Day 58 - Sisters

February 27th....the day the earth shook! I was woken up at 12:57 this morning by the penthouse rocking left and right, it was the scariest feeling and left me clinging to the bed for dear life! I was trying to work out if I had enough time to get out of the apartment and down the stairs before the whole building collapsed. Apparently it only lasted about 10 seconds but it felt like so much longer and the doors definitely rattled for longer than 10 seconds! My first thought was.."where's my man when I need him?!" and my second thought was..."I need to make sure all my photography equipment is insured!" I managed to get back to sleep but didn't sleep too well as I was thinking about whether another shock would come.

When I did get up this morning I was listening to different people's stories on the radio, some thought there'd been a bomb, one woman thought ghosts were trying to pull her out of her bed! One guy thought his girlfriend was trying to scare him by moving the bed!! I also heard a story of a guy who was stacking shelves in a supermarket and fell off the ladder into a pile of Easter Eggs when the earthquake happened! Everything is OK and as far as I'm aware nothing is wrong with the apartments...I don't want to be going though that again!

I had my BNI meeting this morning and then went off to Sheffield Winter Gardens to photograph Sophie and her sister for their mother's day present. I was really impressed with how the photos came out and the fact you wouldn't know that they'd been taken in the winter gardens..in fact you would think they were in a studio! Work is coming in slowly so it was great to be getting out and taking photos.

I then met Lucy for a lunch which was my birthday present from her so I felt very spoilt being taken out for lunch. We were ladies who lunched today and we loved it!!

Day 57 - What Katy Did....

I bought a remote control for my camera at Focus yesterday so had a play with it when I got in this afternoon! I am usually the first to run away from being in front of the lens but decided to play with a few shots I'd been thinking about for a while. All it cost me was 5p for the lolly! I took a couple of shots so you can see the other ones at www.flickr.com/photos/katysnaps
I was quite pleased with these and might use one of them on my website.

Day 56 - Focus

I travelled down to Birmingham today for the "Focus on Imaging" show at the NEC. I had lots of things that I wanted to check out and got there for when it opened at 10am. I was booked into 3 seminars on "setting up your own photography business", "photographing children" and "marketing". The seminars were hourly chunks from 11-12, 1-2 and 3-4, after each one I was out and rushing round different stalls checking out the HUGE variety of wedding albums, cameras, lighting equipment. There was so much to take in and I think I'll be spending the week digesting all the information! I bumped into a couple of my flickr contacts there (the Tait clan and Ms Moll) but missed a few others which was a shame but I think we were all busy checking out everything on show.
This photo is taken at the Canon stall where they were showcasing all their cameras and lenses. This area was full of men scrambling to look through all the lenses but I managed to get this shot of one of the lone women who managed to have a go.

Day 55 - The Stare!

Marion and Michael came prepared with their walking boots so we decided to get up early and head out for a walk in the gorgeous peaks. We booked a table at the Ladybower Inn for a pub lunch and then went and parked our car by Derwant Dam. We spent a couple of hours going for a walk, it was grey but stunning. I love living in Sheffield with the peaks on my doorstep. I took a number of shots of the scenery and landscape which are a lot better than this shot but I loved this photo of the cow/bull! I've wanted to get a shot of a cow's nose and eyes for a long time so when I saw these cows I thought my luck was in and took this shot. I saw it was badly out of focus so was going to take another shot when Marion pointed out that the cow was getting a little fractious and was actually a bull so I should walk away before anything happened!! There was a wire fence separating us but I don't think that would have stopped him if I annoyed him! I'll get my shot another time, this will remind me I need to do it!

Day 54 - Mojitos

Marion and Michael came up to Sheffield for the weekend and we'd booked tickets to go and see David Spikey (from Phoneix Nights). It was a brilliant evening and very funny, a great last minute booking from Michael. The show finished quite early so we went for a few drinks in Leopold Square. Marion and I enjoyed a few mojitos which are a strong favourite and brought back a few memories from her hen weekend!

We then came home for me to watch the rugby which I'd recorded....I can't believe England were playing at 8pm on a Saturday!! Not good but thank goodness for dvd recorders! I went to bed smiling, a great evening and we won the rugby...come on boys!!!

Day 53 - For Fiona

It's my sister's birthday today so I thought I'd take a photo for her today. I was given this birthday cake candle for my birthday last week so I thought it'd be perfect for Fiona's photo today. It's the perfect diabetic birthday cake so I could be using it again in April for my cousin Ben's birthday and again in November for mum and dad's birthdays!

I had a bit of trouble taking this photo and think it's about time I bought a remote for my camera!

Happy Birthday Fiona. x

Day 52 - Rose

I was bought some flowers for my birthday and I'd been meaning to photograph them before they died so I took the opportunity this afternoon. I took quite a few but wasn't happy with them so decided to put my macro lens onto my camera and play with that. This was a stroke of luck as I was holding the camera away from me and hoping for the best....all about serendipity! I love this shot, the simplicity and beauty of the rose.