the beach in autumn

is a wonderful place. We spent the weekend at Mt Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula and made the most of the last of the autumn weather with an afternoon trip to the beach.



It was my first time shooting manual on the beach and it was quite tricky due to the sun shining so brightly, but it was so beautiful! I'm so glad I managed to capture some of the sparkles of the sun reflecting on the water.



After the beach we headed back to b's house. Her garden is lacking in flowers currently although she assures me that next visit it will be overflowing. I still managed to find a few though and indulge in some macro.







I think my favourite part of the garden was a piece of creeping ivy hanging out in the sun.

between chapel street and toorak road

if you cut in at a diagonal is the most delightful section of little cottages and terrace houses. And these houses have the most charming little gardens, full of roses, gernaiums and other delights.



After having been sick for the past week or so I decided to head out into the sunshine and explore this little piece of suburbia. I liked what I saw.





Now if only we could afford a house there. This little slice of picture-perfect suburbia comes at a price, and sadly (unless I win lotto) I think that I'm going to be reduced to visiting, photographing and returning to my own little unit.

raindrops keep falling on my head

but I love it! Had an awesome day practicing shooting in manual yesterday with some very cute kiddies playing up for the camera. However I tore myself away from my adorable child models so that I could sneak in some macro photography after a brief shower.



And just in case things are a little too dull I got some nice bright shots also





I will be back later to upload some photos of the adorable kiddies that I shot in full manual.

a study in flowers

I had my first ever indoor macro shoot yesterday and I love love loved it!!!! I used the flowers that were part of my Mother's Day present and decided to see what I could do with them indoors. I wasn't convinced I would enjoy the experience much as I thought it would be too man-made and unnatural but boy was I wrong!



I was so impressed with the results that I got. The sun was streaming in through our balcony doors so I simply laid some black fabric on the ground in the sunlight, arranged the flowers in a bud vase and went to town. And really, the results speak for themselves.



I didn't need to do any post-production editing at all, apart from cropping some down a little. I just can't get over the results that shooting indoors in the correct lighting can give!




One of my favourite photography books is Creative close-ups: digital photography tips and techniques. In it, the author Harold Davis expressed the same concern about shooting macro indoors that I had prior to yesterday ~ mainly that it just wouldn't be right and as "real" as outdoor macro photography. He was converted after his first indoor macro experience and despite my scepticism I have been converted as well. Guess this means someone will have to continue buying me lots more lovely flowers so that I can keep practicing!

happy mother's day!

My beautiful boy spoilt me rotten today. He's so gorgeously spirited, I can't imagine life without him. We all went out for breakfast to celebrate Mother's Day and despite this photo being a bit fuzzy round the edges it shows his lovely blue eyes as he waits rather (im)patiently for his milkshake.



After a play at the park (where the first photo was taken as he lay screaming with laughter on the ground while his daddy charged at him) he purchased a lovely bunch of flowers for me. I love my baby,and my baby loves me x



I'm feeling super proud of myself as I haven't had the camera off manual for the past few days and I'm getting some good results if I do say so myself!

grainy goodness

So while not technically correct I've decided that I prefer my black and white prints grainy. It's been fun experimenting with all different subject matter but I think my favourite subject over the past fews days has been my gorgeous boy.



And really, can you blame me for choosing him as my preferred subject matter?

It's never as simple as black and white...

It's the middle of the night and I can't sleep. So what's a girl to do but embark upon her next challenge ~ black and white!

A forum I am a member of has a theme of "black and white" this month ~ quite a challenge for a girl like myself who lives for colour. I have been going through old photos of mine and converting them to black and white and I'm finding they just don't have the same appeal or impact for me.

Actually, to be quite frank, they look horrible in black and white. No life and no soul. This month is going to stretch me in ways I'm not sure I want to be stretched. I'm hoping to be converted, to be convinced of the benefits of black and white but we shall see. Already I am seeing that figuring out the correct lighting and positioning of the objects I photograph is going to be crucial, it's not going to be enough to simply convert exisiting photographs into black and white.

The above photo is actually a gorgeous purple flower, I have a feeling it's a kind of thistle. Not the same in black and white as when it is in colour but it actually works okay. My last offering on the altar of all that is black and white for tonight is the following, a seascape taken at Cape Conran, Victoria late last year.