Memories, Dreams and Reflections

1. Me!

On a night out in London. I guess I have always been happy and pretty confident but I am more so this year so that's probably what I'm most proud of. 

2. I Love You

 

More than words can say Baby Boy.

3.  Still Laughing

 

This plastic green dragon was one of Minty's Christmas presents. He absolutely shredded it to pieces within 10 minutes of getting it!

4. Winter Wonderland

Frost on the leaves, there was no snow when I took this.

5. Birthday

I celebrated with my university friends a week before my birthday. Being a Christmas baby, the two celebrations always merge a bit!

6. Friends

All that was left of the bottle of brandy after adding it to mulled wine.

7. I Was Inspired

To try Christmas tree bokeh after seeing other bloggers' photos. Then I spotted this little reindeer and thought I'd add him!

8. Spring Fever

Pretty spring light!

9. Travel or Vacation

My Mum and Dad on a bench in Central Park this summer.

10. Summer Days

Me and some old school friends at the beach near our house. I'm in the middle, Titanic anyone?

11. A Day in My Life

Training to be a dietitian, I spend a lot of time talking about food! We had to wear these hideous T-shirts when I was working at the hospital in the summer. They show the correct portion size of different fruits and vegetables. At the top is says, "Eat More Fruit and Veg". Sexy huh?

12. All Smiles

He always makes me smile!

13. Autumn Harvest

Horse chesnuts.

14. Family

With a corny heart shape of course!

15. Celebrate!

Baby opening his presents on Christmas morning. He actually does open them, we just have to give him a hand with the selotape!

16. Let's Do It Again

We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC in the summer but one day did not even touch the surface. It was an incredible museum, I want to see more of it.


17. I Miss You

Still on the New York theme, I do love this city and I miss it.

18. Beautiful

How can that face not make you melt? "Ok you can have another biscuit, sweetheart!"

19. Dress Up

At a Christmas party, Lil' Elf!

20. Macro

Frosty. 

21. Holidays

He got this blanket as one of his Christmas presents. He loves to be wrapped up in a blanket and won't settle down unless he's cosy in the evenings. He didn't look to impressed when I took this picture, maybe because I called him a Grandma?

22. My Favourite

 I'm a sucker for red berries in the snow. That's not a typo, favourite is spelt with a "u" in the UK.

23. Don't Ever Change

This boy loves his cuddles, I hope that never changes!

24. Just Because . . . So There!

Thought this one was quite fun. The purple blur is my Mum walking in the woods.

25. Hopes and Dreams

Minty makes little barking noises in his sleep and his legs move as if he's running. I wonder what he dreams about? My personal hope for 2011 is to complete my 365 project, let's see how it goes!

Wow that is the most time it has ever taken me to make a post! Check out all the other entries at Ramblings and Photos.

Day 1: Project 365 Begins

Day 1

Happy New Year!

And so begins Project 365. I have been very inspired by other bloggers' 365 projects. You can clearly see an improvement in their photographs over the course of the year. And that is my main aim, to improve my photography skills using my relatively new DSLR. It will also be great to capture 2011 in pictures.

2011 will be an interesting year for me with a lot of changes. Starting next week I will be working in a London hospital on placement as part of my degree to become a dietitian. That will last 3 months, after which I will finish off my research project, revise for my final exams in May and hopefully graduate in July. Then in August I will be moving out of my London house and moving back with my parents who live near the south coast. Come September, I am hoping to do a 2 week trip to the USA with a school friend and then on return, it will be time for job hunting in the REAL world!

So this year will be hard work but hopefully a LOT of fun too. It will be a real challenge to take a photo every day, especially when I am working at the hospital because the pictures will have to be taken in the evenings only. But it wouldn't be any fun if it wasn't a challenge would it?!

Sweet Success

Imagine my excitement when I checked back at The Paper Mama to see the winners for the Black and White photo challenge and my gorgeous Minty was there at number 2! My eyes nearly popped out of my head! Here is what the guest judge, Tezz, said:

"Sweet Minty captured my heart early on, this week...I couldn’t get this image out of my mind; his soulful eyes, looking slightly ashamed yet playful at the same time...it makes me think he’s just got a ”talking to” for playing with the tree, but he just wants to go right back to it again!  A fun holiday photo, taken from a great point of view...and, that added twinkle is like the ”cherry on top” :D"

I have entered only 4 challeneges since getting a new DSLR a few weeks ago. The funny thing was this photo was taken a year ago with my old point and shoot and it came out awful! I really wish I had discovered photo editing software earlier rather than just accepting dire photos but that is the great thing about the blogging community, you learn so much from reading other people's blogs and looking at their photos.

I secretly had a little aim to get a top 5 listing in a photo challenge over the course of this year, when I intend to start a 365 project, so I feel very encouraged now but there is SO much more to learn, bring it on!


Thanks Tez, you have made my day!

Walking at dusk

Yesterday I went for an evening walk down the country lanes with my dog. The sun had very nearly set and the sky was a beautiful mix of blue and orange. When I uploaded the photos, I played around with the fixing options available on windows (I don't yet have photoshop elements). Some were beautiful originally but I had fun chaning the sky colours a bit.

There are lots of things technically wrong with some of the photos, including the blurryness of the leaves photo but I thought that actually added to its winter charm!

Flowers On Saturday *10*

Check out all the great flower shots at Blueberry Craft and Hobby Time.

I Heart Faces Photo Contest: Paper

This is my first ever entry into an I Heart Faces photo contest. The title is "Dissertation Boredom" which is what I am fighting against at the moment, working on my dissertation in my last year of university.

Have a look at all the great entries at I Heart Faces

Cornelius in the country

My Canon camera now has a name - Cornelius. This name makes me think of sophistication, wisdom, quality. Perhaps this is due to my memory of the character Cornelius from Babar who was the wisest of all the elephants. He is in blue below:

I am home at my parents house in Sussex for the weekend, so it is a chance to try out Cornelius on natural landscapes. I am very much playing around with the settings at the moment so a lots of shots were awful but there were a few decent ones. Firstly some berry tastic pictures:

The dome in the background in the photo above is a disused telescope in an old science observatory.

A few of my Dad and greyhound cross Minty, who had to have his left eye removed a few months ago due to a benign growth.

And lastly a few pictures of what is left of autumn. Everything was looking very wintery today and the beautiful autumn light has gone, it's quite dull and grey but I guess I'll just have ot learn how to overcome that!

I am quite pleased with my first proper try out of Cornelius, we have so much to learn together!