Need to find a balance between work and play

This last few weeks have been incredibly busy at work, I have been starting work at 5am and often not finishing before 5pm. Not that I am complaining (well I did a little bit). I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms and missing my camera, I starting carry my camera with me in hope a photo opportunity would present. I don't really like taking photos at work - it is too much like 'work'. I miss a few weeks of the 52 week challenge on Flickr because I have been so busy and it has rained a lot on my days off. The conference that has kept me busy was an International Olympiad in Informatics (or my working title The Nerd Olympics) 300 students from 80 countries, competing for gold medals in mathematics.

http://www.ioi2013.org/

Every team of 4 had a leader from UQ who carried signs with the country names on them, the placement of them outside of the exam room appealed to me enough to take this photo.

On the last day of the Examination part of the Nerd Olympics, there was an hour delay due to technical issues, the students were getting a bit stressed and the tension in the room was high, 10 minutes before the start time there was a commotion at one end of the room. An announcement was made that this animal was harmless and to leave it be. A possum had run into the exam room, the international students were thrilled (and a little worried). With a lot of help I managed to get the possum to an area it would be safe and out of the way. The Dutch camera crew managed to get a good video of it, which I up loaded to You Tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Gt0bUY2Oc

The possum came out of his hiding place at the end of the day and was escorted outside.   

One night when I got home right on dusk HWMBO was burning the hard wood he had been collecting for charcoal - he is collecting charcoal for his forge.

if made an awesome fire. I took some photos, thinking I would be able to use the flames as overlays for photoshop sometime in the future. I was so pleased with the look of this one it has become one of my favorite photos of the month.

By bringing my camera to work every day I managed to convince one of my boys to let me take his photo - he was a bit worried I was going to make him 'pose and smile for the camera'. I told him I was after a tired hard working look...No smiling. HE HE this is one sure way to get anyone to smile. His girlfriend was very pleased with the result, she says it is hard to get him to look natural.

I finally set aside some time for a sunset shoot, I went to one of my favorite spots on the Maroochy River and waited for the beautiful clouds to turn to gold. As I was taking this photo the rain snuck up on me from behind, it was a mad rush to get back to my car....luckily I got my camera on the seat before the skies opened and I got soaked. 

I was so happy to get out with my camera and get a few nice photos I didn't care.

I also found a nice patch of fungi always a treat

Too much to do not enough time

I have had so many photo shoots in the past few weeks I have not had time to edit my photos... this is a problem I am very happy about. I have found that I usually get  edit a few photos as soon as I can, then never go back. Last week I decided I need to finish one set of photos before I work on another. Even if it takes me a few days....weeks.

I completed another goal of creating my Facebook site and registering for a Domain name. I am now www.rozbannanphotography.com. I need to build the website....after I finish HWMBO's (for the record I have done 4 pages for him and I have set aside all day Saturday to work on it. The sooner his is complete the sooner I can work on mine) My Facebook page is Roz Bannan Photography,https://www.facebook.com/RozBannanPhotography?ref=hlI was so thrilled to get 50 likes on the first day...of course it has slowed down since, all in good time. 

I often say I am distracted by shiny objects and will often find ways to avoid doing the job at hand, this weekend I thought I would get my photo for the Flickr challenge done, this month themes are Toys and Winter Up Close. With a $10 budget I hit Kmart looking for the perfect toy, I got 2, a dragon from a game called Skylander and a Ballerina doll.

I still did not have a plan as to how to photograph the toys or even if I used them together, HWMBO came suggested I use the doll as a pole dance.... 20 mins later he made me a dancing pole. As this the Flickr group is a diverse range of people, some young and some old I thought I better keep it a bit PG, so he made a balance bar as well. After  editing a few different poses with the doll I went the the family for their favorite. As normal no-one could agree and the best one for the competition, I made a collage of the three most popular.
It was a fun afternoon and NOT what I had planned.

The secret life of toys

I felt this guy was lacking something so didn't even consider him for the comp

The only other photos I have to share this post, is a red belly black snake. I love snakes and will always take the opportunity to handle them if I can. This snake is deadly...I was glad I have the zoom lens and even then I was shaking. I emailed these photos to the Sunshine Coast City Council and was very please to be asked if they can display them and use for educational purposes at the park. 

When things go bad

I am a bit sick of the stupid little things that are making my life harder than it should be at the moment. It seems for every little bit of good that happens, I get a shit load of bad.... yes today I am in a blue mood and feel like venting so turn away now if you can.

I have just deleted a page long rant about how everything sucks I sounded like a big sooky la la. I was reminded that when things seem really bad write 2 lists, the bad and the positive

The Bad and the Positive

• My car was damaged when someone hit me when I was stopped at light
• No one was hurt, I do not need to pay the excess
• My car was making a weird noise - possible water pump
• My sister was driving my car when I heard it, can't hear the noise when driving with radio on - avoided major damage
• No car for a week
• A chance to take a few days off work and catch up on my editing
• My trip to Chile has been cancelled for this year. (by my trip I mean Daughter #3's school trip - I am going as a parent helper)
• I will be able to go on a photography trip to the Top End of Australia with my teacher/mentor/workshop boss.
• Trip to Chile still on the plan for next year = more time to save
• Daughter #3 left gas on grill running before lighting this morning resulting in a gas flare
• singed hair and a huge fright, this could have been very very bad, it has taken most of the day for us to get over the fright.
• I had another wedding to photograph on Saturday with Ra Ra....and it rained again
• I had my umbrella for my camera :)
• My pay dispute with work has still not been resolved after 12 months and I am getting more and more angry about it.
• when the money comes it will get a new stove and pay for my trip to the Top End

I am sure if I thought hard I would find more things to complain about... I am not going to. I going to get on with it and know that these things will all work out.

I have not edited my photos taken this week....I should be doing that now. I prefer procrastination....So much so I am going to make my lunch and watch a movie with D#3 

Watch this space for HWMBO new website, this week I have to find time during my procrastination to finish it for him. Then I get to work on mine. I did a baby photo shoot as well as the wedding in the rain so I am getting a collection for my portfolio.

These are my entries monthly for the Flickr challenges. Food and Winows

I did it again

I won January's challenge in our Flickr group, it was supposed to be an easy one to start the year - sunrise/sunset....but wouldn't you know it there was crappy sunsets - I never got up early for a sunrise (I tried it once and didn't like it much). Before the challenge had be posted I had decided I would start taking photos of the Glasshouse Mountains, I want to get shots that are not common and not taken from the same spot every time. I had a great shot of Mount Tibrogargan at sunset....but I posted to the group the week before the challenge was set.

Mount Tibrogargan

I tried a few spots at a few different times and was a bit nonplussed with my results. After being sick for a few weeks and then the rain came, I was feeling the pressure to get a photo in so I looked at the ones I was not that happy with. HWMBO stood over my shoulder and pointed at one and said that's the one to use. So I tweaked the colours - mainly lightning the foreground. I liked the photo enough to use as my cover pic on Facebook so did a lot of my friends it turns out, when I announced that it had won...no one but me seemed surprised.

The prize 'A sight boost to my self esteem'.... that's the official prize, for me it is a large boost. This is the winning photo and another few I have taken this year. I will not give up on my mission to get some good and different shots of my mountains.

Winning photo Mount Coonowrin and Mount Beerwah

Mount Coonawrin 

Mount Nugungun