Days 26-28 Friendship & Food

So it's nearly a month since I started this crazy project and during the week I totally struggle with it, but on the weekends I love it as I get to take photo's of my friends and favourite things.  I'm writing this post Monday afternoon and I'm going to group the whole weekend together as I didn't actually take that many spectactular photo's but they are all a bit of fun.

Friday Night (26th August 11) was girls night - every couple of months all my old high school girlfriends get together for Indian Dinner and copious amounts of wine.  Not many of us still live in the area but we always try and meet up in Hornsby as it is kinda central (except for the Queenslanders) and most of our families still live in the area so we all have somewhere to crash after a few vino's!!!  I am so blessed to still have a wonderful group of girlfriends who know you so well and who you can pick up a conversation with at any time no matter how long since you last saw them.  Tonight's dinner was in honour of Stacey visiting from Qld and also to plan our 40th Birthday Adventure - yep it's looming and we are going to go away for a weekend to Party.  It was lovely to see everyone and we had a brilliant night, laughing, sharing stories about our families and love lives, and planning our weekend away and of course a few of us ended up partying at the RSL afterward (that's 3 weeks in a row for me and I'm far too old for this lifestyle!!!).  Today's photo is of 3 of my closest friends, Tina - my bestie, Sasha and Tracy-Lee taken at the RSL during Pre-Dinner Drinks.  I did take some photo's of all the girls but they are really crap - hopefully Tina's worked out better than mine did.

Saturday (27th August 11) - I woke up sick - not just hungover sick but bronchitis/ tonsilitis kind of sick - I had no voice and felt like crap with a filthy cough.  Tina and I had stayed over at her Brothers house and after a few hours playing with the kids trying to get the motivation to move, we went out for breaky with her sister in law to her favourite cafe.  This photo is of my gorgeous coffee - isn't it pretty - and some pineapple juice to soothe the throat.  It was a crappy photo so I put some effects on it to make it look better - however I didn't really take many other photo's as I spent the entire day on the couch and had a super early night to try and feel better - so this is it for today.

Sunday (28th August 11) - Spring is coming - you can feel it in the air which is brilliant as I HATE winter. I was up early for a Sunday which was good - still feeling average but decided to treat myself to a yummy breaky of french toast, strawberries and coffee, I downloaded a new app on my phone this morning which let's me take crazy action shots and had a bit of fun playing with it - hence the double photo, how beautiful is the sky - both of these were taken on my front verandah - I bought the coffee pot for $2 the other week and I love it, especially now it's warming up I will be spending most of my weekend mornings (when I'm home) eating breaky out on my lovely verandah with my music pumping in the background and a good book or magazine - such a great way to start the day.  The rest of my day was super productive but I didn't take many more photo's - I did however, clean my yard, got rid of loads of weeds, painted a door and had a wicked dance rehearsal.  I also got to talk to my bro, sis in law and niece who live in Scotland which was nice - Eadie (my neice) is soooo cute - it makes me a bit sad that they are so far away and we miss out on getting to cuddle her and watch her grow but thank goodness for Skype - at least we can see each other these days and hopefully when they return at least she will know our faces.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend also.

Cheers Donna

Day 25 - 25th August 11 - Orange

Again - nothing interesting to write today, except that it is a stunning (almost) spring day so I got out and about at lunch again and explored another part of St Leonards.

Again - I took lots of tree and flower shots - I'm going to have to start thinking of something more exciting to photograph if I'm going to last a year!!!

Why this one - I like the colours, I like the focus and I like that Spring is nearly here and that the sun is shining and the flowers blooming.

1 sleep til the weekend - whoooooooo - it's going to be another good one, going out with the school girls on Friday Night yay.

Day 23 - 23rd August 11 - Out of Focus

Today I finally had the time to play around a bit with the manual settings on my camera.  A few years ago I did a photography course and I have dug out my notes and had a read but I have no idea how to do these settings on the digital and I actually didn't take the best notes so will have to start doing some internet research to make up a file on how to use all these settings. 

I mucked around for about an hour trying all the different settings on the camera and again most of the photo's came out too dark so I did have to edit them a bit to make them lighter but I really like this photo. 

It is of a a beautiful butterfly hanging on my wall and below are a few of the other shots I took.  I am going to try and expirement alot more with the manual settings now and see how I go, could be interesting!!!.  The biggest issue is having the time to take shot after shot until you get the right one, it's ok on the weekend but on weekday's with a limited timeframe between getting home and getting dark, it could be interesting.  Next mission is to dig out my tripod and start using it regularly.

ciao donna

Day 24 - 24th August 11 - Ripple

Nothing exciting to write about today - it's hump day!!  I worked, I danced and other than a quick pit stop at the water on the way home I totally forgot about taking photo's today. 

This was taken at Brisbane Waters, Gosford and was shot using my manual settings, still don't know which one as I have lost our instruction book and am just winging it at the moment.  I was hoping to get a few sunset shots, unfortunately sunset happened really quickly and most of the shot's I got were quite dark and boring, however I think this is beautiful - I like the ripple, I like the contrast of colours and shadow - I think it is just simple and pretty.

Donna xoxo

Day 22 - Birthday Presents

Day 22 - Monday 22nd August

It's Monday and I don't have a huge amount of time to think about Photography on Monday's as I go dancing til late, but on my way home I had the inspiration to stage a photo of my birthday presents.  I'm not too happy with the light, especially as it is really dark on the right hand side, however on the screen it looked ok so I thought it would work out ok and I turned things around a few times to try and get the light right but didn't have a huge amount of time to play.   

This is the first time I have staged a shoot like this and it is something I can improve on.

ciao donna xoxo

Day 21 - Beach

Sunday - the sun is shining, the water is sparkling and despite the fact I have a stack of jobs to do around the house, I'm out of the house for a long walk on the beach.  One of the things I love most about living on the coast is the fact that the beach is so close to me know, I am a total beach bum, I love the sand, I love the surf and try to get there as often as I physically can.  Today I decided to go for a longer drive (20 mins as opposed to 10) to visit Kilcare Beach - in the 90's many a NYE was spent partying at this beach and I thought it would be nice to go somewhere different,  I should warn you this post is photo heavy!

After about 3 hours of aimless wandering and over 200 photo's later, I had walked from one end of the beach to the other, the surf was pumping, there was lots of people out with their dogs, the fishermen were catching giant fish and the weather held out until I got back to the car which was great!  

Being at the beach and listening to the surf is like my form of meditation, and having this "me" time was good for the soul as I could experiment with my photography and think about a few things that are playing on my mind, however it still would have been nice to share such a beautiful day with someone else (the disadvantage of not having many friends on the coast).  The only bad thing was that the surf was riddled with blue bottles so I only got my feet wet once - the water was beautiful but I don't like stingers so spent most of the day walking the soft sand, which after yesterday's post is probably a good thing, my calf muscles are killing me as I write this post. - Donna

Day 20 - Costume Nightmare

This is a bit of a delayed post as I am writing this on Monday - but for those that know me well you may find this little story amusing!

As mentioned on Sat I was pretty hungover from my Friday Night Birthday shenanigans and spent the morning sleeping and doing nothing.  In the afternoon I was off on an excursion with my dancing girls.  We have a show coming up soon and we were off to Oxford St to buy costumes.  The shop we were buying from was like a mini heaven to me, feathers, sequins, disco balls, pretty, pretty, pretty.  Finding a costume to fit my fat arse was a different story!!  For those that don't know, the dancing that I do is Brazilian Samba - you know the girls in the g-strings and feathers!!! Yep that's what they want me to wear - ARRRRRGGGGHHH!!!!!!! 

All the girls were trying on these teeny tiny costumes that were stunning and I was secretly freaking out while trying to play cool at the same time, It's not that all the girls are super stick thin girls, they all just have flat stomachs and smaller boobs.  After picking through the g-strings and so called bra's, I eventually found a couple of dresses that I quite liked and one of them fit me YAY - only problem, it was backless and let me tell you now - I ain't dancing without a bra on, but it was so pretty, a whole front of sequins and then a feathered skirt and it could be made in pink and everything, however long story short - Nat (my gorgeous russian dance teacher) decided that she wants us all in the same costume - hence my photo of the day. 

I am expected to wear this in October this year - insert a trillion expletives, I think it is gorgeous but just not on someone like me, and because my bloody boobs are so big, I have to get a top custom made to fit by bringing in my own bra.  I have no idea how I am expected to find the confidence to wear something this skimpy between now and October, for goodness sake, I don't even wear a bikini in summer - I wear boardies.  As much as I would like to lose a bit of weight I don't have the motiviation to go on such a mega diet that would be required for me to feel confident in this - so I'm not really sure what I'm going to do - beside just being healthier overall (which I'm trying to do) and hoping that I lose some weight, In my head -I have 3 other options

1. Not eat for the next month (never going to happen LOL)
2. Buy a flesh coloured body suit - but then I think it will look weird as all the other girls are getting fake tans and I think it would accentuate my weight/ uncomfortableness even more
3. Suck it up and hope for the best.

My other stress about this costume nightmare is it costs $150 - something I just don't have to spend on a costume!  So watch this space and I'll keep you updated with the next instalment of my costume nightmare!

The rest of my day was fabo, I had a drink with one of the dancing girls on our way home - then went to an engagement party where I had a great time and actually had one of the best ab workouts I've had in ages laughing at my friends Tara and Matt!  I also had a good chat tonight with my friend Emma who was the one who got me started on this project - it's nice to be able to share this journey with someone else is is struggling with similar things (time, motivation, making it interesting).  Emma is actually shooting with mostly manual functions on her camera - I'm still working out how to use these functions but hopefully over the next few months I too can go fully manual.  Emma also has a blog - http://emmaandtheirwins.blogspot.com/ - if you want to see another 365 project in the making!
cheers Donna

Day 19 - BIRTHDAY!!

I write this post on the morning after my birthday - yes my head is sore - yes i'm probably still over the legal driving limit - but I had a great day considering the slump I was in earlier in the week.


My day started at the hairdressers which is always a treat - 3 hours of relaxing, reading magazines and having someone play with your hair - bliss - so I am back to blonde again - the older I get the darker my hair get's and I like being blonde.

I then went out to lunch with my family and best friend - my sister, nephew and mum came up from sydney, my cousin came down from newcastle with her two boys and of course Tina came down with her two mischeif makers - we met up with my nan at Kincumber pub and it was great to see everyone.  I got some good presents - my sister has just returned from a month overseas so she bought me some goodies from spain and it is all a bit coincidental that as i think about fixing up my front entrance she buys me these awesome tiles and a pot that will work brilliantly there - now I have my colour theme sorted!  Tina bought me wine (how appropriate), nan and mum gave me money so I can do some online shopping - am buying a Bokeh Kit which is a fancy photography thing and possibly a handbag that will store my camera properly.  Kylie got me an awesome frame and a Rob Ryan mug - he is a fancy smancy designer - most impressed.

After lunch the rush was on to get down the freeway to Hornsby as mum, my friend Erin and I were going to Hairspray - all I can say is WOW WOW WOW - this show is amazing - up there in my top 5 musical's ever.  I'm not going to say too much but if you can find the money and want a good night out I would highly recommend you go as the staging of this show is totally unique and the energy of the cast is soooo infectious.  Erin and I then went out partying in Hornsby - hence the sore head right now!

It's raining in Sydney town again and I'm off to the city to buy dancing costumes

Today's Photo is Erin and I at Hairspray - Birthday Buddies out on the town!


adios - Donna xoxo

Day 18 – 18th August 11 – Birthday Eve

So tomorrow is my 39^th Birthday –aarrrrggghhh – can’t believe I am entering my last year of my 30’s – I certainly don’t act like an almost 40 year old!!!  I tend to still act like someone in their late 20’s/ early 30’s – I guess being childless and single means I don’t really have to act my age!  The only time I feel like I act my age is when I’m worrying about my mortgage so I guess I’m a grown up in that sense – I do watch my money, eat a hell of a lot healthier than I did ten years ago and I think I value my family and friendships a lot more than I used to, however I still party hard and enjoy hanging out with my 18-25 year old friends as they make me feel young!.  My thirties have been pretty good and I know 40 is the new 30 but it still daunting to see the number on a page.

I probably won’t get a chance to write over the weekend as it is going to be a busy one – I am getting my hair done in the morning – yay one of my favourite things in the world is having people play with my hair and I am blessed to have beautiful long thick blonde hair – I am thinking of going ultra blonde tomorrow – getting ready for summer.  I’m then going out to lunch with my Mum, Nan, Sister, Nephew, Cousin and her two boys and maybe even my bestie, then I’m off to see Hairspray and party with my young Hornsby Friends after that.

I’m looking forward to lunch as I haven’t seen my Nan in months which is really slack as she doesn’t live far away, she is 85 and amazing, she doesn’t look her age at all – (wish I was ageing as elegantly as she has) and all us kids think she looks like Queen Elizabeth!!  When I rang her today to see if she wanted to do lunch she said my phone call made her day which is nice – let’s just hope the rain holds off! 

Saturday I’m off to the city to look at costumes for my Samba Dance Group – they want us to by Sequin Bra’s and G-strings – hopefully I can find a nice dress that is just a sparkly but covers me up a bit more – I’m then off to two engagement parties.

Sunday is the Rose Siedler House 50’s Fair – one of my favourite day’s of the year, a day of retro goodness, and if I do go catching up with some great friends, still not sure if I’ll make it or not depends how I feel Sat night and whether I want to spend another night in Sydney or head home to do some job’s around the house!!  Manly are playing the bulldog’s at brookie on Sunday also which is tempting to head down to.

Reader’s hope you have a great weekend – I’m sure I’ll have some brilliant photo’s to share next week – adios Donna xoxo

Day 17 - 17th August 2011 - Indecisive Slump

Today it's Wednesday - Hump Day - Actually I should rename in Slump Day – don’t know what is wrong with me this week – maybe it is my looming birthday, maybe my lack of job satisfaction, maybe the annoying cough I seem to have developed – but I am in a complete slump this week. 

Yesterday I was motivated enough to write my “to do” list but today everything seems unachievable – I guess you just go through these phases. 

Being in a slump makes it hard to take inspiring photo’s – I haven’t even made it to dancing this week which is my favourite thing to do each week – so now not only am I in a mental slump but haven’t had my weekly exercise endorphin’s either. 

I am also indecisive today - I took a few photo's none of which really make me that happy - but two out of the three are things I want to work on. 

The first is the entry way to my house - following my post yesterday I tried to get a decent photo of what I want to fix out the front but it was raining and there is a fence in the way so I couldn't get a good angle.

The second actually worked better than I thought (it's was easier to read before I posted it!) On the way home today it was still daylight so I went over to the other side of my suburb to take a photo of this sign - it is the history of where I live and it was taken with my point and shoot - it actually worked better than I thought.

The third is a photography challenge that I want to improve on over the next 12 months - Food Styling and Photography.  This is my dinner - I made Honey Soy Chicken which should last me a few nights.

Let's hope tomorrow is a brighter day - dq

Day 16 - 16th August - To Do!!!

My best friend Tina and I have been obsessing over all the home renovation shows that have been featuring heavily on TV lately and we are both keen to make improvements on our houses.  Tina can only make design improvements as she is in a rental and with two kids that get their fingers into everything she has to be a bit clever about what she actually does.

I however am fortunate enough that I can paint and move and do whatever I like to my house, to me one of the most exciting things about finally buying a house was the fact that I could paint and put holes in the wall.  I think I mentioned in my first post, I am a little bit obsessed with reading other blogs – when you have a 3 hour train trip everyday you need something to entertain you!  I have always kept inspiration scrapbooks hoping one day I will have the money and opportunity to bring some of these pictures to life in my own special way and now I keep an online inspiration file also – I have achieved a few things of note from my inpiration file.  I have a chalkboard wall, I have a retro sideboard, I have a few photo walls but I still have a few major jobs that need doing,  so today I decided that as a part of this project I am going to try and complete a few of these jobs and document my achievements along the way.

I had a big think today about what I actually want to improve in the house and this was my inspiration for today’s photo which is my “to do” list, some of it is easily achievable, some of it isn't!  Over the next few weeks, I hope to take a before photo of the area’s I want to fix, paint etc and then hopefully over the next 12 months I will actually complete some of these projects and can post my “after” shots.  It is amazing what a lick of paint can do to a wall or piece of furniture and as I am a bargain vintage shopper, hopefully I can find some awesome things to bring to life and style into my house. 

My biggest issue is money and lack of it – so anything I do has to be in small chunks.  When I first found my current home – I knew immediately it was the place for me – even though the walls were painted a disgusting light green throughout, with a dark green feature wall and blue walls in the bedroom which had that sponge effect, the vibe of the place was awesome and nothing else I looked at lived up to it.  Fortunately I was able to buy the house I loved and was lucky that the only thing I needed to do to the house was paint, so after two weeks of painting all the walls white I was ready to move in and make it pretty.  Now I have to say my home is very ME which is hard to explain but anyone who know's me understands...I am a tomboy in nature but I love girly girl things and obviously love photography.  So the house is a mix of girly retro style and it is pretty cool but there is always room for improvement. 

It will be interesting to look back in 12 months time and see how many of these things I actually achieve – of course if I win lotto then there will be no issue whatsoever and I will have the most amazing house on the planet – one can dream……Donna xoxo

Day 15 - 15th August 2011

Happy Monday

Today I got out at lunch for a walk which was nice as the project we were working on was doing my head in.

I just wandered aimlessy around the streets of Naremburn again. 

I took lots of sky photo's as the clouds were magnificent today - but my favourite shot of the day is the simplest - just a sweet dandelion - taken with my polaroid app on my phone.

cheers Donna

Day 14 - 14th August - Rainbow

Sunday Sleep In - whooo hoooo. 

It's raining again today so I'm pretty unispired to go anywhere.  Ended up spending the day, washing, cleaning and cooking and watching Season 3 of 90210 - I have borrowed all 7 or 8 seasons off my friend Erin and have it in the background when I am cooking and cleaning - tragic I know - I have to say the acting is terrible but it just makes me laugh!

I took a few still life photo's today of my new vintage find of the week ($2 Mikasa Coffee Pot), then the most spectacular rainbow came out - it was a double rainbow across the full skyline - so I tried to get a bit arty farty taking photo's of this - I was climbing up on chairs on my verandah to get the best shot of the rainbow through the trees.  I also tried to capture the rain today and failed.  I decided I liked the full rainbow shot best - this is the view from my living area verandah and it is ever changing.  I like how the smoke is rising out of the bush and the sun shining through the rain. 

You can't really tell in this photo, but on a clear day, you can see the water just past the red brick house, sometimes it is really blue, sometimes super dull, I do love that I can boast water views - even though they are minimal.  I imagine I will probably post a few shot's from a similar angle throughout the year so you can see the changing view.

Don't you just love a rainbow and sun shower - donna xoxo

Day 13 - 13th August - Adventure Day

Today I was planning on sleeping in, however my bestie had other ideas – which is great.   Tina and the kids came down around 8.30 this morning for an adventure day.  Adventure day is where we get in the car and see where the day takes us, usually we go searching for markets, cafes or somewhere cool to hang out – some of our past adventure days have been pretty epic and we always discover fun new places and have a lot of laughs along the way.

Today we set off to Gosford Markets – they don’t have many stalls but I got a huge amount of fresh fruit and veg for $20 which was good and there is a great park for the kids to play.  We then headed off to Ettalong to find somewhere for lunch and go to Ettalong Markets – we found the most awesome cafe, it was decked out in beachy girly style with a huge mirror ball and the best hamburger I have ever had – huge statement I know but it was homemade rissoles and soooo tasty– again for the second saturday in a row I took over 100 photo’s  - as I write this I haven’t looked through them all to work out which one I want to use as my photo of the day yet!

Tina has two beautiful kids and I just love taking photos of them – trying to get a nice family photo is a bit of a challenge though – I think I’ll have to dedicate a whole album for today as the sun was shining, the kids were lovely, there was lots of decorative things to photograph and it was just a great day all around.

After much deliberating, I chose this photo of Aidan eating lunch - he loves his food and he was eating wedges with both normal cream and sour cream along with blueberry pancakes and a salmon wrap (he is a growing boy).  Isn't he gorgeous. I absolutely hate his long hair as it a bit of a bogan mullet, however his mummy think's it's beautiful! I do however love the curl at the bottom of this shot! 

I am going to create a collage of some of the best shot's from today as there are lots that I am proud of.  I got some great reflection shots in a mirror ball and some great candid shots of the kids also.

Donna xoxo

Day 12 - 12th August 11 - Joshy Woshy

Hooray it's Friday!


Day 12 - so I totally struggled again today - I took a few photo's on the way to work out of the car window, but they weren't great then I took some of the view off my parent's balcony as it was a nice stormy afternoon, but I wasn't really happy with them. I went out to dinner with a friend in the evening and then onto Hornsby RSL to celebrate a friends 18th and almost forgot about my little project.

I kind wish I had remembered to take photos at dinner because we went to my cousin's thai restaurant which was sooooo tasty and I could have got some lovely decor photo's there, but luckily I remembered at the club to take a few photo's of my friends. 

. 

I didn't take many, but I chose this one in the end. This is my buddy Joshy Woshy, he has just turned 18 and I hate the face that he is pulling but it is so him and anyone who know's him will understand!  Josh's lovely family helped me out two years ago when I needed a place to crash and I feel like he is a little brother even though he calls me granny.  As I said earlier, I hope to have quite a few self portraits throughout this project - so here is my second one, plus a few others taken at the club featuring: Erin, Cookie, Rob and Ta Ta!

ciao donna xoxo

Day 11 - Quote

Hooray - it's friday as I write this post - even though we are heading towards spring and it's finally daylight when I leave the house, I'm still struggling to get out of bed each morning.  It used to take me about 20 minutes to get ready in the morning, now it seems I'm in the shower for at least 20 minutes and then procrastinate about getting ready - this morning it took me nearly 45 minutes to get out of the house!  So onto yesterday's topic - I was struggling today, wasn't inspired at work and then went shopping hoping to find some new clothes that I can't really afford but to no avail (good for the bank balance though!), I had thought if I bought something new and pretty I could photograph that but oh well.  I did think about setting up a shoot around the house but again was un-inspired. 

As mentioned previously we had a friends 21st last weekend and I have been waiting patiently for her present to arrive from the states, it is a beautiful quote that I bought online from Etsy (my fav online shop EVA!!!), it finally arrived this week and I got the most gorgeous frame for it so as I had to take a photo anyway so I could show my Bestie Tina my awesome present buying, I decided that this can be my shot of the day.  The reflection is a bit crap but I did play around with the frame in different settings and with different lights on and off and this was the best shot.

Still don't have a photo for today but am going to another 18th tonight so I'm sure I'll be able to snap a few friends out and about.

Hope you all have a brilliant weekend

Donna xoxo

Day 10 - 10th August 2011 - Sunset

Hump day today - I like Wednesday's though as I get to leave work early to go to my Zumba Class.  Today I actually got home in daylight hours which is a real treat so on my way home I popped down to Brisbane Waters to take a few shots of the sunset with my phone, it was a beautiful afternoon and I feel quite privleged to live so close to the water - this is a 5 min drive or 20 walk to my house. Besides a great sunset, there was also the biggest pelican just chilling out, however I couldn't get close enough with my phone to get a decent shot.

I have a great little app on my called "Retro Photo's" so I thought I would take the same shot with each of the camera's that it has installed, Polaroid, Pinhole, The Barbl, Little Orange Box, Fudge Cam and Hipsteroku (japanese toy camera gone bad).  They were all pretty good and I had a hard time choosing between the Fudge, Hipster and The Little Orange Box .  I ended up going with the latter, I like the colours and the contrast - pretty good shot for a phone hey.

Cheers Donna xoxo

Day 9 - 9th August 11 - PINK!!!!

Today I'm working in Gosford which is a nice change, got to sleep in this mornign which was a treat.  I am in a totally enclosed office today and in meetings all afternoon so will have to find something to capture on my way home or from around the house tonight. All afternoon, I was thinking I will photograph my dinner tonight, my weekly dinners generally consist of buying whatever meat is on sale then cooking for at least 4-5 meals, it's not that I don't enjoy cooking, I love it but I HATE washing up, plus I don't get home til late quite a few evenings a weeks so it is good to have something that I can heat up rather than just eating cheese on toast.

I took some photo's of the cooked lasagna and then the slice on my plate but they totally sucked.  It just looked like a cheesy mess - guess I don't have a future as a food photographer.  So onto Plan B - as I mentioned yesterday my azalea tree is flowering so I picked a few blooms, popped them into a vintage glass and took some shots of them and viola they look awesome, this shot is labelled pink as that is one of my favourite colours (can't you tell) and it just pop's so much in this photo, I couldn't label it anything else.

ciao Donna xoxo

Day 8 - 8th August 2011 - View

It's Monday today and the beginning of Week 2 - whilst I am enjoying the challenge of taking a photo each day, keeping up with the blog and posting the photos in a timely fashion is going to prove a little more difficult.  I didn't go near a computer on the weekend and I dance on Monday nights so it looks like I might be spending time each Tuesday evening playing catch up.  Fortunately the 1.5hr trip home each day will give me time to write and edit my photos etc- but yesterday I was just too shattered to do anything and read my book instead the whole way home. 

I took a few photo's today, my azalea tree is flowering beautifully this year which is great because everything else in my garden is dying and all the green thumb genes went to my bro.  My photo of the day though is the view out of my office at work, it's nothing that spectacular but at least I am fortunate enough to have an office with a window - I look at the palm trees all day long and dream of summer.  The Clouds look pretty good in this photo also, I'm slightly obsessed with clouds and I'm sure over the next 12 months they will feature quite prominently on this blog and I also like how the window frame comes up dark - the windows are actually filthy so I'm impressed how clear this looks.

Donna xoxo
 

Day 7 - 7th August 11 - Football

Sunday today - after helping clean up the party, I drove down the beaches to catch up with my sister again and hopefully go to Brookvale Oval to see Manly play.  We had planned a family day out with my cousin, so I was hoping to get some shots there.  I only took my Canon and my Phone as the weather was looking dodgy and I couldn't really carry the Pentax.  After debating all day about whether to go to the game or not, the sun came out and we bought our tickets, ten minutes later it was pouring with rain and the weather stayed pretty unpredictable throughout the game, Ames took Joel home and I stayed with the rest of the fam and watch Manly smash the Roosters which was well worth the dodgy weather. 

I took a few shots of the clouds and the game, but as I only had my little camera what I was trying to capture in my head and what I did capture just didn't translate so well.  I ended up choosing this photo even though it is a little out of focus as it captures the excitement of the game, Manly had just scored another try and it was starting to drizzle.  

Playing catch up here - as i write this it's Day 9 so hopefully will catch up tomorrow!

ciao Donna xoxo

Day 6 - Sat 6th Aug 2011 - Eyes

Big day today - had my lovely friend Bec's 21st Wicked themed Birthday Party, which I was helping do all the decorations for.  After about ten trips to the car I was finally packed and ready to go - had a quick stop off at the Salvo's on the way where I picked up the most awesome cookie jar and then down the freeway to Bec's. 

My other friend Erin and I were in charge of babysitting her little girl for a few hours and decorating the house but first Erin wanted to make Toffee Apples - neither of us had ever made toffee before and every recipe we found online was different so we just experimented - they worked pretty well however there wasn't enough room in the fridge for them to set properly so there was a pool of toffee and brown apples by the end of the night but they still tasted pretty good.   Finally got to catch up with my lil sis also today - she has been overseas for a month and as she lives in Collaroy and I live on the coast, we haven't had a chance to catch up yet.  

I took over 150 photo's today - some of friends, some of my gorgeous nephew playing with Bec's little girl, lots of arty decorating photo's and of course party shots of all our friends.  It was really tough deciding which photo was my fav of the day and even though she is going to kill me - I like this best and also ticks something off my original list.

ciao Donna xoxo

Days 5 - 5th August 2011 Part 2

Friday Night - I waited til I got home before I even started taking photos today, I knew I had a night in the kitchen ahead of me and potentially a night out on the town.  Turns out I ended up spending alot longer in the kitchen than originally planned so didn't make it out on the town, however I did get over to a friends new pad (Yay one of my closest friends has moved to Gosford!!) and learnt how to play Mario Kart which was good fun.

I decided to capture my adventures in the kitchen, I started off trying to be arty farty and photograph my first glass of wine for the evening but don’t really like the result, I either couldn't get the picture in focus or it was too dark and as I was drinking rose out of a pink vintage glass the camera just couldn't do it justice.

My night in the kitchen involved making chocolate balls and risotto, I did try to photograph the food and some of the chocolate ball photo’s were ok – but really it just highlighted what a messy cook I am.  

In the end I decided to go with this photo because:

a: even though it’s not the best self portrait I wanted to try and photograph myself quite a few times throughout the year to see how I’ve changed (aged LOL) and I think this captures the inner dag in me!!

b: I had no idea how to use the self timer on the Pentax and it took me bloody ages to get it to work so Day 5 is my first self portrait - I'm sure there will be plenty more!

Day 4 - Shadows/ Picket Fence - 4th August 2011

Hello world 

It's Day 4 and I'm doing great – am soooo looking forward to the weekend.  With a Wicked 21^st and a game at Brookie (Yes I’m a Manly Fan)  – as long as this weather holds out it’s going to be brilliant fun.

I know it's super early days yet but (corny statement No 2) - already I'm opening my eyes to new things to capture and looking at the world I live in a different way.  I’m taking quite a few photos each day which is good, hope I can keep it up and I’m thinking I might start a Flickr pool for all the rejected photos! 

As it is finally a glorious sunny day here in Sydney town (please hurry up summer), I decided to re-instate my lunch time walks.  St Leonards is a bit of a hole, but the surrounding suburbs are beautiful.  I have a few regular streets that I walk around and today I thought I would go check out all the beautiful houses in Naremburn, wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for today but had my fingers crossed I would find something interesting.  So the thing I did discover is that this suburb is obsessed with Picket Fences, every second house has one – lots of different styles and always painted either white or blue.  I took a few close up shots of this fence and the shadows but I like this one best as I like how you can see all the way down the street.

As I write this, I’m sitting on the train going through the Hawkesbury and wishing I could capture all the beautiful sunrises and sunsets that I see on the long journey to and from work each day, maybe doing this project will finally give me the motivation to get up early one weekend morning and head out and about on a shoot.

So  if anyone is out there reading this, hope your having a great week also, I would love it if you could leave me a comment as even though this is more a personal record of my photo project, it would be nice to know people are reading about my adventures, I'm also happy for people to contribute to this journey - if you know of something or someone interesting that I can photograph then I'm up for the challenge.

Ciao - Donna xoxo

Day 1 - Flowers 1st August 2011

So here I am, a brand new blogger and someone who has just started her very own 365 Photography project.  I thought I would start this blog so I can document where I took my photo's and why I chose that particular subject, I've also been interested in blogging for awhile now so hopefully you'll enjoy my ramblings.


So one of the things I have discovered from reading blogs is that there are all these great photography projects out there, I have always loved photography and after a good friend of mine started her 365 project I decided it would be a good idea to take on the challenge of taking a photo a day for a whole year. 


It is quite a daunting thought but exciting at the same time, those who know me well, know I love to take photo's and some say I have a pretty good eye, but sometimes it's just a real effort to get the camera out.  I guess what scares me most is what I am going to photograph during the working week - but already (it's day 3 as I write this) I'm finding interesting things to capture.

Day 1 1st August 2011. I forgot to bring my DLSR into work, so set off for a walk at lunch with my phone camera.  I decided to start with something easy today and just shot a few flowers - nice and simple to get me started. This was my favourite shot - unfortunately my phone camera doesn't have the best resolution so will have to remember to take my almost dead snap happy with me until I can afford a fancy handbag to transport my big camera around

Day 3 - Kombi - 3rd August 2011

I wasn't too sure what I was going to photograph today, I've decided that my Pentax is too heavy to be lugging to work everyday so I'ts probably going to be easier to shoot with my snap happy Canon or Phone during the week.


On monday when I started this project, I wrote a huge list of ideas of things I would like to photograph throughout the year - I think I got up to around 200 ideas so it will be interesting to see how many of these I actually achieve.  But I'm not too sure the list is such a good thing, i'm going to keep it for days when I need inspiration, but this is going to sound really corny - I'm hoping as I go on this journey that the photos find me rather than me seeking out the photos.


I didn't have time at work to get out and about today, so I thought I would just shoot something from around the house, however gold struck as I got off the train - I found a lovely Kombi in the Station Car Park - anyone who knows me well knows about my love of all things VW - especially Beatles (RIP Dallas Bug) - but I have always had a dream of travelling around Australia in a Kombi and I still have fond memories of driving to Qld as a toddler sitting on Dad's lap in his Van. 


So rather than over thinking - hopefully I will have plenty more days like today where I find fun things to photograph rather than consuming my brain with endless thoughts about what to shoot each day. 


Donna xoxo

Day 2 - Cemetery 2nd August 2011

Today I actually thought about what I was going to do the night before which is good - I work near one of the oldest cemetery's in Sydney and know that headstones often look good in photo's, so I thought that would be an easy task for the day.  I'm pretty happy with the photo's I took even though there were no pretty flowers around!

I set off at lunchtime with my trusty DSLR - I have a Pentax K20 (I think), I have grown up with Pentax's as that is the camera Dad always shot with and so that was my obvious choice when buying a SLR, then when everything went digital and Dad was looking at buying a new camera it made sense to continue with the Pentax so we could transfer the lenses.  So I don't actually own my own DLSR, technically it is Dad's but it lives with me most of the time and I just make sure he has it whenever he wants (which fortunately for me is not very often!). 

My other camera, is a ten year old Canon Ixus, it is only 5.00 mega pixels, it blows smoke when using the flash, and is so battered and worn out but it has been the very best camera ever - it lives with me everywhere I go and I have taken some amazing photo's on it, people always ask what do you shoot with and get surprised when I tell them I  mostly use my Point and Shoot.

Anyway enough rambling - here is today's best shot!