photo editing

I was asked by a friend to do some editing to an image and see if it can be enlarged to 16 x 16.I gladly did the editing and I have just sent it to my 'people' in Townsville to see if it can be enlarged to that size.

Here is the before shot

And here is the after shot

I straightened the horizon, darkened the whole image and darkened the marlin as well as added the text. I think it came up ok and my client, aka friend LOVES it.

I shall see how big it can safely be enlarged to.

The exhibition will be coming to an end whilst we are away. I have asked my co-exhibitor to take down my pics and hold onto them until I return. We are going to find alternative venues and exhibit them again!

Here are some of my favourite shots from the exhibition

'Do-Gooders'

I am certain that people have our best interest in mind when they say "Stop stressing", "It will happen when its meant to", "Stop thinking about it and relax", "Go on a holiday", "You're trying too hard", or my personal favourite "I know people who struggled for years to fall pregnant and they decided to adopt and then suddenly, she fell pregnant, naturally".

We are very gracious when receiving this 'advice', however deep down we want to say "Shut the F up! You don't know what you're talking about". In fact, I did say that to someone, and she got all indignant- I had offended her. How about taking a step back and wondering whether I could potentially take offence to the abovementioned comments???

I am old enough to know my body. I have been dealing with infertility since my first miscarriage at 18- that's 21 years!!!! If it was 'going to happen', it would have!

I've even had people suggest that we are 'stupid' by continuing with our specialist. "What's the definition of stupidity, doing the same thing but expecting different results", is what was said to us. I replied by saying that every time we go through treatment, things are changed and as far as I knew, the only people in the consultation room was my husband, my doctor and I. How do they know we are doing the same thing every time...?

Why do people think that we are public property, open to scrutiny? I want everyone to back off and not a say a word to me about MY condition and MY treatment. I want everyone to think whether I could take offence by their comments, rather than them getting offended by my replies.

Kerthump!

I thought we had nailed it this time. However, I have crashed back to reality with a big KERTHUMP!

The wait continues

I had my blood test Wednesday. We were up early and out the door at 6.30am as the nearest collection centre is 2hrs away. It was a productive morning as we did a little shopping at the BIG supermarket whilst we were there.

I was hoping that I would have received a phone call yesterday with my results. I was quite anxious and teary all day, all to no avail. TODAY will be the day.

I am still TRYING ever so hard to not analyse symptoms/ changes however it is proving VERY difficult. Expecially when Mr Fabulous comments on changes that he has noticed. EEEKKKKK.... am I setting myself up for a big kerthump?

The strangest change is this: 'normally' I dislike milk, 'normally' I only have a splash of it in my coffee (I like my coffee to resemble mud!), 'normally' the thought of cereal turns my stomach. TODAY I was looking forward to eating weet-bix for breakky. Go Figure! I practically inhaled 4 milky weet bix, covered in a heap of sugar. This excites me as last year, before I miscarried, I LOVED Cornflakes!!!

'Normally' at this time in my cycle I would be reaching for anything chocolate. There are three blocks of chocolate and a family sized packet of mint slice bikkies in the house. I am not interested in them. I want savoury stuff! I have been eating dim sims with chilli sauce every day for lunch! Last night I suggested to Mr Fabulous he cook a chilli chicken pasta dish, which he did! He added a fair amount of chilli to it and I thought it was wonderful. He however thought he was a tad heavy handed with the chilli!

The third deadline for the EOS comp is today. I hope all my friends managed to get some good shots.

Here are my five entries

As I submitted entries for all the briefs this year, I automatically get a 'box' for the EOS comp next year without having to submit a 'qualifying' entry!! YAY!

waiting

It has been 11 days since I had the embryo transfer. I have to wait another 4 days until I can get the blood test done. It is the worst fortnight imaginable.

I am tired, hungry, teary, off coffee (Yes I hear a gasp!)and my sense of smell is becoming more acute. These are all positive signs. However I am on an enormous amount of progesterone. For those of you who don't know, progesterone is the hormone that 'keeps' a pregnancy. So, when there are copious amounts of it sourcing through your veins, your body is going to think "I'm pregnant".

It is difficult to not analyse each little symptom.

It is difficult to stay positive whilst keeping one foot firmly on the ground to protect yourself from a big 'kerthump' when/ if the blood test results are negative.

It is difficult.

Only two more weeks of the exhibition. Only two more weeks until we go away again, for another wedding!

Here is one of my favourite images. Its called 'Cooleebah Reflectins'

Austin

Our cat Austin, is a half wild, ginger cat. His mother is a domestic cat and his father is wild. As a result Austin can be a tad playful! We have 11 dogs and all of them HATE cats. If they spot a wild cat whilst out mustering they have to see to it that the cat is, at least scared away. Consequently, Austin HAS to be an indoors cat. His 'wild side' however gets him into trouble and he has learnt to break out of the house. He has destroyed screen doors and windows, he knows how to open an unlocked sliding glass door and he has realised that if he worries the back door enough, by putting his paws under it, so they are outside and curls them up, he can pull the door inwards towards himself and OPEN it!!

There have been times when he has been face to face with 11 dogs, where each dog is shaking in anticipation to 'get him'. They didn't- to my surprise and relief. He must smell like us, or me for that matter as he is definitely my cat, and that must be the reason why the dogs left him alone.

Some would say that Austin is a spoilt cat. If I were to be honest, I would agree! I buy him toys ALL the time. He has everything an indoors cat could want really. That doesn't stop me from buying more though (gee, what will I be like when I have babies of my own?!?!?. His latest TOY, is a cat house with scratching poles. He was starting to ingore his scratching mat and decided that one of our rugs was the best thing to scratch his claws on...

Here is Austin on his new toy

He loves sitting on the top and looking out into the world! I am so pleased he likes it!

Here are two other shots of Austin, looking outside- love the reflections!! I played around with one of them, turning it into B&W- I love it!

WOW! It's been ages that I have had the time and, lets be honest here, inkling to write anything!!

So much has happened since I was last here too. I will try and catch you all up!

September was a busy month! I was away more than I was home. I went to Townsville at the start of the month for treatment. However, my body was not responding to the medication as we all had hoped so the embryo transfer could not go ahead. My Dr advised me of a technique that he had heard about whilst at a recent, overseas conference. Three professors from different countries vouched that this little procedure has proven to be beneficial for women like me. That is, women who simply don't fall pregnant- for whatever reason! So, I agreed to give it a go. It was a little painful and uncomfortable, however that is a small price to pay if I am succesful in falling pregnant.

After this little procedure I came home, as I and a fabulous friend had a photography exhibition (that is still on by the way!)opening night to attend. It was a great night!It was great fun, after the nerves settled! It was also very humbling to hear people talk about MY photos. I guess after awhile, familiarity breeds contempt and after seeing my photos so many times, I no longer 'see' if they are good or not. They become, just a photo. I have sold a few prints, which is exciting, howeever, that means that as I have received money for them, I can now classify myself as a Professional Photographer... now THAT is scary!

I was only home for a grand total of 22 days and in that time we had 3 lots of visitors! It was quite exhausting! During this time I commenced my medication again, hopeful that an embryo transfer could go ahead THIS time!

Also, during this time, I received my Canon Photo5 box and I had decided that I wanted to complete ALL briefs BEFORE I went away again. I am chuffed to say that I DID! I did however manage to lose/ drown my little people for the Scale brief within 1 hour of receiving them... They slipped into the mouth of a bromeliad! Luckily I had already taken a few shots of them out and about in the garden!

This is the image I submitted! I would have liked it to be more clear, however, at least its something!

I stayed with my best friend and her baby, my godson whilst I was away and I had a lovely time. Treatment was able to go ahead, so perhaps the little procedure I had DID do something. I had 2 embryos transferred 1 week ago. I have to wait 1 more week till I have a blood test to see if I am pregnant or not. It is such an awful wait! I analyse every little change I notice. Which is silly as the medication I am taking now mimic pregnancy symptoms! All I can do, is take it easy and rest! Which is not a problem as I have been very tired and very hungry for the past month!

Speaking of which, its lunch time!! Have a great afternoon everyone!