Tonight...

 My photography course is quickly coming to an end and I've learnt so much in what feels like such a short amount of time.  I am definitely going to be looking into doing the next course next term too, so fingers crossed that I grow even more as a photographer before the year is up.  For tonight's lesson, we had to select our 10 favourite images taken since the course started.  For someone so totally indecisive, that's almost impossible...  Still, looking back on what I've learnt in even these few weeks, I'm astounded.

Basically, I've chosen pictures that I like.  Yes, there are some of Jake and yes, some of them may not be totally perfect and yes, I do have more than 10... not many more, but you know me...

 This is still one of my favourites...

 And these poles inside a bird hide at Intaka...

 I have loved the challenges that I've had to overcome and the new way I've had to train my brain to think about layout and lighting and motion and framing.  I haven't always got everything right, but, hey, that's how you learn, right.  This one shows very slight motion blur on the wings.  I've learnt that it's OK for some parts of my photos to be out of focus to show movement...

 I am eternally proud of having been the only person (so far) in our class to have won photo of the week, which meant my photo was framed and hung alongside the school's coffee bar and put up on their facebook page...

 I've learned that forests are very challenging when it comes to correct light metering and I learned that we are very, very small...

 I learned about depth of field and framing...

 On Sunday morning, despite the grim, cold, rainy weather, we went on a photo walk through Sea Point.  Just our little group.  The rain held off for most of our walk and we all managed to have a good time and snap some interesting things that we otherwise would've over looked.  Our brilliant teacher, Amy, gave us various assignments along the way.  I have learned that I like taking photos of junk...

We learned about shapes and patterns and different layouts...

 That the obvious and mundane can actually be quite interesting if you get down low and really check it out...

Seriously?  It's a drain.  I never thought it could possibly ever be pretty, but there you have it...

 Raindrops are beautiful...

 So are bolts...

 I just can't decide which is better...

Tonight we're going to be learning how to edit and I'll be using these babies to do just that.  Watch this spot and I'll share the results with you soon.

Following up on my photo story post from last week, I've finally reached a decision on a subject.  Chatting to some of the other students yesterday, I realise that I wasn't the only one struggling, but that I did have a lot of ideas to share with others.  Anyway, I've decided to make my story a very personal one and I hope that the emotions both Jake and I feel, will be sufficiently portrayed in my story.

On Saturday morning, Jake and I headed to the beautiful Buitenverwachting.  They've got a new, gorgeous coffee shop, called The Coffee Bloc, and I highly recommend a visit.  They serve breakfast and lunch and Jake's been dying for Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon for the longest time ever.  We had the most divine coffee (Jake's was decaf), made with beans that are now roasted on the farm.  Check out the super cute ellie in Jake's cup...

 We sat outside in the courtyard, but there is seating available indoors too.  I would highly recommend booking, it got pretty busy and we were lucky to get a seat...

 Inside...

 Back to my photo story... I need to re-visit the farm when the light is better, possibly early in the morning, but I do love these shots that I took on Saturday anyway and I might just end up use some of these for my story.  Unfortunately, these pictures were taken just before noon, so the light wasn't fantastic and I think sunrise will be a better time to re-do these.  There are so many memories for me at Buitenverwachting and it's time to share some of these with Jake now too...

 This cross is where Jacques' ashes were buried in September 2004.  I don't feel a particular connection to this exact place, I only ever visited it with Jacques once.  I haven't been there since the ashes were buried, so it was also the first time that Jake visited and it was a very bittersweet moment for him...

 This photo really tugs at my heartstrings.  I am so sorry that Jake has this burden to carry...

 The cross is quite shabby now, but, for the purposes of our story, I think I like it that way...

 And so that's what I'll be working on for the next week or two.  I have so many ideas to make this as great as I can.  Hopefully the photoshop lesson tonight will give me a few extra tools to help improve some of my pictures a little too.

I can't wait to share the finished project with you.

Sending so much love,

Sue XXX