February 2011 - Portraits & candid

Although not a portrait, I thought it fit in better with the portraits than nature and misc. I took this shot the day that the NHS make public proposals to close down some of the UK's children's heart surgery unit. They propse going from 11 surgical units to just 6 or 7. Although Jamie's unit is safe, I feel for those who will be affected by the closures.

February 2011 - Stratford Butterfly farm

On an overcast Sunday in February, we had a flickr group meet-up at the butterfly farm. Focusing was a bit of an issue as well as things steaming up to start with, lol!

February 2011 - Charity Abseil

At the turn of the new year, I had an email from Birmingham Children's Hospitals fundraising team asking for people to sign up to a "Love is in the Air" abseil, 131 ft down the front of the Mailbox in Birmingham. The page that the email linked to had a photo of Jamie in the top corner and I KNEW I had to do all I could to help, even throw myself over the edge of a building, lol! I signed up, then told hubby who thought I was joking. The weeks flew by and before I knew it, the day arrived. Thankfully it arrived bright and calm, unlike the previous weekend which had been horrible with high winds and rain. The time slot I was given was for the last group of the day, so I had all day to think about it and get worked up. I caught the train to the city and made my way to the Mailbox with not much time to spare. I took most of my shots BEFORE I did my abseil, good thing too, I was shaking so badly when I had done. So I check my gear, get my t-shirt and go and wait for the instructor to show us the ropes (scuse pun!). I did feel a little sad that everyone seemed to have people rooting for them, but nobody had come with me, everyone was either busy or unable to make it for one reason or another. I asked Mark to stay at home with the kids as I knew I wouldn't be back until tea time or later.

After our very brief lesson on abseiling, we were going up in the lift and then we were on the roof. The city looks beautiful from the top, made even more glorious by the late afternoon sun shining down on it. Finally the moment arrived, my harness was attached to the ropes I would actually be using, I was given last minute instructions, then I was asked to walk backwards until my heels were over the ledge..... the lean back! How I didn't pass out from fear, I will never know. I did however make a special effort to try and smile at the photographer who was photographing everyone poised at the top. Then I had to "walk" down a few rungs of the downward plank of wood before squatting, getting my knees on the plank and then..... free air! I thought the hard part was over but it turns out that I really don't like heights when dangling in mid air by a harness and rope, 125ft off the ground. I had to work really hard at not hyperventilating, then my arms started aching really badly and I tried really hard to get down as fast as possible. After what felt like forever, I touched the ground and although struggled to stand because I was trembling badly, I felt a huge rush of relief, amazement and wonderment. I DID IT!!! The feeling was indescribable. I was on a high for days. If you ask me now if I would do it again, the answer would have to be no for now, lol! I have raised almost £200 so far!

My 1st view of the building as I came out from under the bridge. Taken with my phone





The chap who got me over the edge is on the left of this photo.











An after shot!



Oh, and I went ahead and bought the shot of me the photographer took, how could I not after all that?!

February 2011 - Shugborough

I took the boys to Shugborough Estate on one of the few pleasant days we have had this month. It allowed me to put my Tamron lens to the test. Unfortunately the house itself does not open for another few weeks yet, but we had a good walk around the grounds.

February 2011

Well, I've been naughty in not keeping up, but as it's been a short month, it won't take too long to catch up on.

On Saturday 12th February I took part in a charity abseil to raise funds for the Children's Heart Appeal. I will post photos from that in a seperate thread.

I have my 2nd band shoot on Thursday. They want raunchy but classy......... I admit so far I am drawing a blank so will most likely fly by the seat of my pants, lol! I think where I am drawing blanks is that they want a white backdrop but all the ideas I have would probably work better on black. Thankfully I reckon they will have lots of ideas themselves and if nothing else, we will have fun. My hubby was good enough to buy me a second hand Tamron 17-50 2.8. Lovely lens it is too.

On Sunday I am going to the focus on imagining show at the NEC in Birmingham. I MUST NOT BE TEMPTED TO BUY ANYTHING! LOL! I really want to go just to look at everything and maybe try some of it out, hold it in my hands, get ideas of things to put on my ever growing wish list, lol!

I also have a shoot next Thursday for the niece of a friend. She wants some glamour shots for a portfolio, I have the space to set up a decent sized "studio" as well as have a backdrop and 2 softboxes. So there will be 3 of us (all friends) taking various shots of the young lady for her portfolio. Hopefully this way she will get lots of variety and the benefit of different editing styles, we will get the practice, get some shots for our own portfolios and have a laugh at the same time.

I will post all the photos in seperate threads, as I also had a trip to the butterfly farm in Stratford, and it will make it easier to keep them all together.

Surreal day yesterday!

Yesterday went the same way most Thursdays go, running around like a blue arsed fly and spending a precious few hours alone with Zack while the boys are busy with Grandma. I dropped the older 2 off, then took Zack for a walk around a local wildlife trust nature reserve (could have gone to Ironbridge, but seems my invite got lost in the post. I wish I could say I'm not bothered, but yeah, I actually am, especially as it is not the 1st time this has happened. It serves to remind me of why I prefer to keep to myself, no hurt feelings that way). Anyway, I digress, lol! I was made to feel like a good parent by some random stranger, who told me that he wished more parents would spend quality time with their kids and get them interested in nature & the outdoors. That made me feel great, so I went about the rest of my day. My husband comes home later on to tell me that his new sales rep has a husband who is an author. He is about to have his 1st book published and wondered if I could help him with his book cover. I think my jaw hit the floor. I'm waiting on a few more details, but I am excited to try and help. Then a few hours later the phone rings, it's 9pm so I was expecting family or maybe my best friend. No, it was another random stranger who got my number from the friends that I did the band shoot for a couple of months ago. He wants some band shots too. After chatting for a while and arranging a meet up before the shoot, he told me that I could go and try my hand a gig photography as they practice every Friday and often have the who rig set up, backdrop, lighting, the lot. Sounds like the perfect way to practice to me, lol!

Now, how to convince hubby that I really need that 24mm fast prime? LOL!

West Midland Safari Park weekend - 29/30th Jan 2011

On Saturday I decided to drive over an hour to have a drive around the Safari Park. In the winter they are only open weekends. I was surprised how busy it was considering the rest of the park is closed. I pay to get in, start driving around, take a handful of shots and then notice that battery symbol flashing at me. As much as I love my D300, the only gripe I have about it is that it hardly gives you much warning before the battery packs in altogether. I managed to fire off about another dozen shots and then it died. I reached into the camera bag...... no spare batteries. I had charged 2 and forgot to pick them up. I was soooooo mad at myself. I was not even a quarter of the way around the safari park. So I drive around the rest taking record shots with my new phone. Good phone, but has a pretty crappy 5mp camera that can not deal with contrasty situations AT ALL. Then the battery dies in that too. So I eat my lunch and then head home. I made the decision to return the next day and take the eldest boy with me with his camera. It is nice to spend some quailty time with him and nice that he shares the same love of wildlife and photography that I do, lol!

Here are some of my favourite shots from the weekend.

Fvourite shot from day 1 (ok, almost my only shot from day 1, pmsl!)





It seemed to be mating time for these animals. Like other deer like species, the males lick the air to see if the female are in heat.



Is this my best side?





Wallaby



Wolf - took a chance and opened the window a crack to get this shot, shooting through glass was HARD





White tiger shot through mesh fence, turned out better than the tigers who weren't behind fences but had to be shot through glass :-(



White lions, all shot through the car window











Cheetah on day 2.



My favourite shot of day 2, we went around twice and the sun came out in the afternoon.



Is it obvious I love big cats?? I would have brought a cheetah home with me if it wouldn't have mauled me to death, lol! Might have helped get rid of the 2 bloody cats from next door and stopped them from crapping all over my garden, terrorising my rabbits and trying (and succeeding once) to kill my garden birds. Anyway, I digress!

I did manage to get 1 shot I liked off my camera phone, of the boy taken while we were having lunch. Was bloomin' awful of me, so cropped me out, but I like it of him.