Heavenly Crafts

Well, I recall sometime ago promising to let you have a butterfly overlay and I have actually (surprise, surprise!) managed to get around to sorting this out. Here is the preview:

And the previews of the coloured butterflies are as follows:

Firstly, here is the view from our hotel window overlooking Albert Dock. You'll have to excuse the smudges as I took the photo from behind the window.

Here is the view from outside the hotel:

And Liverpool's version of the London Eye, somewhat smaller, but still very impressive. We actually didn't go on it because, to be honest, it seemed an expensive way to spend five minutes but I bet the views were glorious.

This was taken down on the ground more or less below our hotel room!

And these are more shots of Albert Dock.

Then we came across Queen Victoria:

There are some really beatuiful buildings in Liverpool. I just love this architecture.

I thought these were bird dogs - they look like a dog at the front (Labrador) and a bird at the back, but I have since found out that these are lambananas, a cross between a lamb and a banana. Don't ask me why anyone would want to cross a lamb and a banana, I guess that is artistic licence! Anyway, they are definitely eye catching.

But of course, Liverpool wouldn't be complete without a shot of the Liver Building....

....and a somewhat blurred photo of one of the Liver birds!

I also ended up taking some shots on the way back to the hotel at night. No mean feat considering I had never done this before and did not have a tripod! Of course, that makes me sound as if I know what I am doing, when in reality, it was a case of holding the camera as still as possible and taking the shot. Loads of the pictures I took are blurred - it is impossible to hold a camera still for the length of time it takes for the photo to be taken, especially when you are a novice like me. Still, here are a couple of the better ones:.

I had to lean against walls, fences and trees to get those unblurred shots! And then one taken from our hotel room:

But the real reason we were in London was to go to the OneRepublic gig at the O2 academy. The support act was Alex Gardner, a Scottish singer who has the reputation of being a Robert Pattinson lookalike (for those of you who are Twilight fans ;) ). Here he is in action:

He was actually very good, so if you get the chance to go hear him, it would be well worth it. But of course, the main act were even better. It was actually very pleasing to find out I wasn't the oldest person in the audience. I think my daughter was worried that I would be - she certainly seemed relieved when we saw a rather more elderly (and definitely more smartly dressed!) couple waiting in the queue behind us!

It was quite funny when we got in, because, as you probably know, there is very little seating at the O2 Academy, and everyone has to stand. DD and I rushed to the front, and ended up on the second row, whereas the Radio 2 listeners (as my daughter called the older ones, and there were quite a number of them too) stayed at the side leaning up against the wall.

Anyway, this was the first time I had used my new camera at a gig, and since were were near the front, I managed to get some really good shots (or at least I think they are!). Here is Ryan Tedder, the lead singer:

As you can see, he ended up very close to where we were standing. He is probably wondering here who that old woman is with the camera! Not that I am, of course, old, because in reality, I am only about 21 (or at least, that is as old as I feel), I just look somewhat older;).

I love this shot. You can really tell that the lead guitarist, Zach Filkins (at least, I think this is him ;)), is enjoying himself. It makes all the difference when you go to a gig or concert and you can tell they are having fun on stage!

And back to Ryan, this time with (I think) Brent Kutzle and Drew Brown in the background.

All in all, we had a whale of a time in Liverpool and OneRepublic were brilliant!

But now, if you have managed to struggle through all those photos (or just scroll her to the bottom) back to the butterfly overlays which you can find here. The zipped file contains the original overlay plus two coloured versions. I'm off to do our church notices now, and then have to work, so have fun and happy scrapping!

The weather forecast here is for thundery showers this afternoon. Well, that really has scuppered our plans to go to Church Stretton and go walking up the Long Mynd :(. Instead, we are going to go visit a National Trust property, Wightwick Manor, in salubrious Wolverhampton, and since none of us has been there before, it should be really interesting. Of course, I will be taking my camera with me, and after taking night shots in Ironbridge as part of the digital photography course I'm attending, I now know how to put my camera into manual mode, and use a tripod!!!! I also have an inkling, just an inkling, mind, of how to change the shutter speed and aperture too. I haven't got a clue what I should be changing them to, I just press or twiddle the buttons and see what happens when I take a photo.....you never know, one day, I may actually know what I am doing ;).

I will let you see the photos of Ironbridge later as we have to do a pdf slideshow ready for the next lesson anyway. I bet you can't wait, eh? But in the meantime, what you really want to see is the Sunflower Patch kit, right? So here is my part: