Hot Summer Daze

Yay for warmer weather! Its finally warm enough for me to wear singlets. And yet when I get to work its on with the cardigan. Silly air con. Mind you , I wouldn't be able to concentrate without the air con. Its just funny when you go out side, you have to take your cardi off.

I thought I would just share a few photos I took with my favourite little models (Doug & Dryke) when we headed out to north head one Saturday afternoon. It was so extremely hot. But I was soaking it up. Its been summer for two months now and its only starting to feel hot to me! Poor Dryke was feeling it though with his black coat. He was so funny, he was really pulling on the lead when we were walking. I only realised why when we got to a row of trees, he fully stopped and lay flat on his side. HAHA> obviously too hot for Drykey. It was too cute. This guy lies anywhere its so funny/cute.

Anyway, here are a few of my favourites. Although the lighting was harsh being the early afternoon, I think I came away with a few good ones. If you read my blog (anyone) please leave a comment, preferably nice comments lol. I do check them!

Just me - sorry about the facials, I think Doug was getting smart as usual LOL.



Grassy

One of many yellow flowers I came across: really like the pattern of these.

Doug sporting his all natural fro haha. cute. x

I SO want to do this one day. So lucky to see someone parasailing on this particular day. Have not seen anyone do this at north head before and I've been here quite a few times. I've seen people do this at Maori Bay but not here.

And again, if you happen to be reading this, please leave a comment LOL I don't want to have to ask you again LOL.

Summer walkabouts

So January...what have I been doing in January. WELL glad you asked LOL. Actually I've been doing alot of walking! I love summertime and the longer days (I may have mentioned this before). And I love being able to walk around town where I live at 8:30 at night and still feel safe because its still light. I love walking around the viaduct and dreaming about living in those waterfront apartments haha. Walking around the neighbourhood feeling like I'm rich but NOT REALLY LOL.

Oh and I finally gave way to the twitter sensation. Gosh I thought it was boring before but now I'm hooked. Its amazing how addictive these things can become. I actually follow some peeps off youtube. Its so funny some of the random things that come through.

Anyhoo , since I have been doing alot of walking around town , I've been taking some snaps now and then as I go. ( I take my compact for convenience). Although the quality isn't there is just so much easier. I've picked a few of my favs and hope you enjoy ;-) It kind of reminds me of that movie "Yes Man" with Jim Carrey - funny movie. There is a girl in that movie that goes for early morning runs and takes photos while running lol (Blurry ones). So if you see me running along the street with my trusty compact just wave a friendly hello haha.

Halo effect

Hmmm should I take my umbrella? Naaa She'll be right. LOL

How appropriate for me to find a boat called the long white cloud ;-) We definately are a cloudy country. But I love clouds, and I love the dynamic elements they often add to a photo.

The thick cloud cover definately adds something special to this pic reflecting the sunset light.
I like how the light shines around the LV letters on this building. Hey like I always say, dreams are free. Unfotunately LV is not. Has anyone ever been inside that shop? I've been twice now, has the feeling of a museum haha. And I love how the doorman opens the door to customers. You can feel rich even though you aint. LOL.

The quality of light is very important when you go out shooting. I just love the intense sunset light on the tower in this shot.
Hope you enjoyed that short snipit of a recent walkabout I did. Try it yourself, not only are you getting some exercise into your day, you are also having fun. Well I was!

ciao for now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year?

I'm late you say? Doubt it., I'm early. I'm wishing you a Happy Chinese New Year. HAHA> And its the year of the tiger. I say its my year this year :-) Things are feeling good, feeling positive for this year. Kudos for me yeah?

I love this time of year., the sun is out (most of the time), the weather is warmer. People are on holiday and it just seems like everyone is in a better mood. Its a great time to stop and re-evaluate your life and where you want to go. For me, I have a number of personal goals that I want to improve on this year, as well as resit my PCE1 which I failed a year & a half ago :'( feel free to shed a tear for me LOL. But look its time to get off my bum, no matter how I feel, dust it off and try again. You've just gotta get back up on that horse. Easier said than done, its taken me this long to get my confidence up again. The stink thing is that they don't actually send your exam paper back. So how on earth are you supposed to improve I ask? Its all pretty dumb really. But I have to do it if I want to get anywhere in my industry. Please pray for me haha.. no seriously please pray for me.

So I have consciously been getting out there and shooting lately. I had a ball at New Years. As you may or may not know, I live in a small apartment in town with my cool jap chick flatmate. We good friends now ay Aiko :-) She's a very good flatmate :-) Anyway she headed off to the Coromandels for the NY and so I had a few mates over to watch the fireworks. Ok so normally I would say that the fireworks on NY in Auckland aren't that great. (Well they really aren't compared to Sydney I admit). But being so close to them this year was totally friken awesome. I will share my photos below :-) It was pretty much click (wait 3 sec) click (wait 3 sec) click (wait 3 sec). Each pic seemed to be totally unique :-) gotta love it!

This shot was taken on the very moment :-) It was sooo cool counting down. I can't say I've actually ever done that for real. I think this year was a first. Thanks Channel 1 for advising the time. 2010 baby, first day of the new decade :-) I thought this was a little overexposed but still its cool :-) So the shots that follow will be a lil less BRIGHT! Hope you enjoy

I don't know why but this picture really reminds me of the 4th of July. Probably the colour ay? :P

And the cherry on the top was the full moon on New Years! Beautiful!
I love night photography. I really need to get me a new tripod. My current one was perfect for my old Fuji s1000, but for my canon 50D, hmmm. Lets just say its fine for normal landscapes but not very ideal for portraits. It actually starts to slide of kilter. Funny but annoying. Its a Kathmandu tripod that Doug bought me :-) Thankyou bub. Having a tripod is very very handy sometimes. Especially when you can't trust giving your camera to anyone to get the composition you want. And of course you simply can't go without it for night photography or any photography when you want that slow shutter speed. So I've been eyeing up a few tripods. I might just get one off trademe for around the $100 mark. I saw some very very nice ones at the photography store but I'm really not willing to pay $200+ for one just yet. I'll be saving those precious pennies for a speedlite :D

Anyway I think thats enough for one post. Speaking with Jacob who recently started up his own blog : http://jsauni.wordpress.com/, I felt motivated to post my own since I haven't done one since last year. I think I will really try and post at least once a week even when I don't have new material to share, I might share some old material and old favourites etc etc like I have done previously.

Hope you all had a fab New Year's celebration. Till next post!!

First pic of the New Year - Doug & I after the fireworks:-)