Proud mummy moment

The boys had a karate competition at Smithton Primary School near Inverness today. Poor Callum was a bag of nerves but he over came them to get a silver medal in his sparring catagory - I think the smile in the photo says it all!

Sam pulled out all the stops in Kata and gave a flawless performance to gain gold. He was then put in the age 10-12 catagory for sparring and worryingly he was the smallest boys in the group. But size isn't everything and speed won the day and him another gold. Both boys will go to sleep tonight with smiles on their faces.

As for me - I think I had as many nerves as them and have shouted myself hoarse!!

Halloween time

The boys had a halloween party at their karate club - and what a fab time they had. Lots of games, quizzes, dunking for apples and eating doughnuts off a string. They are completely shattered now so an early night as they have a karate competition in Inverness tomorrow.

Here is a pic of Callum as a happy and not very scary skeleton.

Holiday Pals

Had great fun with the camera whilst I was away - so many things to snap away at. These are some of the creatures we met along the way - it was a shame the otters wouldn't keep still long enough!

Sam loved the squirrels that visited our log cabin - hand feeding them monkey nuts - until he was bitten!!

Chatsworth House

Have just spent a week in the Peak District - it was a fabulous area - so much so that I think I could quite happily live there.

Think all in all I took about 400 photos and I'm still trying to plough through them all.

Spent some time at Chatsworth House. The inside is stunning but I enjoyed the sculptures in the gardens more. Gave me a chance to put the camera onto manual and try to put into practice what I have learnt over the last few months. Here a few shots of my favourite pieces.

Module 4

I'm still working on Module 3!

The brief for module 4 was to take photographs in manual with strong light and dark tones - and then convert them to black and white.

The first one is of Findhorn beach and the second is some gravestones at Kinloss Abbey. I converted the images to black and white using Paintshop Pro and then tweaked the contrast ever so slightly.

I like the black and white - makes the pictures more dramatic.