BabiBootiful’s Blog

I finally feel like I’m getting somewhere!

For my 21st birthday, my family all put in to get me a Digital SLR camera (featuring in my second last post).
Over a year and a half later (eek! Nearly 23!), I have finally invested some time into learning about how to use my camera to the best of it’s ability – or at least better than just a quick ‘point and shoot’ job.

I had previously experimented with “light painting”, a technique where you can literally “paint with light” by leaving the shutter open for extended period of time. I thought that what I had learnt from this was going to enable me to take those fancy photographs of the city at night, with the cars whizzing by leaving trails of light.
Well, as you may have noticed, there were none  of these lovely photo’s from when we stayed in the city! (See previous post!)

When I was in the city, I took a photo of some cars whizzing by, leaving the shutter open for 30 seconds. All I got was a big white screen.
So last weekend, I did some more reading! I found out that I needed to be able to adjust some other settings in order to maintain the exposure.
To be honest, I have no idea if what I just said made sense. I’m not set on all the correct terminology yet. One day I’ll write a up a post and wow you with my knowledge

ANYWAY. After doing some research, I worked out how to adjust the setting so I can take those fancy city night shots. Basically, I don’t have to be in a pitch black room in order for this to work!

Below are some test photo’s I took. I can’t be bothered editing out the shitty background in one of the shots – so please ignore.

Test #1

Test #2

Test #3

Test #4

Test #5

Test #6

Test #6

I am currently in the process of taking over setting up a small studio in Che’s powered garage. At present, it is set up with his gym equipment, but we are going to condense that to one side, and I will use one section of the garage.
I am making it as ‘DIY’ and budget as possible. With any luck I will get some decent results from it!

Sneak peak of some of the lights (set-up in the kitchen) with my quickly strung diffuser:

There has been a lot of stuff going on lately that has really taken it out of Che and I, but mainly Che. I decided we needed to have a bit of a time-out, and organised a surprise weekend where we could just ‘get away from it all’.

I booked a room at Travelodge Hotel in Perth City on Saturday the 12th of September. I had organised for Travelodge to let me into the room a little earlier than normal to set up. Che works at the gym on a Saturday morning so it worked out well.

I set up the room with candles, rose petals, chocolates, drinks, robes and our DVD player for music. I had Che meet me in the city mid-afternoon for lunch, and then started heading back to the hotel.

He was under the assumption that I had booked to stay at Miss Maud’s, as we have stayed there a few times now. I pulled a few fast ones on him and pretty much convinced him we were staying there. As we were walking through the city, I made it out as if I was not sure where I was, and that I thought I was on the wrong street. He fell for it hook line and sinker! I was able to walk straight past the hotel to the car and back again. He was surprised when I said “Oh no, we’re in here..” and started walking into the lobby.

After that, there’s not a lot more to tell. We ordered room service for dinner (which was unfortunately pretty horrible – but we had plenty of chocolate to keep us going). We had a full buffet breakfast in the hotel restaurant which was nice, and had a late check-out of 12pm.  After we checked out, we had another poke around the city and had lunch before heading home.

Now onto the photo’s!
There are more photo’s where these came from too!
Check out my web Picasa album, found here.

The room before

The room after

Candles on

Smile Che!

Cuddling in our robes

View from the balcony

View from the balcony

Whoever created blogs are stupid. As if anyone has time for this!

For the sake of making this place look as though there is some activity, here are some test shots I’ve taken with my Digital SLR. Slowly learning more about it.

Test #1

Test #2

Test #3

Test #4

Test #5

…my neglected little blog!

So much has been happening lately and I have either not had time to post, or when I have – like tonight, I am just so emotionally drained, I just don’t want too.

So fear not, the posts will return, just got to find the right time.

Just sitting on the couch in front of a mini heater, under a blanket.
It is POURING down outside and is windy as hell. Some of the eastern states are having floods etc, but we are not that bad. 

Tonight I have our Small Business Awards night/dinner that is run by my work.
It’s a very formal night, so I had a spray tan first thing this morning, which is why I am ‘couch-ridden’. I am having my hair done at  2.30pm, make-up at 4pm and am going to pick up my diamond jewelry which I am borrowing for the night. I bought a beautiful purple dress a few weeks ago. I will undoubtedly have lot’s of photo’s to share from the night!

…have been so incredibly busy!

On the 9th of May, Che and I went to see The Presets at Challenge Stadium. They were awesome! I’d never been to Challenge Stadium before, and when we got there, it was smaller and not as full as I had expected it to be. 
We chose to purchase ‘Standing Area’ tickets, where it is more or less ‘first come, first serve’ when finding a place to stand. That of course doesn’t stop drunken idiots pushing passed you half way through the show!
We decided to purchase these tickets rather than the seated as at passed concerts at different venues, they insist that you SIT in your seat (shocked!), and you are simply not allowed to stand. Seeing as we were there to see The Presets, I didn’t want to risk it – turns out, all those people were able to stand and dance around. 

So the first two acts went by and it still wasn’t as packed as I had imagined it to be. This wasn’t an awful thing, but sometimes the typical ‘mosh pit’ type feel is kind of cool.
WELL.. as soon as The Presets were coming up, it got PACKED! Mosh pit eat your heart out! They were just awesome! If you like their music, I reccommend seeing them live if you get the chance. I have a few short video’s on my phone that if I can work out how to get them on here, I will post them.
The video’s don’t full capture the light show, but this was one of the coolest parts of the show. The video’s just show a sea of silohouttes in front of us, the stage just flashing and going off! Really, really good show!

The following weekend was the weekend of Che’s Bodybuilding comp. It was a long time coming, I tell ya! He has been training and dieting since the beginning of the year, so it’s been a while!

So on Sunday the 17th of May, we got up early and head down the the Embassy Ballroom in Carlisle. The men were on first, so pretty much as soon as we were in the venue, we started getting Che tanned up and ready to go.

He competed in the Men’s Master’s Division, and came third in his line up! Another big trophy to add to the collection! He did a great job, I’m very proud of him. I briefly did a stint of training for one of these competition’s, but didn’t follow it through. While the training is hard (and for Che, I would imagine a lot more intense), the dieting and lifestyle is probably the hardest. Although this time around he was more prepared diet wise, the contstant training and dieting must take a lot out of you. So I commend him for that and am happy to support him…. although I look forward to when he finishes dieting so we can EAT!!!

Speaking of eating, Che has again, booked us a stay at Miss Maud’s Hotel on the 30th of May, including the buffet dinner and breakfast! It is his “little” gift to say thank you and to well and truly celebrate food!

Instead of heading to work first thing this morning, I made my way over to a different Small Business Centre to have my mug filmed for TV! The Metro Small Business Centre’s are filming a TV ad to be aired on Channel 7 on May 17. Not that those in the US or even in Melbourne will be able to view it – but if a copy winds up on the internet somewhere I will be sure to post a link! I might have to start looking into an acting career…

Since Easter, I have tried to jump back on the health bandwagon. After eating like crap and not exercising for months, it really felt like it was taking its toll on my body.
I have been eating a lot better – but by no means perfect – just better. I’m not eating take away junk and my craving for sweets and chocolate are slowly grinding to a halt which is good. I find that the only time I really feel like chocolate is when I am at home, rugged up and watching TV.

I haven’t got into exercise full throttle this time, which I had hoped to do. The first week after Easter had been absolutely flat out with work and the following week I had been sick. So mid-week workouts just didn’t happen, however weekend workouts certainly have!
I have done a workout with Che for the last three weekends… which have usually taken me three or so days to recover from! As I sit here and type, my back, shoulders and arms are tensed up and aching! Hopefully it won’t take too much longer for my body to stop going into shock the moment I exert myself in any way!

Simply because it will explain all the stupid things that seem to be coming out of my mouth today.

Not only am I saying stupid things, I’m getting half way through a sentence and going totally blank, trying to remember what the hell I was talking about.

God help me.