I went to Monte Casino today for the Microsoft Mix Essential conference that was being held there( more about that on my other blog in a few minutes time… parts of it were fabulous). Of course, I took my camera along because the place is quite spectacular, but I’m afraid these are the only photos I could take.

I didn’t try take photos inside the complex, because I’ve done it before, and because I think it looks a bit tacky now, but I thought I’d go to the newish piazza area and take some shots there… which was a great idea until a security guard stopped me!! Apparently I had to ask for permission from Management to take photos. LOL!
Apparently it would have been fine if I’d take a friend along and pretended to take a photo of them, but it wasn’t ok for me to just take a photo. Bizarre! So in other words, a tourist travelling on their own is not allowed to take photos of a tourist attraction, that’s basically what they’re saying!

The thing is, I reckon that if I’d gone with a small P&S, no-one would have even batted an eyelid! He only came up to me when I changed my lens for the kit lens!
I’m finding it quite amazing that I’m getting such a reaction to me taking pics now!! I never had this problem with my old camera! This is the second time I’ve been questioned in the last few weeks, it’s quite maddening actually.
All of a sudden people are worried about what I’m doing with the photos! LOL!

Anyway, for what it’s worth, here are the only shots I managed to take. I ended up fiddling too much with the settings to get brilliant shots.

And talking about spoil sports, here’s another example for you! These kids were dying to get closer to the fountain. I find it terrible that they’ve got a chain around it! At Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, there’s a similar fountain, which has been left open, and it’s the most brilliant sight to watch the kids playing in the water on a hot day… clearly Monte Casino don’t like that idea… which is a bif pity!

We went to my parent’s house for a braai yesterday. My brother, Carl, gave me a few tips about aperture etc while we were there, which was great.
So of course, I had to haul out my camera and take some pics of the kids!

Erin and Connor were so cute. They just followed each other to the bench and climbed onto it (there was no prompting involved )

Remember Connor with his blue flower that I posted yesterday, well, my mom has the same flowers in her garden, and he picked some for Erin

And now it’s in my hair

It’s been easier this week for me to find some weekly winners, because I kept some shots specially for this post .
I’ve had a better photo week this week (apart from getting quite good results at Camera /Photo club on Wednesday), and I’ve graduated to using the manual/creative modes on the camera – I still have a lot to learn about exposure, aperture etc as I had to adjust most of them in Photoshop! Talking of which, I think I should get proper PS instead of Elements, I’m dying to use actions.

We went to Parys last Sunday, and I again took some photos from the moving car

Burnt

Abandoned

Connor discovered the windmill in MIL’s garden

Hairy cactus

Purple flowering succulent
(I have no idea what the name of the plant is)

Pineapple Lily

I had to take a few days off work this week because I had no-one to look after the kids, and I took them to a tea garden to play on the one afternoon (There are more photos here).

Horny goat

Risky play

Pampas at sunset

And I can’t resist showing you these too. Connor picked a flower for me yesterday, but by the time I got it, it was all mangled… and this is why…

Daydreaming

Study of a blue flower

Hmmm, smells nice

OK, I think I’ve shown you enough now

Check out Lotus’ blog for more Weekly Winners.