Update on the WAR!!

So as usual I am still fighting the good fight. The little battles from day to day have gotten easier since I established some battle strategies. I set a few rules up that make eating the right choices easier.

Eat lots of fiber and keep good snacks around

1. Don’t keep junk food around.
(We have a varied selection of fiber rich or protein rich Low carb and little to NO Sugar

snacks around) ie sugar free jello and silhouette 0% yogurt. combine these two to make a nice jello jiggler like treat (Yumm)

2 boxes of sugar free jello
2 Cups of boiling water
Mix until jello is dissolved
Stir in 1 cup of ice cubes until dissolved
Stir in 1 cup of Silhouette 0% Yogurt.

Let stand until firm. cut up and serve. roughly 2 protien, 0 carbs, 0 sugar per serving. excellent. and amazingly cheap. I make this up in a large corningware dish making 4 batches at once. LOVE it.

2. Always pack my lunch.
If I don’t take my lunch. I will buy lunch. BAD! I will also crave food because I don’t have my lunch box as a comfort blanket if you will. I am not sure why this is true. however; it is. Every time I go with out my lunch box. I blow my diet right out of the water.

3. Take just the foods you need in your lunch and always have a couple of lite snacks or candies for the craving moments. I find Werthers really good for this.

4. Get on the scale EVERYDAY!!
This really should be rule number one, but I just remembered it now.
Ignoring this rule is to intentionally ignore the problem. Getting on the scale does two things. It reminds you of where you are and it serves as a motivator to work harder.

Track your results on livestrong.com or any other sight so you can see a chart. This really helps me.
** I always laugh when people tell me, “I am scared that it will depress me, so I don’t get on the scale!”
This is another topic all together. If you are depressed you need to handle that first.

STOP BLAMING THE SCALE AND YOUR WEIGHT.

The weight can be a side effect of the depression. Not visa-versa.

5. Eat lots of fiber and drink lots of water.
I started having a fiber cereal every morning and often before bed and I had instant results.

RESULTS: I have successfully lost 12 lbs this last month without exercising above or

A lighter, slightly more excited, happier me! No the bus was not moving ;P

beyond my regular going to work, driving the bus, loving my woman, mowing the lawn, running to the fridge for water and jello routine.

One lost battle: I did have a set back on the weekend of July 17-18. Jo-elle and I took a stay-cation to  Fredericton. On said stay-cation we had drinks and meals outside of the diet that pushed my weight up for almost a week. It was a real struggle to get it to fall again. However; a couple of days of Steak and eggs, lots of fiber cereal and some fruit and the weight started dropping like a rock.

Tell next report.
David Sullivan

Ps. Still winning the war.

Photography Lesson #2 Exposure

Photography Lesson #2 Exposure

What is Exposure? Simply put exposure is the amount of light that is permitted to hit the film or digital sensor. Try to think of light as flowing water or marbles. It can come in through a big hole (Low aperture 1.8,2.8, etc) fast or it can flow steady slow through a small hole (high aperture 13,18,20 etc).

The smaller the opening the slower the light flows. Now in order to get the same amount of light with a smaller hole you need to wait longer (Shutter speed)

The third element is ISO which represents how sensitive your film or sensor is to light.

The balance of these three elements determines how much light you capture in your photo.

Problem / how to fix (Remember this is a basic introduction)
Photo is too Dark/More exposure – Increased ISO, Lower shutter speed, lower aperture#

Photo is to Light/Less exposure – Decrease ISO, raise shutter speed or increase aperture#

Thanks for reading. Tune in tomorrow or the next day when I will write about each setting in more detail.

Odyssey Declares WAR!!!

OK, slight over statement. Odyssey didn’t declare war. I did. However John has already waged a very successful war of his own. He is an inspiration.

Now. “Where have I been?” You ask.
I would answer, “Lost in the sea of life.”

Things have been a little stagnant around here lately. My perceived life has been getting in the way of my real life. Today that is all changing. I had to get my focus back.

Those of you that know me know this to be true. I am stubborn. Lately, I have been letting life lead me around, instead of being the one in charge. Thanks to this momentary laps in judgement my weigh jumped up another 10 lbs bringing the total to 269 lbs this morning.

I am calling this a dark day. However the clouds have parted.

“I, David Sullivan am declaring WAR on my life. No longer will I stand by and allow things to flow down the proverbial drain.”

This morning, I re-established myself on livestrong.com. I set the date and the amount. I will reach 200 lbs by March 13th, 2011 (Our anniversary) and I printed myself a

Declaration of War

reminder. I framed this reminder in a nice matted frame and hung it beside my night table so I would have to see it every evening and every morning. Now I am declaring it to the world and making myself accountable to you.

Today I ate better than I have in a while. I am heading over to pick up a GPS and Jo-elle and I are going for a walk and a swim at the “RES”, a local swimming hole. This should give me plenty of photographic opportunities.

Thank you for your support and stay tuned for the photos.

Dave Sullivan
Odyssey Photographer.

Airborne! That’s sick…

So after a couple of days of photographing at the skate park in Saint John,  I have so many wonderful, colorful, action filled shots, I can’t decide which ones to blog about. I decide to go through and pick out my favorites just for you guys. Then I will put links to the photo albums with all 380 Photos!

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Facebook Favorites Album

Dude !!!

60,000 things to photograph and I couldn’t think of one! Some days it can be really difficult to inspire yourself to get out and photograph. Sun is shining, light can be to harsh. Sky is cloudy, the weather can hold your spirits down. Some times it’s just plain to busy to stop and take pictures. I have had a different problem. Even though my girlfriend and family are incredibly supportive of my photography, I find myself feeling like they deserve more of me. When I go for walks with Jo-elle and I take a camera, she might as well be walking alone. When I leave the camera home, we walk further, we talk more and we generally enjoy the time together. So lately I have been leaving the camera at home.

So there I was, on a 5 hour lunch break at wondering what to do. Then I remembered, one of my regular clients told me the schools are out and the skate park should be busy!

Quick to the Bat Cave (John’s House

John and I grabbed our camera’s, jumped in the Bat mobile (My Jeep) and drove down to see what we could photograph. The skaters were wonderful. Easy to talk to and very helpful.

Thanks for the great help and fun photo shoot guys.

See all 118 Photos from the Skate Park

By the way, people should take time to come down and see these guys. They are incredibly skilled. The athleticism and skill is amazing.

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Welcome to the weekend

Hello all you wonderfully faithful readers. I apologize for taking so long between blogging. We have so much going on here with Odyssey, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep

David Sullivan (Odyssey Photographer)

up with demands. This is a really great thing. Many of you are following for different reasons. Some enjoy the stories, some of you like the tips and many love the photos. We are in the process of getting more organized. Between the three of us, John, Rob and Myself (Dave) we are working on many different projects. We have been quite busy with portraits, engagement photos, and weddings. Our commercial client base has been growing as well with demand in retail images, models and  graphic arts. All of this has been a direct result of your ongoing support and for this we would love to say thank you. Thank you for your comments, your readership and for telling others.

Being the weekend, I will be spending much time playing with my children. I think a full day of BBQ, Watermelon, squirt guns, bubbles and badminton will be in order for Sunday.

We have really been enjoying the reader submitted photos and stories. Please continue emailing them to takemyportrait@gmail.com. Eventually we will get a new category up and post weekly our readers stories.

Have a wonderful weekend.

My name is David Sullivan and I am an “Odyssey Photographer”

Transit Wheelers at the World Champion 3on3 Ball hockey :)

Pretty straight forward.