drie susters en ‘n ma

No 1

As promised, the photo of the burning candles.  Stii was not very impressed because the photo is blurry, I thought it was excellent (soft, romantic).  When taking this photo, the room was dark and I didn’t use any flash.  The shutter speed was on 1/8 and aperture on f3.5.  (I used one of the preset settings on the camera, night mode).

No 2

This was my second attempt tonight.  This photo was also taken on the preset “night mode” setting on the camera.  The same shutter speed of 1/8 and aperture of F3.5 is used by the preset mode.  As can be seen, the difference in natural light makes a huge difference (compare this photo to the 1st photo).

No 3

This is exactly the same photo as the 2nd one, with the only difference being that I took this photo on a manual setting, where I had to set the shutter speed and aperture myself (luckily the camera guides you in the right direction by using a vertical bar indicating when the 2 setting are in balance).  The shutter speed is 15″ and the aperture is F4.5.  As can be seen, the manual setting provides a much better quality photo than the preset “night mode”.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Photography, night shots, Canon S5IS

Stii bought me a Canon PowerShot S5IS camera some time ago.  I love taking photos of everything and anything around me, and he thought he is doing me a huge favour.  So, I fiddled around, trying to help myself but without any huge success.  I was getting more frustrated than getting joy out of the camera.  I was still using the camera on the usual “Auto” setting as then nothing can go wrong - or so I thought.  Until I started developing some of the photos … some were out of focus (even though they looked fine on the camera screen) etc.  So, I started talking to the owner of the Photo Centre.  What a nice guy! He gave me ideas of what to do and when to do it.  He came to my house tonight and explained everything (or at least what I needed to know) about Aperture & Shutter Speed.

In a nutshell the Aperture and Shutter Speed must always be in balance.  The aperture is the depth of the object that you want focus on (ie, if you want focus on a nearby object and the rest of the photo out of focus, you would use a big aperture setting and if you want everything in focus, front & back, you would use a smaller aperture setting).  Of course this setting also determines the amount of light that goes through to your photo in the end.  This setting, combined with your shutter speed should always be in balance to give you the best quality photo.

The shutter speed is the time that the shutter takes to close, ie, the amount of light it allows through.  Therefor if you take photos in a dark place, you would use a slow shutter speed to enable the camera to absorb all the necessary light it needs.  The shutter speed will also determine whether a photo is blurry or not.  If you are taking a photo of a fast moving object, you will need the shutter speed on fast.  Taking such a photo on a slow shutter speed, the object will still be moving whilst the camera’s shutter is closing therefor cause a blurry effect.

Wow, this was interesting!!  I will try to post pictures that was taken on different settings.  Of course with Stii being in Cape Town, I can’t show you my first wonderful photo of burning candles … it’s beautiful!

What a shock it was when I walked into a local store about 2 weeks ago, seeing all the christmas trimmings and trees already unpacked.  I know it sounds like a cliche, but WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS YEAR??  In 2 months time it’s Christmas and by the 25th of December, the holiday season is almost over.

When a new year starts everything looks so promising and you set your goals and feel so good about it.  And 2 weeks into the new year, most of them is forgotten and the usual takes over.  Life goes on and you try your best to stay on top of everything and half way through the year you feel that you deserve a descent break.  But there is no time to take a break … the job(s) must get done.  There is always something that is chasing you down another alley, searching for an answer to your new found question.

I remember being in school and wishing the year could get to an end. There were no rush when we were in school.  No pressure - all we had to do is see to it that you pass each standard. Life was relaxed and easy.  And slowly but surely the pace picks up.  You finish your studies, get married and when the kids are there, you’ve got time for nothing!  Getting into bed at 10:00 pm is a luxury!  You don’t have any time for yourself and if you do take a break, you feel guilty because you could have spend it with the kids (being a working mom - that’s how your head works).

I’m still trying to figure it out - is the year flying by because we are living in an age of electronic media and therefor increasing the pace at which we work? With competition getting stronger every day, you have to keep on proving yourself.  Always trying to better yourself and being one step ahead.

Or is it just that our lives are more filled with precious people around us (kids, family and friends becoming more special as we grow older)?

Or maybe both??? and you wish you have a 48 hour day!

Oh and … every year I promise myself that I’m not going to get caught up in the Christmas madness and do all my shopping a month before the time.  Needless to say, I never have the time for it … story of my life!  But this year is going to be different ……….

Well, it’s been a week without blogging and I can feel my soul is aching for it - just need to get rid of my anger towards cowardly people.  Stii was in Botswana for a couple of days and being alone with the kids can get quite hectic.  At night time (when the kids are in bed), Stii and I chat on Adium and what feels like 10 minutes, quickly turns into 2 or 3 hours.  By that time I’m so tired that I just don’t get to blogging.

But, this is a topic that’s been on my mind for quite some time now.  I am  the kind of person that would admit the moment that I’m wrong and do the necessary apologies and try to correct where I’ve wronged anybody. But if I’m right, sorry, no apologies from me.  I will stand my ground until such time that the other party can proof me wrong.  On issues that have no right or wrong - I’m always open and willing to listen to other people, we can always learn and gain knowledge in the process.

Then you get people that, knowing that they’ve wronged you, just WOULD NOT apologize! They will not admit that they have made a mistake (or rather put it - that they are not capable of making mistakes).  How difficult can it be to admit that you are human?

I’ve had a recent conversation (if you want to call it that) with somebody wherein the person, realizing that he’s wrong, totally went off the topic and started getting very personal.  Up to know I still have not received the words “I’m sorry, you were right” out of his mouth.  What is wrong with our society if a person cannot even admit when he’s wrong? He will rather start a huge fight and get very personal about everything and anything.  Is it pride? Is it stupidity? Might it be the fact that he still think he’s right? (even after proving to him that he’s wrong).  Out of respect for myself and my loved ones, I decided not to get involved in any more catfights.  To be very honest, knowing in my hart that I’ve won this battle by being the better person not to be drawn into somebody else’s battle with his own devils, makes me feel very good.

Oh, and one last thing, why do people want to prescribe to you/me how to write your blog or in what language you write your blog? I’m sorry if my is and are’s and has and have’s are not always grammatically correct, but some of us do have friends in foreign countries who CANNOT read/understand Afrikaans.  I would rather have them reading my grammatically incorrect blog instead of not reading it at all.

To all the English speaking people, that do not get irritated by my grammatically incorrect blog - thank you very much! I appreciate it.

What a sad title …? But a topic that nobody really wants to talk about. Maybe because we don’t want to expose ourselves, maybe because you would look like a “smartvraat” - in Afrikaans, (Sorry, but I couldn’t get an equally descriptive word in English), maybe we want to protect ourself from the hurt and rather put their memories in a closet behind a locked door - only to be opened on special occasions. For men, I think it’s even worst. At least a woman are allowed to cry/be upset and they will write it off as her being “unstable again”, but men don’t get away with it that easily. They would not be a proper man if they showed emotion (and I find it especially true in the Afrikaans society).

Ever been in a situation where a familiar smell or sound took you back to a certain place and time? Well tonight, Sweet Caroline played on TV and emotions of 5 years ago came rushing back when a very dear friend of ours had a fatal car accident. Funny it was not the accident that was brought to my mind, it was the fun times we had together.  The laughter and joy, the naughtieness and especially the way he smiled when he looked at you. I think it’s our brain’s way of protecting ourselves by remembering the good things in life and not the sad things - or maybe is just instinctive survival? My heart was crushed by the fact that his son was not even 2 years old at that stage.  His wife needed to pick herself up and face the reality of raising a son without a father.  I take my hat off to her in doing that.

This block is dedicated to all the dear friends we’ve all lost along the way and the Beautiful Noise that they’ve left us with to enable us to treasure them forever. Thanks to Neil Diamond - what will our lives be without music.

I’ve come across this question so many times in my life.  Is what I perceive as normal, the same normal for everybody else? Who are we to judge people as not being normal? Where do we draw the line between normal and abnormal? Who defines normal?

My uneducated opinion is that one aspect is a person’s upbringing and the influences that they had during those years.  In saying that I specifically refer to the choices we make when we are raising our children.  Are we sure we’re always on the right track.  I’m being very honest in saying that I’ve doubted myself so many times.  Giving a hiding where a harsh word would have done the trick as well, buying them sweets/toys just to keep them busy so that you can have a break or finish whatever you’re doing? Treating one kid different because he’s got a different personality? Are we creating and feeding their “normal” personalities by the way we bring them up?

Our two sons is 6 years apart, and not only that, their personalities are a million years apart.  When the baby (just turned 2 years) eventually showed up, my eldest has grown accustomed to being an only child for almost 6 years, and I think we obviously over compensated for that by trying to make his life as interesting as possible by basically giving him everything he wanted. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not a brat (I would rather rate the second one as the brat) and he loves his little brother to bits. He prayed non stop for a year for his little brother.  But when the baby arrived, Ian was all of a sudden not the centre of attraction anymore.  What he perceived as normal for six years, all of a sudden changed instantly, obviously so did our lives having a baby at the age of 31! Getting back to the question of normality - would Ian have become a different type of person if Henk was never born? Would his sense of normality have been the same as it is currently?

Does a kid’s genes play a huge role in determining his perception of normal? It is well known that phychological disorders are sometimes hereditary. I’m having my eldest tested for ADD soon, but in his little world he is normal and who am I to say that it’s not normal? I’m convinced that his dad has got ADD as well, so by the way …

The grade 1 that he’s doing is NOT the grade one that we went to many moons ago.  Stii and I were talking and for the life of me neither one of us can remember EVER getting homework up to grade 2 or 3.  My son is 7 years old and he can basically read everything in Afrikaans & English. And that’s “normal”. I feel that kids should be able to still play outside in the sun, feel what rain on their skin feels like, get their hands dirty and play in mud and just be able to be a kid.  There is ample time when they grow up to experience the pressures of everyday life. Let them just be normal - kids!

Living with Stii, you can be sure that there will always be something that is going to go wrong.  Sometimes I feel bad for his sake, because I honestly think he doesn’t realize/always take note of what is happening around him (think he’s got a bit of ADD …). Other times it just brings out the worst in me.

I mean, how difficult can it be to brew a nice pot of fresh coffee.  First, put the coffee in the filter, add the water to the machine and PUT THE FREAKING COFFEE POT UNDERNEATH THE FILTER. The ADD stepped in hugely this morning when Stii tried to make coffee.

The aroma of fresh coffee was overwhelmingly good this morning in the office, and suddenly I felt my feet and legs getting wet by spatters of, well what I thought was water.  Surprise, surprise, my husband forgot to put the coffee pot back in the machine and the coffee was everywhere but in a cup to drink.

Needless to say, I was not very impressed and I haven’t been getting any coffee from him since starting the post…

Everybody is very encouraging when it comes to “start your own blog”.  But nobody tells you how damn difficult it is to get all the little snags and buttons and feeds and who knows what else onto your site.  To be very honest, if it wasn’t for Stii that helps me a lot with all my questions, I would have been LOST, and probably have given it up by the 2nd day already!  I see something nice on somebody else’s blog and wants it on mine, but don’t even know what it’s called - so how the hell does a new blogger go search for instructions on the internet (which will tell you somewhere to do whatever).

One site I did stumble upon was that of Bolton Deventer from Webtrafficmaker, Sorry, but your blog didn’t help me at all.  I was more confused after reading it than before - and believe you me I was very confused to start off with.  Blogs like yours should be banned from the start.  How the hell will boobs and sex related words help you get more net traffic if you are promoting a “personal” site - I don’t want perverts to come visit my site.  I want “normal” people with “normal” values to contribute to my blog.   And W-TEP??? It sounds like a course for a plumber??

To all the new bloggers out there … good luck with starting up a new blog.

People that knows my husband might think that what I’m about to write is bullshit, but … Yes, I was in Stii’s life before computers AND I actually introduced him to computers, way back in the Dark Ages.  When we were dating I worked at a local computer shop and bought a computer (think it was a 486 computer …?).  He obviously took total possession of the computer from day one, but yes, I was there first!!!

In actual fact, I’ve known Stii from High School days.  But he wasn’t the type that an innocent, honest, well mannered girl like me would mingle with (geez, I wondered what happened to her).  He was the surfer dude, with a very bad reputation for drinking way to much and where ever Stii was, the shit is going to hit the fan shortly (not the fighting type at all, but loves being naughty and causing shit where ever he goes).  Must admit after 10 years of marriage, he hasn’t outgrown any of this. So, to all the ladies out there who’s marrying a man and think you can change him - FORGET ABOUT IT.  They don’t change!!

To get back to the computer part of this blog, I usually play 2nd fiddle to the computer.  We are supposedly to have a rule that when I get back from work, he’s suppose to close the office door and then it’s family time…  Hello - can’t remember when last that happened! There’s always something that he must just “quickly” do.  Or Justin/Arthur/Mark is on line and he quickly needs to discuss something with them.  I fought against it and threw my tantrums, but to no avail.

So, I started of being first, but has lost my place to the computer - and let it be known to an Apple Mac - according to Stii the best thing since sliced bread.

After my somewhat dissasterous exam yesterday morning, I really needed something to comfort the soul.  Unfortunately Stii bought a couple of boxes Stormhoek wines last week, and what better way to go…

At about 11 o’clock last night, after the other Belinda has taken over from me, I had convinced myself that I have aced Reinsurance and I’m the world’s best wine connoisseur.

Thanks Stormhoek for giving me the best “morning after the night before” I’ve had in ages.