So far behind

Mon 17th Oct - Day 78

Went for a walk at lunch with just my phone today and saw this stunning rose - couldn't resist - so here is my flower of the week - wish I had the big camera as I reckon I could have got some awesome shots of this.

Tues 18th Oct - Day 79

The circus is in town this week, so I went for a walk to try and get some photo's of the tent.  I'm not actually going to go to the show - but I like the angles of the tent against the blue sky!

Wed 19th Oct - Day 80

Went to Mum and Dad's for dinner today and I was taking a few photo's around the house, a few flower macro photos and I was trying to capture the local cockatoo's but none of them were that spectacular.  I chose this one as I like the colours in this puppet - this is hanging on the wall and was a present from my brother from India I think. (sorry again wouldn't rotate)

Thurs 20th Oct - Day 81

Had a super hectic day today and it was really really late when I remembered I still hadn't taken a photo - these are the bottles of wine that I bought on the weekend - this is the best wine I have had in ages and is from Mudgee - the Chardonnay tastes like butter and the Rose is really sweet and light - now just need to save up and order some more.  Tina made a discovery tonight - did you know that word Char"donna"y has my name in it - cool hey - we never realised this until today and of course the two of us found it totally amusing - so nobody can tease me now about my love of a good Chardy!!!

Fri 21st Oct - Day 82

Went to Tina's tonight to hang out with her and the kids and as always her gorgeous kids are always up for a photo shoot.  For ages now I have been trying to get a nice self portrait of Jemima and I and I got two today - then Aidan jumped in also - are they cute!!! 

Days 75 - 77

Day 75 - Friday 14th Oct

Tonight I finished my competition entry for the next phase of the Canon Photo 5 Comp - I had to shoot some sequins in low light - I decided to make a sequin disco ball - I hung the ball up against my glass door and lit a few candles around the house, set up the tripod and started taking photo's - these are some of the results. I ended up missing the competition entry date but i'm pretty happy with these photo's. Apologies for the spacing, having problems getting it right today!

Day 76 - Sat 15th Oct

I didn't take any photos during the day today as I had a boring day cleaning and I knew I was going out so I could get some photo's in the evening.  Tonight I went out with my dancing friends to a Brazilian Restaurant that my teachers perform at - it was great!  They performed the dance we have been learning and it was nice to go out on the coast for once.  I didn't get many good photos as I forgot to change the camera to auto focus to start with and then I was sitting in a bad spot to take photos - but i like this one. 

Day 77 - Sun 16th Oct

Today I headed down to Manly to go to the mudgee food and wine fair with my sister - it was a glorious spring day, the sun was shinging and I was looking forward to hopefully buying some yummy wine!  I got some brilliant photo's today.  Joel was in a mischevious mood and he is growing up so quick and turning into a little boy.  I'm not posting my fav photo of the day as that is just for our family - but I do like this one.  We were sitting under the trees having lunch, chilling out and laughing alot at Joel feeding himself and trying to chase the big kids.  I like the connection between mum and son in this photo and how relaxed Ames is.

Week 10!!

Wow - it's been 10 weeks since I started this crazy project and whilst I love doing this - it really is a crazy project!!!  But I am still succeeding in taking a daily photo which is brilliant!.  Sometimes it is really hard though and often I get home and start stressing about the fact that I haven't taken a photo yet for the day and have to create something - but at least i'm still going.

Monday 10th Oct - Day 71 - Sequins

Today was a bit disappointing - I took some self portraits at dance but they just didn't work out the way I wanted - we had a dress rehearsal in our feathers and we didn't have much time so taking the photo was all a bit rushed and I cut one of the girls heads out!  So I then had to get creative when I got home (at 9.00pm) - my next subject for the Photo 5 comp is Sequins in Low Light so I thought I would start experimenting tonight - I have decided I am going to make a sequin glitter ball and hopefully light it with glow sticks - that's the plan.   I have started sticking the sequins onto a paper lantern - but I thought I would test out how dark it has to be to take the style of photo I want, the sequin ball photos aren't quite up to scratch yet so I took some others instead.  This is just a bunch of sequins lit by the TV - pretty cool hey - will be interesting to see if my actual concept works or if I just end up using this photo for the comp.

 

Tuesday 11 Oct - Day 72 - Texture

I worked on the coast today so finished early which was great - I decided to head down to a different part of Brisbane Waters to go for a walk along the water and went seeking out this boat storage area.  There is a park that has about about 20-30 tinnies stored up against these posts and this was my favourite boat.  I like the texture in this photo and how it shows the wear and tear and love of this boat.

Wednesday 12th Oct - Day 73 - Sydney

We had a conference in the city today which was a nice change, after the conference finished one of the girls needed to do some shopping so we headed up to Pitt St Mall.  This was taken looking directly up - I love the angles of it - pity it was a cloudy/ raining day - but I love all the different types of buildings in this photo. 

Thursday 13th Oct - Day 74 - Sunrise

The sunrise was spectacular this morning and as I wasn't running too late for my train - I ducked down to ny local park and took this on my way to the station.  It's the only photo I took today as I got busy and forgot the rest of the day - so it will have to do. 


Hope you've all had a lovely week
Donna

Sequins, Feathers & Bubbles

Day 68 - Friday 6th Oct - FEATHERS!!!!

Had an ADO today which was brilliant, I was supposed to be going to Canberra to visit a friend, but unfortunately I just couldn't afford it but I decided to take the day off anyway to get a few jobs done.  I spent the entire morning mowing my lawn - I haven't done it for about 3 months now and it was getting a bit feral.  The reason why I have been so slack is my petrol lawn mower broke and I got given an electric one but it has been raining most weekends that I've been home this winter - so I got out there today and it took forever but it is done except for a tiny patch that I couldn't reach even though I was using 3 extension cords and two power boards!!!


Anyway - back to my photo of the day - luckily I was home today because I got some deliveries from the courier that I have been waiting on - if you refer back to one of my earlier posts, I talked about a feather costume that I have to wear for dance - well it arrived today and it fits - hoorah!  I'm still not 100% comfortable in my body to wear it in public, but I'm getting there and think I'm going to have to just suck it up and go with it.  


Except for my little blow out on Wed I've been eating really well and dancing 4-5 times a week along with trying to do additional crunches etc at home, so hopefully I can keep this up for the next few weeks and lose some weight around my stomach which is the only part I'm really worried about.  Maybe if I stopped drinking wine it would help!!!!!


I have to say - once I tried it on I did feel like a bit of a goddess and I love love love the colour, however it does highlight how bloody short waisted I am which made me giggle and you feel pretty damn naked in it also!


So I have included a few photo's today - one of me wearing the costume and then the arty farty shot that I had fun taking - the feathers and the sequins are so beautiful so it was fun to play around taking the arty shots. 


Day 69 - Saturday 7th Oct 11


Yesterday I picked up a package called a Canon Photo 5 box - it is a huge competition that is run every year and I won an entry into it.  Basically they give you 5 briefs and props to photograph and then submit into the competition. I spent a fair bit of time last night looking through all the entries into the competition so far and I gotta say - I'm an average photographer.  Yes I get some good shots every now and then but I really don't understand my camera well enough and all it's setting's - so this competition is going to be good for me and this project of mine.

Photo of the day

 The first brief is due in next week so I decided to spend the whole morning taking photo's.  The brief was "Foam" using a Macro lens - basically they gave us a small sachet of really strong dishwashing liquid and you had to shoot the "foam" close up.  I have never shot macro before, but I knew my large (70-300) lens had a macro setting on it.  So as the sun was shining I thought I would use the light outside.  I gathered all my prop's together, A Vintage Glass and mirror, lots of soap sud's, A giant bubble wand, my tripod, camera and some food die and here are some of the results. 

Actual Competition Entry

They are pretty cool - I like how the green leaf canopy is reflected in the mirror and contrasts against the blue glass and blue bubbles - I took heaps and heaps of shots and my back is killing me because I had my tripod up on the table and had to keep going back and forth between the glass and the camera as I don't have a remote control thingy.  


Gotta say - it was so much fun experimenting with this and I am happy with some of the shots - I don't think they are winning shots but they are good for a beginner.  The other briefs I have to do now are Sequins in low light, Powder with a fast shutter speed, Ribbon's panning and through a Pet's eyes.  I have ideas for the sequins and ribbons but totally stuck for the powder except for the obvious which everyone is doing and that is blowing up a balloon - hopefully something will come to me soon.


Enjoy - Donna 

65 down - 300 to go!

Day 65 - Tuesday 4th Oct 11 - Footprints

The beginning of October means that daylight savings starts in the Eastern states of Australia.  HOOOOOOORRRRRRRAAAAAAYYYYY - this means I get at least an hour of daylight when I get home - makes such a difference to my general state of mind. 

Today I went to the beach for a walk after work which was just brilliant - it was another glorious sunset and whilst it was a bit cool, it was still nice to have my feet in the sand and listen to the waves.  I love this photo of all the footprints on the beach - just shows that everyone is out and about and enjoying the longer days and small amounts of sunshine we have been getting.  I got hacked on the other day for the number of flower photo's I've taken so far but wait til the end of summer, I reckon I'll have just as many beach photo's as I intend on spending a fair bit of time heading to the beach over the next few months!

Day 66 - Wednesday 5th Oct 11 - Cake
I have been really good and eating super healthy for a few weeks now - but we had a new girl start at work this week and she baked for us now this was not just any cake but the most divine chocolate cake ever!!!  

So I blew the diet today and ate this delicious slice of cake.  I thought it would make a good photo with my coffee mug - It's not too bad but you can't really see the detail in the cake, I should have played with my AV more - but I was super keen to eat it!!! 
Anyway back to the no chocolate thing after today as that cake sat in my stomach like a brick all day!!


Day 67 - Thursday 6th Oct 11 - Spaghetti 
Tina picked me up after work today which was nice and as she rang me early I knew we would go out and I would hopefully get a good photo of the kids - which we did.  Now I have to share a little story about my family and the relation to this photo.  

Every year for as long as I can remember, as soon as the family sits down to eat Xmas lunch - one of my aunties is guaranteed to grab the camera and start taking photo's. For year's and year's we have hacked on her about this as she seems to time it perfectly every year and it is now a running family joke if she doesn't.  

Anyway - for some reason, I seem to have this fascination of taking photo's of kid's eating food which I think is quite ironic considering how much of a hard time I give to Aunty Kerry.  I don't know why but I love how messy kid's are when they eat and how much they enjoy their food.  


So today's photo is of Miss Jemima Ann eating Spag Bol - it was taking with my snap happy so the lighting isn't that great and of course I just missed the best shot of her smiling with the spaghetti hanging out of her mouth - wasn't quite trigger happy enough for that one.  

I know it is not the most flattering photo ever but I think it is brilliant - especially considering it was taken with my point and shoot!

Long Weekend

Friday 30th Sept 11 - Dancing Friends/Shadow
I only took two photo's today - not really sure why, musn't have had my head in the right space, which leaves me with not much choice for my photo of the day.  I suppose at least I remembered to take two.  The photo I chose is of my dancing friends, I went out to dinner with them and tried out my new "photobooth" app on my phone.  I have two photo's today because when I went to post this one of my dancing friends on Facebook, it wouldn't upload - so I posted my other photo of the day shadows.

Sat 1st Oct 11 - Orchid
Had a super quiet day today as I'm totally broke at the moment, so I took a few photo's around the house.  Much to the teasing of my friends about the number of flower photo's I"m going to dedicate today to another flower shot. 

Why? When I took other photo's - well Miss Bronte =)

A:  It's a damn good photo
B:  I figure that these flowers are going to die off soon so I may as well capture them while I can, 


C:  I'm really surprised that this orchid is still alive! - see I seem to have some sort of virus running through my plants which is a bit sad.  


All the plants in my backyard have spots on the leaves and as I know absolutely nothing about gardening I'm not quite sure what is wrong with them - however some of them like this rock orchid that I inherited with my house are still successfully flowering and it is beautiful - so here it is - my flower of the week. 









Sunday 2nd Oct 11 - Grand Final Day!!Today is dedicated to the Mighty Manly Warringah Sea Eagles - 2011 Premiers of the Rugby League (NRL). 

Had a brilliant day today - I got to sleep in, caught up with lot's of my beautiful friends - drank far far too much wine - and my team won the footy! 

I have decided to make a Manly collage for today and I thank all my friends for posing specifically for my photo project - as you can see they are not a shy bunch!! 

We watched the game at a friends house and they had it projected up on the wall which was kinda cool so I took lot's of photo's of the projection - some worked, some didn't but I still thought I would include them in my Manly dedication! All the other photo's I took were drunken self portraits or were actually taken in the wee hours of Monday Morning, the best I'll post on my FB page - but many will be deleted!!!




Monday 3rd Oct 11 - Art Deco

Today was a public holiday - thank goodness as my crazy night didn't end til 5.00am this morning when I finally caught a taxi back to Mum and Dad's for a few hours of much needed sleep (and sobering up!).  Once I was finally feeling slightly human again, I went to meet my sister and nephew for lunch.  It was such a beautiful day - the sun was shining and we just chilled out down at Collaroy Beach. 

Joel is growing up so quick and it was brilliant to spend a few quality hours of cuddle and play time with him. The rest of the day was a write off with sleeping and dancing. 

Today's shot is of the old Cinema down at Collaroy - I love Art Deco architecture and I like the angles of this photo with the street lamp.  I also took some cute ones of Joel eating dirt and trying to play with the camera but they aren't for public consumption.