30 Days of Photography - Day 21

Wow. I'm FINALLY to the point where I have less than ten days left on this challenge. It's only taken me the better part of a year.........

The theme for Day 21 was "faceless self-portrait". Today when I got home from the gym, I decided to take advantage of the 25 degree weather and the sunshine, and eat lunch outside on the grass. Course, the back garden hasn't been mown in about a month because I'm not allowed to use the lawn mower (last time I did, I ran over a concrete phone doohickey and nearly broke the mower...), so it kind of looks like a jungle.

So I figured that I may as well take the opportunity to cross the next day off the list as I sat in the front garden, which wasn't at ALL weird. Aaaand here you go - a faceless self-portrait!

Also, this is the only time you will ever see me wearing leggings. YOU'RE WELCOME.

K xx

Oh, hai

So I realised over the weekend that it had been a while since I talked to you guys properly, and I figured that it was about time I gave you a general update on life and stuff!

So. Um.... Let's see...

• Group projects are sent by the Devil to torment people.
• I had this Facebook chat conversation with my brother, who's currently in America:  

C: Guess who we met in LA?
Me: Who?
C: Josh Duvall!
Me: Who the hell is Josh Duvall?????
Me: Is he some music person that I'm not cool enough to know about?
Me: Wait.
Me: Do you mean Josh DUHAMEL??
C: Yeah, that's the one. Mr. Fergie.
Me: *head desk*

• I fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally got the replacement for my 50mm prime lens today. HURRAH! There was this whole messy complicated thing where the guy at the camera shop said they'd courier it to me, but then someone else at the camera shop told him that I'd picked up the rest of my camera, and so I was obviously going to pick this up too. So they didn't courier it, and my poor lens was stuck sitting around the camera shop for an entire week.
• Uni is going pretty well. It's still kind of hard to tell, because we've only had one assignment back from each class. But I've got three high distinctions and one distinction, so I guess that's a good sign??
• I'm heading to Canberra for the weekend on Friday morning. Yay? It's for Emily's baby shower, and it will be good to catch up with everyone. But considering my entire experience of baby showers is the episode of Gilmore Girls where Rory and Lorelai go to Sherry's baby shower, I'm slightly scared that I'm going to have to shovel ping pong balls into a shoe box with a baby's face on it, or sniff nappies (American translation: diapers) with various smelly substances in them... 
• I'm over at Childhood Trauma today talking about which of The Avengers are hot (and, you know, other stuff about The Avengers) with some of the greatest girls you can find on 20SB: Lor, Nugs, Harley and Shelly. It's pretty hilariously awesome, and you should check it out. 

How are things with you guys? Also, what the hell happens at a baby shower??? Seriously. Help a girl out.

K xx

30 Days of Photography - Day 17

I picked up my shiny new replacement camera on Wednesday (wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! Although I still don't have my 50mm prime lens because they've had to order it in - SAD FACE FOREVER), and can therefore FINALLY start up this series again! Hopefully now I'll get it finished, rather than leaving things hanging as they've been for the past however many months...

Anyway, the theme for day 17 is "technology". To be honest, I had no idea what to do for this. I mean, photos of mobile phones or modems or laptops aren't particularly exciting. So I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to show you what I spend chunks of my time doing now:

MARC coding. Fascinating, no? (For the record, this isn't actually something I coded. The records I've done are far sloppier than this, and have way less lines of data in them!)

The joys of training to become a librarian... And yes, that does make sense to me!

K xx

Things that are awesome

1. I received a (two week early) birthday present from my BFF Kat in the post today. I would take a photo of it for you, but....... Anyway, it's a bag from Mushy Wear and I love it!! It's the perfect size for uni notebooks without looking like a boring book bag.
2. We heard from the insurance company today, and I should have a replacement camera within a week!! I'm super-excited about it. It looks like it's going to be the next model up from my old camera, which comes with more megapixels, higher ISO capability, and full video. It's still an entry level model, but a brand new camera is not to be sneezed at! I'll make sure to take photos of my awesome new bag when the camera turns up :)
3. THE DALEKS ARE COMING BACK IN SERIES 7. And not just the Daleks. ALL the Daleks.
4. Discount Easter eggs at the supermarket.

That last one has nothing to do with anything else. It's just awesome. Wouldn't you agree, David Tennant?

I rather thought you would!

What's been awesome for you recently?
K xx

Well, shit.

So last night was...interesting. I left for ballet class as usual at 5.30pm. My parents were already out. They ended up changing their plans because it was freezing cold in Melbourne yesterday, and came to pick me up from ballet at 8.00pm. Because we were all starving, we went out for dinner at the local Thai restaurant.

This may all seem completely inane and boring, but it's sort of totally relevant, I promise. Anyway, so we got home from the Thai restaurant at about 9.30pm. I unlocked the door from the garage into the house and was met by a gust of cold wind. My immediate thought was "Um, WTF??", which was immediately followed by "Wait, why is the back door open??" When I turned the lights on in the back porch, it became immediately apparent that the back door had been jimmied open, that the lock on the kitchen window had then been broken, and that our house had been burgled. Oh, and they then found the spare keys and went out the front door, leaving the keys in the lock. HOW THOUGHTFUL.

(Incidentally? I just checked Wikipedia for the difference between 'burglary' and 'robbery'. Apparently 'robbery' involves actually taking something from the victim by force, whereas burglary is breaking into a house when the people aren't home. You're welcome for that little dose of education!!)

I have a theory that we were burgled by hipsters. Because they really didn't take very much. They must have been horribly disappointed that they went to as much effort as they did, because to be perfectly honest, we have pretty shitty electronics. Both our TVs are old school CRT models. They didn't take any of the jewellery or Dad's car. And apparently four year old Toshiba laptops aren't worth stealing (THANK GOD. As much as I complain about my laptop being crappy, I'm so relieved it's not gone).

Things that *are* worth stealing?
- My mum's brand new school issue Macbook Air.
- An iPod Touch.
- My SLR.
- My zoom lens.

They left the kit lens sitting on the bench in the kitchen. I'm not sure whether the mould of my teeth scared them off, or if (being hipsters, as per my theory) they went "AHAHAHA, $100 crappy kit lens? No thank you!".

Oh, and they also took $27 in cash. And possibly my old Olympus point-and-shoot camera because I can't find it anywhere. Although I don't know why they'd have taken that. It's six years old, and scratched as hell because I dropped it a bunch of times.

The police came round last night and took a bunch of photos and did some fingerprinting, but not surprisingly, the burglars wore gloves.

So all we can do now is get the back door repaired, and hope the insurance company process things quickly.

Oh, and to the burglar who went through my backpack looking for stuff? I hope you enjoyed all the snotty, cold-germ-ridden tissues that I forgot to empty out after my class on Thursday night!!

K xx
PS. I woke up this morning with a pounding headache courtesy of my dental splint. $700 well spent...

30 Days of Photography - Day 16

Oh, hey. Y'all thought I forgot about this again, didn't you? Yeah, I don't blame you - it's been nearly 2 months since I posted day 15 #umWHOOPS

Anyway, last night there were fireworks going on at a park down the road, so I figured I'd head down there with my camera and my tripod and see what I could come up with. You know what's not fun? Spending 10 minutes setting up your camera and tripod and getting everything perfect, only to find that you've pointed your camera in totally the wrong direction. And for some reason, turning the entire tripod around seemed to make much more sense at the time than turning the camera. DO NOT BE LIKE ME.

Still, I managed to get some decent shots (and a lot of really terrible ones). So here's day 16 - long exposure:

I'll try and do better than once every two months from here on in!

K xx

Favourite photos of 2011: Volume 2

Yesterday, I forked out $125 for a single textbook. Thankfully, it's the ONLY textbook for my entire Masters degree, so I guess it could be worse? Anyway, having to put that sizeable a dent in my savings on something so unexciting made me want to look at pretty things that are free.

And so I give you my favourite photos from last year: Natural Environment Edition.

January - Cliffs at Cape Bridgewater, Victoria

July - Nice dead tree on Mount Lofty, near Melbourne

Sometimes, you just need to make things monochrome.

I'm pretty sure I could fill an entire art gallery with just the pictures of dead trees that I have on my hard drive. I'm kind of a little bit obsessed with them... (See also: metal statue of dead tree in Part 1 of this series!!)

August - Sunset from the John Hancock Observatory, Chicago

I elbowed a small child out of the way for this shot.

September - Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

Complete with insane rock climbers, if you look closely enough!

September - Part way up Pikes Peak, Colorado

It seems kind of Bronte-esque, to me

September - Seven Falls, Colorado

September - Central Park, New York

This is currently my desktop background

September - Guanella Pass, Colorado

September - Aspen trees on the Peak to Peak Highway, Colorado

This was the most amazing sea of trees I've ever seen

Which is your favourite? Does anyone else like dead trees as much as me? And do you know why textbooks are so sodding expensive??

K xx

Favourite photos of 2011: Volume 1

I realised the other day that it's been a while since I did any photography posts. I am actually planning on FINISHING the 30 Days of Photography challenge at SOME point, I just need to remember to leave the house after dark to take some long exposure shots first! Hopefully I can get some taken in the next week or so, seeing as all my classes for uni are in the evenings.

Anyway, for now, I'm copying my BFF Kat and posting my favourite photos from 2011. Unlike Kat, I'm indecisive and unable to limit myself to a handful of awesome photos. (Mostly because she's a much better photographer than me!!) So to save you an insanely picture-heavy post, I've divided them into the following categories:

• Macro
• People
• Animals
• Natural Environment
• Built Environment

I'm going to start off with Built Environment, because I'm a rebel that way. And they're chronological because it hurts my brain for them not to be.

May - Reflection on the side of the museum

July - Melbourne from the roof of Council House 2

I like the juxtaposition of old and new buildings

August - Millennium Park and Cloud Gate, Chicago

August - Downtown Chicago

I like the light. Also the old/new combination

[Do you guys have any idea how hard it is to write 'Downtown' when you're a fan of Downton Abbey??]

September - The Capitol Building, Washington DC

It's kind of postcard-y. But I don't really care.

September - Metal tree in the American Art Museum Sculpture Garden, Washington DC

September - Enclosed courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Okay. Apparently I *really* like old stuff and new stuff close together...

September - The roof of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC

Because sometimes you just have to point your
camera straight up in the air.

September - Statue of Liberty, New York

I love how it looks like her torch has gone out
because of where the cloud is!

September - Flowers at the 9/11 Memorial, New York

September - 9/11 Memorial, New York

September - Manhattan from Top of the Rock, New York

It's a little overexposed, but I like that it incorporates New York's three most
famous skyscrapers - Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and 30 Rock!

September - The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado

For such a (supposedly) haunted building, it's very pretty!

December - St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne

So there you have it! Well. The 'Built Environment' photos, anyway. I'm not convinced that my photography is getting any better over time, but that's completely my own fault for not thinking about the shots more before I take them! 

What do you guys think? And does anyone else love the juxtaposition of old and new like I apparently do? (Hell, does anyone else love the word 'juxtaposition' like I do?!)

Next instalment coming soon, whether you like it or not ;)

K xx

101 in 1001 #14 AND #76

Yes, I've had a HIGHLY productive day today - I crossed two things off my Day Zero list. The first was one I've been wanting to do for aaaaaaaaaaages. I bought this:

Hello, lover. It's a Nikon 50mm f1.8 G series lens, and it's so many kinds of shiny that it's not even funny. Here's what I got in a five minute walk around the front garden to test it out:

Like I said, shiny. (Bonus geek points if you know what that refers to) Oh, shallow depth of field. Where have you been all my life? I can't wait to have a proper play around with it in the US next week OH MY GOD I LEAVE FOR THE US NEXT WEEK ARGH ARGH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!

Ahem. The other thing I accomplished involved less spending of money that I don't have and more sitting on my arse for days at a time. The benefit to unemployment, of course, is that I had more than enough time to do so. After several days of yelling "REDUCTOOOOOOOO!!" at the TV like a lunatic totally normal person, today I FINALLY achieved 100% on Lego Harry Potter (Years 1-4). Hurrah!!

Don't believe me? Here's the proof:

*heaves a sigh of relief* I think I might hold off on Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (which I bought C for his birthday) until after I get home at the end of September........... ;)

How was your Friday? :)

K xx

Small Snapshots: Macro

Wow. I'm crazy late with this week's edition of Small Snapshots! 

The theme this week is macro, and I'm the one who suggested it, so the fact that I've been slacking on posting this is pretty bad... Clearly, I didn't think the time of year through very well when I suggested macro. Because I'm a sucker for macro shots of flowers, and winter in Canberra is hardly conducive to the presence of flowers *sigh*

Still, I made the most of what was in the garden, and came up with these:

Who doesn't love a spathiphyllum in their living room?

Some kind of mysterious berry thing in the garden

Rose hips

And now for a confession: I really hate that I can't seem to take decent macro photos with my SLR. You CAN take macro photos to some extent. They're just not as tight as I'd like them to be. I had to use my old crappy Olympus point and shoot for these. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with these - the macro capacity on my Olympus is pretty awesome. I'm just having a whinge about the limitations of my SLR lenses! 

You know what? I just looked back through my archives and last year was able to take a ton of good macro shots with my SLR. 

See?! I'd had my SLR for about 2 weeks when I took this.

Clearly I'm blaming my lenses for something that's entirely my own fault... I think my pending unemployment might be the perfect opportunity for me to kick my arse into gear on this!! 

Want to join in? Head over to Kissed a Frog and link up!

K xx

Small Snapshots: Blue

I've been trying to blog for two days now, but the Blogger template has been playing silly buggers. But that's superfluous information, because it's all fixed now. HURRAHS!!

Ahem. Today I'm playing along with a new feature that Carissa over at Kissed a Frog has just started called Small Snapshots.

The idea is to get our cameras out of the cupboard and actually use them. Considering I seem to mostly use my DSLR for taking photos of baked goods or book covers at the moment, I think it's a wonderful idea!

This week's theme was blue. I didn't get a chance to go outside and take photos because work was crazy and I was sick at the weekend, so I had to search for things I could do in the house. I came up with this:

Have you ever dropped food colouring in a container full of water? It makes the most incredibly patterns!

This week's is open until Sunday, so head over to Kissed a Frog and link up!

K xx

Fieldwork lessons 2

I've been in Portland for the last few days on another photography expedition. We also had to collect some rocks that are going to be used in the gallery. And once again, fieldwork has taught me a couple of things:

1. Tiny planes have really low roofs. Ow.
2. The security checks at tiny airports consist of "Do you have any sharp objects? No? Great!"
3. Co-pilots with pimples and bum fluff on their chins? Not reassuring in the slightest.
4. If a tiny plane is scheduled to take an hour and a half to get somewhere that takes four hours to drive, it's not because the tiny plane goes really slowly. It's because it goes via Hamilton, something that isn't on the itinerary.
5. Don't watch Fox 8 first thing in the morning. You'll get sucked into a Futurama/Family Guy/Simpsons session and end up running horribly late.
6. Don't wear Converse on fieldwork. You'll end up having to trek through a partially flooded cow paddock and stand on something that SEEMS like solid-ish mud, but is actually a crust of mud with squelchy, watery grossness underneath. Which leads to this:

7. I love my shiny new 55-300mm lens (okay, I knew that one already. Whatever):

8. ALWAYS wear sunscreen. Sure, I should have known this one. But for some reason it didn't occur to me, and now I'm a delightful shade of beetroot.
9. Half of Portland is named after the Hentys. Not surprising, considering the Hentys founded Portland, and therefore probably named half of it after themselves in the first place...
10. A 50m roll of bubble wrap is rather large. Also? It's perforated. Awesome...
11. Posting a 5kg rock from Portland to Canberra will set you back $15.
12. If I lived in a country town, I would a) go insane, and b) be the size of a house from eating nothing but doughnuts from the local bakery.
13. The Mexican schnitzel with chips and salad at the Bridgewater Bay Beach Cafe is delicious. The view ain't too shabby either!

14. Watch out for small dogs when packing six large rocks in bubble wrap and plastic boxes. They may run up and pee on the stack of boxes just when you've finished putting the last of the lids on...
15. Week old bull terrier puppies are *seriously* fugly. I mean, bull terriers are fugly at the best of times. But when they're a week old and haven't opened their eyes yet? They just roll in their own shit and bear a striking resemblance to rats... *shudder*
16. A pub crawl in Portland isn't nearly as impressive as it sounds. Cos there's only about three pubs in town!
17. Waking up at 6.45am with the 'See My Vest' song from the Simpsons stuck in your head on a Saturday morning is incredibly irritating, despite how catchy it is...

K xx

Well, hello my pretties!

I braved a trip into town today, despite the presence of the Summernats bogans. There were some completely ridiculous vehicles in display, including but not limited to a V8 Commodore. Nothing abnormal about the presence of a V8 Commodore at Summernats. This one, though, was a spectacularly vile shade of opalescent hot pink. Ack... And the best part was, it was being driven by a guy.

Aaaaaaaaaanyway, despite the overwhelming number of bogans at the shopping centre, I had a very successful trip. Well, except for the part where I went to try and spend my Christmas Borders voucher. That one was a total and epic fail. I couldn't find a single thing I wanted, which probably just means that I've read every book ever *sigh* So I'll wait a couple of weeks until they restock after Christmas, and try again. The trip to DJs, on the other hand, was FAR more successful.

My parents got me a DJs voucher for Christmas, and I figured it would be best to spend it while I could take advantage of the sales. I had grand plans for buying a new, relatively large, saucepan. But I went one better, and came out with this:

Oh HELLS yes. I bought a Le Creuset. For some reason that quite escapes me, I've always wanted one. Mum has one (although from memory, it's not a Le Creuset, but a similar brand), in that stunning seventies shade, mustard yellow. Mine, on the other hand, is NOT (thank God) mustard yellow:

It's cobalt blue! Which means it matches the cobalt blue Le Creuset mixing bowl Ness got me for Christmas last year. And matching things make me happy. I went with the oval shape, because they only had the round ones in 'Dune' (aka beige). Ack. Plus, I think the oval shape is nicer if I end up serving things in it.

And it's got that gorgeous enamelled interior.

It can go from the stove top to the oven, it's freezer safe (although I rather think my freezer might collapse under the weight of it), and - my absolutely favourite part - it's dishwasher safe. I LOVE things that are dishwasher safe, because doing the dishes is pretty much my least favourite thing of all time...

Actually, I think the best part was that it was 40% off. Because the gift card from my parents didn't cover the full amount. But the 40% off meant that I only had to fork out $80. Not bad, considering the original price was nearly $500! Even with 40% off, it was a crapload of money. But hey, if I'm going to have it for the next 40 years, the cost per use probably boils down to a couple of cents. And I can cope with that!

I'm disturbingly excited about using it, and am planning my weekly menu accordingly :D

On a slightly different topic, I also forked out $12.50 for this:

I figured for that amount of money, you can't really say no! (And yes, that's a Christmas stocking on the wall in the background. The rest of Christmas has been packed up though, so no judging allowed!)

Sure, it's something else to cart around with me, but it'll make shooting at 300mm a lot easier. And shooting at 300mm is fun.

See? I took this in my front garden this afternoon. I spy fun times ahead! Now, where does one hire a sherpa to cart all this camera gear around???? ;)

K xx

PS. Le Creuset has never heard of me and I wibbled on endlessly about my new toy entirely off my own bat...