Sepia Tones

 

Isn't it amazing that when you add sepia tones to a photo, it changes it completely? But not in a bad way.

Blog This issued a photographic challenge this week:

Share your favourite sepia photo with the world.

Your photo can be of anything, just keep in sepia tones!

Now, with 27000 (literally!) photos on my hard drive, I'm going to be pretty hard pressed to find just one favourite photo. And once I started playing with the photos I have already, I knew that it would be impossible.

The one above is absolutely suited to sepia I think - it gives it a very eerie feel!

Here are some others that I liked as well:

This is a sculpture in the Melbourne CBD.

Animals in sepia tones lend a very old-fashioned feel to a photo.

Skin tones in sepia are wonderful too!

 My boys just look beautiful.

Hi

Still here, survived my first week back at work, but only just!
My body is saying "you've got another 4 weeks off dude!", so by 10am each morning, I've been yawning and by 2pm I'm ready for my nap!

Apart from that it's OK. The office is nice and quiet, and I don't get so many phone calls or emails, so it's actually a good time to get some work done.

It's been a weird up-and-down week, in which there have been a couple of warm days when I've come home to a nice swim in the backyard (more about that later); I've been a little more motivated with exercise; and I've been blamed for events I didn't really have much to do with, all via text message mind you. Now I'm a talker, and I don't have much time for people that tell me their problems (with me) via text message. So I'm just ignoring that big ol' dumb situation.

Apart from that though. Not too bad a start to 2011. With much more goodness to come, including a lovely trip to the beach with my two best boys (burglars beware, the house will be occupied!)

I've also been tentatively taking photos again. After the hassles I had with the camera, and the run of average photos I had been taking, I lost a fair bit of confidence. But I've picked it up again lately, and will hopefully have a few photos to show you. I'm even thinking of entering a couple in a 'summer photo' competiton being run by our local newspaper.

Come to think of it, you could be my critical eye! The following are a couple I took of the gigantic sunflowers in our backyard (I'll tell you more about my amazing monster garden later!). Which do you think is better? Is there any editing I could do to improve them (cropping, light etc)? I'd love some feedback! Most of the photos entered so far have been beachy/pooly type ones, so I'd love to enter something different.

Thanks!

Finding my phojo

You might have noticed that I haven't posted (or mentioned) photos for a while.

There are a couple of reasons, and I hope I am addressing them, because I am missing it a bit.
It was the same with blogging - I got a bit distracted etc and wasn't doing it regularly, but I think I'm back on track now!

Firstly, at the concert and memorial dedication at Sam's school I took a lot of photos. Photos that I would really like to see, but I can't because they are trapped on the XD card. They are RAW files, and it was the first time I had used the card; and I just don't know what's going on. I can view them in the camera, but cannot upload them onto a computer. I have tried online recovery software and mum took it into Ted's for me, but no luck yet.
So I haven't used that camera since then. Which is a bummer.

Also, the last lesson in my morguefile course was about panning shots, and I just could not get it right! So I've kinda given up on that for a while.

And then there's that "I'm not that good at this" feeling that keeps creeping up on me. I am trying to get over it, I promise, but all in all, it's made me lose my phojo!

But I am going to try and get excited again. In the meantime, here's a couple of gorgeous shots of Oliver in his latest obsession - suits and ties! The first one my mum took, and I took the next two.


What a little poser! Isn't he gorgeous?

Busy Busy Busy

I've been very busy lately. Thought I might update you on some of the things I've been doing. Because I've been moving stuff around, soon I'll be able to do more Sam posts! yay! But in the mean time...

Work
Work has been pretty busy lately. It's Book Week this week, so as the librarian I have been trying to get that organised. I have an assembly on Friday that I have to run, and of course I've had to find a suitable costume!!
A couple of years ago, I dressed up as Mrs. Trunchbull from Roald Dahl's Matilda:
Complete with riding crop and horrible fashion sense. I played the part well, even scaring a few kindergarten students.
It has been my most successful costume, and each year I have to try and top it (I haven't yet!). I'll let you know how I go this week!

Apart from that, I've been busy writing a couple of applications. The first was my transfer application for the new school being built not far from my house. I'd really love to work there in an exciting new school, and I've been working hard on that.

I have also been working on an application for the job I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. I'm happy to say that I was shortlisted for the job, and had a brief phone interview last week. I'm still waiting to hear about the outcome though! (keep your fingers crossed!)

Photography
You might have noticed that I haven't posted any photos lately. Apart from the busyness described above, I've been a little down on the whole thing lately, so I haven't really been taking many photos. I think I've (hopefully temporarily) lost my phojo (photo mojo), but hope to find it again soon. The dismal, freezing weather we've had here lately isn't really helping matters either. But there are nice days coming up (I hope).

Health
I'm now 6 weeks into my new 'regime'. While I'm not quite as strict as I was the first 2 weeks, I'm still not drinking coffee or eating junk. I've been very impressed with my ability to say no to yummy cakes and things actually.
I've been exercising regularly, usually 5-6 days a week. This is how my week of exercise usually goes:

• Monday - early morning walk to the gym for weights.
• Tuesday - morning walk (most of the time), and now Zumba with some people at work in the afternoons.
• Wednesday - early morning walk to the gym for weights (I try to do a more circuit-based one on Wednesdays)
• Thursday - Zumba in the evening (I've found 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer before the class works wonders).
• Friday - I usually walk to the pool and swim a bunch of laps.
• Saturday/Sunday - I try to do something active with Oliver and/or gardening. Yesterday we went for a long bike ride. Although I think I'll be doing cardio boxing with Deb on Sundays soon.

I'm feeling better - more energy definitely, and my digestive system seems to be working better. The best thing is that I don't seem to have too many cravings for junk! And, I've lost nearly 8 kilos already!

Home
As you know, I've been busy rearranging furniture and whole bedrooms, so things have also been pretty hectic on the home front.
I've been trying hard to be there for Oliver, and available for him when he needs it, and on the most part I've succeeded.

I must share with you though, Oliver is entering a new 'phase'. As I've mentioned before, he tends to latch on to things, sometimes bordering on obsession. For a long while it was Spiderman (clothes, pictures, costumes, parties etc), but he's also had an Indiana Jones phase, a Dr Who phase (which is only inactive because of the lack of current episodes), his Lego phase. and other minor ones over time.

At the moment, he's in a 'tie' phase. On Friday last week he announced that he wanted to wear a tie. I found him one at the Salvos, and from then on, he's pretty much wanted to wear one constantly. He wore one to my parent's house for dinner on Saturday, to the bird sale (where Anthony was selling some of his birds) and then out to dinner at the club last night. We were just going to get take away, but Oliver wanted to dress up and go out (a good thing, because the club is better for my diet than take away!)

Now he wants a little black suit and tie to wear to places. He asked me what jobs people do where you need to wear a tie, and every time someone asks what he wants to do when he grows up (people seem to ask him that more when he's wearing a tie!), he says "work in an office so I can wear a tie".

We're not exactly sure where it came from. He does like James Bond and The Transporter (both very dapper, tie-wearing, butt-kicking tough guys), and Dr Who, and his Mathletics avatar (the little picture that represents him) wears a tie. But we're not sure how it came on so suddenly.

I guess there are worse things. He does look very handsome dressed up, and there's something to be said for a man who dresses well, I think, but who knows where it will lead.
I've been joking about those ultra-professional people who have kids that end up as punks or hippies (slightly stereotypical I know, but you get the idea), and how I hope that because we're, well, hippies I guess, that Oliver won't turn out ultra-professional. No child of mine!...

I'll keep you posted on his adventures in fashion anyway.

Vote Mel!

I forgot to tell you, I've entered a photography competition.

On Friday, I drove up to Cooma to drop off three photos at this lovely little gallery.
I know there's not the hugest chance of winning, but it's about getting your pictures out there, getting exposure, isn't it?

These are the photos I entered:
I left it until the last minute (surprise surprise!) so I didn't frame them until Friday morning. It turned out to be a bit of a bodgy job, but they looked OK. I'm not 100% sure if any of them were selected (they were only going to choose 30 or so finalists), but I'm hoping at least one of them was.

So here's where you come in. If you are one of my local (ish) readers, and you happen to be in Cooma any time in the next month, perhaps you could pop in and vote for me? There is a voter's prize apparently - a bottle of Penfold's Grange Hermitage.

Thanks!

Yay!

Well guess what? I found out late last night that I won last week's photo challenge, for my photo of the owl.

There's no prize or anything, I just get to choose the next topic. But it's very nice to have my photo selected over a lot of other really awesome ones! I was starting to feel a little uncertain about my photographic skills, so it's a nice boost to the ego.

I've chosen 'Chaos' as my topic, as that pretty much sums up my life (and especially my house) a lot of the time. It's going to be tricky for some people I guess, but we'll see how they go...

It's also hopefully a sign of some good luck coming my way. My application (for the job I mentioned last week) is due in today, so fingers crossed for me!

I'll be back later tonight with a Sam post (that's if I don't crash out at a crazily early hour again, I didn't sleep much last night!)

Saturday's Sensational Six

It's late, I'm tired. Here's my 6...

A photo of Sam

Another 'undiscovered' photo. This one was taken some time late last year by my mother in law.

A photo of Oliver

Laura took this one with her phone (I think!). She took Oliver to the Raiders/Cronulla game last weekend (his first). I don't think he was that excited about the football, but loved going out with Laura (and apparently quite liked the cheerleaders....that's my boy!)

An old photo
Me in probably 1989 (or thereabouts). Have no idea where...

An Interesting Photo
This was going to be my entry into the EB challenge. I love cockies!

My weekly entry into the EB photo of the week challenge:
This week's theme is 'flora and fauna'. This fella was roosting in Anthony's shed for most of today. Lovely looking young man...

Morguefile Lesson Photos

I haven't got a morguefile picture for this week, so I thought I'd show you this. It was an alternative for the challenge (the fauna obviously!)
I was playing around with exposure a bit. This one was about the best.

Saturday's Sensational Six

Hi all!
The weekend's come around again. How quickly the years move by as we get older!

I had a pretty nice first week back at school. The kids tend to lull you into a false sense of security until the second week or so, then...

My first Friday off was good. I got to walk Ollie up to school, and even got to go to his assembly.
I did some gardening, had a nice relaxing lunch in the sunshine, and then went out to take some photos. What a great day! So glad I made the move that I did!

But I've gotta say, life's weird sometimes. Y'see, there's this job I've been wanting for about two years now, working with teachers to help them use technology well in their classrooms etc. I've done heaps of professional development in this area, and have even presented a couple of workshops.
I'd been hoping the job would come up all year, as a few of the staff I know there are off on maternity leave.
Well, wouldn't you know it, just as I get myself organised with work etc, the job finally comes up for application! What timing!
Of course, I'll apply for it. I'd regret it forever if I didn't. Wish me luck!

Oh, and I performed my good deed for the week (year?) this year. When I was on my way out to take photos on Friday, I ended up behind a poor soul stuck broken down in the middle of a three-lane road. Everyone else just drove around him, but I thought I'd help him.
So I helped him push his car all the way over to the side of the road. Just me, with him steering.
We'd just got it off the road when I noticed a police car (lights flashing) coming up behind my car, which was still parked in the middle lane. I thought I was done for, but he just thanked me for helping the other driver and sent me on my way.
So I felt a bit better knowing that I'd helped someone. Just a warm, mushy feeling for a while, nothing more (I no longer believe in karma, for reasons I think I've made clear).

Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more news soon. In the meantime, here's my photos for this week:

A photo of Sam

Another 'undiscovered' photo. It was taken in October last year. Lovely.

A photo of Oliver

Last Saturday, Ollie and I and my friend Deb walked up Mount Taylor, a rather steep and challenging mountain. Ollie, of course, was at least 100m ahead of us the whole time, and stood at the top (and the bottom) saying 'it's about time' as we puffed our way up.

An old photo
Me in about 1974. Quite the stylish one, even then...

An Interesting Photo
I took this on Mount Stromlo the other night. The building in the foreground was one of the telescopes that were burned during the bushfires of 2003. I love this photo, except that I managed to overexpose the sky in the background, and I'm not sure how to fix it.

My weekly entry into the EB photo of the week challenge:

This week's theme is 'buildings'. This is one of the the buildings that used to house the telescopes before the bushfires. It's pretty much empty now. Sad.
Morguefile Lesson Photos

Lesson 4 - White Balance
This storyboard has shows all the different white balance settings in the camera. Each photo is of a white piece of paper. Isn't it amazing that hardly any of them are actually white?!

Saturday's Sensational Six

Hi all,

You thought I'd miss another Saturday, didn't you??
Well, I nearly did. I had a very busy day today. Starting with a difficult (because I'm so unfit) but satisfying (because we made it to the top!) walk up Mount Taylor with Deb and Ollie, some digging out the back, and then dinner with some friends at their place (K's family). A lovely, but tiring day.

But because I am going to try and write a post tomorrow, I thought I'd better put my photos up today. Thanks to those of you who have left comments and sent emails; I now have a few ideas to write about.

So here are today's six:

A photo of Sam

I love that nearly 7 months after he died, I can still get the occasional photo of Sam that I haven't seen before. This one was on my mother-in-law's camera. Lovely smile...

A photo of Oliver

I love this photo. It looks like one bird just told Ollie a secret and he's passing it on.

An old photo
This was taken around 1992, when I was 18. It's on my godmother's farm down near Moruya (I would move there in a heartbeat, I love her property!)

An Interesting Photo
I took this on Monday when Ollie and I went for our huge ride. The lake was like glass. (The next two days were wet and cold and horrible, but Monday was great!)

My weekly entry into the EB photo of the week challenge:

This week's theme is 'sculpture'. I read recently in a photography magazine that you shouldn't just reproduce someone else's artwork, that if you're going to photograph a sculpture, you should try and do something different with it. So I came up with this. This is a photo of a kinetic (moving) sculpture down by Lake Tuggeranong. It's called 'Angel Wings' and it's by an artist named Phil Price. I'm pretty happy with it. It was taken about half an hour after sunset, at a shutter speed of 5 seconds, and has been processed a little in 'Lightroom' (mainly cropping and colour enhancing.
This is what it looks like in the day time (and from the other side):

Morguefile Lesson Photos

Lesson 3 - ISO

This storyboard has two identical photos taken with the lowest and highest ISO settings. You can really see the 'noise' in the second one.

Saturday's Sensational Six

Short and sweet today...

A photo of Sam

This photo shows what a great big brother Sam was, and how good he was with animals. He caught the duck so that Ollie could pat it.

A photo of Oliver

Taken yesterday at Mount Franklin. A totally un-set-up photo!

An old photo
From back when we used to keep our kids in cages. 'Nuff said!

An Interesting Photo
This was taken yesterday as well. I like the composition.

My weekly entry into the EB photo of the week challenge:

This week's theme is 'love'. I chased these swans around for a good hours, trying to capture the 'love heart' shape they make with their heads together. This is close enough I thought!

Morguefile Lesson Photos

Lesson 3 - Lenses.
This was taken from the top of Mount Franklin. I love the view and the clouds and the foreground. I tried with a couple of lenses, but this one (the long one) was the best one.

(Sunday's) Sensational Six

Oops I did it again!

I've been so carried away doing....absolutely nothing! And boy, has it been nice!
Well, actually that's not technically true!
Yesterday, I did a lot of housework (I know, so unlike me, but the house was pretty atrocious!). Then I played around with Photoshop a bit. Still so much learning to do!

Today has been fairly relaxed though. A bit more Photoshop, some outside stuff (it was a beautiful day today!), Anthony and I went into town briefly (and he bought me a second battery for the camera - very nice!). and then Sunday afternoon drinks. And what a lovely session it has been. Great company, and a really great time.

Of course, this all means I haven't posted my photos. And I know you're all desperate to see them!

So here goes:

A photo of Sam
This is in 2007. He had broken his arm not long after his birthday, at a local park. His dad was swinging him around on this big whirly thingy and he fell off, landing on his arm. Luckily he didn't need surgery, just a cast for 6 weeks. And boy did it stink when we took it off!

A photo of Oliver

Taken when he was 20 minutes old. He was so alert even then!

An old photo
This is one taken quite early on with our lumix camera. Not a bad photo for people who knew exactly nothing about photography! Like I have said, sometimes I think I took better photos before I started learning about photography!

An Interesting Photo
This was taken yesterday morning. It was foggy until well past 10am. I love a gum tree at the best of times, but shrouded in fog, they're just magnificent!

My weekly entry into the EB photo of the week challenge:

This week's theme is 'animals'. We certainly have plenty of them around here! As you can see, our cat is very patient (the one at the back is actually sitting on him)! It could use some editing, but I submitted it anyway, as I was running out of time.

Morguefile Lesson Photos

Lesson 3 - Lenses.
The final assignment in lesson 3 was about using the aperture and shutter speed to achieve an interesting effect. This wasn't quite the right thing, but I do love the perspective (the lego banana looks like it's the same size as the real one).

All quiet on the blog front...

I know, I know, it's been very quiet around here lately, but I promise I've been thinking about you!
Thankfully, now it's holidays, so I might be able to blog a little more regularly for a couple of weeks.

But when I last left you, I finished rather abruptly. On Thursday night I was writing the post when Anthony hurried me out the door. Which is fair enough, if not surprising (we are NEVER on time for anything!).

We had a lovely Turkish banquet with my work colleagues and friends. I love a good Turkish banquet: always WAY too much food, but delicious nonetheless.
We are lucky enough to have a wide variety of restaurants (as well as a supermarket, butcher, chemist, newsagents, gym, pool, clubs etc) less than 2 kilometres from here, so it's nice to know we can walk over for a meal if we want it (mind you, on Thursday we drove there!).

Friday was a busy final day of term, trying to get things wrapped up for the holidays. Then Anthony, Ollie and I settled in for a night of Dr Who. Ever since he got into 'The Sarah Jane Chronicles' on Nickolodeon, Ollie has been totally hooked on Dr Who. We have been working our way through all of the current day episodes; and getting very excited about them! We haven't watched the current series yet (as we wanted to get up to date), but now that we are, we are ready to catch up with series 5 (anyone got it on DVD yet?)

So that's been my week in a nutshell. I've had an ongoing back-and-forth with Adobe, who got very confused after I ordered Photoshop and Lightroom; but it's all worked out now and I'm trying to work out how to use them!

Speaking of photos, I will be back later with my sensational six, just waiting for the camera's battery to charge (must buy a second battery....) so I can upload some photos taken today. Might be a late one today! See you then.

Saturday's Sensational Six

OK, enough of this melancholy, feeling-sorry-for-myself stuff. Time for some photos.

I've been experimenting with Dad's (my?) camera, and must say that I still have a lot to learn. Some of it is the camera and some of it is me. Sometimes I think I took better photos when I didn't know anything about photography! I'm not entirely happy with many of the photos I've been taking lately. Hopefully it's a passing phase, and once I'm past the learning/experimental phase, they'll get better.
I've also bought Photoshop, which I should be able to start using tomorrow. Another learning curve, I know, but it should hopefully be a good editing/processing tool to make my photos even better.

So, here are today's:

A photo of Sam
A typical Sam pose. Bare feet, relaxed stance, cool expression. He's on our 'famous' front deck.

A photo of Oliver

Look at those long eyelashes!

An old photo
Me and Deb waaaaaaay back in primary school (hope you don't mind Deb - I'll take it down if you do!)

An Interesting Photo
I think it was Wednesday morning, I noticed that the hill not far from our house was almost glowing! I wish I'd gone closer, but it didn't last long anyway.

My weekly entry into the EB photo of the week challenge:

This week's theme is 'portrait'. Portraits are definitely not my strength. I was trying to get a good one of mum and dad, but none worked out quite the way I wanted. I took this one of Ollie the other day (he saw me teaching myself how to knit and decided he'd learn too), it's quite nice, although I think I could make it better with Photoshop or something.

Morguefile Lesson Photos

Lesson 3 - Lenses.
I've been doing a bit more fiddling with the lenses; just trying them out and getting to know them. This one is with the longer lens (150mm). The big building in the background was about 4km as the crow flies) from where I was standing.