Rainy Days.

Today it rained steadily all day. When I was little I always thought of rain as a special gift from Heaven, one sent by God to clean up the world. If it only it were so. If only rain could wash away all injustices, all evils and all wrongs. It can't. But you know what it can do? Rain makes the good stronger. It makes the beauty glow brighter. That's why I like rain. Once the clouds have passed and the pavements dried, everything seems a little fresher, crisper...smiles seem wider, the sun shines brighter and the grass looks greener. Here's to rain. ;) You gotta love it.

I might not be able to post tomorrow. I might but in case I don't, here's the warning. Probably joined by shouts of delight from readers everywhere! LOL, just kidding. I loooove that people enjoy visiting here and like what I write and photograph. Without you I wouldn't be able to keep going! I swear. Special thanks to Ellen, Amy 3 Peas, Robyn, Mindy, Amy C and Stacey who respond to every post I make. Thanks for not letting me go commentless! Anyway, tonight we're going to my grandfather's in the countryside and we're going to the beach tomorrow *yay!* and seeing my 1-year-old cousin and stuff. Should be fun. School's over now for 2 weeks, happy but sad but sad but happy.....I have a lot of schoolwork to do for my GCSEs (exams) but it should be a nice break too. I'll miss English lessons and German most.

**Press the little red cross at the top of the page just about NOW (!) if you're a insanely great photographer who gets amazing SOOC shots (straight out of the camera), if you're not interested in post-processing or if you are a Photoshop whiz who has her method all figured out.**

I've been asked about my post-processing. So...

...every shot varies but I do have basic method I follow with most shots.

1) I shoot in RAW. Not RAW+ jpeg or anything, just RAW. To be truthful, I've never even tried JPEG and have no desire to. I love RAW - they shouldn't put JPEG on cameras in my opinion!

2) I process my RAW shots using RawShooter Essentials. It's free and you'll find it available for download via Google.

3) I generally put the saturation at +50 or above and do the same with Shadow Contrast and Detail Extraction.

4) I then open up the 8-bit Tiffs in Elements, it works in Photoshop too though, and use Levels and Filter>Sharpen to finish off.

That's it! Easy, simple and quick but it produces pretty good results. I hope that helps! See you soon, looooove Lulu. =)

PS : All the photos here were taken in the rain, at 1.8, shutters from 1/160-1/1250 and ISO 200-400. :)

A scary afternoon!

This was a *dangerous* photograph to take. Nearly all my random shots in the week of my everyday life and things are taken in our garden, at the bottom, where the orchard is by the blackberry bush and the allotment and the thousands of purple hyacinths carpeting the orchard floor. It's just beautiful down there. Like a haven. I feel so lucky to have my little oasis of calm down there where I can read or sit or eat cake (think : yesterday!) or play around with the camera. I had laid a blanket down on the grass and was lying flat on my front taking pictures with one of our cats, Middie, by my side. We have new neighbours at the back of our garden and they had visitors who had a HUGE Rottweiler. HUGE. This dog was rampaging through their garden, literally tearing through the trees and the grape vines, and it heard me and my cat somehow...nope I wasn't talking to myself either! I am a huge fan of animals in general but this dog was seriously crazed. He was growling *very* ferociously at us, trying to cimb over the fence and I can't explain it well really...but he had this real menacing look in his eyes. I was terrified! He was growling and snarling and I just ran, thinking my kitten would follow me as she always does. But she was just paralysed with fear. My sister was inside and I was screaming and shouting "Quick Eleanor! Middie's going to be mangled by that dog! Quick!" I love my cats so much and I was hysterical by this point that this dog was going to kill her. So inside I run, in a crazy frenzy of panic and tears, open the kitchen draw and pull out a pair of salad servers! LOL! Like that'll help. I ran back into the garden to look for Middie and she is still about 3m from the dog who is growling at her really viciously.... He tried to jump over the fence but fell back and I ran (looking like a complete psychotic with salad servers in my hand) and scooped up the cat and back to our house. Just in time. The dog managed to jump over the fence and was tearing through our garden...eating everything in sight. Thank goodness I got to her in time! I must be truly blessed is all I can say. Eventually the owners came round and apologised and said he was meant to wear a muzzle all the time...and, woah, it was just very frightening. So this was the shot I took just before that nasty canine appeared! @ 1.8, 1/340, ISO 100. :)



So I didn't get to take any more shots because I was worried that the evil dog would come tearing back into our orchard so...I stayed inside! Well, I sure hope those visitors go home soon so I can have my little quiet spot back again. =) See you tomorrow...Amy, I promise to answer your question about colour workflow then!

~ Love, hearts and kisses....Lulu

I have comments....

Excuse me for my rather pathetic observation...it's just that it's simply lovely to know tga people are really reading my blog and enjoying it. :)

I took quite a few photographs today, it's great that evenings are so light now, but I don't have much to share from today. They all came out different than I had expected and I am sure you are all bored to death of grape hyacinths .... we must have a million and three in our garden! I did snap a few keepers - just some of my sister's red cake for her best friend, there was some leftover so I got to eat it in our orchard with all the bluebells and the daffodils and hyacinths. A Proper Picnic. For some reason she decided (along with her crazy friend Rachel) to stain the actual cake, yes not the icing, red with food colouring so it tasted good but looked like they'd murdered someone over it!!!!!! I'm not surprised that there were leftovers! LOL.

So, my cake : sitting pretty @ 2.5, 1/800 and ISO 200. =) It's kind of a rubbish photograph but such a blog post would not be complete without a visit from today's red cake.



And my motto for life. Love it. Love life. Isn't that what it's all about in the end? Have a good time. Let your kids jump on their beds, host tea parties in the heart of summer for Piglet and Pooh, dance to your heart's content and sing to anyone who can hear even if you can't carry a tune. Because if you don't, you'll just wish you had. Love is the basis of it all. I was thinking today and it's just like Mama Younger says in 'A Raisin in the Sun'....
"There's always something left to love. If you ain't learnt that you ain't learned nothing."

I missed a day!

Sorry! I'm sure you didn't miss me. :) I was really busy yesterday - I went swimming with my beautiful mummy, I studied for a German test, did a photography mentoring assignment and went out too! My sister even let me take photos of her for once. Wow, what a day!

-- A disclaimer...if you couldn't care less about photography and cameras ignore the following! =)
I have had a few e-mails and comments lately asking about my equipment and lenses that I use. So I thought I'd post here!

1) I shoot with a Canon 300D, the D-Rebel. The original. It's light, sweet and noisy at high ISOs but I love, love, love it! The new version is the 400D or the XTi which I'm sure is great too. I also have a Canon EOS 650 (film) with a Sigma 24-70 lens that I use from time to time with B/W film.

2) I have four lenses but I mainly shoot with one and use one other occasionally. I use the 50mm 1.8 80% of the time and the rest of the time the 18-55mm 3.5-5.6. The one thing I hate most is variable apertures but I stick it out when I need the wide angle. I'm hoping to upgrade it to a 2.8 version soon by Sigma/Tamron. :) The other two lenses are old zooms that I use on the film cam.

Yesterday I *finally* got around to doing my mentoring assignment from a sweet, kind and amazing photographer who offered to be my mentor a while back. These are some of the shots I took - we had to interpret our favourite poem in pictures and process them in funky ways to go with the poem. I did "She Dwellt Among the Untrodden Ways" by William Wordsworth. Great guy. :P Here's just a few I took! Thanks to my mentor for being so FAB ~ cannot wait for the next assignment.

....

And my photograph for today was just a fun idea I had. :) It was a really really beautiful day - sunny and warm so when I got home from school it was still light enough to shoot indoors.

For those of you that don't know, I LOVE to read. I love the escapism of books and the way I can completely immerse and submerge myself into another place, another time, even another world! I write too...I want to be a novelist as well as a photographer and a mother and a teacher (but not all at the same time hopefully)! Anyway, I used to say (when asked) that I liked so many books that I couldn't possibly be expected to choose my favourites.

Now that I am older (and maybe a little wiser) I realise that there are some books that stay with me and which I continue to think of and re-read. I hope the list will continue to grow, but for the moment the books are:

To Kill A Mockingbird --Harper Lee

A Summer to Die --Lois Lowry

The Secret Life of Bees --Sue Monk Kidd

A Little Princess --Frances Hodgeson Burnett

The Diary of Anne Frank --Anne Frank

Of course, I have other books I love but these books will always stay with me. I can only hope that one day another girl will be thinking of her cherished books and that my novel will be on there. I was inspired to write books by the authors of my favourite books and maybe the girl who treasures a book of mine will be inspired to write books. It should be nice, to be part of a constantly shifting circle...and to inspire those you have never met, except through words on a page. My mother, unknown to me, sent a bit of my novel to a publisher...about the struggle of two sisters during the Civil Rights era...and they liked it! They want to talk with me! I might be a writer sooner than I think!!

Anyway....sorry for my massively long hugely colossal gigantic post --I'm just excited about the whole book thing and I guess it makes up for not posting yesterday. :P Thanks so much for reading and a HUGE congratulations to you (yes, you!) if you got to the end of this waffly long post! I don't even know if anything will come of it or if I want to wait or even have it published, if they even like it that much. But anyway... :)

Love Lulu :)

Meet "T".

Today my 6-year-old, bubbly and full of life cousin came round. They don't live too far away and I got to look after him whilst my aunt went to the optician's. :) Man, I love this kid. Last time I saw him, about a month ago, he HATED the camera. Despised it with a capital D! Can you say transformation? He was the perfect model and he saw my camera on the table and actually *asked* me to take some...to give to his girlfriend at school. Times are changing - since when did 6-year-olds have significant others?!

Anyway, he's the cousin who lives nearest to me and he is so sweet and so lovely....he wants to make a "money detector...so that it can find money buried in the ground and give it to all the people with NO money!" You couldn't find a sweeter little guy. So here's to "T"...my beautiful cousin. =)

Texture - the fad of the season.

Good Evening! First I must thank everyone who sent get well wishes to me via this blog - they worked an absolute charm and I feel much better! I am also truly sorry that I didn't get a chance to post yesterday in between glasses of honey and lemon, spoonfuls of echinaea (is that how you spell it? anyway, my mum obssesses over it!) and sleep. I can quite confidently - touch wood - say that I am going back to school tomorrow! Yay! I hate missing school; I always feel like I am missing the biggest party of the year or something. :)

Today I got up my nerve, bar an overstatement, and tried MANUAL. Yep, ladies and gents...good ol' manual! I used to shoot manual all the time with my film camera, as conveniently it was the only mode it possessed, and I did too with my D-SLR in December. But then I got a case of laziness and was pure idle. Aperture priority let me concentrate on composition and DOF and it was all I ever ever ever used! So now I'm a manual user. =) LOL, I feel like I've been through rehad having to part with Av but I'm just about okay! :D

Now, enough rambling...well, a little more! Sor-ry! I also had to jump in on the texture craze that's flitting around like fireflies. It's soooo cool. You should all try it! I found my textures via http://www.textureking.com/ (thanks Jeanette!) So I hereby present my first ever textured photograph *and* one of my first photos in manual on my D-slr. I'm a convert for life! And for those of you reading who like to know the settings, like me (!), this was shot @ ISO 400, f/2.8 and 1/160. *sigh* i do so love my camera..it's perfect for me...the noise at high ISOs is plentiful and the shutter is loud and meaty...almost old-school! LOL (it's a Canon 300D). Anyway, enough of my chatter...I'm sure you were bored long ago. See you, love Miss Lulu! =)

Sick~

Sick. Sick. And more sick.

I feel terrible. I didn't go to school today - everytime I ate it came back up, and I had the worst stomachache in the history of our race! I feel a little better now but nowhere near right as rain. I hope I feel better for tomorrow; I have an ICT test and a History after-school session. I hope all of you are well. Being ill sucks. Completely.

I didn't take any photos today....yep, that's how ill I am/was....not picking up the camera is unheard of! =) Here's an old snap I missed somehow: my 1-year-old cousin Miss L! She's a sincere chocolate box baby. =) See you all soon!

I know this one was @ f/2.0, ISO 800 and .... about 1/125.

The Apple Phase...

Has returned. I am infamous for my apple pictures. But today I realised with shock and horror and utter dismay that the apples haven't been under the lens since December! Aah! Our orchard is bare as can be but the fruit bowl sufficed. It was perfect timing because I snapped about 10 shots, this being my favourite, went inside and it promptly began to snow! Yes, snow! In March! In England! Unheard of! It didn't settle, of course, but it was funny to see...snow in March! LOL!

So here's Mister Apple at f/3.2, ISO 200 and 1/320...or something like that! Thanks for visiting my blog, blog, blog! Love Miss L. =)

Sorry it's so small; unfortunately I cannot post images larger than 420 pixels wide on my blog because it makes the sidebar go loopy. But if you are really desperate, you can see it larger here! :)

Exhausted!

I am sooooo tired at the moment, what is up with me?

Today we went into a park in central London and I photographed the blossom and the war memorial. Just got them to share. =) Also want to add that you should all visit Miss Kimberly Bee's blog over at In A Nutshell as she is so sweet and is an inspiring photog! So if you get a chance pop over there. ;)

And I really really need to start revising for my exams. Ick. I love school and everything but there's nothing I hate more than revision (except for maybe lenses with variable apertures!) ...these are national examinations in 10 subjects that are really important as the grades will help you to get in/or be rejected from university! Eek! So encourage me to work, okay?! =)

~ Lulu

It's really late now...

...so I will just pop in quickly now. Today I went to a friend's birthday party at a restaurant (Happy 16th 'S') but forgot to take the camera (duh! but the light was pretty awful anyways) and so I took some shots when I got home....after a bout of crying. Mainly because my closest friend at school, 'M', has been lying to a lot of people and excluding me from things on numerous occasions. My real best friend lives in Suffolk and I've known her since she was born but 'M' is a friend all the same. Recently she seems to have changed a lot: I guess I don't fit in with her new life. Maybe you don't think she's a friend worth having but she used to be so nice that I wish she would go back to the old 'M'. I have my mother though, my best friend of all. Happy Mother's Day in advance. :) I loooove you, Mummy.

Exhausted!

I had an exhausting day today - but still managed to take a few pictures here and there! I had an English essay test on 'Macbeth today. =) I loooove English! I think it went pretty well...! Sorry for the rubbishy photos, trying to capture things that I want to remember when I am all grown up and wrinkly. ;-)

I shot lots at ISO 1600...harassed my sister whilst she was eating cous-cous (anyone else think that stuff smells like sweaty armpits? ick!) and she put up a fight as usual!

Found a 32 MB card which fits precisely one RAW file on my 6.3 megapixel cam (sigh, the good old days) and made lots of shakers for the Brownie dance to "Shake" by Odyssey. Got home from school, made coffee and cakes for the piano tuner...cycled to the post office, cycled back...washed my hair, rushed to Brownies, danced and hugged and played Duck Duck Goose! Shot my sister's cute stripy socks which matched her PJs...and here I am! Just about awake and alive! Hope you got through all of that...with the en jambement thingy going on. Love y'all! Sorry for the trashy post today...gotta sleep!

And my favourite shot of the crazily hectic chaotic pandemonic (is that a word?) day... =)

Love Miss Lulu ;-)

Bubbles.

I love bubbles. They have such a magical quality. =) I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who have visited my blog, and continue to visit (I hope)!!!!!! I have had 465 visits in a single week! Without you, I would have no-one to encourage me, nobody to share with and nobody to keep me motivated. So you are fab! Yes, you! Right there! Love y'all!

~ Love, L

I think it's spring!

Which is both good and bad. I LOVE spring. I love every season : winter for Christmas and snow, autumn for golden leaves and harvest, summer for holidays and sun and spring for tulips and lent lilies and hope. =) I do have exams this spring though which kinda sucks if you ask me!

I must say I love 18mm! I only have my trashy old kit lens, yep, that one...that one tucked away in the back of your closet, but it's pretty fun. I am hoping to purchase a Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 sometime soon so if you have any good/bad/mediocre reviews please do share! Thanks to Miss Kris Leigh for helping me so much with that! This photo, which I LOVE (and is of me, now that's a combination you don't hear often) was at 18mm.



And this is how I am feeling today...happy, happy, happy! Well, if you had such a yummy chocolate lollipop, so would you! AND it was SOOC! That's no post-processing for y'all non-photography obssessed chicks and something much yearned for. So everything's peachy keen! Have a nice evening!

It is a sad day~

~when all you have to share is a picture of your blog itself. A sad, sad day. LOL! That's not technically true because I do have one more but I got home at 6pm tonight and the light was almost gone - so I had to shoot at ISO 800 outside, @ 1.8 and 1/50 (dangerously almost fatally camera shaky)! But I got one out of the 12 shots I took. So I'll share the two. =)

This was the camera I truly learnt on...yes, the 1989 one and only Canon EOS 650 with the Sigma 24-70 3.5-5.6 lens. =) What fun! I love film, I truly do. When I shoot film, especially B/W, it's almost like going home. It's like going home and knowing exactly what you'll find, opening the wardrobe and knowing without a doubt that your pink towelling gown will be hanging up on the right hand side, like telling your sister good news and knowing beforehand that she will jump and sing 'Joy To The World' three times fast. Digital is a whole new world for me. I mean, I was never that good as a film photographer and I'm not a real special digital photographer but I'm still 'me'. It doesn't matter if I shoot film or digital or colour or B/W...my style still shines through. Digital is like opening the wardrobe and, instead of the pink robe smelling of Grandma's lavender scent, finding a new world...like Narnia! So that is my ode to the EOS 650...love you Mister! =)

Enjoying all your marvellous x50 blogs! Love Miss L. ;-)

Going back to my roots.

Just the two to share today. =) I was inspired by the oh-so-lovely Brenda whose work I absolutely *adore* to try and get some filmy B/W but failed miserably in that aspect. Too far out of my niche, I guess! Instead I settles back into my comfort zone...it would be nice to challenge my creativity though!

Went to little Lotte's birthday party yesterday but didn't get too many photos. I have a few keepers for the family album, at least. My sister let me take three photos today but in her choice of location and the lighting was TERRIBLE so not sharing them, nuh-uh! My mum got kinda angry when I kept asking her but I am going crazy - I suck at portraits thanks to my sister! I really need to find a muse. Got one going spare?

Anywho, I have got to go finish off my Latin stuff. See you! ~ Lulu

Work Together.

Today, at school, only 14 people out of 100 in my year attended. 50 were on a field trip for some extra-curricular nonsense that they do and the rest stayed home to study. Boring! The teachers had put a lotta effort into making it a fun day for the people not going on the trip so I felt sorry that not many people showed up. I did. And I am mighty glad!

First we had to do a presentation, ours was on Climate Change. It scares me that some time in the near future our world might not be here, or it might just be an empty shell because we have destroyed ourselves. We won too, and ate lots of chocolate! Yum!

Then we watched "An Inconvenient Truth" - you know, Al Gore's movie? Wow, is all I can say. It was one of the greatest films I have ever seen. Poignant, yet happy at times, sad...shocking. It makes me want to change the world. We do our best at our house - we recycle, we take public transport, we turn off lights and don't run the tap when we brush our teeth unless we need to! But we could certainly do more. What really hit home for me was when Gore said that we had to work together, to unite not as countries but as a PLANET....we did it for Civil Rights, against faschism, against communism...why not against global warming? So I'd love it if you'd take a moment to watch that movie, or go to www.climatecrisis.net and assess your lifestyle. Think of it as the first step towards a better world. Like Miss Maudie in To Kill A Mockingbird says: "It's just a baby-step, but it's a step."

Lucky Shoes~

These are my lucky shoes. They go everywhere with me. The soles are worn down and muddy, they are old and etiolated, but I love them. I am emotionally attached to them. Where these shoes goes, I go. Where I go, these shoes go. Do you have a pair of shoes like that? These are faithful shoes. They don't give up on you when you have walked 3.2 miles in them, they don't mind if you jump in puddles and they do their best to save your feet from getting wet, they like to be worn down to the ground...to be loved. And loved these shoes certainly are.

Hey everyone. =)

Just got back from my piano lesson. I love to play piano, such a fab form of expression! =)

Anyways today is my only girl cousin's 1st birthday! Happy Birthday little Lottie! I remember a year ago today, waking up and my mum sitting by the bedside saying "Wake up! Wake up! Quickly! Quickly!" I jumped out of bed and she quickly told me of Lottie's birth (which was a little treacherous to say the least). It was a girl! After all those months of anticipation by my sister and me, all those months of "Please let it be a girl! Oh, please!"...the moment had finally arrived. We were delighted to finally have a little girl in the family to swoon over, to dress in pink dresses and to call 'sweetheart' and 'darling'. So Charlotte Elodie was born.

The year has gone by so fast! She is crawling and giggling and smiling, almost walking, and she is the happiest little one to ever walk the earth. Lottie and her parents live 100 miles away but we see them often and I love it when we do. I hope she'll having an older cousin to look up to when she is not so young. I am 15 years her elder because my mother's brother is 13 years younger than her. Oh, and at the weekend, we are going to her birthday party so I should have lots of little one-year-olds to practise on! Yay!

So, happy birthday sweet sweet Charlotte.

Walk Barefoot.

Walk barefoot. It's fun. In mud, in dewy grass, on sand. It feels so fresh and natural. I had a great day today. Great. When I woke up I just knew in my heart of hearts that it would be brilliant. Be happy too. I consider myself to be an exceptionally happy person. But when I am sad my sadness could cover oceans and mountain ranges. Thankfully I am not sad often. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world today. I am truly blessed. Nothing particularly special happened. I just realised how wonderful my life is, how I have such a great family and friendly people to talk to and great teachers and a good education and I live in such luxury compared to others. It's all by the flick of a coin and it could be taken away. So appreciate what you have whilst you can. May God bless you all.

~ Lulu

Sweeties!

Or candies, if you are American. =) I thought this one was fun.

1/80, f/4.0, ISO 200 ~ I know it was dangerous to handhold this one but it worked fine! Window light on my bed! LOL!

~ Lulu

I just got back...

...from church and it was lovely. All about Fairtrade and supporting businesses that don't exploit workers. The little ones did a lovely play of The Feeding of the 5,000...I wished I'd brought my camera. Anyways, I will be back later with pictures but I will share one from last night just using Tungsten lighting @ 1.8, 1/100 and ISO 400.

It's pouring right now, has been for about 5 days non-stop minus yesterday so haven't had much time to get out and take some pictures. My sister let me take the above of her, I promised her face wouldn't be in it...but I did get a few when she wasn't looking! I am going through a B/W phase at the moment which is fun - I'm normally ALL colour ALL the time! This is her fave book.

I have been feeling completely blah about my work the past couple of days, it seems like all the work I have done has unravellled and I am back to where I started! Rubbish as ever. Please give advice on how to get your mojo back...if anyone needs it, I do! Thanks for everything!

~ Lulu

Post Script: How do you like the music? I did have Sweet Little Sixteen by Chuck Berry on there, my favourite song of all time, but changed it to Little Bitty Pretty One by Thurston Harris. One of my favourite songs again....reminds me of the movie Matilda. Don't you just love that film, and book? =) Anyways, do you like it? And if not, you can click the little green button and it'll turn off. But anyone who doesn't like Thurston Harris should NOT be visiting my blog LOL! My musical tastes do not coincide whatsoever with most my age. =) Like many other things I like but I am who I am and I love that!!!!!!

It's Saturday!

No more school for the weekend. I'm kinda sad but at least I have more time...time to knit, time to smile, to slow down, to read, to do homework, to read your blogs, to take a long bath, to write my book, to finish sewing my dress...time for whatever Louise wants. =) I love 'me' time. I love school so much, more than you could even imagine, but sometimes it's such a chaotic pandemonium that it's nice to have days off to spend time doing what you love.

Recently on blogs of fellow 365ers I have heard photographers saying that Photo of the Day is getting tedious. I just wanted to say DON'T give up! I love all your images and reading your thoughts and stories and would miss you all if you quit! So keep snapping that shutter. =)

I went to help at Brownies last night, like I do every week. I love them, they are such sweet kids. I couldn't find the keys to the church hall anywhere and I became more and more frustrated not being able to find them. I figured 'Brown Owl' would bring a set along so off I went to the church, in the pouring rain, carrying the Brownie box and stereo. By this time Brownies was 10 minutes late starting. All the girls (ages 7-10, Brownies is the younger version of Girl Scouts) and their parents were waiting outside the hall. I had to break the news that there might not be Brownies tonight. We waited for Brown Owl though, hoping she'd brought the keys with her. We played Stuck in the Mud in the pouring rain, we laughed, we talked, they told me about their week at school, they danced in the rain, we sung, we read stories and eventually Brown Owl turned up without the keys.

"Ohh!" little Abby said, "I was so looking forward to Brownies this week." Similar cries of disappointment began to surface around the group of children and even their mothers! I guess they were excited about having the night off! I wanted it to go ahead, I love helping with the girls and they love me like a sister.

"Alright then," said Brown Owl, "I'll go and get the keys from home."

It was dark, it was pouring with rain and it was cold - so we all sheltered under our umbrellas and sang campfire songs... "This little light of mine", "My Ship Sailed to China" and "I Once Knew a Boy named Joe" ... it was beautiful. Standing outside the church in the yard, 15 little girls and me, as well as their parents, singing whilst the Heavens continued to pour rain down on us. There's something about people singing that always makes me smile.

After an eternity, Brown Owl turned up. Brownies was almost over! But we marched into the hall and dried ourselves off. The parents went home and we mixed up some orange squash and handed out custard creams. They practised their dance for the gang show, we played Duck, Duck, Goose and we sang again.

"I'm glad there's Brownie Guides tonight, " Rhi said to me. "I love you." And she gave me a huge hug. Just wanted to share that little analogy. =)

Today I have a self-portrait to share. I didn't take it today but last week sometime. I liked it. It epitomises me and what I am like. My hair blowing in the wind, smiling and looking happy. That's me. I took a ton of other photos today but none of them I like as much as this one. I kind of feel that my photography needs to take a new direction, aside from flowers and soft pictures, so watch this space! See you soon! ~ Lulu

Just another post.

My parent's evening went great. =) Amazing. I loved it so. The teachers were all lovely. Even Physics. And I have to tell you, I am the worst at Physics in the world. My English teacher was the nicest. I love her, she's such a great teacher! I love English too.

Blossom is blooming here. It feels like spring is coming. A time for new birth and hope and love. I have to choose my subjects for next year by Monday. It's a big decision! I think I will choose Literature, German, Religious Studies...and something else. I'm not sure. See you all tomorrow. Thanks for reading! And sorry if my blog is terribly tedious! I'm kinda slumping right now, too many flowers and not enough people! I guess it's the pollen. ;=) So no photos to share. I did take some but none anybody would care to look at!

~ Lulu

Toy Cars~

LOL The owner of this little car wouldn't let me snap a single photograph of her but she let me borrow her car for the shoot! =) I LOOOVE shooting @ 2.8...produces marvellous circular bokeh with my 50mm. Hopefully will be getting a new lens soon, maybe the Sigma 30mm 1.4! Yay! Anyone have any reviews?

I have to go to school for 'Parent's Evening', am really worried - although they'll all just say I'm great but too quiet. I know it off by heart. Wish me luck! See you all tomorrow. TFL! ~ love Lulu ;) Oh, and Happy Saint David's Day!!!!!!