I've bought my DSLR camera last September. Since then, I have devoted a lot of time to my photography. I'm nowhere near an expert, but today I'm going to share a few tips about teaching yourself photography.

Today, I decided to remedy that and post them.


At the start of the shoot, both Charlotte and I were a litttle nervous. I'd never done a photo shoot with Charlotte before.


After a while, we started to relax. We joked and giggled as I snapped away. I found myself having a lot of fun.


Charlotte didn't seem to mind any of the weird places I got her to pose. She just laughed and said, "I must suffer for your art!"


 By the time we set off for home, my card was almost full and we were both hungry. "Let's go see if anyone has made any afternoon tea," I suggested.

Which is your favourite photo? Do you like photography? Who is your model?

A little while ago, I twisted my ankle. I couldn't run for a long time and it was very discouraging. Just as I thought I could hit the track again, I came down with terrible cold. I spent days lying on the sofa, coughing and spluttering.

Finally, I'm back to running, but there is a lot of work ahead of me. After nearly a month off running, I've lost a lot of fitness.

Today, I thought I'd write a post on how to get back into running after a break.


Don't expect to be able to run as far and fast as you used to. Take it slowly and work your way up to it. Push yourself, but not so much that you collapse.


If you're not working towards something, it's easy to get lazy. Set yourself small goals to work towards. Once you've hit those goals, make yourself bigger goals. There is nothing like the pleasure of completing a goal and knowing you can do something you couldn't do a week ago.


Like many other things, the hardest part of getting fit is actually making yourself run. Set a certain amount of days a week you're going to exercise a week and stick to it. Don't let yourself be lazy and say, "I'll do extra tomorrow."


This may sound really weird, but it does help. I find having someone say motivational things to me really helps. If I have no one next to me to do this, the next best thing is to do it myself. Find something that motivates you and say it over and over again when you feel like giving up. For me I like to tell myself, "Just keep breathing, that's the key" and "the cow goes moo". It helps me a lot.

What is your advice? Can anyone guess where my motivational words come from (hint: they're not from the same place)?

A few days ago, Sophia from Someplace in the Midst wrote a post about 8 Inspiring Blogs You Should Be Reading.

When I asked her if I could borrow the idea, she agreed, so today I'm listing 4 of my favourite blogs.

For Mother's Day, I gave Mum a chapter of my novel. It was the first time I'd shown anyone my writing since I was little.

I was nervous as I passed my present over. "Happy Mothers' Day."

Mum smiled and looked down at the sheets of paper in her hands. "What's this?" she wondered.

"It's a chapter of my novel," I replied.

Mum's eyes went big. "Wow! Thank you."

That evening, she read my chapter. At the end she gave a little cry. "You left it on a cliff hanger! I want to know what happens next."

I smiled. Maybe I'll give Mum the next chapter some other time.

Today, I thought I'd share a couple of excerpts from my novel with you. I hope you enjoy this taste of my writing.

This Sunday, I decided to teach myself to use a sewing machine.

Title: A Fairytale Retold 3: Waking Rose

Author: Regina Doman

Stars: 5 out of 5

Genre: Retold Fairytale

Blurb: "I love him more than poetry... I love him more than song."Ever since he rescued her from Certain Death, Rose Brier has had a crush on Ben Denniston, otherwise known as Fish. But Fish, struggling with problems of his own, thinks that Rose should go looking elsewhere for a knight in shining armor. Trying to forget him, Rose goes to college, takes up with a sword-wielding band of brothers, and starts an investigation into her family's past that proves increasingly mysterious. Then a tragic accident occurs, and Fish, assisted by Rose's new friends, finds himself drawn into a search through a tangle of revenge and corruption that might be threatening Rose's very life. The climax is a crucible of fear, fight, and fire that Fish must pass through to reach Rose and conquer his dragons.

Favourite Quotes: “I shall have twenty cats and talk to them all," she said, picking up the volume of poetry. "My cats and I shall have fish every day for dinner." Her imagination taking flight, she finished, dropping the book into the box, "And I shall memorize every line in this book and paint it in calligraphy on my living room walls.”
...

There was a silence. Then Paul looked at Alex.
'She knows Chesterton.'
'She lives,' said Alex.