Last Day of Holidays

How did this happen!

I have to go back to work tomorrow! I have been enjoying my time so much I could get used to this staying at home capper. It has been so good to do what suits me, when it suits me. 

I have packed as much as possible into the last few days (except today I have to pick up #1 and BF from the airport, what she doesn't know is she is taking me to lunch after).

Early morning bird shooting with Kitfox on Friday resulted in so good photos of my favorite birds. He has shown me a great spot with lots of wrens. I am not sure I am keen enough to go out on my own though. I don't really have a lot of patience to sit and wait for the birds to come to me....I also have the attention span of a puppy. (and I am just as easily distracted). Lucky I have good friends who will help when I am after bird photos.

I have had a photo shoot with a very talented friend of #2's, she is studying dress design at TAFE and has created some very nice dresses. 

HWMBO and I went out for dinner going to our favorite Japanese restaurant on the sunshine coast. it is a small cafe type place that has great service and great food. The price is also very reasonable.

Saturday I 'worked' for Andrew (the guru). It is so not like working, I get to tell people how to use the dials on their camera for 40 mins, spend a few hours taking photos or doing what ever I want before meeting the group to work on the practical side of taking photos. This takes place at the Maleny Showgrounds - purposely chosen for its boringness. However on Saturday we had a visit from a red belly black snake. Half of my group ran to take its photo and the other half hung back scared. I wish I had my camera with me. I love snakes....the snake was actually a good learning tool for those who chose photos. NONE of them checked their settings so all the photos were over exposed.
I got a few flower photos...none I am really happy with. Wrong time of day for photos and not a great spot for variety.

Saturday night was spent drinking red wine with the neighbors until very late in the night. Always a good time.

With Bathurst on the telly all day I decided to take my non hangover to the last session of Andrews workshop at Baroon Pocket Dam. I was hoping for a magic sunset to get an awarding winning photo to finish my holidays...no such luck. I did get a few I was happy with.

My time will not be my own soon...I am going to miss my camera, my laptop and photoshop. I wish I could think of a reason I need it installed at work.

Telmarketers

This morning I heard that the scammers who ring pretending to be Microsoft and hack your computer have been stopped. While I am happy that they have been caught, I wonder who am I going to mess with now.

As our number is a business number and we cannot go on the 'Do Not Call Register', we get heaps and heaps of telemarketers, most of the time we will just hang up (we don't answer if the id is 'Overseas Caller' our friends will leave a message). But there are times when I like to mess with the telemarketers.

Not so long ago I got a call from the Microsoft people, I had been home by myself and was a bit bored, so I kept talking to him pretending not to understand what he wanted me to do, I told him I had to get the computer out of it bag, then we waited for me to turn it on ***I am preparing dinner while talking*** I then got confused about which buttons he wanted me to press, this went on for about 15 mins when I asked if it mattered that my computer was an iMac. He hung up on me.

I took a call yesterday asking for the business owner - when I asked what the call was regarding she mumbled something I didn't hear, when I asked her to repeat what she said she started mimicking me. I hung up. Stupid woman rang back and very professionally asked for the business owner. I said that there was a bad line and I was not hearing her clearly, she then started the mimicking me again. I didn't even hang up, I put the phone down and walked away.

It made me wonder do telemarketers hate their jobs as much as we hate getting the calls? How desperate for work must you be to take a job where you get abused, hung up on and paid pittance? I also think and lot of these jobs are paid on commission the more people you get to sign up the more money you get.

Not a job I could do.

No photos today, I have taken heaps for the Photo 5 competition, I now have to edit them...

I had a slight mishap today while taking photos for Photo 5, I was so full of ideas I wanted to do them all..... I learnt the hard way sparklers and tissue paper do not mix. I had a minor fire in the study today...there may or may not be a slight scorch mark on the carpet. The good thing with tissue it burns quickly.

Of to look at and edit some photos - I just need to find my motivation first. I think I have chocolate hidden in my car...

yep Freddo frogs this will help for a bit.

Friends with kids

The first photo required for the EOS photo5 competition is spaghetti portrait...I had the brilliant idea of using my co worker's 3 year old daughter, I pictured her sitting a a table outside with a bowl of cooked spaghetti making a face ***read portrait***, I would get a beautiful photo of a sweet little girl making a portrait with spaghetti. Well that was the plan...what I got was a sweet little girl scooping up and playing with the spaghetti, then throwing it at her brother. Oh and it was raining so the photo shoot happened inside.

I was a lot of fun and while I didn't get the photo I imagined, I did get some nice ones for CW and his fiance. 

This is the photo I am gong to use for the comp. It may not be the best, it may not be the most original. But I still like it and I am out of ideas. 

I made the most of the morning and took a few photos of Baby Girl and Brother, I sent copies to CW for printing if he wants.

Baby Girl told me she has three rules

# 1 Do what Mummy and Daddy tell me.
# 2 Be nice to everyone
# 3 Use your manners

If more people behaved like this 3 year old we would live in a much nicer world. 

I had to laugh when Baby girl said 'I want a biscuit' her Mum replied with 'I want a million dollars'. Baby Girl looked bashful and said ' Please Mummy can I have a biscuit'. This must be a game they play, it works Baby girl doesn't need to be told to use her manners, she gets a little nudge in the right direction and it works.

I posted my challenge topic for October and got an email from the guru telling me it was a good idea. (and reminding me to correct the day)

Now I need to come up with a sunflare photos. i have an idea, I just need to work out how I can do it. I am still struggling with the other 3 competition photos, little people to scale, tissue paper and fishing line. Fishing line I hope is taken care of #2 has a friend who has made a dress using fishing net and line. I will take some photos for her website in exchange for using the dress for the competition. This will take place on Thursday.

Tomorrow I am shopping with #3 and Mother...it will be a long and tiring day with nothing achieved for myself. 

Riverfire and family gatherings

Saturday night #2 &#3 and I braved the crowds to go to our first ever Riverfire  fireworks night. If you believe the TV reports so did 500,000 other people. I almost believe, I don't think I have seen that many people in one spot EVER.

LG (Lighting Guy) was the one who suggested we meet up and take some more photos (after the success of the laser night)...he stood us up, something about a better offer with less people.

We got to Southbank about 5pm ***three hours too late to get a good spot*** the black hawk helicopters where hovering either side of Victoria Bridge this looked like a good place to be. We pushed our way through the crowd managing to get a space for one person on the rail of the bridge looking directly at the lighting barge. As soon as the Black Hawks left so did half the people -I could have told them there was no room at southbank....I didn't I set up my tripod and spread out in my prime position. 

We waited two hours for 20mins of fireworks... was it worth it? Hell yes. I got some great photos, the music was loud, the crowd was in awe. Will I do it again? Maybe not. 

Southbank before the show

It took an hour to get back to the car, basically we just moved with the flow of the people until we got to the train station, where we were crammed in like sardines. I am sure this was quicker than if we had parked closed to the city... 



Daughter # 1 asked me to take her and BF to the airport early this morning, meaning a sleep over last night. Sister wanted to come and meet Lilly (my baby Golden Retriever), other family friends wanted to catch up before school started back. So we had 17 people for a BBQ yesterday. 

It was a spontaneous get together that turned into a great night.  I often find the less notice you give people when planning a night out or get together, the best chance you have of getting them to attend - no time to think of a reason not to if you already commit. No time for a better offer to come up. ***Don't get me wrong I am a big planner and would prefer everything organised weeks in advance, I have come to an understanding of how social events work after a few fails*** 

Lots of food was cooked and consumed, I was pretty spot on with my salads this time, only had a small amount of lettuce and stuff left. 

I am not really feeling chatty now so I will come back tomorrow with photos of a beautiful 3 year old who helped me with my spaghetti challenge photos.

Oh I have to pick the challenge for the Flickr group winners challenge this month.
I have an idea, I doubt I will be able to get an entry in as it is not my thing. A lot of the other members will like it and it is a good chance for me to get out and experiment

Natural light/sun flare. (I was going to do night photography, decided not to as this is a favorite of mine and everyone knows it)

Till tomorrow Bye

WINNER.....

Yeah  ME....my self portrait photo won the monthly challenge for our Flickr group. Not only did it win, it won convincingly 29 points to second place 13 points.

It was judged by my peers so it may not be technically a good photo, I know a bit of my PS work is sloppy ***this is coz I am so new to it and basically lazy*** 

I am going to take nice photos of my girls and try very hard to get one of HWMBO and create the same photo with photos of the girls hanging up to dry, I will then print and give to Mum and the Monster in Law (MIL) for Christmas 
       ( Side comment -  gave MIL a photo last year of the Glasshouse Mountains, she asked my niece who studied photography if it was a good photo - then complained that it was not of her grandchildren like she expected. If she is not happy this year she can go to HELL)

Yesterday #3 and I went to Australia Zoo, I had asked a few other people to come with us, but as it was school holidays it put most people off. As I have been there a few times in the last 2 years it wasn't that exciting, I much prefer to have visitors to show around. Still #3 and I had a nice day together and she worked on her camera skills.

I really missed having my Chilean students with us as they were always so excited to see the Australia animals. There were a few baby koalas, I will post my photos on Facebook and tag the girls to ensure the see them.

baby wanted to play Mum wanted to sleep - considering koalas sleep 18 hours a day this is not uncommon

Taken though a thick glass wall - luckily relatively clean of finger and face prints

Tonight the girls and I are going to Riverfire - fireworks and music added to the laser lights, the finale of Brisbane Festival. I bought #3 a tripod and was pleasantly surprised at getting $15.00 discount (on a $40.00 tripod) I also printed my 'award' winning photo. to show the family who are coming tomorrow.

I am playing in PS at the moment to see if I can make some boring animal photos interesting..(not gunna get anything finished today - may revisit this post next week.

  

Formal Dress Shopping

Is there anything more scary for a Mother of three girls than shopping for formal dresses?

With #1 we spent a whole day trying on dresses to find the perfect one, the day started with a budget, by the time we found the 'perfect' dress I didn't care anymore I just wanted it over - after all she would be able to wear the dress again, right? (she never did - one wear only and it has hung in my cupboard since dry cleaning)

#2's turn and I was dreading the day...OMG you will never believe what happened, 1 shop, 5 dresses and the one was found. All in under 1 hour. We picked it up yesterday and took it to this little Italian lady to be altered, #2 is so skinny a size 6 needed to be taken in 2 inches. Formal date is 14 November - 2 days before her 18th birthday.

She has been working every weekend for the last year or so saving to go the the UK next year, so we made the most of yesterday and went shopping for a new iPhone, not the latest the iPhone 5 (this needs all new connections - I hate it when they do that!) What was supposed to be a simple transaction turned in to a nightmare because the service tech, didn't want to serve us and couldn't be bothered checking my details - he transferred #3's number to the iPhone. So today I spent hours on the phone with call center staff who's first language is  not English trying to find out what the problem was. It was not until I spoke to a supervisor who read out the number for the iPhone that we worked out how to fix it - fixing it meant I had to drive back to the shop front and get 2 new sim cards. So much for my lazy day.

We gave the puppy her first bath (with us) today... while she didn't love it, she didn't hate it either and she is so soft a fluffy now. 

Yes I know I have posted twice in one day...its the holidays and I have been very busy, tomorrow I am off to Australia Zoo with #3, the fist time withthe new camera and lens, looking forward to my do over shots.

Bird Shooting

There is nothing like getting up at 4:30am and going for a photo outing....and would you believe not even a sunrise shoot.
2 of the men from the Flickr group joined me for an outing hunting for birds - Kitfox is a keen bird photographer who knows the best spot so I asked him for help with the new lens - I am still very shaky (I found out you need to turn on the image stabilizer first ***a very good tip***)

While waiting for 41C, a kestrel was obligingly flying around for me to practice on, too far away for a really clear shot but good all the same

We started the morning at a private residence at Obi Obi, the owners have planted heaps of gravilla plants to encourage the honey eaters, of course because the expectation was high for a lot of birds this morning only produced a few. I know I can get better shots of the honey eaters, this is just a sample of what I got Tuesday morning.

Bell Bird Creek cafe is a favorite spot of mine, they serve great coffee, the best service and the bird life is incredible. I had asked Kitfox to find me some wrens to photograph as they are so small and fluffy and one of my favorite birds. I was really keen for a blue wren or variegated wren with the blue head and the orange collar - I did get one, from a long way away so this photo is very cropped.

I am happy with my red back wren and his female. Lots more practice is required - it is a shame the birds get up so bloody early.

Two more that I had forgotten about the kingfisher and the red brow finch, I love these little birds, they are so small, yet it is easy to get very close