Presents

My family has declared this Christmas a homemade Christmas, and so I have been busy over the past couple of months creating gifts. Even though I've been thinking about the gifts for a while, it has still snuck up on me - I got a fright the other day when I realised Christmas was just two weeks away!  


I've found it easier to come up with things for the kids and women in my family, the guys are a whole lot harder to create for, although there are some good ideas online (which I can share after the 25th!). One of the gifts that I can share about is a ribbon stick that you'll see below. This gift suits from toddlers up to about 5 or 6 and is pretty easy to make. I made mine by wrapping a stalk of bamboo in a sleeve of fabric after drilling a hole through one end. I then threaded a split ring through the hole, punching the fabric and threaded ribbons of different lengths onto it. I made the ribbons of a few different colours, textures and lengths (and a bell) to make it more interesting. Hopefully it is a hit, we'll see!

Water drops on cobwebs

I went for a lovely hike last weekend and caught this stream-water that had been caught up in cobweb. This was using my friend's compact Lumix - I'm a big fan of that camera as it has great wide-angled lens that also does great macro.  

Poppies

I have been a bit spoilt by being given loads of flowers lately and have really been enjoying photographing them. This first series is of poppies which I love for the way they 'pop' out of their shells and unravel. I also love their star-shaped centres, semi-transparent petals, twisty stalks and colours - they are amazing!

Close-ups

The thing I think I love most about my camera is that it helps me to see things in way more detail than I can see with my own eyes - check out the hairs on the legs of the locust! 

Washing series

France

Italy

India

A series of washing line photos ... now I realise that this may make me look like a bit of a paparazzi, but I think its interesting, especially since each are from different countries. It's possible that I caught people just when they were doing their 'darks' and 'whites' washes in the first two shots, but I think its a bit of a reflection of the fashion in those places. 

Sunday afternoon

Today's sunshiney sunday afternoon was a good day for some collecting

Broken daisy

Colour!

I stumbled across this link and think it is a cool idea: http://www.letscolourproject.com/ with quite a fun video promo. Our cities do often end up in shades of dirty grey, and this sounds like an interesting way to draw communities together and enliven forgotten areas. On that note, here are some observations from around-about where I have noticed vibrant colour.

Spain : France : Spain

New Zealand : UK

France

Italy

I've wanted to go to Italy for a long time and was stoked to be able to make it there recently. It is pretty much as stunning as I imagined! I love the gorgeous ways that people dress, no matter what their age, and the delightful scenery. The quality of light near Venice is amazing and I can see why loads of famous painters lived and painted there. 

I love this combination of the classically chic Italian woman with the nuns in behind, and the shuttered windows everywhere.

These were taken on Burano, Venice. The image on the right with the bicycle at the end of the lane is my favourite.

Craftiness

My friend Nata has recently started making kids toys from socks. I saw them, loved them and  she was kind enough to show me how to make them.  Below are the results of my first attempt... there is probably still room for improvement.

Sky series

Below is a series of skies from different parts of the world. Skies are naturally changeable, and I like photographing them to capture a moment that otherwise disappears so quickly. 

Indian Skies

New Zealand Skies

     African Sky                                    New Zealand Sky

Portraits

Ny and Cam's Wedding

Check out the photos from Cam and Ny's gorgeous wedding below. The day was a great celebration, with lots of fun designer-y touches. Ny was the first bride I have photographed and was a picture perfect subject. 

        

First post - Flowers

Here are a couple of flower photos that I've taken over the past few years. I love photographing a flower because it is the chance to capture forever something that vibrantly explodes onto the earth, but then so quickly passes away. Their textures, colours, patterns and compositions are always remarkable. The yellow one below I found in India; I think it could be the inside of a bird of paradise but I'm not sure. It's pretty gorgeous whatever it is! 

Below is a series I did with lillies and some dramatic lighting. Lillies have such graceful forms  and are pretty easy to get good shots from.