Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk 2011

I had such a great time on Saturday taking part in this year’s photo walk.  Met some great friends and shared a lot of fun stories.  The city was eerily quiet, with few people not watching the AFL Grand Final.

We were worried we would be rained out, but the weather cleared up real well.  (This is Simon, our walk leader, keeping warm.)

Even the kids appreciated the peace and quiet of the city.

Night-time the city came alive with people celebrating (and mourning!)

Thanks to all who took part and to Simon, our walk leader for organising everything!

 

For more photos, click here.

Tesselaars Tulip Festival 2011

This year the festival started earlier than usual.  The warmer weather had caused all the flowers to bloom sooner than normal.  The display was definitely worth visiting!

We spent the day with wonderful friends, the kids having a ball running between the brilliant rows of flowers. 

    

 

The different days of the festival are themed.  We went on a Turkish day (the foods were really fabulous!).  The marching band was quite the experience to see.

Definitely going to visit again next year!

Practice

The last couple of months have been a little chaotic.  My son came back from camp with a bit of a cold.  By the Saturday, he couldn’t keep his eyes open, kept on falling asleep.  At first we thought he just picked up a bit of the flu.  But by Tuesday I rushed him to emergency because of the rash he developed.  They were really quick in seeing him, though we ended visiting quite a few different specialists.  Turns out he had zoster ophthalmicus, a rare form of shingles that attacks the eye nerve.  Recovery took quite  a few weeks.  So far he has passed all his eye check-ups.  The final one is only in January, but so far all is looking good.

So we got through those weeks, then my younger one went on camp.  He came back with a serious case of the flu.  Doctor says two weeks for him to recover, which covers the whole of the school holidays.  We are watching lots of dvds and eating lots of ice cream … and I am playing around, trying to learn a few new things.  The “planet” above I created following the tutorial on this page: http://www.fxencore.de/tutorial_detail/photoshop-tutorials/bildmanipulation/realistischer-planet/

Maybe I will do some housework over this time… or maybe not!

The thing about ducklings

Kids (mostly) love baby animals.  At kinder, the kids have baby ducklings to learn about nature.  I have been photographing the gorgeous little ones with the ducklings. 

The kids have been queuing to hold them, though a few are really hesitant.  One wanted to know if the duckling was going to eat him!  Just too cute for words! 

And for the record: getting both duckling and toddler looking at the camera at the same time is slightly tricky!

Boys at play

With all the little girls I’ve been photographing, I had to do something for my boys too!  I printed these big (20”x30”) on metallic paper.  It looks amazing!  Can’t wait to get them framed for the boys’ rooms.

I really learned a lot about Photoshop doing these.  Both are studio shots, then enhanced to create the images above.  Hopefully this will add to my “cool factor” with them!

Here is my nose…

This little cutie pie, who recently turned 2, was just so much fun to work with!  His mom sang the song and he pointed… Here is my eyes…

Here is my nose…

Then he missed… and we laughed… and it was all over!

Though he still pointed out his ear!

Yay!   The session was a success!

Sleeping innocence

There is something so amazing and wondrous about watching a little newborn sleep.  There is always just a little bit of the face visible, and sometimes they wiggle out their fingers as well.

She was the most amazingly well-behaved little one!  Her very calm and relaxed (though a little tired) parents had already managed to get her into a routine.  (More photos on Facebook)

Angels and Fairies

For this semester’s portfolio, I took more than 4000 photos of 12 little girls.  The kids were just so much fun to work with!  These are two more photos I love, but didn’t make it into the folio.

 

We are running around a bit still.  Looking forward to next Thursday when I hand in and classes are finished for a while.  Will be great to go to bed at a more respectable time (I think I am getting old fast!).  The house-hunting is going well I think.  We should be able to find a new place before the current landlord needs to move back into this house. (At least this time my hand isn’t broken, so I can help carry things!)  The kids have been great.  They already started packing up their rooms themselves.  I better get back to work!

Choosing portfolio pieces

Our final portfolios are due for the semester.  Choosing and processing and test printing is taking up a tremendous amount of time this year.  Part of choosing images for a portfolio is making sure the series works.  So often, favourites don’t make it into the series because they don’t fit with the other images.  This is a sneak peek of some of the images I took. (I just had to share some of these cute girls!)

  

I will post the final images when the parents have seen them after they have been marked.

A wedding in a rose garden

A beautiful day with blue skies after a week of rain was granted Zacc and Kim on their wedding day.  Everything on the day went absolutely perfectly.  The hardest part is choosing the photos to post!  We started with a small session with Kim getting ready at home.

 

The ceremony was held at the beautifully serene Daly Waters Rose Farm.  The little white chapel was gorgeous, with roses blooming everywhere on the grounds.

 

 

The reception at Barmah Park Winery was fabulous.  Zacc’s brother-in-law did a fantastic job as the master of ceremonies.  The groom also surprised his new wife with a song!

 

More photos on the Facebook page