Back home again...

We did end up visiting Ian & Nikki up in Letsitele over the weekend. As usual Nikki cooked up a storm and we had to roll home! The kids so enjoy seeing each other. Shannon had to sleep in Cayleigh's room with her as she says Dee-Anne always gets to have friends to sleep over and she never does (she is only 4!). Shannon crept into the bed next to hers some time after Cayleigh was fast asleep in Dreamland and the next morning she asked Shannon if she heard her trying to wake her up in the night. (She hadn't). Obviously Cayleigh wanted to check to see that her cousin had in fact kept to her promise of sleeping over in her room!

On Sunday morning we took a drive up to Olifants nature Reserve to have a look at property there. We found a gorgeous place in Olifants North - what peace and tranquility! Although there hasn't been much peace and tranquility at home since as we have been debating eversince whether or not to make the purchase!

Here are a few photos:

The view over Olifants Nature Reserve from the patio

The game viewing vehicle in carport.

The boma adjacent to the house.

Shannon took these photos with her 'new' camera. When Leon bought his Nikon, he sold his Panasonic to my mom and she gave her old digital camera to Shannon. Shan naturally thinks she is the bees knees as she now gets to snap away at whim!

I am amazed - she isn't too bad! Occasionally she ends up with blurred shots but mostly her photos are in focus and some are quite good.

Here are a few photos I took at Buffalo Thorn Lodge on our game drives...

I love fiddling around with my photos in Photoshop once I've downloaded them. Sometimes I think, maybe it's 'cheating' a bit to tweak them here and there, but then again - if it makes for a better result - why not?

Here's an example :



Before :


After :


The result- a brighter image with more of the sunset hues moving down onto the trees and Impalas. This I did by adjusting the contrast, levels and colour in 2 different layers. I then erased parts of the bottom half to end up with a photo where the Impala, trees and the sunset are better exposed. I love the warm 'African sunset' tones in the resultant photo. I think there is an improvement- but that's just my subjective opinion.

Well I'd better go get some stuff done around the house now. The kids are back at school, so the holiday is officially over and I need to try to get back into routine!


Bye for now.
Veronica

A new Laptop, an old PC, and a new toy....

Wow, a month has gone past already! Finally I am happy to report that I now have a Laptop - a brand spanking new shiny black Laptop with oodles of memory for me to do all my digi stuff!

My PC crashed again just short of a month ago. Fortunately, once again we were able to salvage my precious photos. This time, however, I'm taking no chances. I went a bought a USB driven external hardrive, so I have begun the arduous task of copying my photos from my old PC onto the External Drive so that I can eventually sort through them and move some to the Laptop.

I am also adding tags to the photos as well as to all my digi kits at the same time - hoping to be better organized on my Laptop and thus making it easier to find everything!

I must say, I am enjoying being able to sit and update my blog while sitting in bed after a nice hot bath. Instead of reading or (occasionally) watching TV, I can now catch up here.

I started ANOTHER photography course 3 weeks ago. I really wasn't expecting to learn much more than I had before on previous courses, but still hoped that I would gain something at least- if not, I would still have the opportunity to have coffee and cake and a few giggles and gossip with my friends.

Now I must admit that up till now, I have only occasionally delved into the mysterious confusing world of using the 'manual' mode on my faithful Canon. I can't say it has been met with much success. After just one lesson, I have clicked! , the penny dropped and I have simply 'got it'!

I am by no means a pro yet, but I am quite confident that I could get some really good photos shot in 'manual' with a little effort, patience, perseverence - and subjects that {1} sit still; {2} don't complain about the sun in their eyes or being bored or hungry; {3} refrain from barking or chasing the cat; or {4} require monetary compensation or some or other bribe.........and don't mind me fiddling around with the settings while they wait patiently.

The lesson I enjoyed the most, was last week - our assignment due for this Friday, is to take one HIGH KEY photo and one LOW KEY photo, which we will later change to black and white.

I have wanted to get this right for so long now. I have tried before, but not as successfully. I now really feel as though I am getting the hang of how the camera works. How to use the light coming into the lens to my advantage and to use it to create artistic photos- not just simple snapshots.

It's always great to be able to snap away in "Auto" to grab those essential snapshots, silently hoping there'll be one or two really great shots - which sometimes there are. "Manual" is an entirely different thing- I am in control! Yay! I can figure this little machine out, how it {clicks} and how to get the best results from it I can!

I have found a new toy.....

Here's my High Key pic {of my daughter's Build-a-Bear} - this obliging subject sat perfectly still!

Oh boy, did I have fun! here's the black & white version :

Poor Reece, he was sick in bed with flu and I asked him ever so nicely to stand at the bedroom window so that I could play around with a Low key shot. Poor child- he was so obliging! {and he was feeling perkier at the time}.

Here's the resultant Low-key pics....

So that's what I've been busy with of late and as soon as I've completed moving across all my files, I'm going to continue with some paper scrapping again! Yip, I feel the urge to get all touchy-feely again!

Plus I am really enjoying my oil painting, and I have so much I want to paint... but that's another story.