Archive for the Photos Category
Written on May 11, 2010 by Jen
Filed Under: Photos
Remember a while ago I took some photos at a friend’s nephew’s birthday party as a favour to her? It turned out that the boy’s parents were very happy with the photos and asked me to come to their twin daughters first birthday party to take photos and of course they’d pay me.
Here’s one of the twins after she’d fallen over and her grandfather is consoling her.
A short while later everything was fine.
I ummed and aahhed over how much to charge them and came up with a pretty reasonable quote for my first job and they accepted it.
About 15 minutes before I was due to leave I couldn’t find the email with their home address where the party was being held. I looked in vain for this email which I knew I’d read but for the life of me couldn’t find. I didn’t have their phone number either. I rang my friend three times and she didn’t answer. I got into my car and thought I’d at least drive to the suburb where I knew it was and drive around if I had to but then my friend rang me with the address. Phew! Lesson learned. Get phone numbers and addresses and WRITE them down in my diary.
This kid below didn’t like having his photo taken so I made it my mission to get some of him, for his mum if nothing else.
Like the other party when I first got there I didn’t really know anyone so I felt a bit weird just taking photos of people I didn’t really know but you soon get over that. One person who’d been at the last party and must have seen my photos said that they were ‘real’ which I took as a great compliment as I’m sure it was intended.
A couple of families asked me to take family shots so I gather they’d been briefed by the hostess that I was going to be there and that this was perfectly fine for me to do.
There was face painting to be had and I was a bit naughty when taking this photo because they were lined up for the girl’s mum to take her photo. I shot it and took off so she could get her daughter’s attention.
You can see JJ in the background. He had a fine old time eating icecream, getting some prizes from the prize bag, and embarrassing me by asking for a lolly bag. If there’s a next time I’m going to have to explain to him that this is a paid gig for me and not a party for him and I might have to pay him something also.
I took around 350 photos and ended up giving them a third of these on CD as I’d been asked. All up I was at the party for three hours and it took nearly that again to go through them all, process them slightly and burn them to CD.
I wouldn’t want to do this all the time I don’t think because it would become too much of a chore. As it was I really enjoyed going through the photos when selecting them for the family because I relived the moments of the party even though they aren’t my family.
This is JJ’s friend and cousin to the twin girls. He’s as cheeky as he looks.
I love getting these candid shots like the one below. He obviously had no idea that I was taking it and that’s what makes a lot of my photos ‘real’ I guess.
Written on April 10, 2010 by Jen
Filed Under: Journal, Photos
About four weeks ago I decided to bite the bullet and get my first crown (teeth). I’d been putting it off because it’s an expensive exercise and I don’t fancy having anaesthetic in my mouth. I have got some medical cover which covers dental work but I only get a quarter of it back which is the fodder for another post altogether.
I left work early on the Thursday before Easter and walked to the dentist about half an hour away from work. As I was nearly there it was a bit early and I noticed a man walking ahead of me. I thought he looked suspiciously like my dentist and I didn’t want to fell obliged to talk to him so I ducked into the Botanic Gardens to avoid him and to kill the 15 minutes I had before my appointment.
I found an area of the gardens near the Wine Centre that I hadn’t visited before and saw a lot of Sturt Desert Peas.
Now that I carry my little camera with me it was just a simple matter of taking it out my bag and trying the super macro setting. I like it.
I didn’t just focus on these beautiful flowers. There were other interesting things as well.
I just took this one without looking through the viewfinder and I like how it turned out.
After spending about 15 minutes looking around and taking some photos I walked to the dentist nice and relaxed.
In other news, remember how I took some photos at a three year old’s birthday party a couple of weeks ago? Well I’ve been invited to his twin sisters’ one year old birthday party to take photos and I’m being paid for it this time. I didn’t quite know what to charge but I’m happy with what I’ve quoted and they’ve accepted.
Written on April 6, 2010 by Jen
Filed Under: Photos
A couple of weeks ago after JJ’s last game of cricket for the season we went into the city to see the Northern Lights. As part of the Adelaide Festival a whole bunch of buildings along North Terrace in Adelaide were lit up at night with mural type lights that change every few minutes. There’s probably about three-four different images for each building and it’s quite spectacular.
I was a bit lazy and didn’t take my tripod in but I’m pretty happy with most of the photos. Some were blurry or had too many people in the foreground.
None of us had taken any water so of course that’s what JJ wanted and just as he was winding up in his demands for water I spotted someone with a table of water bottles that I thought they were selling.
It turned out they were giving them away as part of a promotion. It saved us, or saved my sanity that’s for sure.
You could spend quite some time seeing all the buildings for all of their sequence of images but I’m sure we missed some. I saw enough though.
See the full set on Flickr here.
Written on March 30, 2010 by Jen
Filed Under: Photos
On the weekend I went to a three year old’s birthday party to be the photographer for it. It was an unpaid gig as it was a favour for a friend. It was also at MacDonald’s so it’s lucky she’s a friend because it’s not a place I go to willingly.
I was a bit nervous, even though I wasn’t being paid, because I’ve never been asked to do anything like that before and it was very flattering to be asked.
I ended up having quite a good time once I got into it and developed quite a rapport with the birthday boy.
How could you not. He was very cute.
He has twin sisters who are about to turn one. This is one of them.
He has a very cute friend too. I took rather a lot of photos of her.
The birthday boy must have liked me because he ended up letting me hold his dinosaur and two other toys he got for his birthday.
His parents haven’t seen the photos yet so I haven’t received any feedback but I did say to my friend I did the favour for (birthday boy’s aunt) that I wouldn’t be making a habit of doing unpaid photography gigs.
With the two or so hours I spent at the party, then at least two hours going through all the photos and doing some post processing it’s a bit time consuming to be doing it as favours for anyone who asks.
Below you can see my son sitting as close as possible to the cake so he doesn’t miss out.
Written on March 16, 2010 by Jen
Filed Under: Photos
Recently I bought myself a cheap little Canon Powershot camera so I could have something that was permanently in my handbag. Quite often I see things I would like to take photos of but because I don’t carry my DSLR around everywhere with me I miss a lot of opportunities and the mobile phone camera just doesn’t cut it.
This is what I saw the other day while going to work.
It was in a bus depot where the public is not supposed to go and one would presume that bus drivers couldn’t be bothered to hang a trolley. I presume that someone sort of flung it over the top of the fence. One wonders.
Written on February 20, 2010 by Jen
Filed Under: Journal, Parenting, Photos
When he starts complaining that I never do anything for him I’m going to point him to this post I’m about to write and to the last one about going fishing.
After a particularly late and overindulgent night out at an Elvis party I drove us up to the foothills to see our cousins baby rats. I knew of their existence thanks to Facebook and commented that JJ would love to see them. It was so arranged and off we went. Remember that I was feeling quite tired and a little bit seedy and he was lucky I didn’t cancel and just stay in front of the tv or lie in bed.
Once we got there, however, it was good to see the baby rats. They hadn’t quite opened their eyes yet and all they do is sleep on top of each other and feed.
Their mum and her mate were quite cute too and very inquisitive. This one loved my camera case.
JJ loved observing them and holding them and didn’t hassle me as much as I thought he might to take one or two home. I’ve nothing against pet rats, I just don’t want any more responsibility for living creatures. And I don’t know how Monty would take it.
Once these little ones are old enough they’ll go back to the pet shop. Lots of people must have rats as pets.
Written on February 18, 2010 by Jen
Filed Under: Journal, Parenting, Photos
JJ still continues to really enjoy cub scouts and the other night they went on a fishing excursion. I realised a few days beforehand that our $7 fishing rod was broken so with a borrowed fishing rod off we went.
The aim was to have a bit of fun and to earn a badge so with a bit of extra homework JJ has to do hopefully he will have earned his first badge. I’m not a very pushy scout mum when it comes to badge earning.
Fishing doesn’t really do it for me but I must admit it was lovely to spend a warm evening down by the beach. I wish I’d taken my bathers to go in for a dip though – a bit further down from the fishing crowd of course.
Even Scout Larry came along and enjoyed himself despite being tied up.
I even had a bit of a go at casting out myself and all of them were at an angle.
While observing JJ I could see how at peace he was while standing there holding his fishing rod. Looking at him be at peace made me realise what the fishing fascination is with so many people. I’m kind of getting it.
Unfortunately we didn’t catch anything but them’s the breaks.
Even though all he wants is money to buy electronic games for his birthday I reckon a fishing rod would be just the ticket too.
