Apples and Autumn in the Hawkesbury

The Hawkesbury region of Sydney is known as the food basket region, dating back to early settlement days of Sydney. And today, it's no different when it comes to being able to pick delicious, juicy, fresh season apples from the orchards in the Hawkesbury area that are seeing a resurgence of demand for their yummy produce. And this is exactly what we did a few weeks ago when we ventured over to Shields Orchard.

Tastier, juicier apples than any you'll ever find in supermarkets, it was simply a matter of grabbing a basket and skipping through the orchard, picking whatever apples you fancied right off the tree. We were even invited to eat whatever apples along the way - which we relished! Don't expect the apples to be shiny and glossy though, that happens prior to the apples going to the supermarkets...just give them a polish on your jeans and they're ready to munch.

I felt a little like Trixie Belden in the orchard as I skipped and picked apples. Surely her gang would appear at any second and then we'd be off solving the next mystery. Sigh...the only mystery is that there seemed to be a definite lack of wicker baskets. Surely wicker is the best receptacle to carry freshly picked apples? Well, we were given plastic shopping baskets...it somehow didn't fit the rustic, romantic, country charm of a wicker basket I had envisioned carrying through the orchard...but never mind, it's all about the apples, not the basket.

Oh, and all that picking sure makes you hot and thirsty, so we took ourselves over to Tutti Fruitti cafe just along the road where we were served the yummiest berry and vanilla ice-cream. The cafe has it's own rose farm, and although the roses didn't look like the perfect roses we're so used to today, their scent was simply out of this world - rich, delicious, fruity.

Visit http://www.shieldsorchard.com/ to se what's ripe and ready for picking!

Shields Orchard - some apples still waiting to be picked.

A glorious, juicy apple.

Blossoms and fruit, all on the one branch - the apples were totally delicious!

Gloriously scented roses from Tutti Fruitti Cafe at Bilpin.

Would you like to buy a greeting card or print of any of these images, then drop me a line.

Once upon a time there was a little girl who simply loved shoes. She loved high heeled shoes and flat shoes, sensible shoes and silly shoes. In fact, she thought all shoes were beautiful.
Then one day while out shopping, the most beautiful pair of shoes called out to her from the nearby shoe shop shelf.
“Hello little girl who loves shoes,” said the black shiny shoes (for everybody in the land knew that this was the little girl who simply loved shoes). Well, the little girl fell instantly in love with the black shiny shoes but alas she didn’t have a special occasion to wear them to and so couldn’t take them home with her, so she spoke kindly to the shoes,
“Oh, sweet little shoes, you truly are the most beautiful shoes I’ve ever seen, but I have no special place to wear you. The only way I can take you home is if the Shoe Fairy grants me a wish – if only I had a fancy-dancy ball to wear you to, then I would bring you home and wear you to the ball and we would dance, and we would be so very happy!”
That afternoon, when the little girl checked the letterbox, what should she find but a pink and silver envelope and in that envelope was a shiny pink and silver invitation to a fancy-dancy ball. The shoe fairy had granted the little girl her wish!!


The little girl was so happy, she rushed back to tell all her other shoes she would be bringing a new shoe friend over to meet them. So the little girl got into her shiny little car and drove back to the shops as fast as she could (without speeding of course, because that would be silly and dangerous and really not necessary). And there they were – her black shiny shoes with the most beautiful satin ribbon – waiting for her.
The little girl was so happy at being able to buy those beautiful shiny black shoes, that she celebrated by buying a new shiny red dress with the most beautiful shiny red satin ribbon. And they lived happily ever after.
And as she lay down to sleep after the fancy-dancy ball, the happy little girl who simply loved shoes was heard to whisper, “thank you Shoe Fairy, I love you Shoe Fairy,” which made the Shoe Fairy smile.

wall art print available online from RedBubble

New Year, new start...

2009 is here and with the start of the new year comes the fresh outlook we strive for. A new beginning, a time for resolutions. These can be silly, mundane, difficult, challenging, whatever your resolutions may be, let's hope your goals move you forward and allow you to grow.

One resolution for me - to be plain silly. Don't take myself too seriously, relax and have fun, chill out. That's exactly what I did when I shot this image of my Christmas dress in the pool - just a refreshing spot of being silly. I love the colours, the flow and the refreshing nature of the image.

Feature Monday - Photographic Treatments

Well, the discussion about "treatments" has been to-ing and fro-ing for a while now over at RedBubble. With comments like "Ooo, nice treatment!" being made on their work, artists just cannot be sure that a comment such as that is a positive or derogatory term. Do members assume that the image created was done so with just one click of an editing program, was it done purely in camera, or did it take hours and many layers later to create such an image? With the mass availability of inexpensive digital cameras and editing software, taking photos of anything and everything has never been more popular. And you only need to google Photoshop plugins, and you are flooded with endless choices of easy one-touch editing add-ons that will instantly "create" that special image for you. So, of course many will think that anything that is out of the ordinary would have been done while using an instant plugin filter. This isn't always the case - and this is what offends some artists when others leave comments such as "nice treatment". Perhaps, along with our instant world, we have also become lazy when using the written language. So when leaving comments like "nice treatment", what we're really meaning is "Excellent choices" as put so well by Shawhouse - mind you he also went on to add "I think you made excellent choices to arrive at the eye-catching image you posted here and that I can barely see on my stupid, sucky monitor that I inherited from my little brother a hundred years ago, I should really upgrade, but I’ll never afford anything decent, I should really get roommates…".

Using an example of a simple subject everyone has available to them - and apple or similar - the challenge went out to the members of A Photographer's Craft. Show us their best "treatment" - in other words, show us their interpretation of that subject. Below are examples of apple images from RedBubble members who took part in the challenge. Each is of an apple, and each has applied their own spin, interpretation, treatment - call it what you will - to make that image their own.

So, if you're going to be jumping onto sites such as Redbubble, or Flickr, and you see a WOW image that simply takes your breath away, leave a comment, and take the time to explain why you like it, rather than just saying "Ooo, nice treatment"!

"Apples" by Adrian Rachele

"Monastery" by Dana DiPasquale

"Apple" by Karri Klawiter

"Pyrus malus" by me

2009 Calendar - Fifties Fair Candid Shots

Looking for a 2011 Calendar with that retro feel? Do you love fashion from the fifties? What about rockabilly? Then this may just be the calendar for you! ;p I've selected some of the images taken at the Fifties Fair from 2008 and with the new calendar functionality on RedBubble, this calendar is now available for sale. Click here to order your copy today!