Daily Challenge - Week 8

Wow, I think this is the longest I've ever stuck with a challenge for!  Certainly diets have never lasted this long haha!

This weeks theme was "Movement".  I chose this theme as we had planned as a group to do a night shoot last night which I thought would provide the perfect opportunity to capture light trails which would fall perfectly within the theme.  Unfortunately for me I didn't get a shot I liked enough but hopefully the rest of the group found something!

So on that note, all of our little group (except Jacqui who had to do an emergency trip to Fielding) met up last night to try and learn a little bit more about our camera's.  It was such a fun night, although felt a little strange to be walking around the back roads of Ponsonby all completely sober!  I hope everyone learnt something useful and are a little more confident about using their camera's in Manual mode.  Can't wait for the next photog catch up :)

So here are the latest daily shots from my little bubble!

Hot Rods in Helensville 

New Friend

Bubble Bath

Blow

Afternoon Rainshower

Watching

Auckland city by night

Daily Challenge Week 7

It is 9am on Saturday morning and I'm already uploading my images - how's that for organised?  Actually its because we were blessed with a misty fog this morning which provided amazing light plus water droplets that were fantastic to photograph.  Initially when I went outside this morning there was a massive spiderweb - how much better can you get for a "Nature" theme, but alas, I could not get the web to look as amazing on camera as it did in real life.

So on that note, this week's theme was "Nature" (thanks Mel!).  Nature is my forte - if you've read the About Me section of this site, you will know I LOVE everything nature.  And while I couldn't get a photo of natural beauty every day I managed to get a nice shot on Monday night of the setting sun glowing through some tree's, and then todays shot of a teeny spider sitting beside a droplet of water.  I also really enjoyed taking the shot of a candle, in an effort to show fire.

What have I learnt this week?  That magical golden light that everyone talks about aiming to take photos in?  It lasts about ten minutes, and it can make every plain old grass look stunning.  And I also learnt how to play a bit more with my manual focus this week - thanks Jodie for inspiring me to do so.

Lastly, I've said this before - I am so proud of everyone doing this challenge.  Every week your photos amaze me, I can't believe all of you have this hidden talent and I love how this challenge is bringing out the best in all of us.

Till next week... xx

Playdough

Setting sun through the trees

Valentines Day

In the theme of Valentines (technically it was still Valentines Day in the other half of the world!)

Fire

Shiny

Dewy morning

Daily Challenge Week 6

Week 6 done and dusted!

This week Jacqui suggested we could start doing some themed weeks to help inspire our little group into taking some cool shots.  This weeks suggestion was "Happiness is".  I tried my hardest to follow this theme but when your photog opportunity is limited to only an hour or two a day (between working, being a mum, managing a business and trying to fit some sleep in somewhere!), I really struggled to do it every day so I've decided to try and get one shot a week which follows the theme.

What I've learnt this week:

• Sometimes when you think you have the perfect shot you open the computer monitor to find its really just not as good as you thought it was (why are those mini screens so good at showing nice crisp pictures but the monitor shows fuzzy lines and a slight different perspective?)
• Low light is bloody hard work to take nice shots in, even with my fantastic little 50mm

Enjoy!

PS. Welcome to Cat who has joined our little group!

To see what my buddies are up to and see check out their pages here

To see previous pages check out here

Hey Mrs Cow

Cuddles with Grandma

Happiness is picking a mandarin from the tree (and then eating it!)

Out late on a school night

Happiness is my baby boy

Sunrise on a foggy morning

High Tea goodies

Playing with Shutter Speed

So the last two nights Auckland has been blessed with amazing sunsets, and a brilliant cloud formation which someone on facebook kindly informed me is called "Cirrus" clouds.  So I had a play tonight with slow shutter speeds - who thought clouds could move so far in just 30 seconds??

Taken 8:21pm.  F22, 0.4 shutter (no editing) 

Taken 9:11pm.  F13, 30" shutter (no editing)

Lantern Festival

On Saturday night for the first time ever, hubby and I decided to check out the Lantern Festival held at Albert Park in Auckland central.  Being country bumpkins we didn't really know what to expect, and what awaited us was amazing sights... but also crowds (I mean CROWDS) of people.  I should have listened to my friend Jodie when she texted and said "DON'T take the buggy", but Master A had (thankfully) fallen asleep on the drive in, and managed to stay asleep while I transferred him into the pram.

Despite the volume of people however we still all had fun, hubby was amazingly patient with me as I tried to get some half decent shots (but it just wasn't happening!), but I still had fun in the process.  Master A was very well behaved, and didn't let out a grizzle until the very end which was more than a couple of hours past his bed time.

Here are a few shots that made it through the rigid testing (hahaha!)

Pretty lanterns by night

Lots of different sights to see...

Sky Tower looking very red

Daily Photo Challenge - Week 5

Week 5 complete!

What have I learnt this week?

• I take way too many photos of my son 
• I still don't have enough hours in the day
• I learnt yesterday that as inspirational as the 'lantern festival' could be, the sheer volume of people attending meant that I didn't get to take the shots that I wanted (because lets face it, setting up a tripod amongst literally hundreds of people is just not that easy!)
• My husband has the most amazing patience (driver of the buggy amongst hundreds of people while I keep taking off to try and get my photo of the day and didn't even murmur one complaint...) 

Here they are!

Kody 

Passenger 

Splash

If I cant' see you, you can't see me

Mr Playdough Man

Jump!

Year of the dragon

To see previous weeks please see here

To see how my photog buddies are doing see here

Because sometimes life just throws your lemons...

(or at least that seems the case in the eyes of a 20 month old)...