PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE.......

Remember I was having a little trouble with my photography? 
Well I got back on that horse and went out into the garden one fine winters afternoon to snap and see what happened.

This is one of snow pea crop, the sun was shining through the pod and the colours were luminous.

Snow pea flower, really pretty.

This series of snaps I am very proud of, I couldnt focus as the bees never stay still so it was point and shoot real quick.
I really didnt know what I had until I downloaded it here.


This is the power of a very good lens. I bought a mid range camera and my husband bought me an expensive lens. If you want to take your photography to that extra level the lens is where you should invest all the dollars.

 I am and always will be facsinated with the macro world, so I got the macro lens. This allows you to focus down to the pixie level and see miniture beauty. These are water droplets on my pea plants. 

Dont forget to play with your shots, just take them and try to remember about depth of field. The F stop setting allows you to have a deeper area in focus, as you can see between the pea leaves and the photo of the gum leaf. All I know is the larger the f stop number the deeper the field of focus.....so google the tutorials for your model camera and have a play.

This is what I saw as I walked along the shore we have had no winter storms here yet and little rain so the bay I live near has been as clear and clean as I have ever seen it. I didnt even need to get my feet wet, this was right on the tide line.

 Taking photos of such delicate things underwater was a bit tricky, in fact the original shots were pale and wishy washy. So I photoshopped them, bringing down the brightness and altering sharpness and clarity. There are many shots that dont come out exactly the way you invisaged but these little tricks can bring it back a little.

My daughter was actually a little shocked and now is beginning to realise how easy it is to manipulate an image. So dont believe everything you see!!!



I also regularily crop an image it is the best way to bring into focus the one thing you want to showcase. Most images can be improved just by cutting away distractions and not so great areas.

 How gorgeous is that rock pool? But if you saw how ordinary this suburban beach was, where there are many dog walkers and a busy road nearby you may not think to stop and see the little world at your feet. That is what photography has always done for me. It makes me stop and look for interesting things to frame up in my lens. And the small world is very interesting. The slimy bit of seaweed looks like jade in the light.

This intrigued me with its textures and colours.

Colours and patterns, again these shells were sitting under water, it was so clear.

Finally I lifted my head and saw other sights to behold.

Like two puppies that were getting a little borrrrrred. 

So under a painterly sky we set off home again. Once more to practise and take the camera out and about. 
I am falling in love with my old hobby again. 

And must remind myself that unlike a certain celebrity who was not happy with her wedding photos that art is not perfection......she took FOUR DAYS to get an image where she was happy with the colour of her flowers!!!! I mean I love an artist and sometimes perfection gets us to a great end.......but I bet she would not tell you how altered her image is ...compared to reality.....

So I hope this debunks some of the mystery and gets you out snapping because those great shots will come with practice and a little photoshopping...........:-)

Confidence is a strange thing.........

I mean one day it can be there in spades and the next...poof.....just gone, and you wonder what the heck you are doing.

Over the many years that I have trod this place we call earth, I have had those dips and peaks and now I am beginning to realise there is no one point in your life that you will not suffer a loss of confidence. BUT the thing to realise is it is NOT the time to let it sink you...NO....it is a time when you take time to stop and relax.

Take time out and ask yourself....."what is really going on here?'
For me it was the dreaded comparing myself to others, not a good thing to do in reality.
Its OK to be inspired by other people and their art and craft but when we compare ourselves, well we really are setting ourselves up for a confidence dip.
I have muddled along for years with a camera in my hand, loving the experience and snapping away with no real idea of what I was doing. Just trying to see things with an artists eye, framing images in my mind and seeing if I could somehow capture it.

I was given a new camera lens by my sweet husband and I wanted to take "great" photos, just like the wonderful images I see on the other blogs. I read how others apologised for their poor images, and I thought to myself, "What? These photos are lovely! If these are considered not up to scratch, what does that say about mine?"

Confidence drops and suddenly NOTHING is good enough anymore. How fragile my confidence!
I too apologised for the photos I put on the blog, until a sweet lady took the time to tell me...actually its OK, she liked them. (Thank you Joy) Confidence pricks its ears up.

So what I did was decide that I would do as I did back in the day when I didnt know what the heck it was I was actually doing, I would just get out there with no expectations and start taking photos again.

This is a little pier on the shore down the end of my street. It was not a glamorous place but the light was perfect and the bay as still as it could be. I clicked away, inspired and just loving what I was seeing in my mind. Yes its all been done before but I was doing this for ME.

As you can see I took a lot of the same thing, and this is something perhaps I had forgotten. We never get to see the hours of practice and bit of good fortune that is behind that art work we admire. Some of assume that those artists and bloggers out there just have the gift and we can only dream of being as good. Confidence my prickly friend, you can retreat and cower in a corner becasue it feels safe there or you can step out and realise that you are just as talented as anyone.

You can stand still and wait observing the beauty in everything, and not be afraid of the inner critic.

The light may fade but there is still beauty to behold.

Dont delete all your errors they teach you the most. The top one was with flash, the bottom one just by the light of the room in the evening.

I also cropped the bottom image to get a better composition. That was another thing I forgot to take into account when confidence was low. These days there are very very few images that are NOT photoshopped in ANY way. Photographers have always used lighting, poses, composition, darkroom techniques and now photoshop to enhance the original image.

I am still learning this fact, I am so trusting in so many ways it seems. Yes dear fellow low confidence photographers there are many tricks to getting the final image.

I cropped these shots, taking out any distracting areas and in the last one I saturated the colour to bring out the pink.

So when those confidence erasing gloomy clouds gather on the horizen, take it easy and be kind to yourself. You are talented and you can offer the world whatever it is you would like to share. 

It would be a dull forest indeed if only one bird was singing....even if it was at perfect pitch.......