For your viewing pleasure

Thought that I would share some of the exhibit photos here, for those of you who are too far away to come see them.

Fifteen of the sixty six on display and they are most likely the photos that you haven't seen before on here.

Nite all.

The Box

Here is the Canon Photo5 Box!!  It arrived today and I am excited!!

Watch this space!!

Nite all.

Fraser Island

Mrs Bucket, Woman of Many Talents and I took a day trip to Fraser Island today for Mrs Bucket's birthday.

Woman of Many Talent's other half took us into The Bay where we caught a bus from the Marina, at 8am,  to River Heads to catch the Ferry at 9am.

Unfortunately, one of the buses forgot to pick up 60 odd kids from a school, so we had to wait almost an hour for them to get the kids, before we took off.

This of course meant that we got an hour less on the island for the day.

When we finally arrived on the island, we were directed to catch the bus or walk to Kingfisher Resort to get our 'passes' which would give us morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.  So we chose to walk there - about ten minutes walk up a slight incline.

They gave us our instructions for the day, as well as a bus timetable, issued resort towels for our swimming experience in the resort pool and sent us right back to where we started (near the ferry drop off point) for morning tea.  We chose to walk ... again.

We arrived to discover the cafe was closed.  We waited for five minutes for it to open, but then they advised us that morning tea was over - because our ferry was late, we missed morning tea.

They pointed us in the direction of another cafe where we could get morning tea - which was back up the slight incline, opposite the resort that we had just left.

We chose to walk ... again.

We also chose to buy a decent coffee, rather than use the free coffee that they were offering and I bought a gluten free jaffa cake as well.

When that was done, we wandered back over to the resort and found ourselves some banana lounges around the pool.

Mrs Bucket bought us a round of 'cocktails of the day', which were Bacardi, Vodka, Pineapple and Passionfruit juice with ice.  Presented in a tall glass with cubed ice and a straw.  No pretty fruit on the side, or a little paper umbrella or brightly coloured plastic animal sitting on the side of the glass.

Before we'd even finished half of our cocktail, we realised that it was already time for lunch, so we gathered our goods and this time caught a bus to the restaurant near the ferry drop off point.

We ordered lunch and by the time we received it and ate it, we had twenty minutes left to laze around the pool.  A fast change back into regular clothes and a shuffle down to the ferry quick smart, just in time to climb aboard for the trip home.

The day went so fast, but having that one less hour that we'd lost earlier in the day, didn't do us any favours.  Next time we will stay overnight :D

We then spent an hour at the Boat Club and later phoned Adoring Husband to come pick us up.

Despite the minor problems along the way, we had a really great day.

So a big Happy Birthday to Mrs Bucket!!  Even though it's not til Saturday.

Photos to come tomorrow, because I am just too tired to do anything else tonight.

My brother is staying the night tonight, after leaving his beloved non-girlfriend today.  We've had a good chat tonight and I suspect that he will be spending a number of hours on the phone with Non Girlfriend tonight before he goes to bed.

I will post some Fraser Island photos tomorrow.

Nite all.

Sold!

I sold another three photos today.  One to a lady in NZ who wants to have the image painted onto a piece of corrugated iron and two to a lady in town here.

It feels weird having people come to my house to buy my photos.  I find myself searching for reasons why they want my photos, other than the fact that my photos are good and these people genuinely want to own something that I've created.

I am such an interesting subject to study!

I wonder why I spend so much time trying to undermine my successes??

Constantly reading between the lines and trying to convince myself that people are buying my photos just because they are kind and generous and feel sorry for me because I went to all this trouble for an exhibit, so 'somebody' should buy 'something'.

I am not writing all of this as a 'call out' to receive encouragement or affirmations of my talent.

I am writing this because I really struggle to simply say 'thank you' to people.  I have to work hard at 'accepting' the accolades without adding a 'but'.  I don't understand what it was, precisely, in my life, that made me this way!

But it is VERY noticeable to me now, and I am trying hard to figure it out.

Why do I keep trying to convince myself that I'm not that good?  The second that I have a positive thought about how good my photography is, there is an IMMEDIATE thought that goes with it and it always starts with 'BUT'

For example, here are some of my thought processes:

• I really am a talented photographer ... but my shots don't even come close to National Geographic.
• My photos are beautiful, but they will never be as beautiful as those that have been photoshopped.
• It's a great photo, but it should be when I'm using such a great camera.
• It was a lucky shot.
• It's a great shot but I had to take 100 shots to get that one good shot.
• Anybody could have done that.

It's constant and exhausting!

I've always been like this, but right now, it is glaringly obvious and it feels like I'm slapping myself in the face with every negative thought.

I'm just not sure how to get out of this mindset.  There have been a few times when I've been able to tell myself in mid thought STOP THINKING THAT WAY!!

But a lifetime habit is very difficult to break!

I must remember the power of positive thinking!!

I must stop slapping myself in the face!!

I'm going to bed.  Big day tomorrow, and I hope to have some great shots to share at the end of it.

Nite all.

Kookaburras

No photos yet, but WATCH THIS SPACE!

The cleaners from the waterfront caravan park stopped me today to tell me about a kookaburra nest in the park.

The amazing co-incidence about this, is that two days ago, I googled kookaburra nests, because I had no idea what to look for!  Being Spring and all, I figured there must be some active nesting going on.

Anyway, I went to the park to check it out, but I didn't have time to wait for a siting because I had a busy day planned today.

I spoke to the people in the caravans on either side of the tree and they told me that the parent kookaburras had the chick on the ground yesterday afternoon, so I'm a bit concerned that I may be too late, but I have a free day tomorrow, so I'll go and spend a couple of hours waiting waiting waiting.

I had a friend drive up from the Sunshine Coast to see my exhibit today.  I was surprised by her positive enthusiasm ... I'm not sure what I expected ... but I was relieved that she loved it and was impressed.

I expected my little brother to be passing through today, on his way home to Cooktown, but I assume, by his absence, that he has decided to extend his visit with Charlie Chuckles.  Be happy LB :D

I didn't take any photos today and my afternoon and evening has been filled with play on my new iPad that Adoring Husband bought me as a 'congratulations' gift for the success of my exhibit.  He surprised me with it today!

I miss my quiet uneventful life.  I would like a week of 'nothing'.  I would like to wind down.  Maybe next week!

Nite all.

Restorations

I was stopped in the street this morning by a local man.  He asked me if I knew where he could get an old photo scanned and printed, so I gave him my suggestion.  He then told me that the photo was ripped and warped and water damaged and might need some restoration.  He also told me that he needed it done by this weekend for his brother-in-law's 70th birthday.

I had no idea where he could get that done in our area, but straight away I thought that I could give it a go with an editing program, so I agreed to pick up the photo this afternoon.

I rode to his house, just around the corner, at 3pm and was presented with a very old photo.  An old sepia toned photo that had been painted over with colour (it was quite popular in professional photography in the 40s) and it was glued to a heavy cardboard backing.

The photo had been behind glass in an old frame for many years and then held in storage for the last 7 yrs.  It was water damaged which warped and stained the cardboard backing and it looked like it may have stuck to the frame because there were a few large patches of torn photo around the edges.

Here is the 'before' photo...

I spent about an hour touching it up with a really simple and free online editing program called Picmonkey - because I'm still not confident with photoshop.  I used cloning to fill the bottom of the photo and fill in the rounded corners.  Here is the 'after' photo ...

I'm quite pleased with the result, considering that it's my first attempt to restore an old photo.  I think the gentleman will be pleased as well.  I quite enjoyed the process too.

Got another big day tomorrow.  Morning tea with the girls, a trip into Maryborough and my brother will be dropping in here on his way back up north.

So, I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

I need a nap!

This is how I updated my facebook status this evening.

This 'Boz' is exhausted (happily so) from being a grandmother for the longest stint yet. Exploring the garden, rearranging the garden ornaments, filling one watering can with dead grass, filling the other with rocks, reorganising the dvd collection, finding new homes for all the teddies, swimming and dancing with fishies on a string, reading about and hiding Ronnie the Roo, taking all the froggy (nibbit nibbit) ornaments for a swim in the dog's water dish, removing all the froggy fridge magnets, filling Wilbur Herbert's bucket with pebbles, watching a bit of 'Chicken Little' and a bit of 'Cars', playing 'upside-down' and 'faster, faster' and 'horsies' in the yard. I think that just about covers most of it. Think I'll sleep well tonight :D Thank you for listening :D

A few photos from our day ...

The band-aid on her forehead is where she picked up a tiny shard of glass when she rested her head on the ground the other day. Nothing to be concerned about.
... and now I must sleep.

Nite all.