Ooh I love funky stuff!!

For my birthday a few weeks ago, my colleagues bought me the camera strap that I’ve been hankering after.  It arrived in the post a few days ago, and I got the parcel today…  I love it!! It’s just as nice as I hoped it would be.

I first saw the High Key camera straps on Secret Agent Mama’s blog a few weeks ago, and immediately added it to my wishlist.  I LOVED that they were so different, not that expensive… and you can design your own!! I decided that one of their normal stock items would do though, because I just loved the design so much.

I seriously love the fact that you can buy anything from any country online   There’s nothing like it in this country… so a little wait for the post is well worth it!

See the full set of 2010 photo-a-day photos on my Project 365 Flickr Set.

This photo means more to me tonight, than it did last night (I took it yesterday afternoon).  The reason… I’m uhming and aahing about what to do.  Should I buy a Mac or not?  This question is of paramount importance tonight as the Beta version of Lightroom that I’ve been using has expired, and I don’t want to spend money on Lightroom twice!

The big thing is… I primarily use Lightroom for processing now, so I can’t actually go without it.

So now the question is… iMac or MacbookPro?  I can’t decide!! Help me in the comments!

In other fabulous news… I got another fabulous review on Leigh-Ann’s blog tonight about the photos I took for their family in May   Extra pleased that she likes them!!

An extract from her post:

A couple of years ago I had my own model agency and I was fortunate enough to work with many different photographers, some well known BUT I have never worked with a photographer that captures the actual feeling, moment and emotion – the way Jeanette did.  She has the most amazing approach when dealing with children.  Joshua had been feeling very left out  because of all the babies etc. and Jeanette made him feel extra special. He was involved from the start, helping her find little hidden pathways or taking a sneak peep thru the lens.  Joshua had so much fun.

Cool hey?!!  I actually had such fun with Josh   here are some fun photos from a face-pulling exercise when he started getting bored

First a little rant and rave…

There are a lot of photography bloggers that have said recently on Twitter and on their blogs that a photographer’s blog should only showcase client work.  In fact, they also say that you should only put photography on your blog if the photo session is the type that you want to get in future, for eg, only post weddings if you want to book weddings.  And if you add in personal photos and other stories it detracts from the style of photography that you’re trying to sell and people will lose interest as soon as they get onto the blog.  But here’s my two cents worth…

That makes sense if you’re a full time professional photographer and you have regular clients.  I’m saying that because your blog will only get good ranking and be searchable if your content is fresh and you can post client photos at least twice a week.

I’m not a full-time photographer.  I’m a mother and I love showing off my kids.  I work full time in financial services so I can’t afford to take on that many clients every week, no matter how much I’d love to.  I’m also a blogger at heart… that’s how my passion for photography began.  I’m also doing a 365 project which I could probably have put on yet another blog, but to be honest, 2 blogs is enough for me to handle right now.

And then, I get a phone call like I got this afternoon, and all my doubts about the way I blog disappear.

I got phoned by someone from New York… that’s right… all the way in the US of A.  She’d found my blog and read the post I wrote in December about the D Hani creche in Soweto.  The story and the photos touched her, and she now wants to send them some school supplies to I put her in touch with the fundraisers.

So there, I’m not your run of the mill lifestyle photographer… but really… this is my life and hey… I actually made a difference in someone else’s life today just because of a blog post and a few photos.

The photos that I take for myself, where I’m not being paid, push my knowledge and skills.  I’m more likely to take a risky shot and process a photo strangely for one of my own photos than a client photo.  The 365 challenge has again improved my skills, and I feel that blogging about it also shows that I can do more than one type of photography.  I feel that it does showcase my skills (feel free to disagree in the comments )

So no, too bad if it’s not the norm, I’m not planning on changing the way that I blog.

And now for today’s photo…

This school holiday seems endless to me already, and the kids are already bored… so this week we have a few plans up our sleeves.  They went to Madelein’s house today to play for the entire day, tomorrow they’ve got friends coming to play at our house, and on Thursday they’re going to play at a friend’s house again.

When I got to Madelein’s house this evening to pick them up they were quietly watching TV and eating popcorn… amazing… of course all hell broke loose when we got home again, but they did look like angels for those 5 minutes.

See the full set of 2010 photo-a-day photos on my Project 365 Flickr Set.

I picked the kids up from my mom’s house this afternoon, and Connor showed me the bird’s nest that had fallen in the garden.

After discussing the pros of Lightroom with Christine Meintjes, Mitch Wong Ho and a couple of other photogs last night on Twitter, I’m determined to make the switch to LR for all my processing.  I have to sleep!! I’m spending far too long processing each photo session and it’s meaning I’m getting less and less sleep.

So, tonight was the first night that I’m processing using Lightroom and I’m going to start experimenting with presets too.  If you know of any good ones, please leave a comment with a link.

These photos were processed using Christine’s Preset called “Vintage Rock Vignette”.  I can see how this app can be much faster than PS already… I just need to learn a hell of a lot about it!

I’ve put together a slideshow of my favourite images from each one of the clients I’ve had during the year (excluding Corporate clients and events). I chose only one image from each client, some of which you haven’t seen before, and the images are not in any particular order.

The slideshow takes a while to come up, but I promise it’s there

[slideshow id=10 w=720 h=600]

I also promise that this is the last review of the year that I’ll do My first client for 2010 is tomorrow morning, so please hope it doesn’t rain as is forecast as it’s outside again!