Chloe......

Today is my darling daughter Chloe's Birthday.  Cannot believe this girl is 15 today!!!!

Beautiful People........

I have just started an online photography course with Cheryl at Feelgood Photos.  It is a 4 week online Portraiture Photography workshop.  Cheryl will send us an instructional PDF assignment to complete by the following Thursday.  There is also a private photographer's forum for everybody to share their images, to ask questions and to chat to fellow photographers.  I am really looking forward to it.  Unfortunately first up is the dreaded 'self-portrait' and like everybody else - I hate being in pictures myself.

Cheryl looked for a self portrait with a 'Summer Theme'.  Well this is our summer at the moment in Ireland - rain, rain and more rain.  Just added the sunglasses in the hope that the sun might come out sometime!!!  Oh, of course, I had company - Bruce.  If I wanted to get a picture of him I wouldn't have a hope.

Exams........

'You hold your child's hand for a moment,

  but their heart forever.'

Today is a big milestone in our family.  Ciaran is sitting his Leaving Cert exams and Chloe is sitting her Junior Cert exams today.  It is a stressful time both for kids and of course, parents.  Roll on the end of June when all these exams are over and I can have my house back!!!



Hello Kitty.......

Here's a few photos of a mini album I recently made for my Niece, Ellie.  The photos were of Ellie's 6th birthday party in a local Gym.  Everybody had a great time especially Ellie.

For this Mini Alum I used Chipboard pages and paperbags, I covered them in paper from Papermania, Sweet Nothings.  I also used some Hello Kitty Dies.

31 Days to a better photo.......

Ok so I haven't been too good at blogging but I am getting through some of my camera's manual and I have been practicing.

This is a draft post I did a good while ago:


First up - read your Manual.  Reading a camera manual is like watching paint dry, but it has to be done.  I haven't sat down and read my camera manual in one sitting, from back to front but I have used my manual to look up various functions on the camera.  I have it in the camera bag at all times and when I'm not sure about something I take it out.  I also purchased one of the "Magic Lantern Guides" for the Canon 40d which is packed with diagrams, instructions and tips.

I recently purchased "The Complete Canon SLR Handbook" which has 18 lessons covering things like, how to change your lens, master depth of field, shutter speeds.  It is very straight forward, loads of examples and not too much technical jargon.

So I'm off to read the Manual.......

Photography......

Clonmacnoise



I love photographs.  I love reading photography books, browsing photography blogs, websites, pinterest.  I've lost count of how many photography tutorials I have read, how many ebooks I've downloaded hoping to learn more about photography or how to take a 'nice' picture.

I bought my first DSLR, a Canon 40d, 4 years ago and I've still so much to learn.  I find what I really need to do now is to go out and practice, practice, practice.  Every new year I decide, yes this is the year I'm going to finally get a handle in shooting pictures in Manual Mode.

So with this in mind I am going to start following 31 Days to a Better Photo from my3boybarians.  I love how Darcy says "Photography is NOT a spectator Sport.  As useful as sitting on your couch watching workout videos, this series is not meant to be read through from the comfort of your computer chair. Pause. Do the exercises.  Evaluate your progress.  Mess up.  Get dirty."  -  Well that says it all, I've been doing the "Spectator Sport" but now I have to "Do the exercises. Evaluate my progress.  Mess up. Get dirty."  It is the only way that I am going learn anything.

A Nice Surprise......

Today I got a nice surprise at work.  A young girl came into the office with some chocolates and a 'Thank You' card.  It's the little things that count.  I love my job but when somebody really appreciates what you do for them it makes it all the better.

What made your day today?




I took this photo with my iphone and used Camera+ to process the picture - need a bit more practice!



Sharing the Love......

Happy Valentine's Day



'The Joy of Love' - a photography challenge from last year at  http://willettedesigns.com/?page_id=2780.

Taking Photos in Low Light

Snapsort's Low Light Photography Infographic

Here's a link for this brillant website and more information on taking pictures in Low Light -  Snapsort
I found this so useful and hope to use these ideas over the next few days to practice taking photos in Low Light. 

This is one of the things I want to concentrate on this year - learning how to take photos in manual.