I'm back! Well I've finished my exam but I won't get the result till later this month. So finger's crossed!! It takes so much energy to try and overcome something that you have failed in the past but I'm proud of myself for going back the second time :-) even if I'm not successful. I did my best, I studied hard and whatever happens , happens.

So thankyou to everyone that wished me luck and gave me support. It meant alot :-)

But boy I've been lacking in my blog! :(

It's been basically a whole month! SOOOORRRRY . I still haven't talked about the photo's I took on our 3rd photowalk with the gang (we have already completed our 4th!) It was lots of fun and our group has grown heaps :-) We went out to the Auckland Botanic gardens. It was lovely, there were so many different kinds of plants to try and shoot it was great!

So some of my favourite photo's are below :-) I accidentally had my ISO on a bit too high than normal but its sometimes necessary when the light is getting low to maintain a fast enough shutter speed to reduce blur. But actually I think I did ok! But let me know what you think in the comments. But of course its a good reminder not to over do the ISO.

Because my fellow members were slightly late this time (they had to come from the shore all they way to south Auckland!) I was able to take a few photo's before they arrived (haha cheating LOL hey its not a competition lol.) I took this. I love the green colour but also the way the grass reminds me of bamboo...

Below is one of our new memeber's doing his thang. hehe. I allowed the flax to be included in the foreground here to give that paparazzi feel. :-)

I got alot of positive feedback about the picture below :-) I thought it was good but didn't expect it to draw so much attention due to the fact it is so simple :-) But often simple works extremely well in photography! I also submitted this to my little online photography course that I'm doing (which I need to pick up again btw), and I got 100% as my mark. booyah LOL.

As the afternoon sun started to set, it provided some really nice warm even light to shoot with. I love this pic , simple for the light and the way it shows up the veins in the leaves.

There's a huge variety of cacti at the botanic gardens in Auckland and this was one of them. You all know how I love my clouds, so I incorporated them into this shot doing my very ametueristic method of HDR. haha. By using layers in photoshop elements I was able to merge 2 different photos to achieve a lighter exposure for the bottom half, and a darker exposure for the sky to enable me to show detail in the clouds. I should really have spent long on blending the two pictures but I was lazy lol but I still like this photo. This is something for me to work on! If you are wanting to know how I did that , post a message below or you can always do what I do and search youtube for tutorials haha.

The funny thing about the next photo is I thought it was ruined :( (due to my high ISO, there was visable noise when I was viewing on my computer). But a little bit of manipulation it actually turned out to be my favourite of the bunch. (Probably because its pink and green!! haha my favourite colours).

My tip of the week (month lol) is something very simple but very cool that I learned while out on our 4th photowalk (thanks to Steph lol). If you have a lens hood., you can almost always, turn them the other way around when you are wanting to store them (the whole time I have just been leaving them as they are - LOL NOOB). I was so excited when I found out you can remove it and put it on the opposite way so that its not sticking out so much and can fit in your camera back much more neatly!

April update

Well as you all now I've been extremely busy this month., unfortunately not with my photography :/ Audit has been on and my professional exam is only next week!! Its going to be tough but all I can do is do my best right?!

Anyway I thought I would make a quick update and just post up this link to the NZ online photography magazine. Its pretty cool and its free! They have lots of tips and tricks and educational articles for budding little photographers like us its quite neat! Have a look here if your interested.

For your info the website is: http://www.nzphotographer.co.nz/ and I believe they send out mags roughly every month. But have a look at back issues you might find something to your taste.

Anyway I hope you are all well and that you are making the most of the beautiful weather we have been having (beautiful and more to my liking dry!). Autumn is here and the leaves are starting to fall. Could make for some beautiful shots! I have my monthly photo walk next week. I'm so excited! And our group has grown so much too. It literally has grown out of nothing and its so cool. Steph is doing a great job of organising everything :-)

So that is my little update post. If your interested follow me on twitter! Its my new love :-)

Tip of the week: Don't forget to look up when your shooting. You might see an interesting cloud formation like this - I saw this on the way out one day. I thought it was kewl. And it again reiterates the point to always have a camera of some sort with you! I just love the reflection of the light off the apartment windows onto that wall. Its reminiscent of clothes on a washing line don't you think?