Bronze and Exclusive

Today I had my 250th DL at iStockPhoto. This means I have become a Bronze level photographer and will be accepted as an iStock Exclusive contributor. That means an increase in royalties and a bunch of other benefits. I'm stoked!

What is iStockPhoto? Well basically iStockPhoto is an internet site where you can buy very high quality photos (or videos or illustrations) of just about anything for not very much. You can then use the photos in brochures or work presentations or booklets or school projects or you can just get them printed out at your local photography shop and hang them on your wall. It is Royalty Free (RF) which basically means once you have bought it you can use it over and over again. How much does it cost? Small pictures suitable for a brochure or booklet start at about $1.60 and from there they increase up to about $32 for an image you could print out at poster size. Think about it, you could download a photo as good as a Ken Duncan for $32 and get it printed out at poster size your local photography shop for $20 and get it framed! Or you could buy a Ken Duncan and pay $2000 for it.

Anyway, use this link if you are interested:

Then go over to the left and click on the "How to buy stock" link on the left and follow the instructions. If you buy some credits, I'll get paid a little bit too!

Big boy, big bed

After the other night where Mitch was sick, it was my turn. I don't think I've ever been so sick. Fortunately Mitch and I are (fingers crossed) both better now and it appears to have missed Meeks (double fingers crossed).

Anyway, now that Mitch is a bit older we decided that it was time for him to have a big boy bed. The Ikea cot we bought can be converted into a bed by taking off the bars on the sides and half the height of the bed heads. What you end up with is this ...

Mitch loves it. He is so excited about being in a big boy bed.

So far he's had two day time sleeps and one night time sleep with none of this ...

Very well posed by Mitchy. The bed is so low to the ground anyway that even though we have a rail thing we decided not to put it on. We have put a couple of pillows down when he's been sleeping but even though he moves around a bit when he sleeps he hasn't managed to fall off.
We have also had a lot of this ...
Bouncey! Bouncey! Bouncey! (Gotta love those bright yellow digger pyjamas!)

And this ...
Jumping off!

We were a bit worried that he wouldn't like the big bed and that he would want the sides back on, but he has been very excited about it. We'll get him a proper big bed in a few months when he has gotten used to a bed with no sides. That will be another milestone and I suspect we'll need to put a rail on a big, big bed, but we have to do some clearing out and think about reshuffling the furniture before we do that.

Tough night

Mitch had the chucks last night. He vomited 3 or 4 times between about 10pm and midnight and didn't settle until after 1am. He went through three sets of sheets. Then he was up this morning at about 5am. Fortunately he hasn't vomited again since last night and was able to keep a few things down this morning and is much happier. Poor little guy! Mummy and Daddy are pretty tired today.

Passport shots

Mitchy and I need a passport (mine had lapsed) and rather than taking the 1 chance in a million of getting a decent photo of Mitch at the chemist I thought I'd have a go myself. Of course Mitch wasn't willing to play ball most of the time. I did get some beautiful and amusing shots on the way to getting his passport shot though. Here are a few:


Cheeky grin:

There was a bit of this:

and a bit of this:

And some hiding:

Which required bribery in the form of jelly beans:

Mostly though we just had fun:

Working in the garden

Meeks and I did some work in the front garden this morning. Firstly I mowed the lawn for the first time since probably the beginning of Autumn, surprisingly it didn't actually look all that bad after not being mowed for about 5 months! After that we cut a few branches off the tree out the front to let a bit more light in the front of the house. Mitchy was very keen to pitch in and help out. Meeks bought him some summer shorts the other day because he has obviously grown out of last year's shorts. She also bought him a little cap so he could be like Daddy. He is so cute in his little shorts and hat.




Looking at these pictures of him, he really is a little boy now. He's not a baby any more.

Father's Day

Grandad and Ganny, Mike and Mandy and Lilly and Will came over for lunch for Father's Day today. Mitch was thrilled to have Lilly over to play. Meeks made a couple of delicious big Beef and Guiness Pies for lunch. Mmmm ... pie!

Every one had a cuddle with baby Will



Mitch and Lilly played together



As usual, later in the afternoon Grandad "rested his eyes"


A lovely Father's Day.

Playing at Fagan Park with Joshie and Owie

A new playground has been put in at Fagan Park so, last Wednesday, Mitch and I decided to go and check it out. To make it more fun we invited Phil, Joshie and Owie to join us.

There is a cool slippery slide on a hill, but Joshie and Mitch thought it would be much more fun to slide down the hill next to the slide. Of course rather than running up the steps it's much more fun to climb up the hill you are about to slide down.

The sliding surface was quite sandy, so it was fairly slippery.

Although sometimes they needed a bit of a friendly push

It also meant there were some nasty wedgies. Mitch is still wearing nappies (we gave up on the potty training), but it must have been quite uncomfortable for Joshie who is out of nappies. I don't imagine it was doing anything good for their pants either.


There was also a sand pit which is great for making "sand castles".


And there was of course a bunch of other things to do.

Owie was not quite old enough for playing with the big boys so he hung out with Phil. "Look Daddy!"


In other news Mitch, Meeks and I seem to mostly be over our various ailments although Meeks had a bit of a sore throat this morning. Mitch has learned to blow his nose when we hold a tissue or hanky up to it which is very handy. Mitch's favourite things at the moment are definitely cars. He would play with them all day. He also loves the animated movie "Cars" which he calls "Race Car Movie".

I'm still enjoying playing with the camera, I now have 168 images in my portfolio to iStockPhoto and have have just over 200 sales. It's never going to replace my day job (unfortunately) but it is a enjoyable, if time consuming hobby. I'd like it if it would just pay for my photography related purchases, but I don't think it's even going to do that at this stage unfortunately! Oh well!

Lightroom 2

I've been playing around with a trial version of Lightroom 2. I played around with the the below photo of Dad and Will and came up with this:

Which one do you prefer? This could revolutionise my workflow!

Grand-Dad's birthday

We had a party at Mike and Mandy's place for Grand-Dad's birthday last night. Mitch and Lilly played on the see-saw:



And watched Play School together ("The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round"):


Meeks had a little cuddle with Baby Will:



And Grand-Dad had a cuddle with Will too:

Cute little boy

Mitchy was having his lunch on the back deck and I had the camera out and decided to take a few photos.



We're all a bit sick at the moment. Mitch has a nasty cough and Meeks and I are just getting over one. All round ours is not the most healthy house!

It is interesting watching as Mitchy learns to do new things as his problem solving skills grow. He has a stool which he uses in the kitchen when he washes his hands at the sink. He has never really used it outside of the kitchen, but this week he has realised he can use it in other places. The other day he carried it into his bedroom and climbed on it to get something out of his cupboard. Then yesterday he used it to climb up on so he could reach mummy's jewelry from on top of the tall boy in our bedroom. Who knows what else he will use it for!

New toy

Our old TV was past it's used by date. It is still working, but was a bit slow to start up. We decided it was time to get a new one. The one we wanted to get didn't fit in the old entertainment unit so we decided to get one of those two. We got a good deal on the TV from JB Hifi (I think the salesman made a mistake, we got it for $200 cheaper than I could have gotten from a "fall-off-the-back-of-a-truck" internet type sites. The entertainment unit is from a place down at Manly Vale called Better Prices Furniture or something. It is nice solid wood and weighs a lot (thanks Brett for helping us get in inside no way I could have done it by myself). Meeks also got some bits and pieces from Freedom. Here it is:

More pictures

I'm a big fan of the pictures in the bathroom, Mitchy is so cute :)



Action shot!

Mitchy in the bath (no nudity)

One of the advantages of having the camera out is that when Mitchy is being cute in the bath you can take photos of it. Here he is making bubble beards.



Sometimes I am just stoked with what comes out of the camera. This is definitely one of those times. A single flash mounted on the camera pointing at the roof doing the lighting.

Peanut Butter and Honey Muffins

Mitchy loves having peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch. Today he has toasted peanut butter and honey muffins. Yum! I had the camera out so I took some quick pictures. A few of them turned out well.



Love that peanut butter smile :)