Busy few weeks

Wow doesn't time fly when you are busy, every day I have said I would catch up on my editing, website building and blogging....and every day I have had something else to do. I have been busy at home, busy with photos and supper busy at work. Lucky for me June is a reasonably quiet month at work so I will have more time for the things I enjoy.

#2 is much happier with her travels after the phone incident in Paris, http://rozzy35.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/the-big-adventure.html she has been making friends around Europe and is now spending her last week of travel in Spain. I think my baby girl has grown up a lot in the last few weeks. The photo a day challenge for her stopped when she lost her phone. I have had to be happy with messages on Facebook and a few Skype dates. She is happy and having the time of her life, that is all a mother can ask for.

While #2 Daughter has been gallivanting around the world her friends have been playing with me. I wanted a young pretty girl for a shadow photo - a challenge for our Flickr group. Luckily the friend had a lace parasol that creates beautiful shadows, I was going to use a clear umbrella with hearts on it, the parasol worked so much better. This image won the challenge.

Winner - shadow like a mask

Hiding from the camera

I had been trying for months to get #2 to pose for a few photo ideas before she went OS....she always had an excuse not to come with me, so I asked A to pose at the graffiti wall. 

I need to work on my posing a bit, I am not sure how to direct friends to do what I want and still remain natural... it is all learning 

The other idea I had was a story...Genie in a bottle. Another one of #2's friends helped with this idea. I love when a plan turns out exactly like I imagine. 

I have not finished with these photos, I still have the story line to create.

The costume is mine from my belly dancing days, the wings are my favorite prop. Neek loved running around the beach with them, regardless that it was freezing. 

More photos to come in my next entry...I also have a lot of planned shoots for the next few weeks. Maybe I will start getting paid soon....maybe I need to get the website built....maybe I better get on with it now. maybe maybe maybe............later.

The big adventure

I am sure every mother feels lost when a child moves out of home before you are ready for them to go...even worse if they move overseas. Daughter #2 has started her overseas adventure, she has not moved per say but there is no return ticket. 
After a week staying with wonderful friends in England, she has started a 9 stop bus tour around Europe...on her own. Did I mention she is only just 18. Day 1 she arrived in Paris after an overnight train trip with little or no sleep. The first message I got was one of frustration that the locker wouldn't except her coins...how did she expect me to help from over 16000 kms away (or 21 hours) I don't know. All I could do was tell her to get a staff member and some sleep. 

Day 2 in France, I get the message that starts with a sentence every parent of a traveler dreads - 'Don't freak out!' My heart started pounding and my head went all cloudy as I tried to read the rest of the message....Phew it is only her phone that has been stolen. This I can cope with, apparently a girl asked her for the time, when #2 check on her phone it was snatched from her hand and the girl ran off. 2 nice guys asked #2 to come with them and they would help her get her phone back ***yeah right*** Lucky #2 was smart enough to be suspicious and went back to her Hostel then reported it to the police. She is now without a phone and about to board a bus to go to Switzerland. I have checked with her insurance and she is able to buy a new phone and will get reimbursed once the claim is approved.

I was so proud of the way she handled the phone debacle, I thought she has grown up in the past few weeks - then she asked for me to post her favorite stuffed toy over to England for her.....seriously. I am the good mother so I will send it with a care package of tim tams and her favorite Aussie treats.

The planned photo a day she was told to send me has been put on hold until the phone is sorted. She is still taking pics with a camera, it is hard to upload and email on the laptop everyday, the Wi Fi is not always the best.

A few of her photos so far,

Buckingham Palace with her host sister (HS stayed with us for 6 weeks in 2011 - she is the reason for this adventure)

The gates of Buckingham Palace - #2 knew HWMBO would like the detail

A church in Arundal - I think she didn't say anything about this photo. 

She loves the streets and houses in England

Some of the notes I hid in her bag the day she left -she has found 15, I hid 24. I hope she finds one in a few months. 

 

I am finding it a bit hard not to worry while she is on this tour. I wish her safe travels. 

Books and Photography two of my favorite things

I mentioned in my last post that I got my first paying gig as a photographer, (still doing a happy dance inside). Every 2nd year UQ Alumni holds a Book Fair to raise money for scholarships and other Alumni funded events.
This is one of my favorite events I work, it is well known how I love to read. 

I was in my element, books, books and more books. I looked for photography books for me and cook books for #1 Daughter, I was successful with the cook books, not so lucky on the photography. The most current Photoshop book/magazine was for PS4 - I am currently using PS6 and have a load of video tutorials. There where some interesting books pre DSLR, I flipped and read a bit, I didn't buy them due to a lack of storage. I did buy a few novels - and by a few I mean 3 boxes. I pay it forward, when I finish a book I pass it on to a friend, who does the same.

Boxes and boxes of books ready to be unpacked

Popular and new release books - sadly these didn't sell as well as they have in previous years, I believe this is due to the Ereader/iPad

Art books, magazines and posters

Records, CDs are always popular

Panorama of the books waiting for the public to arrive - this is 3 photos stitched together - a wide angle lens is on my wish list  

The buyers

Birds eye view 

I love children reading

The English Housekeeper 1805 - this book not only provided recipe ideas, it also gave instructions on how to kill and prepare the meat.

Unfortunately there is a lot of books thrown out at the end, there is plenty of people prepared to sift through the skip for free books, I guess this is another form of recycling.

I don't often bring my camera to work - I would never get any work done.... As I walked to my car camera in hand I liked the reflections of one of the newest building on the lake. 

Family visits

I had 2 days full of family this week and surprisingly I enjoyed all of it.
My niece turned 16 and celebrated with a high tea at home, I doubt I would have gone if she had wanted to have it a fancy restaurant or cafe. I am not a fan of stuffing myself on cake and tiny sandwiches and calling it afternoon tea and I certainly can't justify spent $50.00 to do so (this is an average price at the better quality restaurants) .
My sister spent days baking and making...she loves to cook so this was not a chore, little cakes, sausage rolls, mini quiche, scones (these were awesome), finger sandwiches and of course the birthday cake.
After cake and tea, we headed to the beach for fish and chips with surrogate family so they could say goodbye to #2 daughter before her overseas adventure.

Canberra Cousin and her family are holidaying on the Gold Coast for a week, with not a lot of time and a busy schedule full of theme parks and beach days. It was decided the best time for me to visit was the day they arrived, it is a 2 hour each way drive for me so I went early to spend some time taking photos. I lived on the Gold Coast for 5 years before marriage (I usually describe my time on the coast as my misspent youth...I did meet HWMBO then so it wasn't all bad). Obviously it has changed so much since I lived there, I have visited a few times but rarely to I have wander time. I had never been to the very end of the spit, this is where I headed with my camera. I want to go back...I didn't have enough time. I walked out on a rock pier and looked back towards surfers paradise. I think the photo show how beautiful it was. I would like to go back and walk all the pier (although I am not sure I can, as it is used for sand dredging).

it was a lovely afternoon with CC and her family, the boys are both delightful but very strong will and mischievous. I was keen to get photos of them on the beach in the afternoon light, they wanted to go the to pool. As it is often very cold in Canberra there is not much pool weather. We worked a bit of a compromise, pool  - beach - pool - dinner. I got photos I wanted and the boys got what they wanted.

After a dinner of pizza and pasta, Master 4 year old announced that he was tired and going to bed and so was his Brother 8 year old. Mum and Dad looked at each other with surprise and said 'goodnight'. Apparently bed time is known as struggle time. The boys went to bed and were asleep within 1/2 hour. I hope they make this a habit. CC is 5 months pregnant and could do with less stress (baby is due on my birthday and her fathers, my beloved Uncle - I was born on his 21st birthday so we have a special bond)

Website is coming along nicely, I hope to be finished in a few weeks. Isn't it funny how things start to flow once you start....one day I will master the art of starting. 

I have a paying photography gig this weekend and the good thing about it is I am working at the same time - I think this is called double jobbing. UQ Book Fair have hired me to do professional photos for marketing. YEAH ME, I am planning my website while I am doing the business one. It is hard for me not to do mine first because it is more fun for me. Photos of Book Fair next week.

Time to be motivated....HA HA

I am suffering from a real lack of motivation lately, I think all the things I want to do (and have to do) are starting to overwhelm me so I have decided to do nothing... this is not really working very well as the list gets longer and the ideas keep coming.

I have worked a lot lately -  yucky shifts where I start too late in the day to be productive and finish too late to want to do anything except eat dinner and go to bed. When I have had spare or available time I waste it on Facebook or watching movies. The good news is I have watched a few movies I have wanted to see for a while. Ted with Mark Walberg is not as stupid as I thought it would be, Red Dawn is an American rip off of Tomorrow When the War Began (ok this wasn't a great Australian movie, but the books are awesome). I tried to watch Paperboy with Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman....but it was sooooo boring.

I have not taken many photos lately, but those I have taken have been pretty good. I wonder if it is because I know what I want before I take the photo instead of taking 100s and hoping I get a good result.

This photo is probably my favorite this year, I was ready to count my loss on another failed sunset, I had my tripod folded and was ready to go home, when the sky changed colour and this was the result. I think I am safe in saying my sunset voodoo is over.

Sunset at Moffat Beach 

The challenges this month are Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Green. I found out there was a tram museum in Brisbane. There where three trams on display on the day I went. Trams operated in Brisbane between 1885 - 1969, having lived in Melbourne for 10 years I miss trams and was please to get a photo of these.

Green was a harder challenge....needed a lot of thought not to be a boring photo, after a lot of thought and dismissal of ideas I settled on the science experiment to create a volcano - bicarbonate soda and vinegar. (and green food colouring) Grace was my willing assistant.

These a few random shots from the last few weeks. I will get my mojo back soon I hope.

Sledge frog

Stripped marsh frog in the bird bath

Yellow Lily

Fishing at Moffat Beach 

Daughter # 2  is off to Europe in 2 weeks...I think this might have a bit to do with my funny mood. I am very excited for her, I am also very nervous for her. I have asked her to send me a photo a day (an idea I borrowed from a friend who does this all the time with her daughter). #3 is yet to commit to this idea. She will do it I hope.

Photo Shoot with Riley

I am slowly working up to creating a website and a Facebook page for my photography. I would like to earn some money doing something I love. I do love my job as an event coordinator, but I don't like the travel or the politics that can and do happen in a large company.

I think the first thing I need before people start paying me is a portfolio so I have been offering my services for free to get a round body of work together. 

My sister has kind heartily opened her house to a young couple from her church who have a 6 month old baby and no where to stay, this was a great opportunity for me to get some baby photos. I will admit I also want her to pass my card around to her friends. ***note to self get cards made***

   

Photo shoot in the water

I have 3 wonderful daughters who are not afraid to dress up and help me when I have an idea for a photo shoot....most of the time. (# 2 will only help if no-one will see her). I love that when I proposed an idea to # 1 involving getting dressed up and getting wet and she said yes with out hesitation. 

I originally thought about a bride walking through the water dragging a bouquet of flowers, sort of a jilted bride, it is going to the a bad ending sort of photo.  
This perhaps would have worked if I had a better dress, the one we used was a $5.00 white dress from the salvos, it was seriously ugly. All the photos were overexposed and looked silly. Lucky I threw in a red cape that I made for a vampire costume a few years ago #1 put this on over the white dress and walked into the water, the red was a stark contrast against the white of the waterfalls and the green of the rainforest. I am very happy with the result of this photo shoot and think I could do it a lot better, the material of the cap was too shiny. I have been after an excuse to make another cape so I will make a royal blue one out of a better material - not the cheapest like I did for the costume.

#1 wears glasses all the time, so I too the opportunity to get a portrait of her with out them on. This was a very hard photo to edit because she didn't look 'right' with out her glasses. I am blessed to have such beautiful and obliging children.
# 3 has now done the workshop with Andrew and hopefully she will be my partner in photography. I have told her if she has any ideas for set up photos I will help her put it together.  This could be a lot of fun.

A few of the photos from the water. Any feed back would be good.