*This post is sponsored by Nuffnang and Panasonic*

Sometimes my life is a little crazy; well actually it is a little crazy all the time! But the other week I was given a great opportunity to capture it all for you.

Thanks to Nuffnang and Panasonic, I was sent the brand spanking new Panasonic Lumix G2 12.1 mega pixel camera.  It is half way between a point and shoot and a DSLR.  I’ve had the old point and shoot camera here for quite some time and never find I can get the result I wanted, so I switched to a big DSLR. I haven’t had any spare time to really learn how to use this yet, and find I always have to mess around quite a bit. And while those shots are lovely, carrying around a whole camera bag full of equipment does rather cramp my style.  The sorts of events I get around to aren’t really the type of things where I want to be schelping around extra bags.  So I’ve been trying to figure out the perfect solution for something that would fit into my handbag, but still do a cracking job at capturing my moments no matter what the conditions.

When it comes to taking photos I may have an eye for composition, but I certainly don’t have any technical knowledge. In fact when someone asked me the other day what aperture speed I’d used to capture an image (after seeing it on the LCD camera screen), I blushed and said, “A good one?”. Yep, no technical knowledge whatsoever. I went home and told Mr.SKM this while he had a very good giggle at my expense.

Funnily enough, while we were watching TV the other night, a commercial came on with a guy showing an exhibition of his photography, being asked similar questions and giving similar answers to mine.  Mr.SKM and I were both laughing going, “hey that’s you!” The extra funny bit was when at the end of the commercial, we saw it was for the Panasonic Lumix G2 – the exact camera they had just sent me to assist my novice ways! This is the ad here.

Okay, so this new camera arrives looking like a baby SLR, all black, fancy and miniaturised. Of course the first thing I did was to experiment with which handbag was the best fit for it before even taking a shot.  But I’m not going to bore you with technical details I don’t understand, instead I’m going to take you with me on my weekend and show you how the Panasonic Lumix G2 captured it along the way.

*(None of these photos have been altered in any way – they are RAW, straight from the camera)*

On Thursday I had a bunch of errands to run including a little ‘research’ at Chapel Street Bazzar.  The chaps there were kind enough to let me photograph some of my favourite things as I went along. I hadn’t had the time to experiment much with the camera, so this was a great opportunity to check out how it would handle close ups, things behind glass and to mess around with all the auto artistic photo settings.

Then it was on to a quick cup of tea with Violet Le Beaux before dress fittings for Friday night’s big event.

Come Friday it was time to hit the town for Miss Burlesque Australia. I was privileged to be a part of the judging panel for the Victorian heat, watching the girls get their spangles on.. and off… for the title. Given that it was held in a nightclub it was quite dark, so it was time to see if the Panasonic Lumix G2 could capture the ambience without any flash or me having to worry about ISO stuff. I just set it on auto and shot. Did I mention the camera has an articulated LCD touch screen? This fantastic feature meant I could angle the screen to make sure I could get my friends and myself into those arm length shots! I can just touch the screen to move the focus area and make sure it is all working, even while still in front of the lens.

Saturday morning I was up early for another big day, heading out for a radio interview first up. I had about two seconds to get an outfit shot before heading out the door, so I handed the camera to Mr SKM to snap my favourite new vintage dress.

Of course, I couldn’t photograph myself while I was on air, so again I passed the camera across to the studio assistant and asked her just to press the GO button. Easy peasy!

I raced off from the interview to the shops where I had to pick up food and a very special cake as Saturday was also Miss Three’s big birthday!  Time to capture some colour, action and festivities. Because the Panasonic Lumix G2 has Intelligent Auto Mode, which means automatic light, shutter speed, focus blah blah blah.. I only needed to worry about playing with Miss Three and not spending all the time playing with the camera settings. Oh and because it also captures HD movies I didn’t need to go and find my video camera as well. It was all there, at my fingertips, ready for those classic birthday moments.

After all that there was still Sunday to go. I’d been asked to come and perform in a friends Tableau Vivant gallery evening – A Doll House. Time to break out the super huge hair, massive lashes and work it as Dolly Varden! Again, I had little time to take photos and so the twisty LCD touch screen came in handy to snap away and get some shots of the wild hair and makeup creation.  I often find that taking photos indoor of an evening can create really harsh shadows and be difficult to light. So I wanted to see how the Panasonic Lumix G2 would handle these conditions under pressure. Once again, I set it to Intelligent Auto Mode and tis is what happened. Not bad hey?

The best thing about all this playing around is that I managed to get all these great pictures while on the run, without extra bags, without lots of messing around and with very little knowledge. (I have to admit I didn’t read the whole manual) So what this means is that I know I can get fantastic results with little effort, but that because the Panasonic Lumix G2 has so much of the functionality of a DSLR too, I can spend the time to play around and learn at my leisure.

So, how would you like one of these all for yourself? You would? Well, thanks to Nuffnang and Panasonic you have the chance to WIN one for yourself!

All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me how the Panasonic Lumix G2 would make you a better photographer! Make sure that your comment is linked to your blog, twitter, email or some other contact method.

Worth $1200.00 RRP this is one Fantastic prize!!

The Panasonic G2 retails for $1299 with a 14-42mm  (which is what I was using) or the Twin Lens Kit $1599 with both a 14-42mm & 45-200mm Zoom Lens.

The competition is open to Australian residents only, (sorry guys, I have something else great coming up for my international readers before the end of the month) and there is one camera to give away between the nine blogs hosting the contest.

All the T’s & C’s can be found here.

As part of Relaxation August I decided I needed to give my body a bit of a break from the usual stress that I put it through. And a part of that has been giving up coffee, for now at least.  This is a VERY BIG DEAL for me. I LOVE coffee, and I love it in it’s pure, unadulterated creamy black goodness. No sugar, no milk, just me and a thick black creme.  So going cold turkey from this nectar hasn’t been easy.  Still, given the amount of time and money we put into all these ‘anti-stress’ skin care remedies I thought it was about time to address one of the causes and not just deal with the symptoms.  So for August I have given up coffee.

I may be aiming to give my body a bit of a break, but I can’t go from hard core coffee to only spring water,  so tea has once again been my saviour.  I already have a fairly extensive tea collection, (although not as huge as some of you I hear) but when trying to give something up I find it helps to have something else to obsess about. Hence, finding new varieties and new ways to drink my tea.

This morning’s tea – White Tea with Rose in my good old 1970’s Finnish enamel tea pot. Nothing fancy, just keeping it simple and delicious!

One of my favourite local tea houses is Serenity Tea House out in Boxhill, Melbourne. It isn’t the easiest place to find, but when you do it is like stumbling into a hidden Alladins cave of tea wonderland. Their tea comes from Taiwan somewhere high up in the mountains, as I learnt when the proprietor told me wonderful stories about the growing area and collection methods.  She sat me down with a gorgeous yellow, traditional tea set and we talked and drank tea for over an hour, uninterrupted.  It was clear that tea was her passion, not just her day job, as I learnt so much not just about the tea itself, but all the nuances of each tea set. The different clays that help to absorb the flavour, the scent cups used for capturing the fragrance of the tea allowing you to drink in the experience on a different level.  The process of drinking tea became so much more than I was expecting from a visit to a local tea store.

Of course it wouldn’t be a tea odyssey without a visit to T2, once a smaller concern and fast becoming a Goliath of the tea world here in Australia. I’ve had my regular favourites from here, The Vanilla, The White Tea, The Gen Mai Sen Cha; but I wanted to try something different.  T2 is the perfect place to explore by yourself if you want to be left alone with your thoughts, or if you need help there is always some at hand. The girls there were very helpful walking me through my coffee free options, as I wanted to try and choose teas that also had a low to nil caffeine content to aid this relaxation plan.  I found myself stocking up on even more tea accoutrements; pot sized infusers, strainers, pots sized for one. Walking out with only one small box of tea from here is a surprisingly difficult exercise in self restraint.

They have a great website, which as I’ve just discovered, does online Tea dating! They match your personality to tea choices, which I tried and the selection came out bang on for those I just adore. I’m also rather partial to their fancy china selection from the super fancy bone china right through to the unbreakable enamel ware.  But then, once you start looking it is possible to spend all your pocket money in one fell swoop.

The stunning deco lines of the Avanti tea pot is something worthy of coveting.

If you’re looking for a brilliant and inexpensive tea shopping option, head down to your local Chinatown or Asian grocer. Not only will you find more tea varieties than you could poke a stick at, you can also find some gorgeous tea pots and cups for only a couple of dollars each.  One of my favourite tea pots is a $4 pot from one of these stores. It has lasted me so well, even though it has had a few minor accidents, it is still going strong and used for tea every day.. and even occasionally as a vase! As far as tea selection goes, it is a little more tricky if you can’t read the languages the packaging is written in, but that is half the adventure! Another great thing about tea found in Asian grocery stores is that it quite often comes in very pretty re-usable tins and other containers. So you don’t have to fork out extra cash to keep your tea fresh and you can create your own special collection of canisters as you try each new variety. Oh, and my other cracking find in these stores has been the humble thermos. Perfect for on the road, keeping at your desk or even behind the shop counter for sneaky sips.  You can get some excellent basic models for $10 in these stores and even some more beautiful versions like this one if you’re lucky.

So far, the lack of coffee is proving to be a good thing.  It did take a few days to get past the nasty headache stage, but with the aid of some White Tea and Rose brewed with a teaspoon of delicious honey, it is proving to be just the tonic that my stress levels and my skin needed.

Where do you shop for your tea? Do you have any secret tea addictions? Confess all!

I just got back a couple more pics from Helen McLean from our shoot the other week and WOW! Yes, they deserve their own post cause they are just so brilliant (if I do say so myself).

You saw some of the Cowgirl and Apple Picking shots last week, this week have a look at Cherry Picking…

I totally love the glossy red colours that shine through in this one. We had so much fun on the day messing around, I even captured a sneaky little iPhone pic of what I was really doing up there on that ladder.

Yep, I’m a total HAM!

..

But there is one shot that Helen and I worked on exclusivley as a concept idea between us and it has turned out spectacularly well.  Inspired by Gil Elvgren’s “Stepping Out”, we created this..

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What a keeper!

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week is fast approaching and I have so much to tell you about that in the next day or two. However, today’s big news is that Celebrity Stylist Philip Boon, is hosting an exclusive workshop featuring a panel of industry heavyweights.

And I have ONE GOLDEN TICKET to give away! Who wants to be my date for the day?  Just leave me a comment letting me know why you’d like to come along to this exclusive workshop with me, and you could be rubbing shoulders with some of Australia’s fashion heavyweights for the afternoon! And yes, you’ll even be hearing all about where vintage fits in in 2010.

You can find out more about the workshop here or register to buy tickets for whole groups if your keen.

So LEAVE ME A COMMENT TO ENTER NOW – and come along for a Very Fashionable Afternoon!

There has been such an interest in retro lifestyle from mainstream media recently.  Just this weekend I was part of a feature in the regular News Ltd Sunday Magazine about those of us who choose to create our own vintage glam worlds. I’ve scanned the pages for you and uploaded them full sized, so if you click the images of each page you should be able to read the article.

Then, just the other week I was invited along into the studio at Radio Eastern to have a bit of a chat to Dee Copsey on her breakfast radio program, all about who I am and what I do.  I love chatting at the best of times, but it was such a relaxing interview that I could have gone on forever!

Anyway, most of you will know much of these things about me as regular readers of the blog, but if you feel like an excuse to kick back over a cup of coffee, have a little listen here, but I warn you.. I can talk!

Candice DeVille ECB intvw 24^7^10

I am so pleased to see a growing interest not only in vintage fashion, but also in people thinking about lifestyles outside of the mainstream. I hope this is only the beginning of people looking for more beautiful and interesting things in life!