15 minute tonic #CountryKids
The week leading up to the end of the school holidays we still had snow on the ground here. I know a lot of people were the same. Beginning to wonder if spring was ever going to show up. The temperatures had hit a bit of the dizzy heights of 9degrees earlier in the week and we all breathed a sigh of relief as we thought that this was it, spring was finally on its way.
But then we were plunged into freezing temperatures and snow flurries all over again. I get so frustrated with the lack of flexibility snow affords me for getting outside, my kids can usually just about cope with the school run before they start saying how cold they are and begging to go in. But after school one afternoon after I had, had a lousy day (dont ask) we piled into the car and took the dog for a walk.
Surprisingly no-one moaned and we bowled around a little local park in about 15 minutes, just long enough to jumps off and on some logs, run after the dog a few times and leave smiling with red rosey cheeks. Then home for a quick hot chocolate to warm up and maybe a little bit of a pick me up for me!!! *cough*
Now then, come on spring, get your best clothes on we are more than ready for you!
So what else do you do? #motivationalmonday
This week has been an all round rubbish week that has left me feeling like, out of all the ‘roles’ i have in my life, im seem to not be doing any of them well. *sigh*
This week I had an interview, it was at the place i work for a job that i had about 2 years ago and then lost through the delightful NHS cutbacks and is now being offered again…its a long story, a long, boring and miserable story that i won’t bore you with. But the interview was this week and it wasn’t the nicest experience ive ever had i have to say, runs up close to root canal or another such painful event.
My interview was delayed by over an hour and then during my presentation prep a fire alarm joined in and banged around in my head for half of the time. Nerves jangled somewhat i stumbled through a presentation based on a practically impossible scenario and then was asked a bunch of questions. A few of which i did sort of okay on i think and some i totally BOMBED. You know, in the, ‘shall i just get my coat’ bomb.
But there was one question that just irritated me….and continues to which is why im moaning about it here. I was asked what extra CPD (thats continuous professional development) i had done in the past two years. Extra, as in, extra to the standard stuff we have to do to maintain professional registration. I answered with a few things then she looked at me, i think with a little sneer (though i may have imagined that) and said ‘and what else have you done?’
hmmmmm…just let me think a bloody minute. I dont know…maybe..raise five kids, turn up for every single shift i’m supposed to regardless of sleepless nights, vomiting bugs, stressed out husbands, broken cars, car accidents or snow with a bloody smile on my face. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Of course i know she wasn’t asking me about what else i do outside of work. But it may be a mad crazy thought but your life outside of work can effect your ability to throw huge amounts of commitment and time at your work. Its a tricky balance for all us working mums i guess.
It was the only question that actually upset me, how funny is that. Even the ones that resulted in a ‘nothing happenin’ here’ look on my face as mortifying as that was..i can shake that off. But what pisses me off is that some people don’t realise that actually just showing up with your game face on takes all you have on some days and sometimes that is just all you can give.
I wanted to shout the above tirade in her face and see what happened but of course i didnt.
and i didnt get the job.
cherry on top 😉
So in a bid to lighten up this post and because what follows demonstrates a little bit of ‘what else i do’
Here come the girls ….two of my bunch. Just hanging out with the girls while we get frozen by the spring 😉
This is a little bit of what else I have done.
She is telling me in that bottom picture ‘ there are no monsters here mummy’ – just in case you were wondering!
My giveaway this week is another lovely sunshine box of goodies from LUSH. You don’t have to leave a comment this week if you don’t fancy it but if you do that would be nice. Remember to come back next week and check who snagged the prize!
Jane Greenfield you win the Rob Cowen signed book please get in touch! Congratulations!
The trick to backlighting your subject.
Is that an angel before me?
or is it just some very clever back lighting?
I was musing on this, this evening. Possibly because there is still snow on the ground here…*eye roll* and i so often associate this sort of light with those lovely warm evenings in the summer. *sigh*
I miss the sun…
Anyway I really love this sort of light but it can turn out really really naff. It is a really beautiful but it can be difficult to use.
Ever managed it? Taken a shot of your kid with their back to the sun and their hair lights up like a halo? Its lovely right? ah the beauty of backlighting.
and it doesn’t need to be on kids or people!….
But you have to be careful. Shooting into the sun can throw your camera a curve ball from the point of view of what it ‘sees’ as the light and you camera is likely to meter for the sun and then you subject is going to be dark..really dark.
So here are a few tips for getting that sweet backlighting.
1. Try to shoot either early morning or later afternoon/evening. This is why i love the summer evenings as you can be out in the warm in the gorgeous golden light.
2. When shooting try and meter from your subject. On a dslr you could try spot metering, so that you are telling the camera the exact spot you want it to meter for the light and not asking it to take a broad reading of the light. You may still end up with your subject having a dark face. In this situation you might want to bring a reflector into the face of your subject and you don’t need anything posh to do that you can use a bit of white card or paper. You just need to reflect some light into the face to brighten it up a bit. You can use your exposure compensation also to make sure that you are not going to end up with a dark subject.
3. If possible try and have a darker background behind your subject, as you can see in the first shot, my son is in front of a darker, green backdrop of a local park. He is therefore separated by the sun on his head from the background. If the background was white then there would be no difference between his head and the background if that makes sense.
4 . You may end up with a bit of your background blown out a bit…with this sort of lighting though it is actually quite nice and like the point before as long as you are not loosing your subject into the background, this is a particular thing to take care with fair haired kids.
5.If you don’t want sun flare in the image put your subject in front of something that blocks it off, you will still get the lovely glow of the sun in the image.
So when we next actually get some sun. Fancy going out an giving it a try?
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#colour project…
i mentioned a few weeks ago my little photography project, i have done this before but have decided to have a go again. This week im going with green. Here is my first effort.
My idea is just to photograph a certain colour. The kids can get involved in this, my kids do. They love it. Gets you looking at the world differently. Looking for colours, seeing the colours that maybe you will have missed before. Try it if you like. Maybe next time ill do one of those links, if folks are interested. Here is my green colour project for this week.
Happy Friday folks…