Day 20: What's The Buzz?

Day 19: Fun On The Slide

Day 18: The 10 Minute Black & White Challenge

Whilst trawling around on the net, researching and learning about anything I can about photography, I came across some photography forums that had different challenges. Out of the many challenges that had been completed, I chose the 10 minute black & white challenge. Basically its designed to open your eyes to shots that you wouldn't normally take. For the challenge you could walk, run, drive the car, etc etc from home for 10 minutes exactly and then stop wherever you were and take a photo of something there. I decided to drive for 10 minutes out of my suburb to take the photo. It was quite a good challenge, so good in fact that I'll do it again soon but in the opposite direction.

Day 17: A Feisty Autumn Day

It was a gorgeous autumn day and I was nervous as all hell. I had organised my first photo shoot with one of my best friends and her family, and even though I was taking photos of people I knew I still was quite nervous. To try and overcome this, I arrived at the park where we were doing the shoot early, so that I could use my own boys as guinea pigs and get some ideas as to what kind of shots I wanted to do. Jack & Lewis were absolute little terrors and didn't want to do what they were told, which made me start to think that I was totally out of my depth. My gorgeous wife was of great help and comfort, and with her fresh perspective I saw shots that I wouldn't have even thought of. After getting acquainted with my surrounds, Kell and her family arrived. We hopped straight into it, and her kids were totally amazing which made it that much easier to get gorgeous shots. Overall I was quite happy with the way things turned out. It was definately a learning experience.

Day 16: Easter Send Off

Today we saw Easter off with a BBQ at the park with Megs's family. It was really nice and relaxing watching the kids having fun, whilst at the same time kinda sad to see Easter end. I've had an absolute blast these past five days off and am sad to see it end, and go back to work.

Day 15: Exploring Dad's Garden & The Surrounds

This morning I decided to take the opportunity to explore a little bit in Dad's garden, which is always full of interesting things with him being a nurseryman. There was lots of flowers and other interesting things in his garden that it's impossible to choose a best photo or a favourite. They're all unique in their own way, which is why there are lots of photos in this post. Yes I suppose I could eek them out over a period of a week or a month but then how am I/you meant to see whether I am improving or not.

Day 14: Happy Easter !!!

What an awesome morning it was today.  Today was the first time that we held an Easter egg hunt where Jack & Lewis truly understood the hunting for egg concept.  We'd decided to share in this moment with my parents, which just made it that all just a little more special.  It was kinda surreal creeping outside in the early hours of the morning with Dad to put out the Easter eggs for the kids.  Here I was doing the exact same thing years later, that he'd done for my brother and myself when we were kids, and now here I was doing the same thing for my kids, and with my father.  It was truly a special day.  Happy Easter everyone :-)

Day 13: Raiding Grandma's Garden

It was Saturday, and we were on our way down to my parents for a stay over, so that we could share the kids first true Easter egg hunt with them.  On the way there, we stopped off at Megs's grandmother's place to wish them a Happy Easter.  They were thrilled to see us and their great-grandchildren.  Whilst sitting and talking to the grandparents, I was positively itching to take my photos for the day, even though I had gotten out of bed in the wee hours of the morning and took some photos of the moon (definately need a tripod lol).  I ended up quite literally crawling through her garden to take photos of the flowers. The things you do :-)

Day 12: Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt At Werribee Mansion

Today Megs & I took the kids down to Werribee Mansion for the Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt which was being run to help raise money for the Royal Children's Hospital which helps sick children.  It was an awesome day and we were lucky that the weather held off.  The kids just didn't stop enjoying themselves while there, including me ;p   I took a number of photos during the day, where the above photo was taken with the iphone because once again I took the wrong lens, but I made do.  The rest like the one below were taken with the dSLR.

Day 11: Dreaming In The Clouds

It was quite funny today.  After having worked today, and then getting home to do the odd jobs around the house, by the time I was finished and had put my feet up, I wasn't going anywhere.  I thought for a minute that I would need to go out later on to practice with the camera to get today's photo, however the photo came to me with Sebastisan looking quite cute sucking his thumb whilst dreaming sweet dreams.  At the same time a interesting cloud passed by the window.

Day 10: Whatcha Doing???

Day 9: Oliver

Compared to Sebastian, Oliver is an entirely different baby.  Oliver's personality isn't as quite like Sebastian's 'hey look at me' attitude, but he's just as cheeky.  A bit of a tight arse on the smiles, makes it more special when he does smile.  So trying to get Oliver to smile whilst taking photos was quite difficult today, but I did get some nice photos.  That's the thing, having the babies smile isn't the be all and end all of taking their photos.  There are some truly wondeful moments to be captured on film that doesn't involve the kids smiling.  My kids are no exception.

Day 8: Praying Mantis

It was a funny kind of day today.  I spent most of the day relaxing as well as burning some DVDs in the bungalow, and it hadn't even occurred to me to get the camera out, when in the middle of running in between the house and the bungalow I spotted a praying mantis.  I quickly grabbed the camera and managed to get this photo ( I did edit this photo by doing a little cropping):

Then tonight was the first time we had given Oliver & Sebastian solids.  It was quite funny to see the babies handling solids for the first time, and at the same time it was a little bit sad as the realisation hit that the bubbies are growing up.  Anyway these photos are from after their feed during bath time:

Day 7: Sebastian

Today I decided to focus on taking photos inside of the boys, even though it was a totally gorgeous day outside.  Go figure.  Anyway as usual he wasn't shy in front of the camera, and I got some good photos.  He is so laid back and content with the world at the moment.  He's a much different baby from when we first brought him home with his brother.  He use to be easily startled and was very anxious, loud noises from the big boys use to freak him out.  He's come a long way.

Day 6: Journey Home From The Park

Ok so today I've cheated a little bit.  The photos posted today are actually from last night on the way home from the park/gardens in Gisborne.  The reason for not taking some fresh new photos today is that my gorgeous wife isn't well today, so I'm her man slave for the day ;-)   Fingers crossed that she will have made a full recovery by tomorrow: