Personal Journey and Adventures of Nina

Today, it has been two years since mum passed but I still think of her every day. Sounds silly because I'm a grown woman but I feel like an orphan. That last person you know who will undoubtedly and unconditionally love you forever, gone. August 2015 with an Oxygen Tank at home now Mothers Day 2014 Unlike my Dad who was struck with a massive heart attack, Mum's demise was slow and painful.  Diagnosed with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) or the more familiar condition Emphysema. They gave her 4 years. She lasted 5. There were her countless daily medications.  The immunosuppressant Prednisone, Morphine for pain, Ventolin to ease the airways, Bactrim to ward off infection and Seroquel for depression and more.. On occasion, all this was not enough. Her lungs would collapse and we had to call the ambulance.  She'd have interesting reactions to certain drugs. Hallucinating about being surrounded by angels then whispering to me that we had to

With the prep, setup and shoot now complete, we are about half way through the process toward getting you a finished image. The above video is at 4x speed to give you a quick overview of the process involved in post production for each image selected. In actuality, the entire process takes between 5-10 minutes per image. PHOTOSHELTER GALLERY The images are uploaded using Lightroom where I do a run through and select my favourites. Selections are then uploaded onto my website for client proofing. I use Photoshelter  for this process. PHOTOSHOP Once I have the clients selection, I send it to Photoshop (PS) from Lightroom (LR) which keeps my library in order as all changes made in PS will be saved in LR. Here I get rid of stray hairs, dust balls and cat hair using the healing tool. I soften highlights with the clone tool and remove shadows with the curves adjustment. PORTRAIT PRO I then use the Plugin Portrait Pro to take redness our of the skin, mildly smooth out shadows

I could honestly spend every weekend cleaning and organising for the coming week but I decided that life is too short. If I sat around the house, the piles of dishes would taunt me. I've had a pretty stressful few weeks so fresh air and a change of scenery seemed appropriate. It was time to get out of the city! With the wonderful roads now, it only takes an hour to get to Springwood and Blaxland. I remember visiting my Godfather here as a child and it was at least a 2 hour drive. I am definitely grateful for our roads. (but maybe not the tolls!) First stop Lennox Bridge , in Blaxland. Opened in 1833, it is the oldest surviving stone arch bridge in Australia. Usually there would be water running under the bridge but we haven't had any significant rainfall in over two months.  It's only Spring and already we are getting the hot high sun which makes for contrasty images. I would have come out earlier but had to vote in the local council elections! Next time tho