Sunday, April 19, 2015

At the Football Field

This Saturday I was back in the game, shooting the first football match of the year. The last time I went shooting a game was only practice, both for me, and for the players. This time it was for real, and one could smell the excitement in the air. The teams really went all in, emotions were heated, and the audience was lively.

"Are you from the newspaper?" an elderly man asked me, as I snapped away with my happy trigger finger. "Or perhaps you are from TV?" he jested. People tend to get curious when I bring my camera out in public, it's one of the fun things about it. People often ask me about my gear and comment on what I'm shooting. "Nope, I'm just a hired amateur, shooting a friend" I answered.

Last time I shot a game, I switched lenses after halftime. However, since the macro lens turned out to be the better of the two for this particular motif, I didn't bother this time. The risk of motion blur is preferable to the limited zooming capability of my other lens. I love being able to get up close to the action from a distance, and thankfully it did its job well.

So, how went the game you may wonder? It ended 1 - 0, and my friend won, scoring the winning goal himself. Congratulations Nimmers, great showing!

/MrsHjort


Sunday, April 12, 2015

Blue Starburst


I'm so thrilled that nature is finally changing from sepia brown into color! I shot this in my garden yesterday. These blue little beauties pop up all over the place! They're a bit problematic to shoot though, since they grow in clusters and the DOF don't really work in their favor. That's why I shot this one with its twin behind it, it makes a lovely "starbursty" effect, doesn't it :)

/MrsHjort

Saturday, April 4, 2015

Unsuspected Twists

I have a lot of reasons to be happy right now. Spring is coming, next week is Easter Break, I've finally worked up the courage to join BotS on W1K, and about two weeks from now I'm starting a new job.

For those of you who have never heard of BotS, the acronym stands for the Battle of the Strippers - it's a comic challenge on W1K. I've lurked around there and read the strips for a while, just like I lurked around in the other arenas on W1K for quite some time before I joined in myself. I'm really glad I finally joined though. As always, the other members are very friendly and welcoming, and if any of you funny talented fellow "strippers" are reading this, thank you for making me feel so welcome!

So, the job thing. Well it's sort of bitter sweet. I really like my current job. My colleagues are wonderful, teaching is a lot of fun, and it's so nice to get to know so many intelligent and charming young people. However, sadly, the life of a teacher can also be immensely stressful at times. That's one of the reasons I'm leaving, and I will get a lot more free time working for my new employer. Furthermore, I got a really nice offer, a great salary, tasks that suit me very well, and on top of that, I'll be working side by side with Mr! If you've followed my blog you'll know that we've done this in the past, and it worked better than fine. I've really missed working with him, and our quirky inside jokes at the office.

Yes, life certainly takes its twists and turns sometimes, it's really funny that way. About seven years ago, I got employed on an hourly basis at the office, a year later I had moved on to working full time at a meat packaging facility, that made me go back to school to study to become a teacher, after that I've been working as one and now, six years later, the circle is complete. I'll be back at the office again, but this time I was offered full time, and a raise! But the best thing of all, is how the people at the firm make you feel so welcome. It's like coming home to your friends and family. So even though I'm sad to leave teaching, and all my wonderful colleagues at the school, I'm very happy to go back to my old job. It's going to be great!

Wish me good luck :)

/MrsHjort

My Father, a Tribute to a Kind Man

This blog post is going to be longer than usual, and even so, how can one summarize one's feelings and memories of a person within the p...