Spring Gardening

Maybe it’s the warm spring air and the sweet smell of flowers, or maybe it’s another chance to be creative about the house, but gardening has become my latest hobby.

Given my lack of knowledge about gardening, I chose a simple project to start with – planting garlic. I planted this in autumn and now the garlic is sprouting and seems to be growing well.  This can be harvested at the end of summer so it’s a long wait.

 

Native plants are my main interest and I am aiming to get my garden into a flowering native paradise for the birds to visit (How else would I get more bird photographs!).

The Blue Mountains Conservation Society Nursery situated in Lawson Industrial area is open on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Their friendly helpful volunteers have helped me choose the right plants for my little rockery (I asked for the hardy type of plants that would survive with a novice gardener). So far so good…

Finding old rustic containers and implements have also provided some opportunities for more flowers.  An old wheel barrow filled with Brachyscome is coming along nicely (… although when first planted, my friend did mistakenly think it was a pile of weeding!).

Most of all gardening gives me more opportunities to take creative photos!

The next step of course is to do some more serious planning and start using the Gardening Journal. If you are a serious gardener, you may also like a copy – follow the link.

At the moment the Blue Mountains is bursting with colour. Don’t forget the Hazelbrook and Woodford Open Gardens on Sept 14-15 and 21-22, while the week long Leura Gardens Festival starts on October 5th.

 DH

We will now be resuming normal service!

It's been a while between posts! We've both had a lot on so far this year . For my part, my daughter started school which ended a beautiful, long period of maternity leave and sees me back to the 'day job' several days a week. That makes much of my spare time all about time with her. We have had  a new horse to love

and birthday  parties to organise, complete with home made Furby costume

 I have also rekindled an old passion which has distracted me from my duties, my photography and just about everything else. That passion is....crochet!

 

 When I should have been chasing photographic opportunities, honing the craft and lusting after new lenses, I have, in fact, been dabbling in doilies and dog blankets.

 

 

In May we had an exhibition of our work in Blackheath as part of the 'Head On' photo festival. A very proud moment  - that we were too busy to blog about.

While I've been dabbling on the domestic front, Dil has been to the far north east of the nation and back. I'm sure she will have plenty of photos to share down the track. So here we are again. If I can force myself to exchange hook for camera for more than a minute I'll be back with more images in a couple of weeks! Til then, it's good to be back. Have a great weekend!

LB

Have your say about dog exclusion areas

The Blue Mountains City Council (BMCC) is currently seeking input from the community about excluding dogs from ovals.

Given our love of pets and pet photography we are of course speaking from a biased point of view. We think it is vital that dogs are exercised and socialised and therefore have access to safe areas where this can be done. However it is not just from self interest that we have this point of view. We see that the whole Blue Mountains community (whether you are a dog lover or not), benefit when dogs and their owners are allowed access to these areas for exercise and socialisation. Some of our reasons are listed below and we hope it will make you consider your response to BMCC.

1. Exercise and Socialisation address behaviour problems –  Two important things a dog needs are exercise and socialisation. If a dog is exercised many behaviour problems (such as barking) become easier to address. An exercised dog is content to be at home alone while you are at work. An exercised dog is a happy dog. Socialisation is another vital aspect of a dog's life– dogs need from an early age to come into contact with other dogs as well as other people. If a dog is properly socialised he will know how to behave amongst other dogs without causing fights. Furthermore and more importantly if a dog is used to all kinds of people and activity around him, it will be less likely that he will be aggressive towards humans.

2. Everyone benefits when dogs are socialised and exercised – It is not just dog owners who benefit from a well exercised and socialised dog. Neighbours and all who come into contact with a dog will see the benefits if dogs are exercised and socialised more.

3. Creating stronger communities – When not in use for sport, which is a large percentage of the time, ovals have the potential to be a great community area. It could be a place where many people use a shared resource together. It could be a way of uniting different areas of the community and could be a place where people from different walks of life co-exist happily. It could provide an area to exercise so that people have a healthier lifestyle. There could be a huge benefit to the Blue Mountains if ovals were shared by everyone in the community.

Furthermore:

4. Responsible dog owners are just that, responsible – they carry bags and pick up after their dog. They understand their dog's behaviour and they have them under control. It is a very small minority that don’t do the right thing by their dogs and by their community. Punishing everyone by restricting access to ovals just because a couple of people don’t pick up after their dog doesn’t solve anything.

5. What other alternatives do dog owners have? Yes we can walk in the streets but many don’t have footpaths, and often we have to walk on the road. This is dangerous and even more so if you are walking with your children or grandchildren as well. Alternatively ovals provide a safe area for dog walking and exercise. It is also a large enough area for dogs to meet each other and still be able to have space.

6. Don’t waste the space – ovals are a community resource and are there for the whole community, not just sporting groups. When sport is not on, ovals are where families picnic, kids play safely, dogs are walked and couples stroll hand in hand. I have seen all of this at ovals while walking my dog and everyone co- exists happily. The majority of the time ovals are lying empty not being used for sport - What a waste of space and land it would be if leisure activities such as dog walking were banned from the ovals.

If you are finding it hard to believe that sport, recreational activities and dog walking can exist all at one time on the one oval then I urge you to visit ovals in the Sydney area where dogs are welcome. To name just one, Santa Rosa Park in Ryde is a wonderful oval where the whole community gets together and enjoys the outdoors. I have been there when sport practise is going on down one end of the oval, dogs are running and playing off leash at the other end, and where families are playing, some people are cycling, others walking and jogging. Everyone exists is harmony and there is a great community feel.

So how can problems be addressed?:

1. Provide bins and bags at ovals – this is the most obvious and easiest way to address the dog poo problem. While most dog owners already carry bags and pick up after their dog, it will solve the problem for ones that have forgotten a bag or don’t want to carry a poo bag with them. Many other councils have provided these simple facilities for their residents for years, yet this is not so in the Blue Mountains.

2. Change the undertone of the Blue Mountains community – Sadly I feel this has to be said. It has been our experience that the Blue Mountains seems particularly unfriendly towards dogs. While many residents own and love dogs, there seems to be a section of the community that want to see dogs gone.  I have personally experienced snide comments being made when I was walking my dog and doing the right thing by picking up after him. The general undertone (evidenced by reading letters in the Gazette or watching more and more dog off leash areas being closed) is that dogs are disliked in the Blue Mountains. The fact that the council is even considering banning dogs from ovals is evidence enough.

These are just a some reasons why dogs should not be banned from ovals. There are many more points and suggestions being made on the BMCC survey website.

We urge you to complete the survey on the BMCC website before the closing date – 22 April 2013. You can access it by the following link:

http://bluemountainshaveyoursay.com.au/dog-free-zones-in-sports-fields

Textured photographic art

One of the joys of digital post-processing for me is I get to pretend I can paint by creating images worthy of a canvas! By applying layers of textures to a photo and with much experimentation and tweaking, the photographic image can be manipulated to have more of a "painterly look". It allows me to create mood, change colour tones, manipulate the background to put all the focus on the subject...and it's just plain fun! It's always an experiment as every photo and every texture and every way of blending the two creates a different result. It's a case of fiddling and fine tuning until I'm happy with the result.
Animals were the first thing I started texturing and are immortalised with great elegance by the process.

This image of my boy Oscar is one of my favourites. The textures give him a very soft appearance which complements his nature. The other effect was to subdue the bright colours of the sofa which allows all the attention to be on the beautiful subject.

This photograph was taken by Dilshara of her dog, Murphy. I textured it for her and it printed up beautifully onto canvas.

Another of Dilshara's photos that I textured

Beautiful Ruby is hard to photograph as her eyes are so often covered by hair - a tip for dog's with long hair is to make sure the hair is out of their eyes before you take the shot, othrerwise they have a tendency to look like a toilet brush!

Landscapes are wonderful to texture and I think it gives them a timeless quality.

 

People are much trickier and often the texture is more about creating a border or adding a change in colour tone to the image.

If you are interested in us creating a unique portrait of your pet that will last a lifetime and certainly be a talking point in your home, contact us at mindseyephoto@hotmail.com

LB



Beautiful Blue Mountains Portrait Shoot

Late last year we spent a lovely evening photographing this big and beautiful family at a splendid lookout in Wentworth Falls.

 

 

An aside on taking group portraits
On a photographic note for those taking their own large group shots, the received wisdom is to take one shot for every group member, plus one more. This is to take into account that there is no possible way everyone will be looking at the camera, not wincing/blinking/scowling/ moving if you only take one or two shots. My two tips in this regard would be:
1: Use the formula above.... and then take a few more for good measure
2: Don't take the shots as fast as your camera will allow i.e. not just in one hold of the button with your shooting mode set on "continuous". If you do rely on that quick burst of shots that might mean with some fast cameras that the whole lot of shots is taken in a second or two- leaving Aunty Mabel no time to recover from her sneeze or for that pesky toddler to get their finger out of their nose!!