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Like every Sydneysider today, I awoke and looked out my window and thought ‘Oh my goodness what is going on?’.
The huge dust storm that swept across inner NSW then Canberra, reach Sydney early this morning.
With the rich reds you couldn’t help yourself being amazed at the colour of the light (and I don’t believe it is just a photographer thing).
This photograph was taken from our front room office at 8.00am this morning. May I add no enhancements have been added, just the wonder of light in a red dust storm.
Mini & Cooper (my dogs) as per usual were jumping around the front door to be let out so they can play on the grass. They were white fluffy puppies when they left but returned with a noticeably yellow tinge. It will be bath time for them soon (as well as their yellow dirty coloured bed).
It is spring again! Spring can mean different things to different people and to me it is always the start of the busiest time of the year in my business calender. This is because the wedding season has started and just around the corner is Christmas.
To prepare for this Spring, regular readers might recall my huge office clean out. I felt it was time to do a massive clean up of everything we simply didn’t need any more and hence was ‘hogging’ space. Being a passionate Ebay hater, I again turned to Freecycle.org to give everything away instead of using up my valuable energy and time trying to sell it (i.e. Ebay).
The really cool thing about Freecycle is as the giver, you can select who gets your stuff. I had a young photography student claim most of the photography equipment. An Aborigine artist claimed many of my large studio picture frames. The clean up of my books went to a single dad with two teenage children.
All in all I gave away items that I could of got perhaps $800 – $1500 on Ebay. However by giving away on Freecycle I got so much more! Also I noticed that my personal ’energy bank’ was not empty after the exercise like it often was from participating in Ebay auctions. Not only did I feel good for having given everything away but also I have noticed the energy in the office has been more relaxed and positive.
Now that everything was gone I was inspired to rearrange the office (as I had not wasted my time or energy on Ebay). The really cool thing about this story is after finishing moving the office furiture around we noticed that we were now able to open the windows and let more nature light into the front room office. So now on a bright day, we no longer even need to turn the down lights on – now we simply open the blinds and let the sunshine in.
Looking at our wireless energy meter we had installed thanks to Sydney City Council we discovered that we are saving approx 1.11 Kwh each day by not turning on our office down lights (this is an estimation as on some days we still need to turn lights on i.e. overcast days and when we need brighter light for retouching photographic work etc).
Ironically my personal energy was not the only energy saved in giving away everything.
Food for thought.
Down lights in my office, turned off as the window lets in sunlight now.
Mini my dog sitting on me while I try to take the photograph of the office down lights.
It is Sunday night and I type these words with my laptop on my computer watching TV.
Last week started unusually with a work truck running into the back of my car on Mona Vale Road. Very thankful that neither of us was injured.
Then last week I had one camera needing repair but by the end of this week that number jumped to three. In seventeen plus years of being a professional photographer I have never been in a situation of having three of my cameras out of action. I took this as a strong omen to go out and buy another digital professional camera. Always nice to get new ‘toys’ but I really wasn’t planning on buying new equipment for at least another six months.
This week was also unusual in that after five years of researching and planning, I launched a new wedding photographic business. To say that the response to the launch was overwhelming, would be understatement.
Amongst what I felt was an overall overwhelming week, I managed to have a huge clean up of my clothes. Going through the wardrobes I placed on the floor anything I hadn’t worn in awhile. After about half an hour, a pile had been created. After another half an hour, Mini & Cooper had claimed the pile as their own. This photograph shows that they are blissfully unaware that the clothes are going to a new home – ‘ a Salvo charity bin’.
Also this week ‘Becky’ had left two comments on the post ‘Why I will not buy Reflex 100% recycled paper’. I asked her opinion on my newer post on the same subject ‘Proud now to buy 100% recycled Reflex paper’.
Becky’s response, comments and information again has flared my concerns for the claims Reflex makes. In particular how little information can be found on their website and packaging about their 100% recycled paper.
Therefore I have decided to again check out Reflex’s website and packaging. Once I have done this I intend contacting Reflex for a response. I want to sort this out once and for all…………..for my own piece of mind. Stay tuned.
Well no not really but tiny sheep is what they looked like today. I have finally fixed our front gate which means for the first time Mini & Cooper could safely venture onto our very small front lawn.
They spent the time chasing each other, play fighting and eating grass – hence the title ‘tiny sheep’.
They were having so much fun it inspired me to get the camera. I wanted to share the photographs with you.
It is coming up to their first birthday so below I have also added a video of the highlights of their first year of life (I am a very proud puppy mummy).
With all the economic uncertainly in Australia and the world, everyone really has two attitude choices on how they will deal with the current situation.
1) Become overwhelmed, depressed and anxious about the ever increasing media reports.
2) Be aware and perhaps cautious but ultimately deciding upon a reflective and positive attitude.
I say reflective attitude, as this is the perfect time to stop, think and reflect on what we individually have been doing in the past and what we would like to change for the future. Use this time to look inwardly at your values, goals and life.
As a teenager when the ad campaign for ‘Buy Australian’ came out in the 80’s, I have been forever influenced. ‘Hey true blue, don’t say you’re gone……….” are lyrics etched in my memory.
The campaign was simply encouraging people to buy Australian made products.
So in my reflective and positive attitude I wish to encourage all Australian’s to remember the ‘Hey True Blue’ advertisement and buy Australian made.
Buying Australian is one requirement on new items I buy. Here are some more requirements:
1 Australian made & owned company
2 Environmentally friendly made
3 Recyclable packaging
4 Products not tested on animals
Here are two examples of my recent purchases:
1) Bought comfortable work shoes from Gilmore’s Comfort Shoes. Gilmore’s Comfort Shoes is an Australian owned business. My shoes were Kumfs that were New Zealand made shoes (does Australia make comfortable shoes for ladies?). I say if you can’t by Australian by New Zealand!
I was impressed by Gilmore’s service. They even gave me a free calico bag (great environment choice). They asked if I need the shoe box as they could reuse it (another great environment choice).
The only problem was when I got home Mini & Cooper argued over who was going to sit on the bag (they are like two year olds).
2) Bought Simply Natural Oils organic herbal shampoo. Australian made & owned, recyclable packaging and not testing on little white fluffy bunnies. Yay happy with that!
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