Canon Photo5 Competition

Every year (well, this is the second year and they are hoping to keep it going) Canon Australia have a Photo5 Competition. Participants register and Canon send out a little box containing five everyday objects to be photographed creatively.

I registered very early on and received my box.... then proceeded to forget about it! With two days to go until the deadline, I remembered, but couldn't get into gear to think of anything interesting, different or exciting. Instead, I photographed my objects and inserted them into some zoo photographs I had taken the week before.

Here are my entries:

A purple CRAYON....

A TEA LIGHT....

A yellow COCKTAIL UMBRELLA....

A red RIBBON....

A container of BUBBLES....

A bit of a laugh and I had fun putting them together. I don't expect to even get into the finals, but have loved looking through the thousands of photographs entered. The finalists will be announced and judging will commence on Monday 3 November. When the finalists' photographs are the only ones showing in the galleries, it's worth having a look. There are way too many photos to go through in the meantime.

Wish me luck! Bahahahahaa!!!

xx S.

Creative Commercial Assignments

After a busy weekend, I thought I'd share a couple of creative commercial assignments I'm working on. They are all works in progress.

The first image is the Gayundah Wreck at Woody Point, Qld, for an editorial promotion. The second two are Sydney's Luna Park, for artist sales. The last image is a thoughtful primate at Taronga Zoo for a poster with a message (hence the large green bit).

Tomorrow I will be spending a large part of my morning photographing beads. I just need to find the energy to pull out my lighting kit, which I packed away for the renovations! D'oh!!

I'll let you know how it goes. Take care.

xx S.

Skating Mia & Swimming

Earlier this month, Amelia went to a ROLLER SKATING party for her friend Massimo's birthday. It was so much like travelling back in time to the iceskating rink I used to go to when I was younger... actually, I think they may have had the same DJ and soundtrack!! (Thinking Michael Jackson - "Blame it on the Boogie".)

Haha - I LOVE how tightly she is holding on to the wall here. It was her first time skating and, after a few falls and relaxing a little, she built her confidence and even managed to let go of the wall for a while!

Mia, Chris and Nick have also been learning to swim. I should have taken them years ago, but at least we are there now. Mia swam a little last year, but still wasn't overly confident. Chris and Mia both have swimming programs starting at school this term, so I wanted them to be a little more confident. Nick has never learnt to swim yet.

We went for a full week intensive block and now are going each Saturday. Cheryl Rollason is the main teacher and she is amazing with the kids. Her two other teachers are very good too... I think Chris and Nick are both very fond of them. ;)

Nick is the funniest. He is meant to be learning dog paddling while singing "Wheels on the Bus".... it wasn't until his fourth lesson that I realised he was just going along for the ride! He was meant to be singing, doing the dog paddle action with his hands, blowing bubbles and kicking his feet. Instead, he was just singing at the top of his lungs and letting his teacher pull him around the pool! So CUTE!!

We've sorted him out now, though, and he is working hard at remembering to at least do the hand actions and kick his feet.

I might update a bit more tomorrow. I'm terribly sleepy right now. Take care.
xx S.

Wanting to Catch Up

I can't tell you how many millions of photos I've been taking and want to catch up on my blog! I think I'm still way back in May... this year has flown SO FAST!! Like so many other people, I've been working on a new website (rofl - I can't see it being online 'til closer to Christmas), trying to revamp my blog and renovating the house.

I'm hoping to check back in tonight and upload at least one photo!! Stay tuned.
xx S.

Partying with SM & Canon

What a fun night! Last night was the Scrapbooking Memories & Canon Pixma Party in Sydney. Everyone seemed to have a lovely time - I know I did!!

I don't have photos to share yet, but hope to get some off the Pixma people in the coming week.

Thank you to Kristy (SM) & Kevin (Canon) for your support and sometimes seemingly-constant contact leading up to the event. Thanks to all the ladies (and the couple of gents) who attended.

The moment that struck me the most during the evening, and one I really want to share, is when I finally had a chance to sit down and say hi to Melissa Frances. She excused herself for having big, warm tears in her eyes... then explained why... Melissa had been speaking to the lovely Tamara Rodgers, who had just told Melissa that she was cutting all her beautiful, long hair off in aid of Breast Cancer research. Melissa was really touched. She said to me that she had to lose her hair with Chemo - she had no choice. Tamara's gesture (for want of a better word) is just so special. You can read about her reasons on her blog. While you are there, check out her links to donate!

I'll be back with some photos. :)
xx S.

Vonn & Dan

How the months roll past so quickly! 4th of July seems like yesterday, but was over three months ago!! This day saw the wedding of my good friend Veronica to her sweetheart Dan. Vonn & I went to school together, as did our other friend Kat (who is also in one of the following photos). They were both the subject of my first ever excepted layout for publication, in 2005!

So, back to 4th July 2008 - Vonn & Dan's Wedding...

Vonn's gorgeous Grandmother...

Bridal party...






Yummy!!!....


Bridal Waltz...


....and here we are - myself, Vonn & Kat! *(lol - Kat also caught the bouquet!!)

It was a lovely, relaxed wedding and reception. Thanks Vonn & Dan!!
xx S.

Scrapbooking Memories Canon Pixma Party

Woohoo.... it's now only days until the Pixma Party in Sydney! Who's going??

I will be there, hosting a couple of photography and printing classes for Scrapbooking Memories! We'll be talking about how to best capture photos and how to then print them on the new Canon Pixma printers. There are HEAPS of freebies and lots of fun things planned. Melissa Frances is the headlining tutor/celebrity, so I'm looking forward to meeting her too, and catching up with the SM team.

I'm sure they'll be plenty of photos to come, after the weekend! Hope to see you there!!
xx S.

Lismore with Scrap & Craft With T

Wow, what an enormously busy weekend!! Mel and I drove down to Lismore on Saturday (and home again Sunday) to teach a full weekend workshop (14hrs) to a bunch of fun ladies from the surrounding areas. We had a ball!!

Thanks Tanyah, for helping organise the event!

xx S.

Mia in the Studio

I had a bit of fun in the studio tonight with young Amelia. Thanks to Dan, Sam & Annette for their assistance. :)

Mia was very good and patient. She loved the attention, I think. I asked her how she was feeling and she said, "I feel very special, thanks Mummy."

Just thought I'd share. Take care. :)

xx S.

TWO Photo Walls!!

John and I are renovating MAJORLY at the moment! We are also living in the house with the kids while we do the renos. If you have never done this before, I can't begin to explain just how interesting large renovations are with three littlies and a pregnant lady in tow!!

Upstairs is now just going to be bedrooms and we are moving our loungeroom, dining room and kitchen downstairs, into a space that was, until recently, just an open garage. We had to excavate to make it legal height. I haven't had front stairs or even a front door for a couple of months now. We exit through the garage. It has been very quiet, though, as the normal door-knockers can't find a door to knock on!!

Our new entrance will soon be downstairs on ground level (instead of up the front stairs onto a deck).

As much as I'm excited about the renovations overall, I am really happy that I am finally getting my photo wall!! I've been planning a photo wall for ten years and I'm now going to have not one, but TWO walls to myself!! The first wall, in the entrance, will possibly be shared with a five foot fish tank (I sold mine when I married and now look forward to setting up a new one). It will be lots of smaller photographs of various people - friends and family.

The second wall will be my main feature. Twelve 50cm x 50cm photo prints of the family on the wall, in a four by three arrangement. Each photo will be processed with the TtV look, as mentioned in my last post. I already have six printed and they look GREAT! I will, of course, have to decide on some next year, as I don't want our new little baby to miss out on being involved in the display.

These are the first eight images:












This last one is me - printed 50x50cm!! It's huge and feels a little weird to look at. I think it'll go towards the bottom, so the furniture is partially in front of it... haha. I need to find a photo of John that he likes to do the same to. He hasn't liked any of the ones I like so far.

I'll take a photo of the entire wall when it is completed. I'm sure I'll have heaps of renovation photos to share over the coming month or two also.

Take care!
xx S.

Playing with TtV

I'm doing an assignment on post processing techniques and am featuring TtV (Through the Viewfinder). I thought I'd share a couple of my recent alterations with you. Some are TtV and the rest are just using textures. Most of these photos are older, as I had to use my original portfolio images for the assignment.

Let me know what you think. :)

Basically, TtV is a technique described HERE. The original process was to take a photo with one camera, through the viewfinder of another camera. Here, I have replicated the effect using Photoshop. These are the square images above. The remaining images just have a texture or two applied to them.

I'll post another project I'm working on shortly.
xx S.