My Baby

A photo that I've been wanting to share for about a week now - I'm tossing it on here early.

 I've seen shags try to steal fishermen's bait before, but not their catch!

I spent the day with my baby today.

This was a photo I prepared earlier.  I didn't take any photos today because we were too busy playing and counting and talking and running and giggling.

As predicted by Vegan Chickie ... I am exhausted!  Happily exhausted :D

One more thing before I go ... Happy birthday to The Nikonian with hugs xxx

Nite all.

It's All About Me!

I have been cleaning out my photo library this afternoon.

I've culled over 3,000 photos and I'm less than halfway through them all!  What a job!

I thought I would share The Master's speech with you tonight.  The speech that he made at the exhibit opening.

************

** First of all, let me say thank you to the directors of the gallery for having me here, and a personal thank you to Roz for inviting me to say a few words tonight.

I am often asked to speak at various functions and events that relate to photography, including at graduation events for photography students as they graduate from college. 

But I have never before had the chance to speak at the opening night of a photography exhibition by a person who was once one of my students, and who I can now call a friend.  So it is indeed a very special honour to be here.

No please don't think that by mentioning that Roz was one of my students I am trying to take credit for what she has done.  I might have planted a small seed of knowledge at the start, the the rest is all Roz.

When I first met Roz it was April last year, at my beginner's workshop.  I will repeat, Roz was at a BEGINNER'S workshop, just 18 MONTHS AGO.  At the time, Roz was really - to me - just another student (no offence Roz).

I keep in touch with a lot of my past students through an online forum, so I was able to see some of Roz's progress ... I noticed that she was taking a lot of photos and the quality of her work was getting better and better.  Then around Christmas, I got an email saying "Help!  Someone wants to buy my photos and I have no idea what to charge them!"

I sent back an email full of very sensible advice, when what my email should really have said is -

"Excuse me ... what the hell?  Less than a year ago, you were a beginner (no offence Roz) and now people are asking you to name your price?  Seriously?  That's not possible."

But of course it is possible because Roz did it.  So forget 'not possible' ... it's just 'not fair'.  Not fair on all those talented photographers out there who toil away for ten years to achieve only a fraction of what Roz has achieved.

So, how does one go from enthusiastic novice (no offence Roz) to virtual professional in less than a year?  Apart from raw natural talent, you can sum it up in one word - dedication.  OR you can sum it up in three words - TOTAL LUNATIC OBSESSION.

(No offence Roz)

I am guessing that Roz is out there 3 or 4 hours a day, 7 days a week, 364 days a year.  And I don't mean just trundling about randomly until you accidentally stumble across an opportunity.

I mean getting to know your locations inside and out, so you know where you need to be, when you need to be there, what time of the day sun shines from the best angle, what time of day the birds are active, which spots are good at high tide ... or low tide.

It all goes into the big mental calculator ... and when a moment comes along that seems just too good to be true, you don't capture it by sheer luck.  You capture it because you were the one person on earth who anticipated that moment and was there waiting - camera in hand - before it happened.

During all these hundreds of hours you are busily taking thousands of photos.  And don't think for a minute that all we do is snap away and eventually we get a few good shots by accident.  No, you look at every shot you take and you ask yourself - what did I do right, what did I do wrong, what can I do better - and you use that information to make your next shot better, and you keep on doing it until you get that shot perfect.

And here is the thing that sets the lunatic apart from the rest.  Even when you have your perfect shot - you go back the next day and see if you can get something even better.

So all in all, I guess it was only a matter of time (just 18 months as it turns out) before Roz became a featured artist in an exhibition.  What did surprise me, when I was preparing my thoughts on how far she had come as a nature photographer, was to find out - oh by the way, I will also be showing some of my new art deco work.

So I repeat - what the hell?  It's not enough that you master in six months what most people spend a lifetime trying to achieve, you have now just picked up a whole new art form and mastered that as well!

So, to sum all of this up in just a few short words.

ROZ... YOU ARE TOO GOOD - it's not fair on the rest of us.

YOU ARE A LUNATIC - No offence - I mean lunatic in the best sense of the word.

And one more thing ... congratulations. I am so proud of you, and may this be the first of many successful exhibitions **

************

Thank you to The Master :D

Finishing off with a family photo, taken before my brother left on Sunday morning.

Fancy that!  Two family photos in one weekend!  Unheard of!

Nite all.

Catching Up

My sister, Squirt, left this morning after accompanying me to the Seat of Knowledge.  It was fantastic to have her and Sparky here for my special night.   It's a long way to travel and it was great to have we three siblings together for a happy occasion.

After she left, Adoring Husband and I drove to Maryborough to meet with The Nikonian, who travelled two and a half hours just to see my exhibit (or she may have had other things to do in the area too LOL). I like to believe that it was ALL ABOUT ME!!

She said all the right things and gasped in awe and revelled in my excitement and shared my happiness and felt joy for my success.  She is such a lovely person and I really enjoyed my time with her today.

We did coffee and lunch at Photogroffee and then parted company with a hug.

Adoring Husband and I spent a quiet afternoon on the couch.  He, watching Dr Who shows that he had recorded last week and me with my laptop firmly on my lap.

A really nice day to wind down after a hectic week.

Nite all.

The Night

Well, what a night!

Adoring Husband and I had to arrive at the gallery two hours earlier than originally planned because The Chronicle newspaper journalist wanted to take mine and The Artist's photos at 3.30pm to meet the newspaper deadline of 4pm in order to make the Saturday edition.

That was quite inconvenient because we had to leave my brother and sister at home.  It meant two hours of valuable family time taken away from us, and considering that we've only been together as a family twice in seven years, this change in plans was a touch annoying.

The advantage to it was that there were a few loose ends that I needed to tidy up with the gallery staff, who had made a couple of mistakes in my catalogue.

The Artist and her husband had spent many hours preparing finger food that could be reheated on the night, so they were busy in the kitchen from the moment they arrived at the gallery.

Friends volunteered to carry the food on platters through the crowd during the evening and they did a marvellous job.

My family all arrived quite early in the evening and they had the chance to look around at The Artist's paintings and my photographs before the crowd grew.  They hadn't seen any of my work framed before and I think they were a little surprised at the size of the gallery.

I have to say that it was nice to see the pride in their faces and to see that they were impressed.  That made me feel happy.

What made me feel even happier, was Vegan Chickie, the Bare-chested Chef and Chicklet making a brief appearance just before the formalities began.  It was lovely of them to come such a long way at night with Chicklet to offer their support.  I love you three :o)

Then the crowds began to arrive.  Lots of people from our community, some of whom had provided me with photo opportunities, looking forward to viewing the final product of their offerings.

People from the local community who see me riding around town every day on my trike with camera in hand, who have always been curious about what I photographed and whether I was any good.

They were all suitably impressed and all of them made the effort to greet me and offer positive feedback.  I got the impression that they weren't expecting my work to be as good as it was, so they were gasping in awe and offering me congratulations.

They were very generous with their praise and it was a huge boost to my ego, which, by that point in the process, was in desperate need of boosting!

When it was time for the speeches, my tutor, The Master, was first cab off the rank and he had written a two page speech that was funny and entertaining and full of praise for my photography.

I was surprised by the nice things that he said and by the time he'd finished, I was feeling a little overwhelmed!  Which didn't help me with my own speech.

I hadn't prepared anything because I knew who I wanted to thank and I also wanted to keep it short and sweet.  When I attended last month's exhibit opening, one of the artists babbled on and on, and I didn't want people to get bored listening to me do that.

I remembered to thank everyone except my Adoring Husband.  He was the one who had to put up with my moody, stressed and obsessive behaviour for the last 6 months (in particular, the last 2 months).

He has put up with my 'absence' while I worked at my desk for 10 hours every day.

He has done the cooking and the cleaning and the running around between The Bay for printing photos, the gallery for organising and also driving me to various locations to take photographs.

He has always been the 'organiser' in our house and he does that job extremely well.  I know how difficult it was for him to step aside and allow me to do this without him taking charge.

So he mostly stayed in the background and gave me emotional support.

Adoring Husband, I thank you, from the bottom of my heart :o)  You have been wonderful and I appreciate that you have had to cope with a weird and difficult routine over these past months, but you have coped admirably and made all of this so much easier for me.

After forgetting to thank AH, I finished my short, nervous speech abruptly and handed the mike over for the other Guest Speakers to have their turn.

One of those speakers was The Artist, and in her speech, she included some lovely words about my photography.

She has been so generous offering me this opportunity and I have learnt so much about myself in the process.  I am trying to figure out a special way to thank her - it has to be 'just right'.

Adoring Husband then handed me the camera so that I could take a few happy snaps.  He had already spent the evening walking around the gallery taking photos of the guests and patrons as they wandered around.  (another big thank you for that!)

So I have sold quite a few photographs and I have to get a quote for one of them to be framed as well.

I consider the whole experience to be a huge success.  I've had no expectations for what might happen beyond the exhibition and the biggest thrill for me is getting to share, with other people, the thing that I love to do most.

Whatever happens after this will be a bonus!

The Artist and some of her work.

Nite all.

Success!!

I will post some photos tonight, quickly, and then tell you all about the opening night, tomorrow.  It's late and it's been a huge weekend, so I need to sleep.

It was a great success and I will do all the appropriate raving tomorrow.

Nite all.

He's Here!

Unexpectedly, my brother and his close lady friend arrived today, instead of tomorrow!

It's the first time that I've met her and she is nice and bright and intelligent and articulate and friendly and happy and easy to get along with.

However, it is almost 1am, so I'm off to bed ... but I do a short post so that you know I am still alive :D

I hope to have photos of all the family tomorrow, so watch this space!

Nite all

Ready Mr Music

We arrived at the gallery this morning to find that all of the photos had been hung, but they had been completely rearranged.

Adoring Husband appeared to be a little perturbed by this turn of events, and it took a minute to convince him that I was happy with the new arrangement.

It looks fantastic!

So, as promised, I have a few photos of the gallery with my photos on the walls!

I didn't photograph all of the walls, but we'll take more photos on opening night.

Tomorrow we prepare for another house full of people/family for the weekend and then we are ready Mr Music!

I think I'm starting to get excited :D

Nite all.

Framed and Hung

It took five hours to frame 65 photos and hang 40 of them.  The other 25 will be hung tomorrow morning.

Even if I do say so myself, they look fabulous!!

I had to cull 20 due to space issues, which was pretty tough to do, but I think I've kept the best on the walls.

I will take the camera tomorrow and get a photo of inside the gallery to share on here.

I'm sorry that all of my posts have been so short here lately, but my brain is so full of what I still need to do, that I'm having trouble stringing enough words together to post anything!

Just a few more days and life will return to normal again.

Go me!!

Nite all.

Quick Pics

Adoring Husband and I headed off to Maryborough this morning, planning on getting started on the exhibit, and were just out of town when he said to me "Where are your photos sweety?"

They were still at home on my desk!

What a doofus head.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we didn't get to Maryborough, so I need a good night of sleep because we have a big day of framing and hanging tomorrow.

Here are a few photos from the weekend.

It was a great weekend and just what I needed as a distraction before this heavy week coming up.

Time for bed.

Nite all.

Whale of a Time

That's what The Nikonian sent me in a text after she arrived home today.  "I had a whale of a time" lol

Fifteen of us, including seven from the JPEG flickr group all went whale watching today, and what a great day it was!  There were heaps of whales and some fantastic shots were taken.  Lots of shutters going off at speed as the whales surfaced time and time again.

Everybody had a great day.  The weather was glorious, though a little cool for the first half of the day.

We all got some good shots in and I'm looking forward to seeing everybody's shots on flickr over the coming days.

Sadly, The Nikonian had to leave straight after the whale trip, but the others are staying another night, so we all came home to load our photos onto laptops and tablets and Ooooh and Aaaah over our triumphs.

After a few nibblies and drinks, we headed down to the river for some sunset and bird shots.  There was just enough smoke haze on the horizon to create a bit of colour right at the end of the sunset.

A few pelicans, seagulls and yachts to add a bit of interest.

Then we decided to head home and agreed to come back to the river after dinner in search of Tawny Frogmouths.

So we all lugged our tripods and camera gear in the dark along the river path in search of the elusive Tawnies.  We nominated a 'torch bearer' who searched the ground and the trees with the beam of light to no avail.

As we neared the end of the path at the second boat ramp, when we were just about to give up and take photos of the moon, the Arty Farty Crafty one said "What was that?  It just flew into the tree!"

We aimed the torch and there before us was a Tawny Frogmouth sitting on a branch, almost the perfect distance for some wonderful photos.

So we spent about twenty minutes annoying the crap out of the poor bird, torch shining in his face while we snapped away.

We decided to leave him in peace and go down to the beach for moon shots.

Half an hour later, we slowly headed back along the path, all feeling totally exhausted from one very full day.

Home made Baileys and birthday chocolate for 'JFocus' and then one by one everybody gradually made their way to bed all calling out "good night" in very happy and satisfied voices.

It has been a huge day and I am absolutely exhausted.

We will all be up early in the morning hoping to catch some photos of the Bee Eaters around the house and I think I'll take everyone across the road to the lagoon.

So, I'd best go get some sleep in preparation of another big day, because Adoring Husband and I  also have to start setting up for the exhibit on Friday.

I think I'm getting too old for all of this excitement!

It was so great to see you Nikonian.  The visit was just a little too short!

I will post photos tomorrow after I've had a chance to look at them properly.

Nite all.

We're Here!

This is us.

Need sleep.

Nite all.

More Hours

Ok, just for the next eight days, is it possible that somebody out there can arrange an extra 5 or 6 hours onto each day?  I'd really appreciate that.  Thanks.

What a hectic day!

I really expected to be totally organised and completely ready for a whale watching trip with lots of friends to share the experience.

I think I would have been, if a job I took on, hadn't taken 5 hours instead of 5 minutes like it should have.

It put me so far behind the eight ball, I have been struggling all day to catch up, but I think I have to concede defeat now, at 11.30pm and hope that I can rise early enough to finish my 'to do' list.

I really must bath the dogs in the morning too.

So much to do, so little time!

I haven't had a chance to get out and about with the camera for a couple of days (aside from the job that I did yesterday) and I'm suffering withdrawals.  Thank goodness the flickr girls are coming for the weekend, loaded with their cameras and paraphernalia!

Here is a photo that I prepared earlier.

Nite all.

Not enough hours in today

Just popped in to let you know that I am still alive, but have no time for blogging tonight.

It's already after 1am and I'm still trying to get these real estate photos finished and sent.

I'll catch up tomorrow.

Nite all.

Oh and thank you for your comment yesterday Judi - I agree that she is lovely :D

Excited

I'm excited about this weekend, the whale watching trip and seeing my new photographer friends again.  It should be a fun and relaxing and exciting all at the same time.

I really hope that there will be lots of whales and I can't wait to see everyone's photos when it's all over.

Got a bit to do around the house tomorrow and then some grocery shopping on Friday and then the mob should be arriving on Saturday.

There will only be six staying with us now - but that will make it very comfortable.

***happy dance***

Today, we had a lovely visit from the Chicklet family.  We had a nice relaxing lunch outside and then we played baby golf in the garden and collected some frog ornaments.

It was only a short visit.

Chicklet is stringing lots of words together now and is counting and knows her colours and is so interested in her world and exploring and running.

I really enjoyed my time with her today and I actually remembered to take photos!!  Yay!  I think both Vegan Chickie AND Adoring Husband reminded me at different times.  Thank goodness I have them to nudge me along!

Now I need to rest my weary head.

Nite all.

Lucky Thirteen

So my framing issue is not as big an issue as first thought.

I am now short thirteen A3 sized frames.

My three options are:

1. Contact all the framers in town and try to get thirteen cheap frames made up.
2. Go to Crazy Clarks, Sams Warehouse or another el-cheapo shop and buy cheap frames.
3. Reprint thirteen photos at a smaller size so that they fit the frames that are available.

Option three is the least expensive and the one that I've selected.

All is right with the world again.

I had my final meeting with The Artist this afternoon.

On Monday, Adoring Husband and I will get the reprints done on the way to the gallery.

While the gallery staff are disassembling this months exhibit, we will frame the photos and then on Tuesday, we will spend the day hanging them in the gallery and cataloguing.

Everything is under control.

I had a nice lunch with the girls down at the park today.  The weather was beautiful and nineteen of us ended up in an entertainment area belonging to one of the ladies who lives on the water front.

She has her house on the market and she has asked me to take photos for the real estate website because she isn't happy with the professional photos that have been taken.

Funny how this is the second job I've been asked to do because a professional photographer has not been satisfactory.

Speaking of photographers.  I found our wedding photos yesterday, and looking at them now, they are even worse than I remembered.

I've kept them out to show the girls when they are here on the weekend.  I know that they will be horrified and will share my pain.

I wish I'd known the Nikonian back then.  Her 'happy snaps' would have been a million times better than the photos that we have.

You live and learn.

Crikey!  I just looked at the clock and it's almost 12.30am!

I have the Chicklet family coming for lunch tomorrow, so I'm off to bed, so that I can be fresh and rested for my baby.

MUST REMEMBER TO TAKE PHOTOS!

Nite all.

Good news. Bad news.

The Bad News:

A quick trip to the gallery in Maryborough this morning to check that my odd-sized photos fit into the frames provided, turned into a 'sick feeling in the pitt of your stomach' kind of morning.

The gallery lost my booking for the frames and have now promised at least half of them to somebody who has an exhibit in one of the upstairs galleries.

I guestimate that I will be about 20 - 30 frames short of what I need, but the artist was still to get back to them with numbers.

The gallery staff have kindly contacted the Hervey Bay gallery to see if they have any to spare for the month, but we won't know the outcome of that until tomorrow.

**sigh**

So I am sending positive energy into the universe.

I am skipping and dancing with flowers in my hair and a smile on my face and wishing for all good things to happen during the next 24 hours.

There are huge storms brewing all around me and they are going to blow and wash all the bad energy away and bring happiness and sunshine my way.

Thinking happy thoughts.

The Good News:

On the good side ... I am very happy with the way my final 9 photos printed, especially the three I selected for the large size, and especially the musical instrument shot that I shared here a couple of days ago .. AND .. I got them printed at half price!

What I expected to be about $120 turned out to be $67.  Bonus!!

I hope that tomorrow will be ALL good news.  So watch this space and I will keep you posted.

Nite all

Memory Lane

Adoring Husband has misplaced the Canon discs from our cameras.

When his computer crashed last month, he lost the Canon program that loads photos from the camera to the computer, so today we searched high and low for the discs so that he could reload the program.

Even though our searching proved fruitless, I found some hidden treasures that I would like to share with you.

L-R Gramps Fordham(dec), Nanna Fordham(dec), Uncle Rob (dec), Aunty Robyn and her parents.

Me, aged 15 - school photo from Pine Rivers High School, Strathpine, 1975

Me with my cousin, both aged 4, before appearing on the TV show Romper Room (according to my Aunty Jackie)

My Dad's family.  L-R Ian (I think), Jimmy, Nanna Griffin, Gramps Griffin, Brian, Noel (Dad aged 16) , then on the bottom row Ken (I think) and Wayne.

You see, everything happens for a reason.

I have been searching, on and off,  for my father's family photo for almost a year.  A cousin, who I haven't seen for about 40 yrs, contacted me through facebook and provided me with so much family information that she has collected while doing our family tree.  I promised to send her this family photo, because she didn't have one of the whole family together.

For the week following our initial contact, I turned this house upside down trying to find it, to no avail.

I knew it would turn up eventually ... and today was the 'eventually' ... all because Adoring Husband lost the discs.

So even though I was quite annoyed that I had to waste time searching, in the end, I was very excited to find these treasures!  Everything happens for a reason.

Here's a photo of one of my boys feeding the Butcher bird down at the Seat of Knowledge.

Every day this week, the bird pops in and has a little feed.  Gentleman Jim gives him a little whistle and they have a chat.  So nice.

I've sorted through some jewellery that I will display at the gallery while our exhibit is open and now all I have to do is find a way to do the postcards.

I've discovered that you can get stickers that go on the back of photos to make them look like postcards, I just need to access some at a reasonable cost and that I can get quickly - like within a week!  Cutting it a bit fine.

Big day tomorrow, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Springing

Spring is springing into action!

I arrived home from the Seat of Knowledge this morning to find these two guys sitting on my fence.

Wattle Bird

Rainbow Bee Eater

There was a bit of a battle for territory going on, but they didn't fight too hard.

Our Grass Tree has grown a new spike too, which is pretty cool.

You can see the fog in the background - taken at 7am today.

My head has been extremely fuzzy all day.  Going to bed at 9.30pm was not a good idea.  Waking up at 3.30am was an even worse idea!

Midnight til 6am suits me fine.

9.30pm til 3.30am does NOT suit me at all!

So Spring may be springing, but I certainly was not springing anywhere today.  It was a rest day for me and I ate chocolate.  Lots of it.

Tomorrow, I hope my brain will be fresh again.  It will be a better day.

Nite all.

Dozing

It's 9.15pm.

I've had three glasses of wine since 5pm and am now sitting on the couch watching my footy team get creamed by the team most hated in the league.

I am dozing.

The wine has done me in!  I am going to bed.

Thought that I would generously share one of my favourite pics for the exhibit before I go.  This will be blown up to a large size.

Nite all.

A Quickie

Is this the biggest dog you've ever seen in your life?  The dog's owner is not a short woman either!

Stopped in for a quick coffee with Vegan Chickie and Chicklet today ... and then got a quick shot of the pier at exactly midday.

 
I wonder if the fog lifted after this?  There was no fog at the other end of town!

We did some printing today, but we have to go back on Saturday to see the girl in charge, so that we can get a good price on the larger prints.

I submitted my entry into the "Wind" brief for the EOS Photo5 competition today.

I felt a bit pressured, with so much going on at the moment, but I really want to enter all five briefs this year so that I qualify automatically next year and NOT have to be under any pressure in 2013.

Anyway, as I the title says, just a quickie tonight.  My pillow beckons.

Nite all.

Making Music

What a full day today has been!

Of course, the Seat of Knowledge was the first stop this morning and it was great to see The Little Gnome back from his trip to Rubyvale, where he spent a little over two weeks with his grandson and family.

We missed him while he was gone!

Afterwards we had a date with some acquaintances to help them with their camera, computer, electronic photo frame and TV/DVD.

That took three hours.  It was a pleasant three hours because they are lovely people, and Adoring Husband did most of the work.  Ok, Adoring Husband did ALL of the work!

They were most appreciative and we got a big bag of fresh veggies from their garden as well as the offer of some plants from their bromeliad garden and a dinner invitation for some time in the future.

These people will be at the exhibit opening night and will be serving nibblies to the patrons as well, to help out, so that's a lovely gesture.

We drove home from there to have a quick lunch and then I pedalled up my street, for the musical instrument photo shoot, at BP's place.

The moment B took the instruments out of their velvet lined cases, I fell in love with them.

They were so shiny and smooth and sleek with beautiful lines and the light danced off them as B moved them around on the black sheet to suit my requirements.

I took 90 photos.  Some of them I aimed and fired, but most I just held the camera up high and at different angles shooting blind.  I really enjoy that kind of photography and I am almost always pleasantly surprised by the shots I get that way.

I have selected five of the best and I think I will use them on a panel for a series of shots.  There is one in particular that I will enlarge.

I have three photos that I am enlarging as features.

So far, all is going to plan.  Fingers crossed, it will continue to do so!

Tomorrow is the opening day for submissions to the EOS Photo5 competition and I still haven't decided on my 'Wind' photo.

I wanted to submit one of my musical instruments photos, because they are 'wind' instruments, but having read the brief again, I don't think it would be acceptable.

So now I have a wee dilemma and I'm not sure what to do.  I do my best work under pressure!

This is the photo that I have rejected for the brief ...

I have four other wind shots set aside, that are possibilities.  Need to ponder for a little while.

Got another busy day ahead tomorrow, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Good Business

So yesterday afternoon, I got a phone call from an acquaintance who lives next door to a friend of mine.

She was very unhappy with the shots taken by the photographer that her employer used, so she asked if I would take a photo that she could use on her business cards and stationery for her new job.

I said that I'd 'have a go'.  She said that she would be here after work at about 4.30pm.

The way she said it, made me think that she believed I had a studio here.

An hour before she arrived, I pegged a white sheet up over a wall on the Eastern side of our house, which at that time of the day, is in shade, and I took a couple of practise shots.

When she arrived, I led her through the house and outside to my makeshift 'set' and explained to her that portrait shots were not my forte, so I couldn't guarantee that the shots would be any good, but that I would do my best.

She did seem a little surprised to be standing in front of a pegged sheet in my back yard!

Surprisingly, it only took about a dozen shots to get one that we agreed on.

The tricky part was then finding my way around photoshop to make the crinkly white sheet in the background look like a solid colour behind her.

I suffered my way through for a while, becoming very frustrated.  I even found a site called Elements Ten for Dummies.

I'm obviously dumber than a dummy, because I couldn't understand it at all.

Finally, in desperation, I sent my friend 'The Nikonian' a private message in facebook and asked her to explain in simple photoshop terms how to perform this task.

One paragraph later (thank you! thank you!) and WHALAH!!

Not too bad for my first business card photo!  Even if I do say so myself!

She offered to pay me for the pleasure, but I told her it was my 'congratulations on your new job' gift from me.  When I emailed it to her later, she replied with a very pleased message, thanking me.  Thank goodness!

Very nerve racking these shoots.  All good experience, and each time I push myself a bit out of my comfort zone, that just improves my photography.

Tomorrow, Adoring Husband and I are helping a couple learn how to download photos from their camera to their computer and then how to create an email with a photo attached.  They also want to learn how to put information from their computer to a memory stick.

Then another photo shoot for me!  This time with musical instruments.  What I thought would be one musical instrument, has turned into almost an orchestra of instruments, so I am very excited at what I might find when I arrive!

So it's a big day ahead for me.  Best get some sleep!

Nite all.

Almost Famous

Well, my fifteen minutes of fame commences as of tomorrow.

The town Newsletter was published and issued today, with our photos and story on page three.  Woot Woot!

My photos arrived from the Sunshine Coast after being printed by my friend down there and they look so much better than I expected.  I am very pleased and it's a weight lifted from my shoulders.  Now I only have 50 more to print, which we'll do this week.

Will take a couple of the odd sized ones to the gallery this week to make sure they have frames to fit them.

I still have to organise the postcards eep!

Need to write a blurb about myself so that the patrons can read about me.

Falling into place nicely now I think.

Played in photoshop a bit this afternoon.

I can't imagine ever knowing all there is to know about it.  Every time I open it, I find something new.  I need to sit with someone 'in the know' (you know who you are! lol).

That's all I'm sharing for today.  Off to bed for yet another early night.

Nite all.

Excellent Show!

Jon English - Rock Revolution.

If you get a chance, go see it!  You won't regret it.  More talent on one stage than you could ever imagine in your wildest dreams.  Breathtaking Brilliant Bravo.

The mini challenge in the 104 group this weekend was 'From a Low Angle'.  Here are my photos that I have just posted onto Fb.

I think I might go to bed early (11.30 is early for me!).

Nite all.