Project 365 ~ Manual Mode

Day 32 ~ 39


I am hanging out in manual mode and spending the next few days capturing close up shots of Nick's shoe! I think I feel more comfortable with having a theme as opposed to sharing random photographs. Edge plus one, ya know!

I was lying on the ground trying to get the best vantage point for the image I wanted to create. My crazy dog came to investigate and then started licking my ear. The interruption was delightful (not the wet icky tongue!) and a good reminder to enjoy life and have a laugh. Yes, I know there is a little back box in the corner! :-)

If you think this one is boring... you should have seen the others!

I am loving a focused foreground with a blurry background.

Another image showing shallow depth of field.

If you are wondering why I left a little bit of shoe out of the image,
go check out the The Gestalt Principles. 

I thought it was time to bring in some colour. 

Having a lot of fun playing around with aperture and shutter speed. 

Am slowly coming to grips with marrying the two!

Hey, guess what? I took the day off! I made a plan for Nick and then went out for lunch with two 

dear friends. Had a fabulous time, although lost all enthusiasm for today's photo challenge. 

I am so over this shoe!

Took the boys out for a milkshake and captured this image of my first born. 

Way more interesting than a boring shoe! :)

Shoe + rope + slight breeze = great opportunity to practice with my shutter speed!

Have a fabulous weekend!

I quit facebook!

Yes, that's right, I quit facebook!

Last weekend I took stock of the amount of time I spend on that particular social platform and it turned out to be a whole lot more than I feel comfortable with. What generally pulls me in are the autism articles/blogs that are being shared; I feel the need to read them all, just in case I am missing out on something! I also find myself becoming irritated with the mindless drivel that gets shared. Yeah, probably some of that is also me! :)

That irritation was starting to spill over into my day. I mean, really ~ how crazy to let online happenings effect what was going on in the 'real' world. It had become a habit to keep my phone near to me. Any notification that appeared on the screen was glanced at by me, thus disrupting what I was doing. Even going out for supper with the family was turning into an issue. Picture the scenario ~ Nick on his iPad (okay, when needs must and all that). Husband checking his emails and running group chat, first born on Whatsapp, me checking my facebook notifications. It's nuts!

It all became too much, so on the spur of the moment I decided to quit.

This past week without facebook has been fabulous. No more feelings of irritation and angst. No more being bogged down and overloaded. Lots of extra time with my family. I have even started following a TV series... me, watching TV!! I am picking up my book more often than not. I am parking off in my garden and practicing my photography while playing with the dogs.

There is a downside to being off line. I really miss my Bright Side page. I love sharing about my boy and it is the one place where I can connect with other families and hear their stories. Bright Side is a great platform for my family (Hi Mum, *waving*) and friends to also keep up to date on where we are at, should they wish. As for my personal page, I am missing my scrabble games with friends. I am missing the RDI community. I am missing the ease in which it is so convenient to quickly message a friend. I missed my nephew's Birthday. Bad Aunt for relying on facebook to remind me about important dates!

There are advantages to facebook and personally I don't think I will be away for too long. However, the break has made me realise that I need to balance out the time spent on social media. I have removed facebook from my phone and iPad. I will check in no more than once twice a day from my computer.

In the meantime, before I log back on, I am going to continue with my crazy busy week that is jam packed full of social stuff. See you all on the other side!

Cheers. xx