Do I really need this?

As the kitchen and bathroom renovations are now to start at the end of October instead of the beginning of this month and it is too early to start packing up everything in the kitchen, I thought I would sort out a few things in the rest of the house especially the rooms in which we might be having some airconditioning units installed mainly for those 40C days which seem to arrive each summer now. The thought of having tradies traipsing through the rooms is a bit daunting so it is time to get rid of a lot of the excess 'stuff' that I haven't used for years but the problem is....what to throw out!!!

Out of kilter

Does anyone use the expression 'Out of kilter' any more? I remember my parents saying that quite regularly many years ago during conversations. I think that describes how I feel at the moment. Last week's terrible heatwave meant that each day was spent just finding ways to survive the heat and everything else got put on hold. It was too hot to cook sourdough, too hot to put the dehydrator on, too hot to cook a meal in our Western facing kitchen and so on.

Photography Classes and the Joys of the NBN

I mentioned recently that my son and I had booked in for a photography class so that we could learn how to use our cameras. I really really love my old Canon Point and Shoot camera as it is so convenient to use but seeing as I also have a Nikon Coolpix P600 which I bought on eBay for a discount as it was 'refurbished' ...whatever that means, I thought it was time to find out how it works properly. Our tutor, Don Hildred, was given the difficult task of combining both the basic course and the more advanced one as I wanted to do the basic one but my son already knew most of the basics so really needed to do the more advanced one. However, Don took it in his stride and was very helpful.

My Mother's Day present to myself...just because I loved the colour :-)

A Photo Shoot

As my son and I have booked into a photography class on Saturday and have to take along some of our 'work' I thought I had better unearth my Nikon Coolpix camera and actually learn how to use it instead of my little Canon Point and Shoot which I dearly love as it is so easy to just carry in my pocket as I am wandering around the garden. Of course there is no use having a 'good' camera and not being able to appreciate what it is capable of, so the time has come for me to learn .... seeing as I won't read the manual which is too complicated anyway :-) As I had been intending to take some photos of the murals painted during last year's First Coat Festival and the next one is coming up this month I decided that today was the day....just in case some of them are painted over soon.

A pre-heatwave photo session

I have a family member who is keen on photography at the moment and, in particular, Astrophotography and can be seen (or not) sitting out in the back yard in the dark looking at the wonders of the night sky through his telescope at all hours. He does take some stunning photos but wanted to have a go at taking photos of a waterfall of which there are a limited number here in town but we thought we would head up to Picnic Point on a cool day last week for a photo session before the current heatwave started.

A new view of the moon

Recently I contacted Meg from A House in the Hills asking what type of camera she used to take her absolutely stunning photos as the DSLR which I was given is quite heavy and complicated to use (for my brain) so I tend to just use my little Canon point and shoot. Also the DSLR camera is now being used  by my son who is into astrophotography. So I did a search for the camera Meg kindly told me about and found a refurbished one on eBay which had a one year guarantee and was the previous one in the series but practically the same. It has a 60x optical zoom which apparently is pretty amazing for a small camera so I thought I would treat myself for my recent birthday as my little Canon is looking a bit the worse for wear.

Am I in focus?

You will have to be patient with me while I learn the ins and outs of using my new DSLR camera. It is not quite the same as taking photos with my little point and shoot Canon which I can use without having to think about settings etc. So I spent a little time today doing a couple of the exercises in the online photography course I have started.

OH NO...HERE SHE COMES AGAIN!!!

I am sure that if the wildlife around here could talk they would be warning each other to watch out for that woman with the camera in her hand as she tries to inch closer and closer in order to take a close up photo. I haven't mastered using my new Nikon camera and find it so easy to put the little Canon in my pocket when I go outside in the mornings just in case I see an unsuspecting bird sitting on the clothesline or in one of the many trees on our property.

How NOT to take a photo!!!

As I like to record the different coloured varieties of Dahlias that we have growing each year and as most of the plants have almost finished flowering this season, when I saw some beautiful late bloomers in the front garden late in the afternoon yesterday I quickly grabbed the camera before it got too dark.