Clowning around

Trifina and Beicinha at work...

Scarlet Macaws

I was in Caldas Novas (a small city in the state of Goiás, Brazil) last week and was woken up every morning by parrots squawking (and boy do they squawk). On my last day there I saw them out the window and ran out to see them close up and try to get some pictures. LOOK HOW COOL THEY ARE! And you can almost hear the squawking in the last one, can't you?

Playin'

I started reading the instruction manual when I got my camera, but admit that it has been collecting dust for the last week or two. I thought "ahh, I'll just play until I figure it out!"

So these are some of my 'test shots' if you will - was fairly pleased with some of them, but have somewhat sadly come to the conclusion that I will, in fact, have to read the manual. I need to figure out shutter speeds, focus points, and all those things which I have no clue about!

The palm tree in our garage... I know, it's a bit weird to have a palm tree in one's garage...

(this one's come out sideways - if anyone knows how to stop that happening when you post on here, please let me know! For now, just tilt your head.

The sunshine that greets me daily - one of the oh-so-good things about living here...

Trying out my macro setting on some weird cool flowers...

A piccie of the street where I live:

And I couldn't resist sticking a few of he who also lives on my street - Vox! (credit where credit is due, it was actually the hubby that took all of these excpet the first one)

(he was a bit bored of being my model by this time)

Tilt again.

And, by far one of my favourite EVER photos - I bet your dog doesn't wink at you!

;D

Do Not Litter...

Well, I've been out and about this morning (well, had a wander round the block), and took some pics of these sunflowers. Up until a couple of weeks ago this was a piece of land with nothing on it, just a few rocks and a lot of litter. And a sad, wonky little sign in the middle saying 'Do Not Litter'.

Then I went away for a week. When I got back and took the dog for a walk past that old piece of land, it was chockablock FULL of sunflowers!

Someone has taken it upon themselves to plant sunflower seeds there - someone obviously thought, as I myself did, 'what a sad, wasted, ugly bit of land', but then, unlike me, they actually did something about it.
And look how pretty it is now! Some of them are taller than me, and I love seeing people wandering by and going 'Wow! Look at that!' - it's totally unexpected.

Anyway, I got snapping in the hope that these pretty lil things might cheer you up like they cheered me up!

Setting off...

Here goes... new year, new projects, new blog to try and keep up with it all!
The idea behind it is to make a kind of online photo scrapbook. To give it a bit of background, I'm living in Brazil, currently working with translation and teaching English, but somewhere in the middle of it all decided that I want to learn how to photograph - veered off the path a bit there, but I read something today which kind of resonated:

"To stick to a plan you made in your past is to be held hostage by a person who isn't you any more."

In other words, things change, go with it!

So, I have my new camera, a Nikon D5000, a ridiculously thick instruction manual of which I have read through to page 52 (of 230, I can just about manage the Auto settings), and a head full of ideas. It's actually quite a good place to be!

So join me as I try to figure it all out... I would love to have some company on the road, so do comment, share, and ask questions.

I started 2011 with the "resolution" (don't like that word, it sounds so final and contrary to what I just said about going with the changes that come about) to do things I LIKE and am PASSIONATE about. Hence deciding to get this photography thing that's been buzzing around inside me for a while now, off the ground.

I would love to hear some of your resolutions (and suggestions for a better word than that) for 2011 - while you're thinking, I'm off to see if I can get a couple of half-decent photos to get started!