Day 59

No more Holga for a while. I'm still only averaging about 3 out of 12 that are OK. Anyway it's back to the photos from my "about & out" walks locally.

1/250 ~ f/2.8 ~ ISO 100 ~ Canon EOS 30D ~ 24-70L lense @ 55mm

Day 58

More Holga

Can you tell what this is?

ETA: It's a really cool bar/restaurant. My friend had a birthday party there. The round things are chinese lantern-type light shades and the yellow is lighting behind the bottles at the bar. This was taken during the day using the Bulb and Cloudy settings on the Holga. The standard Holga has one s.s. settings 1/100 and the modified ones also have Bulb (hold the shutter open for as long as needed - pretty much guess work unless you carry a light meter). It also has only two aperture settings f/8 (cloudy) and f/11 (sunny).

Day 57

Holga rose.

Crazy grain, weird perspective, strange in-camera crop, light leaks, dust, scratches, fuzzy focus, weird colour, odd vignetting.... perfect... LOL

Day 56

It's Holga time again!!!

This is such a wonderful change from digital. It's so unpredictable and uncontrollable. Love it!

Day 55

Firstly thanks to those that have hung in there with me and are still commenting. It's very much appreciated. Next sorry I haven't been commenting as much as usual for the past week. I've taken on a few major projects with my business and I'm struggling to keep up with everything.

I've cheated today - this was shot about 2 weeks ago but I processed a heap today that I'd overlooked at the time.

1/80 ~ f/2.8 ~ ISO 320 ~ Canon EOS 30D ~ 24-70L lens @ 50mm

Day 54

Just something from the front garden.

1/200 ~ f/2.8 ~ ISO 320 ~ Canon EOS 30D ~ 24-70L lens ~ 62mm

Day 53

I was out and about with camera but no tripod (stupid) last night. I thought this would be a total reject cause the ss was 0.3 second!!!!! and handheld (don't normally even attempt to handhold at anything slower than 1/60). It actually looks kinda OK at this size but I wouldn't get this one enlarged!!!

This also qualifies for the weekly challenge "high ISO" as it was shot at 1600.

0.3s ~ f/2.8 ~ ISO 1600 ~ Canon EOS 30D ~ 24-70L lens @ 24mm

Day 52

Lets just see what's lying around the backyard....

1/320 ~ f/2.8 ~ ISO 250 ~ Canon EOS 30D ~ 24-70L lens ~ 70mm

ETA: used a slight blue hue to cool it down

Day 51

I'm going to have to take this one again sometime. I totally underexposed the arch so it was just a black blob. I lightened with curves and levels (using masks) but it is REALLY grainy. I like the composition and that it is an unusual view of our Opera House. Any suggestions on correctly exposing something like this?

1/1600 @ f/5.6 ~ ISO 100 ~ Canon EOS 30D ~ 24-70L lens @ 65mm

Day 50

This is getting harder to keep up as it gets busier and busier. Apologies for not commenting as much in the last few days. I promise to come back and look at everyone's blogs in the next few days.

POTD is also not very inspiring I'm afraid.

Day 49

Quick post today: Lunch

Should have straightened and tweaked levels/curves as it's all a bit off, but no time. This is SOOC just resized, cropped and saved for web. Must run, things to do....

1/500 @ f/2.8 ~ ISO 200 ~ Canon 30D ~ 24-70L lens @ 24mm

Day 48

Do you ever just get caught up in taking photos and forget how strange you must look? I was shopping at the Fish Markets this morning. I was so engrossed in taking photos that it took a while to notice that people were looking at me like I was some sort of crazy woman. Who takes photos of dead fish????

Day 47

Holga of the day: Sydney Harbour Bridge. I've become quite the tourist with my Holga. It's forcing me to take wider angles because it doesn't do closeups. Although having said that check this out - it's hilarious! http://www.toycamera.com/tech/macro.cfm

Photo of the day: Fast Food....

Day 46

Photo of the day: Another Creepy Crawlie. I used Shelly Keefe's Dramatic B&W action on this (thanks Shelly). The sky was totally blown and looked quite blahhhh in the colour version. I quite like what the action has done.

Holga of the day: This is the swimming pool, by the harbour, that I swim at most mornings. Still lots of light leaks. In the words of the guy who did the scanning "your Holga leaks like a dog". Personally never seen a leaking dog, but I get what he means. He actually said "throw it away". But NO WAY. I love it!!!

Day 45 - Happy Valentine's Day

Hi all. Hope your loved ones are good to you today. I treated myself yesterday (my V'Day present to myself) to a professional scan of my Holga 35mm negatives. So for the next few days I'm going to post a HOTD (Holga of the day). They will obviously not be taken on that day but the timeframe from shooting, developing, scanning and p.p. means they were probably taken 1-2 weeks ago.

Here's the first: Sydney Harbour from the ferry (not a bad way to travel!!!)

Day 44 - Red

Well here's my take on the weekly challenge: Red. I took lots of red things today but this one appealed the most - a bit different I guess.

1/800 @ f/2.8, ISO 100, Canon EOS 30D, 24-70L lens @ 70mm

Day 43

Rain, rain, rain, rain.... Today was the wettest day for 12 months. I only managed to slip outside for a few seconds between showers to snap this. If you look carefully you can see my reflection in the drops. This might be the closest you ever get to seeing a self portrait LOL...

1/500 @ f/2.6, ISO 500, Canon EOS 30D, 24-70L Lens @ 70mm

Day 42

Rain on a Sunday should be banned!!!! But I really shouldn't complain as we're have serious drought problems here. And of course it's making me get into proofing yesterday's session instead of going to the beach. Can you guess which one I'd prefer???

So before proofing I took my POTD (and calibrated!).

Day 41

Is anybody still out there? I hope so. Your comments and encouragement have kept me at this, as hard as it's been to do some days.

Oh well I'll keep at it. If you like what I do, drop me a line. If you don't I love cc as well. I want this to make me a better photographer.

Day 40

Woohoo - 40 days!!!!

This fella hangs out in my backyard. He doesn't really like to share it with me and seems to feel like I should stay away while he's sitting in the sun - you can tell by the look he's giving me. I don't know where he actually lives but he's at my place every day.

1/8000 @ f/2.8, ISO 1600 (whoops), Canon EOS 30D, 24-70L @ 70mm

Day 39

OK, it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, right????

I'm not going to do a full week of backlighting but instead do at least one backlighting session each week. It's too hard at the moment to do what I originally intended - for various reasons.

So instead here's today's POTD taken at a gift shop I love. These guys appealed to me - love tigers!

1/50 @ f/2.8, ISO 1600, Canon EOS 30D, 24-70L @ 70mm

Day 38

Well I didn't get much of a chance to do much with my backlighting challenge. I just snapped this one quickly before a massive storm blew in (apologies for the boring subject).

I'm now huddled inside away from the thunder and lightning and the hail.

I used Evaluative metering. I was going to try the other metering modes but the rain beat me. I also want to experiment with my grey card for exposure and custom WB. Oh well, there's always tomorrow....

1/800 @ f/2.8, ISO 100, Manual, Canon EOS 30D, 24-70L lens @ 58mm

Day 37

I've been feeling like my photography is getting better over the last 12 months. Partly through client sessions and partly, more recently, through challenging myself daily with POTD.

But I still find myself either avoiding some photographic situations or doing them and being disappointed with the results. One of these is backlighting. I SUCK AT THIS. So I'm challenging myself to do a FULL WEEK of backlit subjects - yikes!!!! - starting tomorrow. My rules: 1. No fill flash; 2. No reflector; 3. Manual settings.

If anyone else is struggling to find subjects for POTD, I challenge you to also try a week of what you're worst at....

Anyway here's today's POTD which covers the Week 2 challenge "Shoot something that you have never shot before". Here it is just in case anyone has missed it: 52 Challenges. Thanks Bree!

Do you know what it is???

ETA: Deidre was right. It is a reflection on the water. I was walking along the jetty to get a ferry home and the sun was shining through the boards. I thought the reflection on the water looked cool.

1/80 @ f/4, ISO 800, Canon EOS 30D, 24-70L lens @ 70mm

Day 36

HI!!! It's Ricci. I found out my suprise was an over-night at the Zoo and I took a lot of pictures and had lots of fun. We did a night walk, patted animals and slept in a tent. Then we got up early and did another walk where we hand fed the giraffes and saw many other animals waking up.

I would also like to thank every one that commented on my photos and I also think (hope) that with practice I'll become as good (or better) photographer than my auntie.

By the way if you don't know what my strange creature is it's a Tapir and it's Endangered

C ya

Hi Robyn now. Ricci has gone home now and I'm exhausted - now it's recovery time! The week really flew by and I had great time. Thanks all for the comments. Ricci had a great time playing POTD with us all and the comments meant a lot to her.

Day 35

We went to the Fish Markets this morning. The idea was to get some of Ricci's favourite things for a picnic lunch. So a whole lobster, lots of prawns, some cheese, bread rolls, chocolate and cherries later we found ourselves a shady spot under a tree in the park. What a feast we had. Yum!!!! After lunch Ricci went swimming.

Now we're off to a SURPRISE! I'm not telling Ricci where we are going. So she has to wait to find out. She keeps asking for clues but I wont tell. More details tomorrow....

Ricci's POTD will probably come from tonight's surprise (many photo opportunities).

ETA: We're back from the surprise and here's Ricci's POTD taken at Roar & Snore (more details and more photos in Day 36's post).

Day 34

Well it was a quiet start to the day as we didn't have a very good night and we were both tired. But we managed to get out later in the day and went for a walk around Luna Park.

Again Ricci has done a storyboard. Click on it to see full size.

And I'm going to admit to a bit of cheating. I didn't actually take the other one today. I took it on the way back from the aquarium on the ferry (two days ago). I tried to take the same shot today but I couldn't get the angle right from the wharf - need to be down at ferry level.

Day 33

Today we visited a few pet shops and the bead shop. The pet shop visit resulted in two new additions to the household - Lindt (a dark chocolate coloured bug eyed fish) and Shades ( a gold and black bug eyed fish that looks like he's wearing sunglasses). Ricci named Shades and I (of course being the chocolate addict) named the other after my favourite swiss chocolate.

Later we spent what felt like 27 hours in the bead shop while Ricci chose which beads she wanted to make into earrings. At least it gave me a chance to do POTD.

Ricci's photo is an elephant I bought home from Jaipur in India last year. She spent a while posing him in different ways and then decided to put him in a jungle-like environment.

Day 32

At the aquarium. Thanks for those that commented on our day at the zoo yesterday.

Again Ricci and I were out and about playing tourist in Sydney. We caught a ferry to the aquarium and then had a lovely lunch of prawns and mussels at a restaurant next to the harbour.

It was more chllenging taking photos today because everything was behind glass and we both ended up with lots of glare. Anyway, here's Ricci's turtle and a fish (??? not good on fish identification) from me.