Thursday, 28 April 2016

DAILY INSPIRATION | Rewards Don't Come Without Risks

I rarely take risks. I overthink things too much and prefer to take the safe route. This year I took a big risk, in my opinion, and that was trying out for the Ultimate Frisbee team. I was hesitant trying out because my friend Connie tried out the previous year and didn't make it on the team. But I did actually want to be on the team. Last year, I only joined swim but I wanted to play other sports. I have not played Frisbee since gym class last year, and that's a long time because we played it earlier in the year. So trying out, I knew it wasn't going to be easy, I've seen my friends on the team and they're amazing. Tryouts came along and I couldn't flick, I could only throw backhand. First tryout, Connie forgot to bring her form so she sat out and I felt really awkward being by myself. Nonetheless, I had to try, I was already there. At the end of practice, we ran a few simulation games to see what it'd look like in a real game. I was paired with 2 guys who also were trying out for the first time and weren't on the team last year. We were going against 2 people on the junior team and a newbie as well. I was so proud of my team and I because we scored 2 points (that's 2 more than anyone else!) and I was able to defend the disc twice. After that, I kept practicing and managed to flick, decently. My good friend Cynthia (who's literally the best girl on the team) helped me out and said that I had improved a lot from day 1 of tryouts. That made me happy because it meant that I had an actual shot of making the team. Sure enough, I did make the team. And yesterday we had our first game of the season, which we won! I was in the 3rd line, which was the last, and we put up a fight. When we were on, the disc kept turning over between the teams and I was EXHAUSTED. When I got home, I could barely breathe, and I kept coughing. My legs are still sore, but I have to push through because I actually have a Frisbee tournament tomorrow. Wish me luck.


On the topic of "rewards don't come without risks", I can attest to that. As you may know, I am on the swim team at my school. I joined freshman year and made the best decision of returning this year as a sophomore. I don't know if I mentioned this, but my team, we're CITY CHAMPIONS! We won each division at regionals (Womens Overall, Mens Overall and Combined Overall). Sadly, I didn't qualify for cities. I thought I did, because my friends told me if I placed in the top 5 in my event, there would be a higher chance of me going. I placed 5th in the north region in my 100 meter backstroke event. Unfortunately, there were faster times in the other regions, which knocked me out of the running. Sorry, I trailed off a bit, anyways, back to the topic. I worked so hard during practices and tried my best at all of the meets. I still remember that moment at Regionals when I finished my first event, which was 50 freestyle. As I swam, I looked to my side and didn't see any of the other swimmers. At first, I assumed I was last, but when I finished and looked up to the scoreboard, my lane number was 1st. When I got out of the pool (which was a literal struggle), my coach had commended on my swim. I shaved off 2 seconds for my 50 free, and 5 seconds off of my 100 back seed time!!


What I'm trying to get at here is that at my team dinner this year, the coaches decided to announce the nominees for awards (to be presented at the annual athletic banquet). There were 2 MIP awards (most improved player) and 2 MVP awards (most valuable player), both awards would go to one boy and one girl. 3 junior girls and 3 junior boys were nominated for the MIP awards, and 2 senior girls and 2 senior boys were nominated for the MVP awards. Amongst the junior girls that were nominated, I was surprised to find out that I was one of them. Haha, I wish someone would have recorded my reaction when they opened up the slide and my Facebook profile picture was on there!


If I didn't work hard and improve this year, I wouldn't be nominated for such a prestige award. I'm not trying to brag at all, but I'm proud enough to say that I do feel that I've improved a lot this year. Constantly, throughout the swim season, my coach would ask me to swim in the intermediate lane rather than the beginner lane. Also, he would ask me to step up and swim with the A team, instead of the B or C team, during relays. I'm so thankful to have received these opportunities that I was given, and am honoured to be nominated for female MIP.


Hope you enjoyed this daily dose of inspiration! XOXO Allison!

Saturday, 23 April 2016

Film Day // Spring Photoshoot

Today I went out with my friend Tammy to film a video! Why? I HAVEN'T FILMED/UPLOADED IN FOREVER! Okay, well it's been a month. But that's a long time!! I filmed some clips for a spring look book! Anyways, I'm writing this post because I want to show you guys the photos we took while filming!








^ Tammy took some photos of me and I edited some of the few that were actually in focus!






 







Saturday, 16 April 2016

UPDATE | I disappeared for a month.

Hello everybody. If you're wondering why I disappeared for a month, it's because I've been busy with school and extracurricular activities. Yes, I know, the typical school excuse. It's semi-true. Part of the reason why I haven't been posting videos is because I have NO VIDEO IDEAS. My mind is literally blank. I couldn't come up with a video idea for the longest time. As for my "school excuse", I technically have been busy with school. I recently applied for an executive position on Leadership Council, and I had to prepare for my interview. I ended up getting my desired position, which is so exciting!!! And I've been working on my science fair project with my partner. Next, I tried out for the Ultimate Frisbee team, and I made it! Haha, technically by default though, because they needed 12 girls on the team, and not many tried out. I'm practicing a lot, my friend said that I've improved a lot from the first day of tryouts, which is good.

I didn't have school on Friday, so my team decided to hold a practice, unbeknownst to my coach. One of the graduates from last year who previously played on the Frisbee team helps coach our team, and so he decided to host the practice to go over the proper formation in a game. The reason why we didn't tell our coach was because he didn't want the student coach to teach us this formation, he thought it would just make us students more confused.

That was basically a recap of my recent events, I'm going to film a green smoothie or smoothie bowl video soon, so look out for that!

XOXO Allison

Saturday, 2 April 2016

A Big Change in my Life.



Goodbye Odyssey 2000-2016. Thank you for your 16 years of service. 
 
Today, my family got a new car, van to be exact. It was so sad this morning, having one last ride in our old car, reminiscing on the fond memories we've created in/with that car. We previously owned a Honda Odyssey, and today, we got the newest model of the Odyssey. The reason we got another Odyssey was mainly for my grandparents, but we are just leasing it for now. Our old Odyssey has been with us since I was born. My family bought it in 2000, my birth year, because I was going to be the new addition to the family. It's 2016. So, now that it has been around for 16 years, it's starting to wear out. Our car has been having several problems and it even makes a weird sound while we're driving (you can't even imagine the looks we get as we drive by pedestrians). 
 
You may be wondering why I am making a post dedicated to our old car, I mean, it's just a car right? But this car has been around for ALL MY LIFE. It's sad to say goodbye to a car that has been around during my most memorable moments. Driving to graduation, road trips to Pennsylvania, going camping, traveling to the airport... it's sentimental to me. 16 YEARS. Can you believe it? I'll never forget the naps I've had in that car, for me, it was probably the best time I've had in that car.
 
Here's our new Odyssey: 


My parents decided to get the same colour as our old van. Really, it's not that big of a change, but a larger change in the meaning of it. 
 
Change is CONSTANT. 
 
People move on, time flies... it's going to happen. We can't stop time. Time is precious, so use it wisely, and cherish the moments you have. 
 
On the subject of change being constant, it's always great to learn new things. My family and I are going to have to adapt to the changes of this new model. We're only used to the our old car, which was a really old model of the Odyssey. But now, we have to get with the times, and the new technology. 
 
Be open to change. I'm not gonna lie, this car is sentimental to me, so I wasn't too happy about the idea of getting a new car. But I know it's necessary in this case, and change isn't always good, understand that. But we should be open to the idea because it's going to happen, this is life, and we may not accept change for what it is, but we should make the most of it. 

I took some pictures on our last ride in the old car and our first ride in the brand new car! Here are the pictures:

 

 

Friday, 18 March 2016

PHOTO EDITING | Buildings in the Sky

I've decided to make blog posts on the editing process of my photographs! Let me know in the comments if you guys enjoy reading these kinds of blog posts! I'm going to be telling you guys how I edited this photo: 


Since I don't have a MacBook with Lightroom or Photoshop, my resources are limited. The apps I use to edit my photos are VSCO Cam and Snapseed (both are free on the App Store)! 

VSCO Cam:
Filter A6 (my absolute favourite filter!)
Brightness +6
Sharpen +3
Temperature +6
Tint +2
Grain +4

Snapseed:
I used the selection tool to brighten up dark areas of the photograph.

That's all for this blog post! It's actually a really simple editing process! You don't need to have Lightroom or photoshop, there are a lot of really good editing apps out there! 

XOXO Alli

Thursday, 17 March 2016

DAILY INSPIRATION | Discovering New Locations & Empowering Others




Yesterday, I went back into the city with my friend Rachel to take photos, yet again. We went back to a few places I had visited previously, the day before. But we ended up discovering a few new locations we had been meaning to go to. For example, the photo above was taken in an area with a large platform surrounded by tall buildings. It made for a really cool shot.


When I met up with Rachel, she ended up being 47 minutes late, but that's okay. But when we were chatting whilst eating lunch, she told me that my photos are bad, or at least not very good. And I'm not sure if she was being sarcastic or joking about it, but I found it kind of offensive. With that being said, I didn't say anything back that was rude like calling her pictures terrible. I don't have any hatred or grudge towards her, because that's her opinion, and I'll respect that. But I do want to spread awareness of this: One reason I love photography is that it captures beautiful moments that people would want to keep. For me, the photographs I take are moments I want to remember. And photography isn't about getting the right focus (although, that is important) or who has the best editing. It's all creativity. Everyone has different creative perspectives on how they want to capture a certain object and my photos reflect my style and the way I want the message to be portrayed. The point of this isn't to bash on other people's work, it's to motivate them to be better and to uplift others. But not by saying things such as "your photos are bad".


I just wanted to touch upon this topic because this morning when I woke up, I checked on my YouTube subscriptions and found a video by the Mom's View. In this video, Colette (from the SHAYTARDS), Kayli and Carlie talk about the importance of women empowering other women. This was the first video I watched today and it definitely gave me a better outlook on our community, especially since it was such a motivating message to help me start the day. You all should watch the video, whether you're a girl or a boy, because this applies to everyone in the world. It's more common with girls than boys, but there are males out there that feel the same. I hope you guys will share this message and the video with your friends. Just remember that in this world, people will judge, and that's okay. All of this can be taken as motivation. But also remember that there are people that care for you, and it's important to recognize those who do.


XOXO Alli

Tuesday, 15 March 2016

Exploring the City | PHOTOGRAPHY

Today, I spent my whole day with my friend Tammy and we decided to explore different parts of the city that we haven't seen. I took her to a few places I've been wanting to visit and we had a mini (not planned) photoshoot because I had my Canon camera with me to take pictures of the city. First we went to the mall to have lunch, then we made our way down this street where we stopped by a juicery and this alley with graffiti walls. We then headed to this popular location where we live to have our photoshoot and afterwards we enjoyed some ice cream from this popular ice cream bar. The line was so long, I'm pretty sure we waited 20 minutes just to order. But it was a really fun day today, and Tammy even said that we walked 7 miles (according to her phone which tracks the number of steps you take)!!


Tammy used to (or maybe she still does) take gymnastics, therefore she is much more flexible than I am, so she was my model. I'm really happy with how the pictures turned out, especially after editing. My favourite filter is the basic B&W because it adds a dramatic effect to the photograph. Here are some of the pictures I took of her:


 

 

 

 
                                                                                ^ this was a picture she took of me

DAILY INSPIRATION | Rewards Don't Come Without Risks

Film Day // Spring Photoshoot

UPDATE | I disappeared for a month.

A Big Change in my Life.

PHOTO EDITING | Buildings in the Sky

DAILY INSPIRATION | Discovering New Locations & Empowering Others

Exploring the City | PHOTOGRAPHY