I would very much like to connect with other nature photographers from around the world who blog regularly (be it daily, weekly, or even monthly) who would like to participate in a blog carnival on a regular basis.

What does this mean?

A Blog Carnival is when a group of bloggers choose to write or post on a particular topic and then links to all of their posts are posted on the ‘host’s’ blog. The next time the carnival happens someone else in the group hosts the posts for that week or month, or however regular the carnival takes place.  I’m proposing to do this on a monthly basis at the moment. unless it proves really popular, in which case the regularity will be more often. The criteria is:

Topic must relate to something that is considered to be of nature, that is the elements of the natural world such as mountains, trees, animals, or rivers. As participants will be photographers the images used in their posts must have been taken by that photographer. Each Blog Carnival host may choose the theme for their turn that is a subset of nature, i.e. Autumn (Fall), Summer, Harvest, Nesting (birds), etc, etc.

Why would I do this? Because, for sometime, I’ve been looking for a way to connect with other nature photographers online, on a regular basis, and I see this would be an excellent way to do it. That way we are all sharing the load, and we get to increase our exposure and backlinks across each blog. More readers/viewers, more links, more traffic and fun.

I’ve done some research and the only photography blog carnivals I could see that were registered at the original Blog Carnival site date back to 2007 and 2008. More recent carnivals seem to concentrate on babies and portraiture. So perhaps this is new for our genre.

The first Nature Photography posts for the Blog Carnival need to be submitted by Friday 3rd February. They will be published on this blog on Monday 6th February.  If  you are interested in hosting a future carnival please say ‘yes’ on the form.  The topic is open for this first one, as long as it relates to nature.

If you are a nature photographer (you don’t have to be professional, just passionate), have a photoblog and would like to be involved, then please fill out the form here. Or, you can register at BlogCarnival.com. I look forward to you joining me in this new project!

It was a dull grey Monday morning 12th December but I still chose to go out for a walk. I usually do to get my regular exercise and hope to see new things for my camera to focus on.  I chose to visit a park I’d not been to before. I’d only just learnt about it two days prior at the local market where I held a stall to sell my photography items. Think that was my first mistake. Mind you, it had been raining on the weekend but the tracks didn’t look soaked to me and I stayed off tracks that weren’t visible due to overgrowth. Only the big wide tracks like the firetrack at the top, a road down the side and another track that sloped slightly downhill but was wide – looked wide like the other firetrack. That was the next mistake. Walking down that path.  I now know that there was dirt covering a large smooth rock near where the grass ended, but I didn’t know till I slipped on it…

As soon as my left foot slipped underneath me I heard the crack and felt the snap.  I yelled out to no-one in particular, as I was on my own, “oh no, I’ve broken my leg!” I went down and tried to brace myself on my elbow but as my left heel tried to touch the ground to rest, pain shot through my left leg and I knew I could not do that again.

I don’t know which order things happened in – did I get my phone out of my pocket first or did I brace my leg with my arm? I suspect the phone first.  I hung my left arm under my hamstring to brace my left leg in the air and then rang 000. Or tried to. I rested on my right elbow for quite some time. I could make my hands meet so I could use the phone but not sure if it was my third or fourth attempt before I actually got my fingers working to make the call. I was shaking badly and knew I was in shock.  I was relieved to hear a voice answer quickly and I asked for the ambulance operator.  I was switched through to Andrea and she stayed on the phone with me for the next half hour or so, till the Ambos had arrived.

I spoke and cried to Andrea often during that time and if her voice went quiet I’d call out for her and she’d assure me she was there and not leaving me.  I’m sure I rambled in my fear and pain. I eventually laid flat on my back as my right elbow was getting numb, I had pins and needles in that arm, and my left hip and knee were aching severely from being propped up by my left hand and arm. To make matters worse I got cramp in my left calf and screamed out in pain.  When I could talk, Andrea asked me questions about my condition and where I was. I got frustrated because I felt like I’d described where I was three or four times but perhaps I was slurry and not very clear, I don’t know.  I told her my mouth was dry and I was shaking, I had water with me but thought perhaps I shouldn’t and she told me I was in shock and not to take a drink.  Andrea assured me the Ambos were on their way even though I often said “I can’t hear the siren”.

I knew the track I was on didn’t show up in the directory or GPS and I was going to have to talk them in, via Andrea. It was important I remained conscious, even though I felt light-headed and panicky and in oh so much pain.

I told Andrea I could feel something trickling down my left leg. I could see a lump protruding under my trousers and knew I had a compound fracture – no-one had to tell me that. Andrea asked if I could pull my jeans up to have a look if there was bleeding but I baulked at that idea and told her I couldn’t do that.  She calmed my panic and told me it was ok.  Was I comfortable where I was?  What was I lying on? How was I dressed?

The ground beneath me was slightly damp but I had my photographer’s jacket on, which is waterproof, and a cardigan too. My body felt warm to me and I didn’t feel cold even though I was shaking a lot.  We kept talking, now and then me giving more instructions about what road I’d parked on, where the park was, the Ambos have found my car now, they’re on the track, they won’t be long.  And then they lost radio contact with Andrea so I had to scream out help every minute or two till I heard a voice saying “Coming!  We can hear you”.  Seemed still a long time before they got to me.

I really don’t know how long it was but I’d say it was around 40 mins before the Ambos arrived after I first dialled 000.  I was so relieved to hear the man’s voice and then see the top of his head. I shouted to Andrea “I can see him, I can see him, thank you so much, thank you, thank you”.  She told me she would leave me in their hands then.

The rest of the day is in a bit of a blur. Kevin and Eva gave me a green tube to inhale and breathe out (like a cigarette but I don’t smoke so strange to try and get it right) and that helped relieve the immense pain to some degree. They put a plastic boot on over my foot and up my leg. I asked Kevin to take photos as you’ll see (yes, my camera was safe – I always wear the camera strap around my neck, never just in my hand or wrapped around my arm).

My hubby later commented wondering how many ambos get asked to take photos of their patients. The ambo even slipped on the same rock I did – but didn’t hurt himself thankfully.  They had to ring around to get someone to unlock the park gates so a vehicle could be brought in and then they had to get a 4 wheel drive with a stretcher brought in to retrieve me. My guess is from the time of accident to when I was finally in the first vehicle is close to an hour.  They had to drive me to a road at the edge of a park where I could see there were two further ambulances and I was transferred to one of them.  By that time I had rung Graham and left a phone message for him saying ‘it is my turn now’ and what was happening.  It had been around 2 hours since I’d left home that morning.  So much for my nice walk in a ‘new park’. I did see a bird I’d not seen before but didn’t get a photo of it

I was taken to one hospital where they knocked me out, straightened my leg and put me in plaster. They confirmed I had two broken bones in a compound fracture – the Tibia and Fibula.  Great. I was hoping they could just plaster and send me home. Instead I was going to have to have surgery.  My husband had joined me at the hospital and we discussed what was best for me with one of the doctors there. We decided it was best to go to a private hospital and to a surgeon the doctor recommended.

Graham left me to meet up with his mate Dave to go retrieve the car I’d gone in and which was still at the park – our daughter’s car.  Later he met up with me at the new hospital but it was a few more hours before I got transferred.  I drifted in and out of pain and confusion and wishing I could start the day all over again, making different decisions. But that was not to be the case.

I had to wait two more days before surgery. I couldn’t understand the wait but was later told by the surgeon that they don’t like risking bleeding in the muscles and feel it’s best to wait for it to settle. Those two days were excruciating, even if I was on pain killers. I couldn’t move from my bed, my heavily plastered leg kept sliding off the pillows it rested on and I was not comfortable in any way possible.  The next week was going to be hell, I was sure of it.

The day after surgery I remembered that I could access Facebook on my phone. Ahh!  I can keep in touch with some friends!  I remembered earlier I should make contact with a client whose work I was supposed to be doing that week and explained what had happened. I kept in touch with one of my VA team members to let her know what was happening and had Graham divert the phone to her.  My phone and the television kept me occupied for the next five days.  I finally came home on day 8 after the accident.

Thought you’d like to see what a good job I did of my leg.  Pretty colours hey? :p Also one of the xrays. I have a nail and cross fixation in my leg and ankle. That is, a large nail or stainless steel down the centre of my leg and then cross screws top and bottom. I’m told nothing will break those but I have to keep the weight off that leg for six weeks to give it time to settle, otherwise I could end up with a shorter leg. Don’t want that. And I definitely want to be able to go out walking again with my camera – just not on that track!

P.S. I have now notified both the Friends of the Park and Shire of Yarra Ranges of the problem on this track. Considering my accident and the near accident of the ambo who came to rescue me, many others could also get seriously injured. My injury is serious but recoverable, others might not be so fortunate.

PPS.  I am recovering. It’s now 3.5 weeks after the accident. My leg is no longer sore and most of the swelling and colouring has disappeared, nor do I have to keep it elevated all day long, but I still do at night time. I’m learning to use the crutches better and have been able to manage to get myself something to eat or drink, even if it means I have to stand on one leg and crutches where I have that drink or food – as I can’t carry things.  I can answer the door now and let people in and am learning to negotiate my way up and down the few steps in our home.

The handbag is leather outside with vinyl lining, a small zipped pocket inside and a section for holding your mobile phone. There are also packs of playing cards – two designs so far, memo pads, desk calendar and wall calendar. I have more planned and hopefully they will arrive before the next market the following week.

I am happy to take orders and arrange delivery direct to you – please bear with me as I set up a shop properly on this site. In the meantime, orders can be placed via the contact form and I’ll give you details for making payments by Paypal, credit card or EFT.

I thought that if you’re looking for ideas you might like to see what others have done. Some choose to use their photos on their cards and others choose not to.

This one and others was listed at slodive.com

This one and others at the Mooblog.

And 12 different ideas about cards at photojojo.com

And if you’re still not sure there is a great book to read about business cards by Ivan Misner called It’s In The Cards’ – great for all sorts of ideas, not just for photographers.

I’ve fallen in love with their shoulder bag products and the biggest quandary for me is which one, or how many?

If you have a look you’ll see what I mean!  Click here to see more.

FLOWERS – BAG

my bag 1

Mom Deserves a Break Classic Shoulder Handbag

However, what if you want to use your own photos and organise professionally printed cards, but you don’t want to go to the trouble of bulk printing cards.  I have the answer for you and it’s what I use to send out cards to my own Christmas list, birthday list and anyone else through the year. And what is it called? Just that – Send Out Cards.

I discovered this system when looking for something where I could get my own cards printed – just one at a time if I wanted to, or many cards, at low cost.  Send Out Cards is the perfect answer.  You can upload your own photos, or drawings and logos, write your personal message, add the person or persons you want to send to and click ‘send’.  From there Send Out Cards prints your card, addresses the envelope, adds the stamp and posts it for you.  And you can even have your own handwriting uploaded to the system.  The cost is approx $1.60AUD printed and posted. For those in the US it’s $1.47.  This is for a 2 panel greeting card. Postcards are less and 3 panel cards a little more.

You can watch a video about it here, or simply send a free card right now to try the system out.  It’s all on me!  And if you like what you see you can set up your own account to do your own cards.

Christmas is not that far away so now’s the time to act and either purchase your Christmas cards today or set up your own account to create your own cards.  Very easy system to use and you’re not limited by the time the ‘shops and post office’ are open in order to do this.

However we did go visit his Team Sally mates at the Rockhop 2011 MTB Enduro last Sunday and while there I took over 600 photos of the riders and have now posted some of those shots online for viewing and purchase. I was chatting at the Rotorburn forum (MTB) to let them know I’d been at the event but also to catch up with the chats there and discovered some fellow photographers in a couple of threads. One thread in particular had a great link to a blog post about a photo taken in Austria using a fisheye lens. Now it’s got me wondering if I should get one

Tristan says:

This photo was taken on June 3, 2008, and despite the many questions I’ve been asked surrounding the way it looks, I can confirm that no, it is not fake.

In 2008 I spent 6 months travelling through Europe. I’d just turned 18, I’d just finished school, and I was just desperate to get out of Sydney to explore the world. So I did what many people my age do; I booked a one-way flight to Europe. While there I spent time in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Netherlands, Slovakia, Vatican City, Scotland and England (technically not Europe but close enough for me), and Austria, which is where this photo was taken.  Click here to read the rest and see the picture he’s talking about.

If you, or someone you know, would like to purchase an image to print, or on a product, please do visit the site and let others know about it.  And for the first three people who purchase an item over the value of $40.00 I will send you a further image gift from me, as a thank you for being my first customers of this brand new site.