Sunsets through my iPhone

I love combining my hobbies and fortunately fitness and photography play well together.

Whilst its not practical to carry a bulky DSLR with you when your trying to get a workout its no hassle to carry your phone.

I use an app on my iPhone, combined with my Fitbit HR watch to track the intensity, speed & distance of my walk, which sometimes lags as I stop to take photos...... Wooops!!!!

I am fortunate to live in what I think is a wonderful  location & manage to constantly have something catch my eye. , that I think is photo worthy. 

No doubt others might find my happy snaps boring, but thats okay, it all makes my day better. I love seeing the beauty in my surroundings & often find myself having a small smile for no real reason.

Its not unusual to see me crouched down in a bush trying to frame a shot, or lying on my tummy to get a better angle, people must think I am a bit of a weirdo at times. I even pull over to the side of the road when I am driving because I can't bare to miss capturing a beautiful sunset. In fact My Instagram account is flooded with sunsets.

So if you want to see more pop by my instagram @dreamhousetrish , there is photos other stuff as well, he he he!!!!!

CHEERS

Trish xx

As you know my dream guy gave me my first ever digital SLR camera for Christmas & I am really enjoying learning how to use it.

I have only ever owned a basic point & shoot camera, but even on the auto settings my photo's are sooo much nicer.

I have found some fantastic web sites & blogs that offer so much photography knowledge with tutorials & weekly assignments to get to know your camera better.

I have been playing with the macro setting

I saw a photo taken on a forum at the

Digital Photography School

of water dropping into a dish & thought I might try to replicate it, I was already playing with water, food colouring & would you believe baby oil, trying to do some fun abstract photography,

I gained lots of tips, tricks & inspiration for this image from

The Pioneer Woman

which at the moment she has a wonderful assignment at the moment for everyone on food photography, including a great  post on "Ten things she has learned about food photography" to get you started, some of the images her readers have entered so far are just "delicious!"

I experimented with my macro setting, changing my aperture & even the sports mode on the dripping water.

I have been learning how to use the light meter to adjust the exposure, all three of these pictures where taken one after the other, adjusting the exposure.

I have even learnt a bit about reading the histogram, to ensure you have the correct, or best exposure possible for a perfect shot.

Ive started studying up on adjusting my white balance to suit the light source & ensure optimum colour in my images, like under the shade of these amazing trees.

Ive have gained so much knowledge from a wonderful blog

Life with my 3 boybarians

Darcy has a fabulous series called "31 days to a better photo" which is an awesome resource for us photography newbies

I have also tried to put a lot of focus, pardon the pun, on composition, to ensure my pictures are appealing to the eye.

I must add that NONE of my photo's have been edited in any way, they are fresh from my camera, that would be a whole other skill to master & I am a one step at a time kinda girl!!!

All of the outdoor images here where taken at a lovely little village called Paterson in the Hunter Valley of NSW Australia.

The kids & I went on a photography excursion & had a picnic dinner in the park here, whilst dream child No1 & I experimented with our new cameras.

It was a very fun afternoon & we hope to have lots of little photography picnics in the future!!

I hope these links are helpful for all of you DSLR newbies, or if you have any sites that you have found helpful & inspiring we would love to hear about them!

CHEERS

Trish xxx











Hello 2011

Hi everyone,

I found myself dropping off planet blog over the Xmas/ new years period,

life was just a bit hectic,

filled with family & festivities!

Here's a bit of an update of how we filled our days...

We did Christmas dinner at our house twice, 

The first time was a few days before Chrissy for our family that were travelling elsewhere for the big day & then again on Christmas day for us & my parents.

It was a really lovely day & I was lucky enough to be given my first D SLR camera....

I haven't stopped taking photo's since, mind you I have NO idea what I'm doing.

Thank goodness for all of those talented bloggers that enjoy passing on tips to the newbie photographers!!!!

Although this is an old photo from my last house, I really did get to share a bottle of Moet with my lovely neighbor & friends for New years.

Maitland put on a fantastic fireworks display on the Hunter river each year & we had a fabulous view of them from our street, which was great!!!

Then it was time to take down the tree & put my house back together, the living area seems so much more spacious without a giant tree in the room.

We have enjoyed some great family days, this is my 2 favourite men fishing at Stockton beach

of course you cant go to the beach without building a few castles

dream child no.1 also got a DSLR off Santa so we had a lovely day snapping the sights of Newcastle & Stockton

My ultra gorgeous little sister is also the proud owner of a fab camera & the 3 of us wandered around like crazy tourists snapping up the sights & experimenting with different features on the camera....sooooo much to learn, soooo much fun!

We have also had to have a couple of skate park excursions for dream child no.3 to hone his scooter skills!

So this is what Ive been up to lately, plus a trip to the movies to see "Mega Mind", a few shopping adventures & several trips to our local pool.

We have so many exciting adventures planned just exploring Newcastle & The Hunter Valley, we don't have time to go on a holiday & that's why I love where I live!

What have you been up to so far?

CHEERS

Trish xxx