Traffic photos.

This was my first attempt at a traffic photo. I wasn't very impressed with the results, but it gave me a better understanding of what does and doesn't work. I haven't had another opportunity to try this again, so in the meantime decided to play with the editing and put one up anyway.

She has some cute friends.

I finally had a chance to take photos of some of my daughter's playmates.

First up is R, who has the most beautiful big blue eyes, so I decided to make this one a b&w with just the eyes in colour. It doesn't show up quite as well in this small version, but if you click on it, you can see a bigger version of the photo.
Next is D, who was doing some serious thinking in this photo! I did get a nice one of him smiling, but I like this photo better.
Another cutie, B keeps us entertained with her laughing and clapping (and blowing kisses)... but not for the camera, so I will have to try again another time!
My daughter H was 17 months old in this photo. I haven't had much practice with backlit photos, so this came out a bit patchy. Adding the sepia effect helped even out the colour. And yes, she has finally had her fringe cut.

A butterfly fairy party...

And the belle of the party was I, celebrating her third birthday.

It was an honour to be asked to capture the event.

More practise.

I was running out of volunteers to photograph, so had to cast a wider net.


I found C via on online forum, she wanted some more recent photos of her daughter O.




























This was my first time taking photos of someone I had just met, so I was quite nervous! It was a good learning experience though, and we ended up with some cute photos.

Practise.

The next to let me practise on them, was S and her son B.

I also had a bit of fun putting a compilation of the photos together. It's a nice way to include some of the fun shots, which weren't necessarily "right" on their own.

J also joined us at the practise session,
with her sons O and G.

I didn't do nearly as well with these
photos unfortunately, lots of dark
and/or out of focus shots.

G was a performer though, smiling
and playing up to the camera.

And then it was Christmas. 2008 that is.

I've never been one to give Christmas cards, but everyone around me was busy making them. For the hobby photographer, that meant beautiful photos of their children, with a variety of styles of layouts, backgrounds, fancy text and sweet messages.

I decided I too could show off my children in a festive greeting card, and here's what I came up with.

Editing a photo is a lot of fun too.

Digital photography allows you to get away with less camera skills and clean up your photo later on the computer. I went a little overboard, to see what I could do with my average photos of ordinary things.

Can you guess what these are? The answers are next to each photo, highlight the text to find out.













A = A doorknob.

A = A mop.

A = An aloe-vera plant.

A = My son, playing with a toy fire truck.