Never Sacrifice Who You Are ...

Weekend Events

On Saturday I met Dick & Tracey from the camera club at Bluebells on Briddlesford road for coffee. We discussed ideas about the new Saturday Social events. The first one being next Saturday at Butterfly World.

Sunday, Andrew & I did a 6 mile crawl walk from Merstone to Newport & back.

Luggage on the Old Platform

A gate to nowhere

The Weasley's car???

Social Secretary

OMG I've been part of the camera club for 7 weeks and have been taken on as Social Secretary! Well, joint social secretary with Tracey, a lovely friend I've made. We're off out to "Bluebells" on Saturday morning for tea & cake and to discuss what we're going to do. The chairman, Dick, is going to join us and hopefully, by next Saturday we will be out and about the Island taking photographs. The objective of our Saturday morning camera rambles is to encourage club members & their friends to get out and take photographs. Quite a few of the older members want to come with us to help improve our photographic techniques. Pretty cool hey :O)

Brading to Bembridge

Today me & Andrew joined the Ramblers & Steam Railway association on a walk along the old railway line from Brading to Bembridge. We were so lucky with the weather, it looked really stormy out to sea but it only rained for the last 10 minutes of the walk.

Paint The Whole World With A Rainbow.

Had a lovely day today. Got some curls put in my hair and then we took Gemma to the Garlic Farm & the chocolate shop in Godshill. This was the view from the window this afternoon after a quick down pour of rain. Luckily it didn't last long and the resulting rainbow was fantastic. Mother Nature at her finest :O)

Ewan Me :O)

Gemma went for her 20 week scan yesterday and found out that she's having  ... A BOY!!!
Say hello to Ewan

Technology is so amazing isn't it. They told Gem that he weighs 14oz! I think he's gorgeous and can't wait to meet him. I'm going to call him Ewan Me because we are going to be inseparable :O) Sorry Gem lol.

Usually you get a before & after picture but these are inside & out ones.

Photo Of The Day

Everyday I have a look on the National Geographic photo at the day here. Yesterday was this one

Isn't it stunning! It's a photo inside one of the Cenotes at Chichen Itza in Mexico. I can't wait till we go :O)

More Steam Railway Photos

Went back to the Havenstreet Steam Railway this morning with Andrew. Managed to stand in the right place this time to get a shot of the action as yesterday I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Not sure I was stood in exactly the right spot as you can't see where the water's coming from but it happened so quick lol

Had a bowl of soup & some crusty bread in the cafe. Well I had been twice and not spent a dime so I thought it was only right to help them out a bit. Called in to the Garlic Farm on the way home and bought ... a garlic! Plus some Isle of Wight fresh sweetcorn & a garlic door stop :O)

Critique ... Dam!

My friend at the camera club, and a very competent photographer, adjusted my Derwent Dam photos in photoshop for me. He also gave me some constructive criticism, which is very helpful. I'm off to Google what it means lol.
Before ...

After ...

The critique ... The Derwent Dam pic. is fine.  I might have ventured a little further down towards the water ( I take it you can swim ?) so that the turret cleared the skyline rather than being buried in it. ( Bad tangent ) It would make it look more impressive. Being me, if you let me loose on a picture in front of me on my computer I cannot resist playing with it so my adjusted version is a little chunkier.

Bestival Weekend

The young ones have gone to the Isle of Wight Bestival this weekend at Robin Hill to listen to people like Ed Sheeran & Paloma Faith. Lisa & Liam went in costume as Katy Perry & Dead Mau5 lol.

They're all camping so me & Andrew have the whole house to ourselves, and although we love them dearly, it's bliss :O)

Last night we enjoyed a lovely meal at the Mexican restaurant, Dos Amigos in Ryde. It was very nice too.
This morning Andrew picked up his new car from the garage whilst I went to Havenstreet Steam Railway to practice my photography.

This afternoon we went to the Roman Villa in Newport. It's the Heritage Weekend this weekend so lots of places are free to enter. We ended up in the Fighting Cocks in Arreton for tea (not free though lol) and then had a drive through Carisbrooke to Shorwell and back home via Chale & Ventnor. All in all a great day :O)

Flamingo Park

Had a brilliant time at Flamingo Park today with the camera club. I finally got the hang of DOF (depth of field) thanks to Peter, one of the club members. Today's challenge was faces so here a few including some photos that I thought would make nice pictures.

 

She told me to think outside the box!

Didn't leave Flamingo ark until 3:30pm ... woops!

Drove to Ryde to buy the train tickets to get us from Lake to Gatwick Airport next month. Only 6 weeks to go {{insert massive grin here}}

Got home and told everyone who would listen about mastering depth of field and just to prove it, took this one of my beautiful Elena :O)