This is my cat (Danny) and his mommy... my Daschund (Lulu)!

The Daschund couple adopted the 2 kittens we rescued after they were abandoned and made them their own. This is how Danny's been suckling since 3 weeks! Lulu has never had a litter of her own, but she gladly produced milk for the new baby in the house.

Isn't nature wonderful!

Fun in the Sun

Staying Positive

Listening to talk radio and reading posts and comments on blogs and sites today, can really get your spirits down!

So I've decided to post a pic to lift those spirits! Sometimes thats all it takes!



Back to my favourite mantra..... I CAN CHOOSE PEACE!

Choose your path, choose your peace!

What you need to know about photography and your camera ... by Shani Marais

Introduction

The simplest form of a camera is a pinhole camera. Which is simply what it says – a light-tight box with a pinhole opening on one side of the box and film / photographic paper attached on the other side.

Light from the subject enters through the pinhole and forms a reverse picture on the photographic paper. The film is then processed to create a visible and permanent image.

Your camera is a modern pinhole camera. The fancy mechanics inside your modern model only make your life easier, but at the end of the day you don’t need a top-notch camera to create top-notch images. Only you can create that!

Get to know your camera

“Your manual is your new best friend!”

PORTRAIT
This mode blurs your background, making your subject stand out.


LANDSCAPE
Everything in your viewfinder / photo will be in focus (clear).


MACRO / CLOSE-UP
Use this mode to take close-up shots of flowers or insects, etc.


SPORTS
This is for fast moving subjects when you want to freeze the action.


NIGHT PORTRAIT
This mode is for shooting people outside at twilight or at night. The flash illuminates the subject and a slow sync speed captures a natural-looking exposure of the background. Tell your subject to keep still even after the flash fires. If you want to shoot a night scene without people, rather use the LANDSCAPE mode.


P – PROGRAM
This mode still does most of your thinking for you – i.e. aperture and shutter speed will automatically be adjusted, but you can change, say the aperture to suit you, while your camera will automatically change the shutter speed, or vice versa.

In this mode you have to set the ISO yourself, and also decide whether you will be shooting with or without flash.


TV / S – SHUTTER SPEED PRIORITY
In this mode you have to adjust the shutter speed yourself, while your camera will automatically choose the appropriate aperture. Once again – you can set the ISO and Flash manually.


AV / A – APERTURE PRIORITY
Here you set the aperture while your camera sets the appropriate shutter speed. ISO and Flash is set manually.


M – MANUAL EXPOSURE
In this mode, you have to set everything yourself.


Now that you have a basic idea of what those little pictures on your camera stand for – go through your manual and start playing.

You can't teach a hungry child

This is a slogan that has been jumping up in front of me from every angle these days. YOU CAN'T TEACH A HUNGRY CHILD

Sunday, 30 September, my hubby, my god-child and her parents and myself took part in the 'Blisters for Bread' initiative. We intended walking the 5km route - but had such a good time walking along the promenade in Green Point / Sea Point that we carried on and ended up walking about 8km in total. What an awesome experience!!

After parking in a designated parking garage at the V&A Waterfront, we had to walk to the Green Point Track where the START - FINISH point was. J & I thought, well - there... now we've walked far enough for one day! Hahaha! But as soon as we joined up with the rest of the thousands (I believe they had a turn out of about 14,000 people!) of participants, we got caught up in the hype of it all!

There were sprinters, strollers, even parents with prams and those nifty "carry your kid on your back" contraptions! So we fit right in - no matter which pace we chose. The couple who invited us along on this fun-family-charity walk were so amazing. G-man is a very very fit guy who does half marathons and who knows what else! But he did a sterling job in slowing down so we could keep up!

At the finish line - each and every participant received a medal and a glass of coke(this was such a well organised event!!). So, we thought it best to keep on walking until we reached the Paulaner Brauhaus in the V&A Waterfront. A very good decision all in all!

After the most divine beer and lunch, the day seemed to dissolve into the laziest Sunday afternoon - only U2 can best explain.

But back to this ever-popping-up slogan... YOU CAN'T TEACH A HUNGRY CHILD. There we were - full to the brim after a couple of blisters attained for a very worthy cause. A cause for specifically the opposite of what we had just experienced.

A cause for dedicated young children who get up in the dark hours of the morning to walk or catch a bus to school. Children who don't have parents with cars or money for breakfast. But they go to school to learn. To become more. To know more.

I have grown the greatest respect for all these wonderful organisations who arrange charity functions and fun walks to collect money to feed these young minds. And I will walk a million more miles to support them.

Perhaps this slogan is jumping up in front of me for a reason... perhaps not. But I am grateful for what is has shown me so far.

Beach Bum

Before I blog for today - a quick update after my previous one:

The roll of film in my Grandfather's camera was exposed to light due to the disintegrated seals... that's being fixed now and I can't wait to start playing with it!

For today... I'd like to focus on the beach bum



To be fancy free and wild again. No obligations or responsibilities... can you imagine?

I remember those times quite clearly - and isn't it amazing how I longed to be older then? How I wished for 'freedom'. Freedom from school. Freedom from home. Free to drive a car - to go into any pub or club.

Funny how that freedom came with so much of the opposite!

My son asked me yesterday: Mom, is it nice to be old?

My honest answer to him was: "Yes!... But how I do miss those care-free days."

I try really hard to get it across to them that they should enjoy every step of the way, and not spend their moments wishing for the next. That's quite a difficult thing to teach. How do you get them to focus on NOW when TOMORROW seems so exciting! When their NOW is filled with "No's" and "don'ts". How do you teach them what is right and wrong without restricting them from NOW?

My only wish is that they see me enjoying NOW. Hopefully that will be enough. Enough for them not to waist the little time they have on this planet by wishing it past.

Here's wishing you the best NOW you can possibly have!

x