Late afternoon, midwinter

I'm having a bit of a down-in-the-dumps kind of day. I came home early this afternoon to an empty house as the Mister has gone to see his family for a few days. I used to love having the house to myself, but these days not so much. I thought about doing some sewing to cheer myself up, but then I looked outside the window at the late afternoon sun and picked up my camera instead.



I really, really love this photography thing. I still have a lot to learn about it, and I do love the low f-stop setting a little too much, but I'm enjoying learning more each time I take my camera out of it's bag.



Today I fiddled with the manual focus. I love the effects I can get when mixed with different light sources - in this case a late afternoon winter sun.



Photographing random things in my backyard seems to cheer me up. When I think about it, it's the first thing I did each time I came home from hospital stays over the last few months, even though I could barely move. These two posts reflect that. And I seem to have a bit of a things for death and dessication. I promise I won't read too much into that, just so long as you don't.

Tonight I will sit on the couch and crochet my lovely purple shawl, and watch something happy on TV. I might have some ice cream. And tomorrow I will take some more photos.

Enlightened

When Canberra has a birthday, she celebrates over a few weeks and with a festival or three thrown in. At the moment, we are being entertained up by the Enlighten Festival, which runs over 10 days and finishes this weekend. There are a variety of music concerts and events, but the main attraction for me are the fact that some of my favourite buildings have been painted in lightand i can see them from free.

Like this.



This is the National Library of Australia, a stunning building at the best of times, always looking so imposing by the lake. But tonight it was bathed in some very beautiful images.





I could have stayed here and watched all night, but I moved on to the National Gallery of Australia. Space to set up my tripod was at a premium as a photography class turned up at the same time as I did. That was kind of fun, and made me extra excited about the photography class I'm starting in a few weeks. If I get the time, I'd like to go back and take some of the shots at the gallery on a different angle.









Finally, the lights on Old Parliament House, or the Museum of Australian Democracy as it is better known these days.



These photos took a long time to get right. When I first set up my tripod, I was too far away, even for my zoom lens and tripod and the shots were over exposed and blurry. Eventually I walked right up to the pond, across from the Tent Embassy, and set up there. Much better.







There were a few of us photographers standing by the pond, all taking slow shutter speed photos. It was quite peaceful, just the sound of our timers beeping and the occasional utterance of "cool" and "nice shot". I like photographers.







A lady turned up as part of a group, and started using her camera with a flash. Which was kinda silly when we were standing 100 metres from the building, but also annoying because we were all taking slow shutter shots about 8 to 10 seconds long, and we were getting un-stunning flashy bits in our shots. Luckily she decided to turn her flash off before any of us could turn into Wanker Photographers and growl at her.



But oh - isn't the old lady beautiful?

Beautiful bouquet

And they smell exquisite.