This Year's Girl

Firstly HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME!!

I happily celebrated my birthday on the 6th and let me tell you! The love I have for that day is grotesque! In a good way of course. Although seeing as I keep getting that much more ancient I should chill on the happy... Alas I don't anticipate that happening any time soon!

Thankfully I have an amazing boyfriend who feels the need to, not indulge me but rather, go completely bat-shit. Interpretation? For lack of a better word I do tend to get spoiled!

Part of said indulgence includes "Birthday Eve" which began with delicious sushi at Daruma... All I shall say is my belly was happy! You should totes check it out.

Saturday morning included an early birthday breakfast with the boyfriend, his BFF and my BFF and random hangers on followed by Sunday road tripping! And let it be known, Richards Bay is the ass end of Kwa-Zulu Natal. This was made infinitely bearable with this fancy new iPad I'm tinkling on, courtesy of the very perfect boyfriend.

Finally celebrations culminated in a Monday morning decorated desk of awesome-ness! Pleased as punch does not describe me right now, add many an excited expletive and there it is!

Lessons

One of the things I’m very quickly learning about photography is that you can take hundreds of pictures and have maybe four of those will actually be somewhat decent enough to edit. Well it’s either that or I’m really doing a bad job at this! It’s the former! (Eek I hope!)

So I was being lazy and decided Assignment 2 was not for me, but thankfully my better sense prevailed and these are what I have to show for about thirty minutes of lying on cold tiled floors whilst my boobies and ribs were crushed under the weight of my hair. Good Lord, do I need to work out!

Anyway back to the point!

My fav pair of Iron Fist graced our oh-so-subtle floor tiles whilst I set up my camera about half a metre away from it and prepared! Okay so the entire Assignment centres on Aperture which, from my vague understanding, is the lens of the camera or rather controlling that lens. Works like the eye’s iris, if the environment is dark it gets larger to allow light in, if the area is full of light it decreases in size so less light gets in. So here goes!

• ·         Camera set to Aperture Priority
• ·         Smallest Aperture F22 (Photo 1)
• ·         Take shot. Hold camera still.
• ·         Largest Aperture F5.6 (Photo 2)
• ·         Take Shot. Hold camera still. 

Photo 1 F22:

Photo 2 F5.6:

New Moon Rising

Readers...what up!

So Assignment 1 has been completed to best of my ability (read: lack of abilty) and here they are!

Because I know zero to minus zero about photography I went to the one place I could get really amazing shots without actually knowing how to get a great shot, enter Durban Beach Front.

If you're from SA or have been here then you know how amazing it is, every single day! And shame on you naysayers who say nay!

Most of the shots were crappy, but as the wise Stephen has said, "Out of 500 shots they'll only be 10 or so really good one's that you could use."

The first shot was a low angled photo. I took about a gazillion low angles of stairs, flowers and ither random shite and then whilst walking along the pier I look down and see this.

A little boy had run into the surf and it was beautiful. Words are seriously failing me now, shitty considering this is a written medium and all, but this little boy was bursting with joy and it was lovely to witness and capture. Not sure if it comes out in the photo to anyone reading this but it certainly did for me. whilst the technique may not be there I think this photo contains the spirit.

North Beach 2012

The second shot included was meant to be a photo depicting the Rule of Thirds. I'm not sure what the heck this is depicting except a bad shot of one of the most gorgeous skylines I've ever seen.

Durban Skyline July 2012
 

The final shot was a high angle. Now high angles sound fun and easy, but you look uber retarded taking them! I stomped around the beach front taking shots of everything from tree's to decrepit old buildings and even this really tall dude. Nothing really worked.

This however is not too bad. uShaka's Cargo Hold restaurant, not the yummiest food around but delicious views!

uShaka July 2012

 

In my head I have some really gorgeous pictures that are just waiting to come out, hopefully someday I'll know enough about photography tp make it come out. :)

 

(Eek how Dogie Howser was that!! Yikes! Goodnight!)

 

School Hard

Good evening faithful followers, the lack of faithful followers and whoever happens to pass by!

Firstly I haven’t posted because I’m lazy…sorta. My last job had me by the proverbial nuts which ended with me not posting, not sleeping, always eating and rocking myself in a dark corner of any given room.

Guys I suffer from a serious case of OCD and as you know I haven’t posted in like forever! But I have been copiously writing in the last couple of months, just not posting.  So the compulsive in me tried in vain to back date my posts. That did not happen. It clearly did not work. So gentle readers I'm hoping to update aplenty!

Getting back to previously written posts, enjoy the first!

18 July 2012

(So yesterday was the mum’s birthday and we nom-ed at Nourish! If you haven’t been there, do yourself an immense favour and go now!)

Today I began this really awesome photography course with Stephen Railton Photography, thanks Groupon for that awesome deal.

Now for those of you who know me, you are aware of my complete inability to direct myself, I generally follow the skyline and move towards what looks most familiar. This was the strategy employed today whilst trying to find Mackeurtan Avenue, see Durban North region.

This resulted in me being 45 minutes late to a two hour class, Mr Railton was kind enough to give me a courtesy call, whilst stuck in non-moving Inanda traffic, in which I assured him I would be there...eventually.

The class is being held at Northwood Boys, and BTW FYI every high school smells the same. 

It smells of shame, disinfectant and mass amounts of sweaty boys-many of which were running around as I parked off.

I dash in, trying to be inconspicuous and trip across my own legs and find a seat at the front of the class- high school déjà vu.

Okay! So back to the class!

There was, as I’m told, a fantastically compelling intro (which I missed) followed by camera basics, i.e. this is the lens. But high five self, I totally knew my lens! The rest of class centred on types of camera’s, flashes, presets, len’s etc.

Then The Rule of Thirds came into effect, the basic concept of which I understand, but alas we shall how this comes out in the photos. Finally Composition was discussed at length, I won’t bore you with the details.

Assignment 1:

1.  Photograph a landscape using the Rule of Thirds.
2.  Photograph an object from an extremely high angle.
3.  Photograph an object from a low angle.

Parameter's include Complete Auto and Composition.

Boom! Next post, the fruit of my Assignment labour! 

Welcome to the Hellmouth!

Ominous a title as the above may seem, let me assure you dear Reader not always with this blog be entirely dreary....or maybe it will, time...she shall tell...

Bearing in mind this is my first post and my Broadband is as slow as...erm something really slow, it has taken me the better part of 2 hours to get this Blog started. In short, this post will be short.

The premise for my Blog is still unknown to me, so if there is anyone reading I apologize for the random posts that may or not occur in frequency. What I can tell you is that every post will be titled using a title of Buffy the Vampire Slayer eps...I'm obssessed...really I am....

I'm hoping this will evolve into something useful, informative or at the very least cathartic....

If anyone out there is reading, I do hope you enjoy or at least I've managed to lull you into a deep sleep...sigh mission completed...