Tails’ Blography

This weekend I’m finally doing something I’ve been waiting for since March 2011 for! I’m going Wedding Dress Browsing!

My sister (who is my Maid of Honour), my best friend (who is my bridesmaid), my mom (who is awesome) and a good friend (who never got to dress shop for her own wedding) are all coming along to assist!

The shop we’re going to is by appointment only, and we’ve booked the package which includes a bottle of of champagne, some cheese, crackers and 5 dresses to try on, and afterwards we’re having a braai at my place to continue on the festivities. The guys are going to hang out at our place while we go off and do the dress thing.

Its the first real weddingy thing I’ve done thus far, except view some venues. Oh, speaking of venues, we’ve booked ours! We chose a lovely winery which is so picturesque and perfect! We also booked our honeymoon suite which is 4 star accomodation and includes a Honeymoon turndown service with champagne, chocolates, cheese, and biscuits as well as breakfast the next morning as well as a complimentary wine tasting and cellar tour! So much awesomeness!

I’ve had a bit of trouble with my rats recently, Iso has a growth/lump on the side of her face. So I took her to the vet, got a week’s dose of Baytril and Prednisone and went home. The meds helped a little but she’s still got the lump, so I took her in the following Saturday and then again on Monday for a biopsy.

She came home with stitches on her cheek, poor thing, and I’ll get the biopsy results hopefully by Friday. If its a tumour, at least I’ll know. Anyway, so yesterday morning I had them out on the bed and next thing I look, there’s Macro grooming out all Iso’s stitches! GRR! So now the wound is open, bar one stitch, so I took her through to the lounge to glue it shut with superglue! (the vet does this all the time) It worked and I then decided to keep them separate until the wound is healed, which I should have done in the first place, but didnt because I felt bad that they were both alone in their respective cages.

Ok so next weekend is also a first for me! My first photoshoot! I won an engagement photoshoot from Hearts in a Shutter and we’ve booked for the following weekend! As you know, I’m normally always the one behind the camera, so this is rather daunting for me. I have no idea what to wear, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out (I’d buy something new but the vet bill set me back R800 this month and still R371 to go!). We chose a nice earthy theme and picked a forest to do the shoot in, so I’m looking very forward to it, in amongst the nerves haha.

And then the following weekend after that one, we’re meeting with our wedding photographer to sign on the dotted line! She is an amazing photographer and I’m so lucky to be able to secure her for our wedding! I always knew the photography was going to be the toughest decision for me because I’m a photographer, but she made it so simple!

And that, my dear readers, are my next few weeks in a nutshell….

I’m shooting a wedding at the end of the month at Lourensford Wine Estate so the bf and I went to check out photo locations so I can be better prepared on the day. When we got there, much to my delight, we were informed there was some polo practice happening so we stopped by to watch for a bit after taking a slow drive up the long road looking for shooting spots.

The polo practice was very interesting. The horses and riders would line up in groups of four, and there would be four planks stuck in to the ground a few metres away. The horses would then gallop, the rider would lean down and spike the plank with their spear-like stick, swinging their arm backwards as the horse galloped past. The speed they went at was admirable…especially as they leaned down right over the horses shoulder!

There were another two riders on the far side of the field practicing something more complicated. The rider would move off, jump a small jump while popping a balloon, and then gallop with his spear in the air parallel to the floor. The spear wouldnt move and his aim was dead-on as he speared a few loops, and then he went on to lean down and spear a plank like others (keeping the loops on the spear!). Then he’d turn around and make his way back (all at quite a speed!), stabbing his spear into a hanging cushion. There was more that he did, but rethinking it I’m lost as to where it all fitted in haha. I couldnt get photos as he was too far away and I didnt want to trample across the field and potentially get run over by galloping polo players haha. It would be rude of me!

After watching for a bit longer, we walked around the large estate and eventually made our way back to the car where we then drove up to the winery itself. Since the wedding is Muslim, I wont be taking photos that include any wine related subjects/backgounds, so I got my photo fix right then and there! I, of course, asked permission to photograph their wines and displays, and they happily obliged my whims.

After I got a few photos, we sat down for some chocolate tasting (R35ppm, they also have cheese tasting at R55 for a 2 person platter), and I was given a taster glass of wine that they recommended (it was really lovely on its own, but not too great with the chocolate). They set up two tasting boards, which consisted of different chocolates, three own-choice truffles, and two chocolate shot glasses with honey liqueur. We were instructed to eat them in the following order:

White chocolate, milk chocolate, 60% dark, 75% dark, 80% dark, one shot, three truffles, then the last shot. Gosh it was divine!! Especially the Honey Liqueur! They sell bottles of it for R90 or so and they happily brought out a bottle frosted from the freezer for me to photograph…lovely! After finishing the photos and tasting we were offered a private tour of the factory, and got to know a little more about the Estate. All very interesting, but alas I remember little…photography and listening dont go well with me haha. The bf remembered the wine vats contained 44000 litres of wine, however.

And so ended our day in Somerset West. I was happy it was such a gorgeous day…please hold thumbs for great weather on the day of the wedding!!

Photos and captions follow:

Michael posing for me for lighting purposes

Polo practice

The horses were so well schooled!! Sigh!

See the speed!

Even more speed – and look at the leaning!

Some wine product shots

I really like this shot!

A tiny part of the array of choices for truffles

My tasting board (Apple & Cinnamon, Apple Sours, and Spiced Rum truffles…Apple Sours was a dud though :/)

Michael’s tasting board (Chilli, Peppermint, and Cappuccino)

The Honey Liqueur (frosted and unchilled) with the factory in the background

The Honey bottle neck

Inside the factory – a few vats holding Merlot

Those are the vats that hold 44000 litres!

A view from the inside out

On the way to the factory (I took pics on the way back)

Me!

The bf!

Outside the winery

That is such a gorgeous door!

I got a great surprise last night when the bf came home. He presented me with a toy to play with for the weekend…a 50mm f/1.8 aka the Nifty Fifty (nifty because its the best value for money for decent glass…its only R1299!)! For those who dont know, its basically a prime lens (one that doesnt zoom but stays at 50mm) that stops down to f/1.8. My current lens stops down to f/5 or so at 50mm, and f/3.5 at 18mm. Ok ok I can hear you saying “huh!??” already. Basically the f/1.8 makes the background in a photo blurry. The higher the number, the more in focus everything is. So at f/22, the background will be sharp (best for landscape photography) and at f/1.8, the background will be nice and blurry.

Got it?

Good.

So I get to play with it this weekend, and have already been harrassing my dogs for some nice photos, but they’re just not having any of it. In fact, Gizmo keeps looking away…purposefully! I didnt know dogs could be mean like that, after all, they’re supposed to be (wo)man’s best friend. Hurrumph.

Anyway, by Monday I’ll have to pass it back (boo!) but hopefully I’ll have some nice photos to show y’all. Some more good news is that I’ll be getting to play with a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens on the weekend of OC. That lens retails for around R14000!! Wee I am a lucky girl!

I’m also an angry girl, however, because I have a YouTube video tut waiting for upload, and I just cannot upload it. I dont know why YouTube just sits on “uploading…….” and never gets anywhere. SIGH. I’ll keep trying of course *said in a tired voice*

But for now, I’m off to play with my camera!

So I’ve been taking a few photos here and there this weeked, but the weather has been nothing but rainy, so not many great shots.

However, the ones I’ve got so far, I am happy with, and I still have to get used to the camera, and how it feels and works, so my shots can only get better from here

So enough from me, here are some quick shots that I like

Gizmo, in B&W

Rozwell

Macro water droplet

Another macro water droplet, but this one I was hoping would have more light in the droplet

Macro water droplets

Gizmo-paws

A silly Gizmo photo