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Saturday, February 27, 2010

A New Addiction

My husband had to go on a business trip to New Zealand this week.  At the airport, he found he had some spare change left over.  When he came home, he presented me with a brown paper bag.  Inside was a huge slab of Whittaker’s chocolate. 

Honestly, I am now totally addicted!  It is milk chocolate that totally melts in your mouth.  So soft and smooth with the yummiest caramel inside.

I made him hide the rest… Told him to hide it well enough so I will at least get some exercise while hunting for it!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Fix It Friday Challenge

The Fix It Friday challenge this week has such an adorable image, I couldn’t resist the challenge.

I first did some basic editing (some in Bridge), bringing down the exposure and pushing up fill light, brightness and contrast.  I also added a little vibrance,  In Photoshop CS 4 I edited the levels just a tiny bit.  Then I tried something I hadn’t done before.  I moved the slider for the Cyan Hue to the right and increased the saturation just a little.  It changed the colour of the sky to a more purply-blue colour.  (I think my lecturer would take me to task for that colour description!).  I sharpened a little and added some warmth using Pioneer Woman’s actions (link).  This is the image I got.

Then I played a bit, trying different looks to the one above.

70’s action from Pioneer Woman

Applied a few actions from Pioneer Woman in combination to try to create an antique sort of look

Cloud filter (I couldn’t resist)

I really like the original crop, but I tried two others, just for variety.

 

Be sure to visit I Heart Faces to see more entries.
 

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Cold mornings

For this week’s assignments, we had to make two images that use light to set a mood (any mood).  One image had to have a person as a subject, the other none.  This is my second image. 

Doesn’t this image make you feel like the cold just before the sun starts heating up the earth?  That feeling early in the morning when the soil is really chilly after a cool night, the freeze running up through your feet and all you want to do is climb back in bed, curled up tight?  And just ahead you can see the sun coming with a promise of warmth, if you can just stand in it for a little while.

Well, at least I hope the images conveys something like that!  I just loved the sparseness of the image.  The shadows from the trees and the orange leaf lying so brightly amongst the few little tufts of grass.

The image was actually taken on a nice morning that turned into a 30 degree day.  I had overslept for sunrise, the sun had been up for about 15 minutes when this image was taken.

Ok, so this was lots of words, few images.  We are on our way to the aquarium, so look out for more images of that.

(PS this was also taken in Anglesea.  Everyone else was still fast asleep and thought I was really weird getting up early on a weekend away!)

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Spiders and Butterflies

I have been trying since spring to capture some butterflies.  They have been jittery and fast and all over the place.  Recently though they have started to slow down.  I have been noticing many more of them too.  I think it is a sign that the end of summer is near…

All sorts of other creepy crawlies have been making their appearance too.  I noticed this spider when we were walking to the park.

It was beautiful, in a creepy way.  Thankfully it stayed still, because if it had moved even an inch, I think I would have fallen on my backside trying to jump backwards!

I still haven’t managed to capture the dark butterflies, but there are lots of white and blue ones around at the moment.

The blue ones are tiny, but my favourite.  They remind me of butterflies we had in our garden as kids.  Huge swarms of them would be around the one bush in the backyard every summer.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Beautiful Anglesea

Our camp over the weekend was at Anglesea, on the Great Ocean Road.  It is a lovely little town, though we didn’t get to see much of it.  Hopefully we will be able to organise a longer stay soon.  A friend and I went down to the beach the evening to take some photos of the sunset.  There is nothing so great as walking along a peaceful beach with a friend and talking about anything and everything that comes to mind.  It was the highlight of my weekend!

Lots of people had the same idea as we did and were taking leisurely  strolls.  Even a surfer braved the water.

There were a couple of fishermen on the beach, with seagulls eagerly awaiting leftovers from any catch.

I loved all the reflections in the shallow water.

It really is a gorgeous beach, with perfect waves for the older kids and a calm river mouth for the young ones to play in.

Hands On Fun – I Heart Faces entry

This week’s challenge is to photograph hands.  This is one of the first images I made that weren’t of my family.  I had my camera for almost a month.  A friend’s parents had come to Australia to be there for the birth of her baby.  I just loved the contrast in size of the hands.

Hopefully when little Benji grows up, this image will remind him of how much his grandparents love him and how special he is to them.

 

Be sure to check out more of the other marvellous entries to this week’s challenge.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Light Reading

This week’s assignment for class is to use light to create a mood.  This is one of my images so far.  It still needs a little work, so I hope I get time (and kids with a bit of patience) to reshoot it again tonight.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Ballerina

It helps to know people with little ballerina girls!

We are going on a church camp this weekend, so there won’t be any posts for the next few days.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

I See You

She is growing up way too fast…

Not three yet, but not a baby anymore.  Sometimes I think I can already see the woman she will be.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Op Shop Finds

I came across this beautiful little ballerina music box recently at the local opportunity shop and just couldn’t resist buying it for my daughter.  It stands next to her bed.  She winds it every night before she goes to sleep and listens to the music.

(And now my own jewellery box is safe!)

Monday, February 15, 2010

I Heart Faces – I Wanna Dance

I am using one of the photos from the Chinese New Year celebrations for this challenge.   This is the group of Lion Dancers that preceded the big dragon.

I watched this girl dance for a while.  By this stage the celebrations had been going on for at least three hours.  From her moves, you never would have known how tired she was, though I think her face speaks a thousand words. 

I got a split second to get the shot with no-one in the way and enough light on her face.  Sometimes patience pays off.

 

Some beautiful entries, be sure to take a look. 

Year of the Tiger

With the rushed life we are living at the moment, we don’t always get  a lot of time to just be together as a family.  Since Valentine’s Day this year fell on a Sunday and on the Chinese New Year, we decided to take the day to spend it as a family and experience something completely different.  And what a fantastic day it was!  We had an absolutely breathtaking experience in Little China Town in Melbourne.

 

There were tons of decorations, flags and banners decorating the streets and alleyways.

One little stall had spun sugar creations.

We got little gifts from some of the stalls.

There is a beautiful little church in Little Bourke street that was welcoming people in.

My addiction to yum cha even got satisfied!  The kids loved it too, though taking the first bite took some thought.  (They finished all the calamari within minutes!)

There were performance from different disciplines, like tai chi.

 

Then the parades started.

Tons of people were watching the parades through the streets.

 

And of course there were the lions and dragons…

  

 

The detail on the big dragon was really amazing.

  

The performers were magnificent.  They pushed through exhaustion to perform perfect routines.

Crackers were strung from top windows with vegetables for the the lion.  A whole dance was performed, then the lion took the vegetables down from the wall.  (Those guys sure are acrobatic!)

  

There was just so much to see.  My daughter got a good vantage point, though my poor husband suffered!

Three hours later our feet were aching.  We walked back to the car through a street filled with bubbles.

Some more images from the day