Dish

Today's HSMS is Dish.
"A shallow bowl or radio antenna. Find 'dish' in your space."
Well I like to think my husband is a bit of a dish but he isn't a shallow bowl or a radio antenna.

So I went through the shelves and came up with this.
I know it looks like an egg but it is a dish. My Dad made this during his pottery stage and somehow I scored it. It's a really good little dish for keeping knick knacks.
I haven't looked inside since our last move, about 6 years ago. It's just been sitting on the shelf with it's secrets hidden.

See it opens and there's the dish part.

and for the first time in 6 years here is the contents.

and here's another dish I think is pretty. This one came from a deceased estate onlong with some other bits and pieces I liked.

and here's Alex. Graham took this one tonight as he was putting the camera away for me.

Cloud

So todays HSMS is cloud.
"A mass of water vapour. Show us 'cloud' in your space today."

It was 6pm when I found that, on what had been a cloudless day. The sun was already behind the hills and the light was almost gone but I grabbed the camera anyway and ran outside.
I stood in the backyard and looked around and found a cloud over the house. Well actually it wasn't over the house but the view I had of it was over the roof.
One of the neighbours was watching me. I'm sure he thinks I'm nuts, standing there photographing the sky. Especially after last nights effort shooting the moon.
So here is the cloud. Interesting shape.


and here is something else.
It's a flower :)
After shooting the cloud I turned and snapped a shot without aiming or changing my settings. So it was a slow shot and I was moving and this is what I got.

Blood moon apple

The HSMS prompt for today is Apple.
"A red or green fruit from a tree. Show us 'apple' in your space today."

I was looking for a silver apple keyring I have but I don't know where it is so I hit the fridge. There's usually an apple in there somewhere. The apples from our local shop have been really disappointing lately, old, somewhat wrinkled and not crisp. The ones from Graham's work are nicer, being head office I think they get the best.
So here is an apple. Not a very attractive apple and it wasn't very tasty either.

Oh and we've gone over our monthly limit for the net so they've cut us back to slow access so internet access (and mail) is really slow. I've compressed these a little more than usual so I can upload them so the JPG quality is not very good and spoils the photos a bit.



Taken in the kitchen on a beige plate with 2 coloured chopping boards. Flash bounced off the ceiling. Canon 20D. Sigma 10-20mm lens at ISO 200, 1/250, F5.6.



Tonights moon was the 'blood moon' eclipse. I found myself wishing for a bigger lens again.
We set the tripod up in the backyard and took turns going out and snapping while cooking and eating dinner. These were with the 300mm lens.

Sun

Mondays HSMS is Sun.
"An object that gives light and warmth. Find 'sun' in your space today."

So I took my little sonshine outside to capture the sun. It was a beautiful warm day, almost spring now!
Alex got to wear shorts for the first time in months and they fit him! Last summer his shorts were too long. This summer they should fit perfectly. Shirts are a different story. We will need some new ones soon. It was so nice to see his legs bare and I had forgotten how he gets red patches on the side of his face when he runs around in the sun.
Really looking forward to spring!

Here is my son and the sun. Both bring light and warmth.


and here's some more shots. The lawn really needs mowing and Alex does his best but just can't cut it. Actually for photos I like it long and green like this. When it's cut it doesn't look anywhere near as lush.
Alex was pushing his mower around making mowing noises until one of the neighbours started up a real mower. He got all worried about the noise and came to me for protection. The funny thing is when he does that he doesn't cuddle up to me, instead he backs into me and gets me to wrap my arms around him but with his back to me so he can still see and hear whats going on.







and just for comparison here's one from February in the same shorts. You can see how he has grown. Well I can anyway.

Self Portrait Saturday

There's a blog called Her Space : My Space
which I like to read/look at. It looks like fun so I thought I'd play along. I always like challenges and a daily photo subject challenge may help the creative juices.
The time difference may make it a little confusing though. When I looked at the site at midday they were up to 'Self Portrait Saturday' so that's where I started. Now they are up to 'Show Off Sunday' so I guess I'll always be a day behind AU time unless the new day's prompt is something I can do late at night. I couldn't come up with any 'show off' photos which I haven't already shared except the wedding photos, which I don't have permission to share yet, so I guess unless I come up with a new favourite in the morning, then my constant showing off will just have to do :)
So here's my self portraits. 2 of them because I couldn't decide which I preferred. Taken under challenging conditions.
Today Graham went to a car meet with his new car club and I stayed home with Alex. I was looking forward to going as it was a BBQ and I thought I'd get some nice photos but Alex slept late so I told Graham to go without us. As it was Graham had trouble finding the place so missed out on the BBQ anyway.
What has this got to do with my self portraits? Well Graham took my camera and both my wide angle zoom lenses. So I was left with the backup camera, which is still good but slower than I'm used to, and the prime lenses or the big zoom. To take photos in this house I really need a wide angle lens, nothing to do with my weight, I just can't back up far enough for most shots with the other lenses. I could have gone outside (would have had better light) but Alex was asleep and has super hearing so I didn't want to risk opening the back door and waking him. It was bad enough that the cameras self timer beeps as it counts down and with the camera having to be on the opposite side of the room to fit me in the frame I was pushing the button and having to run on tippy toes to get into position for the shot. It was all quite funny really.
So here's me today. Taken with the 50mm 1.8 prime and Canon 10D. No makeup, I forgot that bit but I did brush my hair sometime today :)

Hard drives, beautiful hard drives!

Things are getting back on track here.
I finally got my damaged hard drives replaced under warranty and now have one of them installed. Which means I am in the process of restoring everything from backups then I get to rearrange things and make new backups (after the other drive goes into the server). Meanwhile I have a huge backlog of photos to go through including a few hundred from Saturday's wedding. At least it will keep me offline a bit. We have almost reached our download limit for the month so have to be careful with web page access.
The wedding was lovely which is I guess exactly what you want for a wedding. The rain didn't start until the reception and I met some really nice people. I bought a new outfit for the occasion which was nice and summery so I was pretty cold most of the time :( and couldn't cuddle up to Graham to get warm. Though once the reception started the alcohol helped warm things up but I'm afraid I also got a bit talkative. These days it only a takes a few drinks and my focus and shutter speed become unreliable. I took a heap of photos but I wasn't the official photographer, (the grooms sister was) so I was very conscious of not getting in her way and not using any flash. So most of my shots had to be high ISO and slow shutter to work with the low light in the church and the reception. I got a lot of sneak shots, through the crowd and behind the scenes, and left all the posed shots for the photographer and the pushier guests :) I was impressed with how well the camera performed in low light with ISO 1600 and 3200. The photos will be fine as 6x4"s but there's too much noise in most for enlargements.
Makes me want an upgrade even more! Canon have finally announced the 40D but it will probably be a month before it's available. I've been waiting so long for this. It was like counting down to Christmas. There were so many rumours but everyone was pretty sure the new camera would be announced this month and it was, a few days ago :)
Alex has Gymbaroo tomorrow. We were going to the Wednesday group but we went to Friday's last week and he participated better. I think it's because all the kids on Fridays are his size. Wednesday group has some older children who are a lot bigger than Alex and he spends most of his time watching them and not paying attention to what he should be doing. So now we have changed to Fridays so tomorrow will be fun. He is really enjoying practicing his jumping and kicking and is counting everything he can. Though his counting usually starts with 2 and jumps to 4 or five. He can recognise 2 and A when 'reading' and often gets 4 and 5 correct too. I've found junk mail catalogs are best for this because everything is numbered and there's bound to be some nice large print on each page with an A in it. He also goes through the colours of things in the catalogs and points out which things are for Mama and which are for Dada, like shoes for Mama (I hate shoes) and belts for Dada.
Graham just got home with a speeding fine! I think I need a coffee so here's some photos:

Alex in his bedroom with the early morning light. I got him up, changed and dressed then put him back in his cot so I could take some photos with the nice light. I'm looking forward to the days getting longer and the light getting stronger.




We had a nice day recently so we played bubbles in the backyard. As you can see we don't get much sun in the yard. I was hoping for more now the neighbours trees are gone but it hasn't made any difference at this time of year.







Finally here's some photos from the wedding. Just my handsome husband (the best man) :) and one of the church. I have other photos I like but I don't have permission to put them online (yet).
The one on the phone was when they were looking for the bride. The horse and cart broke down and the minister wanted to know how long they would be. Of course the brides phone was turned off so Graham couldn't reach them.