Carnival of Flowers

Towoomba celebrates the Carnival of Flowers every year and every year I say I will go and see it...this year I did, my friend RaRa offered (maybe offered is too strong a word, more like agreed) to let me stay with her. 

RaRa spent 2 days sticking feathers on a 7ft chook, on a float for the parade, it looked amazing. I helped out by stuffing pot plants in to  holes on the sides of the float. ***just quietly they where a bit disorganized***

After hours of waiting around and heaps of walking the parade was ready to start - I was like a little kid it had been at least 20 years since I last saw a street parade. There were floats and vintage cars, dancers and street performers, kids and adults even horses and dogs. I took heaps of photos and waved and clapped with the rest of the crowd.

RaRa left me to explore Toowomba while she as she had work commitments, I walked for hours (wearing totally inappropriate shoes) I went to the carnival site where we had taken some slow shutter speed photos the night before (not very happy with the result as there was too much light)

I caught a train to the Food and Wine festival and watched Fast Ed cook some caramel for a very fattening desert, the afternoons music was good and the crowd was small. After a bite to eat (Hungarian Lagos - I have only ever seen this at the medieval fair before, I love it and was quiet happy to ignore the fat content - I had been walking for hours) I made my way back to RaRa's, she lives very close to the center of town - however the walk back was a killer - I also knew I was going to have to do this walk twice more!

A shower, a nanny nap and a cup of coffee later I was feeling refreshed and ready to start over, with a friend of RaRa's we walked back to the food and wine fair  - food and wine two of my favorite things, I was a bit bossy about the wine ***having just been to Stanthorpe where most of the wines were made*** so I let the others choose the food - YUMMMO, PHAT burgers - with horseradish. The crowd was much bigger - not a seat to be found. We listened to Ross Wilson - who was very good, followed by the headline act Mental as Anything (they had a few hits in the 70's and 80's) they were not so good - they played for over an hour before they did any hit songs, between songs Greedy Smith (the lead singer) tried very hard to be funny - he wasn't. My feet were screaming in agony on the walk home (we left before the band finished).

Not a good nights sleep, RaRa's 14 year old son had a mate over and they talked and gamed all night...I thought maybe they fell asleep about 5:30am everything went quiet. No they went out to get Maccas for breakfast.  This didn't stop them having a second breakfast of bacon and eggs when we got up.

Flowers, butterflies, ladybugs and photos what a good way to spend a Sunday morning, if my feet didn't hurt so much I would have loved the day. 

I am not very happy with the result of the photos I took, I was using the macro lens and I think I had my aperture to small so the focus was too narrow. Here is a few that I think turned out OK.... there were thousands of photos taken (OK hundreds)

I love holidays

I am having the best time on my holidays, I have spent the last 2 weeks doing 'my' thing and going away by myself now the next two weeks will be about the girls (really it will be about me, I will just include them)

I have been away this weekend and have lots of photos to go through and edit before I post them, so this post will be about the night in Brisbane watching the laser lights...before I start I want to say HI to my first follower **** waves frantically**** I am excited to have a follower (and I am making the assumption that she will read this blog often. (She will also know that I read her blog after the whale watching weekend-  coz I 'borrowed' a photo from her - Thanks I have now subscribed to your blog as well)

Thursday night after a busy day in Brisbane, I went to the Brisbane festival to see the Santos laser light display. This outing was arranged by one of the lighting contractors from work, whie he is not doing so much of the work at UQ any more we are still good friends and have photography in common. 

I would never had made the effort to go to this show (even though it is twice a night for 2 weeks during Brisbane Festival every year) the grand finale is on Saturday night with River Fire a night of fireworks, laser shows and fly overs by the Air force. I am trying to talk HWMBO into going in with the girls...so far so good, Number # finishes work at 2pm allowing us plenty of time to get form home to town (hoping that Lighting Guy now going to be called LG saves us a spot).... now I am getting excited.

If the fire works are as good as the laser - there are incorporated, it will be a fantastic night. Fingers crossed it all works out. I really love night photo and slow shutter speeds so I hope he decides it is a good family outing.

I am going to edit my photos from the weekend in Toowoomba with Ra Ra, I leave you with my laser light photos

This was a bit of a cheat photo - I zoomed in and out while the shutter was open to create the laser lines - still looks pretty good though

Why do I let it get to me

I had a wonderful day in Maryborough and Burrum Heads on Tuesday, one of the ladies I did the workshop with has an exhibit of her photo in the Gate House Gallery (Kent Street Maryborough) during September. It was incredible to see her photos printed big, framed and on the walls. I have seen all the photos before as we share on Flickr and Facebook - BUT WOW to see them as they are meant to be seen. *just quietly I am a little bit jealous....ok a lot jealous*. Looking at her photo makes me want to display mine. *sigh* one day.

Her beautiful hubby bought us lunch at a quaint coffee shop around the corner from the gallery then we had photo shop 101 lessons. RQQY (her logo/user name not made up by me -  usually we call each other 'the other Roz') has decided to join the world of photoshop. I am no expert on PS, I only know what I know...if I want to so something out of the box so to speak I look it up on you tube or one of the many books I have. I showed her how to process a RAW image - side note Andrew (our Mentor) had previously shown her this, but after a bottle of wine each not much sank in. Layers and Layer Masks. In my opinion this is the most important stuff to know, the rest you can learn as you need. I was very clear in tell RQQY that some of our other members are much better than me and there is heaps of different ways of achieving the same result, she needs to learn her own way and pick up tips from others.

The challenge for September is self portrait -   hard to do at the best of time. I had a 2 1/2 hour drive home, because I had been teaching and thinking PS all afternoon I came up with a great idea on how to do my entry. I had seen a few months ago a photo of someone hanging prints up to dry....(like in the olden days of film) I know this memory was triggered because RQQY and I were talking about how in the days of film there was processing in dark rooms where they removed blemishes and changed the saturation/brightness etc.

I spent a lot of the drive planning the photos, how and where I could set it up, what to wear, how I was going to do it in PS....I took hundreds of photos of me - it is very hard to do, we are most critical of ourselves and I am really bad. My idea was to peg up sheets of A3 over the kitchen sink then paste in the photos of me to look like I had developed them.

Great idea in theory...however I didn't think that the A3 sheets were going to be on an angle or twisted... it took a few hours of you tube (useless because I didn't know the question) and books before I just started to play with the transform tool and used the distort function.

This is the finished photo....pretty dam good if I do say so myself. HWMBO and the girls were all amazed with the result (correct response) so I posted it to the competition page.

Look at it large it is so worth it

I was so pleased with it I used it for my self portrait entry in the 104 photos in 404 days group on FB...this is where I let it get to me. I am on a high from a fun day of photos, plus getting some good shots of myself look good since I lost the weight. The first comments I got on the photo we asking if I develop my own photos....mission accomplished this is what I want the photo to represent, then one of the Jpegs (our Flickr group) commented that I stole her idea, here is the link to her entry. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirahanson/7942141700/in/photostream/lightbox/ 

How is this the same idea....all I did was us the same PS technique...I think. I never even gave her photo a thought, in fact it looks like she could have done her photo without PS.

Stupidly I replied on FB being bitchy I said 'I was unaware that I was not allowed to use the same techniques as you for the challenges - sorry' her reply was insinuating that she taught me this technique....NOT. I thought we were friends! I know if this is ever mentioned again she will laugh it of as a joke...but too often I have felt put down by comments she has made. She comments on a lot of photos on Flickr yet rarely on mine, I don't comment often yet I have noticed that if I don't like something and say so she will LOOOVE it, I I think something is distracting in a photo - she will say it frames it.

Am I just supper sensitive, PMS and bitchy...probably, I was so pleased with my photo I didn't like my bubble being burst. Constructive criticism is Ok. My sister said I look scary in one of the photos...I didn't take offence at that - I do.

I never expect only positive feedback on my photos, personal taste is a big thing with all art work. Life would be boring if we all liked the same thing. I didn't like the accusation of cheating.

I have got this out of my system now and will suck it up and file it away in the don't take any notice box.

On a less bitchy note, my baby girl Lilly is very comfortable with us now, she has explored the whole property and is happy to play outside on her own, we still keep and eye on her. Yesterday she brought in a few dead ferns to chop on - I am very glad we do not have good carpet (it will be replaced soon I hope)

Is there anything funnier than seeing a puppy run away with something she knows she shouldn't have - this morning she went in to #2's room and came racing out with a pair of shorts that were left on the floor - watching a half asleep teenager chasing an alert puppy is so funny. I might manage to get my teenagers to keep their rooms clean for a while.

I got a puppy

My Birthday has come and gone, HWMBO took me away for a few days to Stanthorpe in Queensland's Granite Belt. He wanted to visit a few wineries, I wanted to take photos and visit Girraween National park - the last time (only) was for year 11 school camp. This camp was one on the most unpleasant times of my school life, it rained, it was cold, my two friends were more interested in hooking up with some of the guys they virtually ignored me. We were made to do a walk up the granite rocks, this was either really hard or I was so lazy I couldn't manage. I am amazed I even wanted to go back.

We visited 2 wineries on our first day and spent lots of money, we stayed in a beautiful self contained cottage called Apple Blossom Cottage. The owner advised us to set and light the fire before we went for dinner as we would need it when we got home. Dinner was at very well known Italian restaurant Anna's. Dinner was very good hearty Italian lots of it. We also  sampled a lot of the local wine during dinner - I will say I was impressed.

I REALLY wanted to get up early for a sunrise at Girraween, but after a night of fine dinning, wine and grown up games, we both decided it was better to stay in bed when the alarm went off at ridiculous o'clock - I checked the temperature and it was 5.2oC  we snuggled back down and got to Girraween at 8am (not bad considering it was a 20min drive) the kangaroos and wallabies were enjoying the cool morning and didn't seem to worry about us at all- I am sure if we got closer it would have been another story.

We decided against doing the tough walk to pyramid rock, preferring the easier walk to the granite arch. This walk was like a stroll down the street, it was flat and easy. The wild flowers were just beginning to bloom so I was stopping all the time to get photos, I was changing lenses all the time trying for the perfect shot. 

Because I missed the sunrise shoot, I asked HWMBO to come back for the sunset over the rocks and some star trails ( I had not tried this before and thought the rocks would make a good foreground for star trails) all day this was planned until 4 pm when he pointed out a flaw in my plan - the sunset was 5:30  but the stars wouldn't be out until at least 7pm. So we compromised - dinner at the pub and star trails.

Well the star trails were a complete fail. I needed more time, a blanket, a cup of tea, a chair and someone who was happy to wait. I look at it as a learning experience. I will try again when I have more time or am camping so I don't have to drive anywhere.

Lucky the next morning was not so cold, on our way out of town HWMBO wanted  to visit a small town that was known for its Artisans and art work. Apparently not any more there was two shops open in town - the post office and a factory warehouse clothes shop. I think once the highway bypassed the town, everything closed down. So we went to an apple farm and brought some cider and apple products. (unfortunately it was too early for lunch and too late for morning tea, the apple pie looked and smelled divine)

We stopped in Warrick for me to photograph a beautiful church, the lunch by the water at Springfield lakes. There were swallows nesting on the speakers outside the cafe, I am thinking of using one of the photos for my challenge photo this month - the signs of spring. (the other challenge is self portrait I am still thinking about that one.

Ok the heading of this blog is I got a puppy - because I did.

We got a Golden Retriever puppy named Lilly, she is 13 weeks and the prettiest ball of fur I have ever seen. She has such a nice nature, she is egar to please and she loves me unconditionally. Our previous dog was H's Lilly has bonded with me, when ever something scares her or she wants to sleep she looks for me. She has spent more time asleep on my feet than anywhere. We planned for her to sleep on the tiles in case of puppy accidents.This lasted about 10 mins she cried and barked until I caved in and brought her upstairs to sleep next to me. She will sleep there until further notice.

Lilly will be the most photographed dog. Especially went small children are 

around. 

   

It's my birthday

46 today....I don't feel a day over 30, if it wasn't for the fact I have a daughter about to turn 21, I would not believe I was so old. I am fitter and healthier than I have been for years (not to mention lighter)

So how did I spend my birthday? By not doing very much at all, yesterday daughters #1 & #3 took me to lunch at Bribie Island - fish and chips by the water, who can ask for anything more. #1 also made me some chocolate filled with red wine.

We had a nice walk along the beach watching kids fish, paddle in the water and ride bikes and scooters. There is a lot of media and hype about the amount of time kids spend on computers and with electronic devices, the second weekend of spring and there were families everywhere all enjoying the beautiful day. Next time there is a report about how house bound kids are today, I will suggest the reporter try and get a park along any beach front in the next 5 months. Just saying.

Today I had great plans to get some nice flower/bee/dragon fly photos in Maleny...the weather was not playing nice today, very cloudy and occasionally a drop or two of water would fall to the earth (not enough to call rain, enough for me not to bother) so I visited Andrew Goodall in his shop, I am fairly sure I was more of a nuisance than a delightful visitor, he had work he wanted to do and I just wanted to chat.

The girls have made me chocolate cream pie instead of cake for my birthday (I asked them too) so I will forget the diet and enjoy.

Tomorrow HWMBO and I are off the Stanthorpe for 2 nights, to visit some wineries and hopefully get some nice spring flowers for this months challenge. The other 2 challenge photos I am after are Self Portrait....and spaghetti portrait. Time to get my thinking cap on.

Photos of daughters #1 & #3  


and a nagging seagull

Don't want to vist the hospital!

Two days running, if I thought anyone actually read this blog, they might be surprised. I did mention in passing to a few people on the weekend that I started a blog…but no more details than that. I have told one close friend and I hope she will start to read it occasionally.

Today I am finally starting to feel human again; this cold/flu has been the pits. I never get colds, in fact the last one I had was about 8 years ago.

It is a very good thing that I am feeling better, Mum has had a knee reconstruction and I have to visit her in hospital, not the place to be with a cough and runny nose. The surgery was yesterday and it went well….unless you count the low blood pressure that kept her in recovery for 2 hours. I don’t know why that surprised anyone, there is history…..

I don’t really want to go to the hospital…I know I have too, I hope she will understand that I will not spend a lot of time there, she will be there for 3 weeks. But I am still a bit raw from Dad dying in February. I spent so much time in the hospital with him. I want years before I have to do that again. Is that selfish of me? I mean Mum is going to be OK, she will be better than before….I have offered for her to come and stay with me during her recovery, surely that’s enough.

I am printing the bee eater photo for her to have in her room. And also to show of to the nurses and her other visitors, more lasting than flowers and hospitals don’t like plants in the rooms.

The briefs are out for the Canon EOS competition, I hope to be getting a brown box in the mail soon with the props you need to use… in the mean time I need to think how to do a portrait using spaghetti, my first thought is to borrow a young child and get them to help…now where will I find a small child…..

I have taken no new photos for this entry so I will include 2 more from the weekend. I was playing with photo shop and merged a few photos to show movement. 

kill the bee, eat the bee, go for more

Both look good enlarged

pelican landing

      

Whale Watching

Sick or not I went whale watching with a group of my photography friends. What an awesome experience, I have never seen anything so big and majestic. 
Two members of our Flickr group live at Burrum Heads - about 20mins away from Hervey Bay, the home of the Humpback. Every year the humpback whales migrate from Antarctica to the warmth of the Great Barrier Reef for breeding. We saw a few mothers and babies on their way back south. It was amazing to watch Mum show baby how to call for help by slapping is tail on the water. Apparently whales have incredible hearing and eye sight. (Although I think  it was totally possible the crew on the boat wanted to see us yell and wave at the whales to get them to come close. There was a lot of running from side to side on the boat with everyone jostling to get the best spot. With 7 photographers in our group with all wanted to get the best spot....the whales of course did what ever they like. Once when I was up front right a whale was no the left, but when I looked into the water I could see the tail and about 3 meters of body, he then turned around and showed me his head and the front of his body. I was so awe stuck I didn't even try for a photo. I had another one on one with a whale when I just wanted a break from all the pushing, I was on my own (totally as there were whales on the other side of the boat) when a male popped his head up right next to the boat where I was standing, I was so close I couldn't get him all in frame when I took the photos....when he had gone everyone was crowded around me again and I was shaking with excitement.

Right close to me

Mum teaching baby to tail slap

Mum, Bub and an escort

tail slap

Baby trying to flip

After a full day on the boat we had a few - lots of cheese and bicies before heading down to the beach at Burrum Heads for sunset shots over the water, not a lot of clouds but beautiful color in the sky, I had the wrong lens for a good 'landscape' photo, still happy with what I got. 

After a dinner of leftover, we went in search of RQQZY's tawny frog mouths, walking along the beach paths making enough noise to scare even the bravest bird away, RaRa finally spotted movement in a tree and yeah it was a tawny...we lite the poor thing with a torch for 20 mins or so to get photos.

An early night was had by all, after a glass of red for me baileys and birthday chocolate of JA and her non photographer friend - *side note 4 of the eight of us are Virgo's*. 

We were up early for a walk along the beach again stopping for coffee and a chat with RQQY's local friends at the seat of knowledge. I got a shot of a Whistling Kite, I think I was the only one with the focal length to get a clear shot.  Back at RQQY's we got the bonus shots of the weekend, bee eaters, these are the most amazing colored birds, they catch bees bash the stinger out then eat the bee. A pair are nesting in the sand in the vacant lot next to R&B's. 

I struggled to work yesterday, but only made it until midday before I had to leave or sleep in the office, I feel much better for staying home today. I will go into work tomorrow and Friday....then I have 4 weeks holiday. YAH

Photo picked from RQQY's Blog....if she ever reads this I am sure she will forgive me.