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.

Feeling BLAH

I am really not in the mood to write anything this week; I have finally succumbed to the dreaded cold/flu/virus that has been going around. I am not able to take time of work to rest and recover for 2 reasons.

1. I am going away this weekend, whale watching. If I even look like being sick HWMBO would tell me not too. (Especially as I start work at 6am then drive for 4 hours for a BBQ the night before the whales
2. The Boss has family commitments for the next 10 days and he can’t work mornings or nights or weekends…I would be ok with this if it didn’t happen all the bloody time. His wife is away and it is not convenient for me to have 2 days off…(I won this argument).

I did get my news lens…on Sunday a Sigma 150 – 500mm, Fuck it is heavy…I got a monopod and will have to get a lot of practise to get as good as some of the members in our group – I also think because I don’t like to heavily crop my photos I am trashing a lot more than I should…all in good time.

I went to one of Kitfox’s favourite locations Monday morning before work, I was hoping for a kingfisher and I was in luck, I also got a few little red brow finches. I was ready to pack up and call it a day when Kitfox arrived and took me to a secret (on private property) location to watch the kites and hawks in the cane fields – the cane has just been burnt so the vermin are easy prey. I didn’t get a clear shot of any of the raptors and being my biggest critic I don’t want to show pictures that I think are crap.

Tuesday was a day spent at Caloundra with another Jpeg – a Nikon user. We had a nice lunch and spent most of the afternoon sitting on the rocks taking photos of some cormorants while waiting for the nesting Osprey to fly. The best photo I got that day was of a fisherman… and I haven't even processed it yet. Plenty of practise is needed. I may not even use the big lens for the whales. 



The eyes aren't clear and this is a heavy crop...I am thinking maybe I will do a triptych with the comings and goings of these cormorats



I was a bit of a show off at work last Saturday, I asked if I could take a photo for my photo of a day challenge, then spent the best part of the day taking photos of the kids and the robots. I sent a contact sheet of the photos to the organisers to see if they wanted one or two….NO they wanted the whole lot and permission to use on the website. YEAH I will keep and eye on their website for my glory.

Rescue

soccer

Dance

For some one who didn’t have anything to say I have managed to say quite a bit. Looking forward to seeing the mighty mammals of the sea on Sunday, while I would like a good photo, I will be happy to see a whale or two apparently they are awesome.

First time I picked up the new lens I took a photo of Compost (our cat) on the other side of the yard, I have also tried a new processing technique on him.

Sexy Shoes

Yahoo…finally I have reached my goal weight, 16 weeks, 13kgs. I am one happy camper. Ideally I would like to lose 4kg more, although I don’t think I will. I was pleasantly surprised at how good I felt when I was weighed, I thought it would be a so so feeling, but I did the internal happy dance and felt very proud when everyone at weight watchers cheered for me. I got a gold star. I promised myself a new pair of shoes when I reached goal weight; the plan was a comfortable pair to wear everyday. This is what I bought…I feel sexy I am going to look sexy now.

I was told everyone needs one pair of red shoes in their cupboard. I love impulse buying. HWMBO does too!

I had another wonderful weekend, full of photography and friends. Saturday afternoon RA RA from Toowoomba came down and we went to the new Botanic Garden in Maleny, I got my best bee shot ever and the views were to die for, it costs $11.00 to get in, but it is private property. We spoke to the owner for a few minutes, he is from South Africa after moving to Australia he was disappointed in the lack of gardens, so he created his own, after opening a few times for the garden tour he was convinced he could open to the public. By charging an entry fee he can continue the good work.



One of the many flower photos I took on Saturday



The view of the Glasshouse Mountains well worth the $11.00



This is the best photo I have of a bee, the small size doesn't do it justice. I am gong to print this one for myself.



Sunday saw us out of bed early for a cooked breakfast by HWMBO then on the road for a photo shoot with the Free Spirit Dance & Music School, they invited us to photograph their rehearsal as a two way help, we get to practise on real live dancers and they get photos for their website and promotional material. It was a fun day for all of us. There was 6 photographers and mirrors everywhere so it was a challenge to keep out of everyone’s way and not get yourself or anyone else in the mirror.

Nice chat and lunch at the Palmwoods hotel ruined by the fact Ra Ra tripped on some uneven concrete and hurt both her knees and hands. She will contact the pub because her shoes were ruined in the fall.

She tripped on the corner - I hope they come good, it was a nice pub. The food was good and the service was excelent. It was hard to watch them not want to admit there was something wrong when she fell

After a bit of first aid at home Rachel was preparing to go when our Mentor rang to see if we were keen for a sunset shoot at Point Cartwright, hell yes if he is driving from Monteville everything must be right for a good photo….you would think. There were wispy clouds, the tide was out, there were rock pools to reflect the sky….but nothing there was no colour, no magic bust of sunrays NADA.

This was the best I got…pretty happy anyway

I had another random person contact me to buy one of my photos…Full Moon at Point Cartwright. Woohoo. 

AND I have a date set to do the photos for my colleagues wedding in February 2013.

Life is good.

Brisbane Ekka

What a good night at the EKKA, the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. I expected to be bumping in to people all night with my tripod and camera bag. Don’t get me wrong there was still a lot of people, just not as many as I though there would be. It was also a lot smaller than I remember.

Is that because I am older, because I was without children to worry about? Or is it the GFC….

There were only 2 things I wanted to, go on the Ferris wheel and get a photo from the top. (This was a great idea in theory, I didn’t account for the swaying or the other people in or gondolier) I got one OK photo from about halfway up when we stoped for a pick up.

I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of rotations we had, probably because it was so quiet.

The wheel - turns out the one from the wheel was not as good as I remembered

I also wanted to get my first ever fireworks photos… I am very impressed with my results. Have I mentioned recently how much I love my camera? I have not processed all of them yet (I took 50ish with more than half being OK)

Sister wanted to look at the arts and crafts and the police display. (there was no police display...well it was closed) The arts and crafts were good; the cakes were amazing as was some of the felting and scrapbooking. I spent a bit of time looking at the photography entries, there were some that made me go WOW, some that were indifferent and some that were crap. (In my humble option). We also both wanted to look at the baby animals - I think every child at the show was there at the time so we looked from a distance

Dinner was in the Woolworths pavilion (a new building, which I will recommend to people looking for a venue to hire) lots of food sampling and being pushed to buy…just like the markets. Some of the food displayed made me drool. Sister had the most delicious snickers gelato, I had just a taste as I knew I could eat a whole one, I was give a taste of passionfruit and raspberry gelato (two separate samples) YUMMMO, lucky they were large samples or I would have caved and bought a whole one.

I am glad I went and maybe I will go again next year, perhaps on my own so there is no pressure to move on when taking photos.

 A few of my favorites

Lack of crowds was a good thing for me and listening to the radio today the reports are positive. 70,000 people went through the gates on people’s day, so I guess we were lucky to have a quiet day.

It has been perfect weather, I hope the weekend is a good.