Dusk Bloom

I've spent the better part of the last three hours trying to work out which photo to post for Monday's. I have a billion things un-done and a billion more half-done, but oh well. Too late now!

A yellow flower after some rain, as dusk settled in:

When I stayed in Sydney, my friends took me to a few different places. One of those was an outdoors shopping complex that had some lovely big flowers in the garden there, and this is one of the photos I got of them. As always, any hints on what type of flower this is are welcome!

Night Lights

It's been a busy day! We celebrated my niece's birthday early as it falls on December 24th and she'll be with her mother (plus that whole, "it's right on top of Christmas" thing); so that meant heading up to my brother's place -- and, wouldn't you know it, it bucketed down today!

Lights on the Noosa river in Noosaville:

After a day spent having fun, my English friend and I went for a walk along the Noosa River so I could practice taking some night time shots. In between a couple of failed experiments (including one where I laid my tripod down and took unsuccessful photos outside the railing), I snapped this one of a couple of boats in the darkness. I was using the night setting, a two second timer and my camera on its tripod to minimise camera shake. This seems to be my best bet re camera shake, as an external button isn't available for my model (boo!) and anything less than this tends to result in very blurred images.

Lorikeet In Watercolour

Sorry for the missing post yesterday, my mum went in for an angiogram and things were a little crazy. She's out and doing well now, but not allowed to do anything strenuous for about 48 hours.

Watercolour Lorikeet outside McDonalds:

Completely unedited, I took this one on a cloudy day. I remember I was angling the camera up and trying not to stand in gardens or get too close and frighten the lorikeets away, so I couldn't really see what I was doing/getting, but all of my shots came out over exposed like this, looking almost like a watercolour painting rather than a photograph.

Sadness In Her Eyes

I migrated to our lounge-room today while everyone was out in order to get some serious card-making done. As it turns out, I have so far made a single card. It's ten past 6 and everyone else is long home!

Even sad my niece is stunning:

Last year I took my (at the time) 9 year old niece to a pretty awesome playground. After she had a good climb and I'd snapped a few free shots, I got her to pose for a couple so I could practice taking deliberate photographs. This is one of the posed shots where I'd asked her to look sad.

I took this on my camera's portrait setting, I believe, in sepia. This is one of the photographs that was entered into Brisbane's Ekka in 2009. None of mine won, but this is one of the 5 (of 8 submissions) that was placed up on display.

Pink Flower

Went to the oral surgeon today and got my two remaining wisdom teeth removed. One was fairly quick and simple, like the first removal, the other was rather nasty - he even had to use the drill! That's probably because that little jerk was coming in almost directly sideways, but still. Oh well, it's over and done with now, so here's some pretty!

Pretty pink flower reaching up to the sun:

I do believe I found this pretty pink flower on a walk with my camera one day. It's shot, of course, on macro, but as usual, no clue on any of the other settings I might have used.

I've no idea what kind of flower this is, but if you know, feel free to give me a shout and let me know!

City Slant #1

Ack, slacker. Had to post this backdated so I could get one for Tuesday. Guess I was too busy enjoying some silliness!

*ETA: If you're looking for something else to read, I've actually updated Little Bloo Creativity tonight, too. Go ahead and check out the shiny ornaments I've been making.

Southbank & the Brisbane River as viewed from the far end near the Cultural Centre:

There's a spot in Southbank that I like to go and sit and just watch the river. On one such occasion I leaned over and snapped this. I know it's recommended that you make certain your camera is flat in order to take a scenery shot, but this sort of angled shot is perfect for my Edges & Angles series.

Snubbed

Good morning! I'm off to face some of the shops today to get some pins and sequins ready to make a few more ornaments.

No, you may not take a photograph of my face:

I was watching the wallabies at Canberra's National Zoo and Aquarium for a while, and amongst the bigger ones was this little guy, not long out of his mother's pouch. Photo originally taken in full colour on general settings; swapping to black & white was the only editing I did.

Snow Slide

Damn, missed yesterday's post, sorry. I got distracted with some craft-work.

Maxie enjoyed the snow in Canberra as well:

Until this year, when I took a trip down to Canberra and visited Selwyn Snowfields, I had never in my life seen snow. While I was there I got to experience sledding, making a snow angel and I saw my first snowman; but I was so busy doing these things that most of my snow pictures are taken out the car windows. I did, however, get a couple of pictures of Maxie enjoying herself on the embankment afterwards.

I zoomed the camera in and got down nice and low to grab this particular shot.

Little Flowers

White flowers overhanging a little waterfall at DreamWorld:

These were taken with my macro lens on zoom, from an elevated walkway above a tiny creek-waterfall. I know the name is rather lacking, but I was running out of time to post it before it was tomorrow! ;) Any suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

Ninth Birthday

Ack, when did it get so late and how did that happen without my noticing? I'm afraid you'll just have to pretend it's an hour ago, so I got a post in on Thursday. ;)

Make a wish and blow out the candles:

On my niece's ninth birthday, I was trying to get a shot of the candles in the dark as she blew them out... and I seem to have caught it at a perfect moment. I know it's grainy, but I'm really fond of it, especially because when you print it out, once you get it in just the right light, you can see the face - the rest of the time it's too dark!

Wheel Spokes

Oops. I gotta get back into the habit of posting this daily now.

This one wheel-y spoke to me:

At this year's Ekka there was a man who worked for one of the historical type places, with old machinery and so forth. He'd brought some of the old farm machines and had them set up surrounded by bales of hay and straw.

I just love the angles and lines on things like this! This one, as you can imagine, is part of the Edges series focusing on angles and lines, which is, I do believe, my favourite series to take.

Just Waking Up

Good morning! I cheated; I wrote this post before bed and saved it ready to quickly post today. Shh, don't tell anyone!

Kitties sleep so sweetly:

Upon meeting this beautiful ginger girl who owns my friend, I immediately fell right in love. In lieu of bringing the kitty home with me, I had to settle for photographs. Snapping away merrily, I finally managed to get this one of her either going to or waking up from a short cat nap!

Flower Child

Managed to procrastinate my morning away today, then needed to rush for an appointment, so you're getting today's image tonight instead. Fingers crossed tomorrow goes better, but as I need to be out of the house by half 6 (just over 3 hours earlier than today) or 7, I don't like the chances. ;)

Kids and flowers are a combo made for cute-dom:

For those who don't know, this shot is of my nephew, L. I love my little monkey dearly, but he can be a right cheeky thing when the camera comes out! This particular day I was trying to get a decent photo of him - any decent photo of him - and all he was interested in doing was playing hidey from the camera... at high speed. I managed to snap this one when he threw himself onto the couch to avoid being photographed. ;)

On Duty

Apologies for my sudden and unintended hiatus. I went through quite a rough patch with a lot going on in my off-line life, and I also took a short holiday with an overseas friend. In fact, today's photo is actually from that holiday.

A Surf Life Saver busy patrolling the beach at Noosa:

On our last day up the coast, Kate and I spent a little bit of time relaxing on the beach. I was busy trying to take a photo of a scrub turkey without getting too close, but I managed to look up and snap this Surf Life Saver as he walked past. No idea what my settings were, but I can at least tell you it wasn't on macro and it wasn't on night or fireworks. ;)

This one is part of my People series for now, with possible view to include it in a series called This (or maybe My) Way Of Life.

Photos for the next little while may be in the same couple of themes as I'm really needing to get out there and take something decent!