Thursday, 27 March 2008

She loves...

to paint!!!....

50mm, f5.6, 1/30, ISO 500 .............................................. 50mm, f5.6, 1/30, ISO 500
in fact she loves to do anything that mummy is doing...as long as she can do it all by HERSELF!
.......................................... 50 mm, f5.6, 1/30, ISO 500,

...which is a slight problem if I'm using my sewing machine!

Harmony Day...at Easter time...

Has anybody heard of Harmony day??? Well I hadn't until this year...apparently the 21st March is Harmony day and the colour is orange...harmony day is supposed to be about friendship and forgiveness...which I thought was really great for the kids especially with Easter being earlier than usual this year...since the 21st of March was Good Friday this year J's school celebrated Easter and Harmony Day on Thursday before school let out. As part of this celebration they had to work in teams and complete a project..the teams consisted of all ages/grades at the school and then the teams had to get up and present them in assembly and talk about the friendships they made and what inspired them to do the project they completed...it was a great start to easter...although I admit...I was a little swamped with the fact that we had New Beginnings night for YW's on Thursday and I was still trying to complete everything for that the night before when I realised I hadn't made J's hat for the parade yet!! ...so we combined a bit of easter and a bit of harmony day and made orange chicken hat!


f1.8, 1/2000, ISO 320, 50mm ............................................... f5.6, 1/13, ISO320, 50mm

He was soooooooo excited!


f5.6, 1/60, ISO 320, 50-200mm

...and yes just in case you're wondering...they ARE false eyelashes...the funniest part....with me being completely swamped with things to do I asked my brother-in-law, G. to go and buy them for me...AND HE DID!!!
(thanks Glenda!)

Tuesday, 25 March 2008

Just a bit of info...

OK...so over the last few months I have started to get alot of questions in regards to what camera I use etc....and I've had alot of friends ask detailed questions about different photo's...so I'll do my best to give you what info I can as I go along (although I may get lazy at times)...as you will see from my last two posts I have information about what lenses I have used, the aperture, shutter and ISO...

For those who I haven't gotten back to I have a Nikon D200 and at this time I only have Nikkor lenses. I have three lenses:

50mm f1.8 portrait lens...which is by far my favourite...it stays on my camera most of the time and is great in lower lighting situations where you don't want to use a flash....because I NEVER use a flash...I like natural lighting...although I can feel myself gradually thinking about exploring that area to widen my knowledge...

18-55mm zoom (f3.5-5.6) lens...this one I probably use the least...maybe because I have my 50mm - but I do find this one maybe better for landscaping - you get a bit more of depth of field and picture in it!

55-200mm zoom (f4-5.6) lens...I needed some kind of zoom lens so this was the cheapest option at the time...I know it's bad that I'm going for the cheapest lens and putting it on such a great camera body but hey...I'm hoping to upgrade these last two in the next year...this lens is good when trying to get closer to your subject...although I'd prefer a better aperture range on this lens...like I said I wanna upgrade...

I find that the last two lenses are great in some aspects yet...because I'm a perfectionist and already spend enough time on Photoshop I would prefer them to be a little sharper...but I'm hoping in the next 6mths to come to the conclusion that it's just my lack of photography skills so that I can save myself alot of money and NOT have to buy more lenses!

Like I said I am addicted to Photoshop so I use actions and presets...mostly freebies I've found through blog hopping and flickr...

I'm still completely undecided as to what to do with this blog...I'm not sure I can keep up two blogs...that's why it's kinda turned into my photography blog as well...my tech nerd husband is begging me to let him do a website for my photography...but that's always dangerous.....if I let him have control for a moment...well I'm afraid I'll never recover (because I'm a bit of a control freak about that kinda stuff ...that's why we have our own computers..)...so for now this is it...(and he can just keep using his laptop...we have an understanding).

Feel free to ask any questions or to tell me how NOT helpful I am at explaining things...communication has never been one of my strong points...I grew up with my father (who incidently is set to live by himself on a farm in the middle of nowhere and talk to his sheep) what can I say?
55-200mm, f5.6, 1/20, ISO 125

Monday, 24 March 2008

Something must have been REALLY funny...


or not...these two cousins will laugh at just about anything!

50mm f1.8 lens, f5.6, 1/200, ISO 320

Mud fight...

It all started with a quick visit to my sister's place on our way to my dad's farm...

55-200mm lens, f5.6, 1/160, ISO320
Within 15 minutes my son looked like this...it was rainy, cold and....well...dirty! We were inside of course...because thats where adults tend to go when it's rainy, cold and dirty outside...


55-200mm lens, f5.6, 1/125, ISO320 f5.6, 1/200, ISO 320
Personally I would have been screaming at the outrageous idea of a COLD hose down...they were not...

We let her stand here like this for a few minutes...just so it would be etched in her memory...just how cold it really was...


55-200mm lens, f5.6, 1/100, ISO 320
Then we did what any decent parent would do and gave them all a nice warm bath...to make up for the harsh measures taken 10 minutes earlier...

Sunday, 16 March 2008

My neice...


I love this girl...she's sassy, she has attitude - her and my little girl are quite similar in that respect...but she totally gets into the posing too...

when I asked her to pose for me this is what she comes up with...totally cracking me up!
...i like to call the last one her 'karate kid' imitation...not that she has ever seen the movie..she's only 4!

Just had to share...

I'm just loving this photo at the moment...

How much fun is she having!! In fact I have a photo something similar to this of all our neighbourhood kids but their expressions a somewhat more 'pained' than B's!...this was from back in December - our neighbours put their water slide out on their front lawn and all of the kids were taking a slide...

Thursday, 13 March 2008

After the accident....

He has a black eye....


He fell asleep in the car and daddy was so loving as to carefully get him out of the car to carry him to his bed...but he kinda forgot there was a car door behind him as he swung around....ouch!


We're just hoping there is no permanent damage...

Obsessions...



This is the latest obsession in our household...and no I'm not talking about our son...he LOVES Thomas but I wouldn't really say he is obsessed with it...my husband on the other hand is definitely obsesssed.
We have a date morning every week (since he works afternoon shifts) and guess what we did for our date this past week?...we went to at least 3 different toy stores to find the exact parts that he wanted for J.'s Thomas set! ...he wasn't happy with the choice so he has been bidding on parts on ebay for the last week or so...and me? well I just thought he had been working hard because usually when he's sitting down in the study in front of his laptop..that's what he's doing...but this week...well he has been working hard...working hard on finding all the parts for his Thomas - state of the art technology - railway system!

Wednesday, 12 March 2008

To die for...


So sorry ladies but this one is already spoken for...you see my little girl and this little boy have a prearranged marriage...this little guy has a thing for long hair...thus the reason my little girl will NEVER cut her hair again...she'll be Rapunzel and he'll be her Prince...and any of you that even think of the 'not-so-bright-idea' of being the witch in this fairytale...well you've never met my Layne now have you!

Anybody home?...

I love it when I'm driving along and I see something fabulous like this...my family doesn't though because it usually means if the camera isn't in the car we have to go home and get it..and of course it's just alot of waiting around...actually I lie...they don't mind..at least I don't think they do...the only thing my little girl seemed to be annoyed at was that I wasn't standing where she told me I needed to...hmmm...who's the one with the camera here???


Anyway I just loved this letterbox...saw it this morning and just had to go and get my camera to take a picture...but you see it was such a long way to go back to the house and then drive all the way back to the letterbox...I was ALMOST convinced not to bother...I mean it is all the way at the other end of our street...bit of an effort really.


What actually cracked me up was that I have driven past this letterbox how many times??? AT LEAST twice a day since I drop off & pick my son up from school....glanced at it and all but I never gave it a second thought...but for some unkown reason..today this letterbox just looked fabulous. There is one thing I'm wondering about though...why would someone have a letterbox on an empty block of land??? hmmmm

Sunday, 9 March 2008

Saturday afternoon...

Yesterday afternoon we took the kids down to the oval/bike track to ride their bikes...well that and lots of other things...since my husband packed bikes, remote control car, bubbles etc I figured he was out to have some fun...and drag the kids along!


We got the bubbles out and some other kids came running over to play...there were 5 of them and they were SO much fun...the two older kids especially!


When the bubbles were all gone J. got his remote control car out...I was so impressed with the two older boys and how great they were with the little ones...they helped give each of them turns with the bubbles and lined them up to make a tunnel for the car to go through...J. was beside himself with excitement...





I just loved how these tunnel shots turned out...the kids were having so much fun...


Saturday, 8 March 2008

School...and a pair of scissors...



J. got in trouble at school last week for walking around trying to cut peoples hair with the scissors they were using during craft time...he got time out for it...the teacher informed me when I went to pick him up that afternoon...so we had a little chat about it and I left it at that...that night he was sitting down with me doing something on the computer...and I noticed this...now look closely the eye on the bottom (his left) the eyelashes are...well normal...now look at the top eye...(his right eye)...not so normal hey...I'm gathering that since he couldn't talk any of his friends at school into letting him cut their hair...he decided to try cutting his eyelashes...nice!!!

Wednesday, 5 March 2008

Bubbles and a Gerbra...

We had some fun this morning...last week I found a big bubble blower on sale...so we took it out this morning and had some fun...


I love how she is trying to 'move' the bubbles...



You know, I really am addicted to Photoshop...I added a bit of texture and look what it gave me...I love this aged effect!

Monday, 3 March 2008

I'm watching you...


Due to my children getting into things...mainly food items - like the cooking chocolate or taco shells - we have had to have a lock on our pantry door for years now...we started out with the whole childlock thing until at age 3 my son worked them out...we now have a full lock latch at the top of the door so that he cannot reach it...but every now and then my husband forgets to lock it and we find two little munchkins hiding in there eating every 'treatlike' food they can...now this wouldn't be a major issue for most parents...the issue would be more of a disobedience issue for them - let me tell you that''s the last thing on my mind when I catch them out - my mind is preoccupied with the issues I will be dealing with for approximately the next 5 hours! My son, being ADHD, is extremely sensitive to any portion of sugar and the following 5 hrs of him partaking of any thing of the kind is hard to describe if you have never witnessed it! Due to this, I have become extremely sensitive to discerning when the pantry door is being opened without consent, even when I am at the other end of the house. I usually sneakup on him to catch him in the act and he often jumps a mile high in fright (a secret love of mine). Slowly but surely he's learning that I am ALWAYS watching!

Pouting...

My kids have never been pouters....they've been screamers...when they're upset they have no problem letting you know just how upset they are...so when on the rare occasion my little girl pouts...I can't help it but I love it!...


I was a pouter...it's moments like this that help me remember my own pouting issues!
On the rare occasion she does pout...it certainly doesn't last for long...she's very easily distracted!

For Ember...



This is for my sister Ember.....she hates feet...sometime I scrunch my toes just to see her cringe...I love to stick my feet as close to her as possible...just to see her squirm!!! It's a bit late but Happy Birthday!

Self Portrait Challenge...ickkk



One of the photography blogs that I peruse/stalk has been doing self portrait challenges...each challenge has something different that you need to try and incorporate into your photo...I've always hated getting my own photo taken but some of them were pretty creative...so I took the plunge and decided to get over my inhibitions...and try taking some...I didn't bother trying to meet the requirements as I figured it was a big enough challenge for me to actually be in front of the camera!!! A bit boring but hey my creativity has trouble flowing when I'm out of my comfort zone!