Mellow Yellow Monday

Yep, it's Monday again. I played around with a photo of one of the dandilions growing in my garden. I had Mellow Yellow Monday in mind, so made sure to really enhance the 'yellowness' of the image.

Photo Edits

I've bought photoshop and I'm yet to learn how to use it. I've always been a fan of natural photos and SOOC shots, but recently I've been inspired to start learning how to use editing tools to enhance my photography. So, I've started playing with the very basic tools for 'fixing' photos on my built in computer software. If this is what I can do with the basics, just imagine what I'll be able to do when I finally learn how to use photoshop!

I've edited the same photo in several ways. Let me know how what you think ok!

This is the original photo (it's the food market in Port Villa, Vanuatu, that Mum and I visited in 2008):

And these are my edits:

Photo Challenge Help

Ok folks, I need some inspiration from you all. Next week's Scavenger Hunt Sunday photo items are:

1. Black & White

2. I ate this. . .

3. Historic

4. Off-Centre

5. The End

Black & White, I ate this. . . and Off-Centre shouldn't be too hard, but it's Historic and The End that I'm having trouble coming up with ideas for. Do you have any suggestions?! AH from work suggested walking to the end of a peir or a beach and looking back to take a photo from "The End". I love that idea, so will give it a try.

My other problem is that I don't have much time in which to complete them this week as I'm away Fri & Sat in the Hawkes Bay for conference. As much as I would love to take my camera and go on a walk or somewhere while I'm up there, past conference experience means I'm not even going to pretend like I'll have time to do that. I do get home about 10.30am on Sunday, so that leaves the afternoon to snap away, but one suspects one may be exhausted. Oh well, the things you do for love aye.

Mellow Yellow Monday

Yep, it's Monday again. That means it's time for YELLOW MELLOW MONDAY. I've been keeping an eye out for yellow items to photograph and it occured to me that I have yellow right in front of me everyday. My work PC sits on top of two Wellington Yellow Pages phone books.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Yes, I'm early! I've been playing around with different photo edits of old photos for this weeks selection. So here we are:

1. The View Above

Each year the Cuba Street Carnival is a very festive and exotic carnival, and it's so very colourful! I just love, love, love the bright, colouful flags that are strung between buildings all down the street.

2. Something Hot

A hot chocolate that was molded to look like it's recipient, one wintery afternoon.

3. Something Cold

This is one of my faveourite photos ever, for a couple of reasons. 1. It's a self-potrait which I'm not too fond of taking generally but I love this one. 2. It shows me in the snow - probably the first and last time I'll every go to the snow and 3. It's just a good photo :)

4. Electronic

The sandwich press is kept extremely clean (can anyone say 'paranoid'?!) and shiny apparently. So shiny that it's a mirror. I love finding art in everyday objects :)

5. Sparkle

I have a gorgeous crystal that hangs in my window most days, but one day I had it hanging by the wall. When the sunlight hit it in the afternoon it created the most beautiful patterns and 'sparkles'  on the wall.

Macro Friday

I used my macro lens to capture the sunlight coming through the new spring leafs on the oak tree and discovered there was a sweet little sparrow sitting there. I love how the macro lens is able to capture him as well as the beauty of the leafs. Loooooooovely :)

Also linking up to Macro Friday at http://www.blogingfrombolivia.blogspot.com/

Ashley Sisk - Photograph Giveaway

So, Ashley Sisk is the photographer that runs the Scavenger Hunt Sunday photo challenge over at Ramblings & Photos. As a one-year giveaway she's running a wee comp to win one of her stunning photos as a print. I entered - why not?! It's a gorgeous print. Click on the button below to take a look.

Postcards

I've always loved postcards. Whenever I go away I send postcards to family and friends, and I ask the same in return, but it doesn't happen very often. Most people don't do it these days because "they'll be home before the postcard". But I don't care about that! There's something awesome about seeing a picture from a foreign place, a quick message from the sender, and not to mention some actual real mail.

Dad loves postcards too. He's started making postcards out of his paintings and photos. We've also started collecting the free postcards (usually used as an advertising tool for random products) from random places and sending them to each other. I keep them all and at the moment they are up on the cork board in the kitchen. But I have a sneaky plan for another way to display them.

I have stumbled across a website http://www.postcrossing.com/ which is my dream website! You register your name and address and then post postcards to random people all over the world that have also registered. Then other random people send you postcards! Awesome! I've signed up and already written my first 5 postcards to Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Taiwan & USA.

Did you know that it costs $1.90 to send a postcard anywhere in the world. Handy to know!

Now I just wait for the postcards to be recieved, registered by the reciever and then my name and address is given to someone to send a postcard to me. Very cool.

I'm planning on getting a world map and pin the places I send postcards too and the places I get them from.

Let the fun begin . . .

Mellow Yellow Monday

While doing photographs for another challenge I took the littlest babushka (aka nesting dolls) doll and do his own little shoot. He ended up on a piece of yellow lichen on the path which looks like he has feet! Cute :)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I've just arrived home after a whirlwind trip to Auckland and I'm exhausted! I had a great trip up and a lovely day today hanging out with Dad. But, I just don't have the patience or brain capacity to edit any of my photos tonight. So all of tonight's offerings for this week's Scavenger Hunt Sunday are SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera for those non-photographers amongest my readers).

1. Self-Potrait

I'm not one to take self-potraits and cringed slightly when I saw it on the list this week. But then I got to thinking about using my beloved macro lens to capture the iris of my eye. It was an interesting experiement to say the least. I was fascinated with the window reflection and with the weird way my eyeliner looks after a long day at work.

2. Handmade

My Mum makes beautiful handmade quilts. I love the way the colours and patterns intersect to create a whole other piece of artwork.

3. Orange

I have a problem - I hate orange! I allergic to the fruit and I dislike the colour. Which is unfortunate considering the company I work for has Orange as one of their main brand colours. What on earth was I going to photograph to meet this challenge?! And then I remembered that the beautiful babushka (aka nesting dolls) I have have an orange one in the middle.

4. Candle

The first thing I think of when I think of candles is birthday candles. With a bit of editing I'd blacken the entire background. As it is, it's a typical family birthday photo :)

5. Traffic Signals or Signs

As I drove from Wellington to Auckland on Saturday I pondered the challenge of photographing traffic signals or traffic signs. At Waiouru I pulled off State Highway 1 in order to call my brother (who was in the area). I stopped in front of this sign that shows where I was - SH 49 - and how far to the next town, and behind it was a beautiful view of Mt Ruapehu. Very picturistic and very worthy of this challenge in my eyes.

Macro Friday

Photo challenges have challenged me to become more creative (if that was possible) and to photography items and use styles and techniques that I normally wouldn't use. For another challenge I needed to find something orange to photograph.

Now, I hate the colour orange, which is really annoying because that's the main colour of the company I work for, anyway I digress. . . I was sure that the beautiful russian babushka (sp?) dolls had an orange one in the middle.

I try to use natural light whenever possible, so I set up the dolls outside on the path where I discovered how beautiful and colourful they all are. This is the very first shot I took. I did a lot more macro shots of individual dolls and of the set, but this one shows all the beautiful colours and the contrasting lines of the dolls versus the path. And, I love that it's focal point is the littlest doll - so cute!

I'm linking this photo up to Macro Friday as well. For more beautiful Macro shots from talented photographers around the world, check out http://www.bloggingfrombolivia.com/

Tilt-Shift Photography

I was reading a photographers blog and they talked about Tilt-Shift photography and a great website to use if you don't have a tilt-shift lens. For those non-photographers amongest my readers (hi Mum), one of the big effects that the Tilt-Shift lens gives is part of the image looking like a miniture.

So I gave it a shot. The website is http://www.tiltshiftmaker.com/ and is soooo easy to use. Check out these initial images I created:

Duckies in the pool! I love that the image doesn't make much sense in terms of duckies versus person.

These three images are all at Titahi Bay Beach.

These seagulls were on the beach in Nelson when B and I went on a wee trip away.

Sixteen chillax's in the garden.

Auckland city

Odd bits and pieces

The scavenger hunt sunday list for next week is :
1. Self-Potrait
2. Handmade
3. Orange
4. Candle
5. Traffic Signals or Signs.
So far, after a stroke of inspiration I've done the self-potrait and orange. Now for a little inspiration on the other three. . .

I'm enjoying the photo challenges that are out there. It's exciting and a little scary to share my photos with other photographers, but I'm finding that everyone is so friendly and offer great encouraging comments. It's really nice to get feedback and comments on my blogs (hint hint) and photos. Plus, I'm inspiried to get better and try new things to improve my skills.

After the long weekend I had a few days off (you well remember the five day to-do list!) and one of the things I did was go and visit Gran at her new home. We took a few happy snaps. Gran looked so happy and relaxed which was so awesome to see. She has a lovely, sunny studio room that is big enough to have lots of her own things. She took us on a tour of her new home and I wanna move in! It's like living in a hotel. There's a pool, spa, bar (with happy hour every day and cheap or free drinks!), lots of areas to sit and relax, pool tables, a library, a salon and a dining room. Gran gets morning tea, afternoon tea and dinner (at lunchtime), a weekly cleaner, fresh sheets and towels weekly and on call staff assistance if needed. Seriously, when can I move in?! (the answer to that is in 35 years and 5 months).

Wedding Planning has been on the back burner a bit for the last 6 weeks or so due to Lee needing to concentrate on finishing her degree. But we'll be back into it again this week with a big meeting planned for tomorrow night. While we have been laying low, we have managed to get the wedding invitations done. I was able to proof them and arrange all the envelopes and finished invites (with Dad's help) ready for writing and posting. Morgan, Lee, JP and I had a production line going on a Saturday night and managed to get them all written and ready in just a few hours. It all went smoothly, except for the few minutes when Morgan thought we'd gotten the address of the venue (his parents house) wrong. JP later commented that he wasn't sure who he was going to hold back first from attempting to kill him for not having picked this up during any of the 3 prior proovings. He very quickly called his parents and saved his own skin when they confirmed the address we had was correct. Invitations should be in the mail shortly - they just had a few addresses to get before popping them all in the post.

And now for a few recent piccies for your purusal:

These gorgeous purple flowers live just outside my bedroom window. I didn't notice until I was photographing it that the wee 'things' in the middle look like the symbol of my star sign - Aries.

This funky little red light is on the balcony at Moonson Poon where we went for dinner on Friday night. Yummy food and awesome decor.

And lastly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY NESS!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Ok, so it's not Sunday, it's Monday. BUT technically it's still Sunday in the US, so I'm figuring I'm ok. I've discovered another photo challenge that I'm keen to participate in - Scavenger Hunt Sunday. Each week she gives out 5 items that you have to photograph that week and then post for everyone to enjoy. It was so much fun and I'm looking forward to next week to. Can anyone say "Heather has a new obsession"?!

1. Boo!

Ok, so let me justify my choice here. We hosted a 30th birthday party for my good friend on Saturday Night and she chose a "Rocky Horror Picture Show' theme. My camera was very well behaved until the birthday girl and her husband turned up as Clementine and Frank-n-Furter. Not only was I in hysterics, but it would appear my camera got a fright as well, as this is the only time that it over exposed the flash and I ended up with this SOOC shot. The fact that the camera itself was 'BOO'ed justifies the photo in my eyes :)

2. Black

Trying to photograph fireworks is as hard as it sounds! I love the contrast of bright flashing light against the black of night.

3. Texture

I do love my macro so! Especially when I have the patience to get so close to a dandelion.

4. Wet

This is Jet, my friend's dog on his first trip to the beach. Nothing screams wet dog like a good shake!

5. Language

I found Language to be the biggest challenge. That was until my flatmate and I played a game of scrabble. What on earth can I make with those letters?!

Mellow Yellow Monday

This photo was taken on the compact I keep in my handbag for such occasions as nights out and I realise how awesome the lemon in my Carona looks from the top of the bottle. I used the flash to enhance the yellowness. And I'm also entering this in the Mellow Yellow Monday challenge. :)

Macro Friday

This is my first entry into a photo challenge - very exciting.

I took this photo out in the rock pools at Titahi Bay Beach. It was mostly sticks and rocks, but I found this beautiful coral like object that was a nice breath of fresh colour.