Reflect This, the Final Episode

Quilly's Reflect This photo challenge is coming to an end today.
It's sad, and I'm going to miss it ... but that's how it is, huh?
I made a photo walk around Antwerp on Thursday,
hunting for reflections for Quilly, and trying to find out
what my camera does, and does not ( yet) do!
I had a great time, it stopped raining and the sun came out, pure bliss!

The first reflection I saw was this one, I could have used it as a ruby too!
You can still see some raindrops there.
Reflecting on this one now, I should have tried to capture
a reflection in one of the mirrors of one of those scooters.
That would have been great, but the owner of the shop came out,
probably because he was wondering what I was doing there.
That startled me, and I hurried off, so this is all I have.
Yes, I'm a shy girl, I know! But this was one of the first pictures I took,
so please forgive me ...

This one is not good either. It's in front of a shop, it has the mirror
reflecting the house across the street, and my reflection in the window.
It's a reflection, but that just about covers it. Not a good one!

Same here, it's a reflection, but that's it!

And then I walked into this very colorful shop, and I saw this mirror.
I immediately thought, that this was going to be my reflection of the day.
I made some cute rubies there too!
It could have been worse, I made several other ones
that did not quite satisfy me when I saw them later.
Overall, I think I like the yesterdays spider best,
I just don't think I can top that one (yet)!
As far as reflections are concerned, that's it from me today.
However, I promised some pictures of Antwerp, now, didn't I?

I even managed to capture another dragon for Melli!



Tried my zoom ... and um, no ... it's not at it's limit yet, look ...

I might have to go back and do that one again,
because I was so glad I could zoom in all the way
that I cut the the dragon's body off!! I didn't notice that until I got home!
This one is at the Market Place, next to the city hall,
and believe me, it's very high up!

If you ever visit Antwerp, you're very likely to see this.
But I doubt if you would find the ( green) dragon,
you've got to be a good hunter to capture this one!
By the way, I saw some fabulous dragons in London too,
I might include them in my Weekly Winners on Sunday.
But then again ... I might not, and make a separate post out of them?
We'll see ...

Reflect This!

Today is the last day of my holliday,
I'll have to go to work again tomorrow.
Time has fled, those three weeks went by in just a whisper.
Highlight of this vacation was my trip to London with my two sisters.
As usual, I took lots and lots of pictures.
Up until now, I took all of my pictures with my small camera.
It's the camera you can see me using on the right hand side of this blog.

It had never let me down before, but on the second day
of our stay in London, it suddenly did. The lens got blocked,
and I could not get it to open nor close anymore.
That's when I realized really how much a camera means to me.
I was unable to enjoy what I saw anymore
because I could not capture it on photo, it felt horrible.
By the time we got back to the hotel, it seemed to wake up out of its coma,
and I could use it again. A little later that evening, it got stuck again.
From then on I said a little prayer with every picture I wanted to take!
Fortunately, that seemed to help, and I was still able
to take all the pictures I wanted, thank God for that!
I had talked to my hubby on the cell phone, and he promised
we would purchase a new one as soon as I got back.
As far as photography is concerned, my hubby is my mentor,
and he thought it was time for me to move on to a different type of camera.

Well you all know the rest of the story, I introduced you to him yesterday!
For those of you who are dying to find out, it's the Canon Powershot S5 IS.
The 40D my hubby owns is way too intimidating for me,
I prefer a more compact solution. I am a "point and shoot" girl,
who wants to take pictures of anything she sees.
I can walk around with this one carrying it in my one hand.
And yes, he does do fireworks, he does macro and super macro, the works!
I took him for a photowalk around Antwerp yesterday,
and I've got to say I'm very happy with the results so far!
I went hunting for reflections for Quilly's photo challenge too ...

Yeah, okay ... that's not very impressive, I know, but hang on ...
There was this spider, challenging me for a picture.
I tried spiders last year with my small camera,
but I never seemed to be able to capture them well.
But this super macro function on this one really works!!

No, no wait ...
As for the grand finale, click on the last one, and you can view it full size.
Oh, and don't worry, he won't bite you!

There, I think that's not so bad huh?
You want more?
Of course you do! There will be lots more to come!
I've decided to not join in on Photohunt for the first time in months.
Instead, I'm gonna do the last "Reflect This" for Quilly,
and I'll throw in some more pictures from Antwerp, is that a deal?

Oh well ... okay,okay .... no more spiders I promise !

Reflect This , Dark and Handsome

Thirsday today. It's supposed to be blogless,
but I've never been able to manage that up till now!
Although I've got to admit that I'm not going to spend
too much time on the Internet today, uh-uh!

You see, I've met this exciting new friend.
He's dark and he's very very handsome.
I'm madly in love with him,
and I want to show him every little corner of my world.
I never want to live without him anymore,
everywhere I go, he'll be with me.
And I've got this irrepressible desire to push his buttons,
find his soft spots, and get to know him inside and out ...
I want us to hunt dragons, birds and flowers together.
Explore the world and capture it's beauty ...
Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?


So here he is, Mr Wonderguy.
Isn't he handsome?

And do any of you know how hard it was to take this picture?
I must have made a hundred of them before I finally got it right!
(well okay, it's still not right, it most certainly is not perfection
but it will have to to for now!)

So this is my reflection of the day for Quilly,
I'll be going out on a photohunt with this exciting new companion ...

Meet the other players of this photo challenge at Quilly's.

Wordless Wednesday London

I'm supposed to be wordless, but you're not.
Would anyone care to caption this one for me please?


Visit the other Wordless Wednesday players here.

Oh but please don't leave just yet!
There is another fun challenge going on at Quilly's!
It's called Reflect This and it's all about reflections.
And this is really up my alley!
So without further adue ... here's mine!


For more reflections, visit Quilly and meet the other players there.

Ruby Tuesday Reflect this ... Ruby London

Tuesday means Ruby Tuesday of course,
and I went to London this weekend to hunt for ruby pictures.
Now if I mention London and ruby you'll probably think
" oh yes, telephone booths and doubledeck busses!"
You're so right, but that is so predictable.
I don't do "predictable", I prefer "different".
Hey, at least I think this is what you expect from me?


The first two pictures are from Camden Market.

This commemorates war victims from the first and the second World War.
I found them in Hyde Park.

Some of you already know how much I like reflections,
and this is my favourite one, taken on our first day in London;
at Borough Market. It's a restaurant called Black and Blue ...


So here they are, my very first pictures from my trip to London ...
If you want to see more Ruby pictures,
visit Mary the teach, at Work of the Poet.

I had already posted these when I visited Quilly
and found out she's doing a reflections photo challenge.
Honest, I had no idea, but since three out of four are reflections,
it looks like I'm multitasking again!

I love it!
So visit Quilly for more reflections, okay?

Fun Monday Any more Questions?

Lisa, over at Lisa's Chaos is this weeks host for Fun Monday.
This is what she wants to know ...

What is one thing you would like to ask your readers? Come up with a question to pose to your visitors and throw it out there on Monday. As we’re all visiting each other’s Fun Monday posts we should answer the various questions we come across.
OR
Show&Tell me about a bird, I’m easily made happy.

Okay then, I'll show the bird first ...
Eww, does that sound funny? Sorry!

The birds in this slideshow are the parents
of the little birds on the right hand sidebar of this blog.

And this one could be one of the little ones from last year
feeding his or her own babies this past spring. That's how it goes ...

Click on the picture for full size viewing.




Now for the question, the question burning on my lips is:
What object would you take with you
if you could take only one thing with you
on an imaginary journey?
You don't have to worry about food or anyhing, all is taken care of.
Just imagine ...

Visit Lisa, and the other players here.

Weekly Winners London Town

Discover Dire Straits!

Just by looking at these pictures,
some of you

might

get the impression

that London

is very grey and very dull ...

But it's not ...


See?
Well, it can be grey ...
but never dull ...
Look for more Weekly Winners at Sarcatic Mom's blog!
And say hi from me there!