The weeks are passing by scarily fast are they not!
And yup, I STILL haven't gotten round to uploading all the old images I took and yup, I still haven't re-learned how to use my DSLR camera and so all my current images are naff!
So here's a not so new one I took.
Yes, it's a Dragon. 10ft long and teeth to match!
OK, maybe not! This is an Iguana taken on holiday in Cuba with our long suffering non photography likey friends (bless em).
We went along to what the Cubans described as a wildlife park and from what I remember it consisted of Iguanas, Crocs and some kind of weird gigantic rat thing - seriously! Oh and a weird tribal dance in someones home - veeeery scary!
Took this with my old faithful PAS (which sadly appears to have conked out today (sad face)), an Olympus C750UZ.
I remember taking this one purely because it was feeding time and I remember hanging over this stone wall to get a decent image when the keeper chucked in a load of food. Talk about cavalry charge!
I had the camera as close to the ground as I could without actually getting in the compound and simply snapped away at them while they snapped away at me - fun eh!
Thanks for looking and thanks to Deb from 'Deb duty Photography' for hosting. I promise I'll get some recent and decent images soon. Fingers crossed.
'This or that Thursday'
Blimey, this weeks gone even quicker than the last and I still haven't gotten round to uploading my images from cd so I'm still having to scrape the bottom of the barrel for some of my older images.
This one was taken during a Ranger walk a friend and I went on here in the Highlands.
Yes I know it would have been better if the Bee had been facing the camera but let me tell you, I am scared poopless of these things and the very fact I got close enough to even take this image is a miracle in itself.
Basically I pointed, shot and ran like the clappers.
I didn't have a DSLR at the time so this was taken with my favourite camera of all time (even above my DSLR because I know how to use this one) - an OLYMPUS C750UZ.
Thank you to Deb from 'Deb duty photography' for hosting.
'This or that Thursday'
Wow that came round ruddy quick! I'm having to post my older photos on 'This or that Thursday' because a) I haven't got around to loading my photos up to my new laptop and b) well, I haven't taken any photos other than of my crafts for let's see.... hmmm.... months!
I have to admit I took the camera out round the land the other day, inspired by the photography blogs I follow and how many do you think actually made it to the laptop? c'mon guess! You got it...... NONE! How bad is that? What's worse is the reason none of them made it - I've erm forgotten how to use the blasted camera!
I kid you not! I couldn't remember a darn thing and not one photo turned out in focus let alone useable. I could have cried!
So I've promised myself to get online and check out some free tutorials to get the hang of it all again. I love taking photos but don't feel confident enough to try at the moment - I was never fabulous in the first place (due to my lack of vision or imagination) but dang..........
Anyway here's an image for this week. I would post a couple more but I fear I will need to eek out my supply for a while due to my current predicament - OK lack of knowledge!
I can't really enlighten you as to what settings I used as I suspect I would have had the camera on auto - sorry, I cheat A.LOT!
I do remember however having to sit in an awkward position for an awfully long time on a ridiculously hot day just waiting for this guy to come round the tree. Not a great way to spend your holiday in the Carribbean if you're sharing it with non photography likey pals and husband. But I have to say they were very patient and the best pals to go on holiday with that you could hope for. The destination itself (Margharita Island) left alot to be desired but it was hot, exotic and away from home so who cares....
'This or that Thursday'
I just love taking shots of flowers. I'm not great at it mind but I do enjoy it! This image is of a flower from a bunch my husband bought me but I cannot for the life of me think what it's called - anyone recognise it?
Nothing inventive or creative to get the shot just a Black cushion and a lovely flower, oh yes and a camera! An Olympus E500 in this case though I couldn't tell you which lense or what setting as I am still one of 'those' photographers who mess with settings and hope for the best.
Next we have what was a giant of a flower - the Himalayan Lily I believe
I took this image at 'Dunrobin Castle' which is a half hour drive from us. It's an old old stately home that you can wander round musing at all the old clothing the gentry wore and the bedrooms and living rooms etc that they inhabited - how the 'ova harf' lived in other words.
Outside are the amazing gardens (even more amazing when you think it's coastal gardening here in the Highlands ) and that's where I took this photo. Again I couldn't tell you settings etc.
This post is also linked to 'Fishtail cottage Flora Thursday'
I'm lucky that we own a rather large pond, large enough to require a paddle boat to maintain it anyway! Or is the paddle boat just for fun...hmmmm.... must admit it IS funny to see people capsize in it before I fixed the fibreglass leak. Guess that's just my evil side though!
I would love to be brave enough to get into that pond and wade right into the middle where there is the most beautiful Lily I've ever seen. However the waders we own are not long enough - not that that really matters anyway as I'm not 9ft tall so would need to tread water in order to stay afloat.
I could go in in the boat but like I say I've seen it capsize (more than once) and anyways a wobbly rocking boat is not conducive to a good picture.
But what really keeps me from setting foot in there is the fact that I've seen what comes out of it - EEK! I've seen Frogs the size of Baseballs - I kid you not! Lizards the size of Crocodiles - oh yeah! Though hubby does claim that they are 'mere newts' - whatever! AND something has eaten an entire population of Koi carp. Hooooge Koi carp no less, Koi carp that were years old. Again Hubby plays this down by claiming it's the Herons or Seagulls (yea right!) but I think it's either the Shark like fish I've seen or big water rats, either way I ain't setting foot in it.
So I have to make do with photographing the Lilies I can position with a stick from the safety of the bank - or as safe as it can be with a loony Great Dane haring round and playing 'chicken' with you.
A Lily of a different kind here. I'm not sure of it's actual species name but I believe it's an Asiatic Lily. I love the Green in the centre and I appear to be favouring White flowers at the moment. Hmmmm, not noticed that till now!
O look another White flower.
This is the flower to one of my Hosta plants - Big Daddy if memory serves me right (I must remember to write these things down).
I took it from below looking skyward because I was fascinated by the way the Stamen on this flower was reaching toward the sun.
That's more like it, a bit of colour - cream. lol.
Roses are my favourite flower of all time and these were some that I bought my Mum for Mothers day. The flowers were so perfect I just had to get some pictures, such a shame these ones had no scent. Not that you'd appreciate the scent anyway as you can't actually smell them............
Wow. Now THAT is eye popping colour.
This picture has had no manipulation to the actual colours. As vibrant and over saturated as the colours may appear they are pretty much the colour the flowers were and I was amazed I'd actually fiddled with the camera settings enough to get it right.
'EDIT ME' CHALLENGE WEEK 17.
I'm loving joining in with the 'Edit Me' challenges over at Branson' 'My reflection of something' blog.
This weeks photo is courtesy of 'Jill Samter photography' and the results will be posted over at 'our tiny big life'.
How cool is it that we get to play around like this!
Last weeks challenge was difficult (for me anyway) as I loved the photo in its original format and didn't really like altering it.
This weeks is difficult for a whole different reason - I simply could not decide what to do with it! Until last weeks challenge I hadn't used CS2 in a loooong time and I'd forgotten how to do most things on it and I was still stale this time round.
I took ages deciding what to to do with this photo:-
I ummed, rrrred and still couldn't figure out what to do.
Then it dawned on me that removing the containers to the side would give a different perspective on the building. Easy right? - nope!
I'd forgotten everything I thought I knew about erasing / cloning etc and so the outcome isn't perfect but here it is anyways:-
I erm didn't think to take down notes on how I did what I did (I will next time honest)so I can only give a rough guide on what steps I took.
First I opened it in CS2, then cropped the image to be a bit more pleasing to my eye. Next I spent a month of Sundays erasing the containers and cloning in the empty areas. I added some extra sky to the side and cloned the fence but thought it still looked a bit bare (especially as I'd removed a huge structure originally) so I added some of the grasses from the right side of the photo over to the left and diddled with the effects for a while so that the final outcome wasn't so 'copied'.
Next I adjusted the colour in curves until I got a warmer look and finally added a border with faded edges.
