Family Birthday Celebrations

Group family photo celebrating a 50th birthday Ann, a 21st Birthday Joy and a recent 20th Birthday Bethany so lots of reasons to party. There should have been another 50th birthday celebrated as well but unfortunately due to car trouble she couldn't make it down. We will have to see what we can do later in the year Sue!

What are you doing?

Ambers Presents

As I promised yesterday today you get to see if Amber got any presents at her party or not. Now it would be a very sad little 4 year old princess if she didn’t get any presents…

Fortunately she did get presents so she was soon ripping the paper off squealing with delight…

She even got a new set of fairy wings from one of her princess friends…

Some people  even seemed to be following the princess theme in their wrapping paper…

I think Amber and her fellow princesses had a great party; I say princesses there were two princes there too, Ambers brother and the brother of one of the princesses, they all had a great time playing together.

It was soon time for the princesses chauffeurs (parents) to collect them and take them home.

All that was then left to do, was to leave Ambers daddy to do the tidying up of the toys at the end of the party…

So Happy Birthday Amber, thank you for a wonderful party.

I hope you have enjoyed visiting Ambers party with me, please come back tomorrow for some new photo opportunities, and feel free to visit any of the previous posts to see what else the camera may have seen.

Happy Birthday Amber Continued…

Those of you who read my blog yesterday will know that it was my niece Ambers Birthday this week and when we went to wish her Happy Birthday, she was having a Princesses Birthday party with some of her friends.

As you know, Princesses have to look their best and Amber certainly did. Her own personal hair stylist, (her mum), had done her hair up beautifully…

There was certainly lots of smiles and laughter going on, these princesses were having a wonderful party.

What comes next after all the fun and games? Of course, the party food…

A table full of goodies for the hungry princesses and their equally hungry helpers. There was even more cake and goodies not in the photo that came out later.

The Princesses certainly liked everything that was on offer as there was lots of empty plates at the end.

To round off the food there’s one more cake to try the Birthday cake…

Come on Amber get your daddy to help blow those candles out…

Well done Amber, all out, but wait a minute what about your presents? Oh well reader you will have to come back tomorrow for more photos of that bit of the party. See you then.

Happy Birthday Amber

It is my Niece Amber’s birthday this week and so we called around to wish her Happy Birthday.

When we arrived she was having a Princesses Birthday party with some of her friends. They were all dressed up in Princesses outfits and looked really good. The party was already underway when we got there and they had already played some energetic games so they were having a quiet time playing the memory card game as we arrived.

Although I think my camera clicking may have disturbed the concentration on the game as they all turned to look at the camera…

Concentration did quickly return to the game though…

Energetic games did resume shortly with a game of musical bumps where every child that went out got a sticker, which meant they could continue to dance and play but the organiser of the game knew who was left actually playing the game. A great idea.

Come back tomorrow for more fun from Amber’s Birthday party.

Sibling Love.

Greetings

I bring you greetings this week as part of our headbanger challenge, as that is the theme chosen by Lanny for us to focus on for our headers this week “Greetings”.

I could greet you in various different languages such as:

Hello, 你好 (néih hóu), Halito, Bonghjornu, Čao, Ahoj, Hej, Hallo, Saluton, გამარჯობა (gamarjoba), Γειά! (ya), नमस्ते (namaste), ᐊᐃᓐᖓᐃ (Ainngai), 今日は (konnichiwa), Labas, Kia ora, नमस्ते (namaste), Cześć, Привет (Privet), Ciau, Helô,  nuqneH, (is salām 'alaykum) ألسّلام عليكم

Alternatively greetings are the way in which we express ourselves physically using body language to one another.

The most simple of these is when someone greets you with a smile…

 

You know when someone greets you with a warm smile that the meeting is off to a good start.

If someone is further away then they may wave in greeting to say hello…

As you can see in this picture the wave is still accompanied by a smile in greeting too.

When a couple get married they greet each other as man and wife with a kiss…

and the rest of the wedding party greet them with confetti…

One of the closest of greetings is the hug, a way of showing that you not only greet the person but that you love and cherish them too.

For my header I have used one of the other most universally known and accepted forms of greeting the handshake.

I hope you’ve been able to work out at least some of the greetings and their country of origin. Let me know if you do. There’s one in there I will be very impressed if anyone gets it. Well there's a challenge!

To see what the other team members have greeted us with, follow the links to their blogs in the right hand menu bar.

Thanks for visiting, see you tomorrow.

Happy Anniversary

Today is my parents wedding anniversary so I wish to just say, Happy Anniversary Mum & Dad.

It's also my Dads Birthday, yes he got married on his birthday, so Happy Birthday Dad too!

We won't forget my niece who also shares her birthday today as well, so Happy Birthday Rachael.

 Have a great day all of you.

Expressions

The Header Challenge this week has been chosen by me and I thought I’d try something a little different. Something that could be interpreted in maybe a few different ways by the members of the headbangers team and see what surprises they have in store for us all with their headers.

The theme I’ve chosen is just one word “ Expressions”.

Now expression could mean the act of expression in art, music or literature.

It could mean the way in which you speak or express yourself.

You have a Mathematics expression or a….. and many more!

Expression as you can see has many meanings

For me expression conjures up the myriad of different looks and body gestures that indicate and express emotions. The face is a wonderful thing and so very expressive. have a look at the following photographs and try and tell me what you think from the expression on the faces in the photos one what they are doing and two what the emotion is.

Leave your ideas in the comments section just for a bit of fun. I’ll post what they were actually doing in a couple of days so remember to drop back to check. As for exactly what there emotion was at the time of their facial expression we may guess but only they can tell us for sure.

Remember to drop in on the other headbangers to see how they have expressed themselves this week. Follow the links to their blogs in my right hand menu bar.

Happy Birthday Melanie!

Today is my wife’s birthday so I would like to dedicate my blog today to her.

She is a wonderful wife and friend who I couldn’t do without.

 

Her smile lights up the room but it was her beautiful blue eyes that first captured my heart.

For you Mel a simple rose as just a small token of my love.

Happy Birthday Mel.

Technorati Tags: rose,love,Melanie,wife,friend,heart

Romanian Portraiture.

Taking portraits in black and white can add drama and definition to the subject.

When I took these photo's in Romania a few years ago, I consciously chose black and white to emphasise the culture and age of the subjects.

The age of this man is celebrated in the wrinkles on his face, enhanced by choosing to shoot in the medium of black and white.

The old women sitting in front of her house knitting.

The men socialising.

The Grandmother caring for her granddaughter.

I believe all these photos are aided by being taken in black and white.

Hopefully each of these pictures tells you its own story.

 The poverty of the people in the area where we stayed was noticeable but they didn't seem to be affected by it. The people of these rural, Eastern European communities smiled, laughed, and generally enjoyed life, without seeming to need the trappings we often take for granted in our western societies.

 Hopefully I have given you at least a peek of the characters behind the photos, through these black and white images.

These photos were all shot using black and white film on my old Canon 600 SLR camera.

Candid Camera

Sometimes it is good to go to a professional photographic studio to get that great shot of the kids. Its not always the case though, often the best shot comes from a candid camera moment.

I've learnt to just let the child play and get engrossed with what they are doing before I start to take pictures. There's no need to call their names so that they turn towards the camera. Often if you do they will do the opposite and look away ruining the chance of a good photograph or give such a false grin as to ruin the photo opportunity. Just discretely take a few shots, avoiding flash if you can as that will often cause them to stop what they are doing and turn towards the camera, or indeed turn away saying no! Its good to catch that moment of joy on their faces, even when they are not looking directly at the camera and it creates a much more natural photograph.

Giving them something to do, such as blow bubbles is an old photography trick. Their attention is focused on making bubbles and watching where they go and they are not focused on the camera, enabling quite a number of good photo opportunities. Getting the bubbles in the picture adds a further element to the photograph as well. 

Not all children's candid shots need to be in colour either.

I have taken the colour out of this photo in post processing. The little girl in the photo is really enjoying herself. So producing it in black and white adds definition and drama to an already energised shot. The final result is an image that shouts of the energy and happiness of the little girl. 

I hope you like these shots. Feel free to tell me what you like or even dislike about the photos in the comments section. If you think maybe I could do it differently then tell me too. By helping each other we can learn more and take better photos.

Sky Pictures.

Sat at my computer I look out over the flat landscape of South Lincolnshire, England.

Because the land is so flat the sky plays a large part of the landscape.

This evening it was crying out to be photographed.

I didn't need to go far just to the boundary of our garden to get these pictures.

The constantly changing shapes of the clouds give a different picture from the same location very quickly.

Changing the format of the picture from landscape (above) to portrait gives a whole new effect to the composition.

The clouds in this picture above seem to be in three distinct layers towering over the landscape.

Unlike the landscape formatted pictures I have included the horizon in the frame. This was done to emphasise the magnitude of the sky and to give a reference point allowing the eye to pan from the ground up into the sky and clouds.

Looking out now on the same landscape there are no longer any clouds to be seen.

This goes to show that with photography half the challenge is being in the right place at the right time.

Not only that but seeing the opportunity for a photo and taking it.

The advantage with modern digital cameras is that you can take as many shots as you want and it will not cost you any more than taking just one.

You may take 50 photos of one subject and if only one photo turns out to be really good then it was worth it.

 Go on take some photographs.

Abstract Art - Reflections.

I was sat on my computer, which is conveniently next to my drum kit, trying to decide what to talk about. I had a number of ideas, but then I glanced at the reflection on the base drum these were all scrapped.

The question posed itself. How can I take a good photo of a reflection in a non-traditional mirrored surface such as the kick drum?

Grabbing my camera (which was sat next to me on the desk) and my tripod I set about experimenting.

First I tried just letting the camera choose the settings!

As you can see my first attempts did not turn out very well. There is a film to the reflection and it has a lack of depth.

Next I manually changed the aperture on my camera to give the deepest depth of field possible thus keeping the whole of the reflection sharp. I also added a polarising filter to the lens to get rid of the film of white light on the reflection surface.

The example below shows the changes the effect of these alterations made.

Looking around the room for other abstract reflections I came across this bottle of coke.

The contours of the bottle create a fish-eye style reflection of the room including me taking the photo. The polarising filter has not fully rid the picture of the film of light but it has helped.

Going back to the computer I found the monitor had switched itself off into sleep mode. This produced another interesting reflection.

I've blurred the frame of the monitor in the shot, instead focusing on the reflection only, to create this dark self portrait.

It was an interesting experiment and something I will have to practice more of to get it just right, but worth the experimentation.

Have a go yourself and drop me a message or leave a comment to say if you tried it and how they turned out. I may even post some of your photos on a later blog.