Tuesday 7 December 2010

The 12 Days of Christmas

I have been lucky enough to get a place on CJ's free 12 Days of Christmas workshop. The first task is a Self Portrait. Not my favourite task but out came the tripod and this is the result. CJ picked it as one of her favourites (you need to scroll down to the bottom of the post!) How chuffed am I!


Here are some other shots from the first week.








Thursday 4 November 2010

Halloween

All the kids went Trick or Treating (or Trickle Treating in Noah's case!). No photos of Erin as she went on her own with friends - she's much too old now to go round with her family! Check out the giant pumpkin, grown by Grandad and carved by me.



Sunday 31 October 2010

Posting again!

Posting again with some templates of recent activities. We went to Waddesdon Manor yesterday.

Playing in the leaves at the end of the day.
Noah went dressed as Dracula to claim his free prize! Sweets!


Inside the Manor.

I have just finished Cheryl Johnson's Painting with Light workshop. The last module Move in Close turned out to be my favourite. Capturing sharp water droplets is incredibly hard!


A selection from the other modules.

That's it for now. See you at Christmas!

Tuesday 24 August 2010

And there's more ......

These are the templates I have done so far from our holiday in Charlestown, St Austell Bay in Cornwall last week. Only a couple more to do!

We first went to the Eden Project a couple of months after it first opened in 2001 (also the year Eden was born but it's not where her name came from!) Then ,particularly the outside, was very bare (I will try and look out some old photos) but now it's amazing.


St Michael's Mount must have its own climate. Waiting to go over in the boat it was very dull, overcast and very windy but as soon as we got through the ticket office it was warm and sunny.
Alot of people waded back over the causeway but we had to sit and wait for it clear!

Another National Trust property was Lanhydrock in Bodmin.



The dishes at the bottom were used to make clotted cream.

And this is the other Waddeson Manor template.

That's it until the next template ......

Templates and a mini planet

First up is a mini planet - like many things easy when you know how. The first 3 templates are from CJ's last couple of workshops - People Imagery and Advanced Artistry (Photoshop techniques and the reason for the mini planet).



This was using font as a photo mask.

Making a triptych and a panorama of Waddesdon Manor (another template to follow!!)


People Imagery - I did this workshop a couple of years ago and really struggled but I enjoyed it this time around and am really pleased with some of the shots.

The next couple of templates are from the shoots done with the Speen Photography group. It's great to get the opportunity to shoot different subjects and get feedback on your work from like minded and talented people. I'm always in two minds about my shots and it's a real boost to the confidence with their constructive criticism.

Christine and I had the opportunity to shoot this Pony Club meeting and the resident photographers were incredibly generous with their time and expertise.

The last couple of templates are some of our geocaching jaunts leading up to our 100th find. (We're now on 112!)





That's it for this post but be warned I've alot more templates to show from our holiday. I will get around to doing my own layout - it's just so much easier using one already laid out!

Saturday 7 August 2010

Summer Time

Just updating with some recent pics - can you tell I've learnt how to do templates in PSE!






The boy has now lost 2 of his front teeth. He doesn't want to give them to the Tooth Fairy - "she gets everyone elses I want to keep mine" I joked he could make a necklace out of them and he seemed quite keen!!


Cherry picking - yum!





We have just reached our 100th cache and I am just finishing the third of CJ's Feelgood Workshops so will post some of my fave shots from them when I get round to getting the templates done! It much easier posting them than the individual shots. See you soon.











Saturday 5 June 2010

The sun has got his hat on .....

The kids have been off for half term this week and the weather has been glorious so we have been out and about making the most of it.

On Bank Holiday Monday we went to Osterley Park in Middlesex making use of our National Trust membership.


Noah enjoyed dressing up 19th Century style!
The girls posing in the Great Meadow

Tuesday was a washout and the kids rediscovered all of Noah's Thomas tracks and had great fun setting them up and making a video with Eden's camera!
Wednesday was glorious and we headed over to Virginia Waters to finish off the rest of the geocache series. We decided to do the full circuit of the lake for the first time ever - 4.5 miles and the kids didn't even moan once even Erin who got several blisters.

Proof it was 4.5 miles!

The Cascade



Part of The Ruins



Erin at one of the cache sites



A couple of cabbages ... with Eden and Noah!



Another family portrait!


The Lake



On Thursday we had stuff to do in town and the dentist but as it was such a lovely evening we went for a dinner picnic at Marsh Meadow in Cookham. We hid our 2nd mag. nano cache too!

View from the cache

Friday was another gorgeous day and we decided to go to Mudeford. It didn't start too well - it took a bit longer than planned as we went wrong twice (!) and there was alot of traffic. However, the kids had a great time crabbing once we got a good spot and spent several hours reeling them in. We forgot to bring any bait so used some prawns from the lunch salad!


Erin did well with this bigger basket but Eden soon caught up when we were given some squid by some departing crabbers. The crabs loved it!


One of over 50! We had to keep letting the crabs go because we only had small buckets.



With the last of the days catch.


It's great fun but you have to feel sorry for those poor crabs being
constantly dragged out of the water.

Mudeford Quay from Avon Beach

Thats all for now. I've been gardening today, a bit late I know, so no pics - well until everything starts growing that is.











Friday 28 May 2010

Feel Good Photography Workshop

I have taken several of Cheryl Johnson's fantastic online photography courses over the last couple of years and recently have been getting withdrawal symptons. Thankfully she will be running another in a couple of weeks time. I have learnt so much on these courses and they make you get your camera out and try something new each time. Why not visit her website and take a look.



Monday 10 May 2010

Bluebells

Went to photograph the bluebell woods at Cliveden today. They were spectacular but very difficult to capture because of the sunshine and shade.