One of the long stay guests here decided that my son needs a breeding pair of ducks as pets.  I guess he thought the dog, 6 cats and 2 Egyptian Geese were not enough  They are quite beautiful, but I have no idea what type of ducks they are.  I have left my Roberts Bird Guide at home in Pretoria so I have no clue where to even start looking to try and identify these beautiful birds.

Perhaps some kind person who reads my blog can help?

A VERY excited little boy

This is the male – his colours are just amazing

The female is more monotone, but she also has the most beautiful markings

I have been madly editing the photos from Tamiya’s Maternity shoot so that I can get her cd off to her.  Her mom is coming all the way from Mauritius to visit and Tamiya REALLY wants to be able to show her mom all the photos.

I decided to “get creative” and try some new techniques and combine presets (used in Lightroom) with actions (used in Photoshop)

I think that no matter what I do, this “mom to be” looks amazing, don’t you?

Tamiya won a weekend’s free accommodation at Badplaas Golf Club Guest House & Lodge via Facebook and Twitter.  She is 7 months pregnant with her second baby, so she could not join her hubby and friends playing golf.  We decided that since she was here we may as well do a “bump shoot”.  She has not done a maternity shoot before and I have not done a maternity shoot in veld surroundings, so it was a first for us both.

Here is a sample of what we took, I hope you like them Tamiya.  I’ll get the cd to you in the week so that your mom can see the photos while she is visiting you.

I loved spending time with you and getting to know you.  I really hope that once #plusone is born you can make it out here again and this time enjoy a round of golf.

On Wednesday we went through to the Sabi River Sun in Hazyview so my fiance could play golf with his mate.  This left J and I about 4 hours to amuse ourselves.  Next to the 17th green there is a really large water hole which had around 10 or 12 hippos, about 6 crocodiles (that I could see) and an abundance of bird life.

I would have been quite happy to spend all day there.  Even though my zoom lens is not the greatest, or the fastest I still think I managed to get one or two fairly decent shots.

Unfortunately for me, my son had other ideas.  It was mentioned to him (not by me) that Perry’s Bridge Reptile Park was only 500m down the road and he could go and see all sorts of reptiles including snakes.  Needless to say he was delighted and could not wait, while I was absolutely terrified and tried to think of every excuse NOT to go there.  I have an irrational phobia of snakes, which I have learnt to just accept and live with.

I took him to the reptile park and he had a wonderful time looking at all the snakes, bearded dragons, monitors, crocodiles, toads, spiders and even 2 pot bellied pigs.  He insisted that I take photos of all the snakes so that he can remember them and look at them whenever he wanted to.  Even though they were all safely behind glass, I still felt incredibly uneasy and was very nervous.  Taking photos of these snakes behind glass was a challenge so my mind was mostly occupied with overcoming those challenges rather than freaking out about what the subject matter was.

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This false sense of security didn’t last long however.  J found out that there would be a demonstration while we were there and he wanted to watch.   Soooo, this meant there would be live venomous snakes OUT of their enclosures and I had to be close by to watch!!  (Insert mental picture of a mother freaking out and having a panic attack while trying to hide all these symptoms from her son)

And of course when the opportunity was given for audience members to hold the boa constrictor for a small fee, MY son was first in the queue!!

He cannot stop talking about how much fun he had, and how interesting it was.  So I suppose my sleepless nights and bad dreams are all worth it?  Aren’t they?

You can see more photos of our time there here

I think that these shots just HAVE to be my weekly winners, considering how I managed to control my fear in order to give my son an experience he totally loved.

Yesterday when I was practicing my “shoot from the hip” technique, J started goofing around in the tree.  I couldn’t resist and had to hold the camera properly and take a few shots.  These are a bit odd as far as angles go, but they really show how much fun he was having just being silly.

Secret Agent Mama has a competition running to “Shoot from the hip”.  This means you must literally hang the camera strap over your shoulder, position your camera at hip level, and shoot. Simple … right?  Well actually not really.  I lost track of how many photographs I shot just to get these 2 looking almost reasonable.  What a challenge, but what fun too.  When I was downloading the photos J had a look an announced “gosh mommy I didn’t even see you take these photos”.  Mission accomplished then hey

So here are my entries to try and win a fabulous High Key Camera Strap.  These straps are so funky and awesome, I’d love to have one and be the “cool kid on the block” for a change

My son has always seen frost on TV or out the car window, but he has never had a chance to play in it and feel it.  Yesterday morning there was the first frost here in Badplaas.  He was terribly excited when I showed him and asked if he could go and feel it.  I don’t think he realised just HOW cold it would be when I told him it is very cold.

I struggled to decide which photos to show you as they each tell a different side of what he experienced, so here are many photos.

The realisation dawns that this is actually VERY cold

But the urge to feel it cannot be resisted

Ice on a piece of bark

Trying to warm up in a patch of sun

Making footprints in the frost

This was Garfield’s first experience of frost too – he didn’t seem to mind at all

Ice Crystals perfectly formed on a piece of wood

Ice on his shoes from running around

Teasing me that he would lie down and roll down the hill

a hre

He eventually settled for running down the hill

Michelle emailed me last week and asked me to take photos at her son’s birthday party on Wednesday.  The party was held at Forest Fun in Tierpoort on the outskirts of Pretoria.  It is a wonderful venue with plenty space for the kids to run and play.  They had a jumping castle, pony rides, a ride on a tractor trailor, and were able to ride motor bikes on a paved path through a forest area.  The highlight of the day was definitely the Go Carts that Michelle hired, the boys were in heaven.

Michelle here are a few photos from your son’s special day.  Thank you so much for asking me to be a part of it. I will be in touch with you soon regarding delivery of your dvd.

When I first started blogging it was all so new and overwhelming to me that I rather hastily put something together.  But now I have reached a point where I have started to particularly like the look of some blogs and more importantly, particularly dislike mine.  So here is the new theme that is still a work in progress, but I don’t think it will change much from this basic layout.

I was experimenting with textures again today and am rather pleased with the way this one turned out.  I hope you like it too.

On Saturday the Highveld Golf Association League Golf Championships were held at Badplaas Golf Club, who are also the sponsors of this competition .  The course is in outstanding condition and the weather was warm and sunny – perfect golfing conditions.

The match between Middleburg and Volksrust was closely contested.  On the 17th they were all square and it came down to a nail biting finish on the 18th.  Volksrust manage to clinch the match and are now the champions.

In the veterans match Middleburg played against Greenside.  Greenside were victorious.

It was a great day, and the hosting by Leon Rorich at Badplaas Golf Club was impeccable as always.

You can see more photographs from this day here.