Did you miss me?

Did you? These last few days have been action-packed, utterly chaotic, hectic, crazy and above all, FUN! You know when life speeds up so fast that you have no choice to fall head over heels in love with it and go along for the ride? That's what it has been like. In between exam revision, homework, a certain aunt's birthday, cycle rides, cooking, reading, a visit to Casualty with my sister, sun, rain and love; I STILL managed to snap lots of pictures. Hope you're ready to see lots!

Friday was fabulous. :) As always! School was the utmost fun and then I cycled over to Brownies; who were as delighted to see me as I was to see them. We had three new Brownies; K, L and K; who are adorably sweet and who I cannot wait to get to know better. Everyone got delightfully dizzy on the tyre swing in the park and exclaimed "Make Me Giddier" at least 100 times over!

Yesterday it was my aunt's birthday so she came over and we had a little party, with cake of course! It was chocolate and had chocolate sprinkles all over it that perfectly contrasted with the pure white icing...I know, it's only a cake but w/e! :)

Then we all went to the a nearby woods...since I last visited the trees have grown glorious green leaves and the ground has bloomed into colour with bluebells and elderflower and apple trees as far as the eye can see. I LOVE summer - the season of flowers and ice-cream and sun and holiday and bliss...and I can just tell in my heart that it is on its way!

And I absolutely promised Cousin Thomas that I would share the following picture, and how could I not! He just learnt to ride his bicycle without stabilisers/training wheels and although the tyres were flat as can be he had SO much fun! Congratulations Tom!!

Today's picture is of me, well sort of! :) I have the blondest hair which is subject to rather a lot of torment (as well as admiration :P as the majority of my class is of Asian descent and have dark hair) and Ellen inspired me to break out the wide angle and have a go at including some of me in pictures! So I did. *skip the following if you HATE lens talk!*...I had forgotten how much I love playing around with 18mm, so much so that I might swap my 35mm for a 17-50mm 2.8 or something. :) Yay! Anyways...me and my hair....

I also want to thank everyone for being so encouraging, so kind and so sweet! And those who read everyday! Yes, that means YOU! Yes, YOU! :P I don't know what I'd do without you! Anyway, happy days! I promise never to not blog for that long again! Promise!

Love your friend, Lulu. =)

Tomorrow is Friday.

I like Fridays. Not for the reasons most people like them but still, they're fun. The time before the glorious freedom of the weekend, but everyone's *always* in a good mood because it's practically Saturday. Friday is the day, I always think, when people act as if they're on happy pills. I wish they could act like that every single day. I try to! :)

Today I wasn't really bothered about taking pictures. You know when you see someone else's pictures and as much as they inspire you, you also realise how your images pale in comparison to theirs? It's kind of discouraging! :P But I did, at about 9pm after sunset inside with my little sister, my best friend in the world. I had to use flash (yes, the on-camera dreaded one talked about only in hushed whispers of horror and terror within photography circles)! But it was fun. Memories are memories are memories, don't ya think?

She loves Clarice Bean. Yes, she's twelve. But who said growing up slowly was a bad thing?! Plus tomorrow, skipping back to the I-love-Friday ramble (hope you are keeping up okay!), is the first week back at Brownies/Girl Scouts/a bunch of crazy and undeniably sweet 7-10 year olds all together in one church hall in London. :) I missed them. We took off 5 weeks for the Easter break and it was sad not to be able to look forward to hearing what all the little girls have done during the week and drawing millions of flowery pictures for me and hugging me round the legs. They're the sweetest kids. In case you don't know I'm the 'young leader' which means I just wander around and help them out and stuff with anything they're stuck with and I supervise activities and things. I love it. It's great fun. We have three new ones coming tomorrow which should be fun as well. I'll let you know how it goooooes. :)

ANYWAY since I have been rather mischevious and neglected to post yesterday I'll share a few recent pictures. Do you like Marmite? They say you either love it or you hate it. It's a really English thing is Marmite. Do you have it in America? It's gloopy spread with the same consistency as Nutella that's the colour of dark chocolate and has a sharp tangy taste. It's absolutely delicious. The Australians prefer Vegemite but believe me, it is no match to Marmite. I have it in my sandwiches every day at school.

ISO 100, 1/400, f/5.6 (this was my first time shooting at 5.6 with the 50 and my oh my, that bokeh is absolutely divine)!

Plus I couldn't not share our little kitty kat, Miss C. Her sister unfortunately has been diagnosed with Photographer's Cat Syndrome and runs at the sight of my lens but Miss C is as willing a model as ever.

Hope you all have a beautiful evening! Have a great Friday as well. Hopefully I'll have more invigorating images then to share!!

Love Miss L.

Ride Safely.

I just wanted to remind everyone to force their children to wear a helmet when riding their bicycles, or remind themselves! I know I sometimes forget, and I cycle practically everywhere, and it's really easy to forget. I say this because today I started an assignment to take photographs for fliers and leaflets and posters about the importance of wearing a helmet when cycling. Not just me, for schools...a lot of people are involved because recently a little girl in our community was knocked off her bike when riding. She had such severe brain damage that her parents decided to take her off life support and she died almost instantly. The doctors said she would never walk or talk again. :( If she had been wearing a helmet the damage done would have been significantly reduced. And the sad thing is that she wore one all the time, she just forgot that one day...and that happened to be her unlucky day. So ride safely, and appreciate every single day you are given. :)

Glad you all liked my video! Have a great day! Love Miss L. :)

Look! It's me!

Today it was such an overcast day and I took a few pictures but I'd rather share this :) Also the company agreed to repair my 35mm free of charge and my team won our match at school today! :) So a great day. I feel delightfully blessed sometimes. Anyway, hope you like my accent and enjoy! ;) I'm a little crazy but what's new?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umjR59dotSU

Just with the dreaded 'point & shoot' cam so no complaints about quality pretty please. =) YT made me funny and pixelated and permanently sunburnt but I'm not like that in real life... :P

I make FAB milkshakes. ;)

Today my 35mm broke! :( I just think I'm lucky I have another lens (the 50), what would I do if I didn't? :) Phew! So it's back to the 50mm. Hopefully I can give it back as I only got it last week and it has a 6 month warranty anyway. It completely refuses to focus, and in manual focus the focus ring becomes stuck. Shame but it could be worse, of course!

I took a lot of pictures today, at random intervals in between making vanilla milkshakes with my sister - we make the best milkshakes EVER! If you're ever in London, stop by and we'll make you one. Seriously, you won't ever want to leave after you've tasted it. :) The secret is three teaspoons of vanilla essence. ;) Ssssh!

New flowers are blooming everywhere; up and down and side to side. It's lovely to see our garden come to life now spring is here. I'm making the most of the beautiful light now we're in British Summertime!

I tried to take some photographs for our school's digital photography competition today - the theme is People & Places - but didn't get much worth entering. I had an idea of a whole pile of books in our field of bluebells, as if nature had been invaded by humanity, but it didn't quite come out as planned. Is it too abstract? It does look better bigger but no can do on this above-400 pixel-width-blog of mine! My school is a little primitive as far as photography goes. Photography is not offered as a subject, there is no photo club, no photo department, no nothing. Hmm, maybe I should start one! The competition is judged by a Physics teacher, of all people, with no prior photography knowledge... ;) If you see what I mean... :P

I don't know about you, but I love to cycle. I use my dad's bicycle and I cycle everywhere. I hardly ever go by train or bus anymore - I just cycle. It's quick and easy, non-polluting (a big plus for eco-friendly-old-me) and so good for you. Plus it's simply pleasant to feel the wind blowing through your hair as you pedal through cornrows and bluebell fields to get to your preferred destination. So an ode to my bicycle!

And last but not least, my old camera. You've seen it a hundred and three times before; but I was practising B/W!

Now I really have to go study...really, and go swimming. I hope you have an absolutely fantastic evening (or day, depending on where you live on this big wonderful planet of ours - that's not sarcastic either!)...Love Lulu xxxxxx

PS> Sorry for the ramble and did I mention how much I adore adore adore this music? Sigh, it makes me feel so happy! And sorry for the huge watermarks; I found out some photos of mine were stolen yesterday so better safe than sorry. :)

Happiness.

Funny how some things unleash a happiness in you, a stillness and a feeling of fulfilment that makes you stop and see how blessed you are? This song (on my blog) makes me feel like that. It makes me feel like I can do anything, go anywhere and be anyone I want to be. Gotta love Michael Buble (plus he's not bad looking either!)

I was thinking recently how excited I am about what the world holds in store for me. I am only young and I feel so invigorated by the prospect of growing up and meeting new people and doing things I had never dreamt of in my wildest dreams. I do love being a child. Of course, in most people's eyes I am not ...for I am sixteen, but for me I feel as if I am still one. Still involved in those fleeting young years of glorious summers and cold yet happy winters, years of perpetual happiness and a love for life that I hope will never leave me. Even when I "grow up".

I want to be able to look back on these times with a broad smile as wide as the Amazon and remember them with joy. That's why I adore photography, I suppose. And that's why I journal and write and compile my memory books from time to time. I added some pictures to my memory book today (I should have been studying, but which would you pick?!) ... my memory book is a beautiful parchment bound book with hundreds of pages waiting to be filled that I picked up at a Christmas market in Germany last year. It is not nearly full and the prospect of all those memories still waiting to happen, still waiting to be documented in my book, gives me a warm syrupy feeling like sweet toffee inside. I stick photographs and book tokens and train tickets and school lunch passes in it - all the little things I never want to forget. If you don't have one, you should make one. To hold it in your hands and know it is a document of YOU is simply wonderful. :)

And it wouldn't be a proper entry without a colour picture, can you believe I just posted THREE images in B/W?!

All @ 2.8, 1/160, ISO 200. Thank you so much for visiting, I appreciate your kindness more than words can say. :)

L x

So.

Sorry that I didn't post for two days. Things have been pretty hectic around here, to say the least. Hectic, sad, happy, joyful, busy, invigorating, shocking. So much has happened. My friend in Virginia, Jessica, lost a friend in the Virginia Tech Shootings. I am sure they shocked all of you as much as they did me. I wanted to fly right over and cry with my friend for the person she would never see again. I once read in a book that you should pin red ribbons around your house and garden if someone close to you dies. So even though the school shooting was 4000 miles away, I felt the need to pay my respects somehow.

Besides that I have had at least a few thousand

pieces of schoolwork and meetings to attend and essays to write. It's all fun though. My national examinations (a hugely massive colossal 21 of them!!!!) start on May 10th so I am working hard for them as well. I had to go to a lecture yesterday about attending Oxford/Cambridge (most prestigious universities in the country) which I would absolutely adore to do but there's no chance I'd get in. No chance. Anyway...I just had time to snap a daisy. In this flurry of activity and schoolwork and terror in schools, this daisy seemed hopeful as its head poked above the grass. It almost seemed to be a sign. A sign saying "Don't worry. Don't give up." I liked this daisy. :)

And my favourite ever teacher Mrs. J is leaving at the end of the year. She's the best, so I'll savour the lessons we have left I guess. Hopefully I'll be feeling more upbeat tomorrow - just the things that happen in this world...they sometimes hit you with full force and remind you of the wrongs and evils. Don't you sometimes wish you could sit comfortably in a little bubble or in a field of flowers where everything could be hunky-dory? I have days like that. But we have to face it. Something I always tell myself, there is MUCH more good in this world than bad. Much. Let's dwell on that. :)

The bluebells bloomed...

...and summer arrived. We had temperatures sky high today. I am so glad summer is here, sunshine is kind of an antidote for all the things gone wrong, I think. It smooths out the creases and puts a smile on everybody's face. :)

I just snapped these now. I love them. I couldn't tell you why. They are by no means perfect, they are technically incorrect in a thousand and one ways but I like them. I guess it's like Hans Christian Andersen said, “Just living is not enough... One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”

I hope summer has found you, wherever you are. May you have an extraordinary day! :) ~ Love Lulu xxxxxx

Can you say 'attitude'?

I guess she's almost a teenager. :) I loved this one. Sorry for the lack of a ramble (although you'll probably be relieved!)...but I promise to be back. I just need to go and study. ♥

ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/1000...with the 35 2.o (I LOVE this thing)! ;-)

No, she's a sweetie really...this has to be the coolest book, it even has "How To Become A Photographer" in it!

ISO 100, f/2, 1/400, 35mm

Love Miss Lulu. Happiness be with you. :)

I ♥ the postman. :)

My 35mm lens arrived. I decided that if I was going to have to endure so many injections, my dreaded fear, I should at least treat myself. I had some money saved up and found a *great* deal on a 35mm f/2 ... so it's here! First impressions? :) Hmmm, wider than expected, sharp, rather noisy focus and rubbish build but I like it! :P Here's just my VERY first shots that I pulled off the card. I will share more interesting and technically correct later when I get some more time to play. I was just chilling, eating my macaroni cheese and cucumber, and reading my Physics notes when I heard the knock on the door. I couldn't thank the postman enough! :D Oh, and I looooove the close focusin distance!

Mostly @ f/2-2.8, 1/800-1/1000 and all at 100 ISO. Lovin' the bokeh on this little lens. :D Plus it is s-h-a-r-p...that second one is SOOTC at f/2. :)

The package on our landing ;)

Fed up of hyacinths? I am, was just testing the focus!!

Old hot chocolate mug at f/2...

See, told ya they were boring! off to cycle to my grandparents' house. I'll take the camera and shoot something more interesting! :0) ~ Lulu

Can you turn my black roses red?

Do you like my music? I just love it. It's from my favourite film in the whole word, and it epitomises my day today. Such a down day, constantly worrying about my dentist appointment, but when I got there I was fine and the new dentist ('the cackling witch' as we affectionately nicknamed her emigrated to Australia) was absolutely lovely. So you could definitely say my black roses turned red. My mouth is still numb (I had to have a whopping FIVE injections but they didn't really hurt) but I feel like the bravest girl in the world! :)

My cousin came round for tea and we played in our blue tent that I love to snuggle up in at twilight and read, or more likely these days revise! I was telling him about my oh-so-not-bad ordeal at the dentist and he relished in relaying every detail about his latest visit to the 'tooth doctor' (tell me that is not adorable!) ... when they sedated him to take two teeth out, he said the needle went so deep it almost came out of the other side of his hand! :P He was happier than he looks in that second one, btw! For those that asked, this little guy is also the one who graces my header image ~ Thomas, his name is. =)

And, lastly, my brown dress. This dress is pretty new but I just love it! I practically *live* in dresses in the spring and summer...and skirts. My friends think it's a little weird that I won't wear mini-skirts or anything but I love how I dress! The only stipulation is that they have to 'twirl'. =P So that when I spin around or dance or jump, they spin with me. I just love that feeling, kwim? So when I saw my little brown dress hanging on the washing line, with the gorgeous light and blue skies, I had to snap it. Mundane as it may seem, I love this dress. My old faithful. ;) ISO 100, 1.8, 1/1600

Thanks for reading ~ I truly truly do appreciate your kind words and comments. :) ~ lulu

I got my first prints. :)

Today. It was so exciting to come downstairs this morning and find the envelope sitting on the doormat, just waiting to be ripped open and oohed and aahed over. :) That's just what I did! My aunt gave me a beautiful photograph album for my birthday and I filled some of the pages with the pictures; I could look at it for hours. Just the feel and the beautiful memories I will forever treasure.

Today I feel happy. It's just past noon, and although I have a ton of things to get on with - Latin, History, posting letters, Chemistry, tidying my room - I feel relaxed. Do you ever have days like that? Everything just seems perfect. It isn't - but when you string all the little things together, think of all the minute good things in your day; you have reasons as big as this world to be happy about. :) Just something I realised once and although I often forget how lucky I am, I remembered today how cherished we truly are.

I think it was the music that did it. :) I love music. It has such power to evoke memories and emotions - you can cry with it, laugh, dance...anything you want! It's beautiful. I was listening to a favourite song and I just wanted to get up and dance...twirl around and let my dress swirl around me and my hair too. KWIM? Music can make or break a film, make you think of people or events you thought you had forgotten and instil in us a happiness that we never knew was possible. *sigh* What a great thing. (The track was Unwritten, Ellen you'd like it!)

I also want to thank everyone who makes this blog what it is. I love coming back to read comments and to respond to questions. It's great. So thanks. A million. ~ Lulu

Welcome to pottery class~

Wow, what a busy day! My friend M came over (see above!) to study for our exams but we ended up joining my sister Eleanor's pottery class in the back yard, although we did revise a little Macbeth too. ;) Then my friends Sasha and Ria visited for dinner, we've been friends since age 5 and I just love them...and their mother too. It was great fun looking at old pictures and remembering. I do believe that's the best part about life really, looking back and remembering the best parts. :)

Oh gosh, don't I sound old? I sound like I'm about 85 or something! That's what my mother always used to say; I was an old woman in a little girl's body! I used to read Hamlet and French plays (had to look up practically every word in the dictionary!) and write novels and host Victorian tea parties. My friends thought I was really strange...I guess i was, and still am. But I'm happy.

Tomorrow I really must do some hard studying. I keep procrastinating, and these exams are really really important. I am also going bridesmaid dress shopping in central via tube with my aunt and sister. She's getting married in July at long last and although I won't get to photograph much, I am looking forward to being bridesmaid. :) I've only been one once before, when I was 6. I think she's going for teal dresses which should be pretty.

Only two days until my filling, eek. I am soo soo worried...just trying not to think about it but I stil do. :( Anyways, love you all! ~ Lulu

A Self-Portrait.

I love this skirt. It twirls and swirls and it makes me feel like a proper young lady. It's soft and silky and frilly, and I just love it! Anyway, I just liked this one. :)

"Just around the corner in every woman's mind - is a lovely dress, a wonderful suit, or entire costume which will make an enchanting new creature of her." ~Wilhela Cushman

I am in the process of clearing up my hard-drive. I don't know how it ever got THIS disorganised. My RAW files take up a lot of space and I only had 2% left of space. Eek! I don't delete the OOF ones or anything so have been doing that. By accident I deleted on of my novels, an unfinsished one that I wrote in the summer. My favourite. :) I managed to recover it but it won't open. I do so hope I get it back. I might have a hard copy somewhere but if not then those beautiful words will be lost forever. Sometimes I despair over modern technology. Need to go burn my pictures to the external hard-drive.

Love, Lulu :)

Happy Good Friday. =)

Hope you all have a simply lovely Easter weekend. Don't eat too much chocolate. I have been studying, not too much but a little, and hoping to go to church on Sunday. We don't go that regularly but I just love it when we do. The community spirit is overwhelming and I love imagining that I am visitng God's house, so to speak. :)

Yesterday I watched the film "The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants". I loved the books and I love the movie equally - everyone should watch it...it was beautiful. The music and the photography and the outfits...oh, it was just sincerely amazing! I didn't feel it as much in the books but in the film I realised how much like Lena I am. I don't think I have ever related to a character more than that EVER. It felt like finding a friend.

I practised in low light today, you can see those snaps on ILP, he is the sweetest 6-year-old ever. :) Well, I think so. He reminds me of a quotation I absolutely adore:

May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day.May songbirds serenade you every step along the way.May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue.And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.~Irish Blessing

I wish this for him. Can you think of anything better? I know I can't. :)

ISO 800, 1/125, 1.8 with the 50mm

Does anyone here have the 85mm? I am considering this versus the 30mm, I could do with a telephoto. Anyways, would love to hear your thoughts! =) Thanks for reading.

Pandemonium.

Woah, this my third time writing this post! Kept getting a blogger error. :(
Life has been busy. I went to a study skills course on Monday and Tuesday which was a lot of fun and really helpful. Met some nice kids too! Today I had to go to the dentist. My biggest phobia is needles, it stays with me all the time, and so you can just imagine my reaction when I found out my filling needs replacing next week. I figure I'll try to keep it out of mind until then.

Mindy, you'll be pleased to know I found my camera! My mummy put it in the kitchen cabinet for safe-keeping. Phew! It was killing me to not be able to shoot when the light outside was so beautiful. Thankfully I found it around 4 so there was still some nice light left! I shot manual again and it really did make a difference to the quality of my shots. Truly! The first one is SOOC. I'll share settings because my EXIF always gets wiped out when I convert from RAW - anyone know what is up with that? :)

@ 1.8, 1/1000, ISO 100


I also made a tutu out of some leftover tulle that I found lying around our house. Only me (or my sister, in a rare compromising mood, to model it) so the chair had to suffice. Fun though! I really like the colour. =)
@ 2.8, 1/800, ISO 200


I really need to get some portraits of my sister...she has grown so much that she needs all new clothes! 12-year-old growth spurt I guess! We are lucky to be able to have such luxuries, a lot of people don't. I always try to be grateful for that, although I sometimes forget.
@ 1.8, 1/400, ISO 100


Thanks for stopping by,. I really do appreciate it! love Miss Lulu. ;)

Great light!

...but no camera! I left it on the kitchen table and now it's gone. I have looked everywhere for the thing and it's just nowhere to be seen! My mum's out so no hope of asking her either. The light outside is perfect and it is driving me CRAZY not being able to shoot!

I have so much to tell you and lots to share but no time to do either, need to look for the camera. Will be back with (good, I hope!) news pretty soon (again, I hope). :)

~ Lulu

[insert creative title] :)

Hello everyone! I'm back! Thanks for all your beautiful comments on the last post, it's really nice to have comments and people reading my blog. I know, I know...I say it everytime but it's true! I promise!

This might well be a *long post* (well, I have to make up for yesterday's absence, don't I?!) so if you hate rambles close the window right NOW! LOL. First, I'm glad you all found my post-processing stuff interesting as only fellow photographers would. Stacey, sorry I was mean to your JPEGs but I do love my RAW! To answer questions, I shoot in Adobe RGB as my colour space and my camera parameters are +1 contrast and +2 sharpening. Everything else is at the big zero. :)

Now we have the boring stuff out of the way let's get onto the more interesting (well, hopefully) stuff. I loved being at my grandad's house. My grandmother died 18 months ago, she had Alzheimer's, and my grandfather is one of the strongest people I know. He cared for her right until the end even though she had no idea who he was anymore and he's still smiling today. In fact, he laughs at everything! I love my grandad.



It was nice being able to spend 'quality time' with my sister too. She's the complete opposite to me...pretty cheeky, very loud, boisterous, funny and very sporty. We're best friends all the same. Well, most of the time anyway! We had Easter egg hunts in our grandfather's garden and we played cards and hide and seek and it was just fun. He lives in the heart of the countryside and we don't often stay the night so it was nice to this once. just one snap I loved...my sister was co-operative for photos, as long as her face wasn't in it! LOL! Defeats the object really but of course I didn't turn down the chance. :) B&W or colour?





My grandfather has an equally mischevious dog, a Westie...a nice dog who doesn't try to kill you and your cat. I love little Tilly Mint...such a sweetheart! We had ice-cream today and she gave me these massive impossible-to-refuse puppy dog eyes until I gave her some. She sure knows how to get her way, that one, but seriously you just can't say no to her! My mum and I took her for loads of walks since my grandad lives literally in a filed by the beach. I didn't get many beach pictures sadly because it was so windy and I was told to be careful because the sand can get in yours lens focusing mechanism and make it faulty so I was kinda wary about that! Did get a couple of keepers from our early morning walks though. :) It's lambing season too so there were beautiful baby lambs in all the fields, some of them only hours old. One came up and nuzzled into my legs and my heart just stood still for a moment, it was so beautiful and fluffy and young.





See, aren't the lambs just gorgeous? *insert massive red heart*! We also went to this beautifuly dinky little shop by the beach where my mum bought some cute birthday presents for her friends and some fun Easter treats. It was run by these two Danish ladies who were totally cool and talked to use for hours! They even gave me this special sweetie thingymajig they had left over from Christmastime and as soon as I saw it, I just thought how perfect it would be in a picture. I couldn't bear to eat any because it was so pretty so I left it with my grandad! Isn't it just sooo cute? :)



I told you so! Anyway, my mum wants me to teach her photography. I said I would, in the summer, and it'll be nice to actually have some photos of me. I cannot wait until the long glorious summer after my exams when I'll have nothing to do but laze around in the sun and take pictures and read long novels. *sigh* Pure bliss. Here's one my mum took of me today though, excuse the film-starrish look going on....LOL I look a bit haughty I guess but I promise I'm not at all! LOL. Isn't my mum a pretty good photog? This was practically sooc for her minus sharpening!



And's that's it! Wow, what a big post! I swear I have never posted that many images in one go. Hope I didn't bore you tooooooo much. :) Thanks for reading. Love Miss Lulu.