Lots of photos from the last three weeks...

I have finally gotten around to processing photos from the past few weeks so here they are!

First up these were from a late afternoon walk by the river.

Just a happy snap of Mike and the dogs...


Then one of Molly plodding along...she's getting a bit slower on walks these days and I'm starting to think we might have to start leaving her behind for our longer walks and taking her out by herself so she can take it easy. Poor ol' girl...but she still seems happy to be out on this walk.
 

I was really happy with this shot! A fair bit of effort went into this because Luka was just running around like a lunatic and so Mike and I had to call him between us so he'd actually run towards me down the slope! In addition to this I have so many shots of him looking right at me in a lovely pose - but always with a bunch of the long grasses right over his face! *sigh* So I was pretty stoked to get this shot of him jumping up over the long grass and in the most gorgeous afternoon light. On a sidenote he is never ever going to run around on that hill in spring/summer again because it is covered (which I didn't notice at the time unfortunately!) with these horrible sticky weed flower things which got massively stuck in his coat and I ended up having to painstakingly comb them out of his fur for about half an hour once we got home! So with all that in mind - I love this photo even more because it was so challenging to take!


After seeing how Molly has started slowing down on walks I realised I don't think I take enough photos of her because she tends to be a bit of an uncooperative subject and looks down or away when I try and take photos of her with this real hangdog look on her face. As opposed to my always smiling eager to please Luka who is pretty much right there in my face whenever I'm taking photos!

Anyways, I decided I should make an effort to get some nice photos of her and so we went to one of her favourite parks which she loves because it has really nice grass and she loves to roll around on it!

I was glad that I made the effort because Molly actually decided to be moderately cooperative and seemed quite happy on this particular day!

Here's her 'hey isn't someone going to rub my tummy' look.


Just a nice portrait shot.



Her poking her tongue out - which I think looks like her saying 'I've had enough!'


And looking like she's laughing at how cheeky she is.


And of course I had to take at least one photo of my handsome boy. And yes, I'm still trying to figure out how to expose so I don't blow out their big white fluffy chests and legs!


Clara is well aware of my infatuation with the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmer's Market (open every Sunday from 9am - 1pm) and I can't wait for us to go there together when she's back in Adelaide!

At the farmer's market there is this little bakery stand called '...from Scratch patisserie' which makes amazing little pastries. They also make these gorgeous macarons and I decided to buy some and oh my god they were soooo yum! I barely managed to restrain myself from eating them until after I'd taken some photos! The flavours were top row - salted caramel, honeycomb, choc orange and bottom row - strawberry, cookies & cream and choc mint.




And I decided to go a little creative and do a little macro shot of them too.


So that's me caught up for the last couple of weeks!

Yesterday I got a gorgeous surprise present from Clara - some super cute Lady & the Tramp disney pajamas by Peter Alexander! I love love love them and decided to make them my photo subject this week...

I really love the box the pajamas came in - so cute! I'm trying to decide what I'm going to keep in it now...


After their first wash.


And I'm classing this as my 'artistic' shot for this week. Although realistically it's just a massively out of focus photo that I still kinda liked anyway.


*phew* so that's me all up to date! Bring on next week!

I met Luke Nguyen!

I went to the Good Food and Wine show yesterday and it was really great...lots of foodie stuff, and wine but I don't really have much interest in wines so I was pretty much there for the foodie stuff!

Little highlight of day was meeting Luke Nguyen who was doing a cooking demo and then stuck around for little while and I got Mike to take a photo of us. Excuse the crappy iphone quality!



Also entered a competition to win a dinner for two at Red Lantern (plus flights and accommodation) which would be awesome to win...we'll have to wait and see. :)

I bought some fantastic curry spice mixes from 'The Spice Kitchen' made a beef curry with one of them last night and it was really yum! Super easy too just add 4 tablespoons of the spice mix to 1/2 cup of water or yoghurt and then fry it up for a minute or so then throw in the meat to brown, add a little water and simmer until it's done! Fantastic for those  weeknights when I'm feeling too lazy to cook anything difficult. I'm planning on making a chicken korma using one of the other spice mixes during the week.

I also went to a Bracegirdles Chocolate Masterclass which was really good and we got lots of chocolate tastings! They explained the difference between compound and couverture chocolate  and we got to see them temper chocolate and see how much effort goes into making those beautiful little handmade chocolates! I have a whole new appreciation for them now!

Anyways...I didn't take any other photos at the Food and Wine show because it was so busy that any photos would have been of people's backs and elbows!

I also have to confess that I have been slack and not taken any photos this week...my excuse being that it's been pretty overcast in the morning and evening denying me any of that pretty golden light I'm chasing...well that's not entirely true I did go outside a little while ago and attempt to take a couple of bird photos but they were truly dismal..birds are not at all cooperative!

So here's a photo that I took last week...incorporating two of my favourite aspects of photography..macro and pretty sunshine!

Loving that sunlight.

I am starting to really love sunlight. I feel like I'm just starting to see light properly and am slowly moving past the phase of just blinding myself by pointing my camera straight at the sun!

I really really love that 'first light' sunlight but I'm pretty sure the novelty of getting up at sunrise on the weekend will fade! But since it was a long weekend this weekend I made the effort to get up and go and chase down some sunshine...

Okay, now I did go down to the river (I know, again!) and it probably looks like I'm obsessed with it because I've just realised all my photos from this week were taken by the river...but it is one of the only nature-y places that I have nearby so until I get up early enough to go further afield (so not going to happen anytime soon!) this is the best location I've got. :)

I did find myself a very pretty subject for this week though...

Luckily he/she was only interested in eating grass and didn't seem too fussed by the strange woman lurching all over the place trying to figure out the right angle for sunflare.

Later on in the day I took the dogs for a walk by the river and got this hilarious photo of Luka barrelling round the corner towards me at top speed...I love his expression in this one, just sums up his joyful nature and how absolutely full of happiness he is...I also love that insane tongue hanging out!

And I've been dying to get a photo of some baby ducklings that I've seen all about the place now that it's spring. I quite liked this shot of the mother duck herding her little ones along the river...

And this isn't a great shot but I had Luka running up and down these stairs that lead to the river like crazy and I just wanted to include a happy snap of him galloping around...