Tag Archives: photographs

Books, Personal, Pictures, Thoughts, Waste Not (And Other Funny...)

About My Cover

June 11, 2014 R. Parrish 10 Comments

This is me and my beautiful daughter, Danica:

And this is the cover for my latest title, Waste Not (And Other Funny Zombie Stories):

It’s not exactly a typical zombie cover, is it? You can’t even tell if there are any zombies on it. Well, since the stories inside aren’t of the scary/gorey type of zombie tales I didn’t want the cover to be like that either. Also, it just so happens that Danica is an artist. A pretty talented artist (even if I am biased to think so :-p):

One day, on Facebook I logged in and saw this:

In case you can’t read that it says, “Plz buy me this program Mom”. She’d found a drawing program that was compatible with her tablet and she wanted me to buy it for her. Now, Danica doesn’t lack for anything she needs but we do try not to just hand her everything she wants, so I told her that if she drew art work for the cover for Waste Not (And Other Funny Zombie Stories) I would pay her the exact amount of money she needed to buy that program.

I asked her for a cover with a cat, a scarecrow and a yellow brick road.

After several different mock-ups, including this one when I asked her to make something “a bit more cartoony” (my daughter is nothing if not a smart ass):

We ended up with this as the final product:

I passed that on to Jo (my husband) and he played around with it, eventually turning it into the final cover for Waste Not that you see up top there.

Even though we didn’t go with the full colour version in the end, I did want to be sure and show it off because I think it’s wonderful, especially the glow from the Emerald City you can see on the horizon 🙂

The cover then was an undertaking for the whole family, which makes it pretty damn special to me, and probably pretty unique in the zombie fiction world in more ways than one LOL Not many families can say they’ve created a zombie book together, I wouldn’t think 😉

A to Z Challenge, Pictures

Z is for Zoo

April 30, 2014 R. Parrish 22 Comments

This year I’m participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge again. I thought it might be fun to share some of my photography instead of always my words. They say a picture is worth–well, you know what they say 😉

I will try to keep these blog posts short and sweet, while still offering a little bit of insight into each photograph, just for fun.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Blogging from A to Z Challenge you can check out these links:

~ What Is The Blogging from A to Z Challenge? ~ Participants ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2013): All About Niteblade ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2012): Unthemed ~

Z is for Zoo.

When I was a kid I used to love the zoo, but as an adult, every time I go I just find them more and more depressing. I understand that zoos play a vital role in conservation and that entertaining the public is how they fund that but seeing those animals in captivity (and in some cases very obviously distressed about it) breaks my heart.

I think I’ve shared this photograph previously this month, but I really like it, so I’m going to share again. I call this one ‘Fascination’.

This emu didn’t seem to me (in my ignorance of emu psychology) to be upset about being in the zoo. Also, it was a lovely photographic subject:

This arctic fox nearly broke my heart. He was frenetically running around his enclosure. It looked like he was desperately looking for a way out.

I’ll end with this photograph of a wolf. Every time we walked by its enclosure this is what it was doing. Every. Time.

As this year’s A to Z Challenge comes to an end, I want to thank every one of you who stopped by, but especially those of you who came day after day. Thank you SO much. Your comments, encouragement and flattering words about my work really meant the world to me. Thank you, thank you. I hope we continue to visit one another long after this blogging challenge comes to an end. You’re awesome.

Some of you have asked about prints of my photos (OMG I can’t even begin to tell you how flattering that is!). It’s not something I’d ever considered but now that I know people might be interested I will absolutely look into that as an option. If you know of a place online that will help me provide prints I’d appreciate it if you let me know. I’m not looking to make a mint, just find an easy way to get my photos in the hands of people who want them which means I can’t really afford any of those places that charge an ongoing fee.

A Month of Letters, Hollow, Pictures

X is for… X?

April 28, 2014 R. Parrish 19 Comments

I will try to keep these blog posts short and sweet, while still offering a little bit of insight into each photograph, just for fun.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Blogging from A to Z Challenge you can check out these links:

~ What Is The Blogging from A to Z Challenge? ~ Participants ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2013): All About Niteblade ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2012): Unthemed ~

X is for… X?

I literally couldn’t find anything in my photographs that would work well for X… but I do have these photographs which have Xs in them. Sorta.

Like these two of the High Level Bridge:

This shot of the reflections on the BDC building in downtown Edmonton:

And this shot of the Camsell Hospital. A re-imagined version of the hospital plays a pivotal role in the novel I’m revising 🙂

A to Z Challenge, Pictures

W is for Water

April 26, 2014 R. Parrish 25 Comments

I will try to keep these blog posts short and sweet, while still offering a little bit of insight into each photograph, just for fun.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Blogging from A to Z Challenge you can check out these links:

~ What Is The Blogging from A to Z Challenge? ~ Participants ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2013): All About Niteblade ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2012): Unthemed ~

W is for Water.

Let’s start with this shot of the river valley here in Edmonton 🙂

Also, did you know that I totally adore ducks? I do. And ducks love water so…

I took this shot at the Muttart Conservatory here in Edmonton. It could have used a tripod and a neutral density filter, but it was my first attempt at long(ish) exposures so I like it anyway 😉

Finally, how can you not love dew drops on a flower? Though… if I remember correctly these might be rain drops. Either way. Drops. How can you not love water droplets on a flower? 🙂

A to Z Challenge, Pictures

V is for Vibrant

April 25, 2014 R. Parrish 16 Comments

I will try to keep these blog posts short and sweet, while still offering a little bit of insight into each photograph, just for fun.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Blogging from A to Z Challenge you can check out these links:

~ What Is The Blogging from A to Z Challenge? ~ Participants ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2013): All About Niteblade ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2012): Unthemed ~

V is for vibrant. Specifically, vibrant colours 🙂

Sometimes I like over saturated colour, sometimes I don’t. Today I do 🙂

I pretty much always like flowers though 🙂

Including this one which I shot in Wolfville, Nova Scotia:

This shot I took during my photo safari to the 401 student lab at the University. It’s not flowery, but it’s definitely vibrant:

A to Z Challenge, Pictures

U is for Upside Down

April 24, 2014 R. Parrish 23 Comments

I will try to keep these blog posts short and sweet, while still offering a little bit of insight into each photograph, just for fun.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Blogging from A to Z Challenge you can check out these links:

~ What Is The Blogging from A to Z Challenge? ~ Participants ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2013): All About Niteblade ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2012): Unthemed ~

U is for Upside Down

When my youngest niece and nephew were born I didn’t plan to take photographs of them both, at similar ages, upside down… but as it turned out, I did.

Jayde:

Sheldon:

This is another of my young nephews. Dominick is not upside down, but he is awesome and I wanted to include all my nieces and nephews who are under 7 LoL

A to Z Challenge, Pictures

T is for Two Totally Different Things

April 23, 2014 R. Parrish 23 Comments

I will try to keep these blog posts short and sweet, while still offering a little bit of insight into each photograph, just for fun.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Blogging from A to Z Challenge you can check out these links:

~ What Is The Blogging from A to Z Challenge? ~ Participants ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2013): All About Niteblade ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2012): Unthemed ~

T is for two totally different things.

Both of which are in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

First of all, T is for the Titanic Graves. There’s a section of a graveyard in Halifax which is reserved for the graves of the victims of the Titanic disaster. Seeing row after row of identical (or nearly so) graves all with the same date of death… it’s a moving experience:

And on the exact opposite side of the emotional spectrum I offer you Theodore. Because he’s a tugboat and a friendly tugboat too (a friendly tugboat too). Oh, Theodore! He likes to do the things that friendly tugboats do!

A to Z Challenge, Pictures

S is for Snow

April 22, 2014 R. Parrish 20 Comments

I will try to keep these blog posts short and sweet, while still offering a little bit of insight into each photograph, just for fun.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Blogging from A to Z Challenge you can check out these links:

~ What Is The Blogging from A to Z Challenge? ~ Participants ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2013): All About Niteblade ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2012): Unthemed ~

S is for Snow.

S has to be for snow. Not because I like snow (though I don’t *hate* it like I do ice and cold LoL) but because I have to deal with snow for more days of my life than I don’t. #goodtimes

Speaking of dealing with it… I don’t know if the shovel is a good enough object to have left there for scale, but it was all I had at the time:

When it’s not being a pain my back (though to be fair Jo shovels more often than I do LOL), snow can be quite pretty. Like in this shot looking down our street:

Or this shot of our backyard (interestingly, I took this picture in April LoL):

The only one around here who really loves snow, is the dog. You know how with some dogs, when you take them for a walk they need to stop and sniff every leaf on every tree? Tre is like that… but he also wants to roll around in every patch of snow. >_<

A to Z Challenge

R is for Red

April 21, 2014 R. Parrish 18 Comments

I will try to keep these blog posts short and sweet, while still offering a little bit of insight into each photograph, just for fun.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Blogging from A to Z Challenge you can check out these links:

~ What Is The Blogging from A to Z Challenge? ~ Participants ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2013): All About Niteblade ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2012): Unthemed ~

R is for Red

I don’t remember what the story behind this one was… but it’s red, and flowery, and I like it… so there’s that…

I took a solo photo safari to the U of A campus and before I headed out I asked for photo prompts. A friend said ‘red leaves’. It was autumn, that made it a perfectly reasonable prompt… but I couldn’t find a freaking red leaf anywhere. Yellow, orange, brown and green, no problem. Red? LoL No way. Then I found this one.

One Sunday I went into the university and took some pictures in one of the student labs there. This is one of them (I don’t remember what that thing is… What? I’m not the scientist in the family LoL):

I did a collaborative project a couple years ago that was a cookbook. This is one of the photographs I took for it:

Lastly, when we were in Nova Scotia in 2012 we went whale watching. Well, I should say, we went out into the middle of the ocean to see whales, but there were no whales to be seen LOL Anyway, this is the flag from the back of our boat 🙂

A to Z Challenge, Pictures

Q is for Quilts

April 19, 2014 R. Parrish 18 Comments

I will try to keep these blog posts short and sweet, while still offering a little bit of insight into each photograph, just for fun.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Blogging from A to Z Challenge you can check out these links:

~ What Is The Blogging from A to Z Challenge? ~ Participants ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2013): All About Niteblade ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2012): Unthemed ~

Q is for Quilts

Quilting is among the many crafty-type things I enjoy doing. It also happens to start with the letter Q lol so that’s what today’s post is going to be about. These aren’t great photographs, but they are nice quilts that I’ve made over the years. I haven’t any photos of things I’ve done super recently but here are a few from the last decade or so LOL

I made this one for Dani’s grade two teacher. That’s a grade-two sized Danica holding it up, in fact (she’s gonna kill me for this! LoL). One thing I really like about this quilt is that I handpainted all the fabric for it… except the brown for the dog.

I made this quilt as a mystery quilt project… but I can’t remember where I got the pattern from anymore. It’s been a while. Speaking of mystery quilts, though, I run a mystery quilt website where I design and post mystery projects (Jofigure Mystery Quilts). It doesn’t get updated super regularly, but I do what I can. Right now I’m working on a memorial quilt project for my Mom, but I’m painting the fabric for it as well, so it’s taking a while.

Speaking of my mother… I made this log cabin quilt using 1″ scraps that I had left over from other projects. When I got it done I didn’t know what to do with it, but I gave it to my Mom and she finished it (put a back on it, quilted it) and gave it away to charity.

I’ll end with this quilt. I made it for my mother and father-in-law. I have a love/hate relationship with it… I like it well enough, and I love that my in-laws really liked it… but I find it a wee bit too busy for my personal taste. Possibly the best part about this quilt (other than that its recipients liked it LoL) is that the flying geese blocks there (the burgundy triangles on the ivory background) are actually three dimensional.

A to Z Challenge, Pictures

P is for Pine

April 18, 2014 R. Parrish 16 Comments

I will try to keep these blog posts short and sweet, while still offering a little bit of insight into each photograph, just for fun.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Blogging from A to Z Challenge you can check out these links:

~ What Is The Blogging from A to Z Challenge? ~ Participants ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2013): All About Niteblade ~ My Blogging from A to Z Challenge (2012): Unthemed ~

P is for Pine.

Well, actually that’s a little deceptive. I don’t know if these are all pine trees I took pictures of. They are all coniferous, but beyond that I can’t say. In my defense I grew up thinking all coniferous trees were pine trees LOL I was in my late teens before I figured out how wrong that was 😉

I took this one, which I call ‘Beautiful Disease’ in my front yard. There is a great “pine” tree there. It’s not healthy and I’ve been told by an arborist that we should cut it down but the birds still use it and he didn’t think the disease it had was contagious, so I resist…

The following two photographs, which I probably shouldn’t post back to back but I’m going to anyway, were taken in Nova Scotia:

And this last photograph I took last summer, during our very freaking rainy teepee camping trip.

Rhonda Parrish

Tag Archives: photographs

About My Cover

Z is for Zoo

X is for… X?

W is for Water

V is for Vibrant

U is for Upside Down

T is for Two Totally Different Things

S is for Snow

R is for Red

Q is for Quilts

P is for Pine

I write, I edit and I take a lot of naps.