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

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.

Fireworks Light Trail #2

Today I have only an appointment to go to and the rest of the day is free, hooray! Unfortunately my appointment is timed so that gym will not be possible, so I'll need to go for my walk at about 4 o'clock. Other than that, I intend to be fairly productive today with some more craft cupboard (re)sorting, some bathroom sorting and hopefully some scrapbooking and/or card-making. In the kitchen I am hoping I'll have time to make up some fruit salad and some banana bread. What does your Friday look set to include?

Fireworks making light trails in the evening sky:

I snapped this with my camera set up on its tripod for steadiness at the 2009 RiverFire celebrations. I used a combination of the fireworks settings and the night settings to grab photos all night and I think this one was set to "night".

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cracked

The weather yesterday was absolutely beautiful, but at some point last night it turned very cold! I'm not very impressed, and nor are my goosebumps.

Broken gravestone at Toowong Cemetery:

I caught a glimpse of this old tombstone while I was wandering around looking for something in particular, and it just felt 'right', so I threw my camera onto its sepia setting and crouched down to bring my eye-level in line with the old stone. This one is of course part of the Suburban Life: Toowong Cemetery series but is also tentatively part of a separate series I'm putting together that I'd consider displaying eventually.

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.

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.

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!

Still Life

Well, it's been another warm day here. My scrapbooking stuff arrived earlier than expected, too, so I'm looking forward to having a play with my new toys over the next few days. ;)

Bird on a birdbath at the cemetery:

I happened to turn around at just the right moment to catch this little bird on a birdbath last time I was off at the Toowong Cemetery. I just love the way the little bird looks - almost like he's part of the bird bath itself - and the juxtaposition of this obvious and vibrant life in a cemetery.

Photo was taken with the camera's sepia setting and, bar a resize to keep the file reasonable, is completely unedited.

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.

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.

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!

City Fireworks

Man. I don't know if Blogger's been having issues this morning, or if it's just been my internet (which has definitely [also] been having issues). Either way, it's driving me nuts.

Fireworks over Brisbane, from South Bank:

 Erica and I were discussing the power of black & white photography one day, and after making the comment that "all photographs" looked amazing in black and white, she rethought that, then began to ponder whether certain topics would look better that way after all. Turns out, even fireworks have the potential to look awesome in black & white, sometimes.

This was taken in full colour, on the "fireworks" setting, and later converted to black and white.