Another Looby photo today, I was playing with my 70-300mm, not much else I can do as it's freezing cold outside though not enough snow to do anything with and Abigail has ulcerated tonsilitus and Scarlet Fever, my doctor hadn't seen Scarlet Fever for years and I've had to inform school so they can send letters out to everyone seeing as it's very contagious, not a nice thing to have so I'm hoping that we don't all end up with it.

Anyway back to the photo, as I was testing out my lens I managed to get a few without Looby even noticing, my favourite sort of photography, it was shot at 800iso as it's so dark indoors today, after taking it in raw I processed it in photoshop, first applying a sepia filter, then adding a layer of gaussian blur, then using the channel mixer to turn to black and white and finally adjusting the opacity of the top layer to around 50% to get a really soft muted sepia ish photo which I think adds to the dreamy feel of the photo. What do you think, I would love to hear!

Kitty Love

Poppy is our most aloof cat, she really doesn't like people and for the most part avoids us, sometimes you go to try and stroke her and she'll snap to bite you, she really isn't all that friendly. Funny thing is though Looby gets away with all sorts with her, Poppy really must seriously like her as I can't imagine us being allowed to hold her like that, I'll often be walking around the house and see Looby carrying Poppy off for cuddles and mostly without any complaints where as the scrates on my feet are still healing from the last time I went near her to play!!

Well done Looby for being such a great animal person, I thought I was good but you obviously have Dr Dolittle qualities!

Horrible day so here's some lovely photos

Truly, Truly, Truky awful day today, I've only just finished working and I would have been done by lunchtime had it not been for Norton anti virus who's firewall today decided that it was no longer going to let IE7 work anymore, in the end I removed it and put in it's place another firewall but that one was so secure that it wouldn't even let me read my mail or log into Napster, that one has also been removed and replaced as has Norton anti-virus, I think I may have found an amicable solution and I now feel secure but not so secure I'm in a panic room without an exit!!

These photos are more from yesterday including the one of Paul which was pure guess work, that will touch him to be beastly and refuse to have his photo taken.

Aaaahhh onwards, payday tommorrow, shopping, tea out and muchos relaxation safe in the knowledge that I now get paid for the job I love so very much and after today the rest of the week should be a dream.

Spring is on it's way

Well atleast I'm hoping it is, the snowdrops were out in force when we were out walking in Jesmond Dene this afternoon. It was a little on the nippy side but no one seemed to mind as we enjoyed the afternoon sunshine. I'm trying to get new portraits of the children for the livingroom wall at the moment, I already have a plethora to choose from but I'm going to keep shooting for another week or so and then make the final choice.

I rather like this one of Iain, he's just had his haircut and so is looking particularly smart, even so he doesn't usually like posing for photos so I'm inwardly thanking him for the 5 or 6 great shots I got of him this afternoon.

Abigail is my most eager poser, she's always on hand for a plethora of shots and I got around 10 that I loved, I do like this one of her posing on a wooden pig, she's certainly providing me with lots of great poses of late!

Looby of course is always a joy to photograph if you can catch her inbetween all the bouncing, usually we have smiley happy Looby, but I do love the look of concentration on her face here!

Hubby was in an awkward mood and mostly refused to have his photo taken, even though it was he who announced we needed new portraits for the wall, I did get one which turned out not so bad and I'll share that one later in the week, I didn't want to upload so many photos that anyone got bored or blogger threw a huff!!

Can I just throw my arms up in glee for the wonders of the Canon 350D and RAW, love it, makes me want to take photo after photo after photo because I know each one is going to be fabulous, time for me to invest in a large external hard-drive quick!

Fountains Abbey

We went to Fountains Abbey near ripon in north Yorkshire today, the first real test of my new camera, of course I still only have the kits lens, the 2 lenses I really want will be purchased on Tuesday and I suspect they will be the first of many! Don't think I did too badly though! I really loved Fountains Abbey, we only got to spend a couple of hours there today and the kids all thought it was brilliant, I suspect that come the warmer sunnier days of spring and summer we'll be having a lot more trips there, we never even got as far as exploring the large deer park so i think that will be first on the cards for next time.

Tonight I'm kicking off my heels a little and enjoying a lovely glas or two of some quality red wines and then tommorrow although hubby doesn't know it yet I'm dragging him out to the park for more photographic opportunities and then hopefully back fro a large Charlton Family Sunday Lunch.

I'm not sure whether you can tell in the photo but hubby has lost around 3 stone since he became a postman, he has a waist size of 29", something I would kill for, lets just say he's quite fit and deserves a lot of attention!!

I've cracked it!

it was staring me right in the face, I need to convert to Jpeg instead of DNG, so these are the first photos from Cate the Canon Camera and yes I am quite pleased considering it was the first time ever I have used a DSLR!! Oh and before you ask, no it wasn't in automatic!!

So I was blown away...

By the fabulous quality of the images I shot in Raw on my new camera yesterday, I didn't take many because the light was not good, even so though I think it did a pretty fabulous job, thing is though that I processed them using camera raw in photoshop and now I can't seem to convert them to Jpeg and so it's all got a little complicated, I managed to save this one for web as a gif though so atleast I can share. Only thing is that to me the colours now look a little off but thats probably more to do with blogger than me as obviously the colour profiles will differ. Yes ok I'll stop now I realise I am probably boring you half to death. I'm planning on shooting many many photos over the weekend and hopefully i'll be able to work out how to convert them, can't believe I didn't realise just what a difference RAW made. I think I may have to get a new laptop now though to compensate for the size of the images!

In other matters I had a lovely birthday, went out with hubby last night and it still amazes me just how deeply I love him and how he's the only company i need to make me glitter and sparkle!

I received a card yesterday with no greeting and inside all that was written "On your Birthday, From your Parents" and then a large line underneath, obviously this was sent with the purpose of ruining my birthday, luckily though I'm stronger than that now so I resealed the envelope and returned to sender!!! The evilness of someone actually sending malevolent greetings on your birthday, ah well I suppose it keeps her busy! LOL

Have a great weekend blogging world, I know I will and my new trusty DSLR Cate will too!!