Quizzical

Meet Meeka, the little dog I have been fostering. She is a(n approximately) 2 year old Mini Foxie x Jack Russell, with a lovely nature. She is incredibly smart and has the heart of a Rottweiler, determined to protect 'her' people.

At the moment she's having some specialist training to help her adjust from a previous home where she wasn't cared for (and hence saw herself as top dog, responsible for the family's welfare), but this little girl is still looking for her forever home. (If by any chance someone in Australia reading this has a place in their family for miss Meeka, please let me know so I can tell the rescue!)

Meeka's rescue is based in Queensland, but her specialist traniing is in NSW, and it may be possible to transport to other areas of Australia for the right forever home for this precious little girl.

Miss Meeka:

I sat on the verandah with Meeka, drying her off after her bath, to get this shot. I got a few nice ones that day (9 Feb, 2013), but this was my favourite, with her little quizzical expression.

Camera settings are below -
Shutter Speed: 1/318 second
Aperture: F/4.0
Focal Length: 11 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Pawfection

So, since my last update, I've puppy-sat looking after a young staffy x bull arab -- beautiful, beautiful dog -- and now taken on a little foster dog. You can expect a photo of her next week, most likely!

Sleepy Paws-es:

These big feet belong to the staffy x bull arab pup mentioned above. He was a 'found' dog whose owners hadn't been in contact yet, so he came to stay overnight. I named him 'Captain Jack' (Harkness, of course) while I cared for him because he was such a sweetheart he's bound to be a heartbreaker, though his name actually turned out to be 'Charger'.

The photo itself I took by sprawling across the concrete on the verandah. (Do you get the feeling I do that a lot for a photo? I know I seem to write it a lot!)

Camera settings are below -
Shutter Speed: 1/79 second
Aperture: F/4.0
Focal Length: 4 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Sphynx

Sorry for the delayed updates, we've had some pretty crazy times lately. Horrible weather, flooding, car and washing machines needing repairs...!

Guardian kitty:

This beautiful boy belongs to my upstairs neighbour, and he loves to come visit our yard and roll around on the ground. He's friendly enough, though he doesn't like being picked up/carried, but definitely a grot! ;)

Camera settings are below -
Shutter Speed: 1/101 second
Aperture: F/4.0
Focal Length: 9 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Curiosity

I bet you thought I forgot about FAA again, didn't you? I didn't, I was just waiting for the right day to come along and it's here! Welcome to Photo Friday!

It was just too much to come up with photos I liked enough to post *every* day of the week, so instead I've decided to compromise it to once a week. That seems more doable. :)



I can see this one taking on a cat and winning, can't you?:

My partner and I took some bread to the park to feed the ducks, and we were joined by a crow and several magpies. Though the crow was quite tame, the magpies were even more so - deigning to take a morsel of bread right out of my partner's hand!

To be honest, since we shared the camera, I can't tell you whether this photo was taken by my partner or not. Despite the small amount of blur to his head, I really want to claim it, but I can't definitively do so in good conscience. It may be my work or it might be Bumface's! ;)

Bones

A new year, a new chance to get this back on its feet and running properly again! I don't do resolutions these days, but it's always important to have and set goals, and one of my 2013 goals is to get back to creativity & blogging.



Boat Ribs:

My partner and I wandered along the beach in Caloundra and discovered this old wreck. While it might once have been quite magical, all that remains is the barest skeleton of a ship, rotting and rusting away. I fiddled with the zoom and used a bunch of different settings that day so I don't know exactly how I came about this shot, but it was an enjoyable play.

Show Horse

Sorry this is so late! I was exhausted after Jazzercise yesterday and wound up going to bed to read very early, then this morning completely forgot I hadn't written up a post the night before. I will get this sorted out eventually. ;)

Anyway, today was Melbourne Cup Day, which probably means very little to most people reading this. In Australia, once a year on the first Tuesday in November, we have what we call "the race that stops the nation". Pretty much everything stops for the Melbourne Cup: in Melbourne itself they even get a public holiday, but even up here a lot of workplaces have functions and/or close early and wind up at the pub for celebratory or commiseratory drinks.

A show horse at Brisbane's 2010 Ekka:

I figured since today's all about horse racing, I'd throw in a photo of a show horse. (Having only actually been to the races once, I don't have any racing photographs to share.) I took this photo using zoom but not macro - the horse was in the arena and I was on the stands. Not much else to say today.

Budding

Phew, I've been on the go all day today! I did manage to get a few things accomplished though: several loads of washing done and already put away properly, gym and a walk (despite managing to somehow crunch my hip and put it out a bit at the gym), banana bread baked and the bathroom cupboard totally cleaned out and sorted! (This last one took several *hours* of work.)

Budding pink flowers on a clear day:

Now that's what I call a clear day - not a single cloud in sight. I don't remember much about the taking of this particular photograph - not even what day it was taken or where, unfortunately. I do know that I had to use my camera's zoom rather than the macro setting, and that I played around with the focal length a fair bit.

I like the way the colours pop on this one; the blue of the sky manages to accentuate the pink and the green.

A Mother's Love

Another big day looms for me - I'm ready for things to stop happening every day every week, now! Too bad I'll have to put up with it a while longer. I've two appointments today and I think after that I might hit up the op shops. Almost all of my clothes no longer suit me or fit right at the moment, so I'm pretty well replacing my entire wardrobe!


A mother koala cuddles with her joey:

I spotted this koala cuddling her joey at DreamWorld a few years back, and I knew I wanted to capture that. It took a bit of patience to try and get the photograph the way I wanted it - it was a wet day and I had to do a bit of a balancing act! Still, I'm happy with what I ended up with.

In the end, I stood back a ways and zoomed in, making a few adjustments to the focus and light settings and there you have it. Simple settings, a bit of zoom and a lot of patience.

Jacaranda Blossoms

Good morning! Today my mother and I are going for a picnic in ithe park with my older brother and the three children. It should be a lot of fun, and there may be the opportunity for some nice photography.

Jacaranda blossoms on a clear day:

Ahh, I love Jacaranda trees so much, and of course now that it's proper Springtime, they're all starting to bloom, and the grass around each tree is gradually becoming a sort of lilac purple as it is covered in fallen blossoms. The original reason for taking this photo, back in 2008, was to show my purple-loving friend how gorgeous the Jacarandas are since she had never seen one.

A definite with the macro, I would also have fiddled slightly with the aperture and shutter settings on this one.

City Slant #2

Yesterday's photograph turned out to be quite appropriate since I saw two Eastern Water Dragons while I was on a walk between the gym and my doctor's surgery. Very pleased! And it did, if you were wondering, include the gym and a pumpkin scone. Sadly, there was not enough time for a Lush bath. Perhaps next week?

As for today... it was a very productive and interesting day, but I am absolutely exhausted tonight! And I have a brilliant tattoo that took an hour and a half. :p

Sliding over the edge of the world:

As a postcard, this would be an absolutely shocking photo... but as an interest photo, I love the way it feels like the world's sliding off the edge of the image, carried along by the gently flowing waters of the Brisbane River.

I can't recall what settings I had the camera on this day, probably semi-automatic with small adjustments to the focal distance. I love how clear it all is, and how bright and vivid the colours came out in this set.

This photograph, like the others in the set, is part of the Angles/Edges series, as well as my Suburban Life series.

Eastern Water Dragon

I cheated and wrote this one up on Wednesday night, thinking I was going to be out and about early on Thursday. I figured it would be better to write it early and schedule it for a 7am posting than to write it late... but as it turned out, it was unnecessary!

Anyway, my Thursday intends to involve a trip to the gym, a Lush bath, and possibly a pumpkin scone, how about yours?


Leapin' lizards, it's an Eastern Water Dragon!:

I was wandering through Southbank one day when I spotted this little poser sunning himself on the wall beneath the pink flowers. Not sure where mum and dad were, but he was quite small.

There's something about skinks and lizards that just calls to me. They're generally fairly harmless and they always seem so friendly and *smart*. I mean, look at him there, watching me! What a sweety.

I snapped this using my lovely Kodak; not sure on most of the settings as I played around with a few that day. I'm fairly certain I used the Macro option, and crept as close as I could without scaring him away. Happily he was not very timid and allowed me to get quite close indeed, as you can see!

No Leeway

So far this morning the sun is out and shining. I hope this continues as I want to wash my bedding today, and while it dries on the line I'm planning to make healthy breakfast muffins and pumpkin scones. Mmmm.

Pink flowers (Chrysanthemums?) butting up against a garden wall:

Out on a walk one afternoon I spotted these flowers in someboddy's garden. To me it looks almost like they're headbutting the wall, struggling to make progress in their world; held back by a force greater than themselves. There's a kind of sad beauty in that -- but the most wonderful part comes from the fact that even while confined, these flowers are flourishing. They're taking what they've got and working with it instead of fighting against it... and that, my friends, is truly beautiful.

I haven't a clue what settings my camera were on when I took this photograph, except that I'm fairly certain "macro" was involved somewhere. (Isn't it nearly always with me?) Too, this is another one of those photographs where I got down to the subject's level - so crouched outside somebody's front yard, camera balanced just above the edge of their brick fence.

Fragile Beauty

Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Rememberance Day, a day that has a lot of meaning for me. Today and always I honour the children in our hearts and never (or too briefly in) our arms.

What better symbol to represent our lost babies than the fragile beauty of a butterfly who stands also for rebirth and transformation? In the spirit of that, and acknowledgement of the transience of life, today's image is a butterfly I photographed while in the UK.

A butterfly rests upon her lunch:

I caught this image while at the British Natural History museum, at the butterfly exhibit they had running at the time. I managed to get a couple of nice photos that day, despite the notorious difficulty of capturing these fluttering beauties, this is one of my favourites.

To get this, I set my camera to Manual but with Macro set to on, then adjusted the aperture and shutter speed settings. I believe this one was taken at an ISO of 100, but I fiddled with the aperture and shutter speed so much on the different butterfly photos I was trying to take that I've not a clue what I settled on with this particular shot.

Jurassic Memories

Goodness, has it really been almost a year since I last posted here? Hard to believe, but apparently true! Anyway, I'd like to give this a shot at actually going back to updating this daily again. I'm going to try doing the post between 7 & 9 each day as I think having a concrete time will make it easier to incorporate it into my daily routine.
Anyhow, already running behind, so onto today's!

Mossy rocks at Lyme Regis:

Set in Dorset, England, along what is known as the Jurassic Coast, Lyme Regis is famous for its fossil hunting. I can't think of a more appropriate photograph for a 'come back', with its physical link to the past. Plus, the mossy rocks are just how I imagine (probably incorrectly, it's true) most rocks from that era to have looked.

No fancy tricks were involved in taking this shot, I just sorted my camera settings out, stood, aimed and clicked. Well, alright, I may have crouched slightly. I'm not positive, but I think the camera was set on its automatic setting with a slight zoom. No tripod as I was there to fossil-hunt more than photo shoot!

Facing Down Fear

As someone who is quite afraid of spiders, I'm including a warning for today's photo. The image you are about to view is that of a spider! I believe that it's actually a St Andrew's Cross (harmless and quite pretty), but it's nice to know what you're getting yourself into.

Rain rain, if you're going to stick around, make it good! The local roads are beginning to be affected by the flooding, the water in my swan pond is now up as high as the gazebo, and my front yard resembled a swimming pool. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to have a small play in the mud; if the waters continue to rise the creek near me may flood over the road.

Tiny little blossoms:

While at Alma Park Zoo one day with my family, I managed to snap this shot using mum's friend's Canon PowerShot S3 IS; pretty sure I used the super macro to get this one.

Life And Death

It's been warm and sunny today, and I have new shoes! Plus I managed to convince the bank that I am me, even though I gave the wrong access code when I called to get my authentication code reset (because I had no idea what it was) so my crafting supplies are on their way as of tomorrow! Once they arrive, I'll finally be able to use the new dies I got for my Cuttlebug.

Little purple flowers at the bus stop:

After hitting the shops, the weather had cleared up again a tiny bit so I walked to the bus stop, and just before it, in the garden, were these little purple flowers. There was a mixture of healthy flowers and dying ones, and I was lucky enough to capture this photo (for today's Project 365 photo) with one of each!

To get this one I once again had to lie down in the middle of Logan Central, and I experimented with my camera on various settings. I angled the camera up to the flower in the crazy-bright daylight. I was actually aiming for a lot more off-centre than I got - turns out the traffic going past on the main road really knocks these little guys around a lot!

Unfortunately this is one of the photographs I've had to edit - first I had to remove a lamp post from the edge, and then I had to do a small crop to trim off a bit of road that made it onto the shot. Still, I'm fairly happy for it, especially considering the sun was so bright I could barely see what I was doing.

Surprise Goanna

Good evening! Time's just flying away from me today; instead of being productive I've been watching old NCIS episodes and playing silly games. I decided I'd join in on Project 365 again, even though I'm a couple of days late. Here's hoping that at least one of my P365 photos ends up worthy of posting here. ;)

Goanna sneaking out of his hidey-hole:

I snapped this one at Alma Park Zoo in 2008, after a little bit of climbing(all the best shots require a little creative repositioning). If you don't recognise it, it's an Australian goanna - they're quite large and if you stand too still around them, you're in danger of being mistaken for a tree. (A mistake that would prove rather painful for you as the goanna has very sharp claws.)

When I took this I was using my mother's friend's Canon PowerShot S3 IS, and I don't think I could tell you much else - it was my first time having a play with the camera and my mother's friend couldn't even remember how to zoom on it! I eventually worked that much out. ;)

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!

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.