Tanya De Leeuw Photography

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Book is on the Backburner

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions ... and mine is a bumpy, muddy road!

The book will have to wait as the chaos of winter (ie: working 6 days a week) is about to commence. That will keep my occupied until the end of March.

A Black Bear Taking A Break

This was the first bear of the season for me ... just a few days ago! It is taking a break from the stresses of hyperphagia (the need to absorb as many calories as possible before denning for the winter).

It is quite possible that this will be my last post of 2026.

If it is, I wish you and yours a peaceful and joyous holiday season, and lots of snow!

If it isn't, you have a bonus issue to look forward to!

Tanya

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Happy World Photography Day!

Celebrate the day with one of my fav birds ... the cedar waxwing ... such attitude!

Meanwhile the latest proof of my book came back ... disappointing.

Black and whites way too dark. Intense colours just mush.

This is a steep learning curve, but I'm going to get it right.

Next on the lesson list: Colour spaces.

Until next time ...

Tanya

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

I Love Green! And an Update on Books, Blurb & Etsy

This morning I sent off my FOURTH book submission for a test print.

Hopefully this time will be the charm.

Blurb has been SO helpful and kind ... and patient!

Green is definitely my fav colour ... as you will have seen from my non-traditional Canada Day post!

Another thing I did recently is update some of the keywords on my Etsy listings. I just used google to find out what search terms are best ... no fancy program needed! Happily, traffic has increased substantially.

Stay cool wherever you are enjoying summer ... touch wood, we have had a very moderate season so far (but could always use more rain!).

Until next time (the book reprint delivery is due before the end of the month)!

Tanya

Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Happy Canada Day, Eh!

Cheers for now!

Tanya

Sunday, June 21, 2026

At Least Once More!

As always, Blurb has been exceedingly helpful in leading me towards publication!

Long story short, I have to reprocess the photos to accommodate the paper used in the spiral / wire-bound book.

For colour images, this is due to something called "out of gamut" ... which essentially means that the printer cannot reliably produce (reproduce) the colour that the digital file calls for.

And the black-and-white images rendered way too dark (again, despite being significantly adjusted to a lighter/brighter version once already) ...

The daisy image above is one of my fav's from a recent outing. I had the choice (I suppose I could've done both!) between a yellow adirondack chair in the background, and a red adirondack chair. I thought red would be too obvious and really liked the feel of the yellow. So here it is! What do you think ... was it a good idea to have a similar colour in the background, to the subject?

I'm trying to actively get out with my camera more often ... sometimes even though the logical mind says "get out there", the heart shrugs with a "whatever" ...

Cheers for now!

Tanya

Friday, June 5, 2026

Three Disappointments

It took a week longer than necessary for me to receive the third test print of my book thanks to Purolator's refusal to leave the package at our building's front door as instructed directly to the driver on the phone, online via Purolator's website, and via Blurb's support department.

After two delivery attempts (while I was at work so not available to receive/sign, which I'd warned them about) they handed it off to Canada Post for delivery ... couldn't they have done that in the first instance?!

The second disappointment was the ragged cut of the pages ... the pages of the wire-bound book are uneven resulting in an impossible flip-through. I'll be sending photos to Blurb before I submit my next test print order.

Sadly, the different paper used in the wire-bound production (vs the perfect-bound magazine style) resulted in most of the photographs rendering way too dark! So it will be back to the computer to redo all the post processing.

Perhaps the fourth test print will be perfect?

Meanwhile, its the time of year for spring flowers so here are some lovely orange poppies for your enjoyment!

Cheers for now!

Tanya