Sorry!

I can not believe how busy one can be, and seem to achieve absolutely nothing!

I have had a heap on business wise - another photography friend and I are doing a display in a couple of weeks to attract some local clientele, so in preparation I have to get prints ordered, business cards and some postcards ready, I have not even thought about going back to finishing my website... ARGH!

The two business card designs I am working with at the moment:




THEN there was Hannah's Birthday on Thursday. My precious girl is 3! She had asked AGES ago for a Wiggly Party, and with everything else on, I had not had time to arrange a proper party for her. So Wednesday I went shopping and phoned (the mother of) one of her friends to see if they could come over for a cake. I was feeling a bit bad about not organising more (she was going out to dinner that night with my family, and tomorrow we are seeing DH's).

So Wednesday night I cleaned up and decorated the rumpus room. Thursday morning DH worked from home, so he headed upstairs before the kids woke and shut himself in his study. When the kids got up we went about our morning routine as per usual, then once the kids were fed and dressed I headed upstairs with Toby, let DH know we were coming, then called Hannah to follow us.

This was the room that she was greeted with:


I had a fantastic photo of her reaction, standing looking up at the balloons, but the camera settings were completely wrong (I forgot to change them after taking the above shot) and it was completely blown out, beyond being selvage).

Anyway, I think it is safe to say that she never noticed the absence of guests at the party (which is just as well, given her guest list was made up of Wags, Dorothy, Henry, Captain, The Wiggles, and... Jesus - huh?) and as it turned out, just the one friend over for about an hour was enough to leave the rumpus looking almost exactly like it had the previous day before I started cleaning... lol!

Other photos from the day...


Hannah put the hat on him...

hehe - Puppy Toby.

Hannah's choice of cake decoration - I didn't have any say in the matter - although given I had planned to make her a fancy charactor cake, I am not complaining.




Oh, and her presents: 2 Wiggles jigsaws, a Wiggles domino game, a Wiggles spinner puzzle game thing... a Wiggles toy hamper, a Wiggles remote control car, a Wiggles guitar (from Nanna) and... a Barbie. lol! (also some books from my brother, and my mothers housemate, and a teddybear from the friend she had at the party).

OK - I am supposedly working... lol. Best get back to it.

So much to blog, so little time!

I hate to think how far behind I am with posts at the moment. I am not even going to try to catch up.

So I am making a shortcut to the last week.

Last weekend we sold our house. Which was very exciting, because it meant that I could get my new camera and lens. Yes, my excitement for the camera far outweighed my excitement over the house. *blush*

So Thursday I went for a drive ALL the way across town to pick up my new baby. Canon 5D and 24-70mm L series lens. I never DREAMED that I would own something with that beautiful red ring, but with my Tamron playing up, I needed something more reliable. Still, it would never have happened without the sale of the house (which, BTW, was for 55k more than we were originally budgeting on - hence the splurge).

Anyway, Thursday, picked up camera, drove home, then had MIL over for lunch, so I did not have a chance to play until she left sometime after 3. Toby was asleep, so Hannah and I went out into the fading and VERY dull light to have a play. Well, in as much as Hannah will ever let me. A game of "let me take a photo of your..." managed to get me a couple of seconds of posing, though.


So - now I have a second body... my old 350D as a back up, something I can use if I need a little more range (my lens range of the full frame sensor is a bit limited!) Or so I thought. Apparently someone else has an interest in photography that just can not be fullfilled with either of her current cameras.

I wanted to take some photos of Toby to try out some new newborn props, and knowing how good Hannah is at interfering in photo taking (either wanting a turn with the camera, or else playing with the subject, or just getting in frame), and since there was no way I was going to let her try my 2kg, 3.7k camera/lens combo, I set up my 350D with my 50mm f1.8. She had a blast, and actually managed to take some reasonably composed shots! (when I reminded her to look through the "eye bit." I will post some of her shots later, if I get the chance.


Mine taken at the same time:
This one the focus was almost deliberate. He only lay down for about 1 1/2 seconds, literally, and I knew I did not have time to work out how to move the focal point on the new camera to the other side, and it was too far away to re-compose... so I just went with the focus on the hand stroking the fabric instead.

AAAANNNNDDD... because I know they will be itching to see them... some more previews of the shoot I did today.

Daddy and Jasper:
Mummy and Jasper (I have known mummy for as long as I can remember - over 20 years, I think?)
And Minnie... or Maxie? I can't remember which was which...

Sneak Peek

I had the absolute pleasure of photographing this adorable little guy this morning. 8 days old and oh so sweet!


He was not interested in sleeping for me, unfortunately... but he did behave himself well - at least most of the time.

The mysterious mind of a 3 year old

Hannah was playing outside, and I heard her crying, so I looked outside to check what she was doing.

She was sitting in the middle of the trampoline. Butt naked. Why was she crying? She was scared of the kangaroos.

huh?

As to why she was naked... I am yet to get an answer on that one.

Since I didn't post a photo with my last entry... this is one from the Montsalvat PB shoot that I did with Cazz, Melissa and their respective kidlets a couple of weeks back.

AAARGH!

DH decided that since I completed most of a computer science degree, I should be able to build my own website, rather than spend $200 on a template.

What DH completely missed with that logic was the fact that I have never used Flash before. Half the reason I only completed "most" of the degree was that I did not really like Java, and without actually having any idea what the programming language Flash uses is, it is quite Java-ish. Give me C/C++ any day.

2 days later, and I am starting to get the hang of the new programming language. I have to have it up before Saturday, so that gives me, what... 3 more days? 2 if you take out Thursday, when we have people coming over. *sigh* I am getting there... slowly. Yesterday I built a lot of the framework, and today I have fine tuned it, and am currently about 80% of the way through the contact page. Then I just have the gallery, and I need to work out what I am doing with the home page...

You make me feel like dancing...

The Oxford Dictionary describes dancing as "a series of steps and movements that match the rhythm of a piece of music."

Stuart put some music on for Hannah a couple of nights ago, and we all got sucked in to a rather exhausting evening of what can only be described as extreme outburst of unknown energy. We all had an absolute riot, but we were so exhausted by the time we finally got the kids shipped off to bed - especially given it was 11pm! *gasp!!!!!* (one must add here - after a rather ratty day, Toby ended up going down for a nap at 6.30, and then waking at 8.30, which is usually their bed time, and for some unknown reason, Hannah had slept late that morning as well, AND there was no clock in the room, so we all kind of lost track of time with both kids routines being out)

I did manage to catch Hannah in action - she actually saw me with the camera, and LET me take her photo! I was not risking distracting her with the flash, though, so given the available light, the photos are really not good quality.






A colour one - just to show how stunning her dancing costume really was...


And the latest addition to Hannahmania... (which Hannah was quite upset about not being able to wear herself, despite her numerous other dancing skirts!)