Baby Lovin'

Welcome to another Blog This! challenge...and yes, i know its been ages since i've participated in one but i thought, seeing as i'm a member of the writing staff over there, it was about time i put my hat in the ring in a challenge again. ( If you're an Australian blogger, and you dont know what Blog This! is, please go click on this linky right here and check us out - and sign up! ). This fortnights challenge is a photographic post - the Blog This! team want has gotten bit clucky and we want to see babies or kids - whether the pic is of you, your kids or some random children you borrowed off the street....

Aww.... look at that chubbins right there....aint she cute? ( The correct answer is " yes " ). Yep, that chubby cheeked little muffin there is me, Baby Amy, when i was about 6 months old. And yes, I am sitting in a flower basket, because it was the 80's and thats what Pixie Foto thought was cutting edge back then. Please not the awesomeness of my fluffy hair, my toasty home-knitted cardigan and my great big baby smile. Apparently my mum had this picture taken and entered me in a baby competition - which i did not win. But come on, look at Baby Me? How could you not vote for cheeks like that?

Lovin' It, Sepia Style

Ooh, it seems like ages since i've done a Blog This! challenge ( even though i actually write for the blog...oops! ). So i thought this week seemed like as good a week as any to get back aboard the challenge train, and seeing is this week is a photo challenge it could be easier! Whats the brief?
Share your favourite sepia photo with the world.


Your photo can be of anything, just keep in sepia tones!

Thats one of the photos we had taken when Flynn was 3 months old ( almost, nearly, a year ago! ). Even though it turned out he was running a fever and THATS why he wouldnt stop crying, i like this picture, with his big brown eyes, his little squishy lips and his fat chubby hands. Sure, he looks sad, but it was essentially a good day and the first professional photos ( my friend is professional photography, and was just starting up her business - we were like her guinea pigs! ) we had taken of him. Oh Flynny - i cant believe you used to be that small!

Cool baby stroller

Tiny bird feeds her 11 chicks on branch of tree

The family of long-tailed tits wait patiently for their next meal at the Fairburn Ings, West Yorkshire

Eleven hungry beaks to feed . . . no wonder their poor mother looks a little ruffled.

But these newborn long-tailed tits, lined up on a branch and clamouring for a snack, are among the lucky ones.

They have a nice home in an RSPB nature reserve at Fairburn Ings, West Yorkshire, where they won't be allowed to starve.

Other long-tailed tits have not been so lucky. The tiny birds have suffered in the long, harsh winter and numbers are down a quarter on last year.

Guinness World Record 2011 - World's most tattooed woman

Julia Gnuse - nicknamed the 'illustrated lady' - has 95 per cent of her body covered in ink, ranging from jungle scenes and cartoons to her favourite actors.
Miss Gnuse, from California, started getting tattoos on her legs after developing a skin condition called porphyria, which causes the skin to blister when exposed to sunlight.

She then turned her attention to her stomach, arms and back and before long was addicted to body art.


In an interview, Miss Gnuse said although the ink did not stop her skin from blistering, it covered up the scars and allowed her to be exposed to the sun.


'I did this for the reason of covering scarring from the blisters. They get as deep as three degree burn,' she said.


'I had a friend who is a plastic surgeon, who suggested tattooing my skin the same color to the scarring that I had, seeing if we can match my just pale-looking skin that I had.'


'That didn't work. We tried it. It was very difficult to match that. So I had the idea of a colorful tattoo, then I got hooked. I got addicted.'


Miss Gnuse said there was medication available for her condition, but said taking it could have placed her at risk of blindness.

Spanish bullfighter nearly loses life

Recently, a tragedy occurred during a bullfight in Madrid, Spain: Well-known bullfighter [matador] Julio Aparicio was gored in the jaw by a heavily injured bull, with the bull’s horn protruding out from Aparicio’s mouth, the scene being extremely horrific.

Liu Zhu (刘著) photos

Cross-dressing boy entering singing contest, Liu Zhu (刘著)

Do you feel Liu Zhu is a guy or girl?

“Magical” iPad

iPad with an “all-in-one keyboard, case and stand”.

ClamCase will transform your iPad into a laptop.

The Bluetooth keyboard will connect with other HID compliant devices such as Sony Playstation 3, Tivo, and HTPC devices.

ClamCase says that it’ll be on sale this Autumn.

Photographer turns everyday images into mind-boggling works of art

A Swedish artist has turned the world on its head by taking images of everyday life and distorting them into mind-boggling works of art.

In one shot a man appears to pick up a tarmac road and drag it behind him like a sheet; in another a young man seems to be ironing his own body.

In all photographs everyday scenes are given quirky twists, offering the viewer a different take on reality.

Erik Johansson, 24, used a computer programme to manipulate his original pictures into mind-boggling pieces of art.

The artist said his crazy ideas just come to him after trying to perceive ordinary events differently.

He sets out with his camera with a concept already in mind, before snapping pictures of everyday situations such as a man cycling along a road.

He then manipulates the images on his computer to create mind-boggling effects.

Mr Johansson utilises the Photoshop programme to bend roads, distort human bodies and change the landscape of the countryside.

In one, a man picks up a road and drags it casually behind him like a sheet.

Another shows a perplexed cyclist staring down a chasm as the street drops off vertically before him.

A third depicts a normal-looking man ironing his own flattened body and another shows a labourer playing naughts and crosses in the road with a digger.

Erik, who lives in Gothenburg, Sweden, said: 'I get inspiration from almost everywhere. I actually get most of the ideas from things that happen in my daily life.

'To look at a situation in a different and unexpected way can sometimes generate ideas but the best ideas I get just come to me.

'Everything I do is very well planned. I almost never go out photographing without any idea about what I will do with the photos.

'Looking for the right place to shoot the photos is actually what takes up most of my time.

'The time required to put the photo together is very different depending on the photos that I have. It mostly takes between 10 to 20 hours, sometimes more.

'I like to change my photos in impossible and strange ways.

'From the beginning I started to modify photos just for fun, and I still think it is.'

What a drag! Sensational photographer Erik Johansson shows a man pick up a road and drag it casually behind him like a sheet

Flat out! A normal-looking man irons his own two-dimensional body

Noughts and Crosses: An idle street worker takes on a digger

The sky's the limit: A labourer lays a reflection on the road

Walking in the air: A dog owner gives her lazy pet a lift with balloons

Something fishy? Much like an iceberg, this island lacks the firmest foundations

Water colours: An art lover sees her painting live up to its name

Out there! A man appears to leap out of an apartment window