Photography | Semantically driven

Photos – old and new

October 23, 2008 by Jen

My grandfather used to be a professional photographer. Unfortunately he was considerably older than his wife, my Nana and died when I was only about three. I would have liked to learn some things from him.

I was digging through his collection recently and came across some photos which I thought I’d share with you.

This is some of the beautiful South Australian coastline.

Some old sheds

Two girls sitting on the beach. Not sure who they are.

Do you know what? I’m no good at fibbing. I have to tell the truth. My grandfather did not take the above photos. I did, and used a Photoshop action to age them. I didn’t lie about him being a professional photographer though.

I got the actions from Smashing Magazine –The ultimate collection of useful Photoshop actions and the action I used was the Hand colored vintage photo by Jenny.

Below are the original photos.

And these two girls are my sister and myself.

I can’t wait to try out some of the other actions, but I love the vintage one I’ve used here. It’s so thorough.

First day of holidays

September 30, 2008 by Jen

The first day of our holidays together we got up at 6.30am and took Monty to the beach. This is the time I normally get up when going to work, not on a day when I’ve got nothing else planned.

On the way to the beach it was obvious that it was going to be a warm day and it felt good to be up so early. I always feel quite virtuous when I’m up way before I have to be.

For a change we didn’t come home with a bag full of shells, just this one.

Both my son and my dog love the beach. Actually I do as well, but here’s JJ in a moment of quiet reflection.

Monty adores rolling in the sand. I just need to keep an eye out for her rolling in seaweed. That’s not pleasant for the car ride home usually.

This is looking towards Glenelg (a very touristy area) in the distance. The good thing about being out so early is that there was hardly anyone else around. Just a few people walking their dogs like us.

Here’s the last picture I took before we left.

Flickr page redesign

September 20, 2008 by Jen

For those of you who use Flickr you may have noticed that you can elect to use their new homepage design. I did and I like it. (Click on image above to see larger screengrab.)

At a glance I can see everything I immediately look for when using Flickr. I like the recent activity from comments I’ve made and comments others have made on my photostream. I sometimes forget to go and reply to comments so it’s good to have this upfront. It’s possible to mute this activity too if there’s a lot of activity you’re not interested in.

The stats graph is right there too and being a sometimes stats junkie this is very gratifying. I noticed a big spike in my views yesterday. I think some work could still be done on the stats themselves but maybe this will happen next. So while I could see a big stats bleep (not reflected in this screengrab) I don’t really know where the views came from as many of the views were for my photostream and not individual photos.

As before the contacts’ latest photos are available, and now so is the activity of the groups you’re in.

As an RSS subscriber to the Flickr blog I’d like to free this real estate up on the Flickr homepage for me, but that’s not an option.

Overall though, I like the new redesign. Oh, and I also renewed my Pro membership and took advantage of the extra three months free option (available until 30 September).

See what I’ve been up to

September 14, 2008 by Jen

It’s nearly 4.30 on a Sunday afternoon and I’d like to know who stole the weekend from me. Why is it that days off go like lightening?

Anyhoo – I know this time won’t come back to me but have a look over here to see a bit of what’s been happening in the last week or so.

Topsy turvy day, and some photos

September 7, 2008 by Jen

Yesterday morning I woke up to a beautiful spring day. A few weeks ago I was shivering with winter, but now spring is here. My orange tree is soon to blossom and I can smell other spring smells in the air.

But, I was just about to walk into the shower and I saw Monty trying to go outside. When I say trying, she had trouble walking as one of her back legs wouldn’t hold her up. I called her to me and she still had real trouble. I immediately thought the worst and told JJ to quickly get dressed while I called the vet.

I told them what was up and they didn’t have an appointment for another three hours. Monty was a bit distressed and my heart was pumping fast and I of course thought the worst. I know that when dogs get older their back legs tend to go but I thought I had more time with Monty before that started happening.

She kept trying to follow me around with her very drunken looking gait and I ended up picking her up and putting her in her basket. JJ gave her some biscuits and we sat there for a bit patting her and trying to reassure her.

I got on with my jobs before the visit to the vet while wondering if I could carry a 25kg dog out to the car for the short trip to the vet.

Luckily it didn’t come to that. By the time we had to leave she was walking pretty well, with just a bit of a stiff back leg.

The vet checked her out and said that she’s okay but because of her age, arthritis could be a problem so we need her to take it easy and not take her for huge long walks.

Phew! I’m dreading the time for Monty to go and I’m certainly not ready for it now. She’s getting older though, about 11, so it will happen sooner rather than later. I think of Monty as my first child as I got her during a time when I’d vowed I wasn’t going to have kids. Now that I do have a human child, I still love having Monty around and so does my son so we want to keep her for some time yet.

While I’ve got you here, go check out some photos I’ve been taking with the Sony Ericsson phone I’m trying out.

Oh, and PS – Happy father’s day to all the dads. I tried to tell JJ that he could make me breakfast in bed but that didn’t wash.

Day at a time

August 22, 2008 by Jen

‘My little treasure’, I called him as I talked to his after school carer the other day. It had been an interesting day. I’d spoken to the deputy prinicipal earlier that day, as JJ spent most of the day in his office after being really disruptive in the classroom.

A year or so ago I’d have really taken this to heart but now I’m a lot more philosophical about it. The deputy told me that JJ’s really intelligent and he knows what he’s doing when he’s being disruptive like this but he does it anyway. He said that in 25 years time I’d look back and think, ‘gee he was a ratbag at school’. I hope he’s right but I hope it’s sooner than 25 years.

These days I take one day at a time. The day before this phone call JJ won a gold medal at after school care for excellent behaviour and he was the best kid to have around that night. When he’s being really nice to me, and polite it’s almost seems surreal but I do enjoy those moments because they don’t last.

The next morning he was very different and I knew that he’d be in for a bad day at school. Sure enough I was right. But then yesterday he was fine. I could be living in Topsy Turvy land because I don’t know which way it will be at any given time. One way of looking at this is that at least if it is bad at one time, then I know it won’t stay this way.

This is all a huge learning experience for me and I’m sure it’s making me a stronger and better person. Yes it is.

PS: I took the photo above in King’s Park when we had our recent Perth trip. I was standing around admiring the scenery, or sheltering from the rain, or both. JJ had disappeared then he appeared just above me in this tree. Don’t you just love the texture in the tree? I’ve got no idea what type it is but I love it.

Some voting

February 22, 2008 by Jen

I few weeks ago I submitted a photo to Neil Creek’s photography website for a View from below perspective. The submissions for this have now closed and voting is open. There will be one winner and I’m asking you to spend some time at the page to vote. I’m not telling you to vote for mine – but of course feel free to if you want. I don’t win a fantastic prize, just the satisfaction of knowing that my photo was ok.

Mine’s the first one on the page as shown below. Go here to vote or click on the image below to vote. You have until 28 February.

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