A Name

So I have finally done it. It's all official. There is a name. I have a certificate from the government and everything! And now I can share it.

Some of you may have seen it on my facebook page.

I have decided to go into taking pictures of people! Woohooo.

Taking photos has always been something I loved to do. And a camera purchase was something I wasn't a stranger to.

Now, I realise that most people take photos - but I LOVE taking photos. Seriously.

Back in the day of film processing you had to wait until you got your prints back from the developer to see how they turned out but now days with digital you can take a billion shots and see instantly.

My friend Mary really started me thinking about steering my love of photography into a certain direction. She takes really beautiful photos and I wish I had half her talent!

I lap up all the blogs online and have my favourites and from there have narrowed down what I like and what I want to take pictures of.

Years ago my favourite and ultimate photographer was (and in part still is) Ken Duncan. He takes awesome shots of landscapes. I could stand for hours looking at his photos. I vowed to one day have a house filled with everything he had done. My favourite of his is this. Don't ask me why but something in that picture just gets me. That for me is the beauty of photos. Everyone sees things differently.

I don't want to take pictures of landscapes - I will leave that to the experts.

In recent months I have come across a ton of blogs that focus on weddings. They do such an excellent job detailing and capturing this special day for people to remember in years to come. I am all about memories and for me, that is what photos do. One day I would love to be like them. But not yet.

What I really want to take pictures of are kids. All kids to me, are beautiful.

They are hard word, they don't really take direction, they are extreme in their emotions - and I LOVE it. Just snapping away and in amongst all those photos there will always be one (or more if I am lucky) that will capture that child so perfectly in that moment of their lives. Another memory as the years go on.

As most of you know I am a "Favourite Aunt" and these days I have 6 beautiful little nieces who are the subject of my photo taking! Lucky for me they don't mind being in front of a camera.

I remember one photo I took of one of the girls and her father was just blown away by how beautiful and how grown up she looked. Not that he didn't think she wasn't beautiful but looking at a picture of his daughter probably bought back memories of her as a baby and how fast she is growing.

So I have rambled long enough and I hope that you got a peak inside my mind about one of the things that I love and what I hope will lead to bigger and better things!

Here are a few of my favourite photos:

Oh, and the name???? *Dimples* by analiesejane.

I hope to see you all soon and take some photos of your beautiful kids! Oh alright, you can be in them to!

My Ode to Tim Tams

I know, I said way back in my Vegemite post that I would do an "Ode to Tim Tams". It has taken me a while but here we are and here I go!

If you have ever been to Australia or known people from Australia or live in Australia, there is a pretty good chance you have heard of Tim Tams. And for you overseas folks, you may have even been lucky enough to have had 1 or 6 of these beauties.

If not you haven't heard of these bits of heaven, let me fill you in (courtesy of Wikipedia)!

Tim Tams are a chocolate biscuit (or cookies if you live north of the border) made by Arnott's Biscuits. A Tim Tam is composed of two layers of chocolate malted biscuit, separated by a light chocolate cream filling, and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate.

According to Arnott's, around 35 million packs are sold each year – nearly 400 million biscuits, an average of approximately 1.7 packs per Australian.

Tim Tams were first put onto the market in 1964. They were named by Ross Arnott, who attended the 1958 Kentucky Derby and decided that the name of the winning horse Tim Tam was perfect for a planned new line of biscuits.

Unfortunately some bright spark decided to "expand" on the original Tim Tam idea and made the following variations: namely, Chewy Caramel, Mocha, Double Coat, Chilli Chocolate, Classic Dark Chocolate, Black Forest Fantasy, Creamy Truffle Temptation and the latest Choc Orange, as well as a range of special edition varieties.

In 2004, Arnott's caused a controversy when they released a range of alcohol-flavoured varieties of their products, including Tia Maria Tim Tams.

Suggestions were made that selling these biscuits was irresponsible as minors could get hold of the product and suck the living daylights out of the poor Tim Tam to get one drop of alcohol.

However, it would take several thousand Tim Tams for the alcohol to take effect, after which you would be the size of an elephant and want to to drink yourself into a stupor to forget that you had just downed several thousand Tim Tams. I am going to stop now.

One of the best things about Tim Tams are the Tim Tam Slams.

The Tim Tam Slam is the practice of drinking a warm drink by sucking it through a Tim Tam, with both of the ends bitten off.

Ideally, the inside of the biscuit should collapse but the outside should remain intact. Just before the biscuit falls apart, it is placed in the mouth.

There are reports that people in the USA have tried doing this using an Oreo as a substitute Tim Tam but without success........... *shakes head*

And there you have my little blurb on my favourite biscuit.

Mary

"Mary" is pregnant with her 3rd child.

We started re-hanging out maybe a year or more ago. Funny how you can be friends for so long and then sort of go off and do your things and then come back together like nothing has changed!

As she mentioned in her post, we had talked about doing some photos together. Something always came up and we never got around to it. Until this day! Mary wanted some photos of her belly and it was a public holiday and it was nice out. Check, check, check.

She has already shown you some photos on this post and this post and I did mention that I would also show my photos from that day. Brace yourself.

I love this picture (see, it isn't all bad).

We had actually talked a bit about what she wanted for her photos and looked through some other websites for ideas. I had the best idea of all. But she didn't go for it. Maybe the red top was just to much?
So we ended up with some of these instead.

They turned out well!

And of course, I had to put this picture in. Sorry about the quality but it is the "Mary" we all know and love.

The "Special" Ones

Could these girls be any funnier?? Their ability to pull faces is outstanding. See for yourself!