The Weekend That Was…

On Sunday Luke and I went down the Gold Coast to our cousin (once removed)’s 2nd birthday party! Neither of us have been to a birthday party for a two year old before (apart from I guess our own, our siblings, and our friends- when they were 2…), so we weren’t quite sure what to expect!

It ended up being SUCH a good afternoon, and we are so glad we made the effort to go down. It was great to spend time with family that we don’t see anywhere near as often as we’d like too.

Of course, before we went to  the party we had to buy a present. On saturday, in between looking at house after house after house to buy (spread from literaly one end of the Sunshine Coast to the other), we went to Target. We ended up buying Duplo because a) Luke likes Duplo b) We have this thing about our own children one day having Duplo/Lego c) If it is too old for him he can grow into it and d) Duplo is awesome.

On the way out I saw some bubble wands that were only $1, so I thought I’d add it to the gift package. I was also proud of myself, thinking ahead, and buying two of them- one for Tomi’s older brother, Aviv, as well. You know how kids are… no one likes to share! At $1 a pop though, I think I should have bought some more! They were a hit that afternoon!

So that was our first childrens birthday party experience as adults. Mind you, we really did spend most of our time talking to adults…

Also, how sweet is the picture above of Luke showing Tomi how to blow the bubbles! Defintiely one of my favourite photos!

I’m playing along with FatMumSlim’s Point and Shoot!

Travel Photography- Show Shutterspeed

I know you’re probably all sick to death of all my holiday stories by now, but I wanted to take the time to show you a few photos in the coming weeks, and the stories that go with them. The stories that didn’t fit into the other blog posts.

This photo has two stories that go with it.

Story One:

This photo was taken in Notre Dame de Paris. If you ever get to go to Paris, then DEFINITELY go to Notre Dame. It’s so relaxed and beautiful. As you may have guessed from the posts about it (here and here), we absolutely LOVED it. Notre Dame Cathedral (in the background), was desecrated in the 1790s during the French Revolution, and at one stage it was used as a barn for animals etc.

Victor Hugo, who wrote the Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1831 wanted to bring attention back to this beautiful cathedral (one of the finest examples in the world of Gothic Arcitecture), and so he wrote the book. The success of his book is one of the key factors that promopted the restoration of the cathedral in the 19th century.

Pretty cool, hey?!

Story Two:

One our tour we had a photo competition, and I entered this photo as one of my submissions for the ‘people’ category. On our way to Amsterdam they announced the winners and low and behold, I won! I won a little St Goar Beer Stein. I had wanted this exact one while we were there, but didn’t get because we were feeling the money pinch that day and being a bit cheap. So to win one later on, out of the blue was pretty special!

From a technical point of view, here are the details of the shot:

Canon 400D
Aperture: 4.5
SS: 320
54mm
ISO 400

If you like these stories you can vote for me over at Blog This…

Belinda Lee Photography

I’d like to introduce to this new blog I’ve found: Belinda Lee Photography. Belinda is a photographer from Melbourne. I definitely think you should go and peruse some of her lovely photos, and don’t forget to leave her a comment of two on her blog!

I asked Belinda to answer a few quick questions:

That if whoever I took the photo for loves and appreciates it, then it is good, even if not technically perfect.  Oh, and how beautiful catchlights are!

If you’d like to be interviewed on Life’s Visual Journal then send me an email and let me know! talia.carbis (@) gmail.com

Tags: baby, guest, photography