lack of posting ...

So this is to say sorry for the lack of posts that have been going on recently ... it would seem i am currently unable to upload any photos onto my blog from my laptop which is a little frustrating to say the least. I can do it from my husband's computer though it just involves moving between the two. Seriously i have no clue why this is. 

So since i will be on leave from Saturday I've decided to take a few more weeks off & keep my fingers crossed that this blogger issue will sort itself out. & in the process i am putting together a whole bunch of posts so you will be overwhelmed when i return. Plus i plan on taking a whole lot of pretty pictures on vacation ... yay for pictures. 

So have a wonderful few weeks & i will be back soon! xx

leave part nine: chester zoo

We went to the zoo ... i loooooove the zoo! Chester Zoo is the zoo i have been visiting since i was knee high to a grass hopper & it's a wonderful zoo. If you ever get the chance to visit i highly recommend it, as they take wonderful care of their animals not to mention taking part in conservation projects nationally & internationally. So less talk & more pictures today ... enjoy! 

ok so i admit i went a little nuts in the butterfly house but it was macro heaven! 

proof that men are the same everywhere! 

& last but certainly not least ... my favourite ... the Ring Tailed Lemur. Don't ask me where this started but ever since i was a child i have loved them. Every time we went to the zoo we would have lunch on the benches by "Lemur Island" & so you know i could have spent hours watching these wonderful creatures. The first time we walked past they were hiding but after lunch they came out to play, i just wish i'd had a longer lens! 

leave part eight: Beeston Castle

It's been many many years since i visited Beeston castle, as a child i remember us taking walks up there when ever we up visiting my Grandparents. Well now my parents live up in Cheshire so on leaving Edinburgh we heading down to Chester & it gave me the opportunity to return there. Beeston castle was built in the 1220s & is a formal royal castle (i think it's the lack of roof, oh & walls that mean it's not in use today). & well over the years, through various wars & what not it fell into disrepair. It sits atop a hillside with views on a good day across the Pennines in the east to the Welsh mountains in the west. Unfortunately the day we were there was cloudy but i will return on a prettier day. So instead of views you will have to put up with a whole bunch of flowers & Kevin! 

On leaving the castle we headed to the Shady Oak down by the river for a drink & a packet of Walkers Salt N Vinegar crisps! 

Leave part seven: Stirling

We headed to Stirling for the day, a change & somewhere the hubby has never been but am just going so post the photos & let you imagine how our day went (with the one little detail you see below). Hope you're all having a wonderful week ... i am of course counting down the days until vacation! 

A minute or so after taking this photo (the grave stone above), the clutz that i am fell over my own feet & skinned my knee, ripping my favourite jeans in the process. For anyone out there who ever wondered it hurts more now than it did when i was 5! 

leave part six: Edinburgh

So it's been a few days since i posted some photographs from leave ... what with life you know getting in the way of editing & a few other blog posts on such topics as people i love, cupcakes, elle moss, miss match & photo shop actions to keep you interested, not to mention my day job & various photo shoots i've been a little busy. But the break is over & it's time to share more vacation photos & stories with you.

I left you with my first night in Edinburgh & our new hats! Well here i'll start with a photo of the bar of our hotel ... no real reason just that it was all kinds of pretty (& we all know how much i like pretty). We stayed at the Apex Waterloo Place in case you were wondering.

So we spent our day in Edinburgh doing a whole lot of walking ... i really got to know the Royal Mile (all 1.1 miles of it).

& our day started out at the castle. I could spend a whole lot of time talking about the castle being as it has a history going back to the 9th century BC (that's a really really long time in case you were wondering). The short version involves it being in blown up & rebuilt alot!

It was kinda call seeing the piper though!

& here is one of the many many ice creams i ate on vacation. Now for some random facts ... stick a Cadbury's flake in an ice cream & it becomes a '99. What's a '99 i hear you ask ... well one rumor links it to an ice cream shop at 99 High Street, Portobello, Scotland & another to the final wave of Italian conscripts known as the "i Ragazzi del 99" (the boys of 99) who born in 1899 were held with great honor in Italy. I just remember the sound of the ice cream van growing up!

After the castle we headed to the Camera Obscura which was all kinds of fun. Pin hole photos, panoramics, mirrors, lights, illusions & the rest. I would honestly recommend it to everyone as a little "light relief" from Edinburgh's history not to mention a pretty awesome view from the top. It's right by the castle enterence in case you wondered!

Some random Edinburgh ...

& a sea gull sunning himself (we had pretty night weather) ...

Aaaaaaaah yes would trip to Scotland would be complete without a little whiskey drinking!

& here's the statue for Greyfriars Bobby. Now i know you all want to know why this little guy gets a statue (& yeah there's some dude ruining a perfectly good picture) ... Greyfriars Bobby was a Skye Terrier who in the 19th century reportedly spent 14 years guarding his owners grave. Now i think that's one pretty awesome doggie, & as a result there have been books written about him & even a movie. So naturally we had to check his monument out!

Some pretty Edinburgh ...

The view of the city as i wandered along Princess Street (the other side of the river to the old town & if you were to look right you'd see shops). I know these buildings have names but off the top of my head i can't remember (let me know if you know).

& these were taken in Princess Street gardens which was so very pretty. They were full of people, & in a city like Edinburgh i can imagine spending my summers lying in the grass, watching the world go by ... & of course eating ice cream.

oh i had to snap this in Urban Outfitters ... unfortunately the cameras weren't for sale (i did treat myself to this lil' fella though ...).

So here we are with a final couple of shots of Edinburgh ... i loved the city, & i'm a country girl. I think it's because the moment you end the old town you are greeted by a wonderful history, with not a sky scraper in sight. Yes it's full of tourists but the charm makes up for that, the cobbled streets, the wonderful buildings & a fabulous history. Check out the Real Mary King's Close if you have the chance, a totally different kind of history.

photoshop actions ...

I was introduced to the wonderful world of photoshop actions last year by my friend Jen Kiaba. It was love at first sight. Simple put they are a way of changing the tones & feel of a photo through a series of actions in photoshop, done all at one time. & they are so much fun. I love messing around with the free ones on the web (check out websites such as Coffee shop & The Pioneer Women) & customizing them for my own work.

As a photographer i firmly believe that composition is the key to a good photo, & photoshop is a tool in creating stunning images but it needs to be used in conjunction with the actual process of taking a photograph. I personally feel it is wrong to use photoshop to "remove" an object from a photograph because you don't like it there (& trust me when i say there is a whole lot of debate on this subject) & actions can & do sometimes push the boundaries. But i feel that where you are using them in the same way you would use a camera, a lens, light, or the old school dark room it's ok & all kinds of fun.

Anyways back to actions two of my wonderful talented photographic buddies have recently been creating their own actions & me being me well of course i volunteered to take a look. On the butterfly below i used an action by Elle Moss called "dreamland" (for more information check out her blog) minus the "optional blurry edges" just because i felt for this image it didn't work (this is the fun on actions).

& for the chairs i used "dark dreamy glow" created by Jen Kiaba that i have fallen in love with (it creates such a haunting feel to many of my images for some reason) & totally transforms what would otherwise be two wooden chairs stood in the corner.

leave part five: first night in edinburgh

So Tuesday lunch time we made the long (ish) drive from Cambridge up to Edinburgh. Now i have been to Edinburgh once before but being as i was knee high to a grass hopper at the time my memory of this is a little cloudy ... ok i have no memory of this. & Edinburgh has been on our list of things to do for a while, although this was Kevin's forth visit. & for a non city loving girl, i loved Edinburgh ... especially the old town where we spent most of our time.

This photo was taken on the "Royal Mile", looking down towards the sea. The Royal Mile is a series of streets that runs from Edinburgh castle down to Holyrood Abbey, it is one "Scot's mile" long which is actually 1.1 (regular) miles long (or 1.8km).

Who can resist such stunning architecture, you don't feel like you're in a city ... no sky scrapers, & whilst it was full of people (oh yeah tourist heaven) it didn't feel dirty & stuffy & leave me running away as cities generally do.

So whilst we were sitting down to dinner outside a restaurant along the Royal Mile (great for people watching) it started to get a little cooler. Now it's June, & admittedly we've had a long cold winter here in Germany but when you vacation in June you don't think you need a wooly hat to keep your ears warm ... well this evening we did. So one moment Kevin disappears off into a souvenir shop across the way & returns we two hats ...

this is his ...

& this is mine (photo courtesy of one Kevin Evans) ...

& whilst we cannot doubt my wonderful husband's photographic skills i couldn't resist taking a couple of myself!