My brand new Nikon D800 arrived earlier this week.

Unfortunately, thanks to a retailer I will never use again, there’s a really unpleasant story that goes along with it.  Part of me wanted to put the entire story here and let Google preserve it for all of time, but what good is revenge at this point?  The damage has been done, and I have responded by buying my lenses, memory cards, Black Rapid and my parents’ HD video camera elsewhere.

If you’re buying a new camera in Australia I suggest you do the same.

I took the day off work yesterday so that I could go to an appointment, and while I ate my breakfast I heard the screeches of a flock of cockatoos as they flew over my house.  I’ve heard them a few times lately, but they tend to fly overhead and disappear before I have time to grab my camera.  This time they stayed, and at one point they even gathered on my front lawn as a group to nibble the grass.  There must have been 200 birds.

The photos are beautiful, but they don’t even begin to explain just how many birds there were yesterday.  Cars driving down my street were honking their horns to scare the birds off the road so that they could pass.  People came out of their houses and gathered on the footpath to watch the spectacle.  At one point about one hundred birds flew directly over me – just two metres above my head – and I had to dive for cover in case I was bombed!  The dog almost lost his mind at that point.

It was this wonderful, magical experience that lasted for about 10 minutes.  I felt so lucky to have been home that morning, to have had my lovely new camera in my hand, and to have been able to capture some of the magic without really knowing my way around the new gear yet.

It was almost as though the Universe was trying to help dispel some of the negativity I was holding on to.  A little bit of fairy dust in the form of a flock of birds, and a morning at home so that I could enjoy them.

This camera really does change everything for my photography.  I am such a lucky girl.

When I decided that I was going to take a self-portrait once per month for 1001 days I thought it would be a breeze.  After all, how hard could it be to put myself on the other side of a camera every 4 weeks?

It should be easy, but I came really close to forgetting this month.  I had all of the time in the world over the weekend to take my self-portrait but it never once crossed my mind to do so.  Not until I was driving home from work tonight, with a splitting headache behind my eye, did I remember that today was the last day of April.

Bugger.

So here is the very best I could manage.  It’s the face of a girl who was on her feet for most of the day, but was clever enough to wear a wedge instead of skyscraper heels.  It’s a photo of somebody who eventually had to kick off her shoes completely to move furniture when the other guy didn’t show up, and made sure everyone else met a deadline.  She’s the girl whose laptop crashed and destroyed an hour’s work (but she didn’t lose her temper), and who made time to help somebody that nobody else wanted to deal with.

A girl who finally microwaved her lunch at 3.15pm, and ate it cold at 4pm; desperately in need of two Panadol, but too busy to walk the 50m to go and get it.

More importantly, the girl in the photo managed to get so much done at work today that she wasn’t about to drop the ball on her own little project.  It may not be beautifully lit, and the circles under her eyes may be darker than usual, but it’s done.

And it’s me.

A photo of me, one day in April.

If you’ve ever driven the Great Ocean Road you already know how beautiful it is.  The beaches are rocky and rugged, the wildlife is abundant, and the waves kick up enough salt and mist to make the sunsets even more spectacular.  It’s truly one of the best stretches of coastline that I’ve ever experienced and the journey is always worth the slight motion sickness that I get towards the end!

A couple of months ago my big brother told me that he was going to be in town for his friend’s wedding, and he mentioned that he’d never seen The Great Ocean Road or the Twelve Apostles.  Obviously we had to make it happen, so we packed the car (and the puppy) for a long weekend and made a road trip out of it!

We’re lucky to have friends in Apollo Bay who run a bed & breakfast, so planning our trip was a breeze.  The accommodation is incredible and I’m going to have to devote an entire post to it!

Our trip down the coast was just spectacular.  It was clear and sunny, but not hot.  Harry was calm the entire way, and approached each stop with enthusiasm and a waggy tail.  It was a really happy day.

How’s that for a sunset?

By this stage of the journey we were almost at our destination.  We were having our friends up to the house for dinner so we knew we had to get there and unpack quickly or they’d be starving!  However, we couldn’t resist one last stop when we noticed a bunch of cars pulled over on the side of the windy road.  It could only mean one thing…

Koalas, in the wild!  It was about this time that I realised what a city kid I have become, as the only koalas I’ve seen in the past decade have been in zoos.

(Don’t believe what you see on TV, Americanos.  Well, except for the kangaroos.  We all have one of those to commute to work.)

So that was Day 1 of our wonderful long weekend.  More photos to come!

Yesterday afternoon I wandered down St Kilda Rd to the Albert Park Lake, just as the sun was beginning to set.  It’s a beautiful little oasis in the heart of Melbourne, and also my favourite new spot to run.  One lap of the lake is close to 5km so it’s ideal for this stage of my training.

And besides, there are just so many beautiful things to look at.  There are graceful black swans, who occasionally dip their heads underwater and wiggle their little butts in the air.  The talkative, quacking ducks.  There were lorikeets and seagulls and other waterbirds whose names I don’t know.  The setting sun bathed all of this in a spectacular golden light yesterday and it was all a bit magical.

This time I didn’t bring my running shoes, just my camera.  My precious Nikon D200 will be heading to its new home in about 10 days time, and for the first time in about seven years I will be without a camera!  I mean, sure… I’ll still have my iPhone and my film SLR body and my Fujifilm Instax Mini 25 and my assorted lenses, but…

Yeah, don’t feel too sorry for me.

Especially since my brand new Nikon D800 is winging its way to me as we speak.

(There are not enough exclamation points in the world to convey how excited I am about this, so I’ll just use one!)

And best of of all?  My D200 is going to an excellent home – its grandparents’ place!  My dad used to be an excellent landscape photographer, but sort of lost interest over the years.  I’m hoping that the instant gratification of a digital SLR will reignite some of that passion.

Mum will take lots of photos of her garden, and her family.  I’m so happy to be handing over custody to those two.

I’ll take it out for one last spin weekend after next, when we head to Apollo Bay and The Twelve Apostles for a couple of days.  I’d hoped to be breaking in the new camera on this trip, but in some ways I’m happy to be giving my D200 such a great send-off.

Challenge #100 of my 101 Things in 1001 Days project is to take a self-portrait every month.  I don’t often put myself on the other side of the camera (except for the occasional “selfie” on Instagram) and I have to admit that this particular task is a little daunting!

I’ve set up a separate page to house my 33 portraits, so you can head over there to check out my January photo.  It’s nothing special (just a snap on my Fuji Instax Mini 25), but hey – it still counts!

I hope to make my self-portraits as varied as possible over the 1001 day period – different cameras, different post-processing techniques, different locations.  Some will be posed and artistic, others will be more spontaneous.

The photo above is my February 2012 photo.  I am forever indebted to the Gregorian calendar for giving me a 29th day in February in which to complete this task!

That dog is such a photobomber <3

Dear Melbourne,

Thank you for the balloons this morning while I was on my way to work, and for the excellent sunset you put on for us tonight.

You are really good at skies.

I promise to use a tripod next time.

Love,

Elizabeth (your biggest fan)

The theme of Day 23 in the 30 Day Photo Challenge is creativity and until a few minutes ago there was a great big post that accompanied my photo.  Creativity is a subject that is very close to my heart, and something that I’m trying to find my way back to after a creative slump that lasted a few years.

The post I deleted talked a lot about what happens to a musician when she moves cities and leaves her network (and piano) behind.  It was a little bit mopey.  You’ll have to believe me, because it’s gone now.

I think it’s healthier to focus on the ways that my creativity is being nurtured.  My drawing & painting classes at the Melbourne Studio of Art have obviously inspired me greatly this year, and also equipped me with some of the skills that I’ve needed in order to get my ideas onto a page.  After 15 weeks of classes I’m drawing things that I thought beyond my reach, and when I’m not drawing with a pencil I often find myself drawing with my eyes.  These classes have really taught me to see everyday things differently and even my dreams have become more vivid and colourful.

My classes have also taught me that I might have found a way to redirect the frustration that I feel with being away from music, and turn it into something good.  When I came home from work today I grabbed a book that I’ve been altering and sketching in, and I threw a bunch of art supplies at the pages until I came up with something pretty from my imagination.  It felt good to do something fun and messy, and not worry too much about the rules.

I guess that’s why I was a jazz musician.

The A4 pages above were made from gesso, striped paper bags, acrylic paint, aquamarkers, sumi ink (and then more gesso!).  As you can see from the photo below a lot of those supplies ended up on me instead of in the book.

Day 22 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge is alarm clock.  

I recently met somebody who is a Monday Person.  Every Monday she wakes up with the assumption and expectation that it’s going to be a good day, and then she makes it happen.  With a smile!

This person talks with exclamation points about her love for Mondays.  Can you imagine what her colleagues must go through when they are at their most vulnerable?

I’m sorry.  It’s just that it’s Sunday night and I’m dreading the sound of that alarm clock at 5.30am tomorrow.  Let’s hope that I don’t run into any Monday People until I’ve finished my second coffee.

When we lived in Hawthorn we had lots and lots of possums in our street.  We used to watch them walking along the power lines as soon as the sun went down, and we often heard them running over our roof or along the fences.  A particularly amorous pair lived in the beautiful tree in our backyard and they, er, regularly expressed their feelings for the benefit of the entire neighbourhood.

That’s love, right there.

I’ve missed our little possums since moving here two years ago, although there’s been plenty of evidence that they are around somewhere.  Sometimes I’ll hear rustling in the trees late at night, or the dog will follow a scent trail that comes to a dead end at the foot of a tree.  Despite all of the signs I can only remember seeing two since moving into this house.

I guess that’s why it was so exciting to spot this tiny little ringtail possum through a gap in our broken fence.  He was a perfect little model, and although I couldn’t coax him out of his thorny hidey hole I was happy to have a little bit of camera time with him from a safe distance.

I know that not everybody likes possums, but I think their little pink noses are the best.  My favourite photo from this set is below.

Day 21 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge is gratitude.  There are so many things I could have written about and photographed on this subject – people I’m thankful for, Christmas coming up, etc – but it felt a little bit forced to write about these things because of a daily prompt.

Instead, I thought I’d share something that I was truly grateful for today – the trust and bravery of a tiny little marsupial who allowed me to sit nearby for a little while.  It’s nice to think that he’s just outside my window somewhere.

Day 20 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge is landscape.  The photo above is clearly not a landscape – it’s a photo of my homemade Christmas crackers which have been filled with cute things for Christmas Day.  I totally recommend doing this by the way – just steal some cracker snaps from the cheap store-bought versions and fill some tubes with stuff that people actually want!

So anyway, no.  It’s not a landscape.  But, it is an example of landscape orientation!

… I know.  I’m disappointed in me too.