Manual DSLR Camera Fun and A Great Book!

I have been having the most fun experimenting and practicing with my DSLR. It's only been every now and then that I have ventured out on that limb of 'manual photography', normally I stay in my comfort zone with the settings on 'automatic'.

I borrowed this amazing book from the library called 'Photographing Your Children - A Handbook of Style and Instruction' by Jen Altman, you can purchase this book from Amazon here. I've read a few photography books now, and this is, by far one of the best I've ever sunk my teeth into. 

It's basic, clear communication makes it so much easier to understand the sometimes rather complicated key terms that photographers use. To top it off, it has visual inspiration from the photos taken by Jen which are stunningly beautiful and great idea prompters. I haven't even finished reading the book yet and I've learnt so much already. If you're a photographer, no matter what stage you're at, or what 'subject' you choose for your photography, you need to get this book!

I've fiddled with the ISO, the f-stop, the White Balance and the Shutter Speed and had the camera on Manual Focus mode and Direct Manual Focus. It has been amazing.

Jen talks about how once you get out of 'auto mode' you'll be addicted. My first thought? 'Yeah right; how could it possibly be any different?' Well, she was right, and I'm hooked! It's such an incredible sense of achievement to not just let the camera do most of the work for you. You're taking it one step, one big step further, and controlling everything.

Obviously I still have to practice a lot and still have so much to learn about photography across the board, but I'm developing my skills and working out difficult things as I go along ... one of the incredible joys of self teaching!

I took some horrible photos and then some (in my opinion) beautiful ones. Especially the ones of my beautiful boy and little kitty 'Ollie' ... they both make great subjects! 

The chapters cover this Info:

Introduction

1. The Basics of Photography
2. Why Light Is So Important
3. Composing Portraits
4. Photographing Infants
5. Photographing Toddlers and Young Children
6. Through the Eyes of Love
7. What's Next?
8. Resources

Here's some of the images that I snapped over a couple of hours throughout the day; both inside and outside. I really love the detail that manual photography captures, as well as the beautiful depth of field in each one. 

f/13   ISO - 800   70mm

f/13   ISO - 100   60mm

f/5.6   ISO - 100   60mm

f/5.6   ISO - 400   50mm

f/5.6   ISO - 100   70mm

f/5.6   ISO - 100   70mm

f/5.6   ISO - 200   60mm

f/5.6   ISO - 200   60mm

f/5.6   ISO - 200   60mm

f?5.6   ISO - 400   50mm

So what do you think?! I'm really excited to keep on experimenting and snapping away at pretty much anything and everything that is beautiful! 

Do you prefer manual or auto when it comes to your camera settings? 

I hope you enjoy being creative this week ... I know I will!

10 Signs You Need To Invest In A Journal

I'm absolutely addicted to journals. Addicted.

Just the thought of a new journal, fresh and full of potential makes me so excited! I have a few favourite requirements when it comes to selecting them ... it must be pretty/funky; I much prefer spiral bound for art, and normal bound for writing; I only use A4 visual diaries for anything art related; I really find that having an A4 lined binder book for rough drafts of writing and blog posts an easy and essential part of my creativity (a post on that later).

So, how do you know if you're needing to start a

journal of your own?

Journals are fabulous in that they are so versatile and can be used to serve any purpose you desire; art journals, music journals, gardening journals, poetry/writing journals, cooking journals, wood working journals, photography journals, life experience journals, daily journals ... absolutely anything you like can be the subject of your journal! That's why I love it so much!

Here's a list of 10 signs I believe will tell you you're ready to begin a journaling adventure of your own! ...

1. You find yourself making lists and taking notes on all varieties of writeable surfaces (e.g.napkins, receipts, old bills, used envelopes, tissues!)
2. You're wanting to experiment with different art techniques and mediums
3. You always have brilliant ideas but can never remember them when you need to!
4. You have precious thoughts and memories that you're not wanting to forget
5. You're wanting to plan something ... be it a novel, an artwork, a birthday event, a song, a new garden, etc.
6. You have countless ideas for stories/poems swilling through your head that you can't work on/develop all at once
7. You're wanting to keep your creativity well practised
8. You have a desire to create a place of your own to enjoy and just be yourself
9. You're wanting to have a part of yourself to leave for future generations
10. You're wanting a documented record of the skills you've learned in the particular area of your interest.

I knew it was time for me to start journaling when I was a young girl who drove my mother crazy with endless snippets and scraps of paper, all of which were very important (of course!), covering a fairly large portion of my bedroom (she must love me!)

If you can relate to any or all of the 10 signs that I've given you ... it might be time for you to begin a journal of your own! Trust me, it's very fun, relaxing and satisfying!

I'll be doing some posts soon on my favourite journals that I use all the time ... like I said, I'm rather addicted so ...

stay tuned and happy journaling ... you know you want to!

P.S. I was planning on adding some photos to this post that I've taken, but after two whole days of attempting to add them without success, I figured I should just publish the post as it's been a bit since my last ... just imagine the photos for me, yes?!

Beauty In The Ocean

Some photo's I took on a recent holiday to the beautiful beach; such amazing sense of awe and wonder at an incredible world all of it's own ...

“The sea! the sea! the open sea!, The blue, the fresh, the ever free!” – Bryan W. Procter

“The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.” – Wyland

“The world’s finest wilderness lies beneath the waves …” – Wyland

“That the sea is one of the most beautiful and magnificent sights in Nature, all admit.” – John Joly

“Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.” -Sarah Kay

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” – Mother Teresa

*All photographs property of EmbraceCreateEnjoy, please do not copy in any way, thank you.

Year 11 Art Piece - "Essence Of A Dream"

When I was in year eleven (a few years ago now!) our unit of study for art class was Surrealism.

I immediately liked this style of art as it has a great deal of mystery involved in discovering the 'hidden meaning' of the artworks created. 

Our art teacher also set the medium as being chalk pastels. Anyone who is a pastel artist can appreciate just how beautiful they are to work with. The pastels in the high school art room weren't the best quality; they were very hard and quite scratchy, but they're the ones I had to use way back then! I prefer Rembrandt as they are so much smoother and softer.

My piece is called "Essence Of A Dream". All the separate elements represent all of the things that a person can dream about. 

The cats eye is a representation of dreaming about animals of any and all kinds.
The clowns eye is a symbol of happiness and laughter.

The cliffs represent dreaming of struggles, challenges and hardships in life.

 

The two roses on either side of the face are images that mean romance,
love and relationships in our dreams.

Choices and directions in life can be the subject of our dreams at times too,
this is what the stairs represent.

The ship is my favourite image in this whole artwork. I thought only a couple
of years ago that it actually looks very 'Narnian' to me, what do you think? The ocean
represents dreams of the ocean and all things pertaining to it, and the ship represents
adventure and risk-taking.

The night sky shows the obvious time of day that
most dreams take place -
the evening.

The world as the bowl of the hat is an illustration of two things;
the first being travel and countries,
the second being all the world's different nationalities that share the
process of dreaming.

 

The scorpion represents all of our fears and horrors that manifest
themselves in our dreams as nightmares.

My beautiful husband payed for this piece to be professionally framed a few years
ago as a Christmas gift ... His support of my creativity means so much to me!

The finished artwork. I never thought I would have it framed!


Have a great week creating beautiful things!

InkJoy - A Chance To Help

I'd like to let you know that I have begun a small little FaceBook business called 'InkJoy' that sells beautiful and unique hand-sketched and photographic cards made by myself.

 For the month of April, I am raising funds for an incredible charity called LoveHopeJump. This organisation raises fund for African women; freeing them from sexual slavery. Every one dollar from each card sold is going straight to help sponsor four of my friends with this charity, who are going to be jumping out of a plane for these women! (They are much braver than I am that's for sure!!)

I'm aiming to raise a minimum of $100.00 ... I know we can reach that target easily!

Even purchasing one card is sure to help!

Please be generous! The time to help and bless others is now! 

Together we can help to give these African women a beautiful, healthy and bright future!

Please visit my FaceBook page to place orders for cards, these women will thank you for it!

Be blessed this week and thank you for your support!