Daily Photo Challenge - Week 49

23 days left to go... a massive 343 days achieved!

This week was a pretty crazy one in Auckland - Thursday afternoon saw a tornado sweep through West Auckland taking lives and creating much damage across a fairly wide area.  Thank goodness we're north of the area that got hit, although at the time it was happening I was driving with both kids in the back of the car.  Ash was frightened - he kept saying he could hear the thunder and he was scared.  I told him he was safe as long as he was with Mum - little did I know what was actually going on.  The rain was like nothing I had ever seen before - literally a river raging across the road, and the wind made us feel like we were going to fly away.  When we finally got home both kids were fast asleep so after tucking them into bed I received a phone call from my mother to tell me that a tornado had been through and killed three people.  I felt very fortunate to be safe and with two of the most important people in my lives - fortunately Bryce was just down the road and was relatively unaffected (but also missed the area hit by about ten minutes).  Our condolences to those who lost loved ones and also those who are still not back in their homes due to damage.

On the photography front I finally took the plunge and invested in a new lens (thanks David!).  It is an 85mm Samyang lens which has been a lot of fun to play with.  They are relatively cheap but produce amazing optical quality.  Only catch is everything in the lens is manual - which when you have a quick toddler is pretty challenging!  I'm enjoying learning how to use it though even if I do miss the automatic focusing my much crappier lenses provide!

So all that said, here are my shots for this week :)

Zoo trip

New lens 

Xmas Tree

Back to the books...

Bokeh

Kumeu Christmas Parade

Gemma (see here and here for an earlier photo!)