New year - New me...

New year... 2016!

It is that time of year to reflect on the past and plan for the future...

I seem to have the same things I want to change every year:

1. Get fitter
2. Loose weight
3. Get a great job that I enjoy

Here I am still not that fit, weighting more and well I did quite my job....

So what to plan for this year - 

1. I have the course that I am working on - still plodding away at trying to get selfies and trying not to be in them.... that is quite a challenge. I do love photography so I am going to continue to push the barriers with what I can do.
2. Start new job - that will be a challenge. I am doing something very different for a job. I have studied for 10 years in Science and I am going to work in a Tourist Information Centre (why did I bother studying? I hear you ask  - I love a challenge).
3. Going to continue with my dancing - I am also going to see if I can get other classes as well - I would love to learn Hip Hop (I hear you laughing - Aren't you a bit old for Hip Hop - No is my answer - but my body might disagree)
4. I am also going to travel this year - it is my year of travelling. I will combine the travelling with my passion for photos.

This is going to be a great year. 

But first the normal Scottish tradition before Hogmanay - I must spend the day cleaning the house to see in the new year - I hate cleaning. So to make it more fun I will Dance and Clean  - Cleance.

Dancing While Cleaning the Bathroom

Follow-Up: I have managed to make it through Christmas without having any iced chocolates but I have eaten way to much chocolate... 'sad face' . I am missing my salsa dancing - so making plans to dance more. I bought more new knickers - this time going for silk French style ones... I love them - Oh la la they are quite sexy but I still look fat. 

Christmas has been

Christmas has been!

It is Boxing day and I have been out shopping... Only bought a few wee things nothing that would break the bank.

I was less than inspired with the sales this year. Not sure why but I felt it had lost its punch...

There was one shop that made me laugh. 

The shop is locally owned and they posted on Facebook -

"huge boxing day sale"

Then about an hour later posted

"Due to rain we are closing early"

This made me laugh, as who would close their doors on boxing day due to rain. 

Oh well their loss - at least they do not live in Scotland they would never be open.

After shopping we decided on movie night so we got some yummy nibbles and settled in for the night. (We did not cancel due to rain).

Relax  and Movie Time

Travelling Selfies

On Holiday - still working on selfies

Will I was on holiday I was still working on my course. It was easy to do with my phone close at hand but I was also able to take some with my DSLR.

To take a selfie with my DSLR is a lot more complicated than pressing a button on my phone. I did a number of selfies travelling around with my phone.

• Shadow on the path - this was an easy shot that I changed from colour to B&W using the app Fotor. I was able to do this while I was sitting under the tree waiting for a coffee.

Shadow on the Path

•  Apple of my eye - this was under the same tree and as you can see I was taking my selfie in the sunglasses of the my partner. This one I also edited through Fotor. Brightening the colour and also focusing on the right glass lens and blurred the rest of the picture, thus giving a direct point of focus on me.

Apple of my Eye

•  Mind-craft at the Opera House - this was a suggestion from one of the tutor on the course who suggested that I pixels out my face to prduce my faceless selfie. I decided to take the photo in front of the iconic building and pixel out the image of me and leave the building. I edited this picture with Fotor - to ensure my theme of the faceless selfie continued.

Mind-Craft at the Opera House

I am loving the Fotor app and I also have it on my computer. They are so easy to use. Although the reason I am doing this course is so that I do more editing with pictures from my DSRL and learn more about the editing tools with raw images. So the challenge continues.

Over the next few weeks - as it is Christmas - I am going to do the selfies I want on my camera and work on editing the raw image (wish me luck - I will need it).

Follow-up: Ice cream is still on going - but I have moved onto Iced Coffee (decaf I am hyper enough) with no sugar - yeah me this is a better option than the Iced Chocolate. 

I was Just That Girl (woman)

Airport Toilets:

I do not spend my life complaining.... But airport toilets.

1. Messy
2. Never enough female toilets
3. Always scraps of toilet paper on the floor.

So that brings me to what happened today at the airport while waiting on a flight to get home.

The queue was 10 women deep, with only 4 cubicles.
The cleaner was there but the toilets still looked like a pack of dogs had just gone through (no pun attended).

I eventual got to the toilet which was nice add it flushed as I stood up and scared me.

I walked out quite pleased I had made it out in reasonable time. Even with the queue.

Then I noticed something flapping at the side of my shoe, you can see were this is going. The terminal was packed and here I was dragging what looked like to me half a roll of toilet paper behind me....

I started to try and get my tail off without trying not to touch it with my hand. So twisting my feet and trying to use the other foot. I started dance in the middle of the airport. This was not inconspicuous at all...

I was so glad to board the plane and be on my way home. Awwwwwww flying through the air.

In flight entertainment

Follow-up: I have moved on to iced chocolates.... I had three while on holiday - well it was my holiday.... I have been having chocolate nearly every day, well it is Christmas. 

My Selfies

My Selfies so Far

I have been doing all my pics from my mobile phone so far to try and get a feel for what I want to do when I do the proper ones for the course. (Remember the course on photography and social media).

I have decided the main theme of My selfie for project one is going to be - The Faceless Selfie. I have chosen this for a number of reasons:

1. I hate it when I smile and I have loads of wrinkles - were did they all come from, it is like I just walk up one morning and all the frowning that I had done had suddenly stayed on my face...
2. My face has changed quite a bit in the last 6 years due to drugs... I am not a drug addict but I rely on drugs to keep me alive daily. These drugs are great at that but suck at the number of side affects including - them telling me that I am hungry constantly and also making me gain weight....
3. Being able to take pictures is a big deal for me - but that means that I am behind the camera and very very rarely in  front of it. This means it is taken me out of my comfort zone... I do not do that much.

So here are some examples of how I have tried to do "The Faceless Selfie" on my phone.

The Bridge at Sunset
This was a colour picture and I liked the fact that when I changed it to black and white and increased the shadows my face is obscured.

Feet with a View
I Love feet with a view - I take a lot of these because I can show were I am without being in them - sort of. 

Part Selfie
This picture I like as only part of my face is visible and I also made black and white. I like black and white because that is what I used to do a lot of when I developed my own pictures. I always feel that it gives it more of a drama.

I will be starting to set up to take the pictures with my DSLR and I am wanting to be able to do the same manipulations with them - either B&W or increasing shadows.

So the Faceless Selfie continues. It is really hard to take a selfie with an DSLR - I was thinking about it the other day - you can not just hold it out and snap - for starters mine is really heavy and I do not think I can hold it in one hand. Also depending on the lens you have no idea were you are focusing... let the fun begin. I guess I might end up with some pictures of up my noise or even with me not them at all....Not a bad thing. 

Follow-Up: I wanted to let you know I have finished my first semester of Salsa classes and I love it. You can never be unhappy dancing! Hot Chocolates - NONE.... (I have been even avoiding chocolates) - I think it is due to the chocolate a day leading up to Christmas. Oh and Christmas shopping.... I think I need to cover that next. 

Lazy Sunday

Having a Lazy Sunday Watching Movies

So here I am having a lazy Sunday after being up late last night chatting and having a laugh with a friend.

We talked a lot about the turning points in our life's, both of us lost our mums at the age of 12/13.
This was a hard time in my life but to tell the truth. When I was going through it I kind of denied that it was happening to me and I was a very happy teenager. I did not throw any tantrums and I also did not wear all black.

If you looked at me you would have thought I was a bouncy teenager and I guess I was.

Now I understand the impact that the event of my mum passing away had on my life. 

• I know there are lots of people out there that have gone through the same thing and I am sure there will be more still go through it. 

• Over 30 years on and I still miss her and although I can not picture her face without looking at a picture I know what she looks like. 

• This is the main reason I love to take pictures because the catch that moment in time and you memory can not change the image. Everything just stops and you are there in back in the second when the image was captured.

So I take pictures of everything, sometimes I am the annoying person at the party that does not seem to be getting involved. However, I am and I am capturing seconds of memories for the future.

Feet and Paws a second in time

Follow-Up: So nno more Hot chocolates and I have been trying to not eat chocolate (that is not going well with a chocolate advent calender - every day one wee delicious chocolate. 

Mind Map

I am doing a mind maps:

This was one of the hardest things that I have done. How do you describe yourself... Well the first one I did was full of all the negative things e.g. Fat bum, bad hair, lazy eye....etc.... you can imagine the rest.

So I stopped that and moved on, after I had regrouped with a hot chocolate to bring some positive vibes. (I have not figured out how to get the chart into the blog).

Imagine if you will this is my Mind Map for Self in a circle with ME in the middle.

•ME

•Born in Scotland

•Photography

•Since I was 15

•Love black and white - used to develop my own B&W

•Take camera most places and hide behind it

•Weddings

•I love wedding dresses

•Vintage

•They make me feel all fluffy :)

•old things

•I love writing letter and old letters

•Old suitcases

•old type writers

•old cameras

•Dance

•Have always loved to dance

•Never taken proper lesson until recently

•Doing Salsa

•When younger wanted to be a dancer

•Movies

•Love old movies - and actresses

•Used to spend my teenage days watching movies

•Death

•Became part of my life at a young age

•Dogs

•I have 2 dogs

•Kidney Transplant

•2009

So that is me - I also did a professional one, but it si so short if you scroll to fast you will miss it. I am not much of  a career person. I always thought I would figure out one day.... Still waiting!

So these did not really help much so I decided to create a meed board. I am a more visual person.

My mood board for my Selfies. 

Well that done - still have not taken any pictures of me... I do struggle being in front of the camera... But I have decided my theme will be "The Faceless Selfie". I think it has a nice ring to it....

Follow-Up: Hot chocolate 1 - but this was due to lack of inspiration. Have decided to throw way my big pants that caused so much pain. I have considered using them for other things as the elastic in them is amazing. Also it is the first week in December - so Tree is up and chocolate advent calender is being eaten.