A study of an arum lily

I love taking photos of Arums, and they're looking so lovely in my mom's garden at the moment.  I took these with an ISO setting of 1600 because they were taken at sunset today, which is why the background is slightly grainy.

Arum torn

This one was taken with the flash, and I quite like the effects of the shadows.

In the shadows

Spot the insect

I'm fiddling with my actions again, I'm a bit tired of the black frames.

Weekly Winners 2 Aug

I have taken photos all week, like usual, but my week was ALL about yesterday, so I'm only going to show you some that I took yesterday.

My dad, sister, brother, me and the boys flew to Cape Town yesterday for the day so that we could visit my grandparents in Hermanus.  My grandad is very ill, and when my dad said he was going to see them, we all said we HAD to go too.  I wanted him to meet Connor and see Bradley again.

It was a VERY long day.  In a nutshell... 2 hours flight there, 1 hour drive to Hermanus, 1 1/2 hour drive back, and 2 hour flight again... with 2 kids... it was a looooong day.  But the 2 1/2 hours that we spent with them was more than worth it, and in fact, long enough for him (but not for my grandmother).  By the time we left we all noticed how tired he'd got.  Anyhoo, here are some of the photos I took.

This is by far my favourite photo of the day. It's not the best ito photographic skills, but I love it. Connor relates to people so much faster than Bradley ever did, and he was sharing chips with my grandad (which I think meant the world to him because they had a "moment")

Sharing

And here's more for you

Connor with his great grandparents

Grandpa Roy

Granny Marie

Hermanus is the most beautiful town. It's on the coast close to Cape Town, and is known for the whales that come to the bay every year. It's not quite whale season yet but that didn't stop us walking to the cliff path to see if we could spot one (And I had to get some of the energy out of the kids before we headed off for the airport again).

Daisies on the cliff

Bench

Elaine on the cliff path

Trying to spot whales

Connor walking through the fynbos

The end of a long day

My only regret was that I didn't get a photo of my dad with his parents. I only thought about it last night when I was proofing the photos.

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Remnants of a rose

The sky was so blue today, so I tried to do something different and lay on the grass under the remnants of an old rose, and took a photo from underneath it. I quite like the effect!

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The present and the past

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Macro of an iris

I finally played with the remote switch that I've borrowed from Tanya.  It made quite a difference with the macro shots, but I found that the lens still shook slightly... it might be the tripod that's not sturdy enough.

Purple Iris

It's been such a mild winter, that the garden is starting to bloom already. It's so nice to see colour in the garden again... but I'm sure we'll have another really cold spell... it's too early for Spring.

Weekly Winners: 20 July - 26 July

Fern leaf

Shrimp Flower

Ballerina in the making

And the rest are all about parties!
Bradley went to another girl's party last Sunday. I'm really really struggling to find gifts for girls now, and he keeps getting invited to girl parties!

The birthday girl

Fairy cake

A jumble of paper

and then yesterday was Jason's party (Sarah, I'll email you small versions of all the pics, got some lovely ones)

Jason, still looking clean

The blue sucker

Connor's dirty face

The birthday boy

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Rocket flower

My mom has let her rocket plants grow wild, in order to seed them. Aren't these such pretty flowers?

I took the photo in the early evening, so I set the ISO to 1600, which is the reason for the speckly background.

Weekly Winners: 13 July - 19 July

Pink flowers in the rockery

In pieces

Dove and her chick nesting in an aloe tree

And then yesterday a group of us had lunch to celebate Fiona's birthday, and here are my favourites...

Doing lunch

Sue

Josh

Looking lonely

Hanging out

In the playhouse

Strike a pose

Little shop

Shopfront

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I need to raise my game

I went to camera club last night, and got slated!!  OK, the judges did seem to be stricter than they have been the last few times we've been, but still.  I'm very disappointed in myself.  I really need to raise my game.
Thinking about it over night, and in the traffic on the way to work this morning, I feel that maybe it's because I take photos every day... I'm just taking photos for the sake of taking photos at the moment, and not really trying to improve. 
But then, thinking about it... no, I do try.  But I'm really not taking quality photos at the moment with this camera.  I need to learn more about it, and try harder.  Anyhoo, here is what the judges said...

Bee - Bronze

They said there wasn't enough focus on the flower and the bee, it was blurred. Which it is if you enlarge it to the n'th degree. Apparently I should have used a tripod... funny that because I did ;) I didn't use the remote switch though, because the bee was moving so much.

Pineapply lily - Bronze

It was over-exposed. They liked the idea, and the way that i saw it though. But they thought that there was too much space on the right of the flower.

Sunset and scaffolding - Silver

There is too much sky on the left of the scaffolding. It apparently would have been better if there was a man on the scaffolding, and if I'd used a longer lens and the sun was bigger! OMW! Personally, I think that's a bit of a tall order.

Anyhoo, onwards and upwards, I'll have to do better next month!

Cymbidium

I didn't manage to take any photos today I'm afraid. So instead, here's a photo of an orchid that I took in Madi's garden on Sunday.