Life Quest (and other stuff)

I admit I have been a bit quiet on the update front, in truth, I have been quiet on the blogging front as a whole, but here I am, and if you give me a couple of hours you'll see that I'm back, with avengeance... That said, let's get back to the business at hand, the 365 photos update. As I am nearing the halfway mark of the 365 photos challenge, I am both excited and disappointed. I am excited because some of the photos I have been taking with my cell phone are rather beautiful. I am disappointed because not all of my photos are beautiful. Some are downright awful. But I'm here to learn and (hopefully) get better. So here are my favourites since the last update: Day 71 - Crane. Pitty about the dirt on the car window it was taken through, but still pretty I think. Day 75 - Shadow Day 76 - Colours in fibre optics Day 88 - Field My favourite, favourite of this lot. Day 112 - S.w.ing! Pure happiness. Day 126 - Red flower One of those that...

I had every intension of taking the time and improving my photography "eye." Being able to see the shot before it's taken and spot the good shot when I see it. Okay, so maybe learning that in a week or two is on the ambitious side, but I was hoping to at the very least pay attention. I didn't really. Somewhere along the line I got distracted with astrophotography, and my 365 challenge almost bordered on a chore every now and then. But that said, I still think I got a few pretty beautiful shots with my Samsung Jet cell phone. Here are my favourites of the past couple weeks: Day 39 - Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder - a staged shot Day 44 - Good morning, sunshine Day 46 - The streets Day 50 - Sunset Day 51 - The field I'm also very glad to have inspired Lee with this challenge. She has put her own, rather wonderful spin on it and you can find it at Ponderings from the Cape . The link is for Day 1, but she's almost two weeks into...

The 365photos started out as a fun, creative project, but now it would seem that it wants to be more. The basic rules still apply, take a pic a day, upload to Twitpic . But I am starting to feel that the photos must not just be a happy snappy, but proper photography. And seeing what people out there can do with just a cell phone, I know that I can do better. That said – pics of the cats and kid will still make the cut :) I’m also very happy to say that @Robi27 has joined the cause. She’s also tagging pics #365photos, so have a look! Now, a few of my favourites from photos I took over the past two weeks: Day27 Blue Sky  Day28 Tree Day32 Lights Day34 Innocent Hands And because a self portrait was bound to make its appearance… Day38 Self Portrait (more extreme phone effects) I also have to amend my rules a bit. When I forget (happened once so far on Day 21) then I must simply send in an extra pic the next day. I will still do blog posts about the challenge, but it will b...

When the rain came down yesterday morning, I decided that the Athlone cooling towers had to go down without me. But, as the time drew near, the rain took a break and hubbie and I quickly grabbed the camera, binoculars, telescope and toddler and off we went. Figuring that since it’s pretty far away, Tygerberg hill would be a good (read quiet) call. It would turn out we were not the only ones with this thought. At 11h30 there were people everywhere. After some double parking to unload, I took the car to a slightly more legal spot and scampered back. Then we waited. Shouting. Towers falling. The thunderous sound only hitting a couple of seconds later. Dust. It was all over. Here are some of the pics Hubbie ( @gavlock ) took. He used our Canon EOS 350D in drive mode, shutter speed: 1/4000 sec, ISO: 400,  attached to a Skywatcher aperture 10 inch, focal length 1200mm telescope. And in the spirit of my 365photos chal...

And it’s July (or almost not anymore), but that’s not the point. The point is my July resolution. But first: a quick overview of the year to date. January: Being happy – mostly I am, but I have been under some form of stress lately. You know: life. February: Sexy sleep wear – will need some more to get through the cold, but I’m doing my best. March: Read squash rules – read it, playing, needed to restring hubbie’s racket after Friday’s game. Woops. April: Donate clothes - Done. May: Plant flowers – did it. AND the plant seems to still be alive. June: Figuring out “What do I want?” – That deserved a post of its own . So July, another month, another resolution. The short version: Get creative. But, as “get creative” is a bit on the vague side and vague often leads to not bothering, I tried to turn it into a task. And this is what I figured: 365 days of photos. I can’t remember from where this concept first came to my attention. It might have bee...