Saturday 17 November 2012

Met Service, stop toying with me.

Met Service, I wish you'd stop toying with my emotions like this. Last week's 10 day forecast told me there was no point in trying to dry washing or make outdoor plans, as Monday through to Monday would be rain rain rain. All weekend long, I wore the same pair of socks - who could know when I'd next get the washing dry? And socks are a precious commodity, frequent stolen by Gremlins in this house!

As it turned out, Monday was quite nice. Tuesday appeared to be almost-summerish. I donned my Domesticated House Wench Hat and washed and hung out loads of washing. Went to the supermarket for 'just one thing' and spent $187 on all sorts of random things, but not that one thing I originally wanted. Made plans to go to the park.

...Saw a big angry cloud in the distance.
Checked Met Service again (rather obessive-compulsive here).
Thunderstorms with hail, huh? 
Typical.

We held off from going to the park. The thunderclouds hovered on the edge of the skyline, never seeming to come any closer. Each time I thought "bugger it, let's just go" a few drops of rain would start to fall, chasing us inside again.

In the end, restless and fed up, we welcomed the thought of a good old fashioned thunderstorm. Something to break the monotony of the day. The black clouds came and went in batches, drawing closer then skirting around our neighbourhood as if the smell of my randomly-purchased Air Wick Scented Oil plugin in Frangipani offended them. (Or maybe it was the Lily Bug's reindition of Rain Rain Go Away performed on the back lawn yesterday still holding effect?)  Blue sky and white cotton candy clouds in between. How's that for indecisive?

At last we heard a crack of thunder, like an old friend ringing the doorbell. We ran out to greet it. Guy Smiley, face to the sky catching raindrops with his mouth and shuddering with laughter as drops splattered his eyelids.


It was the outer edges of someone else's thunderstorm. The droplets soon eased off, and an impromptu game of Tag ensued. And because I already had the camera on me to grab the above shots of Indie in the rain, I snapped some during our game. I love the way little faces light up during a game of tag!


Saturday 10 November 2012

Mad love for my Canon 1100D

After posting a long bit of waffle about how I needed to choose between two cameras Canon had offered for half price to staff at the Lad's work, I made the decision, waited with gleeful impatience for the camera to arrive, and have been snapping away with it on a near-daily basis ever since. In the end, the decision was glaringly obvious. It had to be the Canon 1100D. 





I read as many reviews as I could find on both cameras, and although the SX500IS's superzoom was appealing for its super-zoomability and awesome macro-ness, the 1100D won out in the end - despite the fact I'm likely never going to be able to afford a decent superzoom or macro lense for it. Ever. *sigh*

I've had a lot of hit and misses while playing about with the settings...



Hmm. That was a miss. Hey I know, let's pretend I was being arty!

 And this one, I think, was a better hit:

Remember how the Lily Bug cut her own hair..? Heh. Heh.


A macro lense is definitely on the wishlist if I want to take nice detailed shots of flowers and bugs and the insides of the Lad's nostrils while he's sleeping and stuff.


Probably would've napped a better picture if it wasn't a windy day and the camera was on a tripod!

Finding that spider on the flower was exciting for the kids, and I loved watching them reap so much happiness out of something as simple as a small insect.

Hmm. We probably should get out of the house more.

I was super super excited to find that when using the AF Live mode I can toggle around the LCD screen to choose exactly where I want the focus point to be rather than relying on the 9 auto-focus points and moving the camera to suit. However, this mode is only works with the LCD screen and only useful on stationary objects. Anything that blinks or farts is gonna throw out the focus and in live view, the camera takes the life cycle of a flea to refocus again.


Live Mode example 1: Right apple/lip of bowl as focus point.


Live Mode example 2: Jar in the background as focus point.

My fav snaps so far:


At the end of a lovely long afternoon at Bethells Beach, the boy was knackered. Then the we had to wait for the State Roadside Rescue to rescue our flat battery dilemma (though turned out the steering lock was just on *shamefaced*)

Bethells Beach - I pinned the Lily Bug down long enough for a photo.

Mt Victoria, Devonport. The Teen and the Lily Bug having a rare moment of fun together.

At Nan's house.

Bethells Beach where sand makes the perfect prop for some monster truck rampaging


Thursday 1 November 2012

Trick or treat, smell my feet...

I retract that previous statement I made about talking the Lily Bug out of wearing a hulk costume for Halloween.




Hulk mad!!

Hulk MAAAAD!!!
Hulk lost?


"Just point and shoot Angela. Nothing can go wrong - don't worry, I talk blurry photos all the time!" 
When teens cut their legs shaving...