Happy New Year everyone, I hope you had a lovely New Years eve and holiday break and are all set for 2014. 2013 has been difficult year for myself, loosing my mother in 2012 left a large gap in my life and unfortunately I have developed a painful condition that causes extreme dry eye, it is something I am having to learn to live with but it has greatly reduced my quality of life. However, I am looking towards a brighter 2014 with some treatment later this month that could be a breakthrough. This year I also plan to improve my overall health in the hope of getting on top of an auto-immune condition which my dry eye is possibly connected with. This means going completely gluten free and not giving in to the odd crusty piece of white bread or box of liquorice. Unfortunately with the dry eye condition it often stops me going outdoors when it's windy, which in Auckland can be frequent. Therefore, I have purchased a good old fashioned re-bounder (yes they do still sell them), with the hope of jiggling my eye glands into working again and loosing the odd couple of kilos I put on last year.
With regards to the blog, 2013 has been a learning curve and exciting things have happened by way of sponsored posts. My blog is my joy and passion and I work many long hours researching, writing and sourcing wonderful images to share with you. When mid year arrived I started to receive frequent emails about writing sponsored posts on behalf of companies and finally the blog started to give back. On line stores are realising the impact a well written feature on a good blog can have on their business, not just to help drive traffic back to their sites, but also as a review of their products. I asked some of my advertisers why they chose Lee Caroline and they said that they loved the look and feel of my blog, my style of writing and the beautiful images I post, also the fact I use key search words to strive for Google's front page. I feel very humbled by their comments and will continue to strive to create great posts and images for readers and sponsors this year. Recently I made some changes to the pages on my blog which has made it easier for people to find different interiors, recipes, crafts etc within the blog. If you haven't visited my pages for a while, you may want to take a look at my Interior Design Inspiration as one example or if you love deserts you might want to check out my Sweet Delights Recipe page. This year will feature more DIY, crafts and recipes using my own images and a few exciting new changes.
With regards to the future for Lee Caroline (blog), I have purchased my first DSLR camera, a worthwhile investment as far as my blog is concerned. Once I have mastered my camera and combined it with my artistic skills, I hope to feature beautiful images of New Zealand homes. I have often drooled over the beautiful photography of food bloggers and interiors, you know, those ones where an item is in focus and everything is softly fuzzed out behind. My new camera has the ability to do all of this and more, but it will take time for me to learn, meanwhile each time I pick up the camera I learn something new. I have been quite pleased with the results of some of my photos, my one big criticism being I can't quite get my images light enough in low light which I hope will be resolved with some tuition as the Nikon D7100 is meant to be good in low light conditions.
I won't ramble on any more about 2014 but will leave you a few random images taken with my new camera. The first is my adorable little Poppy and the last two images are a sneak peek at a beautiful home I will be sharing more of next week. The image of Poppy is a little over exposed but this was done by choice and I am really happy with the effect.
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I would also like to leave you with a few links to some of my most read posts of 2013.
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Oh wow, your pictures are fabulous. I still use a point and shoot, so I am impressed with anyone that knows how to use a real camera. Gorgeous shots. I am a new follower, love your blog and your style. I wish you a very Blessed and Happy New Year. Hugs, Marty
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Marty, yes I have seen you comment before, I really appreciate readers that take the time to comment :). I actually haven't a clue how to use the camera, most of my shots so far have been on auto although the first shot above of Poppy was done on manual and over exposed because I wanted more light.
DeleteGlad you like my style and hope that you will enjoy this years posts, the camera has opened a whole new world to me. Happy New year to you too.
Lee :)
fantastic! congrats Lee, i will be an eager onlooker in 2014~ as for going gluten free, i too had to make that decision {for similar reasons} i wish you the best of luck, i don't think you will regret it and i hope your eye condition improves... thanks for having such a lovely and inspiring blog~
ReplyDeletexokelly
ps~ love the photos, especially poppy
Thanks Kelly for stopping to comment, I tried to be gluten free last year and did well for a while but blew it completely over Christmas. Now I have my camera I plan to experiment a little more with desert recipes and focus on gluten free.
DeleteThanks for the thumbs up on the photos, yes Poppy is very easy to photograph as she has instant cuteness :)
Lee
Great shots, Lee. What camera did you get. I will update some time in the future. I love that first shot!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kim, I ended up buying a D7100, but then had to upgrade from the Kit lens to a Nikon 35mm lense for getting better depth of field. I have since been advised that I should have bought the body and a 18-200 lens which are apparently really great. I have just posted the whole shoot of Poppy you may enjoy the other photos.
DeleteLee