Regular Random, Five Minutes with some Cupcakes

I was actually a little spoiled for choice after my Sweet tooth workshop yesterday, after everyone left I was playing with what remained, we originally started with 6 beautiful cupcakes…

And yes I will admit to a little tampering, I did move them around, but hey I am creative like that LOL. I also was left with some macarons……..but that will be saved for next week.

For more info and to see Desley’s wonderful Pens she posted this week, visit her page

OH……….and no I did not eat any of them, aren’t I good?

~ Julz

Introducing – Pixel Sisters Studio

I have been hinting at something big being afoot again lately and now I can finally let you in it…..Drum Roll please;

Desley (Desley Jane Pictures – https://musingsofafrequentflyingscientist.com/) and I have started a new business venture together, creating fun photography workshops for Melbourne based photographers. They say you should go big or go home, right? So we have been extremely busy of late, we have a brand new website – Pixelsistersstudio.com, a Facebook page and an Instagram Account. We are moving all this to a large professional photography studio in Melbourne’s South Eastern suburbs and the first workshop is set for 29th July, this has been a huge undertaking and a big adventure for both of us. Until then I am still running a couple of small workshops in my home studio, but it’s time to go big!

Our first Workshop is a Floral Fantasy Still Life and Macro, (honestly did you really expect anything else from us two?), but we are planning more workshops with varied themes, including; Desley’s Planner stuff and my Conceptual Portraiture, with lots of other fun stuff thrown in too. We will be catering to all levels of photographer, with an aim to getting beginners off auto and exposing seasoned photographers to different genres.

So if you are in Melbourne, check out what we have on offer and perhaps join us, if you live elsewhere in the world, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, as we will be posting lots of fabulous images and BTS stuff as well.

~ The Pixel Sisters (aka,  Julz and Desley)

 

Friday Flowers…

Glorious Flowers from a recent trip to Montsalvat…….what more could be said?

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend…

~ Julz

The Sweet Life – Cake Smash & Bombed Alaska

Desley Jane and I did a sweet life cupcake shoot, with some disastrously funny results, there were some great pics as well, and so many laughs… So when life gives you lemons…….you grab the vodka, right? Well we grabbed the vodka and a lighter and attempted to re flambe a bombed Alaska 

Did I mention we were winging it here? Watch the video, seriously we have no idea what we are doing, but we have a lot of fun doing it!

Then, because the cupcakes were a mess anyway we decided to do a cake smash………..also notice the pretty white top I was wearing? BIG MISTAKE lol, seriously I should not be allowed to wear anything other than black!

In our defence, us creative types have often weird and quirky ideas, and it is usually strange things that keep us amused, we are seldom dangerous (often extremely clumsy, but seldom dangerous), our destructive tendencies are usually focused on the artistic influences in front of us ie; flowers, cookies, cupcakes etc….or maybe that is just Desley and I?

Oh and did you notice how BRAVE I am being, I am in not one, but two videos! Good gracious I’ve been corrupted! lol

~ Julz

 

Monday’s Musings…

We had a four day weekend starting with Australia Day on Thursday…….we celebrated by getting up at 3:30am to shoot sunrise at Flinders (an hour away), sunrise was sadly a no go, but I did get a few lovely photos, pre dawn. We walked along the beach, and took some photos and just existed, something about the sounds, the smells, the essence of the beach and the waves, the gulls – everything; it rejuvenates me. It then started to rain and we were very tired, so we went home for a nap! Didn’t do much for the rest of the day, too tired for fireworks and festivities, I’m not big on crowds anyway.

Friday was the Opening for my gallery exhibit…….huge crowds turned out, it was all very exciting. I had artist friends and photography friends stop by to see the exhibit, say hello and wish me luck, it was wonderful. I also had some very dear friends stay with me most of the night…

These photo all courtesy of Beck Faldon – Photographer, we then kicked on from there with a late dinner in Lygon Street – pizza of course! I have not sold anything as yet, but hopefully…….it’s on for another 2 weeks.

Saturday I had to run some errands and dropped into the market for a few things (among them fresh flowers – seems to be a weekly thing), I found these gorgeous quail eggs……….oh my how delicate and colourful and perfect. Top it off with these stunning tri colour dahlias!!!!!!!!!! Oh be still my beating heart; macro at the ready.

I of course then spent the afternoon playing with eggs and flowers, Moth enjoyed some quality time with the PS4 and Assassin’s Creed in air conditioned comfort.

Sunday was again quiet, a lovely relaxing end to a perfect weekend. This week will also be fairly quiet, not much on, I hope to visit some else’s art exhibit next weekend, but apart from that my schedule is completely open….seems so strange. I am sure it will change quick enough!

I hope you all have an amazing week…

~ Julz

 

Friday Flowers

As I have previously said I love a warm balmy summer evening and crisp early summer mornings…..the light is amazing, not quite cold and clear like winter, but soft and diffused. I grabbed my camera a few times; early morning and evening and grabbed some shots around my back garden

I used to love sitting on that bench seat, I now have a new zen spot, where I can sit out of the sun or rain and watch the coming and goings of insects, birds and fur babies. I can name most of the plants in our back yard, I picked them myself……..but I am not overly obsessive.

~ Julz

 

See Differently…

During the month of October, Robyn at Captivate Me asked us to all join in with her wonderful See Differently Challenge. We all took 15 Photos challenging us to see the world around us in a new light……I personally really enjoyed the challenge and pushed myself to mainly use my Sony Smart Phone.Robyn then asked each of us to then come back on the 31st and share all our photos and which was our favourite and why.

What did I learn? Light it is beautiful, it is everywhere and it can make the most amazing pictures and lines and patterns. My Smart Phone is crap, sorry  Sony, but the Xperia has a horrible camera, nothing like the Samsung or Apple…….never getting one again, as a phone it’s fine but as a photographer; BLAH!!!!! The Lenka App in B&W can make it bearable. Nothing beats my Nikon DSLR.

So what were my favourite photos? Definitely the sparklers (Image 12), and yes it is a stage shot, but so much fun! I also love the old rabbit I found (Image 11), but my absolute favourite was the macro shoot I did with my Protea, check it out.

15 – Purple Flower

14 – Hail on window

13 – Spring Clouds

12 – Sparklers in glass jars

11 – Old Stuffed Rabbit

10 – Sunlight through front door

9- Sunlight through Leaf

8 – Sunlight on jewelled plant

7 – B&W Cobwebs on chair

6 – Post Its

5 – Promotional Material

4 – Protea in Macro

3 – Shadows on wicker furniture in B&W

2 – Roses hanging up to dry

1 – B&W Elephant statue in my Office

Head on over to Robyn’s Page for more info and check out the #seedifferently2016 to see everyone else’s amazing pics.

~ Julz

 

Weekend Wanderings – Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens

Recently on a beautiful sunny Spring day we visited the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens, very old gardens near the Melbourne CDB, nestled next to the Yarra River. The sun was shining and there were people everywhere, enjoying this rare stunning Spring day, it was quite warm and felt very summery. There are a LOT of Pics, as I just could not decide which to show.

I had hoped, being Spring that more flowers would be out, but it seems we were a little too late from some and a little too early for others, I did manage to grab a few

There is also another gallery from Guilfoyle’s Volcano, but I might put them in another post. There is even a rare shot of Moth, taking a shot with his new lens.I personally changed my lens several times, started with the 50mm Prime and then switched to Macro and then eventually to the 18-300mm lens. All too soon we had to leave for another function that evening, but it was a very pleasant afternoon, we could easily have spent hours there and may have to go back again.

~ Julz

See Differently 4-15

Trying to see things differently on a macro level, the Protea in my backyard are in bloom and I really wanted to examine this plant on many levels, so this post actually has more than one image, but it is of the same plant, so I figure it’s OK.

Such an intricate flower with lots of these hairy little stamens all over it, on tall stalks, these ones are quite small, a species named 16 candles, only approx 6-10 inches in diameter, I have another species called King White which have enormous flowers. The Protea is considered a native here in Australia, but they originated from South Africa.

Below is a gallery of some images taken on various parts of the plant, as well complete flower below.

Of you would like to join the See Differently challenge, please visit Robyn at Captivate Me,  Til next time happy snapping………

~ Julz

A deconstructed rose…

What started as a bit of playing around with Desley in a workshop has turned into a bit of a thing; for both of us. The whole deconstructed flower study, it is of great interest to cut things up and see what we find. It’s also Macro time, I’m slowly getting used to the whole Manual Focus thing on my lens, but still not quite as steady as I would like, tripod next time.

Well that is it for this flower, I took a few more shots and then off to the bin……seems a pity, but after an hour or so under lights, they are not happy………cutting them up doesn’t help either!

~ Julz