When I bought my Nikon D90 last year, I also invested in two good lenses. My standard go with me everywhere lens is an 18-200mm lens and I use this lens 90% of the time. I also bought  an 105mm macro lens which I use in fits and bursts.

I am not one of those technical minded photographers that can tell you what settings I use. I didn’t do much more than glance at the instruction booklet that came with the camera before I was off outside taking crappy photos and wondering if a DSLR really had been the best choice of camera for me. Once I saw the clarity of image that the D90 produced I was hooked and I kept on taking zillions of crappy photos mixed in with the occasional gem.

When I am outside taking photos I get distracted by the play of light and shade, shadows beguile me and textures and surfaces of everyday things send me off into ceramic daydreams.

I am a Ceramist not a photographer. I really honestly do not have a clue what I am doing and I don’t pretend otherwise. I just photograph the things I like and when I can’t get the shot I want, rather than go to my handy dandy copy of “Nikon d90 For Dummies” I ring my daughter Veronica.

The other day I was explaining to Von that my insect photos were always blurry in the wrong spots. Veronica very patiently explained about depth of field for the zillionth time but this time my lovelies it actually sunk in.

So for the past few days I have been having heaps of fun with my macro lens. Yay!

We have been doing this for fifty weeks. Wow! That amazes me. Thankyou.

This week I am ignoring my own rules and posting photos that I  took yesterday. You can either follow the rules, or not. I don’t mind at all. I just simply enjoy the fact that each Sunday we are here together sharing photos.

The Blurb

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

The Photos

The Blurb

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy.

The Photos

I adore ladybirds, I remember being fascinated by these little insects as a small child and the fascination has not waned. I have hundreds of ladybird photos saved in various folders in my computer and I still go out to the honeysuckle and snap away for ages.

These photos all have something about them that appeal to me. They are not technically correct photos, my images never are, but I think these photos all have soul.

This week I am linking up with Shae from Yay for Home for her “Things I Know” weekly meme.

Which is so simple it is beautiful, all I need to do is share the things I know and link back to Shae and check out the other bloggers that are joining in.

I know that I have been meaning to join in with this meme for months now but I keep on forgetting that it is on a Friday. Time just slips through my fingers as the days race by merging into one another, and I always think I will join in next week. Next week is finally here and I dreamed about writing this post last night.

I know that the internet is full of  lovely people that come out of the ether at the perfect time and give me heart. Tim is one of these people, he sent me an email in response to my, “Cardboard has no soul” post. Tim’s simple words and beautiful photo of his cardboard sculpture cheered me up no end, after a particularly cutting comment had floored me. Tim’s email put a lid on the looming pit of depression that had been in front of me, threatening to swallow me up and I am seriously pleased that Tim spent those few minutes writing to me.

you must cram the soul back in2 the cardboard….from the lost souls of the trees,.., like a forgotten secret hidden in a shoebox deep under your bed………..

I know that an angry post blasting a bullying troll, full of swear words and written in haste will get more comments and page views than the much more important post written about dolphins being slaughtered but I don’t really know why.

I know that since my mum died I have struggled with depression but I don’t like to talk about it for fear that if Iacknowledge it, the depression will win and suck me into a pit of doom.

I know that small things make me incredibly happy and the sight of two pardalotes digging a nest into the bank, close to my front door made my chest swell with delight and I skipped around the house having little *squee* moments.

I know that depending on my mood I call myself a potter, ceramic artist or ceramist but it all means the same thing. I turn mud into art and get exceedingly messy while I am doing just that.

Thanks Shae for this opportunity to share some of the things I know

It is the smallest moments in my life that give me the greatest  joy.

Splitting wood is meditative work, the physical act of chopping the wood into bits is satisfying and time up at the woodpile is always time well spent.

There is always something to distract me once I am outside  and time slows down and becomes fluid, as the birds hop about the woodpile looking for their breakfast.

Dusky Robins and Grey Shrike Thrushes have learned that we mean food and it only takes three or four loud thwocks of the axe biting into the wood, to alert the birds to the fact that an easy meal is up for grabs.

Within minutes I have an audience, perched on the fence and on the handles of the wheelbarrow, all waiting for the insects I will disturb.

The Dusky Robins are the bravest and one little bird has become so fearless that yesterday morning I had to gently shoo her off the log I was trying to split.

I have filmed the Robins and once time permits I will pop up a short little video.

It seems that Sunday arrives slightly faster each week, as if the year has reached its middle and has decided to zip on down the slope to Christmas.

I was exporting my photos to my external hard drive when I found these two photos of a Currawong. This bird had fallen out of its nest and my friend raised it. His children called it Chucky because Currawongs regurgitate a hard pellet of food waste that is indigestable. These pellets are always really interesting to poke apart with a stick when I find them because they are full of beetles wings and other small interesting bits and pieces.

These photos were taken with my panasonic lumix point and shoot in early 2010.

The Blurb.

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that  otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think  that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I  have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy.

Here are my photos for this week.

The Photos.

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that  otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think  that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I  have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy.

The common theme this week is aphids. It was a bad year for aphids this year and the little suckers were everywhere. Luckily for me it also meant there were heaps of ladybirds and feathery birds feeding on them. These photos were all taken last summer.

One of the hardest things for me to accept at the recent Aussie blogger’s conference, was having to drink out of a plastic water bottle all weekend. I forgot to pack my stainless steel water bottle and I felt uncomfortable using the plastic, even though I re-used the same plastic bottle and brought it home with me, it still grated.

My lovely Scientist friend Dr Jenn Lavers, came to visit me in the Off Centre Gallery on Saturday and she gave me a bag of plastic that had been recovered from the stomachs of dead shearwater chicks. I kept the bag on the desk all day and had lots of interesting conversations about plastic pollution with a variety of people. Some people even went so far as to walk out of the gallery and hunt up their friends and partners and bring them back into the shop.

We all commented on the irony of the plastic pollution being displayed in a plastic snap lock bag. This plastic that you can see in the photo below came out of the stomachs of three of our Australian Flesh Footed Shearwaters on Lord Howe Island.

That is a  lot of fucking plastic.

As a Scientist, Jenn either removes the plastic from the dead birds, or she forces the chicks to vomit up the plastic.

This plastic came from dead birds.

The plastic industry would like this Plastic Pollution to be called marine debris as that sounds nicer.

I want you all to remember that when the words marine debris are used, it really is Plastic Pollution and we can’t just gloss over this tragedy that is happening right under our own noses.

The level of micro plastic in the worlds oceans out numbers plankton by a staggering 6-1

Six to fucking one.

Because plastic is a resin it attracts all the toxins in our oceans to itself and becomes a deadly poison pill, chocker block full of DDT and every other chemical nasty that you can possibly imagine. This deadly poison pill is being ingested at the foundation level of the food chain and ultimately is poisoning all the creatures that live in the ocean.

I could dig up miles and miles of data for you and pepper it all through this post but that would take the rest of the day.

These couple of links are pretty interesting and will send you off on any number of directions.

Pete at Midway

Midway Journey

The Plastic pollution is a global problem and we will never remove all this pollution from our oceans but we can certainly stop more going in.

Chris Jordan has done a wonderful job of raising awareness of the enormity of the plastic pollution in the pacific gyre and the plight of the albatross that breed on the Midway Atolls.

I want to concentrate on the plastic pollution that is a bit closer to home.

If you drive along the highway and notice the plastic on the side of the road and then you think that there is a pretty good chance of that plastic going into the ocean there is a real risk of feeling overwhelmed.

So just remember that from little things big things grow and each of us has enormous influence within our own circle of family and friends, colleagues, school associates, etc etc.

I have started to do what I can do within my sphere of influence by writing out my thoughts on this blog and by making some more “dead bird bowls”

I initially made the dead albatross bowls in response to Chris Jordan’s photos of the dead albatross chicks on Midway atoll. I then made the oiled bird bowl in response to the  oil catastrophe in the gulf of Mexico.

I am now making some more bird bowls in response to the deadly bag of plastic I have at home.

Here are some photos to show you where I am at, the quality of the photos is a bit dodgy because I get so immersed in the making of the work that the photos are always an after thought. Sorry about that.

And once again just for luck, the plastic itself.

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that  otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think  that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I  have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy.

Wow! This is the tenth Sunday Selections post, the time has gone really quickly.

I am really enjoying this meme, though I must admit that sometimes I get stuck in my photo archives daydreaming away for ages.

So without further ado, here are my photos this week.

Anyone can join in with this Photo Meme, “Sunday Selections” but I do ask that you only add your link if you are joining in with Sunday Selections, as links that are off topic or spam will be removed. Also be careful when you are adding your URL as the Mr Linky will remember your old URL and we will click onto an old post.

Here is the weekly blurb.

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that  otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think  that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I  have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selection” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy.