Edinburgh, The Lost Domain and a camera malfunction

I was looking forward to writing a post about Edinburgh to include:

• the architecture - in particular the spectacular Scott Memorial which looked like it had been conjured from the dark mind of the most villainous of fairy tale villains, Maleficent
• the five storey Primark open until 10pm across the road and down a bit from Maleficent's Memorial
• the Royal Mile alive and buzzing with street performers and artists promoting the shows they had brought to the Edinburgh Fringe
• the tranquil Waters of Leith Walkway that was a perfect route for a lovely evening run
• the Scottish National Gallery that introduced me to my new favourite modern artist David Shrigley
• and last but not least - the vegetarian haggis

This post was to be illustrated with the photographs that I had taken during the 2 night stay that I have just returned home from - the photographs that have somehow mysteriously and (for me) tragically disappeared from my camera.

I am so annoyed.

Most annoying was the loss of the photographs of my daughter Charis on the Royal Mile in peasant dress and stage makeup distributing flyers to promote the musical she was performing in. The whole atmosphere on the Mile was vibrant and energetic and she looked as though she was feeding off that atmosphere and radiating it back in a pure and concentrated form. She was beautiful. Maybe too beautiful for the camera to handle. Maybe that's why my photographs self destructed.

The musical was called The Lost Domain and was performed in the basement of a lovely old theatre, the splendour of which was slightly diminished by the fact that there was scaffolding up around it. I loved the show (cried like a baby for the first few minutes when my daughter came on stage). Charis was in the chorus and put her all into the singing and acting. She was an elegant attendee of a masked ball (although not coming from a dance background, her face did sometimes betray fear of falling during dizzying spins and twirls!). She was scarily slutty as a lady of the streets. My usually demure 17 year old had a convincing shoulder and hip wiggle to match her 'come hither' eyes. As a village girl she managed to portray all the emotions demanded of her without speaking a single line. Of course, I have no photographs of any of this either!

I am usually much more of a country girl but I totally loved the beautiful city of Edinburgh with its tall buildings, wide roads (that were a bugger to cross) and a great big castle on a hill which made navigating your way around pretty easy. It was veggie friendly (although my non-meat resolve was seriously challenged by the full Scottish breakfast that included black pudding and haggis) and my eating out experiences have given me some good ideas that I intend to try out at home (posts to follow!) 

In the absence of my photographs this may not have been the post I had intended to write about Edinburgh but I can offer this:

The Snowflake Experiment

The school where my eldest daughter teaches English had a snow day today. I was delighted when she invited me to join her and her boyfriend for lunch on her unexpected 'day off'. On the way home from our Burger and Coffee at the local Wetherpsoons, a perfect snowflake landed on her black coat. It lasted just long enough for us to admire its intricate beauty before melting into a tiny wet spot.

It got me wondering if I could possibly capture that beauty on camera using the primitive equipment at my disposal. So, armed with a small piece of black paper and my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ8 with its Macro Zoom function, I set about my Snowflake Experiment.

It would have been easier to collect my tiny subject if I had had the idea when it was still snowing with any conviction. As it was, the very occasional flake drifted lazily from the sky, and mostly avoided my attempts to encourage them to land on my paper. When I did get lucky, they would melt before I could switch from 'catch' mode to 'photograph' mode. Painfully cold fingers were not that adept at holding the camera still, framing or focusing. The result was a lot of blurry nonsense.

I did manage a couple of shots that came close to what I was trying to achieve.

If I had been a fraction of a second quicker, this could have been a spectacular example of the complex symmetry that make snowflakes so beautiful instead of a ghostly wet shadow of its former glory.

My second example was spoiled by the fact that it was not a single snowflake (which presumably is why it didn't melt as rapidly).

As experiments go, it wasn't a resounding success. I should perhaps leave it to the experts. However, concentrating on one tiny snowflake at a time as I was gave me a totally different perspective on the snow. It is mind boggling when you consider the vast numbers of these fragile ice crystals it takes to make a snowman.... and to wreak the havoc it does.

I am looking beyond my computer screen and out of the window in my study. I can see some perfect specimens falling gently towards the ground - teasing me. I feel the strong urge to grab my wellies, black paper and camera and commence The Snowflake Experiment - Take 2!

I really should learn to control my urges.

Schleich Safari

I have talked before about how much I love the exquisitely detailed Schleich animal figures. My two little ones use them for a wide variety of imaginative games and they are great for learning the names of the more exotic animals that are not often encountered.

When I was sent a selection from the Wildlife range to review, I thought the best thing to do would be to let them speak for themselves and take you on a 'Schleich Safari' on location at my house!

Here goes...

Pelican - £4.99

Zebra Foal - £2.89

Camel -  £5.49

Polar Bear Cub - £2.89

Pogona Lizard - £2.89

Tiger Cub Standing - £2.89

Meerkat Sitting - £2.89

That was a surprisingly relaxing way to spend part of my Monday morning!

Harvestman Attacks!

I have really been enjoying experimenting with my camera and taking photographs of some of the weird and wonderful visitors to my garden, many of which I'm sure I would have failed to notice had I not been ready with my lens.

Yesterday, my little girl came running in, exploding with excitement, telling me that I had had to "come and see this quick!!" What she had found was a long legged harvestman lying very flat and still against her slide.  I told her we should take a picture of it and went to get my camera.

When I got back, the harvestman (possibly spooked by the close scrutiny) decided to unflattened itself and use those impossibly long legs to make a speedy getaway.

Taylor's boyfriend had other plans.

He scooped it up and allowed it to pass from hand to hand. It did finally stop it's unproductive scuttling and came to rest. As I had my camera with me, I thought I might as well try and get the photograph I'd set out to take.

I used my (newly discovered) macro zoom and placed the lens as close as I dared.

The spider must have seen its own refection in the lens and mistook it for a threat. It launched itself at my camera in full attack mode.

Viewing this through the magnifying lens made for a fairly terrifying experience! I am ashamed to admit that I jumped back squealing, heart beating wildly and desperately trying to dislodge the poor creature before it ran up my arm. Luckily, I had the presence of mind not to just throw the camera! I would have been one very frustrated amateur photographer with a broken camera.

Needless to say, the photograph wasn't exactly what I 'd hoped for!!

Late for Silent Sunday

Photographing Seagulls

I love taking photos and whilst on holiday recently, I really wanted to capture an image of the magnificent seabirds that were soaring overhead against the backdrop of a perfect summer sky. I only had my little Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ8 with me and in the bright sunlight, all I could see on the screen was a reflection of my own face (crinkled with concentration!)

What I lacked in equipment and expertise, I made up for with enthusiasm and perseverance.

I did manage to get a few results that were close to what I hoped for but for every shot like this or this...

... there were plenty more like these:

As well as the problem of trying to anticipate the flight path of the gulls, I also had to make the adjustment for the slight delay in pressing the button on the camera and the picture actually being taken. I wasn't very good at it! Far from getting frustrated, I actually found it stupidly amusing - almost to the point of mild hysteria.

I had intended to delete all of the failed attempts but looking through them made me laugh again (much to my eldest daughter's bemusement). I decided to keep them as a memento of a wonderful day at the  seaside and a reminder that I will never make a living as a wildlife photographer!

If I were to wonder what my elusive feathered subjects were making of my feeble attempts to photograph them,  the expression on this one's face could just hint at an answer.

Snapfish Canvas Review

We have been in our current house for about 6 years now. We have done a lot of work to it to get it how we want it and still have a few projects yet to do. One of the little things that we have never really got round to is hanging pictures. This is something I want to rectify because it is such an easy way to turn a house into a home - a home that reflects who you are.

When I was offered a canvas to review from the online digital photo printing service Snapfish, I thought it would be an ideal way to get started.

I have thousands of digital photographs stored on my computer, many of which I have used on this blog. There are some that I love and some that even have some technical merit that would have made good candidates for the canvas. However, rather than trawling through the library of images, I decided to create something brand new. We were about to go on holiday which would no doubt present a  photo opportunity or two.

We were so incredibly lucky with the weather. Beautiful clear blue skies against the golden sand dunes at Camber Sands in Sussex made a fantastic background for a photograph. All I had to do was add my subjects - two adventurous little children - point and shoot. Ideally I would have liked a photograph with both my little ones in it but it didn't work out that way. The image that I fell in love with and knew was going to be the one to make into my canvas was this one of my boy.

I love the colours and the way the dried grass seed heads are the same shade as the sand. I love the way the curve of his little body is mirrored by the curve of the grass. Most of all I love how, to me, it captures a truly lovely day at the beach.

The thing to remember about choosing a photograph to be made into a canvas is the the picture needs to be cropped quite generously to allow for the canvas that wraps around the wooden framework. If I could have this moment in the sand again, I would have allowed a little more negative space on the bottom margin so my boy's feet could be included in the finished print. As it was, I had to make a small compromise.

I am always filled with a sense of dread whenever I use online digital printing services. It can be quite a mission to upload the photographs from your computer to their site. In this instance with Snapfish, it was completely painless - very quick and efficient. Maybe that was because I was only uploading one image. Choosing the right sized canvas and cropping the photograph were also very straightforward. There was a very good 3D effect product view feature that gave a sense of how the canvas would look.

I chose a 16x12 inch canvas that would have cost me £34.99 plus £6.99 p&p. As soon as I had sent my order, I received a confirmation email so there was no anxious wait to see if I had done it correctly!

I placed my order on the Saturday before I left for my second holiday and the package had been delivered by the time I returned the following Thursday. It was securely wrapped in protective packaging and strong cardboard  and it did feel a bit like Christmas as I opened it!

The quality of the product is superb - sturdily made with a true colour reproduction.

It is no doubt more expensive than buying off the shelf canvases but this is original and very personal to me which I think makes it excellent value for money.

Now I just need to decide where to hang it!

Let Me In!

Frog O'Clock

The Gallery - Sunshine

"A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love."

Max Muller

This little cactus lives on a sunny windowsill in my kitchen. I was quite surprised to see that it was forming a flower bud and delighted yesterday when it opened up into this beautiful bloom.

I left it on the windowsill to photograph it because I liked the way the sunshine made the petals glow. I used the black corrugated packaging material from the top of a box of chocolates (that also bought some sunshine to my day!) as a makeshift backdrop to give the definition I wanted.

This is my attempt to capture sunshine and my contribution to this week's Gallery.

Pixum Photo Books

Back in the days before digital photography, I would carefully compose each shot on my 36 exposure rolls of film before sending them off for processing. It could be an agonising wait for the prints to be delivered if there were some pictures I was particularly excited about. Sometimes the photographs exceeded my expectations, sometimes they were a disappointment. I never threw any away. I could never quite make up my mind how to organise them.

Nowadays, I take hundreds of digital photographs. Sometimes they exceed my expectations, sometimes they are a disappiontment. I rarely delete any. I still can't quite make up my mind how to organise them.

When I was offered a Pixum Photo Book to review, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get me thinking about my collection of photographs - what is the purpose of it and what do I actually want from it? Establishing that might just help me to decide on how best to organise it.

It can be a dangerous thing - looking back through old photographs. Time slips away and before you know it,  your children are hungry and demanding to be fed. The housework remains undone and you have not the least idea what you are going to give the kids for dinner that can be prepared with super speed so you are still on track for a reasonable bedtime.

There were lots of themes that presented themselves as possible subjects for a Photo Book - selections of photographs from recent holidays, the stages of development of my growing children, special days, celebrations, DIY projects documenting the before, during and after.... I even considered a colour themed Photo Book. In the end I opted for an eclectic mix of images that I had used in this blog over the course of the previous 12 months. All the images meant something special to me and they could be tied together by simply titling my book: QWERTY Mum Blog - A Year in Photos.

I put the pictures together in a folder for ease of uploading and decided to not think too hard about the ones I wanted to include - to go with my first instinct.

Then came the tricky bit.

The Pixum website gives lots of different options for uploading photographs, including one specifically for Mac users.

I have never come across an online system that is as simple and quick for uploading photographs as they would have you believe. It is a fiddle and it is time consuming but with perseverance, you get there in the end. The Pixum site was no different.

Once my album was uploaded, I had decisions to make about format, design and layout for my Photo Book. I went for the A4 portrait format for ease of fitting onto my bookshelf. I chose a simple, plain black design to showcase the images without too much fuss. As for the layout, by now I was really running out of time and energy, so I decided to leave it in the hands of the Gods and opted for the autofill.

Could I have done better  by manually inserting each of my photographs? Possibly - but the autofill took seconds whereas I would have agonised for hours. The autofill did a pretty good job.

One thing that I possibly should have changed was the front cover. Some cosmic influence meant that the A3 sized image splashed across the front and back cover in glorious colour and perfect focus was the photograph I took during my husband's vasectomy operation. I thought about changing it for about a microsecond! It was far too funny to undo.

My Photo Book arrived within a few days of placing my order. The images were beautifully printed on high quality paper and the front cover looked amazing!

As well as being a great way to enjoy your own photographs, a Photo Book would make a truly unique gift.

I still have no idea how I am going to organise my collection but I do have a shiny new hardback book of memories to treasure.

http://www.pixum.co.uk/

...always hope.

Even on the greyest days there is always hope.

Kodak Christmas Photo Craft Challenge

I love taking photographs and recently I have discovered a new passion for knitting. I thought there had to be some interesting ways to combine these two hobbies and the Kodak Christmas  Photo Craft Challenge gave me just the incentive I needed to get creative.

This is the image I decided to use for my Christmas Photo Craft.

I love my daughter's cheeky little expression and the outline of the head is quite clean which made it easy to cut out. 

This is the knitting part of the project.

I have been busy making little knitted decorations for my Christmas tree. The hat and beard of my knitted santa seemed to lend themselves perfectly to the idea I had for this challenge.

I adjusted the size of the photograph and printed it. I cut out the head and added a knitted beard and hat. All that remained was to hang it on the Christmas tree!

My Kodak Christmas Photo Craft Challenge

The Gallery - Week 84 - My Awesome Photograph

I took this photograph at Chester Zoo. I can't help thinking he's admiring his own reflection. If you look closely you might see exactly what he's admiring!

I love the vibrant green, the interesting textures and the gentle humour that make up this photograph which is why I am choosing it as my entry into this week's Gallery.

G is for Glamour with Groupon

For anyone who has not yet discovered Groupon, it is well worth checking out. Every day, they offer deals on such things as restaurants, beauty treatments and leisure activities in your chosen city. As much as I love the big discounts, what I really love is the email popping up in my inbox giving me ideas of things to do that I might otherwise never have thought of.

My husband also gets the emails and when he saw a deal on a Boudoir Photography Session, he bought it for me.

When he told me about it, I wasn't sure whether to be excited by the idea or run screaming. It was definitely something well outside of my comfort zone - I am usually the one firmly on the other side of the camera taking the photos!

In the spirit of embracing opportunities, I bought myself some gorgeous new underwear and tried not to dwell too much on the fact that I am 47 years old and have had six children.

We decided to wrap the Boudoir shoot up in our G Alphabet Date (it was purchased from Groupon and it was all about Glamour - perfect).

The day before our date, my husband took care of the kids and cooking the tea while I had as long as I liked to pamper myself with a relaxing soak in our recently mended whirlpool bath (I have really missed those bubbly baths in the years it has been non-functioning because a tiny plastic pipe had slipped off). I  applied numerous lotions and potions, painted my nails and did my hair (by "did" I only mean wash and brush - I am not very good with hair!) I felt great to indulge my girly side.

I got my different sets of underwear ready and packed shoes to complement the different looks.

My husband had presented me with a large gift box tied with an ivory ribbon. I was nervous about opening it because I struggle to ever buy lingerie for myself that fits so how on earth could he possibly succeed. In the past he has bought me clothes that, to my complete surprise, have fit perfectly. This time, his luck had run out. The item he had chosen for me was black, lacy, gorgeous and in my size but looked hideous on. It wasn't just a little bit wrong - it didn't fit anywhere! I felt guilty that his efforts had been wasted and bad that my body was so freakish. However, this was not the time to start being plagued with negative body image thoughts so I did my best to get over it. He had bought me some lovely seamed stockings that would fit fine and saved me a frantic trip out on a  hosiery hunt.

The photo shoot was booked for 10.30am and it was over an hours drive to get there so an early start was necessary to make sure I had time to put my make up on. Despite being bleary eyed, I did enjoy the excuse to get glamorous.

I will write all about the Boudoir shoot in a separate post when I have the photos but for now I will just say that I spent two very interesting hours under the guidance of a lovely lady who put me at ease, shared a joke and certainly seemed to know what she was doing. During this time, my husband was amusing himself nearby getting his car washed, having a haircut and playing a game of snooker. He was ready to pick me up once I was finished.

It might seem a bit odd to go on a 'date' where you spend such a big chunk of time not actually together but it gave us plenty to talk about when we met back up. We drove with the soft top down on the car and the sun shining (that always makes me feel carefree) and stopped for lunch at a country pub. We didn't manage to find a pub that began with G to fit in with the alphabet theme but there was Good food, Good company and a Glass of beer. Who could ask for more?

On Safari

I would love to go on an African Safari but for now I will have to make do with a day out at West Midlands Safari Park with the kids. It doesn't really bare much comparison but the weather was kind, the kids enjoyed themselves and it was a good way to get up close to animals.

The day wasn't really about photography. I didn't take my SLR camera and long lens. I only had my  Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ8. With a combination of auto focus, zoom, framing and leaning out of the car window I managed to get some shots I was quite pleased with. It think it is a great little camera - small enough to fit in your pocket but capable of capturing clear images with excellent colour and contrast.

These are some of my snaps.

The Pachyderm Parade

No Safari Park Photo Collection is complete without one of these.

Of course, once my little girl discovered the Amusement Park area, she decided that she didn't like animals any more!

We had a lovely family day out and as the Park give you a voucher for a Free Return Visit we shall definitely be back - maybe next time with all my photographic equipment to see what difference it makes to my photographs!

Beauty and the Resurrection of an Old Hobby

Every mum thinks their daughters are beautiful.

I certainly do.

But I've never thought of Taylor as 'beautiful' in quite the way that my eyes have been opened to this week. 'Beautiful' as in Super Model Beautiful.

Taylor is cute and gorgeous but she has no interest in make up and fashion. She dresses for comfort, keeps a completely natural look and would rather bang out some rhythms on her drum kit or go sailing than buy new clothes.

Taylor has a friend, Kirsty, who is a talented young art student. Kirsty enlisted Taylor's help with her current art project which is an exploration of Fame -  the glamour and the pitfalls. She dressed Taylor and some other friends up and had them pose for a series of photographs. Looking at the set of images that resulted amazed me - not only for Kirsty's artistic vision and the execution of it but how incredibly beautiful my little Taylor looked. Simply breathtaking.

Kirsty has kindly given me permission to use the images of Taylor and I have selected four of my favourite glamorous shots plus the contrasting depiction of the dark side of celebrity.

I have to thank Kirsty, not just for allowing me to use her photos or for showing me my daughter in a completely new light but for inspiring me.

As a young woman with my first SLR camera I used to experiment with photographing my sister in poses that ranged from glamorous to the macabre. We had such a lot of fun doing it. I don't know why it never occurred to me before to resurrect that particular hobby using my own daughters as subjects. We talked about it last night after watching Jackass as a tribute to the late Ryan Dunn and came up with loads of ideas.

I have a camera, I have ideas, I have willing models. I can't wait to get started!