I've discovered this good photo shot opportunity a while back while out walking Bonnie in Beacon Wood Country park, this beautiful Kent village peeking through a hole in the forest. At that time, earlier on this year, I didn't had the right camera to get the houses in the background zoomed in. I finally shot it today - notice the typical Kent Oast houses. I really like the composition, with the trees framing the village in the background, but not too keen on how the colours turned out. Can't manage to change them so far - the countryside looks 'washed out'. Wish I could get more into Photoshop, but it really is not as straighforward as I'd thought. I started reading the 'Photoshop for Dummies' book, but after only 3 pages I'm as confused as anything - its peppered with words I don't understand. Hope I can get into it....

Not an easy read...and not something I would normally pick up. It came as a 'freebie' with some other books from the book club, and I generally try not to restrict my reading, so I would give almost everything a go.
John Diamond, the author of this book and a profilic journalist and broadcaster in the UK, is terminally ill with cancer, and actually dies before he was able to finish his book on 'Complimentary medicince' of which he writes critically about - it is fair to say he is not a believer in complimentary medicine. His brother-in-law writes the foreword, and also includes as the 'second part' of the unfinshed book, John's columns from several UK newspapers (The Times, The Jewish Cronicle etc). He tells the 'story' of his cancer - how he gets first diagnosed, thinking it is probably nothing etc, to the treatments and eventually having to face death, quite literally. Of course, it is sad to read, but also gives out vibes of a very positive person.

I 'm off work this week (lots of flexi time). I was hoping for good weather, and continue to work in the garden. This is b****y hard work – I am preparing the vegetable beds and tried to dig up the soil. After about 20 cam, there is just rubble in the ground. Apparently, this is what’s happening commonly in newly build houses, were the builders, when they leave, just dump the rubble in the garden and top it with a whimsy layer of top soil. Yep, that’s exactly how my soil is! Great. I dug about 30 cm deep or so, but can’t do no more, it is just too hard going through the rubble. I’ve done about 60% of the border in the last 4 weeks, planted so far runner beans, tomatoes, broccoli,coriander, rocket.

It is quite windy today, and not very warm, sitting in the garden and reading is not an option (that’s what I did yesterday, my ideal holiday occupation – bliss!). I took the camera out with me when I walked Bonnie. I still feel a little uncomfortable, walking with a big camera and enormous lens around my neck. I don’t feel very safe to be honest. Maybe its because I’m not used to it, but on the other hand I don’t want to miss out on photo opportunities. Today it was too windy to attempt pictures of flowers, they were blowing all over the place. So I did some more of those ducks/ducklings – all good practice. Downloading is easy peasy. I hadn’t realized what big difference the photo editing software makes to the quality of the pictures. I only did so far level tools. Takes up all my time, but is fun. And than there is a big book to read, all about Photoshop… Only 695 pages. Yes, I do enjoy it.

Oh, and I set up that Flickr account www.flickr.com/thepegster2009. Not a lot in there yet - another thing I gotta do!

Here is an example of my (still veeeery amateur) work in the photo editing programm. I did not use Photoshop for this, but the simple software which was supplied by Canon with the Camera. Didn't dare to look at Photoshop yet hee hee - that big 695 pages long book is waiting for me.

Original
edited with level / curve tools

Big news - well, for me anyway. I have finally bought my first D-SLR camera. Have been toying with this for the last few months, as I enjoy walking and wildlife/wildflowers more and more and really want to get more serious about photography. So... I have saved up on a deposit and got a Canon Eos 450D. There is sooo much to learn, I've been submerged in the 'Dummy' guide for the past few days and taking my first shots. I love it.

Problem is that this is going to be an expensive hobby. Already I realised that I may have to purchase more lenses with the stuff I want to take pictures off. I got 2 lenses with the camera (as I kit), and I want to get completely comfortable with everything in the first place. I'm still on the 'Automatic' setting for the camera, but hopefully will explore more in the next few weeks and can start experimenting with the manual settings.

Completely neglected cross stitch as a hobby, but will definitely return to it sooner or later - just enjoy taking pictures so much at the mo (and playing with all the new equipment). Here are some of the first pictures I took - completely unedited(haven't yet got the hang of Photoshop - another Dummy-guide I gotta get through LOL - Amazon is making tons of profit with me at the mo.