Brave

Roadside collection Lesmurdie

Noah and I went for a walk last Saturday in Lesmurdie to check out what all the rich folk chuck out. It seems rich people chuck out all the same sort of crap that normal people do!!

 Nanna Dee & Rog's collection

 TV, circa 1988?

 Noah's first skid on the bike. Must show his Dad this pic.

 Ned Kelly

 Looking for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

 Quite an extensive collection of crap at this address.

Dude, you've got a melon problem!

Proud

Painting

My Valentine

Noah YOU own my heart (and you know you do) so if you could treat it really nicely over the next 50 years I will be so grateful. Thank you for letting me take photos of you this morning.

I love you xoxo

Panorama's and HDR

I have some new skills to add to my bag of tricks. I enjoyed a pretty full-on photography course last Sunday in Perth. The course began at 5am and finished at 3pm. Below are some of the images I took. The images were merged and edited by Rick Bawden @ yourshutterbuddy.com.au He taught me some really important stuff and was so patient with me and my lack of Photoshop knowledge and other basic camera knowledge. 

Shit Fluffy's dead

RIP Fluffy - you were our favourite :(

Camera stuff

I think it is fair to say that I am obsessed with photography. It is so nice for me to have a real passion for something again. I love how I feel about myself when I take a photograph I am happy with (which is rare btw). I love how photography is making me feel about me :) I actually get really excited when I put my memory card into my computer (weird I know)!! 

I was recently gifted a whole heap of filters from my cousin's husband which I have only just got around to playing with (see pics below). How lucky am I that he gave them to me? I know you can easily replicate the effects on photoshop or do it super easily on your iphone, but it feels pretty cool doing it the authentic way on your actual camera. 

My new/gifted filters stacked

The same cousin's husband also showed me his collection of vintage cameras. If he had shown me these 6 months ago I wouldn't have given a crap, but now.... I thought they were the most coolest things ever. The 5 photos of the vintage cameras are SOC. I used filters for some and again adjusted my 'picture style' for others.

Why so much black & white?

I am sure some people may think that I am in a bit of a black & white rut at the moment but there are reasons behind my new obsession with B&W. It really isn't as simple as converting images to B&W after the fact, especially if you don't have Photoshop or Lightroom yet (like me). 

Firstly, Richard bought me a B&W photography book/manual for Christmas which I have been reading on and off over the past month (thoughtful gift this year)!! Secondly, I have learnt how to shoot in B&W mode on my camera. Not just straight B&W but also while adjusting contrast, sharpness, colour saturation & other features directly in-camera.  

The picture style chosen for these images was custom made (by me) featuring high contrast. I am loving all these new things I am discovering about my camera. When professionals have told me before that the best thing you can do to improve your photography is 'read your camera manual' they weren't kidding. The more you can do to get your photos great in-camera, the better they will be post editing. 

Dizzy wizzy

 Camera around neck + self timer with 10 sec delay + burst mode

 an out-take