Tom took those Valentine's Day card photos - how clever he is!

Hiya Everyone!

I have had quite a time this late afternoon trying to take ONE decent enough photo of Tom holding his camera and Prisiclla Jane holding the Valentine's Day card (available on ourDownloads page now!)  which has herself and Grace on holding their own design Valentine's Day cards.  What a nightmare it was despite my new camera (Canon Ixus 980) being a more up to date and "cleverer" model than our last one (Canon Ixus 750). 

WHY the focus has to go to the BACK of the scene even when the face recognition software highlights one of the dolls' faces as it did Tom's I have no idea.  Tom's face is identfied by the camera software but as soon as the button is pressed to actually take the picture the focus suddenly points to the back...arghhhhhhhhhh.

I am not sure you would all appreciate me including all the failed shots here........but you can understand my frustration when you get this below for your troubles......

Isn't this photo a wonderful clear photo of the back display units?.........well yes it is.........but that was NOT what I intended!  I took it with flash so you would seriously believe the camera SHOULD have "seen" that the obvious subject/s were in the foreground!
At least we can be thankful that our cameras are now digital and we no longer waste time AND money when it comes to the price we used to pay to have all those films developed. 

As if the camera and its annoying foibles were not bad enough I just had to contend with the ever present joy of my clumsy big fingers knocking things over too.  Let me explain.  You can see that there is a cat bowl in the background in the photo above.  Well whilst I had already posed both Tom with his camera and Priscilla Jane showing off the photo with herself and Gracie in with their own design Valentine's Day cards, I suddenly had a brainwave.  I could see Magnifi-Cat our church cat hiding behind the stairs whilst sitting in his basket so my immediate idea was pretty simple ie: move cat whilst sitting IN basket to the right so that he could then feature in the photo.  Ah........it may SOUND a simple manouvre..........................WRONG!
In the process you will be shocked and surprised to know that I not only managed to knock poor Tom over but also the guestbook and delicate and tiny quil pen and holder (made by Danny Shotton) went flying off our beautiful William and Mary period table (made for me, by the way, by the late Harold Cudsworth) at the back too!  So I had to move everything out of the way in order to see the tiny quill pen and ink pot which had fallen on to the floor.  You will be pleased to know though that I DID find it.  The next job was to scoop up the tiny skiny quil pen into my clumsy hand and deposit it at its jaunty angle in the pot!  Job done............eventually!

This above is a close up of both the guest book (Dateman Books) and quill pen and ink pot on the William and Mary table..
For you to have an idea HOW small this pen and ink pot are I have just asked Andrew to hold it in his hand whilst I photographed it......................

Now you can see how tiny it is you can imagine my horror at any idea of it falling into the pile of our carpet...............but so far nothing as catastrophic has happened fortunately and for that reason I like to keep it right next to the back wall of the church.......just in case........

I realise I detract from the theme of my blog........please forgive me but I do have a terrible habit of wandering...........

Where was I?  Oh yes.  I was meaning to tell you that Tom is, as you may know, the church photographer, and so he enjoys the use of his grandfather's SLR camera. (made for us by Dave Tayler)  He wanted me to let you know that HE took those two photos that appear on the Valentine's Day cards that you can all now download and send to anyone you feel would enjoy recieving one.

He is SUCH a show off as you can see above!  He is showing his camera off to Prisiclla Jane and explaining HOW he managed to take such a great photo of her and Grace.  I have to apologise for Magnifi-Cat......I haven't quite got him in the picture have I?  However he is quite happy in the background sitting quietly in his basket.........................as you can see.

I have been called for my fish and chip tea............................but before I go I just want to let you know that, as readers and followers of my blog, I am letting you all know you can download your very own 1/12 scale miniature St. Hilary's cards and 2010 calendar for the little people in YOUR dollshouse to enjoy..............HERE! (right click and "save target as" to save down to your computer or simply click and open it directly in your browser)
I WILL be putting this pdf file with the cards and calendar on to the main site soon........but just thought I would let you as my readers preview them for me.................any problems or ideas to improve them let me know in the comments box...
Till the next time
PS If you have visited our website you will have gathered that I have taken MORE photos of Priscilla Jane and Tom since writing this blog earlier and was also strangely more successful in including Magnifi-Cat as well.......alongside our dear Eric and GP too........because one of the photos is now on our Home page