Month in Macro 30 / 30

Last photo for the month! It's been raining on and off all day...so I caught some raindrops on clover!

Please click through, it's a bit clearer

I'm not sure what to do now, I've been tossing up doing 365 but posting once a week, or continuing a 52 and doing other projects in between. I think I'll at least take a short break from posting to decide what my next step will be, especially as I still have nasty cough. My son's on school holidays too, so we'll enjoy a break for this week.

Quarterly Top 5 Photos April, May & June 2011

Meet my son, Tom

Processed with Perfect Portrait 2 by The CoffeeShop Blog and Amber by My Four Hens; Web Triptych by The CoffeeShop Blog

Tom loves the beach! We build sandcastles and make quarries for his cars. On this day he asked his dad to dig a crab hole for him. He jumped in and pretended to be a crab! He makes me laugh, he's such a little scamp. He loves chasing after the crabs on the beach and watching them dig their holes.

Processed with Perfect Portrait 2 by The CoffeeShop Blog and Amber by My Four Hens

I love this photo of my son he's smiling so much he's almost laughing.

Processed with Perfect Portrait 2 and Butterscotch Vintage by The CoffeeShop Blog; storyboard adapted from Storyboards 1 by The CoffeeShop Blog

Tom loves watermelon! I gave him a large piece really just to hold to take a photo of him and he couldn't resist taking a bite. I love these photos of him, they're so summery and carefree.

Processed with Perfect Portrait 2 and Butterscotch Vintage by The CoffeeShop Blog

Tom's school has a "Book a Night" program. He was so excited as he was the first in his class to reach 100 nights. He just loves books!

Processed with Perfect Portrait 2 and Golden Vintage by The CoffeeShop Blog

Tom and his dad found some helicopter or whirlybird seedpods at the Botanical Gardens. They had a great time throwing them up in the air and watching them whirl down. I love his eyes in this photo, he's so full of wonder!

Linking up with Click it up a Notch, but on the button you can see Amber's Articles and Naptime Momtog are also hosting.

It's not a photography contest!

Month in Macro 29 / 30

Has anybody seen the photos or footage from the huge sinkhole that's formed at Inskip Point on the Queensland coast.  We holiday at Rainbow Beach all the time.
Absolutely crazy photos of when it happened. Nature can be so powerful. I'm glad no one was hurt.
I was thinking of the beach, so some shells for today.

Tone Texture 3 by My Second Skin and Beneath the Surface texture by Shadow House Creations applied

Processed with Silver Spoon action by Paint the Moon and Scratched stock texture by My Second Skin applied

Month in Macro 28 / 30

Something a bit girly and pretty today. One of my scarves, remember it's winter here, and I made it into a colour palette. The circles were a png from Pixel Lounge Studio but The CoffeeShop Blog has similar (ready to go, with clipping masks) but with rectangles. I had to make a new file and add the circles and photo to it. I deleted one of the circles while I was at it, I didn't want 6.

Photo processed with Little Ballerina from Tales for the Soul by Isabelle Lafrance; Circle png by Pixel Lounge Studio

Month in Macro 27 / 30

Rhododendron buds from my mum's garden.

Processed with Little Ballerina from Tales for the Soul by Isabelle Lafrance

Project 52 Week 5

I've been so sick the last few days. We've had a cold snap here the last couple of weeks. No where near winter weather in the northern hemisphere but cold for us. We usually have very mild winters, where you just go sit in the sun to warm up and our house doesn't have heating, we make do with a couple of oil column heaters for the bedrooms. My son's had bronchitis for about a month. Poor little guy. And this week it was my turn. So I haven't felt very creative.
Earlier in the week, before I got sick, I took a walk around our neighbourhood with my camera. We live in suburbia but we have these wonderful tracks all around our neighbourhood with little lakes dotted here and there. They're perfect for running, bike riding and general family fun.

Toast texture by CoffeeShop Blog applied

Toast texture by CoffeeShop Blog applied

I only had my 50mm 1.8 with me so I had to sit on a railing till this Rainbow Lorikeet felt comfortable enough to come out and feed on the flowers.

Hands in B&W

I Clicked it up a Notch - June Favourite
Courtney from Click it up a Notch suggested that I try my I Learned photo in B&W.  I wasn't sure at first but I tried it out. A funny thing happened, it removed my familiarity with the photo. Before when I could see the colour of my son's top, I looked at the photo and thought, well that's a shot of my family. Suddenly, I found myself imagining and day dreaming about other possibilities, who was this child and father, what was their story.
Plus I love this photo! I love my son's little hand in my husband's. I love that my son has dirty fingers and nail.  I love that I can see my husband's wedding ring. 
So emotionally I couldn't go past this photo as my favourite for the month of June.

Processed with Peach Tea action by Paint the Moon

Month in Macro 26 / 30

Buttermilk texture by My Second Skin applied

Month in Macro 25 / 30

Processed with Isabelle Lafrance Little Ballerina action from Tales for the Soul

Live Every Moment - Farm

When I saw that this weeks theme over at Live Every Moment was Farm, I was a bit stumped. Then I remembered that my mum's neighbour keeps chickens.

But I couldn't resist putting a shot of my son up, he's not on a farm but I think it looks like he could be.

Month in Macro 24 / 30

I don't know what tree this is but I love the colours of the flowers and seed pods or fruit!

I've since found out it's a Powderpuff Tree.

Month in Macro 23 / 30

Click it up a Notch - I Learned

I learned this week that I don't have to include a face in a portrait. Actually the photo can convey a stronger emotion by not including a face, as all the viewers attention is focused on other details.
I usually stretch and strain to get a shot of my son's face when he's involved in a task instead of finding other viewpoints and focus points to convey a message.
I love shots of children and parents or grandparents holding hands. So I decided to try my hand at a shot like this.  I wanted to contrast my son's small soft hand in my husband large hand. I also love that you can see his wedding ring.

I forgot to include my settings, f/1.8, 1/400, ISO 400, I know I had room to increase my aperture, see my comment below, or decrease my ISO.
Constructive critique welcome.

So Courtney from Click it up a Notch suggested that I try this in B&W.  I liked it with a warmer B&W. What do you think?

Peach Tea action by Paint the Moon

Month in Macro 22 / 30

Just a simple lawn clover flower today. I think it's really cute!

Magnolia Madness texture by Isabelle Lafrance applied

Month in Macro 21 / 30

Nu Ska Vi Sjunga (Now Let's Sing)
We have this old Swedish song book that my mum had as a little girl. It's falling apart a bit but I love the character of it. It brings back memories of bedtime lullabies and songs sung at Midsummer and Christmas. It has charming illustrations too, of children enjoying the summer and the festivities at Chistmas.
I still sing some of the songs at bedtime to my son, even though he doesn't understand all the words, he'll ask "Sing the troll song, mummy". I love to keep the family history alive. Songs that my mother sung to me, and her mother sung to her.

Midsummer texture by Isabelle Lafrance applied

Old Paper 10 texture by My Second Skin applied

Sugar & Spice texture by Life-n-Reflection applied

Old Paper Texture 4 & 10 by My Second Skin applied

Taken with my 50mm 1.8 together with an extension tube 25mm. I have a post about extension tubes here, if you're interested in this alternative to a macro lens.

Linking up with Lisa Gordon's Creative Exchange.

I Heart Faces - Let’s Hear It For The Boys!

My favourite photo of my two favourite boys - my husband and our son!

Photo processed with The CoffeeShop Blog Butterscotch Vintage action.

Entered into I Heart Faces

Month in macro 20 / 30

Dew drops on Nandina or Japanese Sacred Bamboo
Please click on pictures to enlarge and see more detail

Project 52 Week 4 Fathers Day Special

 It's not actually Father's Day in Australia; but as it is elsewhere in the world; I thought I'd celebrate the special guys in my life. So I'm posting some photos I love from our family day at the Botanical Gardens on the weekend.My husband found some helicopter or whirlybird seed pods, and showed our son how he could throw them in the air and watch them whirl down. They had so much fun!!
Click on the second photo to enlarge, my son's eyes are just so lovely...I'm allowed to be biased.
I love the shots of them holding hands by the lake too. Makes my heart happy. :-)

Linking up with Paper Heart Camera Parenthood challenge


Thank you!

Month in Macro 19 / 30

Yesterday we visited the Botanical Gardens. I love the gardens; I always wander off with my camera to take shots of the plants. We walked to a lake this time, I'll post some photos later from this. We were checking it out for future picnics because our favourite lake has road works going on next door. :-(
Please click on the photos to get a larger picture that shows more detail. 

Processed with Johnna LaFaith's Whisper action

Cream Swirl texture by The CoffeeShop Blog applied

Magnolia Madness texture by Isabelle Lafrance applied

Vintage Cream texture by The CoffeeShop Blog applied

Vintage Cream texture by The CoffeeShop Blog applied

By the way the first flower was sparkly SOOC, the action just changed the colour slightly to more of a violet and brought out the sparkles a bit more. I didn't realise it was going to be so sparkly when I took the photo. What a happy surprise!
The white flowers had such an incredibly strong but pretty perfume.
All these photos taken with my 50mm 1.8 together with an extension tube 25mm, as all my macro photos are. Check out my post on extension tubes if you're interested, here.