What gifts are you buying this Christmas?

That's the thought on lots of people's minds at the moment as Christmas 2009 quickly approaches. I've started my Christmas shopping by selecting some t-shirts and photographic prints over at Red Bubble where I am a member. Logging onto the Red Bubble website today, I noticed a fancy-dancy new tab for people looking for gift-giving solutions. Not only does it look fab and you can type in your favourite keyword to search whatever your little heart desires, but you don't need to worry about parking, or the shop not being open or traffic or tired shop assistants! It's all on-line, and you can shop in the convenience of your pyjamas and it's delivered to your door - what's not to love! Go on, check it out...Happy Christmas Shopping!

From Nothing to Something

Hmmm, I wasn't sure what I was going to blog about this week. I had run out of words to say. Thankfully that all changed earlier this afternoon - woo! I sold two of my photographic prints at the local Falls Art Festival. Now I have plenty to say - all incoherent of course, as I'm running around the room with my t-shirt over my head as though I have scored the winning football goal! I have been smiling all afternoon, and even the MOTH was delighted as we spied the precious red dots these galleries assign sold works. I actually noticed quite a few red dots this year, and that's always a good sign.

The Falls Art Festival is the annual fundraiser for Wentworth Falls Public School and last year over $10,000 was raised - so it is a big to do if well organised. It's also a nice feeling to be able to support my local community in this small way.

And then, if my smile couldn't get any bigger, I logged onto RedBubble to find out I had sold a greeting card earlier today, as well as winning a photographic challenge (albeit with a handful of images competing in the challenge).

And - I bought a new pair of shoes today - Woo! So, this is one very happy gal!.

Have a great week!

theme of the week

Can you guess this week's photographic theme?

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.

Sepia Toned Photographs...

 Can something as sombre, and dark and moody and timeless as sepia photography, be created with the secretions of the cuttlefish?  Well, that was once the method of producing those rich brown tones...today however, I prefer to use my graphic editing program such as Photoshop CS2 to give me those same rich tones that create the most wonderful mood.  Below are some examples of how well sepia can work on a number of subjects:

 

 

"Darkened Hope" by Karri Klawiter

* * *

"Double Vision" by Tom Vaughan

* * *

"Small in Sepia" by Debbie Black

* * *

"Languishing in the afternoon sun" by lallymac

* * *

"will nobody love me?" by Adriana Glackin