Life's Visual Journal » photography

The Weekend That Was…

T'lia — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 03:17:55 +0000

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

T'lia — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 01:12:01 +0000

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

T'lia — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 05:22:45 +0000

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:

What inspires you?

Everyday life, those small things and intimate moments. Everyone I surround myself inspires me in a different way and that impacts on my own life and photos (mostly my daughter and my family).

Photographers like the awesome Meaghan Cook and Angie Baxter, whose images I adore and aspire to be like, inspire me greatly. More so because they take the time to help out beginners like me (I just did Angie’s workshop and am heading to Meaghan’s first ever one in June). Editor’s note: Sprung! I did this interview with Belinda at the beginning of the year- can you believe it’s gone so fast?!, hence the now somewhat outdated response! Sorry readers, sorry Belinda!

When did you start taking photos?

I did photography in highschool but then follwed a teaching career (on the advice of my very sensible Dad). When I was pregnant, I was searching the internet for a maternity photographer and I was amazed at some of the beautiful images and my love for photography resurfaced. When my daughter was born 19 months ago, I invested in my camera, started reading lots, trawling the internet, completing courses and practising on willing friends! I’ve had a big year of learning.

What’s your best photography tip?

Try and do as many things to make yourself better, reading, researching, following great photographers and doing courses. And practise, practise! Most of all, find you own style, I love unposed photos and black and white!

What’s one thing you’ve learnt this last week?

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

What’s On Your Fridge?

T'lia — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:55:45 +0000

This week I’m playing along with My Place and Yours hosted over at Hello Owl…

Our fridge is mostly covered in photos, which is pretty much just life every other part of our house and life! I’ve been scanning old photos, so there is one up there of me and my mum when I was one day old.

There is something really beautiful about scanning old photos. I kind of like how they always seem to have a really wide frame, and the people seem to be far away. The light is always interesting too…

Autum Days…

T'lia — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 08:45:15 +0000

Today I went on a photo expedition with my friend Emma. There are these beautiful trees around at the moment that turn when it’s cold. Something that doesn’t happen much here!

Which one is your favourite?

You can view the rest here…

Wedded Bliss

T'lia — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:43:27 +0000

So some pretty awesome friends got married on the 1st of May. Their wedding was perfectly them, and SO much fun! I loved it- one of the best weddings I think I’ve EVER been to!

Here are some of my favourite snaps of the day. I love the details. xo

Tim, the guy who married them is the same Pastor who married us.

Two of our beautiful friends- Gaby and Sarah.

An unconventional way of signing the register…

This Kim’s brother and a friend. They played Love Cats while they signed the register! It was awesome and everyone was singing along!

Morgan is french and the had a bit of a french ‘theme’ happening. This must have been a family friend? and she played the accordian. It was so fun.

Me, the bride, and Naomi.

They had all these tea cups set out with little sayings tied to them. You took one as you got a drink, but then you got to take it home! It doubled as the bombinere! This is such a good idea, no?!

Instead of like a guest book, they had slips of paper and coloured pens that you could write some kind words onto.

And then you pegged them up to the line in the courtyard!

Handmade bunting! I totally love bunting, and after this I am very inspired to make my own! Great for birthday parties!

They had heaps of pretty flowers in random bottles on the tabels scattered around! So beautiful!

Last, but definitely not least- the bouquet. Is it not GORGEOUS! I seriously thought it was beautiful!!

Pepper Carbis, on the couch, with the computer

T'lia — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:24:33 +0000

WOW, Monday already! That came WAY too quickly! Does anyone else feel like this whole YEAR is blazing by, quick as anything?! It’s nearly mid April for goodness sake!

Our theme this week over at Hello Owl’s My Place and Yours is “Where do you blog”. My answer is- on the couch! Yep, kinda not very ergonomic, organised, inspiring or comfortable- BUT it’s where it gets done! In fact, this is where most things on the computer get done!

I like having my special girl next to me when I’m blogging or browsing the inter-webs. She is so cute when curled into a tight little ball!

Some of these girls on My Place and Yours this week put me to shame BIG TIME! They are so organised!! How on earth people STAY organised is beyond me. I am quickly scrambled as soon as I do something…

Also, my big news to tell you is that I’ve reached over 100 fans on facebook, so I’m doing a special double giveaway!! Yay!! I THINK I’ve decided that I’ll giveaway 2 bags (details to come), which I will make, BUT I think I’d like to make it before I start the giveaway… so stay tuned for that one in the next week or so. P.S If you like this blog, and you’re not already a facebook fan, then pop on over and make my day.

P.S The giveaway is bags, because, as far as I can tell (from comments and the survey I did), my husband is the only male who reads this… :-S If you’re male, and you read this, let me know, and I will make a special giveaway item in case you win!!

Kim’s Kitchen Tea

T'lia — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 03:44:08 +0000

I love my friend Kim. She is fun, and ALWAYS smling. Her fiance, Morgan, is great. He’s cool, hip, and lots of fun too. I think they are the most beautiful pair.

Last Sunday was her Kitchen Tea, and we celebrated and gave lots of pressents and played some games. I love games at events like these.

All these photos were shot of my Canon 400D. Aperture/SS etc. vary. Sorry- was trying to capture the moment and not focus on the details too much!

Purim

T'lia — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:35:51 +0000

I hda mentioned in a previous post that we were celebrating Purim, but hadn’t then shown you the awesome photos from the night!

The story of Purim is this: Mordecai is a bloke who does the King of Persia a favour, and then sits at the city gate. The king’s new Prime-minister, Haman has a bit of a problem with Mordecai because he won’t bown down to him when he walks past. This is because Mordecai is jewish, and yeah, he will only bow down to God. So Haman has this plot to kill Mordecai, which turns into a plot to kill ALL the jews in Persia. Esther is Mordecai’s cousin, and she is the Queen. She’s also jewish.

Haman manges to get the king to agree with his idea to kill them all (not knowing Esther is jewish) and Haman then casts lots to see when the murdering will be done. Mordecai and Esther find out about this plan, and they urge all the Jews to fast and pray for three days, and at the end of the thrid day Esther plans to seek an audience with the King.

Esther has a bit of a feast with the King and invites Haman and Mordecai. The two do not get along… but Esther invites everyone back for a second banquet the next weekend. So they have the next banquet and Esther tells the King that she is jewish, and that Haman is going to kill all her people (including her). Because the decree has already been made he can’t back out on it, but he lets Esther and Mordecai write a new decree, and they make it so that the Jews can fight back. Lots of people die, and Haman is executed by the king. Mordecai because the second in charge now, and creates an annual rememberance of the time the event, so that everyone can remember when the Jews were saved from annihalation.

WOAH. So, that is what Purim is all about. Traditionally the things you do are dress up in fancy dress, give each other gifts, gamble and drink. We did pretty well all of it except our gambling was without money (we played poker), and our drinking was minimal- everyone had to drive home!

It was a really, really fun night, and everyone got really dressed up! We did a ‘secret santa’ (for lack of a better word/phrase), and lots of chocolate went around!

Oh Alice!

T'lia — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:07:55 +0000

You are all such awesome blog readers, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to read this little space in the interent.

I really want to know what YOU think. This blog is, after all, a place where you (hopefully) come back too, and I want it to be about things you want to read. The survey is here, and everyone who fills it out for me will be in the draw to win a secret prize! It’s not long, only a few questions, most of which are multiple choice!!

Now, back to our regular programming…

Last weekend we went and saw Alice in Wonderland for Luke’s birthday. We gave it 4/5 stars, which is pretty good for us!

To celebrate I thought I’d share with you some ‘Mad Hatter’ inspired photos I took last year…