Wednesday 14 July 2010

Team up Thursday Photography Challenge!





** * Please see my RAK a couple of posts down & those of you who have already commented please remember to link to my blog if you haven't done so already, thanks!***

COME BACK TOMORROW! I WILL BE UPLOADING MY NEXT TWO LAYOUTS!! I'M ON A ROLL!






I was invited by my dear friend Tania to take part in an online photography challenge called TEAM UP THURSDAY. Not too sure about why you need to team up as opposed to doing it alone but I guess it's fun to compare photos & share ideas, etc. Our theme for this week is POTTED. Anything in the garden growing in a pot! We both have similar cameras {I have the Nikon D5000 & she has the D90} & are both trying to get out of manual mode {well now I'm trying to get beyond AP mode lol} so a weekly exercise is sure to do us good!

I am loving my garden right now because it's the first time, since we moved to South Africa 5 years ago, that I have my OWN garden, so am enjoying planting it up bit by bit! Being Winter here means nothing is growing too fast but I know come Summer everything will take off in leaps & bounds! I am a big Hibiscus fan. Hibiscus grow prolifically here & are often used on advertising logos for the many branded surf-clothing lines here as well as the popular Virgin health-food chain, Kauai, my all-time fave lunch venue!


They are usually a gorgeous deep pink colour but I am trying to restrict my plant choices to yellow & blue to give my garden some continuity {yes, thinking like a scrapbooker in the garden lol} so imagine my delight when I discovered a YELLOW one @ my local nursery. {{{looooove}}}! It is freshly planted in a newly painted terracotta pot & sits right outside my studio window. Needless to say I am enjoying watching it develop daily ;-D Remember to go here to see Tania's photo of the same theme!

As I was walking in the front door I caught this one of Cami dancing on the coffee table in the lounge! {Yes she is a bit unruly!}. It's a great photo of her from a character point of view, because she loves to wear that old T-shirt with Chelsea's old ballet leotard underneath. A very strange outfit indeed! And her hair is always messy! So when you see all those beautiful pictures of her they are usually taken when we are on our way out & she is all dressed up & beautiful!



This last pic is tooooooo funny & was sent to me by e mail yesterday. It reads "Now you must make the right choice or you're calamari!" Thought my South African & New Zealand friends would enjoy it! :-D { I only recently heard about Paul the predictive octopus & it's all a load of old calamari if you ask me lol}

Lastly here are the links to other Team up Thursday participants.

Stefanie http://semplydone.blogspot.com
and Lynette http://creativemoments-lynette.blogspot.com

Andrea http://andrearobertsontoo.blogspot.com
and Claire http://www.mcgeers.blogspot.com

Berta http://rboice.blogspot.com
and Corey http://livingandlovingeveryminuteofit.blogspot.com

Megan http://mentalinventory.blogspot.com
and Melody http://thehipmommasjournal.squarespace.com

Cat and http://juggelingactoflife.blogspot.com
Shayne http://scrappy-time.blogspot.com


Joanne http://worth-it-all.blogspot.com


ttfn





8 comments:

tania said...

oh wow!! beautiful photo! that cami is a real "dramaqueen",hey?
love the calamari one!!
ok, let me know,the next topic!

Ella Swan said...

LOL - well I DID have to take 2 dozen photos to get that one!! Yup Cami is a singing & dancing girl all right...I think we should think of photos that we can then use to scrap to tell a story we want to tell...How about we do SCRAPPY LOVE & make an arrangement of some of our favourite supplies on our cutting mats or something?! And yes, anyone else reading this & doing TUT is welcome to copy that idea if you like ;-D

Shayne said...

Great pic Helen - why don't you also post Tania's pic here? That is what most ofus are doing.

I am definately going to be investing in a new camera - loving all the gorgeous pics i'm seing!

Ella Swan said...

Thanks Shayne. Nikon is the way to go if you ask me,with a good lens with a really low f stop. Mine goes right down to 2.8, that's how to get the shots clear at the front & blurry at the back...my favourite effect. Tania now that we have more time {we only decided on doing this yesterday!} please send me your photo anytime on Wednesday {& your text if poss} so we can show the comparison shots on our blogs rather than just the link. I am also going to be sharing my camera setting information from now on too for extra info for anyone wanting to recreate the shot. I think that would be a great addition for those of us wanting to improve our skills.

Stefanie said...

Cool, Glad that you 2 are joining in on the fun as well. I love the happy pop of colours, the yellow and the turquoise.

Andrea said...

Welcome to the challenge Helen, it does rather take over your life though and I find myself thinking about it late into the night sometimes ;0)

Great first theme and capture, your depth of field is fab and I love the yellow against the blue background.

xxx
A

Jessy Christopher said...

That is such a beautiful flower photo!! I love the vibrant yellow and also the background color! Such a contrast! Your little Cami is so photogenic and she is so fortunate to have a mum like you who loves to capture all the precious moments!

Lynette Jacobs said...

Wonderful that you are also doing the challenge. Beautiful photos.