Paris + Backlight + Lens Flare + My Best Friend

I was born in the 60's and met my dear friend above in the 70's. My family moved from the rural town of Mudgee in NSW to the coastal town of Port Macquarie. I arrived at yet another school in the wrong school uniform to start all over again. New school, new house, new town and new friends (well not in the beginning). Any of you out there that moved around when you were young will know how excruciating it can be to start all over again. I was lucky to meet the 'sunshiney' Athalee Brown in the early weeks at Port Macquarie Primary School.

She was the golden girl!! Beautiful, state swimmer, state basketball player, state hockey player, state knitter (well amost)! She played for the state in everything!!! Whilst I was drowning out the back of the waves off Flynn's beach she was striding across the winning line. Always first.  Although she was a 'winner' at everything it didn't stop her from having the greatest heart on earth, buckets of generosity and a wild sense of humour (see the laughs above).

We grew up together. In the 70's we watched INXS at the local pub, hitch-hiked to Kempsey to see Jimmy Barnes at the local RSL and as neo-hippy children we danced in our bikinis at all day rock concerts called 'Summer Jam'. Whilst our girlfriends were dating guys who were driving EH holdens and combi vans we rode our bikes everywhere and I mean everywhere. We lived our lives at the beach,  spent most of our waking hours laughing and were occasionally riddled with teenage angst about boys, fashion and the first kiss..

Then one day it was time for my family to move on. My life fell apart for years to come...

Our friendship has endured 30+ years which has seen the two of us living in Sydney, Italy, France,Spain, India, Malaysia, Mexico, America and more..

And I have been lucky enough to have her in Paris all week!! On Saturday we took a walk along the Seine , the sun was more than shining and I had my camera with me. I was oohhhing and ahhhing about the light! I was jittery it was so beautiful.

Though we had literally rolled out of bed and thrown on our jeans I begged her to let me take some pics (not bad for no make-up and no wardrobe). The back light (shooting into the sun) was breaking my heart and I decided to let the lens flare roll on in, in memory of our days growing up in the 70's..Janis Joplin eat your heart out!!

I pointed the camera straight into the sun and occasionally used something to block it slightly (like her head, a tree or a wall)..It was early morning and mid-winter light so it was lovely soft and low. I was shooting at F5.6 so the flare is round and soft. If you want your lens flare to have more shape close down to about F16 and the diagonal shape of the aperture will be reflected in your photo.

I changed the colour balance to bring on some more of the 70's and voila, MY BESTY!!!.

Great friends = Family

Carla xxx

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