Party Time!

Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...

HandmadeSpark NEW TUTORIAL POST...

My article on Handmade Spark is up! Finding your Spark : Product Photography - The "BIG NO" For Your Product Photos

You can still catch my previous posts here:
* Finding Your Spark - Product Photography - Lighting
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Getting The Best Out Of Your Photography
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Making A Lightbox
* Finding Your Spark - Photo Composition
* Finding Your Spark - Got The Shakes?
* Finding Your Spark - Easy Post Production - Contrast Adjustment
* Finding Your Spark - Product Photography - Layering And It's Benefits
* Finding Your Spark - Product Photography - Motivation and Inspiration
* Finding Your Spark - For Photographers - Creative Bokeh



Party Time! Today is my son's Birthday Party, although he won't officially be a year older unil Tuesday. But wow! 3 years old! where does the time go??? It's so weird... Each year I love to make a year-gone-by montage of my little mans antics to put on our kitchen wall and looking back at just after his 2nd birthday, I can't even imagine him being so different. I can only expect changes because he is so young but to look back and remember what he was like and just how far he has come is still pretty incredible whther i expect it or not. As this is the same boy who was walking at 7 months! And now he's ruler of the house... He certainly knows how to prepare himself that's for sure lol! Aw I'm so proud of him. He was told today by his Tot's Drama teacher that he should go to theatre school because of his confidence and inventive nature. I just beamed! It'll be a wonderful opportunity for him, and his birthday will incite the period of time that he can apply for things like that. Very exciting!

I won't make this long as I have a tonne to prepare (and sleep to catch up on... i should be in bed really!) But yes finally a happy day to conclude a painfully tiring week! :D

Recent Photography Posted to moonangelnay.etsy.com...


That's it for now. Have a great weekend all!


moonangelnay x

Carnival

Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...

HandmadeSpark NEW TUTORIAL POST...

My article on Handmade Spark is up! Finding your Spark : Product Photography - Creative Bokeh

You can still catch my previous posts here:
* Finding Your Spark - Product Photography - Lighting
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Getting The Best Out Of Your Photography
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Making A Lightbox
* Finding Your Spark - Photo Composition
* Finding Your Spark - Got The Shakes?
* Finding Your Spark - Easy Post Production - Contrast Adjustment
* Finding Your Spark - Product Photography - Layering And It's Benefits
* Finding Your Spark - Product Photography - Motivation and Inspiration


Carnival ... For those that follow me on Twitter and like me on Facebook, you probably caught a glimpse of a short enthusiastic message i wrote about yesterdays local Carnival in my hometown, and my plans to be snap happy with my DSLR ♥ lol! Apart from not going to a small time fairground in DONKEYS years, it was just a brilliant opportunity for me to obtain some new fabulous vibrant photography for my portfolio. On Etsy I mostly focus on nature, very slowly bringing in form (like my print LUST), and I hope to expand the inventory to include other subjects like architechture and more fun time photography to showcase everything else that I work on away from Etsy (there is a lot...). I hope to someday have local listings to offer my portrait photography to UK families in the West Midlands in and surrounding Birmingham as it is now a service I am working on registering as an official part time business that takes me out of my home and working with people. That is still in the works but I am hopeful like I've said in a previous post that I want to be doing that regularly by the end of this year once I am registered and insured.

So the carnival! Well, we started the day having a bit of a disappointing (although not entirely unrewarding) morning driving out to another town to take our son to his drama group and finding that it wasn't on despite it being on the group timetable, but then visited the nearby traditional sweet shop to drown our sorrows ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ before taking ourselves back home for a bite to eat. When it came to the afternoon we made our way out to the carnival which my son was really excited about, having had rides on the odd kiddy carousel that we've spotted in past shopping centre visits. So the prospect of trying out a variety of new rides that were bigger and faster induced in him the likeness of a sugar rush! For me I had my tripod at the ready and my DSLR in hand ready to shoot at will LOL! But... for me when we arrived I was a little disappointed to discover that some of the more traditional rides in the advert imagery weren't there like the ferris wheel and chair swings :( It was very modernised actually, so my snap happy venture ended up being channelled into being a pap for my son whilst he enjoyed the rides. I did capture a few interesting shots, but I'll have to go out of my way I think to get the more traditional shots I hoped for some other time and look for older fairground rides. It's a shame as their have been so many fairgrounds in my hometown already but I have avoided them all photography wise for the fact they are chocka with modern rides. Until next time I suppose! In the meantime I should have 2 or 3 new non-nature prints pop up in my store soonish once I have gone through some post production.

My son obviously had the time of his life! His face when he went on the toddler friendly rollercoaster on his own was wonderful! And his delightful laughter and foot stamping when whizzing along with me on the bigger roller coaster was so sweet! He even braved the ghost train with daddy whilst myself and his sister looked on! Before we were ready to leave he bumped into his little friend (I call his girlfriend lol) and had some fun on an inflatable slide before snoozing all the way back in the car when we managed to convince him to come home LOL. It was a lovely day in the end! :)


Recent Photography Posted to moonangelnay.etsy.com...


That's it for now. Have a great weekend all!


moonangelnay x

♥ Cute and Squishy ♥

Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...

HandmadeSpark NEW TUTORIAL POST...

My article on Handmade Spark is Up! Finding your Spark : Product Photography - Motivation and Inspiration

You can still catch my previous posts here:
* Finding Your Spark - Product Photography - Lighting
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Getting The Best Out Of Your Photography
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Making A Lightbox
* Finding Your Spark - Photo Composition
* Finding Your Spark - Got The Shakes?
* Finding Your Spark - Easy Post Production - Contrast Adjustment
* Finding Your Spark - Product Photography - Layering And It's Benefits



New Plans ... I am still reeling in amusement from something my other half said last night whilst I was feeding my daughter. She had just had the biggest spit up ever all over him and I was having a general squeaky babble with her, questioning why babies had to be so darned cute (broody already!) when he responded with the fact that it's to fool us parents into accepting the vomit, poop and noise... a clever distraction from the heavens LOL... Love his sense of humour!
To be honest all of that, now the second time around isn't bothersome at all... you ACTUALLY get used to poo, vomit and the loveliest of gross cocktails being slathered over you on a daily basis. It's a funny thing, I love seeing one of my closest friends run out of the room whenever it's changing time and the look on his face when I am so calm and collected over cleaning the grime all over my son's face and body LOL. Children really do make you hardcore! ANYWAY... excuse my yuckiness lol! This week (and last too) I've been spending a bit of time looking into form instead of nature photography, and preparing to get myself up and running as a business away from the internet and my known art form. I have been waiting for the right time and always thought it would come in a few more years when my kids are older and my hands are slightly less full of things. But to be honest besides serious cabin fever, I have been ready to get out for a while. My goal is to work in wedding photography in a few years time but for now I want to work with portrait photography. I already have a sweet portfolio in the works which has been filling up nicely since my daughter entered the world.

It was a visit to a friend this week that made me feel encouraged enough to get started on this venture earlier than planned. She and her sister were browsing through my flickr profile via my phone when she started showing off a bunch of sweet pictures from a recent shoot she had with her own kids and said with an err of disappointment in her tone "why aren't YOU doing something like this???". She knows of my intentions in photography as I had offered shoots for her girls before (just never had the chance to do it). I began my long list of excuses as to why it would be more practical to do it later on but then looking on my camera at all the recent shots I had left on there I began to wonder why myself. Nothing is stopping me besides the financial implications, and I would need to register myself, not trying to blow my own trumpet, but knowing that it would definitely give me an income. So since that day I have been making plans!

It'll be good to get out and have some identity as a professional besides as an artist. It's not a certainty for now but the plans are being made and hopefully it won't be long before it all works out! I think the best thing will be knowing that my kids will be able to see a happier and more confident mother in me. I feel that the sooner I start, the sooner I'll be able to realise my dream as being a wedding photographer in the future.


Recent Photography Posted to moonangelnay.etsy.com...


That's it for now. Have a great weekend all!


moonangelnay x

First Week Down

Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...

HandmadeSpark NEW TUTORIAL POST...

My article on Handmade Spark is up! Finding your Spark : Product Photography - Layering And It's Benefits

You can still catch my previous posts here:
* Finding Your Spark - Product Photography - Lighting
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Getting The Best Out Of Your Photography
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Making A Lightbox
* Finding Your Spark - Photo Composition
* Finding Your Spark - Got The Shakes?
* Finding Your Spark - Easy Post Production - Contrast Adjustment


My Week ... I am just about here... in one piece! I hate to be all theatrical about it but i NEVER expected the difficulty I've had trying to function normally, following having my baby girl. And funnily enough it's nothing to do with my recovery or the baby at all LOL! My son is nearly 3 and we always figured that having another baby when he was this age would be a lot easier than having them closer together... Ohhhh were we wrong about that! I think I'd have more luck trying to bag the Tazmanian Devil in his tracks LOL! It's rather sweet how much he loves his little sister, but my gosh the enthusiasm he has for her hasn't waned since the first time he met her. You'd think that isn't a bad thing, but it has translated into him never allowing her to sleep, feed or even just have a little much deserved space from human contact for just a second. It's difficult as we can't punish him for loving her, but boundary setting this week hasn't been very successful at all, and as a result we have a very naughty little monkey swinging around our house causing chaos!

I'm hoping when my partner is back at work from his paternity leave that he'll settle down. He always seems to be more hyper when we're all at home together so a change of setting may do the trick, fingers crossed!

So the other side to the madness, I have to say has been really easy to settle back into. It helps knowing what we're doing this time round, so the sleepless nights, mass nappy changes, feeding etc seem a lot less harsh on our poor shrivelling brains lol! But to be fair, our little girl is REALLY calm and a happy little thing so that helps a lot. We're lucky that she's so good. She's taken to life in the mad house really well actually LOL! I'm enjoying it whilst I can, I know with her brother as a role model, it won't be long before the "changes" start rolling in *eek!* :)


Recent Photography Posted to moonangelnay.etsy.com...


NEW STUFF ... I have been using the odd spare few hours to work on some new prints... well 2 to be precise. One of them is up and the other I will list tomorrow. Hopefully there will be more to come eventually, but at the moment I'm focusing on some photography away from Etsy involving form so it'll be a bit of a balancing act when it comes to digital designs. I'm considering bringing form into my store which is primarily nature photography at the moment. We'll see about that one in time!

That's it for now. Have a great weekend all!


moonangelnay x

♥ Baby Love ♥

Sunday - Coffee and Cake
weekly musings, articles and mostly babble...

Sorry For being absent the past week... I do have good reason though...

My Little Girl is here!!! - Meet my little Aayla :)

WELL PHEW!... What a week! it's been a long week and LONG labor, but finally as of Friday my little baby girl arrived naturally, without pain relief on my part (BELIEVE me there was no time!) and both myself and the little squidge are happy and healthy :)

I actually went into labor last Saturday night... yep... allllllllll the way back on the 15th. The reason things didnt progress was mainly the fact that like me generally, my body want to show everyone just how awkward it could be by keeping my cervix posterior up until the last 2 hours LOL! But yes, as of Thursday I found that instead of relying on the dayshift midwives (who by that point were not really sure just what to say to myself and my partner), i took my own initiative of making the darned thing move to an anterior position, and voila managed to finally progress to active labor! Thank goodness for 3G and the wonderous birthing info across the web! It all happened 2 hours after my waters broke so i was glad to have a speedy end to it all... but wow what an experience! One I shall never forget thanks to the amazing night staff that supported me through my best moments and quite pathetic ones too lol :) Baby Aayla arrived into the world on the 21st, and we have been enjoying her cuteness since!

Besides not blogging, I also haven't checked into the Etsy forums nor my other networks including any updates for Handmade Spark the past week, although I hope to have everything back to normal this week. For now you can still catch my previous photography HS posts here:

* Finding Your Spark - Product Photography - Lighting
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Getting The Best Out Of Your Photography
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Making A Lightbox
* Finding Your Spark - Photo Composition
* Finding Your Spark - Got The Shakes?
* Finding your spark : Product Photography - Easy Post Production : Contrast Adjustment

Recent Photography Posted to moonangelnay.etsy.com...

That's it for now. Have a great weekend all!


moonangelnay x