Fab photo shoot on the weekend

I really loved these photographs I took on the weekend. I'll fill you in on how I came to take them.

Doug likes to go to the Computer Market on the weekends, and one weekend a month it is at the Logan Entertainment Centre here in Brisbane. Now for the rest of us (except for Lachlann who is a bit of a computer nut himself at 10 - well 10 tomorrow anyway!) the Computer Market is BORING, BORING, BORING!!!!! There are rows and rows of tables full of expensive, small, breakable things and it is a nightmare to take the littlies as James will wander and pick stuff up and Caeligh will wander, pick stuff up, throw stuff, steal stuff, hide, scream, throw tantrums and generally make sure Doug doesn't get a moment to actually look at anything!!! The Computer Market is meant to be a fun thing for Doug, like you or I would see a visit to a scrap shop and therefore I mostly offer to stay in the car with the littlies so he can actually enjoy his browsing. So Sunday morning, Father's Day, I definitely wanted him to have a good time so we parked the van around the back of the complex in the almost empty car park and Doug reversed up to a flowery tree for some shade for James who sits in the back of the van on the driver's side. So there we were - James and Caeligh climbing all over the back of the van playing some imaginary game and me in the front reading the Sunday paper - quite relaxing really. I had the camera in the car as it was Dad's Day and I was planning on taking at least a couple of shots of Doug with the kids (the big boys were with their dad for the weekend so a whole family portrait had to wait). Caeligh suddenly needed to pee - excellent timing my girl cos the loo is all the way around the front of the centre and I had to lock up the van, yadda, yadda. So I basically went the slacker mum route and let her pee in the garden bed right next to the rear of the van where the tree was. There was nobody around and so I figured who cares? Then she decided that rather than get back in the van like I told her too, she began to climb up the wire fence around the trunk of this flowering tree, stood on top of the fence and began to climb up a little until she was standing amidst masses of gorgeous pink flowers. The photographer in me instantly got excited and grabbed the camera. It was full sunlight, almost noon and so there was heaps of light around. So basically I let the two kids climb all over this tree for the better part of an hour, snapping away when I saw something I liked. They had a great time, I had a great time, Daddy had a great time browsing in peace at the Computer Market. I knew I had gotten a few good shots but I didn't really appreciate how good until I got them home and had a lookie on the computer. I'm really thrilled with some of them and the ones above are my faves. Who could have thought that a simple tree in a car park would have provided the backdrop for such amazing pictures??? I sure didn't!!!! So for demonstration purposes and to show that you don't need a flash camera or go hunting for the perfect scenic location for your pictures, the shots above were taken with my Panasonic Lumix 4 megapixel (which is now three years old and crappy by current standards) in a public car park. See below - that's where we were, with the van parked right next to that gorgeous tree. No magic here folks, just lucky enough to see the potential in an otherwise boring situation!!!! I've never done a photography course either, never had professional training, never even been shown how to use my camera. I just put it on the general setting and shoot and see what happens. I guess what I'm trying to share with you guys is that you can do amazing things with what you've got, don't need the biggest and best, just experiment with the camera you've got and if you're still not happy then download a free photo editing package like GIMPshop and find out what you can do there to improve your pictures. Sorry this turned into a bit of a soapbox thing didn't it?!?!?!? lol Not sure why, I just want people to believe in themselves a bit more. I hear lots of people say they are no good at photography or scrapping cos they don't have the latest camera or supplies, or they don't have anywhere nice to take pictures, but you don't need those things. I don't have those things. For goodness sake I used a squashed rusty tin lid I found in a carpark for my Coat Hanger layout I did on Friday!!! Make the best of what you've got and work with that.

So that was our Father's Day morning, and our Father's Day afternoon was spent at a park with this seriously cool monorail thing for the kids to pedal on. It surrounded the whole playground and was a great way for kids to play as well as get exercise. Yep, fatty bum mama had a go too and it actually is good exercise!!!! It was like an exercise bike with some light resistance! Needless to say Jamie lasted longer than me!!!!! lol We had fish and chips for lunch and Daddy got to play with the littlies for an hour. It's also an awesome park to fly a kite in and we'll have to remember that as Jamie is a bit of a kite fan.

The whole typing thing is completely BOOOOOORRRRRING!!!!!!! Yeah the money is a motivator but far out I'd rather be scrapping I can tell you!!!! I'm trying to juggle the typing with some blog stuff and shop stuff and forum stuff and I don't feel like I'm putting in 100% effort at either at the moment so I'm going to have to leave myself some dedicated hours just for typing and then do the rest later.

Poor Lachie came home yesterday afternoon with the weirdest markings on his arms! I hadn't seen him since he went to school Friday morning as he goes home with his dad straight after school and returns to school with him on Monday mornings. I swear he looked totally fine Friday morning but yesterday he had a really obvious divide down both forearms where his skin is normal on the outside of his forearms but toward the inside there is this stark clear line where the skin on the other side has lost all its' colour. The first thing that came to mind was vitiligo, where apparently the body's auto-immune system gets triggered into thinking that the skin's own melanin that produces skin colour is actually an invader so the immune system starts destroying the cells, resulting in depigmentation of the skin. The darker your skin colour the more obvious the depigmentation. Lachie isn't bothered and neither am I but I did take him straight to the doctor to have it confirmed as the pale areas on both his arms, because they have no pigmentation, cannot tan when exposed to the sun, only burn and as he is fair skinned with freckles anyway he has to be super-careful now to put sunscreen on every time he goes outside, especially on the affected areas. The dr said that he might repigment, sometimes kids do, but there's no telling when or if that will happen or, like some people, he will have only that degree of vitiligo and it will stay like that forever, or as in some unluckly people's cases, it spreads all over the body and can be really shattering to a person's self esteem. Fingers crossed it doesn't get any worse but he's such a positive, accepting kid that I don't think it will be a huge issue for him if it does. He also had to have blood tests to check for other auto-immune conditions as vitiligo is often associated with other immune disorders too. He was so brave as the first needle hit a dry vein and nothing came out and the other arm wasn't much better and there was lots of faffing around and in and out while the poor lady tried to get enough blood out for the necessary tests. In the end she gave up but at least the basic auto-immune screen will get done and the other stuff will have to wait for another day if it's really needed. I can't imagine what any more blood tests will cost me in chocolate as I already had to offer him a block of chocolate for bravery for last night!!!!! lol

Blayd came back all scraped up from falling off his bike bigtime. He's taken the top million layers of skin off his knee and elbow and it's so gross that I had to go buy him a big stick-on dressing thing because walking around like that with the wound exposed is like a freaking biohazard for other people. URGH!!!!! And yeah, naturally he's totally invalid now but I'm slowly convincing him he'll live! I know it must hurt and far out I'd probably have cried if it happened to me but it's the sighing and constantly wanting to show me how bad it is and the exaggerated limping that I can't stand. I know, bad, bad, unsympathetic mama I am..........

Well after that enormous blog I at least feel like I've given 100% effort to something today!!! ha ha, just not what I should have given the effort to.......hey I had fun anyway. How about you? Now I'm going to raid the freezer and see what I can reanimate for dinner and I have to do some wrapping for tomorrow. Lachie's 10th birthday and he can't wait to get into double digits. I remember that too, a big milestone it was at the time. He's getting Guitar Hero 2 for the playstation so I'm sure he'll be stoked with that, plus I've got a couple of other smaller things for him. I've given him the option of doing something special on the weekend as well but he's still umming and arring about that so who know's what he'll decide?!?!?! And I do believe some kind of cake thing will be in order but that's a job I can tackle tomorrow, while not giving 100% effort to my typing or other stuff!!! lol

Have a good night girls and chat again soon hey, lotta love Lu