It is still hot

It's hot

Still Life

Well it's Sunday afternoon and since Friday night the Rugby World Cup has been on in the background (I did manage to catch up on Eastenders though) and I must say New Zealand did a lovely job on the first section of the opening ceremony. I do not quite understand this game I am more of a football girl (that's soccer not afl) and enjoy watching Arsenal in the middle of the night (ok last night I only watched the first half before falling back to sleep.......the joys of having Austar in the bedroom).

So DH gave me a few props this morning and said take your pics and use what you want from this lot but you can't add anything else. So this is what I came up with, however I have spent the morning playing with Nikon's Camera Control Pro 2 which enables me to tether the camera to the pc and look at the pics as soon as they are taken. I have saved heaps of time today using this and can see almost instantly on whether I have got the shot or what needs to be altered without keep taking the card in and out. It did however cost DH a trip down to JB to get a longer cord and extension so I could move the tripod around. I can see this piece of software being used often when shooting macro and still shots.

I have also managed to get the majority of my notes onto my iPad while the rugby was on. Which I think I will go and finish off while Australia run Italy into the ground.

Something different

This is the back of the old Catholic Monastery in Ballarat. The actual building has been made into apartments which are gorgeous inside and very modern. They have kept all the outside original including all the statues which I think is nice (although it is probably Heritage and therefore they had no choice!). If it wasn't for the location it would be a great place to live.

I took this in RAW and with some adjustments in photoshop transformed it to black and white. I would like to look at a photoshop course, having finished my photography degree I think that would compliment it nicely. However I can see it being costly getting printer/monitor/photoshop/camera all calibrated to the same output. I have the spyder monitor calibration which does make a difference but it does change when photos are shown on another computer. I wonder if there is some sort of standardisation that could be used.

I have also been organising all my notes I have taken over the years onto my iPad. I have the majority of my books and magazines on there and as I am trying to be as paperless as possible I am using the Notability app to sort them out. It seems to be quite good I can type it up on word and save it as a rtf file and open it up in the app with the ability to add typing/pictures/drawings. It also has a search function which is the most important function.

Off to soak my sore tender muscles in a radox bath - boxing pt session with Jono was murder. As I have been banned from my spin and pump classes due to ankle injury I got quite sluggish and bleh. However half hour with Jono soon had me back in the groove, and not too strenuous on my ankle.

Flowers Take 3

Well that seems a bit better than yesterday. A lot sharper in any rate and I must admit I have been really pleased in getting back to my photography although I think I will look for something other than flowers for tomorrow. These were taken without tubes but I am still impressed with my macro lens and the quality it produces. 

Flowers Take 2

So this week is just going to be flowers, but then I have to make the most of these gorgeous colours. DH really likes the lily shot (it looks like aliens was what I think he said!) but the rose is more mine. I will try the rose with the extension tubes tomorrow to see how sharp I can actually get it as this one is still a bit too soft for my liking.



Back to basics

Well it was definitely back to basics for me today. I cleared off my desk, cleared out my drawers, set up a macro studio so to speak, had a general move around of computer/photographic equipment and then got back to what I enjoyed most.........macro flowers. Ok the photographic side of it came back really quickly but I do admit I had to pull out my old notes on photoshop to refresh my memory. I did however thoroughly enjoy the last couple of hours and now with a more ease of access set up (ie I don't have to move everything off the kitchen table for us to eat anymore) I should be able to quickly set up shots each day.

The topic of today was illustrate attraction and in a round about way I think I did this. These flowers are from my DH whom I hope after all these years of putting up with my idiosyncrasies still finds me attractive enough to buy me flowers. So look forward to more shots throughout the week as I will keep taking shots of these until they have expired.