Tuesday 20 July 2010

What’s your comfort zone?…

Today has been wonderful! As I mentioned yesterday, I have Nathan already off school for the summer, while Alex still has one more day to go. It’s not often I get one-on-one time with either of my boys, so I made the most of having that situation today!

After breakfast, Nathan & I set off for the Oasis Beach Pool. Not your standard type of pool, it is housed in a large pyramid & is a totally irregular shape with tubes & flumes & wave machines etc etc.  We spent a very pleasant time swimming inside & out, jumping the waves & braving the rapids, but neither of us were brave enough to try the ‘Flume of Doom’!!

After this we popped into Tesco, which is right next door, for the weekly food shop & a spot of lunch!! You would never believe how such a small boy could clean a plate of sausage, beans & chips in such a short space of time!!!

contemplation Then I suggested a trip to Jubilee Park, knowing full well that Nathan would be beside himself to spend even just half an hour in, what to him is, the best skate park around! He had his brand new ‘J D Bug’ scooter in the car & this suited my plans perfectly!! You see, prompt 13 for LYPLYP was all about finding your ‘Personal Comfort Zone’ for taking photographs & while I love snapping in close up & am keen to learn different techniques for lighting & special effects, my favourite kind of photography is being outside, capturing my boys doing whatever they like to do best!!

So, with frozen foodstuffs already sweltering in the boot of the car (!!) Nathan hit the ramps & I just wandered around trying to find the best vantage points & got some very strange looks from the other talented young skaters using the park, as I knelt & snapped, climbed & snapped & at one point lay under a ramp to catch a shot of Nathan as he came over the top!!

skatepark
I love using the ‘sports mode’ for rapid shooting…the resulting sequential shots make for great scrapping!! 

20july2010 01020july2010 01320july2010 012
So, with another LYPLYP prompt ticked as done, we eventually took the grocery shopping home, hoping that the ‘cool-bag’ had done it’s job & kept the ‘Fab’ Lollies’ in frozen perfection!!  After which we ‘nipped’ to the local retail park to pick up some new skinny jeans & very cool slip on shoes for Nathan, courtesy of Matalan!! Very stylish for an image conscious eleven year old ‘skater dude’ & very gentle on the purse of his Mum!!!

All in all a very enjoyable day!! Poor old Alex survived his day at school & with just one more to go, has been promised that we will return the the Oasis Pool on Thursday to mark the first day of his summer holiday too…now, any ideas how I can photograph the inside of the pool without anyone noticing?!!!!

Thanks for dropping by!! :)

5 comments:

jillconyers said...

Sounds like an awesome day! Love the collage of photos. I'm still pondering my comfort zone. My initial thoughts...outdoors, natural light, and my kids. I rarely come upon a situation or place I won't take photos and yes I've had the strange looks too LOL

debs14 said...

I love the thought that because of Shimelle, women all over the country are laying on pavements and grass in towns and cities just to extend their comfort zone and try new techniques!
Great action shots - well worth the strange looks you must have got!

humel said...

Blogger keeps eating my comments today :-(

Great pics, Sandi - and lots of other witty, interesting things that I now can't remember and don't have time to retype!!

Jocelyn said...

What a great day!!!! I love water parks!!!

OK....these pics are awesome and Yay for you!!! I always get strange looks when taking pics...you would have loved seeing me laying in the sand..trying my best for the perfect shot of the boys!!!

Have a great one sweet friend!!! :-)

Denise said...

Great action shots,love Deb's comments about us laying on pavements etc etc - I miss that time when they break up from school and excitement is all around!Enjoy!