Coming home late

I haven’t taken any late night city shots in a while.  Decided last night to try to capture one or two. 

The trick is though to find a spot that all your fellow students won’t be coming past! (You would think, as photography students, they would know to freeze on slow shutter speed! :D)  These three are part of the awesome bunch I study with.  I think that is part of why the classes are so great.  They all see things so much differently than I do.  I learn as much from them as from the lecturers.

The moon was full last night, creating  a lot of light.  The bridge was covered with people trying to photograph it.

Then came the long wait at Flinders Street Station for the train.  At least I am not the only one out late…

Mood Challenge - i Heart Faces

This week’s challenge is to post an image in black and white with a mood.  Our family loves books and reading so much, I thought this image reflects the magic we find in books really well.

Details

I came across this awesome tutorial (think the original link was on Scott Kelby’s blog in a guest post).  I haven’t had time to try it until today.  It makes such a difference in bringing out details.

Before:

After:

Doesn’t her dress look just amazing with the extra detail?  Can’t wait to do a big print!  This edit took a few hours since it was the first time, but I am sure each time I do it, it will go faster.  It just makes such a difference.

(sorry, this was a photographer geeky post!)

Red Epiphanie

Epiphanie is a company that creates camera bags that look a bit more like a handbag than the ones we have been used to.  Snapshot is having a competition where you can win a bag.  Since my one is being held together by bits of string at the moment, I was grateful when a friend forwarded a link to the competition for me.

The challenge is to post a ‘red’ image.  I struggled to decide between my red self portrait and this one.

The red theme reminded me of another post.  Gitzen Girl posted about Thrive Africa, a charity that is trying to help in South Africa in the battle against the AIDS epidemic. 

Thrive Africa is currently teaching 4000 students.  As an ex-teacher, I believe in the value of education.  For many of these kids, this is the only way out of poverty. 

Pop in to their store if you can support them in any way.

Hope you have a great Saturday!

Fix It Friday – i Heart Faces

This week’s challenge features a gorgeous little poppet.  The image didn’t need much to make it look great (it was just slightly under exposed), though I played around with it a little more.

My various edits all started with a little bit of levels adjustment.  I tried to bring out the eye colour a little more with a mask and colour balance.  Some sharpening, warmer and a crop and a little boost. 

Then I tried a slightly different crop and made the image black and white.

Last edit I used a slightly different crop and ran the 70’s action from Pioneer Woman.

And just to be a little different, I made everything blue.

Be sure to check out the other fixes.

Fun times

The school held a barbecue for the parents and afterwards we could meet the teachers and see our kids’ work.  My son was so proud of what he had done!

Getting them to go home took forever.  They jumped until dark.

 

Learning

I feel like I have been lazy this week, not posting more.  The year just seems to be picking up speed!  Earlier this week the school had a barbecue for the parents, then there is class and poor hubby away again on a business trip.  I thought I would share some of what I learnt this week.

This is the ‘before’ image and ‘after’

Great fun!  So now I can change the colour of people’s clothes!  Amazing how the whole feel of the image changes when you change one thing.  (The only thing different is the colour of the hair clip and dress.)

Or turn a blue butterfly purple

The last image was taken on a windy day.  The grasses were blowing in the wind, creating the awesome blurred effect.  This one little stalk just trembled slightly, with the weight of the butterfly helping to keep it steady.

Somers Camp

My oldest is on a nine day camp.  Obviously this is harder on mom than on him!  He is having such a blast.  On Sunday, we could go see him and took with a picnic.  The first worry was that he would still be wearing the same clothes as he started with.  But he had been good and changed every day (the pile of washing I brought home attests to that!)

I don’t take responsibility for the hair though!  Apparently it was because of the helmet he had worn earlier the day.

The camp is gorgeous, with tons of activities like boating, archery, orienteering, flying foxes and so forth.  A huge adventure for the kids.

They even have an animal section where the kids look after farm animals.  It was so amazing to watch my boy (who is growing up too fast) show his younger siblings how to care for a guinea pig.

 

The camp also has easy access to the beach (they had surfing lessons too!).  We crossed a river on a suspension bridge to get there.

The kids of course had a blast on the beach. 

You could even see Philip Island from there.

But with the rain coming and visiting time almost over, it was time to go home.

Can’t wait to have my big boy back home!  We were so proud to see him so independent and grown up. (and at least I have another baby in the house for a little while)

Angles – I Heart Faces

This week’s challenge is a not straight forward portrait.  Thought this one might do!

More interesting entries if you click on the logo above.

Red Balloon

The kids went to a birthday party today and got helium-filled red balloons.  I don’t think very many things are cooler than a balloon when you are small!  We took a walk through the neighbourhood.  Of course the balloon went with.  I just loved the look of the sky… then the perfect moment came!

PS Happy birthday to my dear hubby! 

Tears

I was going to post some more cute photos of my daughter… then I took a shower and she did this.  So I don’t see her as very cute at the moment.

The kids love this music box.  My sister had brought it back from France for me. So obviously just that extra little bit special.  So I hid it, but the kids kept finding it.  My youngest pinched it while I was taking a shower and ran downstairs with it.  She must have dropped it on the tile floor.  I drowned my sorrows in the only chocolate I could find in the house.

Not good, since the reason it hasn’t been eaten is because I am allergic to oranges.  *Sigh*  Keeping the antihistamines close just in case.

Excuse me while I go searching for the superglue.

Too cute

I just had to quickly share this shot before I rush back to homework and housework!

She was watching a dvd, totally enraptured!

Bundled Up – I Heart Faces Challenge

It took quite a while to find an image for this challenge.  Been a while since it has been cold here.  This was taken not long after I got my camera.

The kids’ grandfather (hubby’s dad) had come for a short visit near the end of winter.  We took him up to Sherbrooke Forest to see all the birds, but it started raining on the way there.  It was really cold, but great fun being amongst the huge trees in the forest, cockatoos and parrots flying around us, hungry for seeds.

(See the previous post for what the weather is like here at the moment.)

A Beautiful Day

Today is such a beautiful day.  Firstly I wasn’t woken by squawking Corellas! 

 

The morning started a little cool, but with no wind and no clouds, it has become a bright and gorgeous day.  I just had to try and share how the day feels here in Melbourne.

My youngest just had to start the morning jumping on the trampoline, the sun creating beautiful patterns on the netting. (My daughter refused to look at me while jumping though)

 

The light created beautiful patterns everywhere.

The afternoon has been so peaceful, just bees, butterflies and beautiful birdsong.

 

Days like these are glorious.  Easy to forget it is autumn already. 

(For those interested, these were taken with a Canon 50mm 1.4 lens in my back garden.)