Theme 1: A Bit of Magic by Kristin

Great to start the new project with a big challenge!  I had a few ideas, but several of them involved being outside and Tropical Cyclone Narelle caused a bit of havoc with my plans.  Not to worry, I modified the initial grander visions and worked inside the house.

My Magic 8 Ball always sits on my desk and helps me with life's big & little questions. Sometimes it's not as helpful as I'd like.
  I wanted to explore a little of the magic of motion and I thought Three Card Monty would be a good subject
I had several images in my head for showing my favourite magic - the sky.  The sky awes and awakens me in some way every day.  Watching it change at sunrise and sunset, seeing ominous storm clouds evolve, giving thanks for endless miles of cloudless blue - no matter what is happening in my life, getting out and looking up brings me joy.  And when Mother Nature gives me a rainbow leading to my wonderful Ridgebacks?  Well, what could be more magical?

Magic Light - theme #1 (a bit of magic)

Magic Light

My thoughts for this theme drew on the connected dual ideas of the magic of light and photography.

Having heard about the camera obscura technique in the BBC documentary “The Genius of Photography” I decided to see what I could do. After multiple trial and error attempts, I was happy with this result, still not the most interesting of images, but wow, it was surprisingly fun to experiment with.

My 2^nd image continues with the technique of “painting with light.” I’ve experimented with this before and enjoyed the varied light play that results, and I couldn’t help but use the still standing Christmas tree and decorations to double-up the magical theme.

Obviously, light plays a primary role in the magic of photography, so finally, I went back to the original source of light. The Sun! Admittedly, I was hoping for a bit more sun, but I sat waiting for it to come out from behind the clouds way after sunrise.

Theme 1: A Little Bit of Magic

Settings: 1/1250 f/8 ISO 800 50mm

Settings: 13"  f/5 ISO 1600 17mm

Settings: 1/640 f/4 ISO 800 50mm

I'm someone who does not really believe in 'magic' in a traditional sense, so I have captured moments of beauty in nature that to me are 'magical'.

Sammie's A Little Bit of Magic

Hello! I definitely think we started with a challenging theme!

I realised last week that 'Golden Hour' is also called 'Magic Hour' so I took my camera up to the lookout near our house and sat (with the dogs) to watch the sunset. It was a little cloudy but I think it added to the photos more than if it was a clear day.

So my shots are just before sunset, the sweet spot of Magic Hour and just before the sun went behind the mountains.

Meagan's 'A little bit of magic'

WOW! What a tough theme challenge to start with!

I must say I found this a real challenge and it forced me to think outside the box... I had many creative ideas that just didn't look right when I set them up to take photos or I wasn't happy with the final product!

I took MAGIC to be literal as well as things that make me go wow, or just amazing things in general.

I hope you enjoy these.

Photo 1 - January 1st, 12:10am
My first ever attempt at long exposure shots and I thought I'd take 'magic' in it's most literal sense and write the word and see how it came out! :) after a few takes, I was pretty happy with the end result!

Photo 2 - Magic reminded me of the joining of rings! This is my engagement ring, it is a Russian wedding ring, or rolling ring, three rings that are completely separate of eachother but joined.... magically! Not to mention that the way it was received was quite a magical moment in my life!

Photo 3 -  The most magical thing of all for me was seeing my best friends first born son.  I captured this moment and loved everything about it, the lighting, the feet and the magical quality it holds for me.

Meagan :)

A Little Bit of Magic ~ by Taylah.

When I first think of magic my mind wanders to rather commercial things. Witches. Unicorns. Harry Potter. Illusions. Magicians. That sort of stuff. So my images sort of incorporate that, beginning with my dog/torture subject, Jess sporting something that could either be a unicorn horn or a witches hat, I'll let you decide. I was somewhat inspired by this much more superior photo, here. 

I also wanted to create a photo somehow depicting levitation or some sort of magic trick. Then came the dream catcher, which also fits because of all weird yet natural things, dreams are pretty magical. Excuse the extremely dodgy editing on this one, photoshop isn't my forte. 

Lastly, we have a cup of magic. Again, with some less than perfect photoshop skills displayed. I suppose I wanted to show that magic (well, in this case actually a nebula) can be enclosed in common objects everywhere. 

A Little Bit of Magic - Tanya

'A Little Bit of Magic' stumped me to start with as I'm not the worlds most creative person!

However, inspiration soon came via the magic of solar powered fairy lights, and our swimming pool duck, which magically come to life each night once it gets dark......








I was going to do three photos on the solar theme, but then happened to capture this shot last week by chance. I thought it also fitted the theme quite well as the natural world is always full of wonder and magic to me.