The Spirit of Christmas

Even the animals got into the Christmas Spirit....although some were not too happy about it and really just couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.

But end result.....now isn't that too cute!!!

Mmmm Chocolate

There were plenty of these given and received during the few days of Christmas. Not to say how many were actually eaten!!!




Date taken 18/12/2010
F/5.6 1/10 sec. ISO-100
focal length 6mm

Catch up Time....

Somehow I think that I am a bit too far behind to catch up. It has been over a month since I have actually uploaded any photos.

With everything going on, working, getting ready for xmas etc etc, I'm not really sure if I have actually taken a photo each and every day. I have taken a few photos in between everything I have had to do but haven't had the chance to sit down and upload them. And I think that I am too far behind to sit down and do this.

So come 1st Jan 2011 I will start my photo a day challenge again, hopefully to stick with it and take a photo each day and upload it each day. Until then I will upload some of my old photos each day so at least I am posting something.

My inspiration for my photo a day challenge will be.....weekly challenges from DPS and the Bluedog Photography facebook page. So that way I will also be able to enter photos into these challenges.

Wish me luck and let's hope I can stick to it!!

A Photo a Day - #14 Waiting to Bloom

Date taken 23/11/2010
F/4  1/125 sec.  ISO-200
Focal length 14mm

A Photo a Day - #13 Em's handbag

Believe it or not...this is a photo of my friend Emma's handbag.  How awesome is this.  I absolutely love it!

After my 1st attempt 'Holding onto love' for the Bluedog photography challenge "black and red" could not really be judged because I edited the photo, I was looking for something else for the challenge and Emma piped up and said " I have a red and black handbag!"

So there I was, at work, sitting on the floor, just before leaving for the day, trying to capture the best photo I could of this handbag so I could enter it into the weekly challenge.

And after all that, I didn't even get the time to post it.  But someone else did!!  Well not my photo, but the exact same handbag that he had spotted in a shop window.  Well I suppose Great Minds think alike!!

Date taken 22/11/2010
F/4  1/125 sec. ISO-200
Focal length 6mm

A Photo a Day - #12 For the Love of a Horse

Date taken 21/11/2010
F/4  1/750 sec. ISO-200
Focal Length 63mm

A Photo a Day - #11 Holding onto Love

Chelsea holding a cardboard heart cutout. 

I entered this into the Blue Dog Photography weekly challenge - Black and Red.

Date Taken 20/11/2010

F/6.3  1/60 sec.  ISO-200

Focal Length 6mm

Post Editing - changed to b & w

cropped and coloured heart

A Photo a Day - #10 After the Rain

Date taken 19/11/2010
F/5.6  1/125sec.  ISO-400
Focal Length 6mm

A Photo a Day - #9 Love and Committment

Date taken 18/11/2010

F/2.8  1/45s. ISO-200

Focal Length 6mm

Exosure Compensation +0.5

A Photo a Day - #8 Ghecko

Date Taken 17/11/2010
F/3.2  1/45s. ISO-200
Focal length 14mm
Exposure compensation +1

A Photo a Day - #7 Playing in the Garden

I must admit I just love taking pictures of flowers. Must be my favourite subject!

This is not my own individual idea......one of my photographer friends (thanks for the idea, Mel! - be sure to check out her photos, they are fantastic!!) had taken some shots of flowers from below only using autofocus and got such good results, that I thought that I would also give it a go.

And I must say it definately does give some really amazing results. I just love the colours that resulted from the light filtering through the flower's petals.

There are some more of the these in the garden shots on my flickr page if you want to check them out.

Date taken 16/11/2010
F/7.1  1/125s  ISO-200
Focal Length 6mm

A Photo a Day - #6 Break the Rule of Thirds

The assignment this week on dPS Digital Photography School is "Break the Rule of Thirds".
The "Rule of Thirds" is probably one the first things you learn about in photography.  The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking the image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so you have 9 parts.  Imagine the grid you draw when playing naughts and crosses.
The theory is that if you place points of interest on the intersection of the lines or along the lines your photo is more balanced and enables the viewer to interact with it more naturally as people's eyes tend to go to one of the intersection points naturally rather than the centre of the picture.
So to "Break the Rule of Thirds", an example would be placing the subject dead centre.  This can also create a photo  that is just as interesting with a different perspective.

So this is what I have tried to accomplish with this photo.  Not exactly an extremely interesting subject and I'm not entirely sure whether the end result really works or not!!

Date taken 15/11/2010
F/3.2  1/500s  ISO-400
Focal Length 6mm

A Photo a Day - #5 Fuzzy Wuzzy Caterpillar

It's the invasion of the itchy grub. 

We seem to have been invaded by these little guys.  They are everywhere outside at the moment - in the pool, on the patio.  Maybe it's the weather, but I don't really know.

All I do know is that they are very annoying!!

Date taken 14/11/2010
F/2.8  1/45s  ISO-100
Focal Length 6mm

A Photo a Day - #4 Chels and Missy

Just look at these two. 
We participated in a Quantum Savvy Play Day at Cedar Grove Riding Club today.  Quantum Savvy is natural horsemanship and is aimed at teaching you to build a relationship with your horse both on the ground and in the saddle.
I was especially keen for Chelsea to attend this day to help her gain her confidence with both handling and riding Missy.  I know that it is not going to happen in one day, but this one day was a start and hopefully it will be the start of much much more to come.
This photo was taken while they were both having a bit of a rest.  Missy was quite happy to just stand there and go to sleep and let Chelsea snuggle up a bit to her.
She really is a sweet little pony and I think that we have a lot more great things to learn with her in the future years.

Date taken 13/11/2010
F/6.8  1/250s  ISO-200
Focal Length 8mm

And say hello to Gus. 
He was the baby there today.  At only 14 months old and already bigger than most horses, he is just the most beautiful boy.
For such a baby he did so well today and did all that was asked of him.  Deb you should be very proud of this little baby.  He was fantastic!!

Oops no photo today!

Didn't get the chance to take any photos today.  A bit slack, I know, but I have added some oldies that I like.

A Photo a Day - #3 Time flies

F/2.8  1/10sec.  ISO-400
Focal Length 6 mm Spot metering

My Blue-eyed Baby

Oh, how I love these beautiful big blue eyes !!!

Date taken 05/11/2010
F/3.6  1/30s.  ISO-200
Focal Length 11mm

A Photo a Day - #2 An apple a day......

Date taken 10/11/2010
F/2.8  1/20s.  ISO-400
Focal Length 6mm



A Photo a Day - #1 The Notebook

I have just finished reading 'The Notebook'.  I loved the movie when I first saw it and thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Was playing around with the pages of the book and decided that this depicted nicely what the book is about....love, pure and simple everlasting love!!

Date taken 09/11/2010
F/8  1/250s.  ISO-200
Focal Length 18mm

A Photo a Day

I have seen on various different websites competitions or challenges like the '365 Challenge' where you take a photo every day and upload it. 

Well it certainly does sound interesting and quite a challenge!  So I think that I might just try this.  I don't know how I'll go or even how far I'll go, but I would definately like to give it a go!

The Spiral Staircase....going up anyone!

Who would imagine that going down to the bottom floor of my workplace and looking up at the staircase could be so interesting?


Well that is exactly what I did.  Thank goodness that it was early in the morning as no one was around.  I am sure they would have wondered what on earth I was doing.
But the result speaks for itself.  I think overall, makes a pretty interesting picture!

Date taken 22/05/2009
F/2.8  1/60s.  ISO-80
Focal Length 6mm

One of my favourite pictures - Bob

I took a heap of photos one day of this big boy while he was eating his hay.  I was on the ground looking up at him and clicking away haphazardly.  He was not fazed at all by me.  I cropped this photo to give only the half of his face and added his name to break up the white space to the left and I gave it to my friend Debbie for xmas. 

He was a very special boy.  I learnt to ride on him and he was just absolutely lovely. 

Hopefully now he is being enjoyed by others learning to ride over in Japan at a riding school.

Starting my blog page

Thought that I would create my own blog for the photos that I take so I could display them for anyone to have a look at.  This is not as easy to create as it seems and I have much to learn - about blogging as well as photography.
But oh well here goes!!!