Wish I had done this years ago!

Yep, I sure do. See, I started my photography course this week. The teacher is somewhat weird. An ex-Pom, which probably explains a lot. He tries to be funny, and while he does elicit a laugh, it is usually at someone's expense (mine to begin with). But once you get over that, the guy seems to know his stuff.

This week's lesson was to do with shutter speed and aperture. What the? Well, shutter speed obviously is how long the shutter stays open for, and aperture is Depth Of Field. How far away from an object do you want the blurry stuff? If I were taking a photo of you, would I like the background and foreground blurry? Or the whole thing crystal clear?

If I am taking a movement shot, I set the shutter speed and then adjust the aperture to suit (there is a cute little graph thing in the view finder on the camera that tells you when it's right). Then, if you are taking still photos, you adjust the aperture first and the shutter speed next.

I am not sure what next week's lesson is, I don't remember, but our homework this week was to take some practice shots. So I had fun playing...

These two photos are two of the club members trying "worm" skipping. Terribly, I might add.

One has the shutter speed set fast, the other slow.

These two sets of shots are of the sunset over Tanunda.



I set the aperture first on these, and as you can see they didn't really work because the shutter speed was too slow.




When I played with that, I got a better pic.

Then, of course, there are these....


Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself.

This week was work. And it was a bad week for Dobby. On Monday she had a dentist appointment so her dad had to pick her up. Wednesday she was feeling sick and didn't want to take the bus home so had to wait at school until I could finish work and come get her (she finished early that day too to compound the issue). Thursday was school photo day and she left her diary at home with her photo money in it. Sigh. That girl really needs to get organised!

So I had to leave work, race home, grab the book and take it back before she had her photo taken. Mission accomplished anyway.

Then on Friday we were taking the van away for it's last hurrah with us. Monday someone came to look at it, but we didn't hear back so I guess it wasn't what they wanted.

Dobby was playing netball on Friday evening so Fluffy was to take the van up after work and we would join him Saturday morning.

Only, on Friday night, Dobby vomited. I wondered if it wasn't stress (after last week's netball fiasco, then taunts on the bus on the way home from the same girl/s). She thought perhaps it was.

So I called the coach and pulled her out of netball. Not having that rubbish. I think though that if the coach speaks to the girls involved that they may retaliate against Dobby at school. But hopefully she can stand up for herself, or take it further with the school, which they encourage. Guess we'll see.

So, at the last minute I figured I had better get going and go with Fluffy. I didn't have a thing ready for myself. Just got Dobby to throw a couple of changes of clothes into a bag and lets go.

When we got there, it was cold and overcast. And guess what? No blankets or winter gear in the van. No jackets at all but luckily I did find one cardi and we just used the bedspread for a blanket. Not ideal, it kept falling off. I didn't even have pyjamas, so just wore tomorrow's clothes to bed each night. Everyone else seems to do that anyway... Poor dog had to sleep on the cold floor cause we didn't even have a blanket in for him. I mean, it's been 37 degrees people!

Saturday it was cold, cloudy and horrible. But that didn't stop the kids from diving into the pool. After that the whole club, probably except the oldies, Fluffy and myself, walked into town to the lolly shop. It gave us an hour or so of peace. Fluffy slept. He has not been doing a lot of that lately.

Then, after lunch, the kids all went back to the pool and Fluffy slept again. He obviously needed it. I just wandered around, read the paper, chatted here and there.

At Happy Hour, the skipping ropes came out and everyone, grown ups included (well most of them, but not a few of us), gave it a try. Even the club president (who is 70 and recently had heart surgery) had a go. I got some neat shots of that too.

Then dinner, then Club Game. The first night everyone gathered outside our neighbour's van till midnight. Last night I don't know where they were. I think they stayed outside the sound shell where we were having games, but apparently they stayed up until about 4am!

Late check out today. 11 am for us and we were first to go. Home just after 12, and all the washing etc to do. But plenty of lazy time. Fluffy has started taking all the gear out of the van. We parked it in the front yard so we can wash the awning etc. I just have to take the sheets off the bed, and the food from the cupboards. Then it's done. I will miss the old girl, but I can't wait to get my hands on the new one! Yay!

I'll keep you posted with the photography pics, too, if you aren't too bored!