SUNSET THINKING

 

As the sun sets behind her, she is thinking. Thinking of all the little wonders around her – the dog, the sister, the people she loves in her life. She spots a bird, an ant, a footprint in the dirt.

She asks questions. She is four. She asks LOTS of questions.

Why are those trees knocked down?

Why do we need oxygen?

What’s that orange stuff growing in Daddy’s paddock?

How do you know he had a dog that bit someone on the bum?

Where was I when my big sister was born?

What do you mean I wasn’t here yet?

Where was I?

Was I visiting Maa Maa & Grandad?

What are those insects doing?

What’s your favourite colour?

Are you old?

How much longer do I have to wait to get a new number?

When will I be a grown up?

 

Hmmm, what does the future hold?  I’m much older than four and I still don’t know. I’m not sure anybody ever does….

But, she can dream. She dreams BIG.

RUN THE WIRE

Today the sky is blue. The clouds are thick. White. The Buffel looks like discarded straw. Moisture is minimal.

The fence stands strong. Four barbs with wooden posts in the black soil. It stands strong, against the odds.

If that fence could talk, what would it say?

In recent years it could describe the Station employees and their work ethics. The colour of their shirts as they bounce past on the nearby track, one elbow protruding from the window frame as they casually rest their hand on the steering wheel.

It could use several kinds of adjectives, I’m sure – to describe what it has seen – heard on the wind and carried from the nearby shed and its activities.

In the mornings, and again in the afternoon, it watches a frazzled parent, relative or Nanny high-tailing it to meet the school bus. The tell-tale signs of the rush out the door still etched in the furrow of the driver’s brow. The youngest of the children probably wave….or smear Vegemite on the window – Same! Same!

It silently counts the increase in traffic as the local mining industry booms. Bitumen over yonder would be nice. Less dust to be collected in my splintering Gidgee.

The seasons pass. Not four, but two. It’s hot or it’s cold. There’s not much in between.

The fence stands strong. Four barbs with wooden posts in the black soil. It stands strong, against the odds.

IT’S DRY

It’s dry.

The cattle are thirsty.

The wheat can’t put down more roots.

It’s dry.

If the skies don’t open, life on the land goes on, as best it can.

If the skies do open, life goes on. But there’s more of it.

More greenery, more progeny. More miracles of the bush that we don’t always see but often hear – The birds in the trees, the koalas near the creek. There are old red kangaroos lounging in the shade.

More smiles of wonder on little human faces as they notice more of life all around them.

We want rain. We will survive without it, for a little while longer, but we’d be more content if it came……

Though, drought is a less expensive form of weed control, I suppose.

WHEN WALLY GROWS UP….

 

The life of a dog is not complete without space to roam and follow all the smells to their source. Without mud to romp in, grass to roll in and water to splash in, how can a dog truly be content?

An urban dog might spy freedom between the fence palings or veer occasionally from the concrete path depending on the length of his lead. But a working dog earns his keep, is worth three paid humans at least and is respected for his wit and intelligence.

When Wally grows up, he wants to be a Labrador. He watches the retired yellow pet in his ageing years and thinks he’s got life sorted. First dibs on the scraps, comfy bed by the front door. Nothing bothers him and he doesn’t listen. He dozes all day and snores all night. Perfect!

But first, Wally must earn his stripes. He is a pup. He is agile. He is kind natured with good blood lines. His parents have proven themselves worthy of the game and learnt their lessons well. Soon it will be his turn to ‘step up’ to the fence that bounds the yards. To tail the weaners and muster the steers. It will be Game On! But not without some practice.

Luckily for Wally, his apprenticeship involves plenty of belly rubs and food treats. Soft grass to play and Little People to chase around the slide. He bounds at our feet at his meal time and sits quietly in hope at our meal time.

He is endearing, he is obedient. He is Wally :)

 

TWO | SNAPPED

To photograph one of something can be amazing, but to shoot two at once is double the fun. Two is a pair, a couple, a friendship and a match but it can also be a distinction. Challenge yourself to think creatively and numerically to capture the essence of two – ABC OPEN SNAPPED: TWO

LONG EXPOSURE | SNAPPED

Long exposure photography allows you to capture the passing of time in a single image. This month, try using a slow shutter speed to photograph in the dark, blur movement and see time passing in cool ways – ABC OPEN SNAPPED: LONG EXPOSURE

 

Bulb Exposure

Mackay Marina Twinkles

Love is Black & White

100 GLIMPSES HAPPIER

I’m a HUGE fan of Instagram.

Lately, I’ve enjoyed viewing loads of uploads targeted at the #100daysofhappiness movement.

Although I am not an official participant, I upload my ‘happy glimpses’ to Instagram every other day anyway, because I love photography.

I was once told that the best camera for the shot is ‘the one you have with you’. And it’s true. More often than not (especially when the ‘babes are in arms’ and there is no room in the nappy bag for anything else) the camera I always have with me is my iPhone.

I use a few different Apps and totally layer a gazillion filters over too many of my snaps….but hey,  its fun! All my #instasnaps are #iphoneonly. Some people upload their edited DSLR shots, but not me. I think that kind of spoils the spontaneity of the platform!

Instagram is my hands-down favourite social network  for its creativity and simplicity.

I spent the larger part of today scrolling through my camera roll to find the most recent 100 ‘Glimpses of Lately’ that jumped out at me.  Even though I recently removed 1046 images, I still had 645 to choose from.  Like I said, I am a HUGE Instagram fan and I always have my iPhone on my person :)

Some of these made the Instagram cut, some didn’t. Most are my own, the odd one is “stolen” or sent to me from friends/family.  Some made me happy, some made me laugh, some filled me with gratitude, some are arty farty and some are just plain silly.

#100glimpseshappier

ENJOY!

 

1. Homemade Icecream

2. Family Road Trip

3. Gladys The Glamper

4. Seafood

5. Coffee & Kindle

6. DD#2 & Me

7. Camping

8. Gratitude

9. Sisters

10. Bike Rides

11. Camp Cooking

12. Boiling the Billy

13. Candy Cat & Abby

14. Bling Bling

15. Home

16. DD#1 & Me

17. Here Kitty Kitty Kitty….

18. Pre-Schooler

19. Grade One-er

20. Pre-Kindy Kid

21. Laughing at Daddy

22. Born to Yoga

23. Room Makeover #1

24. Room Makeover #2

25. Namaste

26. Duck Lips

27. Typography

28. Walks at Sunset

29. I can stand!

30. I can Headstand

31. Art Journal

32. Country School

33. Enroute to Balance Class

34. Yoga Fix

35. More Ducklips!

36. Shoes off & play!

37. My Favourite

38. Brumby

39. Nin Nin

40. CeeJay

41. Sisters

42. Relaxed

43. Mickey Blue Eyes

44. Yoga Fix

45. Girls Day Out

46. Baby Cino

47. Fairy Wings Day Out

48. Enroute to Balance Class

49. Nom! Nom! Nom!

50. Rodeo Debut

51. Mermaids

52. Obstacle Courses

53. Balanced

54. Daddy’s home for lunch

55. Rainbow Hair

56. Happy Easter

57. Marble Tournament

58. Purple People

59. Aunty Nug

60. Boys Club

61. Smoko Break

62. Tupperware!

63. Home

64. Namaste

65. Local Yoga Studio

66. Welcome to my mat

67. Dragonfly

68. Dress Ups & Playdough with one of our favourites :)

69. Poppy

70. File Under ‘K’ for KEEP

71. Crazy for Looming

72. Spoilt

73. Happy Mother’s Day

74. Sisters

75. Dorothy

76. My Little People & Me

77. Cheeky Bum

78. Multitasking

79. Chocolate

80. Strawberry

81. Vanilla

82. New Hair

83. Morning Snuggles

84. New Hair

85. Cheeky BUM

86. New Fave Shirt

87. Noodles

88. Snoozing

89. Weekend Photographer

90. I can read…

91. Storytime

92. Charming

93. Candy Cat

94. Aromatherapy Night Light

95. Cuddles!

96. Cheeky Bum

97. It’s the weekend

98. Frankie

99. Soaking by Candlelight

100. Hot Chocolate Weather

AT WORK | SNAPPED

*PLAYING CATCH-UPS*

Often considered a shared experience, work is actually unique for all of us. The daily grind to some, the reason to be for others. Inside or out, big or small, epic or mundane, this month through the art of photography capture what work means to you and to those you encounter.  Catch the action on ABC OPEN SNAPPED: AT WORK

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IT’S ALL ABOUT PERSPECTIVE….

I think I may be having my scheduled ‘mid-life crisis’.  Not that I mind – because it’s not what I was expecting!  I mean, I didn’t go out and buy a Harley and join a Motorcycle Gang or anything crazy like that!

Instead, I’ve been thinking…..and thinking…..and thinking.  I’ve thought about my past, my grudges, my mistakes, my family, my future, my joys, my sorrows.  I’ve thought about so many things lately.  I feel like I’m healing and growing and embracing myself and my thoughts and most importantly, the ‘authentic me’.

With this in mind, a little idea I’ve had brewing for a while took some sort of shape recently.  In hindsight, it may have manifested from my aforesaid ‘mid-life crisis’ of which I seem to be in the depths of….that and of course, Pinterest!

To get started, I needed a muse to direct. The children x 3 were uninterested and DS was not particularly cooperative at just 10 months old.

Mr Glimpses must really love me because he is always my go-to backup person and he never complains as much as I probably would in the same situations!

The trick was to find a suitable location, which was limited for me, but the light was beautiful on this particular day so I had to photograph SOMETHING!

 

Isn’t he a Good Sport?!  Ideally a bridge or overpass (with no traffic to run me over) would have been kinda cool.

When I was editing these shots, I included The Little People in the process to show them what I was trying to achieve. They were most impressed – with Daddy!?  For being so clever and ‘hanging’ off the verandah like that!! Even after I rotated the edits back and forth a few times to prove that I was in fact the ‘clever one’ (albeit only a little bit), it was still Daddy who received the accolades!

The next morning, a request was made. DD #1, #2 & #3 wanted to ‘hang’ like Daddy. We decided to change it up a bit.

DH and I have a small personal challenge going on at the moment.  Handstands – We both want to be the first to nail one and so are both practicing and building strength to serve this purpose.  I trumped the head stand in good time but I’m afraid he is way ahead in the handstand stakes – Mine are just embarrassing!

However, as of today even the 2yo has beaten us to the finish line – or so it would seem!!  So much fun and more memories made this weekend.

Life is all about perspective so flip and rotate to your heart’s content, until you find what makes you happy :)

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 BEHIND THE SCENES:

THINGS TO CONSIDER:

1.  Choose a suitable wall surface – something that is seamless and looks like it could be a floor.

2.  If you can’t find the perfect surface/location, use what you have.  It’s still fun!

3.  Choose clothing without logos or pictures.  When you ‘flip’ in post production, they can give the ‘game’ away!

4.  Pay attention to other details like ‘falling’ hair and or jacket hoodies etc when upside down.

5.  Notice your background – green grass where the blue sky should be?  Whoops!

Rubber Ducks | QUACK!

Today I logged into my computer and opened LR.  I was searching for a specific image for a specific purpose.  Fortunately my image library is fairly well organised – catalogued, stacked etc  LR takes care of most of that automatically.

Unfortunately I’m not so crash hot at ‘tagging’ my images with meaningful keywords or going BACK to images to add tags after I’ve used them for specific things so I can identify exactly which edit I used if I need the same image again….

So, I’ve been trawling through 10 311 LR edits today.  YES! 10 311!

It sounds like a bore but I’m a bit of a geek and it was fun to come across these  fun shots I took a while back for a Photography Challenge Group on Redbubble….I forgot I had ever taken them.

It reminds me that I need to do some more to add to my ‘collection’ but for now, these are my favourites –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUILDINGS | SNAPPED

“Buildings can provide much more than shelter. They are meeting places, work spaces and where we go to relax. Through hard angles of glass and steel or through a close up of crumbling brick share images that capture the personalities of our sturdy, silent friends.  Buildings can’t talk but they can still tell stories”  – ABC OPEN SNAPPED:  BUILDINGS

This month I participated in an ABC Open Project for the first time via Instagram. This also meant participating in my first #instameet. It was a simple and quick way to still enjoy the fun when time poor and also be ‘virtually present’ from 85km away.

Granted my ‘buildings’ were few and lacked a little character but after being disappointed with my creative block and failure to submit any images for last months ‘Off to Market’ Snapped Project, I was pleased to at least participate.

Participation is as simple as uploading your images to Instagram and hashtagging with the current project hashtag. In this case, #abcopenbuildings.

An Instameet works in the same way – participate with a common predetermined hashtag and everyone can see your Instagram images at the same time as they are uploading their own. Give it a go!!

 

#abcopenbuildings #ccscbuildings #minibuilding

 

#abcopenbuildings #ccscbuildings #abandonedchookhouse

 

#abcopenbuildings #ccscbuildings #vicenzaworksheds

 

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