Photography this week

The Hamilton New Zealand Temple

Sketchbook this week

The sketchbook challenge theme for this month is 

Garden doodles.  

Just perfect for me......

I love doodling and adding flowers, trees and leaves to the doodle is just wonderful.

It is so therapeutic to draw in black pen on white paper and just randomly add pattern and line.

Gardens are such a wonderful inspiration for patterning.

Pinterest......the best thing since sliced bread

I love 

It the best thing since sliced bread

I've always been a collector of ideas.  Bits of paper and magazine clippings and photocopies line my filing cabinet with thousands of wonderful ideas on them.  Pinterest is just like my filing cabinet with the plus side of not needing any space to store these ideas in my home.  It is a story board,  magazine clipping and idea book in one. The ideas are instantly retrievable and ready for me to try.  I love the whole ideas and concept of pinterest.

Pinterest has made collecting ideas for renovating my home a breeze.  I have so many ideas that I've had to restrict my collection.  It has made it so much easier than pouring though magazines and libraries to get my ideas together.   

I love to collect ideas for inspiration for art work and photography.  It is a great way to learn from the masters and to add to my knowledge I already have.  If I have an idea for a piece of work I just start a board and away I go collecting ideas from the internet and other pinners.

My only challenge........is to restrict myself to 10 mins per day and to have the time to try everything I like the sound of.  

If you want to try it too go to http://pinterest.com/ 

My page is

http://pinterest.com/cathieparkinson/ 

Come join the fun

Photography this week

Sunsets

The sunsets over the past few weeks have been stunning.  I love the changes in the sky and how different they can be each day or each moment.

Taking photos of sunsets is really easy.  The key is using a tripod or other stable surface i.e. a handy fence or picnic table.  Try different automatic settings on your camera.  Each will give you a different record of the sunset.   Using a manual setting with different shutter settings will produce different results too.  Have a play around until you find some shots you like.  Record all your settings so next time you will be able to capture a photo you want pretty quickly and easily. And remember always use a stable surface for your camera.

Sketchbook this week

Aim:  Water colour first and then do more detail in ink.

Aim:  Do it quickly without worrying about making it perfect

Result:  A quick sketch of a man done very quickly

Opinion:  Satisfying to produce without too much thought of perfection.

Finding inspration

Today I went to a book store and found an amazing book for sale.  The book is a collection of photographs of The Antarctic huts of Scott and Shackleton.  The photography is amazing and captures the remains of the huts beautifully.  It wasn't long before the book became mine :)

The book is Photographed by Jane Ussher and the essays are written by Nigel Watson.

Not only are the huts depicted so well but it also has some fantastic photos of the Antarctic landscape.   I can see inspiration flowing out of its pages not only from the photographs but also the descriptive language found in the essays and in the journal entries of these famous explorers. 

I am itching to explore some ideas from its pages.

The kindness chronicles: Do something kind today

Do something kind today

If everyone got up every morning with the intention of doing something kind, our world would be a much nicer place to live in.  It doesn't have to be something huge just a purposeful intention to be nice.  There are so many reasons to be kind

• We feel better
• We are happier
• We feel energised
• We have more energy to keep giving
• We make someone's day so much better
• We teach our rising generation how to act by example
• We help someone see their own potential
• We value life and spirits
• We could gain a new friend

So how can we be kind each day?

• Smile, smile, smile
• Love unconditionally
• See potential in people
• Pick up something that someone has dropped
• Tell someone they look nice
• Give time to listen
• Do someone else's job at home
• Put aside your plans for the day for a child's learning and exploring
• Serve someone
• Help someone rake there leaves
• Help someone empty there groceries onto the conveyor belt
• Think kind thoughts
• Give people the benefit of the doubt
• Think the best of people
• Give someone a hug

Love Catherine xxxxx