good when you're shooting for long days at a time! 

Crappy phone picture, but this was part of our huge room.

The next day we were off to the races starting with all the novice events as well as the junior women short program. I finally talked to Melanie Hoyt and Erica Armstrong. Last year I was too shy to go up and talk to them but this year Melanie was very kind and approached me and showed me the media room, where I got my photographer position later in the week (Lucky Number 25!). Later in the week I also got to talk to one of my photography idols, Brett Barden. He gave me tips on how to get involved with Worlds and photography, even if they're not on ice photos. I thought that was very kind of him! I also met a very nice photographer named Brian Dole and another who was a student at Seneca College for photography! Of course David Carmichael was there and as kind as ever! I feel like I had a completely different outlook than I did last year in Moncton. I also have noticed that my confidence level is much higher now than it was last year. Baby steps! 

The skating at Nationals was amazing! The level of skating overall has increased tenfold since Nationals 2012 in Moncton. The senior women event was phenomenal. Kaetlyn, Gabby, Alaine, Julianne and Amelie all skated outstanding performances and the future for Canadian Women's skating has never looked brighter. Another amazing event was the senior pairs. Kirsten and Dylan brought tears to my eyes during their long, Meagan and Eric were pretty much flawless, Taylor and Simon had two great programs and Britt and Ian blew me away with how far they have come over the past year. The junior pairs were just as exciting. Though there may be only a few teams in Canada, they were small but mighty. I was so impressed with Natasha and Sebastian's progression over the season, Mary and Anthony also brought tears to my eyes because I was so happy for them to skate so well after a rocky first bit of the season. I was soooo proud of Shalena and Phelan for getting their double axels out there on competition ice. Patrick Chan was amazing as usual and I'm so glad Andrei was on the podium because he earned it this year. Another huge highlight was seeing Tessa and Scott's Carmen in person and getting to photograph it!! The heart break(s) of the competition for me were Asher falling on the twizzles in the short dance and Alex and Mitch having a fluke fall in the free dance, costing them the bronze, though I am so happy for Thomas and Nicole. 

Anyway, I've written a novel, so I'll leave you with a few photos from the beginning of the week. It was so hard to pick just a few! Congratulations to all the competitors. I was very proud of all of you. :) 

Danielle xoxoxo

One of my assignments for Commercial Class

Another photo for Commercial

Hello all! 

Who is excited for Christmas break? I know I've been thoroughly enjoying mine so far! 

I finished up my exams last Tuesday, after a stressful morning of almost missing my exam - thank you to my lovely friend Sarah for texting me as the exam was starting, asking me if I was going to show up. I've never gotten ready so fast in my life. Anyway, I did reasonably well on in, considering I was in a full blown panic. So far all my final marks have been good - I'm just waiting on my English mark, but I'm confident that it will be up to par. Which means, barring a horrible english grade, I will have made honour roll in my first semester of college! 

But enough about school. I'm already dreading going back in January. Though I'm extremely excited for Nationals, which start the week after second semester starts! I get to take pictures again! Yay! 

On the sadder side of that news however is the announcement of the withdrawal of Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje due to Kaitlyn breaking her fibula in training earlier this week. Very sad news and I wish her a speedy recovery. I look forward to seeing them next year at Nationals in Ottawa! In other sad news, Mervin Tran and Narumi Takahashi (2012 World Bronze Medallists) announced that their partnership was over. I will also miss watching these two compete. A very sad day in Canadian/Japanese figure skating indeed. 

But on to brighter news! This week marks the last week of school for my sister - I'm sure she's excited about that! This week also is the lead up to KWSC's annual club competition, Freeskate Festival, for which I am the official photographer! I always attend this event - I even skated in it back in 2005-2008. The usual photographer the club hires for this event retired this year, so I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to take his spot! I always photograph the event for myself and for practice, but it is exciting that I now get to share my photos with others as well! 

Since it appears that I only blog once a month, I would like to make this post a little bit of a 2012 Recap to show the growth of myself and Danielle Earl Photography. Before I do that however, I would like to take the time to thank everyone who has supported me this year and every year before that. My mom, without whom I could not even think about this business running the way it has. Laura Mueller - my best friend and trusty second photographer/desk lady (my jack of all trades). Matt and Laura D'Asti - my employers for 4 years who gave me the chance to work for them at when I was 15. The Pairs moms at KWSC for letting me take pictures of their children and supporting me when doing so: Alexia Beharry, Sherry Towers, Stacy Rau, Rose Orr, Sharon Furiano, Jill Simpson, Joanne French, Maryanne Steele and Linda Moscovitch. Thanks to Paul Mallet, KWSC's president for letting me hang around and supporting me and giving me great business advice. Skate Canada, WOS, COS and EOS - thanks for choosing me to photograph your events. Hilary Camilleri for boosting my confidence and being such a great friend and mentor as well as an amazing photographer - you inspire me every day to push myself out of my comfort zone when it comes to talking to customers and photographing outside the skating world. Thanks to all the people on Tumblr and the Forums who make me feel appreciated. Huge thanks also goes out to the skaters - if it weren't for YOU, I would probably be trying to become a doctor right now. I hope you have the happiest holidays and a magnificent new year! I can't wait to see you all in the new year! 

2012

January - Bought my Sigma lens, I had the privilege of attending Nationals in Moncton as an accredited photographer, graduated from High School

February - I turned 19! 

March - KWSC Showcase & Guelph Ice Show, Registered Danielle Earl Photography as an official business, I left my second semester of 5th year.

April - Was pretty boring for me

May - Margaret Garrison Ice Show, Accept my offer of admission to Humber College for Creative Photography, bought my Nikon D3s

June - Photographed BCI Prom

July - Travelled to Detroit with the Germanns, travelled to Indy with the Pairs 

August - Photographed Thornhill Summer Skate with Justine, packed up my life & moved to Etobicoke for school

September - Isabelle Henderson, mostly a lot of school 

October - Midterms 

November - Sectionals, KIS Invitational, John McKay

December - Special Olympics, Skates Alive, Exams, accidentally destroyed a laptop - minor setback, Freeskate Festival

And that's pretty much my year. I've been extremely busy and don't regret taking one single job! It will make my business better. I know it.

Again, thank you all for supporting me through the past few years. I hope that every one has the very best 2013 imaginable. Stay safe and happy and healthy my friends!

-Danielle xoxo 

Hi all! 

Just winding down after week filled with project due dates at school - somehow every other week there ends up being a project due in literally every single class. It's madness. 

Anyway, we're nearing the end of the semester and things are gearing up towards exams - we have even been given our last assignment in Design class! Thank goodness. I'm excited that I will probably be done all my exams after the 11th of December. That's 3 days earlier than I thought I would be done. Yay! 

Now if you know me or have been following my tweets (@DanielleEPhoto) or Facebook page, you will know that, not only am I quite busy with school, I'm also working - A LOT. This is very exciting to me because I am working very hard on building my business and brand name into one that people trust to provide good service and great photos. 

Last weekend, I had loads of fun at the Brant Sports Complex in Paris, ON, photographing Western Ontario Section Sectionals. I love sectionals because it give me a little bit of insight on who to look out for in the future of skating. Not only that, it also gives me a chance to socialize with the skaters and parents during the breaks. I love to meet all you guys and get to know you and what you like to see in photos and what you don't like. I try and remember all these little things so that when I wind up photographing you, I don't end up with 50 photos of a spin even though you hate spin photos. It really makes a difference! 

This weekend, I am headed up to Keswick, ON, which is right on Lake Simcoe. This is a new experience for me - I have never photographed this competition before and I have also never been to Georgina Ice Palace. K.I.S. should be a fun couple of days - StarSkate competitions are a completely different ball game from competitive competitions. 

I'm back from Keswick and in residence late Sunday night and on Wednesday, I'm going to have my first visitor in Rez! I'm very excited because, as many of you know, I don't really know anyone on my floor and I get very tense when I spend a lot of time in Rez. On Friday, Laura and I are headed to Tillsonburg for a WOS competition that I have photographed many times in the past - John McKay. I am pretty sure that I've been to this arena before - I believe it is where I competed in my last competition in 2008. I believe I placed 6th of 12 - a fun little tidbit from when I competed (which was very rarely). 

After John McKay, I'm back in residence for my FINAL week of classes before exams! Yay! I'm happy that first semester will be finished, though sad that I probably wont have class with the group of girls that I've gotten close with this semester. 

On December 1st, I am heading over to Cambridge to photograph the Special Olympic competition that is happening. This will be the first competition that I will be able to photograph solely under my own name - I am very excited. I also love Special Olympic Competitions! I'm very proud of each and every skater that performs. 

In between all this I'll be catching up on the Grand Prix Series and cheering on Brittany & Ian and hopefully Kirsten & Dylan at the Junior and Senior Grand Prix Final! Also, keep an eye out for the results from Challenge - hopefully WOS does well enough to get a bunch of skaters to Nationals! 

This brings us to the week of exams and then Christmas break! Phew!

That's all for now folks - I just thought I'd update ya'll on what I've been up to in the past month as I wait for my dreaded english class to start!  

- Danielle xoxoxo

PS - If ANYONE knows a legitimate media source that needs a photographer for Nationals in Mississauga in January, please let me know, I am still looking for a a media source to write me a letter so I can apply for photo accreditation! 

Hey all! 

I just finished writing my first midterm of my college career, which is exciting! I think I did pretty well! (Crossing my fingers here) 

Just thought I'd do a little update in lieu of being half way finished first semester.

October is my resting month. There are no competitions (other than Octoberfest, which I couldn't make this year, boo) that I photograph and the weather has been crappy. School has been going. I'm still not enjoying it as much as I wanted to. Residence is not my favourite place to be, but it'll be a good experience for the future for sure. I definitely appreciate my family's company more. 

I haven't done too much personal photo taking the past couple of months, every time I'm inspired, either the weather is crappy or I'm at Rez and my sister isn't there to be my model! Guess I should branch out a little. I've ben going home on the weekends though, which makes me very happy. I get to see my sister and my cat. It's the small things. 

I am however getting very excited for the 2012-2013 Season to start! If things all go according to plan I may have some very exciting announcements in the near future! 

Sectionals is drawing near and KWSC's Sectionals Simulations and Send-Off are coming up this weekend. I'm very excited because I rarely get to see all the KW kids compete because of always being on only one rink at competitions. This Simulation provides me the opportunity to see them all and photograph them in a simulated competition environment. Woohoo! 

Anyway, hopefully I'll be back to update soon with some big news. I'm off to class now! 

Danielle xoxoxo

I was excited that I got to see some of Maddie's training mates skate for the first time and get to know them a little bit, as well as see our teams compete their new programs for the first time. I brought my camera in hopes that I could take some photos of them (which I did) but it caused a bit of a kerfluffle so, they weren't the best photos ever.

Kirsten & Dylan's Free Program

Brittany & Ian's Short Program

Mary & Anthony's Short Program

Shalena & Phelan's Free Program

Maddie's Short Program

Margaret & Mike's Short Program

Julia's Free Program

We headed home on Saturday (took the "scenic route" of course) and were back on the road on Thursday, headed to Indianapolis, Indiana for the Indy Pairs Challenge. I always find the Indy Pairs Challenge to also be a photographer's challenge, since the rinks have extremely dim lighting. It was a pretty good weekend of skating and photography for sure. Our teams pretty much dominated their flights. Only downfall was that on the night before we left I got a fever and couldn't go out to party with the team. Ah well, there's always next year! 
 

Mary & Anthony's Short Program

Brittany & Ian's Short Program

Shalena & Phelan's Short Program

Kirsten & Dylan's Short Program

Paige & Rudi's Short Program

Mary & Anthony's Free Program

Brittany & Ian's Free Program

Shalena & Phelan's Free Program

Kirsten & Dylan's Free Program

After Indy we drove home and I got a couple of days rest before Summer Sizzle, which I worked for my boss (D'Asti Photography). Then, the weekend after Sizzle we were off to Thornhill to photograph FSB Summer Skate! This competition was a big deal for me - it was the first one I was working as one of the official photographers under my own name. It was a tonne of fun, a lot of long hours, but a great experience! I got to meet so many people and take so many photos and see so much great skating. It was four days a pure awesome! Here are a few highlights: 

After Thornhill I spent one long and cold day in Strathroy with the CSCS skaters, taking photos of each of them for their website. Then I moved into residence at Humber College, and on Tuesday my classes started, which brings us up to speed as to where I am now. (I'm actually home for the weekend). 

Here is the view from my room: 

Hope everyone's school year got off to a good start! 
 

xoxo Danielle 

Danielle Earl, Photographer

Thanks for reading! :) 

    Usually, my family doesn't do a whole lot for Canada Day. When we lived in Nova Scotia, we would always watch the fireworks over the First Lake from our backyard, but in Ontario we have no lake near our yard other than Colombia Lake - but my family isn't really into large gatherings, so we really haven't done anything in the past 8 years. However this Canada Day we were invited to the Germann's, who are family friends. It was a fun time. We hung out and wore some awesome Canada Day gear. We ate some delicious ribs and quinoa pie. Also, we had so many delicious desserts - even Canada flag ice cream! My mum made a yummy chocolate cake and Jamie made yummy maple syrup tarts. So good. Then, my sister came over and we went for a little photoshoot in the park, after which we set off some fireworks and sparklers and called it a night. It was really fun.

    Speaking of the Germann's, my mum and I are going to Skate Detroit skating competition to cheer on the pairs teams as well as Maddie at the end of July and Maddie and I are really excited.

    Anyway, I'm not overly good at blogging right now. I feel a bit awkward talking to no one in particular, but I promise I will get better!!