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So, in the middle of a crazy normal week here, *skip* announces as I am putting on my shoes this morning…. there’s a turtle in the backyard.
Yeah, right.
Oh, hang on. There’s a turtle trundling earnestly across the backyard.
We have NO idea where he came from, but he was heading towards our neighbour’s place. They have a couple of annoying terrier type dogs who would have thought he was a wonderful toy, so we sidetracked him. Actually, we turtle-napped him for the day. We first wanted to find out if one of the other neighbours had lost him in the storm last night. Failing that, *skip* rang the local vet. No lost turtles.
We kept him in a basin with some water for the day, and in the evening, let him out for a walk on the lawn. He got quite tame by the end, wasn’t scared of us at all.
It turns out that these clever, long-lived creatures ocassionally just go walk-about on their own. Looking for a new pond, a new hip happening scene. Sadly many of them fall victim to cars on their journey, so we decided to turn my car into a turtle taxi and deliver him safely to the local wetland. Lots of fish and ducks and reeds for him to flollop around in.
We’re going to miss that cheeky guy though 
Thanks everyone for your nice words of congratulation and encouragement. And yes, it’s that easy and more of you lovely people should give it a try!!
I discovered this little treasure trying to get my scrapping back into gear. I created it last month, and can you believe, never uploaded it!?! Well, you can bet I have now! Now lets see if I can create a new layout as well
I’ve even got the Beethoven Sonatas going to try to get some creativity flowing. Although I have to admit, I’ve been a lot more creative in my photography of recent.
I am taking this chance to work hard on preparing for my very own Etsy shop, selling my images. I love them, many visitors comment on them, and I think that the world is ready to share them too! So stay tuned. I need to organise sizes, prints etc, and then I’ll launch on a gloriously unsuspecting public! 
Now it’s time to go to bed Work tomorrow. Saving the world, one photograph at a time
That noise you can hear is my life whistling past my ears! Term 3 at school is over, and in the last couple of weeks we have been insanely busy with various commitments. I did another full-time week at work, the same week that Tyson and Sam had their school drama performance, the culmination of months of rehearsals! I also had an almost trip to Sydney, and I have just got home from the Murray Bridge Show. So lets take it one at a time, ok?
Alice in Wonderland.
Our school kids were amazing, all due to their marvellous teacher, Penny. What a lot of work she, and many mothers, put in. Sadly I couldn’t join in as rehearsals were on work nights, but they did just fine without me. At the last minute I did cast and performance photos, which came out really well. Here are my 2 actors. Tyson was officially stage manager, and kept Penny sane. For the first of 2 performances, he had to fill in a role, but the second night, he just worked his butt off behind the scenes. Sammy was the March Hare, who also did the work of the White Rabbit. He had a lot of lines, and did so well. We were EXTREMELY proud of them both – their hard work and commitment.
Almost Sydney.
My boss and I were scheduled for some special training in Sydney last Wednesday. After arriving at the airport at 5am, we discovered our plane was cancelled due to engineering difficulties. We were re-routed via Melbourne, but then Mother Nature had the last say, and we just didn’t get there. At about 2.30pm, our plane was about to take off from Melbourne to Sydney, we didn’t go. We had no guarantee that a flight would get OUT of Sydney to get us home, so we took our chances on the travel agent who got us on the next plane home to Adelaide. So, we spent 8 hours in Melbourne airport, and about 2 in Adelaide before that.
HERE are the best pictures I’ve found on the internet of the dust storm that blew across Sydney. Apparently it was 7 times worse than what is officially classed as a SEVERE dust storm. Now sadly, it was a tragic train of circumstances that was disappointing at best, and extremely frustrating at worst. Especially when they boarded us and then made us sit on the plane at the gate for an hour and a half. I never realised how truly exhausting sitting doing nothing really was. And I’ll never take for granted my smooth flights again. Even travel insurance looks like a good idea as hopefully we will get enough back so that we can afford to try again!
Murray Bridge Show.
I work in Murray Bridge, and was very excited/nervous to get hold of an entry form for the photographic section at the show. I have NEVER entered any photography competition in my life. I don’t even play that sort of thing in forums eg, Digital Photography School. I don’t have time sadly for a camera club, so I never get any outside opinions on my work, and it’s something that I’ve always wanted. Some people I know, I don’t even ask anymore as they just can’t see past the end of their noses, and other people would just say it was great because they really don’t know any better. So the upshot of all this rambling, is that I took a great deal of courage into 2 hands, printed off 6 8×12 photos, mounted them on black cardboard, carefully filled out the entry form and paid my 60c per photo entry fee. This was all a couple of weeks ago, and I didn’t even tell anyone apart from work (where I did the photos) and *skip* who helped me pick them out.
This weekend was the show, which was unfortunate, as the weather has been foul. It hailed on and off all day yesterday, today wasn’t so bad, but the wind was off ice and sooooo cold….. We got brave, loaded up with coats, and made the 40min drive up there to collect my entries. We gave ourselves a bit of time to have a look at the show… that didn’t take long but we also wanted to see the photography section before they pulled all the entries down to be collected. To see the competition, as it were. Although the judges provide no commentary, it is still valuable to see what you are competing against.
The enlargement category wasn’t very full. I have to admit that. Out of 4 sections, I had 2 entries in each of 3 sections. There was also an Album print category, with a lot more sub-categories, and the Juniors. There were lots and lots of prints in the Album prints. So I can’t say I had MAJOR competition. This is just a country show. But I was still blown away when I came around the corner to the exhibit, and found my first images…. 2 in People. I won First and Second. Moving down the wall, I spotted one of my “Any Other Subject” with a First, and my second with a Certificate of Merit. And finally I spotted my last 2 prints, in landscape. One didn’t have anything attached to it, but the second print won First in Landscape, with an additional First in Enlargements and then in the middle, was Grand Champion of the show.
My First in Enlargements won me a trophy and a ribbon, and a $10 voucher to a local Computer Store, Grand Champion exhibit won a $25 voucher to the same store, and I also received prize money to the value of $8.50.
To say that I was blown away is really an understatement. I started shaking when I realised what I had actually achieved. *skip* and the boys are so proud of me, and I really would love to think that Dad would have been proud of me too. Photography was his passion, he was the one that always pushed me to work on my skills and my “eye” and he is the creator of this finished product.
I had to be subtle taking this photo, as I know people might think it a bit funny taking pictures there, but I had to record what it looked like!
The funny thing is that this image is one of the only ones I have put on a canvas – it’s 20×30″ and it hangs in my lounge room. It’s always a favourite with visitors. The black and white photo you can see in the top right corner is another of mine, the People category 1st place. – and a copy of this one lives on my fridge. It’s an old one of *skip* with Miss Madi.
So, again, all I can say is WOW. Because the weather was so terrible, we weren’t even sure if we’d go. We sure are glad we did.
Now, I have to come down to earth, as it’s the school holidays, and next week I’m working 4 days out of 5. Life goes on, but I have a spectacular blue plastic trophy to come home too!!!
While I was blurfing yesterday, I came across these 2 articles and wanted to share them.
I love photography. I love everything about it, from the shooting, to post-processing, to hanging on the wall the final product. Unlike my father, I have many albums. All our holidays go in them, and we all love going through them and enjoying the trip long after we got home.
However, the part of photography I struggle with is inspiration. Keeping it fresh. Hopefully these links will help me, and everyone else out there who is also looking for inspiration…..
Dps, (digital photography school), I have subscribed to their blog for ages. Lots of great information, challenges etc…
7 Photography projects to Jump start your Creativity.
Following that article, I ended up at the Epic Edits site, which was new to me. This article caught my attention, as I love to photograph flowers, but they had lots more to offer as well. Well worth a look. Everything is illustrated with stunning photograph examples!
13 Alternative Flower Photography tips
I have also been busy scrapping, which I need to share with you.
I’m very excited to be a Pixel Sprite, back scrapbooking for Michelle Godin, aka Pixelworks again. She has her own store, but mainly sells through Scrapartist. It’s a total dream to be working for a designer there, as it was my first real digi-site when I began, back in the day.
She’s got some great stuff out, and coming out…. here’s what I’ve created so far.
Using Funky Junky Old School
Using Big City Boy
Using the brand new No Place Like Home with Heaven’s Gate Designs
Shen, and others, have been keeping me busy as well, but you’ll have to check back for the layouts for them!
Let me know if you found the links useful, and I’ll share some more! And maybe even my results from trying them!
My little whine and cheese party is over! I got to catch up on a little sleep, and I feel less freaked out. I have also had a couple of productive days off this week which makes everything better too! Got some weeding done out the front, got some stuff tidied up inside, and the biggest news of all, was moving out the washing machine to make room for my new baby!!
It’s arriving tomorrow and *skip* has very kindly swapped his work days around to make sure he’s home for me. Thankyou honey! But he’s not allowed to play with it without me. Work is going to be especially long tomorrow, I can tell. Isn’t it tragic when I can get SO excited about a household appliance!
I had a bit of fun this weekend with some of our fabulous trip photos. I will share more, but meanwhile, here’s a collage I made of many of our reef pictures. I have printed this out 8×12″ and framed it. Currently propped up in the office next to me! It looks like we’ll be in this house for another year or so at the moment, so I’m planning more wall decorating.
This photo of one of the spectacular displays would have to be my favourite though.
All I can say camera wise is that I’m incredibly grateful I had my “Nifty Fifty” lens with me, as it was the fast speed I needed for the light conditions. And I shot in RAW which is a must if you want to fix up all the nasty colour casts quickly and easily. *skip* was blown away by the before and after’s I showed him when the editing was done.
I also have some exciting scrapping news to share, come back soon to have a look. There might even be Layouts!!
Ok, so I probably have over-done it today, the first day that I haven’t felt like death warmed up and served on a plate. But hey, I have about 3 weeks of life to catch up on. I’m back to work tomorrow, which will probably teach me a lesson lol….
Just wanted to post a couple of layouts quickly that I managed to miss before.
The first one is an old one I entirely forgot to post, so I did it this evening and made it to the DST Gallery Standouts Thread! Very excited about that. The old girl’s still got it apparently!
This layout I just plain love! Funny, but I never wear yellow anymore!
Here’s one of boys, being boys! Great kit Jess!
And my rock and hero. Especially this last week when I’ve been so sick.
But wait, there’s more!
During the not so successful business trip to Sydney a week ago, we made time to go check out the Aquarium. Got some great pictures, which I’ve started uploading onto Flickr
Ok, that’s me for the night. Believe it or not, there are still more layouts to be uploaded, but why spoil you all at once! Got to keep you coming back for more!
It really is, sad to say, but true. The rest of the band was fantastic, but I was there just to see Rob.
What am I rambling on about? Why only the Matchbox 20 concert that *skip* surprised me with tickets for last Sunday!! I took my camera and a good set of lungs, and got about 30 photos that weren’t totally useless, got deafened, and had a wonderful time!!
The first, but most likely not the last layout. Sadly, I only took my little P&S compact digital camera, of a whopping 4 megapixels, so I miss out on the life-size poster print. Such is life I suppose!
It was a fabulous live performance. Rob just exudes energy and puts his whole body into his performance…. and he used all the stage and made sure that no-one in the audience felt left out. Naturally it didn’t have the polish of a studio album, but it made up for that in electricity and what came across as a real joy for performing. They were all fabulous musicians and very talented. Their former drummer is now a guitarist, Rob played guitar, piano, and sung his heart out… there was a new member for the tour on keyboard, guitar, mandolin and every other imaginable instrument. But if I had to sum it up in one word, it would be energy. Lots and lots of energy. Something that I will be lacking if I don’t go to bed now!
Of three days off. Today is going to be busy day though, so I thought I’d just post this and run.
I love the immediacy of digital – photography and scrapbooking. I got this photo on Sunday night, when we babysat the twins. If I had taken this photo on my film camera, it would have probably sat on the roll and not been developed for weeks. Maybe months. IF I had taken this photo at all, because I was always very careful with my film, not taking too many photos and not “wasting” any. So I probably wouldn’t have sat down on the floor, just watching the kids watching a movie, and shooting the special little moments that we take for granted sometimes.
Ok, so here’s the layout
Tyson has really come into his own with the twins lately. He always looks out for them, is very careful to keep them out of trouble and entertained and just can’t get enough of them really. It’s wonderful to see. Before the movie on Sunday, he read to Charli for nearly an hour. She LOVES books, and would get one after another for him to read to her. These are the things I would like to treasure. These are my special memories. This is why I scrapbook.
I really do. I usually can work anything out that I need to, and I just constantly find awesome new tricks and shortcuts.
I have been lamenting my lack of photo organisation lately. I back photos up every month or so, when I have a full DVD’s worth. At the moment I am shooting exclusively in Raw so that I can use Lightroom to it’s full potential, so DVD’s kinda fill up a lot faster. However, it has finally reached the point, after 5 years of digital photos, that I really can no longer remember which of my many folders (all organised chronologically) a particular image is in. Scanned photos are even worse, because they aren’t even IN chronological order.
Photoshop to the rescue!! I have decided to make contact sheets of every DVD I have created. Ok, so that sounds like a big task you might say… no, not with photoshop. How cool is this. I stick in the DVD I want to create the sheets for. I open photoshop, ask it to make Contact Sheets, point it at the DVD, and go make a coffee (or 3) while it gets to work.
All the contact sheets are saved as PSD’s…. so out comes my trusty Bridge, and I batch them all to JPG’s and I’m done.
Whew. With all that hard work, I think I need another coffee!
Before I forget, here’s a layout for the night. I started this, ie put 3 photos in frames on an empty sheet, had no inspiration and walked away…. back on the 23rd of January. This afternoon I finished it in less than an hour. How’s that for inspiration!
I mainly used the new Impressions of Romance from SBG for this one… and I’m so happy with how it turned out – considering I’m not a PINK person lol….
Ok, my batching is done for the night. Time for bed
I’ve got two more layouts for you to enjoy – one from this week, another from before we moved…..
This was one of those just because photos – I had to hold my camera out between some rails on a bridge to get the right angle on this gorgeous wrought iron. *skip* bought me Adobe Cs3 and I was learning all about the new Black and White filters – wonderfully powerful stuff! Meanwhile, time is running out for the great sale over at TwoLittlePixels, so run and get the yummy stuff!
This is a gorgeous layout… I have to say. I really enjoyed trying a bit of freestyle on it…. and it’s true. He believed. He achieved. All in one night. I had to get this layout uploaded because Jess has some totally fantastic new stuff on the way that I needed to make room for! More layouts to come!
So, it’s Saturday night – *skip* and I have done the good parent thing this evening, and now it’s movie and chocolate time! Catch you tomorrow!
