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.

Machinery #2: Ready To Pounce

Ha! Grand plans will always be foiled by circumstance, I think. Day one of my new idea and a storm hits while I'm in the middle of scrapbooking. My mother pulled the plug on the internet long before I was done enough to contemplate my post, and went to bed before I could ask her if I could put the internet back on. Oh well, there's always tonight! ;)

Old-fashioned farm machinery at Brisbane's Exhibition:

One of the sections of 2009's Ekka (what we call the Brisbane Exhibition) included some examples of old-fashioned farm machinery. I just loved the shapes and lines the machines created, especially when viewed from some of the more unorthodox angles. Unfortunately because it was the Ekka, I was laden down with a bit of stuff and couldn't quite try for all of the angles I'd normally use!

Another for the Edges, Angles and Lines series, I snapped this as-is, after mildly adjusting the usual settings (yup, another one for the macro!) and changing my camera's colouring to sepia.

Right There

I've been thinking about how I was going to write these posts every morning, and it's just not working so well. I keep having things to do in the mornings, or places to be, and things are generally too crazy to get this posted up at the same time so I think I'm going to make it that I write these up the night before and schedule them to post in the mornings, like I mostly have been doing. It seems to be working so far, anyway!

Soldier statue pointing at memorial:

Brisbane's ANZAC Square is filled with statues devoted to the Australian & New Zealand Army Corps. Sometimes, if you move around to view them from a different angle, it really changes things a lot.

A friend and I used to meet up in ANZAC Square occasionally, and I took this on one of those days, as I waited for her to arrive. I love that moving just a few feet around from where one sits to view this statue makes it look as though he is pointing to the monument above (with the always burning flame in rememberance).

I adjusted the focal length and the exposure time on this, zoomed in a fair bit, then crouched with my camera balanced upon the edge of a seat-back in order to capture this.

A Hand To Hold

Quick write-up for Thursday's picture, done on Wednesday (this is starting to become the norm!) as I'm out early again on Thursday. So ready to have a quiet day at home, wish I could!

Evie and Kendall holding hands:

Rhi and I took an outing one day to the Botanic Gardens at Mt Cootha with Evie and Kendall. I managed to get several shots of Kendall in various outfits, and a couple of the two bears together.

After posing the bears how I wanted them, I used my macro setting and zoom lens to snap just the bears hands 'held' together.

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.

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

Good evening! Another busy morning left me no time to write up this post, so I'm afraid you're getting it several hours later than usual. My day included card-making, a trip to the post office and lots of shopping! I came home with a sunburn, pretty clothes and things for crafty-activities, so I'm feeling pretty pleased with my productivity!

9 year old P having a laugh:

Seriously, is that child not absolutely gorgeous? Of course she is.

Wanting to practice some portrait photography, I borrowed my (at the time) 9 year old niece for the day and took her out to a "new" park. This is one of the many shots I snapped that day. I can't remember for certain what she was having a laugh at, but I rather suspect that it may have been me!

To get a bit of a different angle with this one, I crouched down under the piece of playground equipment she was using and titled the camera up with macro set on and the camera set to sepia photographs.

Lights: Ferris Wheel

Welcome to another Monday! It's early morning and the birds have beaten me up again - Summer is definitely on its way over here, despite the chill still in the air overnight.

Ekka Ferris Wheel at night:

I love Brisbane's Exhibition - from the quiet arts competition entries to the busy-ness and bustle of the Sideshow Pavillion, and all the things in between, and I love that there are so many opportunities for photographs of all kinds. As evening turned into full dark on my '09 visit, I stole down into Sideshow Alley and found myself a quiet spot to photograph the beautifully lit up rides and attractions.

This Ferris Wheel shot was taken on the 'night' setting, quite zoomed in, while I braced myself and my camera against a pole. I love the way the night sky makes the colours really 'pop'.

"Lights: Ferris Wheel" is part of my Ekka series.

Forgotten Flowers

Once again, I'm cheating and prescheduling. My day intends to include a trip into the city for the Craft & Quilt Fair, which I am quite excited about. I have plans to buy beads and scrapbooking things. None of which I need... ;)

Ah well, on with the post!

Plastic flowers in a decaying cage:

On a trip to the Toowong Cemetery, I spotted these plastic flowers inside a long-forgotten and unkept 'cage'. There was something so sad and yet beautiful about this arrangement that I knew I wanted to capture it on camera. It's just such a bittersweet realisation - this person was once so loved that someone added "forever" flowers to her grave, and it has been so long now that even the forever flowers are fading and drooping inside their broken prison.

Shot in black & white mode with semi-automatic settings, I most likely used Macro and zoom to grab this image.

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.

Fireworks Light Trail

Apologies for not posting this this morning, we had a man out to install some insulation, and while he was here he touched one of our lights and blew a fuse - which of course meant no internet.

Fireworks on 2010's RiverFire:

I haven't much to say about today's photograph, so I'll just get on with it.

This is one of the photographs I snapped at 2010's RiverFire using the Fireworks setting and my beloved tripod. I just love the way the beams of light splay out and up, and the clarity of the lines. This is of course part of my Fireworks series.

My Cross To Bear

Well, good morning! I've been up for a couple of hours but hadn't yet got around to doing anything about posting this. Still, I'm within my timeframe (just), so hooray for me!

Today's thankfully much calmer than my last few days have been, with just a few things on the to-do list - including an appointment, pumpkin scones and, with hope that the weather holds, some washing.

A signpost in Logan Central:

On one of my many trips into Logan Central with my camera, I spotted this signpost and it felt like the perfect photo opportunity. I let the post extend slightly to the left past the photograph's boundary to enhance the air of mystery and moodiness that the black & white exposure brings.

I took this with my camera set to greyscale, and adjusted my focus length and exposure time slightly to increase the photo's ambience.

My Cross To Bear is part of my Suburban Life series.

Little Storm

I'm so glad I don't work, just now; I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to do all the things I need to do as it is! If I had to add a job to the mix, I think I'd fall over.

Is anyone watching yet?:

I snapped this one of my niece, J, while she was in the middle of a tantrum. I got a few shots of her, but I love the timing on this one best: she's just peeking out to check if anyone's paying attention to her little strop! No idea what the crying was even about, but this moment is now forever immortalised. One for her 21st birthday, I think... ;)

I had to crouch down to her level to grab it, but unfortunately I was in too much of a hurry to take note of what settings I was using.

Best Of Friends

Good morning world. The sun is shining, the clouds of yesterday have wandered off and I don't have time to do my washing as I have a morning appointment every Friday! Oh well, such is life, hopefully tomorrow will be clear instead of stormy.

Kendall shows Evie the sights:

A friend and I both got Build-a-Bears at the same time, Kendall's mine and Evie is hers. I wanted to get these two kneeling and looking somewhere interesting, but they wouldn't have stayed up so I got the next best thing - kneeling together and cuddling on a park bench.

This photograph was taken using generic settings, no flash and some amount of zoom, and is part of the Teddies series.

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!

Little Weed

Some days are hard, others aren't. I'm keeping an eye on the floods, they're rising and they're getting closer to me, but I'm still safe. My nieces are being affected, but they're also safe at the moment.

Another one I snapped outside the Mental Health clinic, I know I edited this a little to make the black and white effect more pronounced, but I can't remember exactly how. This is one of my favourites, but unfortunately I made the mistake of resizing it when I saved it and that makes it completely useless for printing in any form. Sad.

I don't have much to say tonight, so I think I'll just put the photo. I may come back in a day or two and add some blurb.

Old-fashioned farm machinery at Brisbane's 2010 Ekka:

Twice As Innocent

Woah, there's a fair bit of rain around again. I was supposed to make it out to the shops but one look at the weather and I decided I'd stay put. Ah well. Tomorrow!

The sweetness of children:

I saw these two cuties at the Ekka a few years ago and not only were they adorable, but look at those backpacks! I got permission from their parents (who thought I was a little odd, but consented anyway) to take this picture.

This is another for the This Way Of Life series; as well, of course, as the general 'People' series!