New Job

Yesterday I gave my notice to EDS that I would be resigning. I'll be starting a new job with IBM on 29th May. When I say "new job" it's really the same job, in the same location, with pretty much the same benefits, but with a different company (and more pay). Obviously I'm very pleased as it will make things like going to the UK for Krissy and Glenn's wedding next year financial easier (but still expensive!).

In other me news, iStockPhoto continues to go well. I had my hundredth image accepted last week and am very close to reaching 100 downloads (currently 97). I'm also approaching my first payout which wont be much, but it will be nice. I feel like my photos have improved a lot as a result of the "on the job training" (basically unless your photos aren't any good they don't get accepted) at iSP. I'm also going to treat myself to a new camera lens as reward for the new job. Not sure what yet, probably this one to go with this one which is the lens I currently use.

Playing with light

I was at home today so while Mitch was sleeping I decided to play with the camera and some flashes I bought on eBay. Having no "model" to practice on I decided to enlist the help of Mitch's Horsey Bob. Firstly here is Horsey Bob lit with the on camera flash. The harsh shadow behind Horsey Bob's head is ugly and the light is very flat. It makes the face look one dimensional.

Then lit with the two flashes and a white refelctor - not perfect, but much better I think! There is some interest, there is light and shadow, Horsey's head is separated from the background


After that I decided to move on to something a bit different. We have a vase with some electric Christmas lights in it. With the on camera flash it is just ugly and you can't see the lights - note also the harsh shadow behind which make it hard to see what's going on.

But with a bit of creative lighting it looks much better, as least I think so anyway. The only thing I don't like is the reflection in the right hand side frame. Oh well, I'll know for next time.


So about $100 worth of equipment bought from eBay and lots of help from The Strobist and I'm getting better at taking photos. Yay!

It's been a little while ...

Sorry about not having updates recently. Very slack of me. Not a whole lot has been happening since our holiday finished. Just back at work for both of us. Mitch is learning new stuff all the time, and so are we. In some ways it is funny to watch, but you can't laugh when he's being naughty. We just praise him lots when he does good things. He picked a flower and went and gave it to Meeks the other day. It was a beautiful moment :)

The "mo" is coming along nicely. Again, if you're willing to sponsor me it would be appreciated. There details are here. Both Meeks and I are a bit sick of it, so will be glad when it's gone. It would be nice to get some more sponsors to make it worthwhile!

Meeks has a bit of a crook back at the moment which is no good. So if you can pray for her it would be appreciated.

Krissy in the UK requested a picture of a Jacaranda tree so here it is:

This one is down the street from us. They are in bloom all around Sydney at the moment, but in the UK as it heads towards winter, obviously they are lacking. As usual the one in our front garden does not have a single flower.

I have made my submission for registration to iStockPhoto to be able to sell my photos. I had two out of three images approved, so I just need to submit one more successful one and I'll be accepted. You can read about iStockPhoto here and you can see my portfolio here once I get accepted. As a result I have also been upgrading my image manipulation skills, not so much to change my photos but present them differently. Here are some recent examples. I took the photo then used what is called an alpha-mask (which is a bit of a painstaking process) to isolate them from the background. Quite effective I think!

Selling Photos

I'm going to try and sell some of the photos I have taken with our camera. It is done through a site called iStockPhoto. There are a whole bunch of hoops to jump through before that happens including choosing photos, passing a test, and then getting approved by the site. It is a bit of a process though but it might be a good way to make a bit of pocket money. Wish me luck! I'll tell you if I get approved.

NB: I had to change the title of this post. It kept on appearing in google searches for sickos who were searching for photos of people being flogged

Swing fun

I've always wanted to take some pictures of Mitchy on his swing but have lacked the technology to capture those action shots satisfactorily. He loves being on his swing out on the back deck. The ability to increase the ISO and therefore being able to increase the shutter speed means you can take great action shots. For those who care these were taken at 400 ASA and a shutter speed of 1/750 sec, for everyone else here are a couple of photos!



And finally, one other cute one. How could you refuse anything to this little one?

Another busy weekend

I got a chance to play with the new toy over the weekend and take a few pictures of Mitch. It's hard to believe he's almost a one year old. This time last year Meeks was in hospital with high blood pressure, obstetric cholestasis and with her diabetes almost uncontrollable. Back then we certainly didn't know what joy the next year would bring us.

Anyway, here's a few photos taken using the new camera. They are taken on the play gym in the park next door in some afternoon sunlight.






Also Auntie Krissy and Glen came and had breakfast with us on Sunday before Glen returns to the UK. Auntie Krissy will be going to live with Glen in the UK in June so Mitch will miss her.



I'm enjoying playing with the new camera. I have a long way to go in understanding all it's capabilities, but it will be fun to find out. It's Mitch's 1st birthday on Thursday and I have the day off work so hopefully it will be a lovely day and we have lots of fun. Meeks and I went shopping yesterday and bought him his birthday present. Hopefully he likes it! His party is next Saturday. We hope it will be a nice day so we can have it in the park next door. At the moment they are forecasting rain, but 7 day weather forecasts aren't known for their accuracy! Anyway, it will be a chance to get lots of nice photos and have some fun.

New toy

Due to a price reduction ($100 off at Ted's Cameras) and a few other factors we were finally able to get the new camera we were hoping for. It is a Pentax K100D. Here is a link for a review. It's a 6 megapixel Digital SLR (DSLR). 6 megapixel doesn't sound like a lot, but when it's paired with a DSLR the jump in quality from even a 10Mp point and shoot is quite noticeable. 6Mp is enough for A3 sized shots, providing the camera is good enough.

Now the only excuse we have for bad photos is the photographer. There is a bit of a learning curve for getting the most out of it although it does have a very basic automatic everything mode. After that there are a number of picture specific automatic modes (like portrait, landscape, macro, etc) and then you get into the more manual modes. I think initially we care more about the picture quality. It's a pain to take a beautiful picture of Mitch and then realise there is heaps of noise and it's out of focus etc. We'll learn to use and appreciate the more manual modes as we become more familiar with the camera.

The timing is great because it's Mitch's 1st birthday next week!

We have the technology!

Now that we have a camera, we can actually put pictures on the blog. Yay! Here is the 7 week ultrasound. I know, old news, but still cool. The baby is 1.37 cm. Very tiny! You can kind of see an arm bud too! Okay so maybe it just looks like a big eye.

Video killed the radio star

We bought a video camera yesterday (it's a Panasonic NV-GS150 for those who like the details). We bought it through an online company called camerastore.com.au which I can highly recommend. It was 30% less than what you would pay in Retravision, Bing Lee or Harvey Norman. I ordered it online, they rang to confirm the details 15 minutes later and it arrived the next day. Overall a very positive online experience.

It will be fun learning to use it! As well as recording video, it takes 2.3MPixel still images which are really easy to download onto the PC so we will actually be able to get photos on this blog. I'm very excited about that. Unfortunately to do video editing we will need an upgrade of the computer, nothing major, just new operating system, new hard drive, more memory, DVD burner, USB 2.0, and Firewire card ... okay maybe we'll just have to get a new PC it is 5 and a half years old after all! Depends on the finances I guess!