If winter had a song it would be deep and slow.
A song that gets carried around in coat pockets,
slowly warming cold fingers.
A lone violin, a methodical drum.
Music that gives pause and time for reflection.
A song with the sounds of muffled whispers, crunching footsteps
and grainy long grey shadows.
A solo tune that echoes into the dark night
music that is slowly swayed to in colourful knitted socked feet,
and listened to on plump fluffed up blankets.
(For this post I am lucky enough to be playing with a different little camera that has been loaned to me from Olympus.)
I never had a favourite toy when I was growing up. I liked some over others sure, but a favourite? Not really. I had books instead, and they were all my favourites- Every. Single. One. Of those pages.
One of my kids so far is taking after me in that regard. Reading all of those delicious pages. At each turn, a new story, a different tale, another adventure…a new favourite. I love the fact that this unlocks so much of his imagination.
While books are also firm favourites for my other boy child. I can see that he’s drawn in a different way. An energy, a call, a different direction. This is the boy who loves running, and drawing and jumping, (with more running.)
Then there is this one. The smallest of the pack. The feisty, wild cub, where everything is a favourite. A favourite with an intensity that only a two year old can show.
On instagram recently there was talk of favourite cameras and favourite lens. Alas, as a blogger and keen taker of pictures- this really is one of my favourite topics. (Along with the topics of real food, homebirth, sourdough baking and why I really would like to have some Scandinavian heritage.)
I still feel like I’m on the outer edge of the photography pool, I keep splashing on the edge but it’s the deep end I’m really after. Slinging metaphors aside, and it was back to the instagram conversation of lenses. From another blogger or instagrammers perspective this is fascinating stuff as this is how so many of us are telling our day to day digital stories and sharing it with the world. A camera of some sort is a necessary tool.
For me the dslr world opened nearly two years ago and I’ve loved every second within it. Then there is instagram and within that it feels like another whole world of picture-taking…. so many apps, so little time. (And then in walked the Olympus, and ooh aah indeed. This little camera seems to marry photography and social media platforms ridiculously easily with built in wifi…it still bends my mind a little.)
One of my favourite photography things to look at it is when people, give the photo specs of what they did in a particular shot. f stop, ISO, and whether they pressed the button with their nose or not. I love knowing it all, every little bit of it. ( And *ahem* yes, occasionally the nose is needed.)
14mm- 42mm ISO 400 f3.5 1/250
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THE GEEKY BITS
I have been loaned the Olympus OM-D E-M10 for a couple of months. It’s a rather nifty little camera that I’m just a little bit excited to be playing with. Below I’m going to add some of those nifty things that it does- As there is going to be at least one person out there reading who wants to invest in a camera, doesn’t know what to buy, and is slowly going cross eyed with reading online reviews.* While this is by no means a review, for this post and a further two more I’ll mention a few of the features.
Wifi- No adaptors, no cords, no dropbox, no emailing yourself a picture. It’s there to your phone. In a magical Wifi-the-Fairy type kinda way.
It’s little- Cute, petite, tiny and tres chic. Call it what you will, it’s not going to be breaking your back or neck like some hefty DSLR’s do.
Little means discreet- Street photography is something I’m slowly developing a bigger interest in. It scares the hell out of me, but I’m ok with that- It’s kind of good to do something that pushes me. Using a smaller camera but not compromising on the quality of the shots makes getting shots like these ones, a whole lot easier for me, (and a huge thank you to the kind young men for happily saying, yes.)
* And you should research these kind of things. That way you know what exactly you are getting and what you can do with it before you hand over your hard earned coins.
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Now indulge me in the comments… What lenses, apps or photography tricks do you use? What are your favourites? Go on, lets geek talk.
The lure of the city puddle.
Completely pointless in keeping her out of them.
Six months ago, I had promised myself I would swim on the first weekend of winter.
This year, I wanted to know when my last swim would be. Not for the season to have simply just stopped and trickled away. I also wanted a challenge. I wanted it to be dark and cold. As that’s what swimming in winter should be like, shouldn’t it?
The clouds were dark, the water was coolish, and every stroke of that first weekend in winter swim was divine. But now that I had made it to the first weekend of winter, maybe I should push it a little further? Second month of winter?
Or, should I just keep going though out the year? No more chickening out because the water is a bit cool for my delicate constitution. (Perhaps I could be one day brave enough for this?)
While the water was certainly cooler than last time I had been in, it wasn’t as cool as I thought it would be. 21C isn’t exactly arctic waters.
The outside air temperature was also cooler than the sea temp, but only recently so. This month just gone by was abnormally warm, not just here in Sydney but across a fair chunk of Australia.
Is what we have to look forward to in our future?
While some people rejoice in that they get to wear their summer clothing almost all year long, this kind of weather scares the hell out of me.
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Climate Council- Abnormal Autumn
Plants confused by extra warm autumn
Sunset under Sydney Harbour Bridge…it was rather beautiful.
sticky cupboard doors and splattered bench tops,
but look beyond that and you’ll find
a few jars of lime marmalade
Apple and sultana dough ready to be divided into rolls. Easy thing to go into lunch boxes for small ravernous people.
Tea. Not just any tea either but Christmas Tea. Now I’m not known for straying from my favourite tea, (as it’s the best and why would I?) But Christmas Tea? Well I had to give it a crack didn’t I. And bought in one of the best country bakeries I’ve been to in Nimmitabel.
The winter staple of Apple Crumble is back. Taking pictures of said apple crumble must be done in haste. Or small airplanes are discarded and sticky little fingers attack. And quickly too.
Seasonal pears are lining up.
And if I wanted to avoid the mess inside, I just send it outside… I do love eating outside. All the rules are left at the backdoor. I like that.
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What’s been happening in your kitchen lately?
Linking in with the kitchen Queen Celia.
If I was starting another blog from scratch again, I think I would name it something watery like “Webbed Feet”….well, maybe not that one. Maybe, “The Old Sea Dog”. A blog entirely made up of photos and stories from the sea. A tiny corner to put my salty thoughts, and damp wonderings.
In lieu of having another blog entirely dedicated for my love of the ocean, I do get to sooth my cool water needs with some posts within here and reading this beautiful magazine– Great Ocean Quarterly.
If there is a part of you that yearns for the ocean, a desire for sand beneath toes, rocks by your side and a secret tiny longing for a merpersons tail, than this the magazine for you.*
It’s divine. Every. Single. Page.
There is no other magazine like it.
For the blog readers here, who are also salty people of the sea. This link is for you. A peek into how the article First Light was done in the magazines first edition.
Magic. Pure salty tinged magic.
* I get nothing for mentioning this beautiful magazine, except for the knowledge, that I’ve passed on to someone else who also likes the feeling of dipping their toes into the salty wet good stuff.
That morning, with Ben Lowy…
Yes, I fell in love again.
Not with Ben, (although he is charming, witty and lovely) but with photography. Madly, truly, deeply- all the cliches that I can bundle together.
It was seven kinds of awesome, it really was.
Thank you Ben.
If you are in Sydney see here for more Head On photo festival goodness while it is still on.
Hello Autumn, I’ve been expecting you.
There is a lure of the dark and stormy that is hard to define. A pull, an almost blank slate of ideas where anything is possible. Imagination seems to heightened, of which is always a good thing. My imagination on a sunny day…ahhh, it’s really just not the same. Give me bleak, cold, wet, shades of grey misery and the words, they can be coaxed out.
Settle in, and I’ll tell you a story….
As the boat pulled away from the dock, any other colours seemed to slip away along with it. Behind us, the trailing flag billowed- like a hopeful sea flare, a last shot of colour across a melancholy sky.
Time had reversed and dragged me along with it. Now onboard with three strangers I stood. Ready and waiting for the expectant onslaught of shots soon to break out. Their names were known to me but their faces I was new to recognising. My cold clammy hand was offered on meeting, as together…
Yes we would do this.
The island loomed large and it was with shuffled wet feet the four of us made our way across. Eyes darting from left to right, this was the place alright. The place we had heard of from long before.
As the darkened clouds paused in their rainy offerings, the sheer size of the cold place loomed ahead. Vast cavernous spaces that made me pull my thin woollen sleeves just that bit closer.
Dark and scarred lines at every turn. The whispers of others long gone were within these walls. Trapped on bench tops, and stuffed in slots, their stories were all there. Just waiting. Waiting to get out.
With lingering feet we traipsed on, the buildings continuing to rise out of the mud. As the day had dawned hours beforehand, my nerves had threatened to knock over my obligatory last cup of tepid tea. Not now though. My nerves seemed to have dissolved into the very mud in which our feet had slid into. Instead a peacefulness sat inside, an almost contentment.
While I knew only vaguely of what was to come next, what I did know was that I was with like minded souls. Strangers we had been but together we would do this, together we were going to take the shots and take it all in as it fell around us.
With fingers looped through fencing, and thoughts left to drift alone. A lone seagull seemed to watch on, also taking it all in. It was almost like he knew.
He knew what was to come.
A boats horn bellowing in the distance heralded the inevitable.
It was time.
To my other bloggy buddies that also think dark and stormy days are exciting. You guys rock. For my readers who would like to see some other wonderful versions of the same day see here at…
The Bowerbird Girl
Strawberry Jam Sandwiches
What Katie Did Next
Loving the slower, so much slower,
no time, no places to be
just us
and some mountains.
Loving those beautiful, deliciously cold mountains.
Time to take in the air,
take in the view,
the vivid blues, the rushing waters.
Loving stopping,
and breathing, really breathing.
Loving cold air on pink cheeks,
and warm hands stuffed into pockets.
Rocks stuffed into pockets too,
loving the fact that every, tiny thing is so amazing to those little hands.
Contentment is a vast collection of rocks. In pockets.
Loving the slower, oh so much slower.
The mountains,
you were good to us,
and I’m loving that.
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I’m also loving that I was nominated in the top 100 bloggers for Kidspot 2014 this week, (or top 30 for the Personal and Parenting category). Really, really, happy and excited… thank you people!)
cityhippyfarmgirl 