Through the eyes if sisters, week 11, Topic: Black and White

Well the fact that there is a blog this week, even if it is late, is in itself a miracle. This has not been the best week for either my sister or I, and I was so tempted to ask if we can please be excused from the challenge just for this week, but then we wouldn't be calling it a challenge if it wasn't challenging ... right? My poor sister has had a week to match non other with her business being inundated - which is a good thing - and computer and software problems ... I have been sick, hell busy with work, and have done everything with a sick child in tow (kept home from kindy - and oh how they are such little bundles of joy when they are under the weather).
But my sister have several things in common and one is that we are to stubborn to know when to say "we can't make it happen" ... so this weeks blog is born :-)

My sisters pic was taken of her friends horse, after I took my original pic (see further down) I had a feeling my sister would use this to photography her favourite thing ever ... and if you look at her blog you will see all of the horse, real pretty pony indeed!!!
http://live-life-as-a-play.blogspot.com/

When I chose this weeks topic I had a clear idea of the pic I wanted, our sleepy little volcano has a fresh coat of snow and if you look at it in full moon it looks amazing! just a white peak looming out of black nothingness, unfortunately sick me and sick child and heaps of rain morning noon and night prevented that picture being taken. Now truth be told I did take a pic this week and could have and should have submitted it, I only got 2 snaps and it was taken quickly from my car on the side of the road on my way to a photo viewing day for work so I was in a bit of a hurry, but I decided I wanted to play with some of my old photo's instead and turn them into black and white pics and see how it changes the mood of the pic. So the one I submitted came close (not close enough though) to the original pic I wanted to take for the week, hence I chose that one.



This picture in colour actually has clear blue skies and a beautiful sun shining day, but by altering the pic to b&w and changing tones it looks far from it :-)
Here are some of the other pics I played with:

This pic of the lion only works in b&w because it was taken at our local zoo, and even I have to admit I will not go there again, it is disgustingly cruel! These poor king of the jungles are kept in a terribly small enclosure, I was not impressed! and if you look at this pic in colour the grass in the background is very lush and green with pretty yellow daisies all around - not exactly where you would expect to see a lion.

Ok lastly is the pic I did manage to take this week, it is appropriately within the black and white theme and a scene very familiar all around NZ ... everywhere you look! I even have a very similar view in my suburban suburb :-) ... cows cows cows! It is said there are more sheep in NZ than people, I actually wonder if there are more cows than sheep!!!

Well that conclude week 11 ... am I cheating by submitting old photo's under the "edited this week" argument, yes I think I am, but every now and then I do think we can have a pardon from the general rules :-)

Through the eyes of sisters, week 10, Topic: Letters

Feel the love!! LoL ... this has been my favourite topic to date, because it was a great topic but I love what we ... especially my sister has done with it. And big ups to you sis for actually getting it done even though the universe was clearly against you ;-) You see she has been sick with a horrible flu!! Her point and shoot camera broke, and not only was the camera broken but left my sister heartbroken too, and then the usual time thing always factors into it ...not so!

Anyway ... I knew I had a monster of monster weeks ahead of me so I got my pic off to my sister early last week, could have even been Thursday (the day of our previous blog was due out) ... not important! ... so Sis decided that since our pics are always so very very different although the topic is the same she was going to do the same thing as me ... I like that for a new twist and for a change .... so here is her pic:

No this is not her way of expressing her LOVE of McD's ... just some creative interpretation. I like the way it is clearly put together.
Mine take a little more looking at ;-)

Now there really funny thing behind our pictures that had me laughing until me tea nearly came out my nose is this .... notice my sisters pic really represents city living (in my opinion anyway), and notice mine is a natural ... nature representation.
Well if I had to explain my sisters appearance (not her real one) to describe who she is .. I would tell you to picture a girl with a straw hat, checked shirt, dungaree's and gumboots. She was made for country living, and if she was not living in the country then she should be off in some wild bush place doing a documentary on how this rare flight spotted striped whatever animal is crucial to the survival of the hard shell legless insect thing that lives in a plant known for it's medicinal properties in curing freckles or something. You get the picture? Cities leave her claustrophobic (sp).
Me ... I am comfortably close to nature when watching national geographic, and even then I am too close, my idea of "roughing it" is self catering getaway ... I have a pet but only because it moved in without my consent, I didn't really have a choice, and I only have the 1 pet and I wash my hands each and every time I so much as touch it ;-) I like cities, I like buildings, I like hussle and bustle and people.
So can you please explain how it came to be I have a nature picture and my sister has a city picture?
I have the answer ;-) Because we were thinking of each other when we did our pictures. Love you sis!!

Ok ok all together now .... aaaaaahhhhhhhhh
Thank you sis for a lovely topic! Will send you next weeks shot and miss shortly ...LoL

Through the eyes of sisters week 9 Topic: LIGHT

See I told you all I make some washout topics! I really do like self torture ...LoL ... My sister is awesome, this week she was "wicked early" and I was the delay, not because of time because of my stink choice in topic ;-) But the blog is here and on time so Yay to us sisters right!

Here is my sisters pic, she is so funny!! Her pic for light was the light of her life: Dudley her cat. this is what she wrote to me:
This is Dudley our kitsy cat - he has SO much character even though he doesn't much like people.  For
instance, he is the only cat I know that LOVES baked goods i.e. muffins, cupcakes, biscotti, cookies, cake and of course, his all-time most favouritist of all: banana bread.  If I bake banana bread, I actually have to hide it in a cupboard in a Ziploc bag to keep it safe.  One of our customers gave me a packet of cookies last week and he found my stash and tried to make off with the whole packet.  Cat food is so-so, real chicken he will leave untouched on the counter but if you bake - beware!  He lights up my world, our whole little animal family does, we have a budgie who thinks he's a bull dog and takes great pleasure in antagonizing the cats at every turn (he pulls out their fur hair by hair if they get close enough to the cage) and our other little kitsy cat girl who thinks she is a princess and we are all Court Jesters here for her entertainment.   Mark and I have a saying: God makes 'em, and then they come live by us!
I like your saying Sis but I we also have our own saying "birds of a feather flock together" ... ever wondered why your pets are all a little nuts? ...LoL
That said it is such a nice photo, belongs on the cover of a nice easy read novel, just nice to gaze at ;-)

I was not so successful this week, I did try, I even went out one night and wandered around trying to find that something special, from our awesome walkway to the port and through the town, I am not happy with a single shot (all except 1 ... but later). Anyway the one I submitted to my sister is actually 2 photo's, they are of a sculpture taken from the exact same position, but look how the traffic lights and the light change the perception of the sculpture, if you can't notice it then firstly look at the colour difference from red light to orange light ... but more interestingly notice how the light changes and so does the direction of the sculpture ... just goes to show, give off a little bit of light and you could change someones perception :-)

Next is the windows of St Mary's Cathedral by night, the same church I took the memorial pics at a few weeks back for the "OLD" challenge, pic didn't come out quite as I hoped but still pretty enough to look at for a glance.

This next one is off an ship out at sea, ships are sea at night are actually not so easy to photograph as I have no discovered, who knew the move SOOOOOO much!! I have some pretty ghastly photo's and some really eery ghostly ones too, this is the best one ... new mission for me is to try and get the perfect night boat shot ;-)

Ok the one I really like but really couldn't submit ANOTHER sunrise for my pic of the week, but isn't this world we live in a beautiful one?? this picture has not been doctored in anyway, and see how it looks like a watercolour painting? Worth getting out of bed early for!!

Last one was just me turning my body 180 deg and taking a pic of the sunrise light reflecting off some clouds, just pretty that is all.

Well that is it. Sis's choice in theme next week so you will probably have some good pics again ... I think ... but then I have a real full on week again so maybe I shouldn't count my chicks before they hatch.

Through the eyes of sisters, week 8 Topic: PINK

Ok so every week we start off with how time has consumed or evaded us, this week it was time difference, you see this is a Thursday blog, and today is not Thursday is it, well actually it is still Thursday somewhere in the world so that has to count. It is tricky getting a blog out on a certain day of the week with a partner who has a 16hour time difference to me. One day I am sure we will master it ... or not ... because that is how we roll!
Maybe we should make our theme TIME one week ...LoL ...

So my sister chose this weeks theme, nice one, nice to have this one after my crappy theme last week. My sister is good at picking themes, I think she can just think of all the themes from now on. Or she can just tell me what to choose for my turn then I still chose it right?

PINK ....
My sisters picture made me cry this week, I am sure she didn't mean for it to make me cry, it was just a heart felt message sent to make me feel warm and fuzzy, and it did ... and then I cried. You see the last couple of weeks I have been missing my family and friends so much, I am starting another new chapter in my life and my family and friends know I would have been talking their ears off about it, bouncing things off them and so on, and yes I know I still can but it is not the same and sitting in a lounge sipping coffee and chatting, or just picking up the phone and chatting, no I have to either email them (so impersonal) or wait for us both to be online on skype or count the notches on the clock to figure out if they are sleeping or no ... I just want to pick up the phone and chat. So the last few weeks I have been throwing myself a bit of a pity party, and who can I talk to about it ... so I have just creeped into my shell and hod from the world and avoided everything and everyone ... pretty darn lonely place!
So then my sister sends me her pic ... thanks Pam, talk about the straw that broke the camels back. Shows the connection we share with our loved ones, even 14474km away my sister just knows what I need!
So here is my sisters tear jerking picture to me ... I love you pic sis, goes without saying, apart from all the marshmallow stuff it is a nice picture!!



Ok after last weeks dismal attempt I promised I would apply myself this week. And I think I did.When I got my theme I thought of a friend who will remain nameless and the joke we share over said friends passion for pink lipstick (sure they even have a secret pink lipstick club ... LoL) and so I decided to break out of my norm of nature shots and photograph a real live person (LoL) and so asked my neighbours daughter to be model for a day. I did her make up (huge feat for me considering my relationship to make up is ... well ... it isn't), and we played around. She was great! and such a natural which made my job that much easier. So here is my PINK pic of the week:

Here are some of my other favourite pics from the shoot we did, was a tough decision choosing my pic!

Ok then almost last one, interesting on my sisters blog she has a photo of peach blossoms, all pretty and pink, they are having Spring at the moment so colour and pink especially must be bursting all around them, but it is Autumn here and look .... pink!! :-) Cool hey!

This last pic wasn't taken this week, but it is still one my favourite photo's I have taken ... where else in this crazy world of ours do you get to see a purple volcano? Ok it isn't pink but there are shades of pink! This pic was taken from my street, I arrived home one night to be greeted with this, so I ran inside and grabbed my trusty camera to immortalise that vision of absolute beauty.

So there you have it, this was a nice week, good theme!! Let's see what next week has in store ...
And Pam ... if you think it is hard missing me ... you should try missing you!