Technology

I have no PC at the moment, so am using the laptop belonging to girlie #1.

This means no photos, so I am falling behind with my flickr 365 project. I have taken the pics but haven't uploaded them. So, very annoying. I know that I'm pretty sporadic with my posting, but I'd just got back into the swing of posting fairly regularly. So, really doubly annoying.

On the bright side, after receiving a €555 bill from Telefonica for my internet connection, I have now ditched them and have one of those plug in and go mobile type connection. After being on dialup for so long it is a complete revelation. The speed...

Going back in time

The main PC is at the doctors with a nasty virus, I am blaming the girlies for downloading music. So I decided to dig through my Flickr archives for something to post :-)

Way back in March of this year, we went to Muricia where one of our camera club members gave a talk on the use of natural and artificial light in outdoor photography. We used fill flash, reflectors and off camera flashes. We had "real live" models and makeup artists as well. Fortunately we all met up rather early and as the girlies were with their Daddy, I didn't have to worry about them getting in the way, getting lost or getting a cob on as they weren't being used as models - hahaha!

This picture actually got to number 19 on Flickr Explore, which is my highest placed explore, laughable really as the original was seriously over exposed. However, there is still something about it that I like, which is what counts I guess.

The models were all complete professionals and so easy and fun to work with. Only had a few language barrier problems

with this one, where I wanted them to look lovingly into each others eyes! Don't think that the chemistry was there actually.After this shoot, we retired to a nearby hotel, for an absolutely splendid lunch, and then spent the afternoon wandering around Murcia taking more photos and generally enjoying the day. As evening came we tried a few nocturnals, a disaster for me and of course it was obligatory to round the night off with a fantastic Tarta Murciana, a lovely spicy meat pie.

Beautiful Bugs

Last Saturday 1000's of these dragonflies flew past the house. I have never seen anything quite like it. I tried to take some shots of them in the air to no avail, but then noticed that some were landing in my field. A quick change of lens and I managed to get some quite lovely photos. Unfortunately we were on the way out to a birthday party for one of the girlies friends, so I didn't have quite as much time as I would have liked.

They were green


Brown


and they were red

The Birthday Present

Charlotte had a guitar for her birthday, she is desperate to play, aspirations of Hanah Montana I think. Well, we managed to sort it out and found a lovely young man for her lessons. There are just four of them in her group, for an hour on a Saturday morning. She has been told by Javier that she needs to practice for an hour a day - so thankfull she didn't have aspirations for the violin!

Training begins

Now that Pepito has been in the house for a couple of weeks, I decided that he should have a little liberty in the kitchen. I have been trying to hand feed him in the cage, but he's not having much of that! So, making sure all winndows and doors were firmly shut - kitchens on the whole have wipe clean surfaces! I thought I would let him out for a bit - bad mistake.

He crashed around into the windows, and eventually flew down on to the floor.



Tried hiding behind the leg of the chair


Thought about climbing the leg of the chair


Just about..

made it on to the leg of the table



And finally flew up onto one of the kitchen chairs.


I tried to coax him back into his cage, but he wasn't too keen, so I removed the base and just popped it over the top of him. Thankfully this worked a treat, I was a little concerned that I'd never get him to go back in. So, any parrot trainers out there, all hints and tips will be gratefully received :-)

Partiendo Olivas

I've started picking the olives, some we are going to let turn black and have pressed for oil :-) These have been bashed with a stone to split open and are then left in water - to be changed every 12 hours - for a couple of days, to get rid of the bitterness. They are then stored in salty and herbed water for about a week, and are then ready to eat :-)

An outing at last

It's been a while since we had a photowalk with AFOTO, so I was quite pleased that when after the course at Callosa de Segura, they announced that there would be a KDD (quedada- meeting) for all to attend. I really only know the odd bar and high street in Callosa, so it was quite interesting to hit some other streets, that were unknown to me. We went upwards to the hermita of San Roque, and up again towards some old abandoned houses - always something interesting to photograph there. Whilst some of our group managed some stunning landscapes and some interesting portraits, I managed a number of "detalles" as I love all the quirky things you find in these old houses. Old bakelite lightsith still hanging on a wall, I am amazed that electricity was this far out of the main town centre and wonder how long ago these houses were abandoned?
This is the view of Callosa de Segura from the Hernita de San Roque


Wondering if these chairs were abandoned too, or brought up later?